Tyler O'Neal, Staff Editor ACADEMIA

Florida Atlantic University researchers take body armor to the next level with high energy fibers

FAU's College of Engineering and Computer Science awarded $569,482 from combating terrorism technical support office

It sounds like something out of the movie "Iron Man," where the fictional American superhero builds an armored suit to fight terrorists and overturn his captors. For researchers at Florida Atlantic University's College of Engineering and Computer Science, developing and enhancing materials to improve the performance of military helmets and body armor is definitely not fictional.

They have received $569,482 from the Combating Terrorism Technical Support Office (CTTSO) under the advanced Armor Materials Program, to develop advanced fibers for body armor. Ballistic or bullet-proof armor performance is heavily dependent on the base material properties, which have changed little in recent years. Reinaldo Dos Santos (left) and Vitor Prado Correia, seniors in FAU's Department of Ocean and Mechanical Engineering, extruding fiber in the laboratory under the direction of Hassan Mahfuz, Ph.D., principal investigator, and Oren Masory, Ph.D., co-principal investigator of the body armor project.{module INSIDE STORY}

The CTTSO identifies and develops capabilities to combat terrorism at home and abroad and irregular adversaries and to deliver these capabilities to United States Department of Defense components and interagency partners through rapid research and development, advanced studies and technical innovation, and provision of support to U.S. military operations.

"Composite fiber plays a very important role in the performance of ballistic armor, and its mechanical properties are integrally related with kinetic energy absorption and dissipation," said Stella Batalama, Ph.D., dean of FAU's College of Engineering and Computer Science. "However, in recent years there have not been any significant advances in ballistic fiber properties, resulting in limited improvements of armor performance. With this important effort, our researchers will be able to enhance the properties of the fiber that will potentially lead to greater energy absorption and ballistic performance, and ultimately, greater protection of the women and men who serve in the United States military."

The fibers in an armor absorb ballistic energy and dissipate it as quickly as possible when the projectile strikes. Fiber strength, modulus and fracture strain are key parameters for absorption and dissipation. FAU's two-year project, "Hybridization of Ultrahigh Molecular Weight Polyethylene (UHMWPE) with Nylon and Carbon Nanotubes for Improved Ballistic Performance," is aimed at improving the properties of UHMWPE fibers that are used in ballistic applications. The project involves two phases consisting of both experimental and computational approaches to investigate manufacturing, testing, and predicting the performance of the modified fiber. Testing of fibers will be performed at various rates of strain ranging from quasi-static to ballistic.

"Although current body armor provides increasingly advanced protection to our soldiers, it comes at a cost. It's heavy, cumbersome, and way above the desired aerial density, which limits mobility and physical performance of our soldiers," said Hassan Mahfuz, Ph.D., principal investigator, an expert in nanocomposite and structured materials and a professor in FAU's Department of Ocean and Mechanical Engineering. "For more than a decade, considerable efforts have been made in carrying out various experimental, analytical and numerical investigations to identify and explain penetration-failure mechanisms under ballistic loading. We are hopeful the hybridized nanocomposite fiber we are developing will help to take body armor to the next level. We expect that it will possess excellent strength, modulus and fracture strain, which will lead to high energy absorption, and fast dissipation."

The FAU project is led by Mahfuz, Oren Masory, Ph.D., a professor and an expert in robotics, rehabilitation engineering, and computerized manufacturing; and Leif A. Carlsson, Ph.D., the J.M. Rubin Foundation Professor and an expert in composite materials and solid mechanics, both in FAU's Department of Ocean and Mechanical Engineering, in collaboration with the Naval Surface Warfare Center Panama City Division, and North Carolina State University.

University of Southampton study analyzes potential global spread of new coronavirus

Tyler O'Neal, Staff Editor ACADEMIA

Experts in population mapping at the University of Southampton have identified cities and provinces within mainland China, and cities and countries worldwide, which are at high-risk from the spread of the 2019 Novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV).

A report by the University's WorldPop team has found Bangkok (Thailand) is currently the city most at risk from a global spread of the virus - based on the number of air travelers predicted to arrive there from the worst affected cities in mainland China. Hong Kong (China) is second on the list, followed by Taipei (Taiwan, the Republic of China). Singapore (6), Sydney (12), New York (16) and London (19) are among 30 other major international cities ranked in the research.

The most 'at-risk' countries or regions worldwide are Thailand (1), Japan (2) and Hong Kong (3). USA is placed 6th on the list, Singapore 8th, Australia 10th, and the UK 17th.

Within mainland China, the cities of Beijing, Guangzhou, Shanghai, and Chongqing are all identified as high-risk by the researchers, along with the Chinese provinces of Guangdong, Zhejiang, Sichuan, and Henan. Global cities receiving airline travellers from 18 high-risk cities in mainland China over three month period.{module INSIDE STORY}

Full data can be found in the report on the WorldPop website at https://www.worldpop.org/events/china.

Andrew Tatem, Director of WorldPop and professor within Geography and Environmental Science at the University of Southampton, says: "It's vital that we understand patterns of population movement, both within China and globally, in order to assess how this new virus might spread - domestically and internationally. By mapping these trends and identifying high-risk areas, we can help inform public health interventions, such as screenings and healthcare preparedness."

The team at WorldPop used anonymized mobile phone and IP address data (2013-15)1, along with international air travel data (2018)2 to understand typical patterns of movement of people within China, and worldwide, during the annual 40-day Lunar New Year celebrations (including the seven-day public holiday from 24 to 30 January).

From this, they identified 18 Chinese cities (including Wuhan) at high-risk from the new coronavirus and established the volume of air passengers likely to be traveling from these cities to global destinations (over a three month period). The team was then able to rank the top 30 most at-risk countries and cities around the world.

The researchers acknowledge that their analysis is based on 'non-outbreak' travel patterns, but highlight that a high proportion of people traveled with symptoms at an early stage of the outbreak, before restrictions were put in place. In fact, travel cordons are likely to have only coincided with the latter stages of peak population numbers leaving Wuhan for the holiday period. According to Wuhan authorities, it is likely more than five million people had already left the city.

Lead report author Dr. Shengjie Lai of the University of Southampton comments: "The spread of the new coronavirus is a fast-moving situation and we are closely monitoring the epidemic in order to provide further up-to-date analysis on the likely spread, including the effectiveness of the transport lockdown in Chinese cities and transmission by people returning from the Lunar New Year holiday, which has been extended to 2 February."

WorldPop at the University of Southampton conducted this research in collaboration with the University of Toronto, St Michael's Hospital Toronto, disease surveillance organization Bluedot in Toronto and the China Centre for Disease Control and Prevention.

New cancer center established at Johns Hopkins University

Tyler O'Neal, Staff Editor ACADEMIA

With $5 million awards, The Mark Foundation for Cancer Research partners with the multi-investigator team at Johns Hopkins University developing next-generation genomics and imaging platforms for cancer immunotherapy

The Mark Foundation for Cancer Research announced today the creation of The Mark Foundation Center for Advanced Genomics and Imaging at the Johns Hopkins University (JHU), which will receive initial funding of $5 million over 2 years.

Bringing together the tools of astronomy image analysis, pathology, computer science, cancer genomics, and immunogenomics to solve problems in oncology, the new center will find innovative solutions that can expand the number of cancer patients who benefit from immunotherapy. 

Scientists from The Mark Foundation will collaborate with JHU researchers as part of a joint steering committee that will review scientific progress and facilitate the success of the center. CAPTION The Mark Foundation and Johns Hopkins University scientists CREDIT Clinton Petty{module INSIDE STORY}

"It takes a village of diverse disciplines and areas of expertise to confront the vast challenges presented by cancer, and the work of this center is the perfect embodiment of this reality," said Michele Cleary, Ph.D., CEO of The Mark Foundation. "One focus of the center is especially imaginative, as it involves developing a new platform that takes a model used in astronomical nighttime sky analysis and turns it into one that can be used to analyze cancer tumors."

The Mark Foundation Center for Advanced Genomics and Imaging will be led by Drew Pardoll, MD, Ph.D., Director of the Bloomberg-Kimmel Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy and co-director of the Cancer Immunology Program at the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins, together with Janis Taube, MD, MSc, Professor of Dermatology and Pathology and Director of the Division of Dermatopathology and co-Director of the Tumor Microenvironment Laboratory of the Bloomberg-Kimmel Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy.