Relevance

By Tricia Vance

Since July 2020, a team of UNCW researchers has been involved in testing wastewater on the UNCW campus and at two Cape Fear Public Utility Authority wastewater treatment plants for signs of the RNA of the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19. The group includes water quality specialist Larry Cahoon, virologist Art Frampton and microbiologist Ryan Rhodes as well as graduate students Jacob Kazenelson and Tori Zimmerman.

The original work, conducted with a $75,000 grant through the North

Carolina Policy Collaboratory, was part of a nearly $1.8 million statewide project led by Rachel Noble of the Institute of Marine Sciences at UNC-Chapel Hill that ended in December 2020.

Art Frampton (left), associate professor of biology and marine biology, assisted by graduate student Jacob Kazenelson, has been collecting wastewater samples that will be tested for signs of the virus that causes COVID-19.

– Stuart Borrett

Additional funding from the Centers for Disease Control and the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services has ensured the project’s continuity. As part of the North Carolina Wastewater Monitoring Network, the research group continues to partner with the CFPUA, who collects and deactivates their own samples, to track the virus levels in New Hanover County and the City of Wilmington. The weekly SARS-CoV-2 data for each site is posted on the NC COVID-19 dashboard. (https://covid19.ncdhhs.gov/dashboard)

With the support of UNCW Plumbing Services, including Chris Phillips, Phillip Fielder, Theofilos Lorentzos, Geoffry Vance and Tokunboh Balogun, on-campus sampling started at five locations last summer and has increased to ten sites, mostly near dorms. The collection tools include one of Cahoon’s deep-sea fishing rods, modified for the job at hand, and Mason jars, known for their tight seals. Once they have their samples, Mason jars are slipped into a hot water bath to deactivate any live microbes that remain. A more sophisticated instrument system purchased with funds allocated by the College of Arts and Sciences aids in analyzing the samples and can pick up very small amounts of the virus. Testing sewage for the coronavirus RNA provides information about the virus on a community scale and also aids in identifying where there may be asymptomatic cases of COVID-19. It cannot identify individuals who are infected with the virus. While the initial efforts were to quantify viral “signals” in wastewater reliably enough to use as a surveillance tool and possible outbreak alert for public health officials, the team is now more focused on sampling for research purposes like genomic sequencing, variant transitions and developments in methods for extracting RNA more efficiently.

“This is an exciting research project and is an example of the value of growing high-quality research at UNCW,” said Stuart Borrett, associate provost for research and innovation. “Our students, staff and faculty are conducting research that has positive impacts for our community. This is a key feature of the university’s Strategic Plan.”

UNCW data scientist and associate professor of mathematics and statistics Rachel Carroll is leading a team that has adapted publicly available COVID-19 data to visualize the outbreak in North Carolina and the state’s southeastern region in real time. The project also involves Mark Lammers (mathematics and statistics/data science), Dylan McNamara (physics and physical oceanography), postdoctoral researcher Zachary Williams and several MS Data Science students. (Aug. 2020)

Four students from the international studies, computer science and fine arts departments – Heather Cunningham ’21, Carolyn Hellman ’21, Kassie Robakiewicz ’21 and Bhavna Singh ’20 – designed a series of interactive one-mile walking tours in Wilmington based on the Parisian Situationist practice of psychogeography and around the themes of migration, development and gentrification. The goal is to engage participants in reflections of these movements on the current world and to develop a new intimacy with their surroundings, bringing them closer to the region’s histories and making visible marginalized voices in the city. The mini-tours are accessible through a free online app. Participants can virtually follow the walks online or complete them in person. Visit walkingwilmington.com for details. The project was funded through Cahill and Applied Learning Awards from UNCW. (May 2021)

Walking through Wilmington’s past and present.

PHOTOS/HEATHER CUNNINGHAM ’21 Number of confirmed cases as a percent of the population for counties in the Cape Fear region as of 09-13-2021.

Finding new angles to Wilmington’s landscapes.

The North Carolina Coastal Federation and partners nearly tripled their goal to restore 50 million oysters in coastal waters. Through its 50 Million Oyster Initiative, there are now 140 million oysters on 43 acres of newly created oyster reefs in coastal North Carolina. Oyster sanctuaries are areas dedicated to oyster repopulation that are open to fishing but not harvest. Siting of the sanctuaries and cultch areas is guided by the division’s field-based data collection and modeling efforts from North Carolina State University’s Center for Marine Sciences and the University of North Carolina Wilmington. (Jan. 2021)

New research has found that North Carolina’s shellfish industry provides more than $27 million in economic impact and 532 jobs in the state. Until 2016, the industry’s economic impact primarily came from the harvest of wild oysters and clams. The findings stem from a collaborative project led by North Carolina Sea Grant in partnership with researchers at NC State University, Appalachian State University, Duke University and the University of North Carolina Wilmington and funded by the NC Commercial Fishing Resource Fund Grant Program. (June 2021)

Launched in fall 2020 and housed in the Office of Community Engagement and Applied Learning, the UNCW Center for Social Impact draws faculty expertise from a multitude of fields including public health, sociology, data science, economics, nursing, education and public administration. CSI’s interdisciplinary faculty investigate community-defined research questions to produce actionable insights that inform policy and guide decision making. One project analyzed patient records for more than two million individuals in the region to understand the effects of COVID-19 on vulnerable populations, while another called for performing social network analysis to map the health, social service and human service ecosystems and identify how they might operate more efficiently and effectively in service provision. (Jan. 2021)

UNCW is one of several schools participating in NC State’s University Global Training Initiative. Through its Global Education, Academics and Research Skills Program, academically gifted international students experience campus life and academic research at North Carolina’s universities. Xaver Neumeyer, assistant professor of entrepreneurship, is a faculty mentor in GTI’s GEARS program. He and his mentees co-authored two papers to be presented at the 2021 IEEE Technology and Engineering Management Conference in Europe. (May 2021)

Recreation Therapy Assistant Professor Angie Sardina and her collaborators received the Innovative Research on Aging Silver Award from the Mather Institute for their manuscript entitled “Older Black Adults’ Satisfaction and Anxiety Levels After Completing Alternative Versus Traditional Cognitive Batteries.” The Innovative Research on Aging Award recognizes excellent applied research that has important implications for the aging service industry and inspires future practices in the field. (June 2021)

Kevin McClure, associate professor in the Department of Educational Leadership at UNCW’s Watson College of Education, is a founder and director of the Alliance for Research on Regional Colleges, a new research collaborative that seeks to highlight the importance of regional public institutions. ARRC issued its first report, “Strengthening Rural Anchor Institutions: Federal Policy Solutions for Rural Public Colleges and the Communities They Serve” in January 2021. (Feb. 2021)