Oak Ridge Associated Universities Research Articles

Reporting on the future of integrative structural biology ORAU workshop.

Integrative and hybrid methods have the potential to bridge long-standing knowledge gaps in structural biology. These methods will have a prominent role in the future of the field as we make advances toward a complete, unified representation of biology that spans the molecular and cellular scales. The Department of Physics and Astronomy at Clemson University hosted The Future of Integrative Structural Biology workshop on April 29, 2017 and partially sponsored by partially sponsored by a program of the Oak Ridge Associated Universities (ORAU). The workshop brought experts from multiple structural biology disciplines together to discuss near-term steps toward the goal of a molecular atlas of the cell. The discussion focused on the types of structural data that should be represented, how this data should be represented, and how the time domain might be incorporated into such an atlas. The consensus was that an explorable, map-like Virtual Cell, containing both spatial and temporal data bridging the atomic and cellular length scales obtained by multiple experimental methods, represents the best path toward a complete atlas of the cell.

Perspectives: Hands-on training matters more than ever

The number of workers with science and engineering knowledge and skills is a crucial gauge of a nation’s innovative capacity and economic competitiveness, according to the U.S. National Science Board’s report “Science & Engineering Indicators 2016.”Oak Ridge Associated Universities (ORAU), where we work, is a consortium of research universities that, among other things, helps manage a variety of U.S. internship and research-experience training programs designed to enhance the knowledge and skills of students and recent graduates. These efforts are helping ensure the future availability of science and engineering workers needed for solving difficult national challenges in energy, science, nuclear security, and health. For example, the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge Institute for Science & Education (ORISE) provides workforce development and scientific discovery opportunities for nearly 8,000 students, faculty, recent graduates, and postdoctoral researchers each year. The participants in these programs, m...

National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program

The objective of the Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP) of the National Science Foundation (NSF) is to support the vitality of the human resource base of science, mathematics, and engineering in the United States and to reinforce its diversity. Oak Ridge Associated Universities (ORAU) manages the GRFP application and review processes under contract to NSF.

Trends in American nuclear medicine training: Past, present, and future

As soon as the capability to produce radioactive atoms was achieved in the 1930s, physician-scientists gravitated as apprentices toward important research centers, such as those at Berkeley, Washington University, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (M.I.T.)/Massachusetts General Hospital. After World War II, Oak Ridge Associated Universities (ORAU) trained many of the founders of the specialty of nuclear medicine. The initial ORAU preparatory course lasted only 3 weeks. Over the 20 years after World War II, only 100 to 200 physicians had learned radioisotopic techniques and their clinical applications from their older preceptors. The founding of the conjoint American Board of Nuclear Medicine in 1971 (cosponsored by the American Boards of Internal Medicine, Pathology, and Radiology) marked a new era in certifying the quality of graduates of a growing number of nuclear medicine residency programs. Future trends in nuclear medicine education include the following: greater availability of jobs for physicians with board certification in radiology and nuclear medicine; an increased emphasis on training in positron-emission tomography (PET); and recertification and documentation of maintenance of professional competence as certainties.

Genetic and environmental impacts on litter size and early infant survival in three species of callitrichids.

Callitrichids are unusual among anthropoid primates in that they can deliver one to four offspring per litter in captivity. Factors underlying intraspecific variation in litter size are unclear. Data from the Oak Ridge Associated Universities (ORAU) Marmoset Research Center provided an opportunity to investigate determinants of variation in (1) average litter size at birth and (2) average litter size surviving to 2 weeks of age in Saguinus fuscicollis, S. oedipus, and Callithrix jacchus. The objectives were to (1) investigate the impact of parity, husbandry, origin (wild or captive), and subspecific hybridization on phenotypic variance in litter size and (2) to estimate the heritability of litter size at birth and at 14 days. Husbandry changes were the only significant covariate and increased litter size at birth in C. jacchus only. Heritability estimates for average litter size at birth were significant only in S. fuscicollis (h2 = 0.306). Heritability of average litter size at 2 weeks of age was not significantly greater than zero. Estimates of genetic variability were relatively high, however both traits had very high levels of residual variance. The results suggest that litter size is a malleable trait that may respond to environmental factors.

Evidence of hybrid vigor in subspecific hybrids of the saddle-back tamarin (Saguinus fuscicollis).

The effect of hybridization on infant survival was investigated in subspecific crosses of the saddle-back tamarin (Saguinus fuscicollis) at the Oak Ridge Associated Universities (ORAU) Marmoset Research Center (Oak Ridge, TN). Cox Proportional Hazards Regression was used to compare infant survival between (1) pure subspecies, (2) F1, F2, and backcrossed hybrids, and (3) hybrids and their parental subspecies. Also, effects of management changes, sex, and litter size on infant survival were investigated. There were no significant differences in infant survival between the pure subspecies. Also, degree of hybridization (F1, F2, or backcross) did not have a significant effect on infant survival. Progeny of hybrid crosses between S. f. lagonotus and S. f. illigeri was found to have significantly (P < 0.05) higher infant survival than both of their parental subspecies. Individuals born after diet and management changes in the colony had significantly (P < 0.05) higher survival than those born before. There were no significant sex differences in infant survival. Individuals born into triplet litters had significantly (P < 0.05) lower survival than those born into twin litters. These results show heterosis (hybrid vigor) for infant survival in one subspecific S. fuscicollis cross (S. f. lagonotus × S. f. illigeri). The results suggest genetic divergence between the subspecies populations and possible reproductive isolation in the wild. © 1994 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

Method of imaging the heart using copper-64 citrate : James E Crook assigned to Oak Ridge Associated Universities Inc

Method of imaging the heart using copper-64 citrate : James E Crook assigned to Oak Ridge Associated Universities Inc

Human Factors Guidelines for Writers of User Manuals

Instruction manuals and procedures can determine the user's success or failure with products and equipment such as household appliances, hand tools, computers, or machines. Writers of Instructions should use human factors guidelines to make sure that users readily grasp what they must do. When equipment is complicated, when users are handicapped by age or infirmity, or when equipment is used in distracting or stressful environments, the user's ability to absorb and process information may be heavily taxed. In these situations, procedures must be especially simple and unambiguous. Staff in the Assessment and Field Support Program (AFSP) of Oak Ridge Associated Universities recently taught a large group of engineers and technicians, who had no background in human factors, how to write user-friendly instructions and methods. This paper describes the approach AFSP staff took in preparing and delivering this course.

Analysis of hospital energy audits

Oak Ridge Associated Universities (ORAU) staff conducted energy audits at 48 hospitals in four states between 1978 and 1980. The energy audits show an average potential energy saving of almost 100 kBtu/ ft 2 (1.1 GJ/m 2), a 20% reduction. The variation among hospitals is large; the range is from 6% to 49% of baseline energy use. The cost to implement all these conservation practices and measures is quite low, only 25 ¢/ft 2 ($2.65/m 2), which implies an average payback period of only one year. Analysis of the audit results shows that the potential energy saving increases with baseline energy use and decreases with fuel price. This suggests that large energy savings will be found at hospitals that are particularly energy-intensive and that have low fuel prices.

Response : College Entrance Standards

In the issue of 13 April, in the News and Comment article, "Low-level radiation: A high-level concern" (p. 155), Health Physics was incorrectly referred to as the Journal of Health Physics. It was also stated that Oak Ridge Associated Universities runs Oak Ridge National Laboratory. In fact, the laboratory is run by the Union Carbide Corporation. In that same issue, in the Research News article, "Low-level radiation: Just how bad is it?" (p. 160), the name of the American Journal of Public Health was transmogrified to the American Journal of Health Physics the second time the journal was mentioned.

Erratum: Low-Level Radiation: A High-Level Concern

In the issue of 13 April, in the News and Comment article, "Low-level radiation: A high-level concern" (p. 155), Health Physics was incorrectly referred to as the Journal of Health Physics . It was also stated that Oak Ridge Associated Universities runs Oak Ridge National Laboratory. In fact, the laboratory is run by the Union Carbide Corporation. In that same issue, in the Research News article, "Low-level radiation: Just how bad is it?" (p. 160), the name of the American Journal of Public Health was transmogrified to the American Journal of Health Physics the second time the journal was mentioned.

Erratum: Low-Level Radiation: A High-Level Concern

In the issue of 13 April, in the News and Comment article, "Low-level radiation: A high-level concern" (p. 155), Health Physics was incorrectly referred to as the Journal of Health Physics. It was also stated that Oak Ridge Associated Universities runs Oak Ridge National Laboratory. In fact, the laboratory is run by the Union Carbide Corporation. In that same issue, in the Research News article, "Low-level radiation: Just how bad is it?" (p. 160), the name of the American Journal of Public Health was transmogrified to the American Journal of Health Physics the second time the journal was mentioned.

Author List

Author List

ORAU develops environmental measuring devices for high school students

Oak Ridge Associated Universities (ORAU) in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, will develop and test a package of environmental measuring devices that high school students will build themselves from basic electronic components and then use to monitor air, water, noise, and radiation pollution levels in their home communities.

Oak Ridge Associated Universities Radiocarbon Dates II

The Radiocarbon Dating Laboratories of the Oak Ridge Associated Universities (ORAU) has previously published radiocarbon dates under the Oak Ridge Institute of Nuclear Studies (ORINS) name. ORINS has recently changed its name to ORAU and its laboratories and programs have accordingly assumed this new name. The ORINS prefix, which previously designated the published radiocarbon dates of this laboratory, will be continued to minimize confusion in the literature.The radiocarbon dating program carried out at this laboratory is primarily concerned with assisting the ORAU Special Training Program in its teaching and research activities. Radiocarbon dates which appear in this paper represent samples submitted from research groups associated with the 41 universities which make up ORAU and by other college and university personnel who do not have access to radiocarbon dating facilities.Carbon samples are chemically synthesized to liquid benzene and their C14 activity determined by liquid scintillation spectroscopy. Samples are first converted to lithium carbide and then to acetylene gas as described by Barker (1953). The acetylene is catalytically trimerized to benzene by a method described by Noakes et al. (1965). Chemical yields for the synthesized benzene routinely approach 90% with no evidence of chemical impurities or carbon isotope fractionation occurring in the chemistry.A Packard Tricarb Model 314 D.C. liquid scintillation spectrometer, which has been modified for low level counting, is used to count the benzene samples. Counting efficiency is 50% when operating at a voltage of 800 with discriminator setting of 100-800-1000. Background count rate is 1.7 c/m with a 5 cc benzene sample. Shielding consists of 4 in. of lead with coincidence and anticoincidence systems.The modern reference standard is 0.95% activity of NBS oxalic acid standard which is 6.82 c/m/g carbon. Ages are calculated on a C14 half-life of 5570 yr as suggested by Godwin (1962). The statistics quoted are compiled as one standard deviation (1σ) of the uncertainty involved in counting background, standard, and sample.

Oak Ridge Institute of Nuclear Studies Radiocarbon Dates I

The Radiocarbon Dating Laboratory of the Oak Ridge Institute of Nuclear Studies (ORINS) was developed as a teaching and research facility in the Special Training Division. This facility is available to participants enrolled in various courses held at ORINS, research groups associated with the 41 universities that make up the Oak Ridge Associated Universities (ORAU), and other colleges, unversities or institutions interested in this lab for teaching or research.