Smaller, better microchips

In the world of microchips, smaller is better. At Virginia Tech's Fiber and Electro-Optics Research Center (FEORC), the smaller the building blocks of a material, the stronger it will be. And in the world of micro-electronics, the smaller a circuit, the more circuits a chip can hold.

FEORC is researching ultra-small molecular clusters called nanoparticles, which are comprised of metal-oxides. To say they're microscopic is to overestimate their size by thousands.

"Currently microelectronic circuits are micron size (1,000 microns equals one millimeter), and a nanoparticle is 1,000 times smaller than a micron," says FEORC director Richard Claus.

In addition to making ultrasmall microelectronic circuits, the particles can be assembled into structures which form "near perfect thin-films," Claus says. The process can be used to put hard coatings on ultra-strong, ceramic jet-engine blades.
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Tech receives $3-million biodiversity grant

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has recently awarded Virginia Tech a 5-year cooperative grant to support drug discovery and biodiversity conservation in Madagascar and Suriname.

Taxol is the world's best selling anti-cancer drug, morphine is an important pain reliever for severe pain, and quinine is an anti-malarial drug. All were refined from plants. Drug researchers have found Taxol and other new natural product drugs after testing thousands of plants for biological activity and isolating the active agents.

The problem with this approach, according to chemistry professor David Kingston, is that it requires access to thousands of plants, and most of the world's plant biodiversity is contained in its fast-disappearing tropical rain forests. What is needed is a way to develop new drugs from the rain forest while contributing to the"?nomic health of the country in which the forest is located. This is the idea behind the work at Virginia Tech that has just received renewed support from the NIH.

The International Cooperative Biodiversity Group, which is doing the work, is directed by Kingston and includes six additional collaborators on three continents. In addition to the drug-discovery aspects of the work, Virginia Tech and two other collaborators will provide research training to Surinamese and Madagascan nationals; Conservation International also will carry out small-scale economic-development projects.
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Dog identified as host for calf killer

A researcher in the Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine has proven what was suspected--that dogs are the definitive hosts for a parasite that causes cattle to abort their fetuses.

Dr. David Lindsay and colleagues published their findings on the single-celled Neospora caninum, discovered in 1988. The result of this research will be recommendations to adopt cattle management policies to keep dogs away from cattle.

The parasite is passed through cattle populations as dogs or wildlife ingest placental tissues or aborted fetuses and shed contaminated feces. These feces are in turn eaten by other ruminants, which are subsequently victimized as the parasite continues its life cycle.

While the discovery provides sound scientific justification for the new cattle management recommendations, Lindsay says the true value of the work is the foundation it provides for future scientific research. Those efforts might include work on the development of an immuno-parasitic approach to containing the parasitic disorder, where host animals are challenged to develop an immunological response to the parasites.

The parasite caused an estimated $35 million a year in economic loss to the dairy industry in California alone.
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Extreme genes

The fragility of a cell is a restriction still faced in technology. However, the research of two Virginia Tech professors is providing hope that some cells might be made more durable; which may mean cells could be stored for long periods, increasing the shelf life of pharmaceuticals, seeds, and even vital human cells.

Biochemistry professor Malcolm Potts and wood science professor Richard Helm received a $950,000 grant from the U.S. Navy to study functional genomics and extremophile biopolymers. Simply put, they are studying the DNA of cells that can survive the most extreme of environmental conditions, particularly that of a cell named Nostoc. Extremophiles can withstand brutal conditions such as intense heat, cold, moisture, salinity, alkalinity, acidity, radiation, or the most acute stress a cell can suffer, desiccation or the loss of all moisture.

Potts and Helm know Nostoc produces a biopolymer which allows it to withstand heat, ultraviolet radiation and desiccation. "Nostoc has the capacity to survive in a dry state for hundreds, perhaps thousands of years," Potts says. Although the cell is dormant, when water is reintroduced, the cell absorbs it and is revitalized.

The two researchers have isolated and purified the biopolymer and have devised a new technique for isolating the gene. If the mechanism Nostoc uses can be found, it could be used to allow other cells to protect themselves against harsh conditions, opening doors for advancement in bioengineering, cell transport, or pharmaceuticals.
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Research for the long haul

The Virginia Tech Center for Transportation Research (CTR) has a new Peterbilt long-haul sleeper-cab truck and has been recruiting drivers for a national research project. The goal of Tech's study is to make the trucking business safer and more comfortable for long-distance drivers.

Virginia Tech transportation researchers with the center will develop hardware and software for a portable data collection system that records such information as steering wheel position, pedal positions, and acceleration. Up to four video cameras and two microphones feed data to a suitcase-size unit that can be moved from vehicle to vehicle as needed. Researchers will develop an information system to give drivers feedback about objects in the roadway, road conditions, and the status of the truck. They will evaluate vehicle warning systems and the way information is displayed to the driver.

While the truck is being used for long distance transport, its drivers will participate in a Federal Highway Administration study of sleep habits of distance truckers. The study will determine the effects of sleeper berth use on long-haul drivers' alertness and driving performance; assess the quality of rest achieved while vehicles are parked and in motion; and evaluate the effects of irregular schedules and sleeper berth use patterns on driver alertness and performance. Another facet of the study will compare sleep habits of those who drive in teams with those who go solo.

Trucks were donated by Volvo/GM and PACCAR Inc. Technical Center.
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Virginia Tech's high tech cuts pesticide use

The weevil that threatens sweet potatoes in Jamaica now has a new enemy to outwit, and it's a high-tech foe.

Agricultural researchers fighting pests in three of Jamaica's popular export crops--peppers, sweet potatoes, and the leafy, green callaloo--now have a new high-tech tool to control damage by predatory insects, viruses, and fungal infections. Virginia Tech is teaching agricultural personnel in developing countries to use new technology to collect and analyze data to help with pest management.

A team of Virginia Tech researchers, led by geography professor Lawrence Grossman, is training people in Jamaica to use Geographic Information Systems (GIS) in integrated pest management, which uses alternative methods of keeping the level of pest populations low to prevent excessive use of pesticide. GIS programs not only help researchers assemble, store, and recall quickly large amounts of data, but also let researchers manipulate, analyze, and display the spatial patterns of environmental, economic, and socio-cultural variables that might be relevant in solving problems using integrated pest management.

"A lot of work is being done on alternatives to traditional pesticides to reduce pesticide use in developing countries," Grossman says. Reducing pesticide use is not only critical for the health of farmers and environments in developing countries, he said, but is also important in lowering the percentage of export crops by the U.S. because of pesticide contamination.

Integrated pesticide management uses a wide variety of techniques to keep pest populations below the level at which they would cause economic damage. "The idea is to try as many alternatives as possible and use pesticides only in reduced amounts," Grossman says.

GIS can help in such efforts. For example, if researchers tested the benefits of a new integrated-pest-management strategy in controlling fungal infections in peppers and found that their results were inconclusive statistically, they would traditionally assume that their efforts were a failure. In contrast, using GIS would encourage these researchers to examine their data not only statistically, but also spatially--that is, where the successful and unsuccessful test plots.
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