Faculty Research

Current Research

Thomas Harriot College of Arts and Sciences


Economics

Okmyung Bin

Dr. Bin presented a paper, titled “Recreational Demand and Economic Value of Tropical Island Beaches in Malaysia,” at the 29th Economy and Environment Program for Southeast Asia (EEPSEA) Biannual Meetings held in May 2008 in Nonthaburi, Thailand. He has a pending grant proposal ($45,467) for EEPSEA with several researchers from the University of Malaysia Terengganu (UMT).

Dr. Bin also presented a paper, titled “The Economic Value of the Setiu Wetlands: A Choice Modeling Approach to Management,” at the conference for Current State of Knowledge of the Setiu Wetlands in December 2007 in Terengganu, Malaysia. He is involved in a research proposal, titled “Valuing and Reporting Biodiversity Assets and Carrying Capacity of the Malaysian Marine Parks to Achieve Sustainability,” submitted to the Universiti Malaysia Terengganu Top-Down Research Proposal ($495,129).

In July 2008, Dr. Bin presented a paper, titled “Measuring the Impacts of Seal Level Rise on Coastal Real Estate in North Carolina,” at the 21st International Conference of the Coastal Society in Los Angeles, California. He also served as a reviewer for International Journal of Intelligent Systems in Accounting, Finance and Management. Dr. Bin continues as a lifetime member of the Korea America Economic Association.


History

John Tucker

Tucker co-edited a book with Professor Huang Chun-chieh (National Taiwan University), entitled Dao Companion to Japanese Confucian Philosophy, published by Springer (2014) as part of its Dao Companions to Chinese Philosophy series.

Tucker has been invited to present a paper at an international conference on Freedom, Equality, and Governance in the Making of Modern Democracy and Market Economy, to be held at National Taiwan University, in Taipei, November 2015. Tucker’s paper is entitled, “Nakae Chomin and Shibusawa Eiichi: Two Dimensions of Confucianism in Modern Japan.” Tucker has also been invited to present a key note address at an international conference on Japanese philosophy at National Taiwan University in August 2015.

Tucker recently received a grant from the Japan Foundation ($19,803.00) for “Growing a North Carolina Classical Japanese Network with Distance Education” for 2015.


Anthropology

Christine Avenarius

Dr. Avenarius is back from two months of ethnographic fieldwork in mainland China as part of her research project, “China and the Rule of Law: Conceptions of Fairness and Justice in Times of Change,” funded by the National Science Foundation. This was the second phase of fieldwork in mainland China in addition to five month spent there in 2006. Her cooperation partners are Dr. Qi from the Urban Studies Institute of the Beijing Academy of Social Sciences, researchers at the Hebei Academy of Social Sciences in Shijiazhuang, and Professor Dr. Zhao Xudong from the Department of Sociology at the College of Humanities and Development, China Agricultural University. She also travelled to Leiden in the Netherlands for a workshop in February and to Corfu in Greece in May 2007 to present her findings at the 27th International Social Network Conference. In late May she gave a lecture at the Philosphische Fakultaet of University of Cologne in Germany. In cooperation with the Sociology Department at ECU and the Center for Aging under Dr. Jim Mitchell, she has organized a six month visit of Ms. Yan Xiaoping over the course of the fall semester. Ms Yan is a scholar at the Hebei Academy of Social Sciences in Shijiazhuang, China.

In July 2008 she plans to attend the 16th World Congress of the International Union of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences in Kunming, China on Humanity, Development and Cultural Diversity.

Robert Bunger

During the summer of 2007, Dr. Bunger went to Taiwan supported by an Asian Studies curriculum development grant to study the contemporary worship of Taoist and Buddhist goddesses to augment the course content of Anthropology 3009 with first hand observations and research.


Biology

Yong Zhu

International Conferences:

The 5th European Zebrafish Genetics and Development Meeting, Amsterdam, the Netherlands,July 12-15, 2007.

Zebrafish Workshop-Model Systems for Infectious Disease and Cancer in Zebrafish, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands, July 16-18, 2007.

International Conference of Comparative Physiology, Biochemistry, and Toxicology & 6th Chinese Comparative Physiology Conference, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China, October.10-14, 2007.

Invited Presentations:

Membrane receptors mediate nongenomic actions of progestin in zebrafish (2007)International Conference of Comparative Physiology, Biochemistry, and Toxicology & 6th Chinese Comparative Physiology Conference, Hangzhou, China, October 10-14, 2007.
Do members of growth hormone and prolactin superfamily have any physiological roles during the development-recent discoveries in zebrafish. Institute of Aquatic Economic Animals, School of Life Sciences, Zhongshan (Sun- Yat-sen) University, Guangzhou, China. October 6th, 2007.

A model for studying nongenomic and genomic actions of steroid -the members of a novel GPCR family and classical progestin receptors in zebrafish (2007) Institute of Aquatic Economic Animals, School of Life Sciences, Zhongshan (Sun- Yat-sen) University, Guangzhou, China. October 5th, 2007.

Identity of Maturation-Inducing-Substance Receptors in Vertebrates-Members of A novel GPCR Family or Classical Steroid Receptors? (2007)Department of Biology, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, October 4th, 2007.

Articles Published In International Journals

Zhu Y, Song D, Tran N, Nguyen N (2007) The effects of the members of growth hormone family knockdown in zebrafish development. General and Comparative Endocrinology 150: 395-404.

Thomas P, Pang Y, Dong J, Groenen P., Kelder J, de Vlieg J,Zhu Y, Tubbs C (2007) Steroid and G Protein Binding Characteristics of the Seatrout and Human Progestin Membrane Receptor Alpha Subtypes and Their Evolutionary Origins. Endocrinology148: 705-718.

Abstracts Presented At International Conferences

Zhu Y, Hanna RN, Harris C, Daly SCJ, Broekhuis J, Schaaf MJM, Spaink HP, Thomas P (2007) The membrane receptors that mediate nongenomic actions of progestin in zebrafish. International Conference of Comparative Physiology, Biochemistry, and Toxicology & 6th Chinese Comparative Physiology Conference, Hangzhou, China, October 10-14, 2007.

Zhu Y, Nguyen N, Song D, Tran NT, Rhinehart JE, Susan M. Tobiasson SM, Yang PN (2007) Physiological functions and molecular mechanisms of prolactin in zebrafish embryogenesis. International Conference of Comparative Physiology, Biochemistry, and Toxicology & 6th Chinese Comparative Physiology Conference, Hangzhou, China, October 10-14, 2007.


Economics

Okmyung Bin

Dr. Bin presented a paper, titled “Measuring the Impacts of Climate Change on North Carolina Coastal Resources,” at the Ecosystem Sustainability & Health of Threatened Marine Environments Forum held in May 2007 in Terengganu, Malaysia. He was involved in the field site visit and faculty exchange with the University of Malaysia Terengganu (UMT), Malaysia, to strengthen collaborative research efforts between UMT and ECU. In July 2007, with the support of an ECU Asian Studies Course Development Grant funded by the US Department of Education, Dr. Bin visited China Agricultural University, Beijing, China, to develop a course module that integrates Asian topics into his teaching. In August 2007, He visited the Hankuk University of Foreign Studies in Seoul, Korea, regarding the partnership with the Global Academic Initiatives at ECU. Dr. Bin continues as a member of the Korea America Economic Association.


English

Michael Aceto

Dr. Aceto’s latest project is examining the interface between linguistic theory and Tibetan Buddhism
Geography.

Dr. Holly Hapke presented a paper, “Gendering Globalization in the Fisheries: A Theoretical Approach” in the 2nd Gender and Globalization in the Fisheries Symposium held in conjunction with the 8th Asian Fisheries Forum in Cochin, India Nov. 20-23, 2007.


Geology

Siddhartha Mitra

One of Dr. Mitra’s main research areas deals with understanding how large rivers interact in the global carbon cycle. As such, one of the primary study areas is the Ganges-Brahmaputra river system – one of the world’s largest river systems both in size and importance as a natural resource. Dr. Mitra’s field work involves collecting water and sediments from throughout the Ganges-Brahmaputra River watershed and in the Bay of Bengal. In August of 2006, Dr. Mitra spent a month traveling throughout Bangladesh collecting water and sediment from the Ganges-Brahmaputra river’s various tributaries. In 2008, he plans to return to Bangladesh to conduct additional field work. Dr. Mitra’s international activities are conducted in collaboration with Dr. Steve Goodbred at Vanderbilt University, the Geological Survey of Bangladesh, and also with Dhaka University in Bangladesh.

Michael O’Driscoll

Dr. O’Driscoll’s current international activities include reviewing international water resources project proposals for the U.S. Civilian Research & Development Foundation (CRDF) In November he is planning to visit Kazakhstan to attend an international workshop on global environmental issues such as the Aral Sea, regional climate change, biodiversity, environmental pollutants, water resources and agronomy. CRDF is hosting this NSF-funded workshop in order to bring together U.S. and Central Asian scientists to encourage the development of collaborative partnerships. The workshop activities will focus on providing opportunities for scientists to present on their current research, discuss critical environmental issues, and to exchange ideas on how to collaborate on future joint research initiatives.


History

John Tucker

Dr. Tucker received a Short-term Research Fellowship from the Japan Foundation, making possible a month of translation and compilation of Japanese writings on Confucian philosophy at the Institute for the Study of Religion and Culture, Nanzan University, in Nagoya, Japan. Tucker contributed to the selection of approximately 50,000 words of textual material that will be included in the Nanzan Source Book in Japanese Philosophy, to be published jointly by the Nanzan Institute for the Study of Religion and Culture and the University of Hawai’i Press. Both prior to and following his work at Nanzan University, Tucker made stop overs in Honolulu to discuss the project with philosophy faculty as well as editors at the University of Hawai’i Press.

Dr. Tucker also was notified that he received funding for a U. S. Department of Education Fulbright-Hays’ Group Project Abroad in the amount of $78,000.00. In order to pursue his work at Nanzan, Tucker has deferred acceptance of the Group Projects Abroad grant until the summer of 2008. He will be taking 12 K-12 teachers, from the Pitt County, NC area, on a seminar tour of Japan, with a focus on history and culture. The teachers will be based in Kyoto, Japan, the ancient imperial capital. They will also travel to Kamakura, the home of the first hereditary shogunate; Tokyo, the modern capital; Nara, an ancient imperial capital; and Hiroshima. The tentative dates for the trip are June 10-July 10, 2008.


International Studies

Sylvie Debevec Henning

Dr. Henning and Dr. John Tucker of the ECU Department of History are in the second year of a two-year grant (2006-2008) grant ($158,000) from the US Department of Education under its Undergraduate International Studies and Foreign Language Program to develop ECU’s Asian Studies Program. Dr. Henning is also in the second year of a two-year grant from the IFSA Foundation ($40,000) for undergraduate scholarships to study in Eastern Europe, Russia, Eurasia or Asia during a semester or academic year.


Mathematics

Pramath Sastry

Dr. Sastry wrote a joint paper with Dr. Suresh Nayak of the Chennai Mathematical Institute, Chennai, India. The paper is entitled “Applications of duality to Cousin complexes” and has been accepted for publication in the Journal of Algebra.

Dr. Sastry is also collaborating with Professor Kumar Murty of the University of Toronto on “Arithmetic on abelian varieties and cryptography”. This work in in progress. Dr. Sastry is also collaborating on a monograph with Professor C. S. Seshadri and Professor V. Balaji of the Chennai Mathematical Institute, Chennai, India. The monograph will be on “Geometric reductivity and Mumford’s conjecture” (tentative title). Dr. Sastry visited Chennai Mathematical Institute from August 2 to 13 as part of this collaborative effort.


Physics

Yong-qing Li

Dr. Yong-qing Li, Associate Professor, is collaborating with Professor Shushi Huang of Guangxi Academy of Sciences (China) on a project of Raman microscopy/mapping of biological cells. Professor Huang visited ECU (2005-2007) as a visiting scientist for the collaborative research. Dr. Li is a guest (honor) professor of Guangxi Normal University, located in Guilin, China. http://www.gxnu.edu.cn/ Dr. Li attended International Quantum Electronic Conferences (IQEC) in 2000 and 2004, respectively. Visit Dr. Li’s research webpage.


Political Science

Wen Wang

Dr. Wang gave a paper presentation at the”2007 International Conference on Public Finance and Government Reform” held at Fudan University, Shanghai China, June 2-3, 2007. In the summer, he also participated in academic activities at Central University of Finance and Economics in Beijing, Nankai University in Tianjin, and Southwest University of Finance and Economics in Chengdu.


College of Education

Curriculum and Instruction

Carolyn Ledford and Betty Peel

Dr. Ledford and Dr. Peel traveled to Hiroshima University in Japan last summer where they presented “Becoming A Teacher-Elementary Education at East Carolina University.” They attended the Global Partnership School Center School Exchange International Forum where Dr. Ledford presented on global education, serving as an invited panelist. PIECES OF EIGHT ARTICLE