Published Dec 4, 2023 by Arctic Business Journal

Two remote communities on the Yukon River near the west coast of Alaska received a new grid bridging system, or GBS, which is designed to help them use more wind power, reduce their fuel consumption and save money.

St. Mary’s and Mountain Village have no road access and are powered by interconnected wind-diesel microgrids that are not connected to any other power system.

A GBS is a short-term energy storage system that is designed to allow costly diesel generators to turn off for periods of time and to run on renewables to reduce fuel consumption.

The 900-kW EWT wind turbine, installed in St. Mary’s in 2018 which serves both communities via transmission line, often has the capability to produce enough power to provide all or most of the electric demand. When there is sufficient wind power, the GBS is designed to allow for no diesel generators or only require smaller diesel generators to run online. This will enable more wind energy use and less fuel consumption in those communities.

“It’s been a long road to get to this point,” exclaimed Jeremy VanderMeer, a researcher at the University of Alaska Fairbanks Alaska Center for Energy and Power. ACEP is one of the partners of the GBS project, led by the Alaska Village Electric Cooperative.

ACEP’s ETF laboratory was a perfect place for the testing –– having access to electric loads with different power factors, electric loads that could be made unbalanced, different types of electric faults, a diesel generator and high resolution (including waveform) real-time data capture and display.

The GBS project was led by Alaska Village Electric Cooperative in partnership with ACEP and Sandia National Laboratories, and funded by the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Electricity Energy Storage Program, DOE Office of Electricity Microgrid R&D Program, and the U.S. Department of Defense Office of Naval Research through the Alaska Regional Collaboration for Technology Innovation and Commercialization program.

Published Dec 4, 2023 by Sean Parnell

Across the Lower 48, universities are immersed in questions over cost, campus discourse and politics. In Alaska, we have a different story to tell. The University of Alaska Anchorage provides high-quality, affordable education for Alaskans. Our approach creates pathways to life-changing experiences and careers. At a time when our state needs solutions, UAA is focused on delivering education that will benefit our students and our state for generations.

UAA creates opportunity through education. Through a wide range of academic programs, UAA opens doors and empowers students to shape their future. Our university combines the educational offerings of a traditional university, community college and technical school under one institutional roof. We offer high-powered baccalaureate and graduate degrees. UAA’s applied research mission trains students while advancing solutions to issues facing our state in areas such as engineering, business, science and health. UAA is also Alaska’s largest workforce provider. We are proud to be a “dual-mission” university, blending traditional degree programs and research with career and technical education programs. It’s an all-of-the-above approach that benefits our students and our state.

Our dual mission allows us to focus on creating pathways for students through high-quality educational programs that are affordable and flexible. Unbound by the limits of traditional four-year degree programs, we provide students with choices to create an educational path that makes sense for them.

We are already seeing the success of this approach. UAA’s total enrollment is up more than 5% since last fall, bucking national decline trends. UAA’s first-year class has grown four semesters in a row. The excitement reaches outside Alaska as well. At UAA, we filled our residence halls, offering in-state tuition rates to full-time students coming north who will live in student housing and take full course loads. By growing UAA, we are growing our state and community.

Published Dec 3, 2023

When arctic ground squirrels hibernate for the winter, they can lower their body temperatures to freezing levels and stay dormant for up to eight months. Researchers at the University of Alaska Fairbanks are studying how these animals survive on the edge of life and the clues they may hold to treating injuries and disease in humans. Alaska Public Media’s Kavitha George reports.

Here at the University of Alaska Fairbanks researchers are trying to understand the biological mechanisms that allow squirrels to withstand such extreme conditions and bounce back completely healthy. They found that when the squirrels hibernate, they cycle in and out of a deep sleep called torpor.

Arctic ground squirrels are found all over Alaska, Siberia and parts of Canada. They hibernate because harsh winters limit their ability to find food for much of the year. But every few weeks, they slowly warm their bodies to make glucose proteins and immune cells, basically everything their bodies need to do to keep living.

So how do they do it? If researchers here can figure it out, it might help them develop drugs that can mimic hibernation in humans. Biologist Kelly Drew says hibernation might help patients with critical brain injuries, like someone who's just had a stroke. Scientists have known for decades that lowering body temperature helps to slow brain damage.

Kelly Drew, University of Alaska Fairbanks: The optimal therapy for somebody who has a brain injury is to either stop fever, or to cool the body. And the best way to do that is through the same mechanism that the ground squirrels do to turn down the thermostat.

Published Dec 3, 2023

Flowing from British Columbia through Alaska to the Bering Sea, the nearly 2,000-mile-long Yukon River used to teem with Chinook and chum salmon, sustaining a culture of harvesting fish to feed both Alaskans as well as sled dog teams vital for transportation during the winter.

Now those salmon runs have turned into to a trickle, as climate change and other factors weigh against the fish. The result is a drastic cut to local food supplies in a region where store-bought food, shipped in from thousands of miles away, is expensive.

The declines have forced regulators to issue a series of restrictions on subsistence, commercial and recreational fishing up and down the river, upending a way of life for Alaska Native people and severing a vital connection between land and sea.

Potts-Joseph hopes Indigenous knowledge about how to fish sustainably and catch only what is needed can help restore salmon. “It comes from thousands of years of living and observing and being a part of this landscape.”

Demuth, the Brown University professor, took a class of undergraduates from the University of Alaska at Fairbanks on a canoe trip down the Yukon to gather some of that knowledge through oral histories.

Seneca Roach, an English and political science major from Homer who went on the trip, has more faith in their generation to solve climate change than they do in today’s adult leaders.

“It’s in your line of sight. Everywhere you go, you see the effects. It’d be a disservice to the world in general to not learn about it and care about it.”

Published Dec 3, 2023 by Kevin Winker

It’s deep winter again in Fairbanks, and bird activity is low. Most bird species that occur here are seasonal migrants. They travel long distances to breed in Alaska during our summer resource bloom and then return to wintering areas where their odds of survival are greatly increased. Here in the North we are used to these annual cycles because we see them occur many times during our lives.

Our region experiences other cycles, too — cycles that operate on longer time scales. We live in Beringia, a region spanning northeastern Asia and northwestern North America and centered on the Bering Sea. Beringia is famous as the “crossroads of the continents” because the Bering Land bridge appeared intermittently between Asia and North America during deep glacial cycles in the Pleistocene (approximately 2.6 million to 11.7 thousand years ago). This allowed many species to colonize one continent from the other, including humans.

Against this stunning and dynamic backdrop, the bird collection here at the University of Alaska Museum of the North attempts to document this region’s amazing avian diversity by archiving bird specimens. We make sure to archive avian variation across multiple biological levels, from populations to subspecies, species, genera, and higher taxonomic categories. We also do a lot of research, teaching, and training, and both undergraduate and graduate students at the university are integral parts of our daily activities.

Currently, the bird collection includes about 50,000 specimens. Its purpose is to serve as a research resource, and it is used heavily by researchers in Alaska, elsewhere in the U.S., and abroad. Much of our own research has focused on how Beringian cycles have affected the birds of this region.

Published Dec 3, 2023 by Caleb Jones

The UAF men’s basketball team (2-6, 1-0) took on Montana State University Billings (4-3, 1-0) on Saturday in an attempt to make it two-straight conference wins. They trailed for the majority of the contest before ultimately falling 65-39.

Both teams entered the contest undefeated in the GNAC, having won games earlier in the week. The Nanooks gained theirs over Seattle Pacific University in dominant fashion. MSUB won against No. 23 Alaska Anchorage, handing the Seawolves their first loss of the season. UAF hoped to do what their rivals couldn’t and take down MSUB on their home court.

The loss pushes the Nanooks record to 2-6 on the year and 1-1 in the GNAC. Their next game comes on the road against Hawaii Hilo on Dec 17.

Published Dec 3, 2023 by Josh Reed

The University of Alaska Anchorage men’s hockey team’s recent struggles getting the puck in the back of the net continued Friday night in the first game of a two-game series with rival University of Alaska Fairbanks.

The Seawolves moved the puck well and had several prime scoring opportunities, but they weren’t able to muster a goal against the Nanooks as UAF claimed a 5-0 shutout win Friday at the Avis Alaska Sports Complex in the third game of the annual Governor’s Cup series. UAA found the net on Saturday, but was still topped 3-1 by UAF as the Nanooks took a 4-0 lead. With just two more games remaining in the series, the Nanooks secured the Cup for the 2023-24 season with the win.

“We’ve struggled now, getting shutout in three of our last four games,” UAA head coach Matt Shasby said after Friday’s game. “We’re just not able to find the back of the net. There were times in the game where we could’ve got some momentum back by scoring a goal and we’re just not able to.”

On Saturday, after a scoreless first period, UAF scored a pair of goals in the second period. Both were scored by Brady Risk as the Nanooks took that 2-0 lead into the third period. Risk also scored Friday giving him three goals for the weekend.

UAA closed the gap in the final period as Max Helgeson cut the UAF lead to 2-1 at 13:54. The Seawolves had opportunities to tie the game late, but UAF scored the final goal on an empty net in the closing seconds.

The goal put the Seawolves within striking distance in the final minutes, but Shasby said getting a goal early may have provided UAA with some momentum. Prior to this weekend, the Seawolves played on the road against two top-15 teams: Arizona State and Wisconsin.

Published Dec 2, 2023 by Alaska Native News

The Kodiak region of Alaska has had a long-standing problem with paralytic shellfish poisoning, the dominant harmful algal bloom (HAB) concern in Alaska. A new five-year research partnership led by Alaska Sea Grant will enhance capacity for HAB monitoring by building on efforts of tribal members in the Koniag region with the addition of rapid toxin tests, new laboratory methods and capacity, as well as extended training and educational opportunities. This effort will help mitigate HAB toxin risks in Kodiak Archipelago communities and advance NOAA HAB forecasting capabilities for the region.

A total of $1.5 million from the NOAA Monitoring and Event Response for Harmful Algal Blooms Research Program is supporting this research led by Alaska Sea Grant in collaboration with the Kodiak Area Native Association, SeaTox Research Inc., and the National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science Harmful Algal Blooms Forecasting Branch. The work builds on past research by project team members in the region and benefits from collaborations with key partners including the Knik Tribe of Alaska, Sitka Tribe of Alaska Environmental Research Lab, and several Tribal organizations within the Kodiak region.

Data will be shared to help mitigate harmful algal bloom impacts in the Koniag region, including the City of Kodiak, the greater Chiniak Bay area, and some communities off the road system. Additional remote communities will have the opportunity to participate as the project progresses. Coordination and information-sharing between communities will be strengthened by building on established Alaska Sea Grant and KANA efforts, and with local education and training.

This project will allow the Kodiak Seafood and Marine Science Center’s HAB laboratory to screen for shellfish toxins using the new SeaTox enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay test developed through earlier partnerships. The SeaTox test utilizes a novel antibody, coupled with a conversion step, that allows for detection of the most potent versions of the PSP toxins. Rapid detection will inform research efforts and direct testing of shellfish intended for consumption.

Published Dec 2, 2023 by https://www.kdlg.org/people/christina-mcdermott

About ten volunteers are putting the finishing touches on their wound makeup. One person has a bullet hole in their arm. Another is ‘missing’ a finger. Behind them, a group of high school students in bright blue scrubs are getting ready for a mass casualty incident drill – that’s an exercise that prepares medical personnel for a large-scale emergency.

The week-long intensive class comes from a partnership between the Bristol Bay Regional Career Technical Education Program and the Southwest Alaska Area Health Center at the Aleutian Pribilof Islands Association. Ashlyn Luckhurst is a career development specialist for the technical education program.

As southwest Alaska's Area Health Education Center director Olivia Bridges calls the room to order, the volunteers prepare to hide around the University of Alaska Fairbanks Bristol Bay Campus building. The simulated incident is a vicious gorilla attack.

Bridges said that mass casualty incidents and natural disaster emergencies are traumatic, but the practice allows the students to keep their skills up to date.

The Bristol Bay Regional Career and Technical Education Program’s goal is to introduce high school students to career opportunities in the region, and provide the chance for them to earn technical certifications and college credit.

Published Dec 2, 2023 by Gavin Struve

The University of Alaska Fairbanks hockey team notched a third win in as many tries against the University of Alaska Anchorage this season. The Nanooks beat the Seawolves 5-0 in Anchorage on Friday night.

The ‘Nooks continued to be at their strongest in the second period — pushing their goal margin in that period to +14 on the season — and that frame helped them win the game after a relatively quiet first period.

The victory got UAF back on track after losing its last series, in a road sweep, to Northern Michigan.

The Seawolves, meanwhile, were coming off a split series in which they snagged a win at No. 6 Wisconsin.

After winning both of its earlier home games against UAA (6-10-1), a next-day win over the Seawolves on Saturday would give UAF (7-5-1) the Governor’s Cup over its rival for the 13th-straight season.