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TechNews | Tuesday, October 29, 2013

  

CRAB Lab highlighted in invasive species exlporation

Travon Cooman
COPY EDITOR

Invasive species are plants, animals,
or pathogens that are non—native and cause
harm. They may be transported by various
means and can alter the ecosystem in many
ways. It is such concerns which have united six
IIT undergraduate students, Dr. John Terschak
and several other universities around the world
in finding solutions to this problem.

Dr. Terschak, who formerly taught for
three years at IIT, was also the faculty member
who helped establish the Creative Research
in Animal Behavior Laboratory (CRAB Lab).
Biology and Chemistry Colloquium students
were graced by Dr. Terschak’s presentation on
the “Potential Chemical Cues that Influence
Invasive Crab Species” on October 2. For
the past four years, he has spent his summers
working with students at the University of Hull,
England, where he coordinates this team, in
addition to the one at IIT.

Carcinus maenas, known at the
European Shore Crab—or the green crab in
the US—is one such invasive species the team

is currently studying. Named as one of the top
100 invasive species in the world, it is typically
45 to 65 mm but it can get up to 110 mm in
diameter. These crabs deplete the resources in
the ecosystem which affects other native species.
An annual estimated loss of $22 million affects
the mariculture and fisheries industry because
of these crabs. Tomales Bay Oysters and Hog
Island Oyster Co., among other companies
have also incurred losses. It is therefore evident
that invasive species affect farmers’ livelihood
and suitable control measures need to be
implemented.

The use of nets have been an
unsuccessful, expensive, time consuming,
and labor intensive attempt to control the
crabs. Since there is insufficient meat on the
crabs, they have been used to make fertilizers.
However, there are other, cheaper ways of
making fertilizers. The use of pesticides has also
been explored, but they harm other organisms
in the ecosystem, including humans and other
crustaceans. This was also one of the problems
faced when the parasitic barnacle Sacculina
carcini was introduced as a biological control.
Although the barnacle alters the crab’s hormonal

system after it enters the crab, it is possible that
other crustaceans get affected similarly.

Due to the extreme difficulty in
completely eradicating all the pests, the use
of Integrated Pest Management (IPM), is a
technique that is also being explored to decrease
the number of reproductively viable crabs.
IPM discourages pest populations and keeps
pesticides to a level that minimizes risks to
health and the environment. It allows for safer
means of controlling pests and emphasizes
the growth of crops with the least possible
disruption to ecosystems while encouraging
natural pest control mechanisms.

In his project, Dr. Terschak and his
team have turned to chemical ecology, the study
of chemicals involved in the interactions of
living organisms. It focuses on the production
of and response to signaling molecules and
toxins. This is particularly important to seek
a solution without introducing predators or
pesticides or nondiscriminatory parasites.

In one experiment, it was observed
that the male crab was attracted to areas where
the female pheromone was present. In order
to identify the compound responsible for this

behavior, a sample of urine was taken and
analyzed. Uridine diphosphate (UDP) was
thought to be the compound responsible for
such behavior. However, only some crab species
were attracted to UDP.

Students at the CRAB Lab are
currently experimenting with Flapjack “Jack”
Africa, an octopus, to find out whether the
behavioral response of crabs being afraid of
octopuses is innate. This is an ongoing project
and students who are interested in being part
of the lab should email their resume to crablab.
iit@gmail.com.

It must be emphasized that students
should be highly motivated, committed and
willing to spend 10 to 15 hours a week in the
lab. Although any undergraduate can join the
CRAB Lab, a Computer Science student would
be welcomed to assist in developing their
website. For more information about the Lab,
the website http:/ / is. gd/ crablab can be visited.

The students at the CRAB Lab wish
to thank Dean Russell Betts and the Physics
Department among many other collaborators
fortheir assistance in the project’s advancement.

 

Photos by Travon Cooman

SIAM hosts interactive MATLAB seminar

Swasti Khuntia
LAYOUT EDITOR

The Society for Industrial and
Applied Mathematics (SIAM) chapter
at IIT, in association with MathWorks,
organized a free technical seminar on
MATLAB on Tuesday, October 22.

The title of the seminar was
“Speeding up MATLAB Applications” and
it was presented by two of MathWorks’
Application Engineers.

Although the seminar was organized
by the SIAM chapter, there were students
from a variety of majors who attended, with a
keen interest in increasing their knowledge of

“cations
Speeding up MATLAB App if
..

 

MATLAB and solving their technical problems.
The seminar was aimed at illustrating the
various techniques and strategies for speeding
up the MATLAB applications. The agenda
included optimum use of vector and matrix
operations in MATLAB, adopting efficient
programming practices, identifying and
devising solutions for various barriers in a
code, distributing the MATLAB applications
and simulations on multiple cores or clusters,
use of Graphic processing Unit (GPU) and
generating C—code from MATLAB.

In talking about optimum use of
vector and matrix operations, the presenter,
Mehernaz Savai, gave an overview of exploiting
vectorisation in MATLAB. Using sparse

matrices when possible saves a great deal
of space and time, using matrix operations
instead of ‘For’ loops, improving the code
execution time by ‘pre—allocating’ the
maximum amount of space required for the
array, minimizing changing variable class, and
minimizing dynamically changing paths were
a few techniques she talked about. She had
examples to support all of her points, which
made it simpler and easier to understand for
the audience.

Savai gave examples on how to
generate C—co de from MATLAB with various
options. As C—code has a wide range of
applications, the code generator in MATLAB
was widely accepted in various fields of

application. She then talked about how to
improve the performance of the MATLAB
code itself by taking advantage of hardware
advances like multi—cores and computer—
clusters.

The seminar was both informative
as well as interactive. The presenters were very
interactive—they asked questions and gave
away freebies. The attendees had a chance to
interact directly with the presenters at the end
of the seminar.

A good range of people, from
students in different majors, to faculty
members from the Department of Applied
Mathematics, including the chair, Dr. Fred J.
Hickernell were present.

 

Photos by Swasti Kh un tia

Sharing Table teams up with 33rd Street Productions

Shireen Gul
COPY EDITOR

The Sharing Table is almost here
and guess what? This time we are bringing it
to you with a twist. Yes, this time we will be
featuring ‘33rd Street Productions.’ They will be
there to answer your questions regarding their
production and how you can contribute. Many
of you have hidden talents within you, which
can be polished and highlighted in this society.

So, what are you waiting for? This will be a
perfect time for you to come and discover your
talent, with the help of 33rd Street Productions.

33rd Street Productions is a theater
group that is run by students. They produce all
aspects, from play selection to directing, stage
managing to props and set design/ construction,
acting to creating costumes, backstage help,
technical lighting and sound. In short, it’s a
complete package of entertainment. So if you
want to be a part of this theater or want to know

more about it, then make sure you mark your
calendar on Thursday, November 7, for The
Sharing Table as they will be there from 12:50
am to 1:30 pm.

They also performed a one—act play
during I—Fest last weekend, which I personally
really liked as it was so closed to reality. The
dialogue and the performance were up to mark
and trust me, they did look like professional
actors.

I hope you have already marked your

calendar forthe coming luncheon, which will be
held on November 7 at The Commons. Don’t
forget we also have personal invitations that you
can give to your instructors.

You can get them by just sending an
e—mail to scdi@iit.edu. Last, but not least don’t
forget to follow us on twitter and Instagram @
iitdiversity and like us on SCDI IIT.

Hope to see you all there with your
shining faces and beautiful smiles!