Tamara Pico

Multicompartment microfibers: fabrication and selective dissolution of composite droplet-in-fiber structures

We present a microfluidic method to continuously produce multicompartment microfibers, where embedded single or double emulsion droplets are regularly spaced along the length of the fiber. Both hydrophobic and hydrophilic compounds can be encapsulated in different microcompartments of the fiber for storage, selective dissolution, and delivery applications, as well as to provide multifunctionality.

Sea-level records from the U.S. mid-Atlantic constrain Laurentide Ice Sheet extent during Marine Isotope Stage 3

The U.S. mid-Atlantic sea-level record is sensitive to the history of the Laurentide Ice Sheet as the coastline lies along the ice sheets peripheral bulge. However, paleo sea-level markers on the present-day shoreline of Virginia and North Carolina dated to Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 3, from 50 to 35 ka, are surprisingly high for this glacial interval, and remain unexplained by previous models of ice age adjustment or other local (for example, tectonic) effects. Here, we reconcile this sea-level record using a revised model of glacial isostatic adjustment characterized by a peak global mean sea level during MIS 3 of approximately −40 m, and far less ice volume within the eastern sector of the Laurentide Ice Sheet than traditional reconstructions for this interval. We conclude that the Laurentide Ice Sheet experienced a phase of very rapid growth in the 15 kyr leading into the Last Glacial Maximum, thus highlighting the potential of mid-field sea-level records to constrain areal extent of ice cover during glacial intervals with sparse geological observables.

Modeling the Past Online: Interactive Visualisation of Uncertainty and Phasing

This research and educational project aimed to create an interactive website featuring virtual 3-D walkthroughs of three buildings from the ancient city of Marion in Polis Chrysochous, Cyprus. The earliest structure dates from the Cypro-Geometric period (10th–9th century bce) and the latest was destroyed in 312 bce in the early Hellenistic period. The project builds on models presented at EuroMed 2012 and aims to complement a long-term exhibition on Cyprus and presentation on the web. In a joint Computer Science and Art and Archaeology seminar at Princeton University in the spring of 2014, three groups of students created reconstructions and populated them with 3-D scanned objects. Each group proposed a visual metaphor that conveys un-certainty and phasing in these 3-D visualizations and created an online concept for manipulating the models. Scholars and the public can experiment with and learn from these visual recreations that are consistent with archaeological data.