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Protein perspective

With the help of a newly invented microscope system, scientists at the University of Maine are taking a close look at a protein from influenza virus that allows infection to occur.

The microscopy system, called FPALM (Fluorescence Photoactivation Localization Microscopy), was invented to enable scientists to look at the molecular organization of cells by imaging samples labeled with a special kind of fluorescent marker. The FPALM microscopy system breaks a fundamental limit on the resolution of lens-based microscopes, known as the diffraction barrier, which has existed for more than 100 years.

Influenza uses the protein hemagglutinin (HA) to infect healthy cells. In the first step of infection, HA enables the virus to attach to the membrane of a healthy cell.

It is believed that the arrangement of individual HA molecules in the membranes is crucial for infection to occur. Until now, the limited resolution of conventional microscopes made it impossible to create images of such molecules on a small enough scale to test the biological models that predict how they may be organized.

The recent extension of FPALM to include 3-D imaging and provide information about the orientation of single molecules will help address important biological questions. Already, the ability to image living cells has helped UMaine scientists disprove several existing models of membrane organization.

The UMaine researchers, including Samuel Hess, a FPALM coinventor, along with colleagues at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York and the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development in Maryland, published their findings on HA in the journal Nature Methods.

A dictionary of language and culture

More than three decades of collaborative research by members of regional Native American communities, educators and linguists have culminated in the compilation of the first-ever Passamaquoddy-Maliseet dictionary, published by University of Maine Press.

The 1,200-page volume with 18,000 entries was written by Passamaquoddy tribal elder David Francis; Robert Leavitt, former director of the Mi'kmaq-Maliseet Institute at the University of New Brunswick, Fredericton, Canada; and Margaret Apt, community research coordinator and Passamaquoddy language teacher at Shead Memorial High School, Eastport, Maine.

The dictionary is based on the language spoken in Maine and New Brunswick that has been passed down primarily through oral tradition, with little formal documentation.

Each entry in A Passamaquoddy-Maliseet Dictionary includes sample sentences from both traditional and contemporary conversation, and provides details of the tribes' "thought and culture, personal attitudes, humor and linguistic ingenuity."

Unsound sleep

Newborns whose mothers abuse alcohol during pregnancy have disrupted   sleep that results in chronic accumulation of sleep debt when compared to normal infants, according to a new study by researchers at the University of Maine and Japan's National Center of Neurology and Psychiatry.

Previous studies have shown that infants prenatally exposed to alcohol are at increased risk for Sudden Infant Death Syndrome.

In this study, maternal drinking patterns predicted infant sleep fragmentation; in particular, more frequent and longer waking after the onset of sleep and decreased REM sleep. The study also found that prepregnancy rates of alcohol consumption, including binge drinking, predicted decreased infant alertness and increased irritability.

Women were interviewed about their substance use, including alcohol consumption and cigarette smoking, before and during pregnancy. At 6–8 weeks of age, their infants were monitored for brain activity, sleep and arousal, and sleep-related spontaneous motor movements.

The findings of the research team, led by UMaine Professor of Psychology Marie Hayes, who is affiliated with the Maine Institute of Human Genetics and Health, were published in a recent issue of the journal Early Human Development.

Belly & brain

Belly fat is related to decreased cognitive functioning, according to researchers in the University of Maine Department of Psychology.

The cure? Physical activity, which the researchers say has a measurably positive influence on mental ability and cognitive functioning.

In a recent study of more than 900 people in an ongoing, 34-year-old research project, the Maine Syracuse Longitudinal Study, psychology graduate student Greg Dore and UMaine psychology professors Merrill "Pete" Elias, Michael Robbins and Penelope Elias, and Marc Budge of the Australian National University Medical School, found study participants with less belly fat performed better in a large battery of mental tests than those who carried extra pounds around the middle.

Further, the newest study revealed that participants who got regular exercise performed better on the tests, regardless of their weight.

The researchers do not define the amount of exercise needed to mitigate effects of excess belly fat. Current findings in the literature indicate that any activity and exercise is better than none. The Centers for Disease Control recommends about 30 minutes a day of moderate physical activity.

The researchers' findings were published recently in the Annals of Behavioral Medicine. They are now pursing the hypothesis that lack of exercise in obese persons, rather than belly fat per se, may explain relations between belly fat and cognitive functioning.

Tallying ticks

Wildlife Ecology senior Katelyn Andrle spent Maine's moose hunting season at the weigh stations to do a count, not of hunters' prey but of one of their pests — winter ticks.

As an independent study project, Andrle assisted Maine's Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife in tallying ticks that pose a health risk to moose.

The number of ticks on moose appears to be increasing with climate changes. But Andrle says preliminary findings on data collected from the back of the neck, base of the rib cage, shoulder and rump of the moose harvested last fall show that tick loads weren't excessive.

"Usually there are more ticks on calves than adults," says Andrle, who is from Clifton, Maine. "It's becoming a major problem in a lot of areas. They're finding some calves have literally been sucked dry."

Winter ticks typically attach themselves to moose in September and October when the fall chill begins. Calves' bodies naturally are closer to ground vegetation, where they easily can pick up the winter pests.

Andrle intends to write a proposal explaining the need to collect weather data, such as temperature and snowfall.

"From there, we can establish a longer-term project," Andrle says. "Then we can use the weather data to try and predict winter tick loads for moose for the following year. That could lead to the prediction of moose mortality rates."

Experts on topic: Habib Dagher

In the search for alternative sources of energy, the University of Maine's AEWC, Advanced Structures & Composites Center, is exploring offshore wind turbine technology. Such technology development is particularly pertinent in Maine, where an estimated 80 percent of the state's residents use heating oil.

AEWC Director Habib Dagher is collaborating with companies on the design, manufacture and testing of floating wind turbine technology in deep waters 60–900 meters offshore. Such turbines would feature 300-foot towers with 200-foot blades.

Dagher's deep-water wind research has made national headlines. Last July, he testified on Capitol Hill on the nation's potential for offshore wind energy before the U.S. Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.

Unmasking a killer

Scientists at the University of Maine may have found a treatment for a bloodstream infection that kills more than 30 percent of the patients it infects.

UMaine Assistant Professor of Microbiology Robert Wheeler and his team study a fungus, Candida albicans, commonly found on human skin and in the gastrointestinal tract, that can be deadly for people with compromised immune systems.

The fungus, which typically stays dormant, has developed a sort of camouflage that prevents the immune system from eliminating it. At the same time, the immune system is able to prevent the fungus from creating an infection.

A special sugar, ß-Glucan, is found in the protective coating of Candida albicans. The human immune system has developed a receptor for ß-Glucan, providing immunity for the fungi when it's activated. However, when a person's immune system is too weak, the fungus can be deadly.

In addition to being the fourth most common cause of bloodstream infection, Candida can cause vaginitis in healthy women, and thrush in newborns and AIDS patients.

Wheeler and colleagues at the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research are now working to develop a drug to remove the camouflage and unmask ß-Glucan, allowing the immune system to recognize and fight the infection.

Their findings were published in the Public Library of Science's PLOS Pathogens.

Early talk of reading disability

Young children who are later found to have reading disabilities use slower, shorter speaking turns with more pauses, according to speech-language researchers at the University of Maine and Lehman College.

In a longitudinal study of 27 prereading youngsters at ages 2 and 3, the researchers measured fewer syllables per second in the nine children subsequently identified in grade school with developmental reading disability, a disorder that runs in families. Those youngsters also demonstrated significantly different patterns of pausing between speakers, and shorter turns at speaking, as compared to their peers who later learned to read normally.

The researchers — Allan Smith, Susan Smith and Jane Bennett of UMaine, and John Locke of Lehman College — looked at early speech in ages 2–3, a developmental time associated with rapid language development. For instance, in a year's time, youngsters without later reading disability demonstrated a sharp growth in syllables — from three to seven — per speaking turn, and a decrease in between-speaker pausing.

Their findings were published in the Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research.

Powerful promise

In a David versus Goliath matchup, University of Maine senior Christopher Look of Jonesboro, Maine, went up against some of the world's renowned technology companies with his invention to aid soldiers in the field. And while he didn't win the $1 million United States Department of Defense Wearable Power Prize (the DuPont/Smart Fuel Cell (SFC) team took top honors), Look was a top 20 finalist out of the 170 teams that entered the international competition.

Last spring, Look, an engineering physics major and a specialist in the Army National Guard, began working with UMaine professor Charles Hess on his capstone project to create a system to provide soldiers with lightweight, wearable power for their combat equipment. Such portable "Land Warrior" devices power cell phones, portable water filtration systems, ventilators, mapping equipment and temperature-regulated clothing.

On an average four-day mission, a soldier carries about 20 pounds of batteries to power such equipment. That's why the military is working to reduce the weight and size of the power supply.

Look's design is an unassuming black box, about the height and width of a legal notepad, about 3 inches thick, with nylon straps that attach to a soldier's vest. The device weighs 8 pounds and lasts longer than the current battery packs used by soldiers.

Look continues development on his invention, and has received requests from the U.S. Navy for more information on his design.