houck2040/tees huggingface dataset:
commonplace pharmaceuticals such as ibuprofen can carry with them an inherent flaw in their atomic structure which pairs the active beneficial ingredient with a potentially ineffective or even toxic counterpart new research could hold the key to more easily isolating the good while removing the unwanted dr shoufeng lan assistant professor in the j mike walker '66 department of mechanical engineering at texas a&m university is leading a team investigating the use of electromagnetic control over the synthesis of chiral compounds at an atomic level a process that could lead to a plethora of practical applications including in the pharmaceutical industry the team's research was recently published in the journal nature communications "mysteriously all living organisms on the earth consist of only left-handed amino acids and right-handed sugars but not their mirrored counterparts " lan said "the phenomenon is the so-called homochirality of life and it is the ultimate form of asymmetric synthesis" lan used the example of a human hand to demonstrate the concept of chirality noting that if you were to create a mirror image of your hand it could not be perfectly superimposed over the original by identifying a successful method of using asymmetrical synthesis to create new versions of structures for items like ibuprofen lan said better versions of generic pharmaceuticals with reduced toxicity could be created at a lower cost than currently available due to the current purification process however to achieve success the researchers will first need to overcome the practical need to implement this magnetic effect on asymmetric synthesis at room temperature currently this effect is relatively weak even with a strong magnetic field or at a low temperature or 450 degrees lan said the topic of addressing chirality was the basis of the 2001 nobel prize in chemistry which uses an existing chiral object a catalyst molecule to transfer chirality to the desired mirror image form as the final product "this nature communications paper demonstrated a giant atomic-scale magneto-chiral effect that is orders of magnitude stronger " lan said "by applying this effect it is arguably possible to master an asymmetric synthesis or asymmetric self-assembling" lan said his team's research could prove revolutionary to the field by creating a new iteration of biomedical chemical and pharmaceutical applications for example by asymmetrically synthesizing only the active component of racemic lexapro the most common medication in the united states with more than 25 million prescriptions the research might reduce the drugs side effects 'we anticipate that our demonstration could lead to the creation of chiral seeds at the atomic scale " lan said "upon them we hope to transfer the chirality using cutting-edge technologies such as a metal-organic framework to create chiral materials from nanoscales to macroscales"
even the mundane act of swallowing requires a well-coordinated dance of more than 30 muscles of the mouth the loss of function of even one of these due to disease or injury can be extremely debilitating for these people nerve stimulation offers a ray of hope to regain some of their lost oral function in a new study researchers at texas a&m university have delineated the minimum size of electrical currents needed to provide sensation in different parts of the mouth the researchers said their study is a first but vital step toward building electrical stimulation implants that can restore essential intraoral functions that are lost due to nerve or brain damage the results of the study are published in the journal institute of electric and electronics engineers (ieee) transactions on biomedical engineering many essential bodily functions are coordinated by the nervous system via sensorimotor feedback loops as the name suggests these neural circuits involve the brain interpreting incoming signals from sensory nerves and then commanding the motor nerves to execute a certain movement so for example sensorimotor loops play a vital role in voluntary functions like walking or holding an object and involuntary movements like sneezing or blinking within the mouth also referred to as the intraoral cavity there is a rich supply of both sensory and motor nerves in particular sensorimotor nerves in the soft palate and tongue coordinate several intraoral movements related to swallowing speech and respiration and so damage to either the sensory or motor nerve fibers due to neurotrauma or disease can compromise these essential functions reducing the quality of life of those afflicted electrical nerve stimulation might help jumpstart the nerves into action much like how a pacemaker can electrically stimulate nerves in the heart causing the heart muscle to contract but unlike a pacemaker the details on the frequency and amplitude of the electrical currents needed for proper stimulation of different parts of the mouth have not been investigated electrical stimulation can modulate nerve currents or action potentials which are the mode of communication to and from the brain said dr hangue park assistant professor in the department of electrical and computer engineering and so electrical stimulation should be carefully applied because if not then it might cause undesirable effects or it might not stimulate anything at all
to investigate the minimum stimulation currents needed park and his team inserted tiny metal electrodes into a standard dental retainer these electrodes were positioned in subjects to stimulate either their soft palate or the side and tip of the tongue which receive a rich supply of sensory nerves for each of these locations the researchers slowly changed the amplitude of the stimulation current keeping the frequency fixed then subjects were asked to report when they just began feeling a sensation and when the sensation was uncomfortable next they repeated the same experiment for a higher frequency of current after compiling their data the team determined the average perception and discomfort thresholds for the tongue and soft palate in addition they produced an equivalent circuit of the intraoral cavity to duplicate the electrical properties of that area this circuit the researchers said can help to further study the effects of electrical stimulation offline without requiring human subjects the researchers noted that their next steps would be to electrically stimulate the intraoral region and investigate how these simulations change chewing swallowing and other behaviors sensorimotor systems can be extremely vulnerable to damage due to neural defects aging and neurodegenerative diseases said park in this study we have begun to lay the groundwork for electrically stimulating parts of the mouth that control involuntary and voluntary movements our work is a seminal study and it is important so that we can in the near future help people that face enormous challenges doing everyday tasks that we take for granted other contributors to this study include beomhee park from the electrical and computer engineering department and dr saurabh biswas associate professor of practice from the department of biomedical engineering this research was funded by the institute for rehabilitation and research foundation
dr dinakar sagapuram from the wm michael barnes 64 department of industrial and systems engineering at texas a&m university and dr osman el-atwani and dr yongqiang wang from the materials science at radiation and dynamics extremes group at los alamos national laboratory (lanl) are using new metal manufacturing techniques to create stronger materials that have a higher capacity to withstand radiation from nuclear reactors most of the engineering metals used today are polycrystalline which means that they are made up of many individual crystals or grains packed together one type is nanocrystalline metals which have a grain size less than 100 nanometers and are exceptionally strong they recently became a focus of interest in the nuclear materials community after researchers found that these fine-grained metals have a high irradiation tolerance the downside of relying on nanocrystalline metals is the lack of suitable manufacturing processes that produce them in large volumes and thin sheet metal forms which is where many important applications lie rolling is a well-established method for manufacturing thin metal sheets the rolling process involves several steps in which the material is heated and manipulated during which the grain sizes increase as a result of these processes it is extremely difficult to refine the grain size to anything smaller than a micron during the rolling process the process the team has been developing focuses on producing thin metal sheets while maintaining a small grain size the process involves ‘peeling a thin continuous metal strip directly from a solid metal feedstock surface using a knife edge wherein we exploit the extreme plastic deformation and heat that is generated as part of the process to break down the grain size to sub-micron levels sagapuram said another unique feature of the process is that it can produce a sheet of metal in a single step the resulting sheet comes in forms and sizes that are easy to use for a variety of structural applications this particular collaboration is significant because it demonstrates a strong application for a new technology in terms of end users we have been so far thinking about primarily the automotive and electric power industries where a strong need exists for high-strength sheet materials sagapuram said but during our discussions with lanl it has become clear that they also have a great potential to improve the performance of nuclear reactors lanls expertise in irradiation materials science and irradiation capabilities and characterizations could help evaluate and expand potential applications of these materials in nuclear reactor environments wang said sagapuram said since there are several applications for this new manufacturing process it would positively affect the sheet metal manufacturing industry by providing a less energy-intensive more efficient process than rolling
dr shuiwang ji associate professor in the department of computer science and engineering at texas a&m university is one of the principal investigators on a $6 million grant from the national institutes of health (nih) to develop artificial intelligence-driven methods to automate the process of finding subtle telltale signs of alzheimers disease in neuroimaging data jis team shares $12 million of the grant ji will lead the research team tasked with developing advanced deep-learning methods for finding relevant neural signatures lurking within neuroimages taken using different techniques such as pet scans and mris i feel very excited with this collaborative opportunity to make scientific discoveries in medical domains using deep learning and artificial intelligence said ji who has extensive expertise in machine learning deep learning and medical image analysis alzheimer's disease affects 56 million americans over the age of 65 and its symptoms are most noticeably the progressive impairment of cognitive and memory functions it is also currently the most common form of dementia in the elderly despite copious amounts of studies on alzheimers over the years researchers understanding of the biology and progression of the disease remains limited so there are limited advances in therapeutics and preventive strategies ji said the research team expects to discover new genetic biomarkers relevant to alzheimers which may lead to understanding the molecular basis of the disease and in turn uncover a potential new treatment researchers will leverage existing neuroimaging and genetic data resources from the uk biobank the alzheimer's disease sequencing project the alzheimer's disease neuroimaging initiative and the cohorts for heart and aging research in genomic epidemiology consortium other collaborators on this research are dr degui zhi associate professor with the uthealth school of biomedical informatics and dr myriam fornage professor at the center for human genetics at uthealth
dr karan watson regents professor in the department of electrical and computer engineering at texas a&m university was awarded the 2021 american society for engineering education (asee) lifetime achievement award in engineering education watson was recognized for her pioneering leadership and sustained contributions to education in the fields of engineering and engineering technology this prestigious award recognizes individuals with significant contributions in teaching education research administration or educational programs professional service or any combination thereof "while i can mention many mentors who have helped me throughout my career and even more students who have taught me as much or more than i taught them i especially want to recognize carl erdman who introduced me to engineering education as an important research area for engineering thank you to all who were involved in the nomination and to all my colleagues at texas a&m university and around the world said watson in the past watson was the recipient of the following awards: institute of electrical and electronics engineers (ieee) fellow asee fellow us presidents award for mentoring minorities and women in science and technology the american association for the advancement of science mentoring award ieee international undergraduate teaching award and the texas a&m university college of engineering crawford teaching award watson holds a phd from texas tech university her research interests include engineering education organizational change and computer systems dr tracy hammond director of the institute for engineering education and innovation says ‘karan watsons accomplishments in teaching and mentoring students and faculty her academic leadership professional service and her contributions to engineering education are outstanding she has served as a mentor to myself and countless others always driving us to become better educators and citizens of the world
to develop novel protein carriers for cancer drugs texas a&m university researcher dr phanourios tamamis from the artie mcferrin department of chemical engineering and his collaborator dr ehud gazit a leading biochemist biophysicist and nanotechnologist from tel aviv university israel have won a joint national science foundation and united states-israel binational science foundation (nsf-bsf) award the award conferred on june 15 will start funding their research on august 1 peptide-based materials are highly promising carrier agents for cancer drugs as they can combine ease of fabrication potential biocompatibility and tunable chemical properties the goal of this project is to develop novel classes of cancer drug delivery nanocarriers starting from promising initial studies of the researchers on peptide-based nanomaterials for the delivery of cancer drug epirubicin commonly used to treat breast cancer they will examine the possibility of using a short dipeptide cyclo-dihistidine as a universal cancer drug carrier they also plan on designing novel peptide nanocarriers combining enhanced fluorescence and high binding affinity to cancer drugs finally the team will aim to transform the most promising nanocarriers into smart drug nanocarriers capable of targeting cancer cells the resulting peptide materials are expected to be a viable alternative and promising route to delivering cancer drugs combining ease of fabrication with a range of capabilities including enhanced fluorescence to enable monitoring of drug release optimized drug encapsulation and improved targeting of cancer cells tamamis noted that this special nsf-bsf award will provide the exciting opportunity for him to merge his expertise in computational techniques with experimental techniques and studies that will be done in tel aviv by researchers from gazits lab the nsf-bsf grant will provide funding of around $400 000 to tamamis and additional funding to gazit in addition to providing funding for the research the grant will facilitate creating educational activities to train undergraduates graduate students and high school students from underrepresented communities
in the last few decades metal 3d printing has spearheaded the efforts in creating custom parts of intricate shapes and high functionality but as additive manufacturers have included more alloys for their 3d printing needs so have the challenges in creating uniform defect-free parts a new study by texas a&m university researchers has further refined the process of creating superior metal parts using laser powder bed fusion 3d printing techniques by using a combination of machine learning and single-track 3d printing experiments they have identified the favorable alloy chemistries and process parameters like laser speed and power needed to print parts with uniform properties at the microscale our original challenge was making sure there are no pores in the printed parts because that's the obvious killer for creating objects with enhanced mechanical properties said raiyan seede doctoral student in the department of materials science and engineering but having addressed that challenge in our previous work in this study we take deep dives into fine-tuning the microstructure of alloys so that there is more control over the properties of the final printed object at a much finer scale than before the researchers have published their findings in the journal additive manufacturing like other 3d-printing methods laser powder bed fusion also builds 3d metal parts layer by layer the process starts with rolling a thin layer of metal powder on a base plate and then melting the powder with a laser beam along tracks that trace the cross-sectional design of the intended part then another layer of the powder is applied and the process is repeated gradually building the final part alloy metal powders used for additive manufacturing can be quite diverse containing a mixture of metals such as nickel aluminum and magnesium at different concentrations during printing these powders cool rapidly after being heated by a laser beam since the individual metals in the alloy powder have very different cooling properties and consequently solidify at different rates this mismatch can create a type of microscopic flaw called microsegregation when the alloy powder cools the individual metals can precipitate out said seede imagine pouring salt in water it dissolves right away when the amount of salt is small but as you pour more salt the excess salt particles that do not dissolve start precipitating out as crystals in essence thats what is happening in our metal alloys when they cool quickly after printing he said this defect appears as tiny pockets containing a slightly different concentration of the metal ingredients than other regions of the printed part these inconsistencies compromise the mechanical properties of the printed object
to rectify this microdefect the research team investigated the solidification of four alloys containing nickel and one other metal ingredient in particular for each of these alloys they studied the physical states or phases present at different temperatures for increasing concentrations of the other metal in the nickel-based alloy hence from detailed phase diagrams they could determine the chemical composition of the alloy that would lead to minimum microsegregation during additive manufacturing next they melted a single track of the alloy metal powder for different laser settings and determined the process parameters that would yield porosity-free parts then they combined the information gathered from the phase diagrams with that from the single-track experiments to get a consolidated view of the laser settings and nickel alloy compositions that would yield a porosity-free printed part without microsegregation last the researchers went a step further and trained machine-learning models to identify patterns in their single-track experiment data and phase diagrams to develop an equation for microsegregation applicable to any other alloy seede said the equation is designed to predict the extent of segregation given the solidification range material properties and laser power and speed our methodology eases the successful use of alloys of different compositions for additive manufacturing without the concern of introducing defects even at the microscale said dr ibrahim karaman chevron professor i and head of the materials science and engineering department this work will be of great benefit to the aerospace automotive and defense industries that are constantly looking for better ways to build custom metal parts research collaborators dr raymundo arroyavé and dr alaa elwany added that the uniqueness of their methodology is its simplicity which can easily be adapted by industries to build sturdy defect-free parts with an alloy of choice they noted that their approach contrasts prior efforts that have primarily relied on expensive time-consuming experiments for optimizing processing conditions arroyavé is a professor in the materials science and engineering departments and elwany is an associate professor in the wm michael barnes 64 department of industrial and systems engineering other contributors to this research include austin whitt and william trehern from the materials science and engineering department and jiahui ye from the industrial and systems engineering department the research is supported by the united states army research office and the national science foundation
plastic is a part of modern life and has been integral to societal advancement still its use poses a global environmental hazard plastic waste especially mixed plastic waste is durable and ends up in landfills and the environment a texas a&m university and university of oklahoma team of researchers will establish an efficient plastic waste biodegradation strategy thanks to a $2 million grant from the national science foundation's emerging frontiers in research and innovation program according to the us environmental protection agency it is estimated that only about 9% of plastic waste generated in the country is recycled and the rest ends up in landfills incinerators or marine environments because of the time it takes for these plastics to break down the national oceanic and atmospheric administration estimates they will be there for 100 years or more "the research objective is to develop technology and methods that can mitigate this problem specifically by decomposing plastic waste and then converting the degradation products into high-value products " said dr arum han professor in the department of electrical and computer engineering at texas a&m and principal investigator on the project "establishing an efficient plastic waste biodegradation strategy will be a game-changer in overcoming the mounting global environmental and health concerns" the team will utilize microorganisms fungi and bacteria to essentially break down plastic components which could be used as source material for other material production "our multidisciplinary team of investigators with expertise in microfluidics engineering synthetic biology and microbiology will work together to decipher how these microorganisms degrade plastic waste and use this information to engineer bacterial cells to improve degradation efficiency " han said "we will also utilize a mixture of different bacteria and fungi as a consortium to improve the plastic degradation efficiency mimicking how microbes work together in decomposing complex materials in nature"
there are many types of plastics but this research will focus on degrading the two most common plastics in packaging polystyrene used in disposable coffee cups and polyethylene commonly used in packaging films the team has already isolated several different bacteria and fungi that show promise in degrading these plastics in addition to han co-principal investigators are dr xuejun zhu and dr qing sun assistant professors in the artie mcferrin department of chemical engineering at texas a&m; dr won-bo shim professor and associate department head for academics in the department of plant pathology and microbiology at texas a&m; and dr aifen zhou research scientist at the institute for environmental genomics at the university of oklahoma han will utilize high-throughput microfluidic devices to screen millions of individual strains/variants from microbial libraries to identify the most efficient microbes in plastic degradation and reutilization zhu is an expert in synthetic biology natural product discovery and microbiome engineering who will work on plastic degradation product identification and enzyme discovery and use this knowledge to improve the efficiency of plastic-degrading enzymes through directed evolution sun is an expert in synthetic biology and microbiome engineering and will work on engineering bacteria and creating a bacterial community that can more efficiently degrade plastic waste shim an expert in fungal biology and genetics will study fungi that degrade plastic identify their mechanisms and the most effective strains and then create tailored synthetic fungal-bacteria consortia to improve the potential for plastic degradation zhou an expert in environmental microbiology and molecular biology has been working on isolating plastic-degrading microbial strains from mealworm gut microbiomes and naturally weathered plastic waste sample enrichments which is the source of bacteria and fungi that will be used in this project she will continue to work on isolating and identifying the most promising plastic-degrading microorganisms from the environment "we will utilize multiple engineered microorganisms as a 'consortia' to degrade plastic waste so that we can deal with mixed plastic waste " han said "in parallel we will utilize the latest synthetic biology technique to engineer microbes so they can use the degradation product as a source to create high-value products" the team will train next-generation researchers through exposure to multidisciplinary science and engineering at the high school and undergraduate levels as part of the grant the team will also create online learning modules presentations and social network materials to build partnerships between academia and the public to communicate and enhance the scientific awareness about the future of plastic waste and the potential for bioremediation
in their roughly 35 billion years on earth bacteria have fine-tuned the art of colonizing all kinds of habitats from the inner lining of digestive tracts to the blistering hot waters of geysers but in their quest for world domination bacteria face a critical snag when moving across diverse environments preserving their navigational apparatus in a new study published in the journal nature communications researchers at texas a&m university have found that the appendages controlling bacterial navigation called the flagella adjust to changes in the viscosity of fluids very precisely this adaptation enables the bacterium to continue using its flagella for searching for nutrients sensing surfaces and establishing colonies in different habitats there is a significant interest in the biomedical fields to understand how individual bacterial cells transition from a lonesome existence to a community lifestyle said dr pushkar lele associate professor in the artie mcferrin department of chemical engineering to answer this question we are investigating the role of the flagellum as a response hub when a bacterium encounters different types of environments to navigate toward nutrients bacteria employ chemotaxis a process by which they sense chemicals and swim in the direction of increasing or decreasing concentrations the role of the flagellum in navigation is known it reversibly switches between clockwise and counterclockwise directions of rotation to facilitate chemotaxis flagellar rotation is powered by internal stator units similar in concept to the stator that rotates the rotor within an electric motor of a ceiling fan but more recent evidence suggests that the flagellum also plays a role in sensing changes in the cells mechanical environment a process called mechanosensing so if the bacterium encounters an increase in resistance to the rotation of its flagella it would be sensed as an increase in the viscosity of the environment in response the flagellar motor recruit extra stator units to compensate by developing more power however research has also shown that such an increase in the resistance prevents the flagellum from switching directions of rotation potentially rendering the chemotaxis machinery defunct
this observation posed a conundrum said lele chemotaxis is unlikely to be restricted to one type of viscous environment so we wondered if there were any adaptations happening within the flagellar motor that restored directional switching and by extension chemotaxis in varying viscous environments for their experiments the researchers chose a strain of e coli with a fluorescently-labeled chemotaxis protein chey-p that binds to the flagellar motor to initiate flagellar switching the researchers applied resistance to the motor and then observed the level of fluorescence using high-powered microscopes they found that the fluorescence dropped below baseline when they removed the stator proteins using genetic techniques in comparison the fluorescence level remained at the baseline when the stators continually delivered torque to rotate the motor this suggested that the presence of the stator units promoted chey-p binding to the motor based on these observations the team theorized that in high viscosity environments the increase in mechanical torque provided by the extra stator units increases the binding of chey-p to the motor thereby maintaining homeostasis in the switching function of the flagellum
lele pointed out this phenomenon of fine-tuning the internal state to adapt to changing mechanical loads bears a crude resemblance to proprioceptive adaptation whereby organisms with a nervous system continuously intuit their position and velocity to make adaptive changes to achieve homeostasis or a stable physiological state for example insects muscular skeletal systems internally adapt and adjust to varying loads on their limbs to maintain their posture and grip when walking on the floor or the ceiling homeostasis in flagellar switching appears to help motile bacteria form swarms and colonize different environments said lele explaining the basis for the observed link between mechanosensing and chemotaxis will be important in preventing bacterial colonization infections and antibiotic resistance in the future dr jyot antani is the lead author on the work and is former doctoral student from the chemical engineering department at texas a&m other contributors to this research include rachit gupta annie lee and kathy rhee from the chemical engineering department; and dr michael manson from the department of biology at texas a&m this research is funded by the us department of defense and the national institute of general medical sciences united states
dr limei tian assistant professor in the department of biomedical engineering at texas a&m university recently received the trailblazer r21 award from the national institute of biomedical imaging and bioengineering part of the national institutes of health to support her research developing biosensors tians current project focuses on developing biosensors to detect biomarkers for an acute kidney injury (aki) where the kidney suddenly stops working normally this would involve monitoring the concentration of proteins in urine while there are established protein biomarkers the challenge is continuously monitoring them detecting aki can be a time-sensitive process for determining proper treatment and protein concentrations can change rapidly meaning a continuous monitor would also benefit clinicians there are current procedures that can detect those proteins very accurately but every time the doctor orders these it's going to take several hours depending on whether the hospital has the capability of logging them tian said in most cases you have to send these samples to a central lab and it's going take several days to turn around results tian said the goal is to design a biosensor that could detect the concentration and provide an update every 30 minutes which could provide more timely clinical intervention on the patients behalf the biosensor would be small and ideally could easily be integrated into a catheter or implanted into the bladder in a minimally invasive process because the sensor would be designed in a soft electronic format tian said the applications for the biosensor extend outside of detecting aki one example would be analyzing protein levels in the fluid outside cells the interstitial fluid by monitoring concentrations and comparing them to protein levels in the blood researchers can better measure correlations between the two those are interesting clinical questions and with this tool we can answer those fundamental questions which can impact many other areas tian said thats what we are excited about we are developing an enabling technology not only for this project but its really a platform technology we're hoping not only revolutionizes disease diagnosis but in general health monitoring" the trailblazer award supports high-impact projects with the potential to transform understanding or practice by applying an innovative approach to biomedical challenges the team was awarded $589 100 for use over three years the theme of our lab is developing novel biosensing platforms tian said this is a biosensing project and also it's funded by a very prestigious award that is very encouraging for a starting lab
ceramics are resilient to heat and extreme environments but they are fragile and crack easily recently in a study published in science advances researchers at texas a&m university have discovered a self-healing mechanism within a type of ceramics called max phases they have shown that these engineered ceramics form natural faults or kink-bands during loading that can not only effectively stop cracks from growing but can also close and heal them thereby preventing catastrophic failure whats really exciting about max phases is that they readily form kink-bands under loading which can self-heal cracks even at room temperature making them suitable for a variety of advanced structural applications said dr ankit srivastava assistant professor in the department of materials science and engineering and a corresponding author on the study so far self-healing of cracks in ceramics has only been achieved at very high-temperatures by oxidation and that is why self-healing of cracks at room-temperature by kink-band formation is remarkable
this remarkable behavior of max phases can be traced back to their atomically layered structures imagine a plain loaf of bread it is homogeneous so if i slice it up each slice will look the same – similar in idea to conventional ceramics said dr miladin radovic a professor in the department of materials science and engineering and also a corresponding author on the study but max phases are layered like a peanut butter sandwich with peanut butter between two slices of bread the researchers then investigated if this unique layered structure of max phases make them any different from conventional ceramics for their experiments they used single crystal samples of chromium aluminum carbide max phase synthesized by dr thierry ouisse of université grenoble alpes france and a senior author on the study and loaded them inside an electron microscope using an in-house designed test fixture when the researchers viewed the deforming sample in the electron microscope while applying loading they observed that there were kink-band like defects that formed in the material resembling those formed in natural rocks more interestingly they discovered that the material within kink-bands rotate during loading which not only form barrier against crack propagation but also eventually close and heal the cracks as a consequence the sample was no longer vulnerable to catastrophic failure
whats really exciting is that this kinking or self-healing mechanism can occur over and over closing the newly formed cracks thus delaying the failure of the material said hemant rathod a doctoral student in the department of materials science and engineering and the lead author on the studythe current discovery that materials resilient to heat and extreme environments such as max phases also self-heal cracks which may form during service can advance a host of next-generation technologies for instance efficient jet engines hypersonic flights and safer nuclear reactors the researchers also noted in the current study that the kink-band induced self-healing of cracks is most likely not unique to max phases and can be extended to other materials with similar atomically layered structuresthis study demonstrates the serendipity of the scientific process says siddiq qidwai a program director in the national science foundations directorate for engineering we have had self-healing soft materials and polymer composites and now remarkably ceramicsthis work is funded by the national science foundation
in the evolving field of cancer biology and treatment innovations in organ-on-a-chip microdevices allow researchers to discover more about the disease outside the human body these organs-on-chips serve as a model of the state an actual cancer patient is in thus allowing an opportunity to finding the correct treatment before administering it to the patient at texas a&m university researchers are pushing these devices to new levels that could change the way clinicians approach cancer treatment particularly ovarian cancer the team has recently submitted a patent disclosure with the texas a&m engineering experiment station we claim several novelties in technological design as well as biological capabilities that didnt exist in prior organs-on-chips said dr abhishek jain lead researcher and assistant professor in the department of biomedical engineering jain also has a joint appointment in the college of medicine at texas a&m
jains device the ovarian tumor microenvironment-chip (otme-chip) focuses on platelets tiny blood cells that help the body form clots to stop bleeding the microdevice about the size of a usb models the properties of a tumor in the lab researchers then can recreate events within platelets circulating in the blood as they approach the tumor and make it more potent and metastatic we are creating a platform technology using the organ-on-a-chip approach where tumor biology can be advanced and new drugs can be identified by recreating the platelet-tumor and platelet-tumor-drug interactions under the influence of flow supporting blood vessels and the extracellular matrix jain said ovarian cancer is a particularly challenging one to monitor tumors generally form deep inside a patients tissue and it can be difficult to obtain real-time information of the tumors properties and how it is interacting with blood cells also ovarian tumors can quickly spread inside the body making time another vital factor in mapping the diseases progression the otme-chip builds on the current clinically observed understanding of how blood platelets move inside tumor tissue and what triggers them to spread outside the tumor however the actual mechanism behind this process remains mostly unknown until now for the first time we identified a crucial interaction between platelets and the tumor via their surface proteins jain said by applying high-resolution imaging advanced cell and molecular readouts and rna sequencing methods leveraging the otme-chip we discovered the actual genetic signaling pathways behind the blood cell triggered metastasis of ovarian cancer and a new drug strategy to stop this process jains team in college station for this research includes postdoctoral researcher dr biswajit saha and doctoral students jim tronolone and tanmay mathur their research involving the otme-chip was recently published in the journal science advances jain said the otme-chip has several applications both in observing how cancer cells interact differently with vascular and blood cells and testing novel ways to treat the disease that may complement chemotherapy and radiotherapy of tumors this multimodal otme-chip is going to provide an ideal platform to the health care researchers to evaluate their anti-cancer vascular and hematological drugs individually or in combination in an artificially created human-level tumor microenvironment jain said jain collaborates with dr anil sood professor and vice chair for translational research in the departments of gynecologic oncology and cancer biology at md anderson cancer center the team also works with dr gang bao a gene editing expert from rice university sood is a leader in the ovarian cancer field jain said he has been a fantastic collaborator and has provided us access to patient tissue and blood samples needed to validate the findings from our chip which brings us very close to initiating new clinical trials this research is funded through grants from the national institutes of health the national science foundation and the texas a&m presidents excellence fund
two faculty from the wm michael barnes 64 department of industrial and systems engineering at texas a&m university received awards from the human factors and ergonomics society (hfes) demonstrating their accomplishments in education practice and professional service in human factors engineering dr nancy currie-gregg was awarded the 2021 paul m fitts education award presented to an individual in recognition of their outstanding accomplishments in human factors engineering education and training dr farzan sasangohar was awarded the 2021 william c howell young investigator award recognizing his scientific contributions that demonstrate emerging influence in human factors and ergonomics currie-gregg professor of engineering practice in industrial and systems engineering and aerospace engineering has research interests that include aerospace human systems integration human-robot interaction and quantitative risk-analysis and systems safety engineering she received a bachelors in biological sciences from the ohio state university a masters in safety engineering from the university of southern california and a doctorate in industrial engineering at the university of houston i greatly appreciate this recognition from hfes it was a great honor reading the comments submitted by my former students currie-gregg said reading accounts of how their classroom experiences at texas a&m impacted their professional development as engineers is the greatest honor sasangohar assistant professor of industrial and systems engineering also received the 2021 bentzi karsh early-career service award presented to an individual for their outstanding contributions and professional service and outreach as an early-career professional in human factors and ergonomics this is the first time in hfes history that these two awards have been presented to one individual i am grateful and truly honored that both my scholarly work and service to profession have been recognized by my professional society sasangohar said winning these awards would not have been possible without the inspiration i have received from my advisors mentors students and colleagues his research interests include understanding and improving human decision making in safety-critical work environments using a wide range of analytical techniques and technological innovations including remote monitoring of health and performance sasangohar received a bachelors in information technology from york university a bachelors in computer science and masters in systems design engineering from the university of waterloo a masters in engineering systems from the massachusetts institute of technology and a doctorate in industrial engineering from the university of toronto
the threat of catastrophic wildfires has led california investor-owned utility pacific gas and electric company (pg&e) to significantly expand its use of a fire prevention tool developed at texas a&m university the tool is called distribution fault anticipation (dfa) its a unique hardware and software system that detects circuit anomalies notifying utility operators to address issues before they cause power outages or spark fires two veteran pg&e engineers eric schoenman and john mead highlighted the utilitys growing use of dfa in an article last month titled new tools in the fight to reduce wildfire ignition it was published in t&d world a leading utility industry magazine in 2019 pg&e installed dfa on seven circuits to evaluate its effectiveness based on the results the utility is adding dfa to 50 circuits in 2021 and anticipates adding 600 circuits over the next three years priority will be given to circuits in the areas most vulnerable to wildfires nearly one-third of pg&e electric lines are in state-designated high fire-threat zones dfa detects low-current events that conventional systems do not detect schoenman and mead wrote the fundamental key to addressing these phenomena is knowledge that they are occurring knowledge that dfa can in many cases provide a texas a&m team of engineers that developed dfa is led by distinguished professor dr b don russell and research professor carl l benner both in texas a&ms department of electrical and computer engineering
the team has worked closely with pg&e engineers on integrating dfa with the utilitys other equipment including other types of risk-reduction tools were proud to make a positive difference in a region of the country so vulnerable to catastrophic wildfires russell said the expansion at pg&e is the latest example of utilities turning to dfa the system is also being used by southern california edison in california and a number of utilities in texas georgia indiana oregon tennessee virginia the united kingdom australia and new zealand mid-south synergy electric co-op in texas which operates in small towns and rural areas southeast of college station is placing dfa on all of its circuits its a great system general manager kerry kelton said we have miles and miles of exposed feeder lines across pastures that are not easy to inspect directly dfa gives us the intelligence we need to prevent many outages it can help us every day electrical power outages commonly are caused by falling tree branches errant animals or failures of devices such as clamps switches conductors and connectors the conditions can build up over weeks or months impacting electrical currents in small ways before actual failures dfa monitors currents and applies algorithms to detect and report abnormalities for investigation and repair until now utilities have had little choice but to wait and react to actual failures operators recognize that something better is needed given the growing threat of wildfires dfa gives operators real-time awareness of the health of their system benner said while nothing will ever prevent all outages dfa can increase reliability for a utilitys customers and reduce ignition risks