Focus: Hidden - Tennessee

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1) Suitability mapping. 2) Safer landings. 3) Rooftop A/C retrofit. 4) Clothes dryers that could use vibrations instead of heat.

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In an especially underserved region of western Kenya, expectant mothers requiring cesarean section are the focus of a new $2.6 million grant to Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC), Kenya’s AIC Kijabe Hospital and the Kenya-based Center for Public Health and Development.

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An international team of researchers from Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Macquarie University, the University of Western Sydney and the Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry set out to assess how two Free-Air CO2 Enrichment (FACE) projects compared to eleven vegetation models that simulate various ecological processes. Instead of only benchmarking whether or not an individual model matched the experimental data, the researchers developed an “assumption-centered” approach to evaluate why certain models performed better than others.

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Jessica Oster and her colleagues have shown that the analysis of a stalagmite from a cave in north east India can detect the link between El Nino conditions in the Pacific Ocean and the Indian monsoon.

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Researchers from Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Washington State University and the University of Idaho have developed a process to make a thermoset that can be reshaped and reused. The new plastic is a shape-memory polymer, so named because the material can “remember” its original shape and return to it after being deformed with heat or other forces.

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Researchers led by St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital scientists have developed a second-generation antibiotic that shows early effectiveness against common bacterial infections that pose a serious health threat to children and adults. The findings appear today in the scientific journal Science Translational Medicine.

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With the help of a computer program called “Rosetta,” researchers at Vanderbilt University have “redesigned” an antibody that has increased potency and can neutralize more strains of the AIDS-causing human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) than can any known natural antibody.

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J. Paul Taylor, M.D., Ph.D., of St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, has been recognized as one of the nation’s leading biomedical researchers by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute

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Cameron Roberts, a recent High Flux Isotope Reactor visiting research user, stands out from the usual queue of university academics, industry R&D staff, and DOE scientists—this user is a junior in high school.

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One of the barriers to using graphene at a commercial scale could be overcome using a method demonstrated by researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

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A research team at Vanderbilt University Medical Center has been approved for a $2.7 million funding award by the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) to study idiopathic subglottic stenosis (iSGS), a rare condition that inexplicably causes middle-aged women to struggle to breathe.

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Supercomputing resources at Oak Ridge National Laboratory will support a new initiative designed to advance how scientists digitally reconstruct and analyze individual neurons in the human brain.

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Run-2 for the Large Hadron Collider—the world’s largest and most powerful particle collider—began April 5 at CERN. In preparation, Thomas M. Cormier, who leads the LHC Heavy Ion group at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, led an upgrade of the electromagnetic calorimeter used for LHC’s experiment called ALICE (for A Large Ion Collider Experiment). This detector measures the energies of high-energy electrons and gamma rays emitted from the quark–gluon plasma.

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A moth’s eye and lotus leaf were the inspirations for an antireflective water-repelling, or superhydrophobic, glass coating that holds significant potential for solar panels, lenses, detectors, windows, weapons systems and many other products.

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Childhood cancer survivors – especially those whose treatment included brain irradiation or chemotherapy with glucocorticoids – are 14 percent more likely to be obese than their healthy peers. The St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital study appears today in the journal Cancer.

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Researchers have identified three genes that play a pivotal role in the brain tumor choroid plexus carcinoma (CPC), a discovery that lays the groundwork for more effective treatment of this rare, often fatal cancer. St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital scientists led the study, which appears today in the journal Cancer Cell. The genes – TAF12, NFYC and RAD54L – are involved in DNA repair and regulation. Researchers showed that CPC often has at least one extra copy of each gene and demonstrated that the genes work cooperatively to launch and sustain the tumor.

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St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital scientists have gained ground toward developing more targeted therapies for the most common childhood brain tumor. The findings appear today in the Journal of Molecular Biology. The findings involve the DDX3X gene. In 2012, the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital – Washington University Pediatric Cancer Genome Project highlighted DDX3X as a promising focus for efforts to develop targeted therapies against medulloblastoma. Such treatments target the genetic mistakes that give rise to the brain tumor’s four subtypes.

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Vanderbilt biologists have localized the seasonal light cycle effects that drive seasonal affective disorder to a small region of the brain called the dorsal raphe nucleus.

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A nationwide study, “Uncovering Waste in U.S. Healthcare,” from authors at Vanderbilt University Medical Center and Massachusetts Institute of Technology, finds that spending on post-acute care in skilled nursing facilities (SNFs) provides a key signal of inefficiency in the health care system, leading to higher spending and lower patient survival.

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1) 3-D face analysis. 2) Turbine-associated fish injuries. 3) Imaging atoms for better batteries.

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St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital scientists have developed a significantly better computer tool for finding genetic alterations that play an important role in many cancers but were difficult to identify with whole-genome sequencing. The findings appear today in the scientific journal Nature Methods. The tool is an algorithm called CONSERTING, short for Copy Number Segmentation by Regression Tree in Next Generation Sequencing.

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Researchers led by St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital scientists have identified a mechanism that helps leukemia cells resist glucocorticoids, a finding that lays the foundation for more effective treatment of cancer and possibly a host of autoimmune diseases. The findings appear online today in the scientific journal Nature Genetics.

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ORNL scientists combined atomic force microscopy and mass spectrometry into one instrument that can probe a polymer sample in three dimensions and overlay information about the topography of its surface, the atomic-scale mechanical behavior of the bulk sample, and subsurface chemistry. Their results are published in ACS Nano.

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A group of researchers have produced a top 10 list of the best activist hedge funds for investors. These are the funds that make the most sizable investments.

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The number of infants born in the United States with drug withdrawal symptoms, also known as neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS), nearly doubled in a four-year period. By 2012, one infant was born every 25 minutes in the U.S. with the syndrome, accounting for $1.5 billion in annual health care charges, according to a new Vanderbilt study published in the Journal of Perinatology.

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While experimenting with a heat treatment process he modified by eliminating a couple of steps, Klett made a discovery that caused quite a stir and prompted hundreds of inquiries from scientists, academia and industry.

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A group of 13 Ph.D. students from 3 partnering universities gathered at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in April for an intensive course in how to apply neutron scattering to their studies of materials science and biological systems with hands-on use of instruments at ORNL’s Spallation Neutron Source and High Flux Isotope Reactor.

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Researcher applies materials science techniques to the field of forensics, and some of her research has helped crime scene investigators rebuild fingerprints after they have faded over time.

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For the first time, industry and policymakers have a comprehensive report detailing the U.S. hydropower fleet’s 2,198 plants that provide about 7 percent of the nation’s electricity.

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Vanderbilt researchers have identified the role that a key protein associated with autism and the co-occurrence of alcohol dependency and depression plays in forming the spines that create new connections in the brain.

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Thermal imaging, microscopy and ultra-trace sensing could take a quantum leap with a technique developed by researchers at ORNL.

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New research by Vanderbilt University's Katharine Donato and Blake Sisk examines why children from Latin America make the difficult journey north.

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Researchers have identified a protein that offers a new focus for developing targeted therapies to tame the severe inflammation associated with multiple sclerosis (MS), colitis and other autoimmune disorders. St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital scientists led the study which appears today in the scientific journal Immunity.

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Patients, siblings and their guests recently enjoyed an unforgettable evening of glitz and glamour during the Teen Formal at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

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A major United Nations report on bioenergy and sustainability released Tuesday concludes the sustainable production of bioenergy can be an important tool for addressing climate change.

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Summit, a high-performance computing system set to be delivered to Oak Ridge National Laboratory in 2017 and available to researchers in 2018, will support DOE’s Office of Science in its broad science and energy mission.

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Scientists focused on producing biofuels more efficiently have a new powerful dataset to help them study the DNA of microbes that fuel bioconversion and other processes.

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A study by a team at Vanderbilt University Medical Center shows that pregnant women are commonly being prescribed opioids -- narcotic pain relievers such as hydrocodone -- which results in an increased likelihood of NAS. In addition, the study found that opioid type and duration of exposure combined with tobacco use or selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor use (for treating depression and anxiety) augmented risks for NAS.

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The relatively new synthetic drug 251-NBOMe, or “N bomb,” has been associated with the deaths of at least 17 people in the United States since 2010, when it first became available over the Internet, often marketed as “legal” or “natural” LSD.

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Vanderbilt University researchers have joined a multi-center effort led by Pennsylvania-based Inovio Pharmaceuticals Inc. to accelerate development of potential antibody therapies against the often-lethal Ebola virus.

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According to a new analysis, California's aggressive incentive program for installing rooftop solar-electric systems has not been as effective as generally believed.

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A particular genetic mutation combined with an urban environment increases the risk of severe disease in children infected with respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), an international team of investigators has found.

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After two years of upgrades and repairs, proton beams once again circulate around the Large Hadron Collider at CERN. Oak Ridge National Laboratory has led an 8-year upgrade of the electromagnetic calorimeter used for LHC’s experiment called ALICE (for A Large Ion Collider Experiment). This detector measures the energies of high-energy electrons and gamma rays to learn more about the conditions of the early universe.

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Morality is not declining in the modern world. Instead, a new morality is replacing the previous one. Centered on individual self-fulfillment, and linked to administrative government, it permits things the old morality forbid, like sex for pleasure, but forbids things the old morality allowed, like intolerance and equality of opportunity.

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Computational framework for optimizing traffic flow could be the beginning of a road revolution.

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Researchers from the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory will play key roles in an expansive new project that aims to bring the future of tropical forests and the climate system into much clearer focus by coupling field research with the development of a new ecosystem model.