A method of promoting healing of injured or diseased neurons from Ames Research Center involves pharmacological activation of the STAT3 alpha protein. Injured or diseased neurons heal incompletely or not at all because they are susceptible to apoptosis (cell death), or because they fail to engage in axogenesis – that is, they fail to re-extend their axons to their original targets. Natural anti-apoptotic, pro-axogenic mechanisms are stimulated artificially in the new method.
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A nanotube array based on vertically aligned nanotubes or carbon nanofibers has been invented by Ames Research Center for use in localized electrical stimulation and recording of electrical responses in selected regions of an animal body, including the brain. Potential applications for localized electrical stimulation and/or recording include treatment of Parkinson’s disease, Tourette’s syndrome, and chronic pain.
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A continuing program of research and development at Marshall Space Flight Center is focusing on the use of controlled illumination by light-emitting diodes (LEDs) to treat mucositis and to accelerate healing of wounds. The basic idea is to illuminate the affected area of a patient with light of an intensity, duration, and wavelength chosen to produce a therapeutic effect while generating only a minimal amount of heat. Arrays of LEDs would generate biostimulatory radiation.
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It is known that prolonged exposure to the sun’s harmful UV rays can lead to melanoma, but an unanswered question is why some people are more likely to develop melanoma than others. Researchers from the Translational Genomic Research Institute (TGen) in Phoenix, Arizona and the Queensland Institute of Medical Research (QIMR) in Queensland, Australia, however, are close to discovering a new gene that could help explain variations in melanoma risk.

The researchers identified a region on chromosome 20 that influences a person’s risk of developing melanoma. The researchers narrowed the gene location through a genome-wide association study – a first in melanoma research. Genome-wide studies involve rapidly scanning DNA of many people to find genetic variations associated with a particular disease. After identifying new genetic associations, researchers can use the information to develop better strategies to detect, treat and prevent the disease.

The study – whose data collection began 20 years ago – involved more than 4,000 Australian samples (2,019 cases and 2,105 controls) and was a joint project between Australian, American, and European research groups. “We’re closing in on genetic variants which cause 16 percent of the population to be at nearly double the increased risk of developing the disease. In public health terms, this finding is highly significant,” says TGen Investigator Dr Kevin Brown.

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Engineers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have improved the power output of methanol fuel cells by more than 50 percent, which could broaden fuel cell applications to include portable electronics. The engineers achieved this by developing an alternative to Nafion, the material commonly used as the electrolyte between the cell’s electrodes.

Nafion is costly and permeable to methanol, allowing fuel seepage and thus lowering the cell’s efficiency. Using layer-by-layer assembly, the MIT researchers created a thin-film material that is less permeable to methanol but compares favorably to Nafion in proton conductivity. The result was an increase in power output of more than 50 percent.

“We were able to tune the structure of [our] film a few nanometers at a time,” said Paula T. Hammond, Professor of Chemical Engineering and leader of the research team. The team is now exploring whether the new film can completely replace Nafion. To that end, they have been generating standalone thin films with a consistency like plastic wrap.

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To improve wireless communications for emergency responders, researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have confirmed that underground tunnels – generally a difficult setting for radios – can have a frequency “sweet spot” at which signals may travel several times farther than at other frequencies. The findings may point to strategies to enhance rescue communications in subways and mines.

The engineers found that for a typical subway-sized tunnel, the sweet spot is found at the 400 megahertz (MHz) to 1 gigahertz (GHz) frequency range. Tunnels can channel radio signals in the right frequency range, because they act like giant waveguides that confine and direct microwaves on integrated circuit wafers, and in antenna feed systems and optical fibers. The channel shape reduces the losses caused when signals are absorbed or scattered by structural features.

The scientists performed the tunnel studies at Black Diamond Mines Regional Park near Antioch, CA, an old complex used in the early 1900s to extract pure sand for glass production. NIST researchers found good agreement between their measured data and theoretical models, leading to the conclusion that the waveguide effect plays a significant role in radio transmissions in tunnels. The NIST data will support development of open standards to optimize system design, especially for emergency responders.

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The National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) has taken delivery of a new IBM supercomputer that will advance research into severe weather and the future of Earth’s climate. The supercomputer, known as a Power 575 Hydro-Cluster, will be used by scientists at NCAR and across the country to accelerate research into climate change, including future patterns of precipitation and drought around the world, changes to agriculture and growing seasons, and the complex influence of global warming on hurricanes.

Named “Bluefire,” the new supercomputer has a peak speed of more than 76 teraflops (76 trillion floating-point operations per second). Based on the new POWER6 microprocessor, which has a clock speed of 4.7 gigahertz, the system consists of 4,064 processors, 12 terabytes of memory, and 150 terabytes of FAStT DS4800 disk storage. When fully operational, it is expected to rank among the 25 most powerful supercomputers in the world, more than tripling NCAR’s sustained computing capacity. Researchers will rely on Bluefire to generate the climate simulations necessary for the next report on global warming by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The IPCC, which conducts detailed assessments under the auspices of the United Nations, was a recipient of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize.

Bluefire is the second phase of a system called the Integrated Computing Environment for Scientific Simulation (ICESS) at NCAR. After undergoing acceptance testing, it will begin full-scale operations in August. Bluefire, which replaces three supercomputers with an aggregate peak speed of 20 teraflops, will provide supercomputing support for researchers at NCAR and other organizations through 2011.

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