(Press-News.org) MATERIALS -- Next-generation electronics . . .
Changing the behavior of a material isn't big magic – it's nanoscale chemistry. Alejandro Lopez-Bezanilla used the computing power of Oak Ridge National Laboratory's Jaguar supercomputer, America's fastest, to study the effects of adding oxygen, sulfur and hydrogen to nanoribbons made of boron nitride. The added elements changed the behavior of boron nitride – a good insulator – into that of a metal. That makes the material promising for faster computer chips and smarter cell phones. Stable, inexpensive boron nitride can serve as a substrate to support blazing-fast graphene, a material being studied for next-generation electronics. Graphene and boron nitride can be created in 1-atom-thick sheets and cut into ribbons to carry electrons and their on/off electronic messages. [Written by Sandra Allen McLean; media contact: Ron Walli, (865) 576-0226; wallira@ornl.gov]
SUPERCOMPUTING -- Optimization tools . . .
An upgrade is transforming Oak Ridge National Laboratory's Jaguar supercomputer, America's fastest, into Titan, a next-generation supercomputer that will employ the latest AMD Opteron central processing units as well as NVIDIA Tesla graphics processing units — energy-efficient processors that accelerate specific types of calculations in scientific application codes. Titan's hybrid architecture will bring fundamental changes for researchers from academia, industry and government that employ computing resources. Members of the Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility's Application Performance Tools group are collaborating with Allinea, CAPS Enterprise, and the Technical University of Dresden to develop software tools to help with new challenges presented by Titan's design. [Written by Eric Gedenk; media contact: Ron Walli, (865) 576-0226; wallira@ornl.gov]
BIOFUELS -- Mega biomass . . .
Molecular-level studies of tension wood formation in poplars could ultimately fuel the discovery of biomass crops with thicker cell walls, less lignin and more cellulose that can be converted into ethanol. While typical poplar woody biomass is composed of about 45 percent cellulose, tension wood cell walls are composed of more than 90 percent cellulose. "If you increase the cellulose in your feedstock material, then you can potentially extract more sugars," said Udaya Kalluri of ORNL's Biosciences Division. From a functional perspective, tension wood enables trees to flex in the wind, but that secondary cell wall layer could also end up powering more flex fuel vehicles. Partners in this BioEnergy Science Center project are Georgia Tech and National Renewable Energy Laboratory. [Contact: Ron Walli, (865) 576-0226; wallira@ornl.gov]
BIOLOGY -- Tailoring toxicity of nanoparticles . . .
By selectively applying different coatings, scientists have discovered they can influence the toxicity of particles on mouse cell lines from the lung and immune system. These findings, published in Langmuir, build on previous work that showed surface coatings can influence toxicity to bacteria. "The coating can cause relatively higher toxicity or no toxicity to the strains of bacteria that were evaluated," said corresponding author Mitch Doktycz of Oak Ridge National Laboratory's Biosciences Division. This work is significant because it may be possible to tailor nanoparticle toxicity with simple coatings, and this may prove useful for treating infectious diseases. The paper also underscores the need for an improved fundamental understanding of nanoparticle characteristics and transformations that may occur in real environments. The paper is titled "Cytotoxicity Induced by Engineering Silver Nanocrystallites is Dependent on Surface Coatings and Cell Types." [Contact: Ron Walli, (865) 576-0226; wallira@ornl.gov]
NEUTRONS -- Analyzing the antibacterial assault . . .
A combination of advanced techniques at Oak Ridge National Laboratory helped researchers gain a better understanding of how some proteins attack bacteria. Colicins, a family of protein toxins, kill E. coli by crossing the bacterial membrane to exert their toxic effects. One family member, Colicin N, utilizes outer membrane protein F, or OmpF, to penetrate the bacterial membrane. Since neutron scattering alone cannot differentiate between the complex formed between Colicin N and OmpF in membranes, University of Newcastle scientists collaborated with Kevin Weiss in the Center for Structural Molecular Biology's Bio-Deuteration Laboratory to label OmpF with deuterium. This allowed the individual proteins to be selectively highlighted in neutron scattering experiments, a critical step in determining how colicins cross the membrane barrier. Results from these experiments support the hypothesis that Colicin N penetrates the E. coli membrane at the perimeter of OmpF and reveal possible new routes for antibiotics to enter bacteria. [Written by Emma Macmillan; media contact: Ron Walli, (865) 576-0226; wallira@ornl.gov]
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According to Timothy E. Hewett, PhD, FACSM, Director of Research, Ohio State University Sports Health and Performance Institute and Cincinnati Children's Sports Medicine Biodynamics Center, that injury occurs due to a tri-planar multi-dimensional combination of factors.
"Sometimes in science we have a lot of clinical expertise and a lot of engineering expertise but we don't have much—what I call--'common sense-pertise'."
"Is it just anterior translation that strains and tears the ACL? Is it just knee abduction or that inward motion that tears the ACL? Is it just ...
A person has a tumor removed from her femur. A soldier is struck by an improvised explosive device and loses a portion of his tibia. A child undergoes chemotherapy for osteosarcoma but part of the bone dies as a result.
Every year, millions of Americans sustain fractures that don't heal or lose bone that isn't successfully grafted. But a study presented at the Orthopaedic Research Society (ORS) 2012 Annual Meeting in San Francisco offers new hope for those who sustain these traumas.
Orthopaedic researchers with the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), ...
In a first-of-its-kind study in Canada, Kevin Bainey of the Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry has discovered that South Asians who live in Alberta with coronary disease experience a lower quality of life.
This adds to prior data that this group lives with more severe disease.
Using the APPROACH registry, which captures information about all patients who undergo a coronary angiogram in Alberta, the research team analyzed data about quality of life and health status of this population. The validated survey results showed that South Asians' overall quality of life scored ...
Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have identified a potent regulator of sensitivity to insulin, the hormone that controls blood sugar levels. The new findings may help scientists find better treatments for type 2 diabetes, obesity and other health problems caused by the body's inability to properly regulate blood sugar.
The research is published online Feb. 13 in PLoS ONE.
Fat and muscle cells in patients with type 2 diabetes become resistant to insulin, which normally causes them to take in glucose from the blood. The protein studied ...
University of Melbourne researchers have found Wikipedia is the most highly rated website for accessing information on mental-health related topics.
The researchers assessed a range of on-line and print material on mental health-related topics and found that in the majority of cases, Wikipedia was the most highly rated in most domains.
Content about mental health was extracted from 14 frequently accessed websites, including Wikipedia, Encyclopaedia Britannica and a psychiatry textbook. Text providing information about depression and schizophrenia was assessed.
The ...
NEW ORLEANS – Simple tests such as walking speed and hand grip strength may help doctors determine how likely it is a middle-aged person will develop dementia or stroke. That's according to new research that was released today and will be presented at the American Academy of Neurology's 64th Annual Meeting in New Orleans April 21 to April 28, 2012.
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More ...
A new study has examined how smoking-cessation aide varenicline may reduce drinking.
Results indicate that varenicline may reduce drinking by increasing alcohol's aversive effects.
Specifically, varenicline may increase blood pressure, heart rate, as well as ratings of dysphoria and nausea.
Varenicline is an effective smoking-cessation medication that may also reduce drinking. However, the means by which it might reduce drinking is unclear. A study of the effects of varenicline on subjective, physiological, and objective responses to low and moderate doses of alcohol ...
Alcohol abuse and dependence are common problems in the United States due to a number of factors, two of which may be social drinking by college students and young adults, and risk taking that may lead to heavier drinking later in life. A study of the neural underpinnings of risk-taking in young, non-dependent social drinkers has found that the caudate nucleus and frontal cortex regions of the brain show less activation in people who drink more heavily.
Results will be published in the May 2012 issue of Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research and are currently ...
Frequent drinking can establish changes in the processing of alcohol cues that can, in turn, facilitate renewed drinking unless the resulting impulse to drink is inhibited.
A new study has looked at the interaction between automatically activated approach tendencies and adolescent ability and motivation to inhibit and reflect upon drinking behaviors.
Results show that stricter parental rules about drinking are highly protective, especially for males.
Frequent drinking can lead to changes in the processing of alcohol cues that can, in turn, facilitate renewed drinking ...
Intimate partner violence (IPV) has been linked to heavy drinking, and alcohol outlet density to violence.
A new study looks at links between alcohol outlet densities and IPV-related Emergency Department (ED) visits.
Findings showed that bars are positively related to IPV-related ED visits, while there is no relationship between restaurant density and IPV-related ED visits.
Intimate partner violence (IPV) has been linked to heavy drinking, substance use by one or both partners, and living in a neighborhood characterized by poverty and social disadvantage. Alcohol ...
