Friday, March 03, 2023

Ultracool dwarf binary stars break records

Astrophysicists discover the closest and oldest ultracool dwarf binary ever observed


Peer-Reviewed Publication

NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY

Illustration of the binary stars 

IMAGE: ILLUSTRATION OF THE OLDEST KNOWN PAIR OF ULTRACOOL DWARF STARS THAT ORBIT EACH OTHER SO CLOSELY, THEY TAKE LESS THAN ONE EARTH DAY TO REVOLVE AROUND EACH OTHER. view more 

CREDIT: ADAM BURGASSER/UC SAN DIEGO

Northwestern University and the University of California San Diego (UC San Diego) astrophysicists have discovered the tightest ultracool dwarf binary system ever observed.

The two stars are so close that it takes them less than one Earth day to revolve around each other. In other words, each star’s “year” lasts just 17 hours.

The newly discovered system, named LP 413-53AB, is composed of a pair of ultracool dwarfs, a class of very low-mass stars that are so cool that they emit their light primarily in the infrared, making them completely invisible to the human eye. They are nonetheless one of the most common types of stars in the universe. 

Previously, astronomers had only detected three short-period ultracool dwarf binary systems, all of which are relatively young — up to 40 million years old. LP 413-53AB is estimated to be billions of years old — similar age to our sun — but has an orbital period that is at least three times shorter than the all ultracool dwarf binaries discovered so far.

The research was published on March 1 in the Astrophysical Journal Letters

“It’s exciting to discover such an extreme system,” said Chih-Chun “Dino” Hsu, a Northwestern astrophysicist who led the study. “In principle, we knew these systems should exist, but no such systems had been identified yet.”

Hsu is a postdoctoral researcher in Northwestern’s Center for Interdisciplinary Exploration and Research in Astrophysics(CIERA). He began this study while a Ph.D. student at UC San Diego, where he was advised by Professor Adam Burgasser.

The team first discovered the strange binary system while exploring archival data. Hsu developed an algorithm that can model a star based on its spectral data. By analyzing the spectrum of light emitted from a star, astrophysicists can determine the star’s chemical composition, temperature, gravity and rotation. This analysis also shows the star’s motion as it moves toward and away from the observer, known as radial velocity. 

When examining the spectral data of LP 413-53AB, Hsu noticed something strange. Early observations caught the system when the stars were roughly aligned and their spectral lines overlapped, leading Hsu to believe it was just one star. But as the stars moved in their orbit, the spectral lines shifted in opposite directions, splitting into pairs in later spectral data. Hsu realized there were actually two stars locked into an incredibly tight binary.

Using powerful telescopes at the W.M. Keck Observatory, Hsu decided to observe the phenomenon for himself. On March 13, 2022, the team turned the telescopes toward the constellation Taurus, where the binary system is located, and observed it for two hours. Then, they followed up with more observations in July, October and December as well as January 2023.

“When we were making this measurement, we could see things changing over a couple of minutes of observation,” Burgasser said. “Most binaries we follow have orbit periods of years. So, you get a measurement every few months. Then, after a while, you can piece together the puzzle. With this system, we could see the spectral lines moving apart in real time. It’s amazing to see something happen in the universe on a human time scale.”

The observations confirmed what Hsu’s model predicted. The distance between the two stars is about 1% of the distance between the Earth and the sun. “This is remarkable, because when they were young, something like 1 million years old, these stars would have been on top of each other,” said Burgasser. 

The team speculates that the stars either migrated toward each other as they evolved, or they could have come together after the ejection of a third — now lost — stellar member. More observations are needed to test these ideas.

Hsu also said that by studying similar star systems researchers can learn more about potentially habitable planets beyond Earth. Ultracool dwarfs are much fainter and dimmer than the sun, so any worlds with liquid water on their surfaces — a crucial ingredient to form and sustain life — would need to be much closer to the star. However, for LP 413-53AB, the habitable zone distance happens to be the same as the stellar orbit, making it impossible to form habitable planets in this system. 

“These ultracool dwarfs are neighbors of our sun,” Hsu said. “To identify potentially habitable hosts, it’s helpful to start with our nearby neighbors. But if close binaries are common among ultracool dwarfs, there may be few habitable worlds to be found.”

To fully explore these scenarios, Hsu, Burgasser and their collaborators hope to pinpoint more ultracool dwarf binary systems to create a full data sample. New observational data could help strengthen theoretical models for binary-star formation and evolution. Until now, however, finding ultracool binary stars has remained a rare feat.

“These systems are rare,” said Chris Theissen, study co-author and a Chancellor’s Postdoctoral Fellow at UC San Diego. “But we don’t know whether they are rare because they rarely exist or because we just don’t find them. That’s an open-ended question. Now we have one data point that we can start building on. This data had been sitting in the archive for a long time. Dino’s tool will enable us to look for more binaries like this.”

Resurrected supernova provides missing-link

Peer-Reviewed Publication

NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF NATURAL SCIENCES

An image of the central region of M77 

IMAGE: AN IMAGE OF THE CENTRAL REGION OF M77 TAKEN BY THE HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE (LEFT), IN WHICH THE POSITION OF SN 2018IVC IS MARKED. RIGHT PANELS SHOW THE EXPANDED VIEW AROUND SN 2018IVC BASED ON THE DATA TAKEN BY ALMA, AT ~200 DAYS (UPPER RIGHT) AND ~ 1000 DAYS (LOWER RIGHT), CLEARLY SHOWING THAT THE REBRIGHTENING HAPPENED AT ABOUT ONE YEAR AFTER THE SN EXPLOSION. view more 

CREDIT: CREDIT: (LEFT) BASED ON OBSERVATIONS MADE WITH THE NASA/ESA HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE, AND OBTAINED FROM THE HUBBLE LEGACY ARCHIVE, WHICH IS A COLLABORATION BETWEEN THE SPACE TELESCOPE SCIENCE INSTITUTE (STSCI/NASA), THE SPACE TELESCOPE EUROPEAN COORDINATING FACILITY (ST-ECF/ESA) AND THE CANADIAN ASTRONOMY DATA CENTRE (CADC/NRC/CSA). (RIGHT) ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO), K. MAEDA ET AL.

Astronomers have discovered a supernova exhibiting unprecedented rebrightening at millimeter wavelengths, providing an intermediate case between two types of supernovae: those of solitary stars and those in close-binary systems.

Many massive stars end their lives in a catastrophic explosion known as a supernova (SN). Supernovae increase rapidly in brightness, and then fade over the course of several months.

Astronomers have long known that the presence or absence of a close binary companion can affect the evolution of massive stars. In a close binary system, gravitational interactions with the binary companion will strip large amounts of material from the SN progenitor long before the final explosion. In these cases, the progenitor will be quiet up until the time of the actual SN. On the other hand, in the case of an SN progenitor with no binary companion or a distant companion, leading up to the SN explosion the progenitor will keep most of its initial mass.

Of course smart alecs will ask, “What happens when the binary is not too close and not too distant?” Not just smart alecs, astronomers also wanted to know. The break came when an international research team, led by Keiichi Maeda (Professor at the Graduate School of Science, Kyoto University) and Tomonari Michiyama (ALMA Joint Postdoctoral Fellow at the Graduate School of Science, Osaka University), used ALMA (The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array) to monitor a supernova known as SN 2018ivc as it dimmed for about 200 days after the initial explosion. The results showed that SN 2018ivc was an unusual object, so the team decided to check up on it again, at about 1000 days after the explosion. They found that the object was actually rebrightening, the first time this phenomenon had ever been observed in millimeter wavelength radiation.

Comparison to numerical modeling suggests that interaction with an intermediate-distance binary companion about 1500 years before the SN explosion created a large hollow shell of circumstellar medium. At 200 days after the SN, the ejecta flying out from the explosion had yet to reach the shell. Then sometime between 200 and 1000 days, the ejecta collided with the circumstellar medium.

These results appeared as K. Maeda et al. “Resurrection of Type IIL Supernova 2018ivc: Implications for a Binary Evolution Sequence Connecting Hydrogen-rich and Hydrogen-poor Progenitors” in The Astrophysical Journal Letters on March 1, 2023.

Review finds fledgling chronic back pain therapy needs more rigorous study

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF NEW SOUTH WALES

A systematic review of relatively new treatment for chronic back pain – Cognitive Functional Therapy – has found that it is no better than traditional therapies based on evidence from past studies.

Leading the review was Mr Jack Devonshire, a PhD candidate with UNSW Sydney and Neuroscience Research Australia (NeuRA). He looked at studies of Cognitive Functional Therapy (CFT) as a treatment for chronic back pain which, for the purposes of his research, was defined as pain experienced continuously for three months or more in the region between the 12th rib and the crease of the buttocks.

CFT has been growing in popularity and gaining attention among practitioners since the first clinical trial in 2013 based on theory developed in 2005. There have been multiple trials across the world on CFT since, says Mr Devonshire.

“CFT integrates treatments that may be helpful in managing chronic lower back pain, such as pain education, exercise, and lifestyle coaching, into a model of care informed by a contemporary understanding of a person’s entire pain experience,” he says.

“The therapy aims to build upon the biopsychosocial model to provide health professionals with what we call a clear ‘clinical reasoning framework’ to tailor strategies to manage this chronic condition.”

Global interest in CFT

Despite the therapy being integrated into healthcare systems in the UK and Finland, as well as having multiple training courses online for clinicians, there hasn’t yet been a comprehensive analysis of research into this therapy.

“So we decided to perform a systematic review and meta-analysis, the highest level of evidence, to look at past studies to find out how effective the treatment is on pain, disability and safety,” Mr Devonshire says.

Read more: An effective new treatment for chronic back pain targets the nervous system

After examining all the studies that fit the research criteria, Mr Devonshire and his fellow authors found that ultimately the effectiveness of CFT remains unknown at this stage, and the group calls for future trials featuring blinded participants – those who are unaware whether the therapy being administered is actual or sham – and studies that recruit larger sample sizes.

“The results of our study found that CFT may not reduce pain intensity and disability in people with chronic low back pain, compared to manual therapy and core exercises, either at the end of treatment or at the 12-month follow-up,” Mr Devonshire says.

“This is important as we want our exercise physiologists, physios and other health professionals who manage people with low back pain to be armed with the best available information on the available effective treatments – especially since learning to deliver CFT as a therapist is quite intensive, taking an average 106 hours of training to properly deliver the treatment.”

The researchers otherwise found that no adverse events were reported among patients after receiving the CFT treatment.

Mr Devonshire notes that certainty in the researchers’ systematic review was limited by differences between study controls, small sample sizes and a high risk of bias across all included studies, impacting the trustworthiness of the findings from these studies. The group looks forward to further research that improves current evidence via clinical trials on CFT.

The review was published recently in the Journal of Orthopaedic & Sports Physical Therapy.

GOLDILOCKS NYX

Sleep too much or too little and you might get sick more, scientists find

A study of nearly 2,000 patients in Norway showed that patients who reported sleeping less than six or more than nine hours had a higher risk of infection.

Peer-Reviewed Publication

FRONTIERS

A good night’s sleep can solve all sorts of problems – but scientists have now discovered new evidence that sleeping well may make you less vulnerable to infection. Scientists at the University of Bergen recruited medical students working in doctors’ surgeries to hand out short questionnaires to patients, asking about sleep quality and recent infections. They found that patients who reported sleeping too little or too much were more likely also to report a recent infection, and patients who experienced chronic sleep problems were more likely to report needing antibiotics.

“Most previous observational studies have looked at the association between sleep and infection in a sample of the general population,” said Dr Ingeborg Forthun, corresponding author of the study published in Frontiers in Psychiatry. “We wanted to assess this association among patients in primary care, where we know that the prevalence of sleep problems is much higher than in the population at large.”

Studying sleep in the doctor’s office

Evidence already exists that sleep problems raise the risk of infection: in a previous study, people deliberately infected with rhinovirus were less likely to catch a cold if they reported healthy sleep. Sleep disturbances are common and treatable, and if a link to infection and a mechanism can be confirmed, it might make it possible to cut down on antibiotic use and protect people against infections before they happen. But experimental studies can’t reproduce real-life circumstances.

Forthun and her colleagues gave medical students a questionnaire and asked them to hand it out to patients in the waiting-rooms of the general practitioners’ surgeries where the students were working. 1,848 surveys were collected across Norway. The surveys asked people to describe their sleep quality — how long they typically sleep, how well they feel they sleep, and when they prefer to sleep — as well as whether they had had any infections or used any antibiotics in the past three months. The survey also contained a scale which identifies cases of chronic insomnia disorder.

Risk of infection raised by a quarter or more

The scientists found that patients who reported sleeping less than six hours a night were 27% more likely to report an infection, while patients sleeping more than nine hours were 44% more likely to report one. Less than six hours’ sleep, or chronic insomnia, also raised the risk that you would need an antibiotic to overcome an infection.

“The higher risk of reporting an infection among patients who reported short or long sleep duration is not that surprising as we know that having an infection can cause both poor sleep and sleepiness,” said Forthun. “But the higher risk of an infection among those with a chronic insomnia disorder indicate that the direction of this relationship also goes in the other direction; poor sleep can make your more susceptible to an infection.”

Although there was some potential for bias in the sense that people’s recall of sleep or recent health issues is not necessarily perfect, and no clinical information was collected from the doctors who subsequently saw the patients, the study design allowed for the collection of data from a large study group experiencing real-world conditions.

“We don’t know why the patients visited their GPs, and it could be that an underlying health problem affects both the risk of poor sleep and risk of infection, but we don’t think this can fully explain our results,” said Forthun.

She continued: “Insomnia is very common among patients in primary care but found to be under-recognized by general practitioners. Increased awareness of the importance of sleep, not only for general well-being, but for patients’ health, is needed both among patients and general practitioners."

Study finds political campaigns may change the choices of voters – but not their policy views

Peer-Reviewed Publication

OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS USA

A new paper in The Quarterly Journal of Economics, published by Oxford University Press, measures the overall impact of electoral campaigns and finds that televised debates have little effect on the formation of voter choice. Information received from other sources such as the media, political activists, and other citizens, matters more.

Researchers and pundits have long debated the impact of political campaigns. One view is that the weeks immediately preceding elections are a crucial period. Campaign information can help voters assess the performance of incumbent politicians, compare the qualities and positions of all candidates, and perhaps even reconsider their policy preferences. But some researchers argue that campaigns have minimal effects because most people decide on their candidate long before the election.

Researchers here used survey data from 62 elections in ten countries (Austria, Canada, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States) since 1952 to study how voters make their choice. The data included 253,000 observations. The authors looked at the difference between whom voters said they said they would vote for, before the election, and whom they said they voted for, after the election.

The investigation revealed that the fraction of people with identical vote declarations before and after the election increased by 17 percentage points over the 60 days leading up to the election, from a baseline of 71%. On the last day before the election, 12% of voters still do not know (or will not say) whom they will vote for or state a different vote intention than their ultimate choice. In total, 17% to 29% of voters make up their minds during the last two months of campaigns. This large increase in individual vote choice consistency is associated with a 5-percentage point reduction in the distance between predicted and final vote shares: voters who make up their minds in this period significantly affect the electoral results.

Within a given election, younger and less educated voters are more influenced by campaign information, and voters who identify strongly with a party are less so. Changes in vote choice are driven by changes in voters’ beliefs on the candidates’ positions and qualities as well as changes in the issues voters find most important. By contrast, their policy preferences remain stable throughout the campaign.

The researchers here also investigated evidence on the relative importance of different sources of information. Information from televised debates had little effect on voter decisions. Shocks such as natural and technological disasters, which occur independently of the campaigns, did not appear to change voter decisions either. These results suggest that information acquired throughout the campaign from sources like news stories or friends is more important.

The authors were surprised to find that TV debates – for all the interest they generate, the large viewing audience they draw, and the many media commentaries they provoke – do not appear to change voting behavior. Overall, the results suggest that even if voters sometimes seem relatively uninformed and uninterested, their vote choices actually depend on extensive information beyond just debates.

“Since our data cover 62 elections, they enable us to compare the importance of electoral campaigns in different settings,” said the paper’s lead author, Vincent Pons. “Campaigns play a decisive role in all periods and all countries we study. But interestingly, the fraction of voters changing their minds in the last two months before the election is much smaller in the U.S. than in Canada, Germany, New Zealand, and all other democracies in our sample.”   

The paper “How Do Campaigns Shape Vote Choice? Multi-Country Evidence from 62 Elections and 56 TV Debates” is available (at midnight on March 2) at: https://academic.oup.com/qje/article-lookup/doi/10.1093/qje/qjad002.

Direct correspondence to: 
Vincent Pons
Associate Professor of Business Administration
Harvard Business School
Morgan Hall 289 Soldiers Field
Boston, MA 02163
vpons@hbs.edu

To request a copy of the study, please contact:
Daniel Luzer 
daniel.luzer@oup.com

How consciousness in animals could be researched

Peer-Reviewed Publication

RUHR-UNIVERSITY BOCHUM

Cat 

IMAGE: WHILE HARDLY ANYONE WOULD DISPUTE THAT THEIR OWN CAT SUBJECTIVELY FEELS PAIN, THERE ARE MANY SPECIES FOR WHICH PEOPLE ARE UNCERTAIN: DO BIRDS, FISH, INSECTS AND WORMS HAVE CONSCIOUS PERCEPTION? view more 

CREDIT: RUB, MARQUARD

There are reasons to assume that not only humans but also some non-human species of animal have conscious perception. Which species have consciousness and how the subjective experience of various species could differ is being investigated by Professor Albert Newen and PhD student Leonard Dung from the Institute for Philosophy II at Ruhr University Bochum. To do this, they characterise consciousness with ten different dimensions and work out which behaviours indicate the presence of each of these consciousness dimensions. They describe their approach in the academic journal “Cognition”, published online on 21 February 2023.

Consciousness is not like a light switch

There is a debate within research as to which animals have consciousness. There are also various views as to how consciousness can be expressed. “According to one view, consciousness is like a light switch, which is either on or off: a species either has consciousness or it does not,” explains Albert Newen. A more refined idea is that consciousness can be thought of as a dimmer switch: it can exist in varying degrees.

Albert Newen and Leonard Dung do not agree with either of these theories. According to them, ten dimensions, or aspects, of consciousness can be distinguished, which cannot necessarily be placed in a ranking. These include, for example, a rich emotional inner life, self-awareness and or conscious perception. “It is not necessarily worthwhile to ask whether a mouse has more consciousness than an octopus,” clarifies Albert Newen. “You may get a different answer, depending on the aspect of consciousness that you are looking at.”

The researchers from Bochum suggest distinguishing between strong and weak indicators of consciousness and allocating each of these to certain aspects of consciousness. “We hope to ultimately make it possible to measure how the subjective experience of various species differs between species and compared to humans,” summarises Leonard Dung.

Strong and weak indicators of consciousness

According to the authors, the simple processing of sensory stimuli is not an indicator of consciousness. Studies of humans with brain damage show that two pathways in the brain have to interact for conscious perception, one of which processes information about the spatial position of objects and the other is responsible for the conscious classification of objects. If one of these pathways is damaged, people can correctly interact with objects – for example, inserting a letter into a letterbox – but without perceiving the letterbox as such. “As a result, the mere reception of and reaction to sensory stimuli, which we find in all living organisms, is not a noteworthy indicator of consciousness,” says Leonard Dung.

However, more complex forms of perception also occur in the animal kingdom. For example, monkeys, parrots and dogs are able to identify or categorise perceived objects as individual things. A grey parrot called Alex was able to simultaneously categorise an object as red, round and metallic. Border Collies can learn the names of up to 1,000 objects and identify and fetch certain objects. Newen and Dung describe these abilities of conscious perception as a weak indicator of consciousness.

A strong indicator of conscious perception can, however, be provided by an experiment in which a person puts on a pair of computer glasses and is shown a house in the left eye and a face in the right eye. They do not see a mixture, but instead only see the house for a while, then the face, then back to the house and so on. Analogous experiments now also exist for animals, enabling what they are consciously perceiving to be tested.

Episodic memory is a strong indicator

The authors also see episodic memory, i.e. memories of previous life events, their time and their place, as a strong indicator of consciousness. It is well documented in rats and some species of bird.

Newen and Dung argue that consciousness is closely linked to complex memory and learning abilities and with perception. In order to understand consciousness, it would be helpful if behavioural observations could be combined with neuroscientific data, which is already possible in individual cases. “However, as we do not know enough about the brain basis of conscious experience, even in humans, and we are aiming to compare widely differing species with a very different brain organisation, a behavioural comparison in ten dimensions is the best approach that we have for the time being,” concludes Albert Newen.

Thursday, March 02, 2023

The world is becoming increasingly authoritarian – but there is hope

Reports and Proceedings

UNIVERSITY OF GOTHENBURG

Staffan I. Lindberg 

IMAGE: STAFFAN I. LINDBERG view more 

CREDIT: JOHAN WINGBORG

For the first time in two decades, there are more closed autocracies than liberal democracies in the world, but the future is not entirely bleak. This is shown in this year's democracy report from the Varieties of Democracy Institute (V-Dem Institute) at the University of Gothenburg.

A democratic decline has taken place globally, and an increasing number of people are living in closed autocracies. The report that is now being released shows that this trend is continuing, and that the world has not been more anti-democratic in 35 years.

“The level of democracy enjoyed by the average world citizen in 2022 is back to 1986 levels. This means that 72 percent of the world's population, 5.7 billion people, live under authoritarian rule”, according to Staffan I. Lindberg, Director of the V-Dem Institute.

The democratic decline has been most dramatic in the Pacific region, Eastern Europe, Central Asia, Latin America, and the Caribbean. But the number of countries in the world that are currently experiencing democratic setbacks, or autocratization, has greatly increased over the past ten years – from 13 to 42 countries between 2002–2022, which is the highest figure measured by V-Dem to date.

More closed autocracies than liberal democracies
Generally, countries experience autocratization when authoritarian political movements gain direct influence over governmental policy, where they can dismantle democratic institutions: free media, civil society, independent organizations, and the judicial system. Once this has begun, in the vast majority of cases, it eventually leads to the dismantling of democracy.

The global advance of closed autocracies is also highlighted in this year's report. For the first time in two decades, the world has more closed autocracies than liberal democracies.

“28 percent of the world's population, 2.2 billion people, now live in closed autocracies compared to 13 percent, 1 billion people, who live in liberal democracies.”

There is hope
However, some countries have managed to return after long periods of democratic dismantling. Bolivia, Moldova, Ecuador, the Maldives, North Macedonia, Slovenia, South Korea, and Zambia have all succeeded in reversing their autocratic evolution.

“The fact that eight democracies that were in a period of autocratization have stopped that process and “bounced back” is uplifting news for democracy. It is rare to see countries that can make a U-turn. The countries that have succeeded in doing have brought about a pro-democracy mobilization, they have re-established an objective judicial system, deposed authoritarian leaders, introduced free and fair elections, worked to reduce corruption, and rejuvenated civil society”, says Staffan I. Lindberg.

For more information, contact:

Presentation of the Report
The report will be presented during an online seminar on Thursday, March 2, 2023, 15:00-16:00 CET. All are welcome to join. The seminar will be livestreamed via V-Dem's Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/vdeminstitute

The report Defiance in the Face of Autocratization is available for download on the V-dem website from 9.00EST/15.00CET: https://v-dem.net/. To obtain the report earlier, contact Maria Verkhovtseva: e-mail: maria.verkhovtseva@gu.se, telephone: +46 (0) 31–786 3043.

Fact
V-Dem provides the world's largest database on democracy with 31 million data points for 202 countries covering the years 1789–2022. Almost 4,000 researchers and other country experts from 180 countries are associated with the institute, which measures hundreds of different indicators of democracy. V-Dem is part of the Department of Political Science at the University of Gothenburg. Read more on V-Dem's website: https://v-dem.net/

Revisiting the mechanisms of mid-Tertiary uplift of the NE Tibetan plateau

Peer-Reviewed Publication

SCIENCE CHINA PRESS

Present-day topographic features of the NE Tibetan plateau 

IMAGE: FIG. 1 PRESENT-DAY TOPOGRAPHIC FEATURES OF THE NE TIBETAN PLATEAU view more 

CREDIT: ©SCIENCE CHINA PRESS

A joint research team led by Dr. WEI Hong-Hong at Institute of Tibetan plateau of Chinese Academy of Science has just published a study on mechanisms for mid-Tertiary uplifting of the NE Tibetan plateau in National Science Review.

A number of mechanisms have been advanced to account for creation of present-day topography of northeast Tibet, which manifests itself as a mosaic comprising plateaus, mountains and various-scale basins, such the Hoh Xil plateau, Qaidam basin, Qilian Mountains, and many intermontane basins. Most of previous work ascribed topographic development of NE Tibet to crustal contraction. It, however, remains perplexing how the crust deformed throughout the Cenozoic.

Based on a synthesis of available geological and geophysical data and geologic observations, it is confirmed that the Hoh Xil and West Qinling had experienced surface uplift and broad planation since ~27 Ma. A marked stratigraphic break or unconformity, which separates Paleogene and Neogene strata, registered the uplifting event. Surface uplift was previously attributed to crustal contraction in mid-Tertiary timespan. This study, however, reveals that strata below and above the unconformity are basically parallel in the West Qinling, thereby negating the postulation of pre-Neogene crustal contraction in that region. Also interesting is Paleogene–Neogene uninterrupted successions in the Qaidam basin, indicative of persistent subsidence and sedimentation in mid-Tertiary timespan. Obviously, differential crustal vertical motion happened in different areas of NE Tibet.

Vigorous volcanic eruption took place in the Miocene, with magma being sourced from the middle–lower crust and mantle. Volcanism occurred merely in the Hoh Xil and West Qinling, whereas the Qaidam basin is devoid of volcanic rocks. Various models are suggested to explain generation of magma of differing types, but existing explanations can hardly reconcile coeval occurrences of diverse tectonic processes.  

Coincidence of crustal vertical motion and volcanic eruption in space and time implicates that the two processes should have been governed by same mechanism. This study proposes that small-scale edge-driven mantle convection might have been operating at the transition from orogenic and cratonic domains. The convection is generated due to resistance to northward asthenospheric flow by thicker cratonic lithosphere. This mechanism provides satisfactory explanations for some prominent geologic phenomena. Edge-driven convection led to upwelling of asthenospheric hot materials that not only vertically raised the crust but also triggered magmatism in the lithosphere of the Hoh Xil and West Qinling orogenic regions. The Qaidam basin possesses thicker cratonic lithosphere and therefore avoids convectional effect.

Tectonic settings changed dramatically about 15 Ma when crustal shortening and thickening dominated the NE Tibetan plateau, as manifested by folding and faulting of Tertiary strata in the Qaidam basin and rapid rising of surrounding mountains. Gravitational collapse and spreading of Tibetan plateau interior is likely responsible for horizontal tectonic push that resulted in upper-crustal contraction of peripheral areas in late Cenozoic time.

See the article:

Revisiting the mechanisms of mid-Tertiary uplift of the NE Tibetan plateau

https://doi.org/10.1093/nsr/nwad008

Mid-Tertiary tectonic evolution of the NE Tibetan plateau under the control of edge-driven asthenospheric convection 

Earlier take-off could lead to fewer bumblebees and less pollination

Peer-Reviewed Publication

LUND UNIVERSITY

Bombus terrestris 

IMAGE: A QUEEN OF THE SPECIES BOMBUS TERRESTRIS WHICH IS ONE OF THE BUMBLEBEES THAT USUALLY FLY EARLIEST IN SPRING. THE SEASON IS NOW ABOUT 14 DAYS EARLIER IN SIMPLE AGRICULTURAL LANDSCAPES THAN A CENTURY AGO DUE TO A WARMER CLIMATE AND A CHANGED HABITAT. view more 

CREDIT: MARIA BLASI ROMERO/LUND UNIVERSITY

With the arrival of spring, bumblebee queens take their first wing beat of the season and set out to find new nesting sites. But they are flying earlier in the year, as a result of a warmer climate and a changing agricultural landscape, according to new research from Lund University in Sweden.

We risk losing additional bumblebee species, and having less pollination of crops and wild plants”, says researcher Maria Blasi Romero at Lund University.

When spring arrives and the ground warms up, bumblebee queens wake up from hibernation. Contrary to workers and males, queens are the only bumblebees that survive the winter, and they spend a couple of weeks finding a place to nest, where they can lay eggs and start a colony.

However, rising temperatures mean that they wake up earlier in the year. The new study shows that in Sweden, the first flight occurs on average five days earlier than twenty years ago.

“Across Sweden, we see that the increased temperatures due to climate change clearly affect when the queens wake up and fly to find a new nest”, says researcher Maria Blasi Romero.

It is not only the temperature that has an impact. The researchers have used the Lund Biological  Museum's collection to examine bumblebee queens as far back as 117 years ago, in different areas of southern Sweden. This data shows that the first bumblebee flight in intensively farmed landscapes now takes place about fourteen days earlier than over a century ago.

Reduced biodiversity with modern agriculture

The major change in the examined landscapes during the past century is the loss of grassland habitats, such as meadows and permanently grazed pastures. Today, large agricultural fields dominate and often only a few different crops are grown. This has led to a general decline of farmland biodiversity. 

Bumblebee queens leaving their hibernation much earlier nowadays is therefore likely due to a warmer climate, a lack of food during the flight period, and more varying microclimatic conditions in today's agricultural landscape compared with the more diverse landscapes of older times.

The researchers have focused on ten bumblebee species and found that the species that already used to fly earliest in the season have become even earlier flyers, while the species that emerge later in the season have not changed their flight season. There is a risk that this leads to a poor match between the activity periods of flowering plants and bumblebees, and that bumblebees do not get enough food.

“We see a clear risk that more bumblebee species are at risk of extinction locally, especially the species that usually emerge later in the summer. This could also lead to a decline in the number of bumblebees overall and that would have consequences for the pollination of crops and the functioning of ecosystems. Bumblebees are important pollinators, especially in northern latitudes such as in Scandinavia”, says researcher Anna S Persson.

“Climate change and changing land use are two of the biggest threats to biological diversity. Different species respond differently to these changes, so it is important to know more about how and why that is. There are winners and there are losers among species”, says researcher Romain Carrié.

Actions that slow down the effects

The study highlights several measures that could reduce the effects of climate warming on pollinators and increase their access to flowering plants. A few examples are:

- Preservation of natural grasslands, such as natural pastures.

- Late season mowing at roadsides, after the flowering period.

- Flower strips and hedges designed in a way that favors pollinators.

- Increased sowing of clover-rich leys, that are partly allowed to flower.

The research is partly based on data on bumblebee queens collected up to 117 years ago.

CREDIT

Christoffer Fägerström/Lund University

New book reveals techniques of power behind LGBTQI hate crimes in Russia

Dr Alexander Kondakov’s research highlights the devastating impacts of anti-queer rhetoric

Book Announcement

UCD RESEARCH & INNOVATION

'Violent Affections' Book Cover 

IMAGE: 'VIOLENT AFFECTIONS' BOOK COVER view more 

CREDIT: UCL PRESS

University College Dublin (UCD) Researcher Dr Alexander Kondakov launches his new book Violent Affections (2022, UCL Press) in UCD at 5pm, 2 March 2023.

Violent Affections reveals the techniques of power that have emboldened hate crimes against queer people in Russia over the last decade. 

In 2013, Russia enacted the so-called “gay propaganda” law – a censorship legislation banning LGBTQI-related content from circulation and LGBTQI activists from organising public events. Through analysis of over 300 criminal cases of anti-queer violence before and after this law was introduced, the book draws attention to the devastating consequences of anti-queer rhetoric: murders, injuries, kidnappings and other violent crimes, which doubled after the law was introduced.

Author and Assistant Professor at UCD School of Sociology, Dr Kondakov says: “It is commonly assumed that a decision to commit violence is taken individually by the perpetrators. In my analysis, however, I link that decision directly to political homophobia. I suggest that in every individual decision to kill or injure a gay person, there is a share that belongs to government officials who disseminate hate.”

The book explores the social mechanisms that impact anti-queer violence as evidenced in the reviewed criminal cases, connecting this to the political violence aimed at queer lives more generally. By bringing to light stories of LGBTQI people in Russia, this important research raises awareness of the senseless violence taking place, and illustrates the dire impacts of discriminatory censorship laws.

Violent Affections is praised as 'immediately relevant in the contemporary period of misinformation campaigns and the influence of technology in the production of truth. Violent Affections demonstrates the interweaving of government, law, and society from a discursive technological standpoint founded on centuries of socio­historical knowledge.' (Journal of Homosexuality, January 2023).

In this volume, Kondakov expands upon queer theory and affect theory to conceptualise what is referred to as neo-disciplinary power, developing an original explanation of how contemporary power relations are changing from those of late modernity as envisioned by Foucault’s Panopticon to neo-disciplinary power relations of a much more fragmented, fluid and unstructured kind – the Memeticon.

The book launch takes place on Thursday 2 March 2023 at 5pm in The Campus Bookshop, UCD, featuring a discussion with the author and comments from Jennifer Schweppe (University of Limerick), one of Ireland's leading scholars of hate crime. Launch tickets: here, hard copies of the book will be available to purchase.

The book is available for free download and for purchase in various formats at https://www.uclpress.co.uk/products/192307