Transportation Security Is “Pioneer Work”
Clifford R. Bragdon, dean of Florida Tech’s University College, and holder of a patent in the field of transportation security has published Transportation Security. The book, which addresses key homeland security concerns, reflects Bragdon’s philosophy of integrated transportation planning related to sustainability and preparedness.

Larry Lemanski, senior vice president for Research and Strategic Initiatives at Temple University, wrote, “He (Bragdon) is considered one of the world’s leading authorities on intermodalism and security. This book is an outstanding contribution. . . a visionary approach to global preparedness.”

Bragdon is also the executive director of the Global Center for Preparedness.

For more information about Transportation Security, an offering in the Butterworth-Heinemann Homeland Security Series, contact Elsevier Press at (800) 545-2522.

Biologically Inspired Security Research
Richard Ford, computer sciences associate professor and director of Florida Tech’s Harris Institute for Assured Information, was awarded a $1.85 million contract from the U.S. Army Research Laboratory (ARL) to continue his research developing a biologically inspired tactical security infrastructure (BITSI) for military computing and disaster relief operations. The funding continues work he began in 2007 under $954,000 from the ARL. Collaborating with him is a team led by Marco Carvalho, Ph.D., from the Institute for Human & Machine Cognition (IHMC).

“The natural world is wonderful at adapting to change, whereas computer systems are rather brittle. We’re taking our inspiration from biology in this next-generation system, trying to build computers that can protect themselves when under attack” said Ford.

“We’re trying to create systems that are more difficult to compromise by viewing a system as you would the human body. When attacked, the immune system switches on. We’re building artificial immune systems, stealing from Mother Nature by design. No one else is doing this work quite the way we are and we’re very excited about it.”

21st Century Nuclear Detection
Marcus Hohlmann, associate professor of physics and space sciences, received second-year funding from the Department of Homeland Security Domestic Nuclear Detection Office (DNDO) to continue investigating the use of subatomic particles for detecting hidden nuclear materials in cargo. The funding extends the DNDO work Hohlmann began in 2007 and now totals $818,000.

The effort involves muon radiography. Muons are naturally produced by cosmic rays, which arrive from deep space and constantly bombard the Earth’s atmosphere. High-energy elementary particles, they are much heavier versions of electrons and are difficult to block by concrete or lead. Although muons are deeply penetrating, heavy nuclei that would be present in smuggled nuclear material could deflect them. The bigger the nuclei, the more the muons scatter.

Hohlmann is applying a novel type of micro-pattern particle detector, a gas electron multiplier (GEM). He and his team have demonstrated with computer simulations that the method can successfully distinguish nuclear material, such as uranium, from ordinary materials commonly found in cargo or vehicles. This includes steel, even if the uranium is deliberately shielded.

Origin of Alzheimer’s Tangle
Associate professor of biological sciences Shaohua Xu’s theory on the genesis of Alzheimer’s disease is a dramatic departure from conventional wisdom. Medical researchers familiar with his work are keenly positive about his ground-breaking hypothesis.
What Xu finds is that the disease begins when molecules of a normal brain cell protein called “tau” do something abnormal: they join to form tangled fibers that the cell cannot remove. The fibers accumulate over months or years until essential substances cannot move through the cell and the cell dies.

Xu has observed for the first time the actual process by which the fibers form. He uses purified human proteins produced in bacteria by genetic engineering.

The current theory of Alzheimer’s is that the filaments form by the addition of individual tau protein molecules directly to the tip of the growing fiber. But by using the new technology of atomic force microscopy, Shaohua has produced images which reveal that this is not the case.

Advocates of Xu’s theory include KSC physician Daniel Woodard, the first medical doctor to review the research. He says, “Shaohua’s theory is revolutionary and his evidence is overwhelming. The medical implications are beyond anything in my experience.”

Protecting the River
The St. Johns River Management District (SJRWMD) contracted with Florida Tech scientists for a two-year, $300,000 project to obtain additional data regarding the fish larvae and eggs (ichthyoplankton) that inhabit the St. Johns River. The study is part of a comprehensive SJRWMD effort to address public concern regarding the cumulative impact of possible water withdrawals from the St. Johns River.

One measure of the river’s current and future health is its role as a nursery habitat for fishes. Jonathan Shenker, associate professor of biological sciences, was funded by the grant to study the ichthyoplankton at six locations along the river.

His team’s data will enable the researchers to develop predictions on the vulnerability of ichthyoplankton to water withdrawals or environmental changes, and ultimately, project the effects of these losses on juvenile and adult abundance.

“I have no preconceived notions about the magnitude of any impacts,” said Shenker. “We’ll have to see what the data show. In addition to the impact assessment, this work will give us insight into many of the fishery species that live in the St. Johns. It’s a fantastic biological experiment.”

A Disturbed Amazon
Mark Bush, head of the Department of Biological Sciences, earned a $590,000 National Science Foundation Grant to research the extent to which indigenous peoples impacted the Amazonian forest prior to European arrival. Florida Tech’s portion of the grant is about $407,000; scientists at the University of Florida and Wake Forest University share the balance.

According to Bush, a prevailing view among archaeologists is that many ecosystems that ecologists have assumed to be mature or undisturbed may be only one-to-several tree generations removed from intensive management. The widespread fire use by pre-Columbian humans for slash-and-burn agriculture, coupled with “gardening” the forest to enrich the proportion of useful plants, may have created the forest as we know it today.

“If, indeed, Amazonia has been managed this way, there exist radical implications for our understanding of ecological gradients, biodiversity distribution and ecosystem function, as well as conservation and global change biology,” said Bush. “If the archaeologists are right, what we see today may not be a timeless forest but relatively young re-growth.”