Charles E' Dunlap, Ph'D'

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Institutional Capacity Building For
Armenias Knowledge-Based Economy
Charles E. Dunlap, Ph.D. U.S. Civilian Research
Development Foundation Arlington, Virginia
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Overview

• Challenges
• Institutional Responses
• Outcome Assessment

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Challenges

• Funding allocation by Soviet committee
• 19,000,000 for science
• 0 allocated based on merit
• 2006, National Statistical Service

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Challenges

• Institutional mistrust
• Lack of transparency
• Frequency of corruption

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Challenges

• Brain drain
• Demographic gap
• ½ of Yerevan St. faculty due to retire in 10
  years 650 retired 65/yr.
• 27 new YSU Ph.D./yr enter YSU faculty
• Average age of scientists gt65 in Armenia
• 6 of U.S. scientists gt65

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Challenges

• Outmoded, decaying infrastructure

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Challenges

• Research segregated from higher education
• research faculty model not developed
• essentially no undergraduate research
• university labs in poor condition

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Response to Challenges

• National Foundation for Science and Advanced
  Technologies founded 1996

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NFSAT Principles of Operation

• Merit-based peer review
• Funds awarded directly to science
• Periodic audits and regular program reporting
• Transparent
• open calls
• following published criteria
• reviewer comments returned to applicants

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Programs

• International Research Collaborations
• Major Equipment Grants
• U.S. Travel Fellowships
• Conference Grants
• Higher Education Centers of Excellence
• Science and Technology Entrepreneurship
• Networking Infrastructure
• Graduate Studies Stipends

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Reversing Brain Drain
Armenian scientists return from Moscow to
establish 300,000 polymer research and education
center
Dr. Anahit Tonoyan Principal Investigator
Dr. Sevan Davtyan Research Manager
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Applied Research
Philippines earthquake detected in Yerevan
Dr. S. Gevorgyans very low-cost and highly
sensitive seismometer
U.S. business partnership patents
Dr. V. Haryutyunyans Newly-patented, 10x
efficiency, thin-film coated photovoltaic cell
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Lab Modernization

• Dr. A. Kuzanyan, IPhR NAS, -
  Electron Microscopy X-ray Microanalysis Center,
  2002.
• received 5 new Grants from NRL, HYPRES Inc.,
  NFSAT/CRDF and ANSEF

• Dr. T. Kurtikyan, MSRC NAS, -
  Nexus FT-IR Spectrometer, 2001.
• received 3 new Grants from ISTC, INTAS and
  NFSAT/CRDF

• Dr. R. Tamazyan, MSRC NAS,
• - SHELX software package, 2002.
• published 40 articles in International journals

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Internet Infrastructure
International Journal Access
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Program Statistics

• Nearly 4 million in grants awarded
• Nearly 400,000 in cost-shares
• 2000 active scientists in Armenia engaged in
  grant application, training, lab use, and direct
  funding from NFSAT programs
• So what?

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Assessments

• Three independent performance evaluations to date
• Dr. Jim McCulloughNSF Science Evaluator, 2002.
• Dr. Bradley KeisterUS Embassy Sci. Fellow, 2004,
• Committee on Science and Technology in
  ArmeniaNRC of the National Academies, 2004.

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NRC Report 2004
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NRC Report Conclusions
NFSAT is a model institution for the support of
peer-reviewed research funding in Armenia and
deserves a several-fold increase in its
funding. Funding for new ST programs such as
those recommended in this report should be
administered through NFSAT or organizations with
comparable peer-review processes. (but no
comparable organizations exist...)
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So What?
In December 2006, the Office of the President of
Armeniarequested that NFSAT co-organize a
conference onnational science policy reforms
(held in Tsakhadzor) In January 2008, the newly
formed Science Committee within the Ministry of
Education signed a Memorandum of Understanding
with NFSAT to engage NFSAT in organizing
merit-based peer-reviewed competitions to
allocate government science funding
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So What?
NFSAT Grantees 4.5x more likely to publish
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So What?
Al Teich

• US industrial patents 73 of sources cited were
  to basic research publications

F. Narin, Linkage Between U.S. Patents and
Public Science, CHI Research, Inc., 1997
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End
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History of Lead Emissions
Measuring Lead Exposure in Infants, Children, and
Other Sesitive Populations (1993) National
Academies Press, 356 p.
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Production of Stable Lead Isotopes
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Mixing Two Sources
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2300 Years of Lead Over Europe
Dunlap, C. E., Steinnes, E., and Flegal, A. R.
(1999) Earth and Planetary Science Letters, v.
167, pp. 81-88.
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Human lead Burden
Measuring Lead Exposure in Infants, Children, and
Other Sensitive Populations (1993) National
Academies Press, 356 p.
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(gt25 µg/dL blood lead)
Acute Toxic Effects

• Anemia
• Brain damage
• Muscle atrophy
• Impotence
• Liver and kidney damage
• Death

Measuring Lead Exposure in Infants, Children, and
Other Sensitive Populations (1993) National
Academies Press, 356 p.
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Chronic Toxic Effects

• Lowered IQ
• Lifelong learning disorders
• Low growth rate
• High-frequency hearing loss
• Behavioral problems (aggression, delinquency)

Measuring Lead Exposure in Infants, Children, and
Other Sensitive Populations (1993) National
Academies Press, 356 p.
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Toxic Threshold

• Lead has no known biological function
• No lower limit for lead toxicity

Measuring Lead Exposure in Infants, Children, and
Other Sensitive Populations (1993) National
Academies Press, 356 p.
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High-frequency Hearing Loss
Measuring Lead Exposure in Infants, Children, and
Other Sensitive Populations (1993) National
Academies Press, 356 p.
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Intelligence
Measuring Lead Exposure in Infants, Children, and
Other Sensitive Populations (1993) National
Academies Press, 356 p.
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Population Effect
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Sources of Childhood Exposure
Measuring Lead Exposure in Infants, Children, and
Other Sensitive Populations (1993) National
Academies Press, 356 p.
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Other Sources of exposure

• Paint chips
• Cigarette smoke
• Ceramic glazes
• Fishing weights
• Plastic blinds
• Toys

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Lead As An Environmental Tracer

• 98 of lead in the surface environment is from
  human emissions
• Lead from human emissions often distinguished by
  isotopic ratio
• Isotope ratio not changed in surface environment
  processes
• Under typical pH, lead has a log Kd of 7.4 it
  strongly adsorbs to particles (suspended sediment
  and colloids)
• Therefore, lead isotope ratios can trace origin,
  fate, and transport of contamination that travels
  with particles

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Talk Overview

• Natural variation and mixing of lead isotopes
• Debed River, Armenia
• Sacramento River, California
• Implications for river basin management

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Lead in the Debed River, Armenia
Kurkjian, R., Dunlap, C. E., and Flegal, A. R.
(2004) Long-range downstream effects of urban
runoff and acid mine drainage in the Debed river,
Armenia new insights from lead isotope modeling.
Applied Geochemistry, v. 19, No. 10, pp.
1567-1580. Grateful acknowledgments NATO
Science Programme, Sarkis Acopian Endowment
(AUA), Institute of Geosciences of Armenia
(Mihran Aslanian, Hrachia Shahinian)
Debed River, Armenia 1 of 11
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Regional Overview
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Armenia Overview
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Debed River and Mining District
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Sample Locations
Debed River, Armenia 5 of 11
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Sampling And Analytical Methods

• Unfiltered water samples taken at all sites
• All samples collected and processed using Trace
  Metal Clean techniques
• Concentrations measured by ICP-MS (detection
  limit lt0.001 micrograms/liter)
• All lead (Pb) isotope measurements made by
  Thermal Ionization Mass Spectrometry
• Error on the reproducibility of isotope ratios is
  less than the size of symbols used in the plots

Debed River, Armenia 6 of 11
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Lead Concentration Changes
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Exponential Decay Model
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Improved Model
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Concentration Vs. Isotope Ratio
1/
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Sacramento River, California
Dunlap, C. E., Alpers, C. N., Unruh, D. M., and
Flegal A. R. (finished USGS internal review prior
to journal submissions) The persistence of lead
from past gasoline emissions and mining drainage
in a large riparian system evidence from lead
isotopes in the Sacramento River, California,
Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta. Steding, D. J.,
Dunlap, C. E., and Flegal, A. R. (2000) New
isotopic evidence for chronic lead contamination
in the San Francisco bay estuary system
Implications for the persistence of past
industrial lead emissions in the biosphere.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences,
v. 97, No. 21, pp. 11181-11186. Dunlap, C. E.,
Bouse R., and Flegal A. R. (2000) Past leaded
gasoline emissions as a non-point source tracer
in riparian systems A study of river inputs to
San Francisco Bay, Environmental Science and
Technology, v. 34, No. 7, pp. 1211-1215.
Sacramento River, CA 1 of 9
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Sacramento River Basin
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Sediment Core Record

• Natural lead isotope ratios (measured at the
  bottom of the core) first disturbed in 1852
  hydraulic gold mining begins
• Copper and silver mining at the river source
  beginning 1860s does not appear in river mouth
  sediment record
• The second major change to lead composition in
  the river comes in the 1940s with an increase in
  lead added to gasoline, and an increase in
  driving
• We therefore have three major human lead sources
  in the history of the Sacramento River basin no
  natural lead after 1852

Sacramento River, CA 3 of 9
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Source of Sacramento River
Sacramento River, CA 4 of 9
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Water and Sediment Sampling
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Lead Concentration Changes
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Mixing of Lead Sources
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Seasonal Variations
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Conclusions

• Lead isotope studies reveal the dominance of
  human lead emissions even in environments where
  concentrations appear low
• Lead from point source emissions has a less
  extensive impact than lead from non-point sources
  such as automobile lead accumulated in drainage
  basin soils
• Due to the strong particle adsorption of lead, it
  will take decades to be washed out of river
  basins
• Other pollutants that strongly adsorb to
  particles will behave similarly to lead

The End
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Debed River Lead Data
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Lead Concentrations and Isotopes
Sacramento River, CA 6 of 9