--and cancer Scientists reveal the structure of one of the most important and complicated proteins in cell division--a fundamental process in life
and the development of cancer--in research published in Nature. Images of the gigantic protein in unprecedented detail will transform scientists'understanding of exactly how cells copy their chromosomes
and divide and could reveal binding sites for future cancer drugs. A team from The Institute of Cancer Research London and the Medical Research Council Laboratory of Molecular biology in Cambridge produced the first detailed images of the anaphase-promoting complex (APC/C). The APC/C
performs a wide range of vital tasks associated with mitosis the process during which a cell copies its chromosomes and pulls them apart into two separate cells.
Mitosis is used in cell division by all animals and plants. Discovering its structure could ultimately lead to new treatments for cancer
which hijacks the normal process of cell division to make thousands of copies of harmful cancer cells.
In the study which was funded by Cancer Research UK the researchers reconstituted human APC/C
and used a combination of electron microscopy and imaging software to visualize it at a resolution of less than a billionth of a metre.
The resolution was so fine that it allowed the researchers to see the secondary structure--the set of basic building blocks which combine to form every protein.
Alpha-helix rods and folded beta-sheet constructions were clearly visible within the 20 subunits of the APC/C defining the overall architecture of the complex.
The new study could identify binding sites for potential cancer drugs. Each of the APC/C's subunits bond
and mesh with other units at different points in the cell cycle allowing it to control a range of mitotic processes including the initiation of DNA replication the segregation of chromosomes along protein'rails'called spindles and the ultimate splitting of one
Dr David Barford who led the study as Professor of Molecular biology at The Institute of Cancer Research London before taking up a new position at the Medical Research Council Laboratory of Molecular biology in Cambridge said:
Professor Paul Workman Interim Chief executive of The Institute of Cancer Research London said: The fantastic insights into molecular structure provided by this study are a vivid illustration of the critical role played by fundamental cell biology in cancer research.
The new study is a major step forward in our understanding of cell division. When this process goes awry it is a critical difference that separates cancer cells from their healthy counterparts.
Understanding exactly how cancer cells divide inappropriately is crucial to the discovery of innovative cancer treatments to improve outcomes for cancer patients.
Dr Kat Arney Science Information Manager at Cancer Research UK said Figuring out how the fundamental molecular'nuts and bolts'of cells work is vital
and how to tackle them more effectively Revealing the intricate details of biological shapes is a hugely important step towards identifying targets for future cancer drugs.
The above story is provided based on materials by Cancer Research UK. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.
#Silicon oxide for better computer memory: Use of porous silicon oxide reduces forming voltage, improves manufacturability Rice university's breakthrough silicon oxide technology for high-density next-generation computer memory is one step closer to mass production thanks to a refinement that will allow manufacturers to fabricate devices at room temperature with conventional
production methods. First discovered five years ago, Rice's silicon oxide memories are a type of two-terminal,"resistive random-access memory"(RRAM) technology.
In a new paper available online in the American Chemical Society journal Nano Letters, a Rice team led by chemist James Tour compared its RRAM technology to more than a dozen competing versions."
"This memory is superior to all other two-terminal unipolar resistive memories by almost every metric,
"Tour is Rice's T. T. and W. F. Chao Chair in Chemistry and professor of mechanical engineering and nanoengineering and of computer science.
The basic concept behind resistive memory devices is the insertion of a dielectric material--one that won't normally conduct electricity--between two wires.
a narrow conduction path can be formed through the dielectric material. The presence or absence of these conduction pathways can be used to represent the binary 1s and 0s of digital data.
Research with a number of dielectric materials over the past decade has shown that such conduction pathways can be formed broken and reformed thousands of times,
which means RRAM can be used as the basis of rewritable random-access memory. RRAM is under development worldwide and expected to supplant flash memory technology in the marketplace within a few years
For example, manufacturers have announced plans for RRAM prototype chips that will be capable of storing about one terabyte of data on a device the size of a postage stamp--more than 50 times the data density of current flash memory technology.
Silicon is the most abundant element On earth and the basic ingredient in conventional microchips. Microelectronics fabrication technologies based on silicon are widespread and easily understood,
but until the 2010 discovery of conductive filament pathways in silicon oxide in Tour's lab, the material wasn't considered an option for RRAM.
and even used it for exotic new devices like transparent flexible memory chips. At the same time, the researchers also conducted countless tests to compare the performance of silicon oxide memories with competing dielectric RRAM technologies."
"Our technology is the only one that satisfies every market requirement, both from a production and a performance standpoint, for nonvolatile memory,
and just drop down electrodes without having to fabricate edges, "Tour said.""When we made our initial announcement about silicon oxide in 2010, one of the first questions
graduate students Vera Abramova, Huilong Fei and Gedeng Ruan; and Edwin Thomas, the William and Stephanie Sick Dean of Rice's George R. Brown School of engineering, professor in mechanical engineering and materials science and in chemical and biomolecular engineering g
#Researchers develop harder ceramic for armor windows The Department of defense needs materials for armor windows that provide essential protection for both personnel
and equipment while still having a high degree of transparency. To meet that need scientists at the U s. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) have developed a method to fabricate nanocrystalline spinel that is 50%harder than the current spinel armor materials used in military vehicles.
With the highest reported hardness for spinel NRL's nanocrystalline spinel demonstrates that the hardness of transparent ceramics can be increased simply by reducing the grain size to 28 nanometers.
This harder spinel offers the potential for better armor windows in military vehicles which would give personnel and equipment such as sensors improved protection along with other benefits.
This research was reported in the January 30 2014 issue of the journal Acta Materialia. To create the harder spinel the NRL research team sinters
or consolidates commercial nanopowders into fully dense nanocrystalline materials. Sintering is a common method used to create large ceramic and metal components from powders.
However the NRL team is the first to succeed in making this harder spinel through their development of the Enhanced High pressure Sintering (EHPS) approach explains Dr. James Wollmershauser a lead investigator in the research.
The EHPS approach uses high pressures (up to 6 GPA) to retard bulk diffusion rates break powder agglomerates
and reposition nanoparticles very close to each other to help eliminate porosity in the sintered ceramic. NRL researchers then can exploit the increased surface potential of nanoparticles for surface energy-driven densification without coarsening.
Using this EHPS approach to create the nanocrystalline spinel the NRL research team did not observe any decline in density or fracture resistance due to residual porosity.
Other researchers have tried to make nanocrystalline spinel but they have had all problems with the final product such as a reduced density reduced fracture resistance or reduced transparency.
The reduced density in other researchers work is caused by voids that cannot be removed during processing
which can reduce hardness fracture resistance and transparency. NRL's Wollmershauser notes that some theories suggest that fracture resistance should decrease
when you make a ceramic material nanocrystalline. However in their work the NRL researchers have shown that the fracture resistance does not change suggesting that nanocrystalline ceramics can have an equivalent toughness to microcrystalline ceramics
which is important for high window lifetimes. The Hall-Petch relationship has been used to describe the phenomenon where a material's strength
and hardness can be increased by decreasing the average crystallite grain size. However prior experimental work had shown a breakdown in this relationship (where hardness starts reducing with decreasing grain size) for certain ceramics at 130 nanometers.
Remarkably the NRL researchers have disproved that a breakdown in the Hall-Perch effect exists at these nanoscale grain sizes by measuring an increasing hardness down to at least a 28 nanometer crystallite grain size.
The new high hardness values were measured on samples with these extremely small average grain sizes.
In current applications spinel and sapphire (which is also very hard) are used to create materials for military armor windows.
A drawback with sapphire is that it is expensive to make into windows. By increasing the hardness of spinel even further NRL researchers can make a material harder than sapphire
and possibly replace sapphire windows with windows made out of nanocrystalline spinel. Also harder nanocrystalline spinel windows can be made thinner and still meet the current military specifications.
This thinness translates to weight savings on the vehicle. So the NRL-developed nanocrystalline spinel brings improvements in hardness window thickness and weight and cost.
A final benefit is that the NRL-developed nanocrystalline spinel is highly transparent making it useful in UV visible and infrared optics.
The armor material used by the military needs to be transparent so that both equipment and personnel can see.
Different sensors see different wavelengths of light. Infrared is important for heat-seeking capabilities. UV imaging can be used to detect threats not seen in the visible spectrum.
UV detectors also have applications in space-borne astronomy missions. A single window that could be produced using the NRL-developed nanocrystalline spinel would be transparent across many technologically important wavelengths easing design
and weight requirements. Beyond the use for a harder spinel in armor windows there could be other potential Dod and civilian applications in better/stronger office windows smartphones and tablets screens military/civilian vehicles
space vehicles and even extraterrestrial rovers. Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by Naval Research Laboratory.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. Journal Reference e
#Advantages, potential of computer-guided spinal surgery In a series of research studies Cedars-Sinai spinal surgeons show that a new method of computer-guided spine surgery is beneficial for spinal reconstruction
and for treating complex tumors and degenerative spine problems resulting in fewer complications and better outcomes for patients.
The Cedars-Sinai surgeons highlight the advantages of a spinal navigation technique that uses high-speed computerized tomography (CT) imaging to navigate in and around the spinal column from different angles.
They present their findings in six articles published in the current issue of Neurosurgical Focus an online peer-reviewed journal published by the American Association of Neurological Surgeons.
Investigators say the three-dimensional navigational method is a major improvement over traditional two-dimensional fluoroscopic X-rays. It allows surgeons to more precisely
and accurately place reconstruction screws in the narrow bony corridors of the spine avoiding nerves blood vessels and other critical structures.
This reduces or may even avoid complications postoperative pain and the need for follow-up surgeries they write.
Computer-guided surgical navigation technology delivers on quality and safety said J. Patrick Johnson MD a neurosurgery spine specialist and director of Spine Education and the Neurosurgery Spine Fellowship program in the Department of Neurosurgery.
It clearly improves outcomes in spine care. The computerized navigation system uses a mobile CT SCANNER to take cross-sectional images of the spine
while a patient is in surgery. The images are transferred to a computer which displays them on overhead monitors that allow precise tracking of surgical instruments as surgeons insert screws for reconstruction
and perform other complex procedures on the spine. Surgeons said the technique is superior to existing methods because of its precision and speed.
They point out that even small miscalculations with two-dimensional technology can cause problems that require follow-up operations
because hardware was initially out of place. The Cedars-Sinai surgeons say they have cut these to nearly zero by using computer-guided methods.
The surgeons said the technology has others applications for treating spinal disorders serving as a tool to remove tumors decompress the spinal column
and perform minimally-invasive surgery. This approach represents a major leap forward for instrumented spine surgery said Terrence T. Kim MD an orthopedic spine surgeon in the Cedars-Sinai Spine Center and expert in the computer-guided navigation field.
We're looking at the future. Joining Drs. Johnson and Kim as study co-authors are Doniel Drazin MD a senior resident in the Department of Neurosurgery and Robert S. Pashman MD a clinical associate professor and orthopedic spine surgeon at the Cedars
-Sinai Spine Center. The group's studies accounted for six of 10 articles in the March issue of Neurological Focus.
A spokeswoman at the online journal said it is highly unusual for a single institution to publish a majority of articles in a single journal issue.
One of the Cedars-Sinai studies showed that the mobile CT SCANNER and computer-aided system used during minimally invasive surgery increased the accuracy of screw placement into vertebral pedicle bones.
Another study found that the computerized navigation system and the mobile CT SCANNER allowed for more accurate surgical placement even within the narrowest parts of the thoracic spine particularly challenging regions in women
and children who have smaller vertebral pedicle bones than most men. A third study determined that the image-guided technique can be useful for other minimally invasive procedures including thoracic endoscopic spine surgery to remove tumors infections
and other conditions accessed through the chest cavity. The final two articles offer an overview of computer-guided surgery of the spine including its use in revision
or redo spine surgeries that are often the most complex; and the potential future use of robotic spine surgery with computer navigation.
The special issue of the journal can be accessed at: http://thejns. org/toc/foc/36/3story Source:
The above story is provided based on materials by Cedars-Sinai Medical center. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length h
#Innovative solar-powered toilet ready for India unveiling A revolutionary University of Colorado Boulder toilet fueled by the sun that is being developed to help some of the 2. 5 billion people around the world lacking safe and sustainable sanitation
will be unveiled in India this month. The self-contained waterless toilet designed and built using a $777000 grant from the Bill
& Melinda Gates Foundation has the capability of heating human waste to a high enough temperature to sterilize human waste
and create biochar a highly porous charcoal said project principal investigator Karl Linden professor of environmental engineering.
The biochar has a one-two punch in that it can be used to both increase crop yields
and sequester carbon dioxide a greenhouse gas. The project is part of the Gates Foundation's Reinvent the Toilet Challenge an effort to develop a next-generation toilet that can be used to disinfect liquid and solid waste
while generating useful end products both in developing and developed nations said Linden. Since the 2012 grant Linden and his CU-Boulder team have received an additional $1 million from the Gates Foundation for the project
which includes a team of more than a dozen faculty research professionals and students many working full time on the effort.
According to the Gates Foundation the awards recognize researchers who are developing ways to manage human waste that will help improve the health and lives of people around the world.
Unsafe methods to capture and treat human waste result in serious health problems and death--food and water tainted with pathogens from fecal matter results in the deaths of roughly 700000 children each year.
Linden's team is one of 16 around the world funded by the Gates Reinvent the Toilet Challenge since 2011.
All have shipped their inventions to Delhi where they will be on display March 22 for scientists engineers and dignitaries.
Other institutional winners of the grants range from Caltech to Delft University of Technology in The netherlands and the National University of Singapore.
The CU-Boulder invention consists of eight parabolic mirrors that focus concentrated sunlight to a spot no larger than a postage stamp on a quartz-glass rod connected to eight bundles of fiber-optic cables each consisting of thousands of intertwined fused
fibers said Linden. The energy generated by the sun and transferred to the fiber-optic cable system--similar in some ways to a data transmission line--can heat up the reaction chamber to over 600 degrees Fahrenheit to treat the waste material disinfect pathogens in both feces and urine and produce char.
Biochar is a valuable material said Linden. It has good water holding capacity and it can be used in agricultural areas to hold in nutrients
and bring more stability to the soils. A soil mixture containing 10 percent biochar can hold up to 50 percent more water
and increase the availability of plant nutrients he said. Additionally the biochar can be burned as charcoal
and provides energy comparable to that of commercial charcoal. Linden is working closely with project co-investigators Professor R. Scott Summers of environmental engineering and Professor Alan Weimer chemical and biological engineering and a team of postdoctoral fellows professionals graduate students undergraduates
and a high school student. We are doing something that has never been done before said Linden.
While the idea of concentrating solar energy is not new transmitting it flexibly to a customizable location via fiber-optic cables is the really unique aspect of this project.
The interdisciplinary project requires chemical engineers for heat transfer and solar energy work environmental engineers for waste treatment
and stabilization mechanical engineers to build actuators and moving parts and electrical engineers to design control systems Linden said.
Tests have shown that each of the eight fiber-optic cables can produce between 80 and 90 watts of energy meaning the whole system can deliver up to 700 watts of energy into the reaction chamber said Linden.
In late December tests at CU-Boulder showed the solar energy directed into the reaction chamber could easily boil water
and effectively carbonize solid waste. While the current toilet has been created to serve four to six people a day a larger facility that could serve several households simultaneously is under design with the target of meeting a cost level of five cents a day per user set by the Gates Foundation.
We are continuously looking for ways to improve efficiency and lower costs he said. The great thing about the Gates Foundation is that they provide all of the teams with the resources they need Linden said.
The foundation is not looking for one toilet and one solution from one team. They are nurturing unique ideas
and looking at what the individual teams bring overall to the knowledge base. Linden who called the 16 teams a family of researchers said the foundation has funded trips for CU-Boulder team members to collaborate with the other institutions in places like Switzerland South africa and North carolina.
Instead of sink or swim funding they want every team to succeed. In some ways we are like a small startup company
and it's unlike any other project I have worked on during my career he said.
CU-Boulder team member Elizabeth Travis from Parker Colo. who is working toward a master's degree in the engineering college's Mortenson Center in Engineering for Developing Communities said her interest in water
and hygiene made the Reinvent the Toilet project a good fit. It is a really cool research project
and a great team she said. Everyone is very creative patient and supportive and there is a lot of innovation.
It is exciting to learn from all of the team members. We have a lot of excitement and energy on our team and the Gates Foundation values that Linden said.
It is one thing to do research another to screw on nuts and bolts and make something that can make a difference.
To me that's the fun part and the project is a nice fit for CU-Boulder
because we have a high interest in developing countries and expertise in all of the renewable energy technologies as well as sanitation.
The CU-Boulder team is now applying for phase two of the Gates Foundation Reinvent the Toilet grant to develop a field-worthy system to deploy in a developing country based on their current design
and assess other technologies that may enhance the toilet system including the use of high-temperature fluids that can collect retain
and deliver heat. Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by University of Colorado at Boulder.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length h
#A plague of fleas: Tiny Eurasian exotic is upending watery ecosystems across the northern Great lakes The zooplankton never saw it coming.
Well perhaps it would be more correct to say that they never smelled it coming.
These tiny eyeless water creatures recognize predators by their scent and zooplankton in the Upper Midwest have added never the spiny water flea to their stink list.
The results have been catastrophic. The word I use is blindsiding says limnologist W. Charles Kerfoot a professor of biological sciences at Michigan Tech.
When Bythotrephes longimanus was introduced here from Northern europe 30 years ago the native species were totally oblivious to it.
They still are which is why the spiny water flea aka Bythotrephes (pronounced BITH-oh-TREH-feez) is devouring its way through the Great lakes and into the surrounding inland waters.
As a result this half-inch-long predator with a spikey tail is on the verge of disrupting an entire ecosystem from the bottom up.
Kerfoot recently completed a three-year study in the region that shows just how widespread these carnivorous crustaceans have become.
His group sampled the waters in dozens of sites from New york to northwestern Minnesota; they found 83 sites that were infested.
The scientists checked out Lakes Michigan Superior and many interior lakes and lingered two years in Voyageurs national park on Minnesota's border with Canada to examine Bythotrephes'long-term effect on the native zooplankton.
or no Bythotrephes they had far fewer of the native zooplankton that support a food web topped by pike bass walleye--and of course fishermen.
They also compared their measurements with data from as far back as 2001 and found that some native zooplankton species had nosedived
because the Bythotrephes are eating up their food supply. Bythotrephes is having as much impact on the plankton communities as quagga mussels have had in Lake huron
North american zooplankton like many Daphnia and Bosmina species which are favorites on Bythotrephes'menu have similar hardware
It came in ballast water no question Kerfoot said. Like many aquatic invasive species it was transplanted by ships loading ballast in one part of the world and dumping it in another in this case the Great lakes.
Since Bythotrephes needs cool conditions it has gained not a footing in more southerly waters. But it is having a field day in a band of inland lakes stretching from eastern Ontario to northern Minnesota and in the cooler Great lakes.
It is transported to inland lakes by recreational fishing said Kerfoot. The spiny water flea has an enormous spine with barbs that attach to all types of surfaces (fishing lines nets anchor ropes)
and unless boats and fishing gear are cleaned thoroughly they can carry spiny water fleas and their resting eggs between lakes infecting one after another.
Bythotrephes resting eggs are exceptionally hardy. We discovered that the eggs are special: big round and thick shelled said Kerfoot.
However it developed impressive armor back home in Eurasia and to the small North american fish who would normally eat it Bythotrephes is armed a fully pincushion.
It's famous among anglers for forming tangled sticky gobs on fishing gear and anchor lines.
My students were first to show that the tail barbs protected them against fish. When the fish try to eat them they get stuck by the barbs said Kerfoot.
The spine can poke right through the wall of the stomach. Right now there's no way to get Bythotrephes out of infested lakes.
Drain all water from bilge live wells ballast tanks etc. before leaving. Dry everything thoroughly before you put your gear in another lake.
the money goes to programs to fight exotic pests. Measures like this can be successful Kerfoot notes.
Unfortunately that doesn't stop the odd Typhoid Mary. In some places along Highway 41 in Upper Michigan's Keweenaw Peninsula every lake we tested with a boat ramp had Bythotrephes.
Nevertheless all the dedicated responsible fishermen in America can only do so much. The primary highway for invasive aquatic species the ballast tanks of oceangoing vessels entering the Great lakes is still open.
Though exotics have been invading the region since the St lawrence Seaway opened in 1959 many freighters still release contaminated ballast water into the system.
They can pick up something in the southern Great lakes and pollute Thunder Bay or Duluth said Kerfoot.
and studies in the national parks during 2008-10 were funded by a grant from the National park service Natural resource Preservation Program GLNF CESU Task Agreement No.
The above story is provided based on materials by Michigan Technological University. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length n
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