9th Oct, 2009

University commends Chronic Fatigue Syndrome research breakthrough by Whittemore Peterson Institute

For immediate release: Oct. 8, 2009

 

University commends research breakthrough by Whittemore Peterson Institute

Chronic Fatigue Syndrome discovery by University of Nevada School Medicine partner featured in Science magazine

 

RENO, Nev. – Today it was announced that a recently identified retrovirus has been linked to a debilitating neuro-immune disease, Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS). The retroviral link was discovered by scientists from the Whittemore Peterson Institute (WPI), located at the University of Nevada School of Medicine on the campus of the University of Nevada, Reno, and their collaborators from the National Cancer Institute and the Cleveland Clinic.

 

Judy Mikovits, director of research for WPI and leader of the team that discovered this association is an adjunct faculty member in the University of Nevada School of Medicine. Her team recently published the groundbreaking findings in the journal, Science, one of the world’s leading journals of original scientific research, global news and commentary. The team’s findings mark a major breakthrough in understanding the origins of this disease that affects more than one million people in the United States.

 

“This is an incredibly significant discovery for those with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, and it has important implications for the world of science and medicine,” said University of Nevada, Reno President Milt Glick. “Scientific breakthroughs are often iterative, and a finding of this magnitude can lead to additional discoveries and new research frontiers.

 

“We believe in partnerships and are delighted to have the Whittemore Peterson Institute on our campus. This scientific breakthrough speaks to the level of research happening in Nevada, and this will only be magnified with opening of the Center for Molecular Medicine which will be the future home of the Whittemore Peterson Institute.

 

“On behalf of the University of Nevada, Reno, congratulations to the researchers with the Whittemore Peterson Institute and their collaborators from the National Cancer Institute and the Cleveland Clinic. Their work – which is inspired, shared and supported by Harvey and Annette Whittemore – will have a lasting impact on the diagnosis and treatment of this syndrome and potentially other neuro-immune diseases.”

 

The Center for Molecular Medicine, currently under construction, will be home to the Whittemore Peterson Institute and will open fall 2010.

 

# # #

 

Nevada’s land-grant university founded in 1874, the University of Nevada, Reno has an enrollment of nearly 17,000 students. The University is home to one the country’s largest study-abroad programs and the state’s medical school, and offers outreach and education programs in all Nevada counties. For more information, visit www.unr.edu.

Jane Tors
Special Assistant to the President
University Media Relations
University of Nevada, Reno/108
Reno, NV 89557
jtors@unr.edu
775.784.1880   phone
775.784.1422   fax

Posted by: mike

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2nd Apr, 2009

Straw bale house survives violent shaking at earthquake lab

to view QuickTime video of shake test use this link:
http://imedia.unr.edu/shakertables/straw_bail_house_test_270.mov 
 
It huffed and puffed, but the 82-ton-force, earthquake-simulation shake table could not knock down the straw house designed and built by University of Nevada, Reno alumna and civil engineer Darcey Donovan.
 
The full-scale, 14-by-14-foot straw house, complete with gravel foundation and clay plaster walls, the way she builds them in Pakistan, was subjected to 200 percent more acceleration/shaking than was recorded at the 1994 Northridge, Calif. earthquake, the largest measured ground acceleration in the world. After a series of seven increasingly forceful tests, in the final powerful test the house shook and swayed violently, cracked at the seams and sent out a small cloud of dust and straw…and remained standing.
 
Donovan oversaw the successful series of seismic tests run March 27 at the University’s world-renowned Large-Scale Structures Laboratory. She was testing her innovative design for straw bale houses she has been building since 2006 throughout the northwest frontier provinces of Pakistan, in the foothills of the Himalayas between Pakistani tribal areas and Kashmir. Her design uses bales as structural and load-bearing components rather than just insulation as in other straw-bale designs.
 
“We’re very pleased with the results,” said Donovan, founder/CEO of the non-profit Pakistan Straw Bale and Appropriate Building (PAKSBAB) organization. “The house performed exceptionally well and survived 0.82g (0.82 times the acceleration of gravity) and twice the acceleration of the Northridge quake. The Geological Survey of Pakistan estimates the 2005 Kashmir earthquake to have had peak ground accelerations in the range of 0.3 to 0.6g.
 
Most people were killed and injured in that October 2005 earthquake as they slept when their poorly built houses collapsed on top of them. The magnitude 7.6 earthquake killed 100,000 people and left 3.3 million homeless or living in tents.
 
“Our goal is to get the largest number of poor people into earthquake-safe homes. We want to make it as affordable as possible so they build a safe home. We want to save lives.”
 
“Straw bale houses are used around the world, but those have posts and beams for support and rely on energy-intensive materials, skilled labor and complex machinery, making it unaffordable for the poor,” Donovan said. “In our design, the straw bales are the support, and not just for insulation. Our design is half the cost of conventional earthquake-safe construction in Pakistan. The materials we use — clay soil, straw and gravel — are readily available; and we utilize unskilled labor in the construction.
 
“We build a small, steel compression box, pack it with straw, which is readily available from the Punjab District, literally stomp on it to compress it, add a little more, stomp on it a little more, and then finally use standard farm-type hand jacks to do the final compressing of the bales,” Donovan said.
 
The site-fabricated bales are not as wide as those used in a typical straw bale building, and the fishing-net reinforcement and gravel-bag foundation are nonconventional.
 
“We fill old vegetable sacks with gravel, like sandbags, for the foundation. The bags are fully encased, or boxed, in a mortar made from clay soil and cement. It’s as low-tech as possible using indigenous, affordable materials,” she said. The earthquake-safe buildings are 80 percent more energy efficient than modern conventional buildings at 50 percent of the cost. Her group also trains local residents how to build the homes.
 
“Our system is different than anything ever tested,” she said. “We’re doing seismic research on the house to have data to show its structural integrity.” While there are no building codes in the region, Donovan and the organization she founded, PAKSBAB, are pursuing an endorsement from Pakistan’s newly formed Earthquake Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Authority.
 
Scientists will analyze the seismic-testing results, and Donovan will write a detailed report and seismic design and construction recommendations to be published in the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute’s World Housing Encyclopedia.
 
Donovan has been a practicing engineer since 1986. She has a bachelor of science degree in mechanical engineering from Stanford University, a master of science in civil engineering from the University of Nevada, Reno, and is a licensed Professional Civil Engineer.
 
The research was conducted at the  National Science Foundation’s George E. Brown, Jr. Network for Earthquake Engineering Simulation Consortium, Inc. (NEES) shake-table site at the University of Nevada, Reno as a NEES Management, Operations and Maintenance award shared-use project.
“I am extremely grateful to EERI, NEES and UNR for their generous support, and to all the hardworking volunteers who dedicated countless hours to this project, Donovan said.
 
The non-profit PAKSBAB relies on donations and grants to continue its work. For more project information, visit www.paksbab.org.
The University earthquake simulation facility is managed as a national shared-use NEES equipment site created and funded by the National Science Foundation to provide new earthquake engineering research testing capabilities for large structural systems. This NEES equipment site is connected to the NEES Consortium of 15 other universities and the shared-use access and training is coordinated through the collaboratory.
The National Science Foundation created NEES to give researchers the tools to learn how earthquakes impact the buildings, bridges, utility systems and other critical components of today’s society.
# # #    
Mike Wolterbeek
Media Relations Officer
University Media Relations
University of Nevada, Reno/108
Reno, NV 89557
awolterbeek@unr.edu
775.784.4547   phone
775.784.1422   fax

Posted by: mike

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12th Mar, 2009

Tale of giant stingray circles the globe; University of Nevada, Reno biologist wants to set record straight

Tale of giant stingray circles the globe
University of Nevada, Reno biologist wants to set record straight

RENO, Nev. – If you couldn’t believe your eyes when you saw the recent photo of a purported record-breaking 771-pound stingray, you may have been on to something. 

“While the photo is genuine and there’s no denying that this is a huge stingray, the stingray in the photo was never weighed,” University of Nevada, Reno conservation biologist Zeb Hogan said. He is lead researcher for the “Megafishes Project,” a joint venture with the National Geographic Society which aims to find, study, and protect the world’s largest freshwater fish.

Stingray caught from small boat with fishing rod and reel

Stingray caught from small boat with fishing rod and reel

 

News of the catch spread quickly. However, contrary to initial media reports, it is unknown if this fish, which was tagged and released in central Thailand on January 28, 2009 as part of the National Geographic expedition, is truly the world’s largest freshwater fish, he said. The fish, caught by volunteer angler Ian Welch from a small boat using a rod and reel, will be featured in an upcoming documentary airing on the National Geographic Channel.

Posted by: mike

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28th Jan, 2009

Success for first outdoor, large-scale algae-to-biofuel research project in Nevada

RENO, Nev. – The first real-world, demonstration-scale project in Nevada for turning algae into biofuel has successfully completed the initial stage of research at the University of Nevada, Reno. The project is on track to show the process is an economical, commercially viable renewable energy source in Nevada.

 Researchers at University of Nevada, Reno harvest several hundred pounds of algae slurry for conversion to biofuels project.

University researchers have harvested their first outdoor cold-weather crop of algae as part of their collaborative algae-to-biofuels project with their industry partners Enegis, LLC and Bebout and Associates.

Posted by: mike

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23rd Dec, 2008

Nevada set to take on Maryland in Roady’s Humanitarian Bowl

The University of Nevada football team has a good way to measure how much progress it has made since its 2006 trip to play a postseason bowl game on the cold, blue turf of Boise State University’s Bronco Stadium.

Posted by: nsavidge

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17th Dec, 2008

Mile-long thermometer takes temperature of Lake Tahoe, Walker River

RENO, Nev. – Scott Tyler has a mile-long thermometer and he’s taken the temperature of Lake Tahoe, the Walker River and a creek in the Great Basin National Park, among other things.

 

Posted by: mike

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11th Dec, 2008

Earthquake simulation bridge test

The following includes a broadcast quality video package, a press release and fact sheet for the Dec. 11 earthquake simulation bridge test at the University of Nevada, Reno.

The experiment that subjected a 110-foot long, 200-ton concrete bridge model to a series of earthquake simulations was a success today as the final test applied motions and forces comparable to twice the intensity of the 1994 Northridge, Calif. earthquake. The simulated earthquake was delivered by the University of Nevada, Reno’s state-of-the-art shake tables in its earthquake simulation laboratory.

Video of the final shake test can be saved to your hard drive from one of several links below. The video includes the actual shake test, b-roll and sound bites from interviews with the principle investigator, the director of the Large Structures lab where the earthquake simulation occured and the Dean of Engineering.

Edited version of bridge video: Quick time bridge test

Television stations may download an eight-and-a-half-minute broadcast-quality video package in one of five formats to suit their needs. Please be patient as downloads may take some time.

Posted by: mike

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9th Dec, 2008

Dec. 11 Bridge Test Media Advisory

Click here for video of a previous earthquake simulation.

Click here for video of a previous earthquake simulation.

The University of Nevada, Reno will host an estimated 8.0 earthquake next week and the guest of honor is a 110-foot long concrete bridge. Three large shake tables in the earthquake simulation laboratory will imitate an earthquake to try to destroy the 200-ton bridge model, which has been painstakingly built over the past nine months.

Posted by: nsavidge

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9th Dec, 2008

Study shows those living near active volcanoes at risk for acute bronchitis

Researchers at the University of Nevada, Reno have confirmed that those living near active volcanoes that are passively emitting sulfurous air pollution are at greater risk of developing acute bronchitis from exposure to volcanic air pollution.

Posted by: nsavidge

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26th Nov, 2008

University Police relieved suspect in custody

“We are hopeful that this nightmare has ended. We are gratified by the Tuesday arrest of James Biela in the sexual assault and murder of Brianna Denison,” states University Police Director Adam Garcia. “We congratulate the Reno Police Department and all law enforcement agencies involved in the on-going effort to solve this case, which had a huge impact on the university community.”

Posted by: nsavidge

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