How the coronavirus recession puts service workers at risk

by Donald T. Tomaskovic-Devey, Eric Hoyt, Jd Swerzenski and Rodrigo Dominguez-Villegas, The Conversation APRIL 3, 2020

Credit: CC0 Public Domain

Economic activity is slowing rapidly, both in the United States and around the world.

Social distancing, stalling global trade, widespread illness and the closing of borders, restaurants and schools will all contribute to the next Great Recession.

Early estimates suggest that between 14 million and 37 million jobs could be lost during the initial spread of COVID-19. Even the low-end estimates are five times larger than the job losses the U.S. experienced in the first few months of the Great Recession that lasted from 2007 to 2009.

Since nearly 6.6 million jobs were lost in just one week at the end of March, the odds are that unemployment will be very, very high, perhaps as high as the 25% range of Great Depression of the 1930s.

As scholars of communications, labor economics, inequality and equity, we know that recessions generally hit insecure families hardest. That will be true this time as well.

However, this recession will be different in an important way—service sector jobs will be shed first. For the majority of service sector workers, those that are paid poverty-level wages – typically defined as those that make below the $15 per hour living wage threshold – this recession will hit fast and hard.

Because they risk exposure to COVID-19 or face unemployment because of it, workers receiving the lowest hourly wages are more likely to lack the financial resources, health care and sick leave to deal with the crisis.

The risks to service workers

Almost 80% of all U.S. private sector employment is in the service sector, totaling some 129 million jobs. The coronavirus pandemic poses a unique threat, both of eliminating jobs and putting workers at risk of infection.

These workers are among the least equipped to deal with these risks. About 69% of service workers are low-wage, meaning they make less than $15 an hour, as shown in our research.

Some 58% do not have paid sick leave, 61% have no or inadequate health insurance and very few have paid family leave to care for the sick and dying.

Source: JD Swerzenski, Donald T. Tomaskovic-Devey and Rodrigo Dominguez-Villegas from The University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Credit: The Conversation

Our analysis pinpoints the states, industries and demographic groups where these low-wage workers are most likely to be found, and provides recommendations for better assisting those most at risk.

By industry

Most U.S. service and retail employers pay low wages. As is well known, the U.S. has the highest inequality among high income countries, meaning there is the broadest gap between the salaries of the best and worst paid workers.

We found that restaurants and bars are the worst employers, paying less than $15 per hour to 79% of all employees. Hotels also employ a lot of low-wage workers, paying about 63% of their workers less than $15 per hour. Many workers in the business of direct customer services are likely to be fired as their workplaces close.

Our report estimates that 57% of nursing home workers, 69% of grocery store workers and 74% of cleaning employees are low-wage workers.

These types of service workers are less likely to lose their jobs, having been deemed essential during the crisis—but they risk exposure to the virus. A recent New York Times report cites cashiers, janitors, messengers and food service employees as among the most at-risk workers based on their exposure to possible carriers of the virus.

By demographic

Women and people of color hold a disproportionate share of service industry jobs, and will likely bear the brunt of the economic recession as a result.

Women hold 60% of all service jobs in the U.S. Among these female service workers, 70% earn less than $15 an hour. Broken down by race, 69% of white, 71% of black and 76% of Latina women workers are paid wages below the living wage threshold of $15 per hour.

Men do only marginally better, with 58% percent of men working in service occupations paid less than $15 an hour. The low-wage nature of these jobs does not vary much by race: The majority of white, black and Latino men in service occupations—55%, 63% and 62% respectively—are in low-wage jobs.

Source: JD Swerzenski, Donald T. Tomaskovic-Devey and Rodrigo Dominguez-Villegas from The University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Credit: The Conversation

The high proportion of women in low-pay, high-risk industries such as house cleaning, nursing and store retail further increases their economic and health vulnerability.

By state

The majority of service workers in every state—with the lone exception of Hawaii—earn less than $15 per hour. Arkansas has the highest percentage of low-wage service workers in the U.S. at 77.6%, a figure that rises to 81.4% among women.

States like Arkansas, Mississippi, Idaho, New Mexico and South Carolina that have the highest percentage of low-wage workers will likely fare the worst in the coming economic recession.

Among these, the citizens of Mississippi and South Carolina, both of which rejected the extension of Medicaid under Obamacare to their working poor, will likely fare even worse.

States with higher urban density and costs of living are also at increased risk. In New York, California and Washington, currently the states hardest hit by the pandemic, more than 57% of service workers make less than $15 an hour, but have to pay more than the national average for rent, food and housing.

Hopeful signs for service workers

The U.S. is the richest country in the world, yet 40% of its jobs pay poverty-level wages. Paying low wages and low or no health benefits is business as usual for many firms, particularly in retail, service, warehousing and agriculture.

The COVID-19 pandemic—and its economic consequences—presents the U.S. with an opportunity to reject our low-wage labor market structure and transition to an economy similar to that of other high-income countries, one characterized by jobs that deliver living wages and a society that insures universal health care and job security in the face of illness, such as Denmark.

The new federal economic stimulus legislation contains useful short-term reactions to this enormous crisis. It expands access to unemployment benefits and sends money to households, but does little to keep workers on the job. There are already widespread reports of employers putting profits over the welfare of their employees.

Importantly, there are also some hopeful signs that service workers are demanding and gaining additional pay and benefits even during the COVID-19 pandemic.

We believe Denmark's recent measures to combat the crisis, which include paying 75% of employees salaries, along with proposals championed by Sens. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren are closer to what the country needs in the longer run: high minimum wages, universal health care and a strengthened labor movem

Though the COVID-19 recession may feel different, its victims will look the same

Provided by The Conversation 

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article

Pandemic-led recession 'way worse' than 2008 crisis, IMF says
By Darryl Coote & Danielle Haynes

International Monetary Fund Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said she and leaders at the World Health Organization agree that the best way to fix the economy is to focus on stopping the spread of COVID-19. File Photo by Stephen Shaver/UPI | License Photo

April 3 (UPI) -- The best way to limit the coronavirus pandemic's impact on the global economy is to focus on mitigating the spread of the disease, world health and financial leaders said Friday, warning that the current crisis is "way worse" than the 2008 financial crisis.

World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Ghebreyesus said countries should continue to focus on testing, isolating and treating every case of COVID-19, and trace every contact those patients have had. They should not relax pressure on battling the virus.

"If countries rush to lift restrictions too quickly, the virus could resurge and the economic impact could be even more serious and prolonged," he said during a news conference in Geneva. "Financing the health responses, therefore, is an essential investment not just in saving lives but in the longer-term social and economic recovery."

Countries across the globe have instituted varying levels of stay-at-home or shelter-in-place orders for non-essential businesses in an effort to keep people home and halt the spread of the coronavirus. With some businesses shuttering or losing sales, millions are losing their jobs, throwing the world economy into chaos.

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In the United States, an additional 6.6 million people filed for unemployment benefits last week, the largest single-week increase in the country's history.

Meanwhile, the virus has sickened more than 1 million people worldwide and killed at least 58,000, according to figures at Johns Hopkins University.

Ghebreyesus was joined at Friday's news conference by International Monetary Fund Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva. She described the current economic climate as "a crisis like no other."

RELATED U.N. General Assembly calls for unified fight against coronavirus

"We have witnessed he world economy coming to a standstill. We are now in a recession. It is way worse than the global financial crisis.

"This is, in my lifetime, humanity's darkest hour; a big threat to the whole world. And it requires from us to stand tall, be united and protect the most vulnerable of our fellow citizens on this planet."

Georgieva said the IMF has $1 trillion at its disposal to assist the most vulnerable countries. She said at least 90 countries have applied for assistance. She said countries should use the funds to focus on paying doctors and nurses, and purchasing medical supplies needed to fight the pandemic.

"Our main preoccupation in this crisis is to rapidly step up financing for countries, especially emerging markets, developing countries that are faced with very significant and growing needs," she said.

The Asian Development Bank said Friday that the pandemic could cost the world between $2 trillion and $4.1 trillion, equaling between 2.3 percent and 4.8 percent of global GDP.

The figure is a stark increase from the $347 billion at the top end, or equivalent to 0.4 percent of global GDP, the Manila-based regional development bank predicted on March 6.
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The bank also revised down its growth forecast for Asia to 2.2 percent from the 5.5 percent it had predicted in September. Assuming the pandemic ends, it expects growth to rebound to 6.2 percent next year.

However, ADB Chief Economist Yasuyuki Sawada admitted that these numbers could be off depending on how the world reacts to the pandemic, calling on world leaders to implement measures to lessen the virus' impact on the markets.

"The evolution of the global pandemic -- and thus the outlook for the global and regional economy -- is highly uncertain," Yasuyuki said in a statement. "Growth could turn out lower, and the recovery slower, than we are currently forecasting. For this reason, strong and coordinated efforts are needed to contain the COVID-19 pandemic and minimize its economic impact, especially on the most vulnerable."

For China specifically, the bank sees its recent contraction in industry, services, retail sales and investment to drag growth down to 2.3 percent this year though with expectations it will rebound to 7.3 percent in 2021.

Excluding the industrialized economies of Hong Kong, South Korea, Singapore and Taipei, growth in developing Asia was revised down to 2.4 percent from 5.7 percent last year.

The report blames the slow growth not on Asia but on the "deteriorating external environment with growth stagnating or contracting in the major industrial economies of the United States, Euro area and Japan."

The report follows the World Bank forecast for East Asia, the Pacific and China on Monday that projected growth to slow this year to 2.1 percent in the base-line scenario or -0.5 percent at the lower-case scenario depending on how long the pandemic lasts. The region sustained a 5.8 percent growth in 2019.

Global downturn due to coronavirus 'way worse' than global financial crisis -IMF

 

CREDIT: REUTERS/YURI GRIPAS

The coronavirus pandemic has brought the global economy to a standstill and plunged the world into a recession that will be "way worse" than the global financial crisis a decade ago, the head of the International Monetary Fund said on Friday.

By Andrea Shalal and Stephanie Nebehay

WASHINGTON/GENEVA, April 3 (Reuters) - The coronavirus pandemic has brought the global economy to a standstill and plunged the world into a recession that will be "way worse" than the global financial crisis a decade ago, the head of the International Monetary Fund said on Friday.

IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva, speaking at a rare joint news conference with the leader of the World Health Organization, called on advanced economies to step up their efforts to help emerging markets and developing countries survive the economic and health impact of the pandemic.

"This is a crisis like no other," she told some 400 reporters on a video conference call. "We have witnessed the world economy coming to a standstill. We are now in recession. It is way worse than the global financial crisis" of 2008-2009.

More than 1 million people have been infected with COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus, and more than 53,000 have died, a Reuters tally showed on Friday.

Georgieva that the IMF was working with the World Bank and WHO to advance their call for China and other official bilateral creditors to suspend debt collections from the poorest countries for at least a year until the pandemic subsides.

She said China had engaged "constructively" on the issue, and the IMF would work a specific proposal in coming weeks with the Paris Club of creditor nations, the Group of 20 major economies and the World Bank for review at the annual Spring Meetings, which will be held online in about two weeks.

Emerging markets and developing economies were hard hit by the crisis, Georgieva said, noting that nearly $90 billion in investments had already flowed out of emerging markets, far more than during the financial crisis. Some countries were also suffering from sharp drops in commodity prices.

More than 90 countries - nearly half the IMF's 189 members - have asked for emergency funding from the Fund to respond to the pandemic, she said.

The IMF and WHO have called for emergency aid to be used mainly to strengthen health systems, pay doctors and nurses and buy protective gear.

Georgieva said the Fund stood ready to use as much of its "war chest" of $1 trillion in financing capability as needed.

The IMF has begun disbursing funds to requesting countries, including Rwanda, with requests from two additional African nations to be reviewed on Friday, she said.

"This is, in my lifetime, humanity's darkest hour - a big threat to the whole world - and it requires from us to stand tall, be united, and protect the most vulnerable of our fellow citizens," she said.

She said central banks and finance ministers had already taken unprecedented steps to mitigate the effects of the pandemic and stabilize markets, but more work was needed to keep liquidity flowing, especially to emerging markets.

To that end, the Fund's board in coming days would review a proposal to create a new short-term liquidity line to help provide funds to countries facing problems. She also urged central banks and particularly the U.S. Federal Reserve to continue offering swap lines to emerging economies.

(Reporting by Andrea Shalal in Washington and Stephanie Nebehay in Geneva Editing by Sonya Hepinstall)

Why the Global Recession Could Last a Long Time
Fears are growing that the worldwide economic downturn could be especially deep and lengthy, with recovery limited by continued anxiety.

St. Peter’s Square in Vatican City (March 19).Credit...

Nadia Shira Cohen for The New York Times
By Peter S. Goodman April 1, 2020 New York Times

LONDON — The world is almost certainly ensnared in a devastating recession delivered by the coronavirus pandemic.

Now, fears are growing that the downturn could be far more punishing and long lasting than initially feared — potentially enduring into next year, and even beyond — as governments intensify restrictions on business to halt the spread of the pandemic, and as fear of the virus reconfigures the very concept of public space, impeding consumer-led economic growth.

The pandemic is above all a public health emergency. So long as human interaction remains dangerous, business cannot responsibly return to normal. And what was normal before may not be anymore. People may be less inclined to jam into crowded restaurants and concert halls even after the virus is contained.

The abrupt halt of commercial activity threatens to impose economic pain so profound and enduring in every region of the world at once that recovery could take years. The losses to companies, many already saturated with debt, risk triggering a financial crisis of cataclysmic proportions.

Stock markets have reflected the economic alarm. The S&P 500 in the United States fell over 4 percent on Wednesday, as investors braced for worse conditions ahead. That followed a brutal March, during which a whipsawing S&P 500 fell 12.5 percent, in its worst month since October 2008.


A line for food coupons in Barcelona, Spain, on Monday.

Credit...Samuel Aranda for The New York Times


“I feel like the 2008 financial crisis was just a dry run for this,” said Kenneth S. Rogoff, a Harvard economist and co-author of a history of financial crises, “This Time Is Different: Eight Centuries of Financial Folly.”

“This is already shaping up as the deepest dive on record for the global economy for over 100 years,” he said. “Everything depends on how long it lasts, but if this goes on for a long time, it’s certainly going to be the mother of all financial crises.”

The situation looks uniquely dire in developing countries, which have seen investment rush for the exits this year, sending currencies plummeting, forcing people to pay more for imported food and fuel, and threatening governments with insolvency — all of this while the pandemic itself threatens to overwhelm inadequate medical systems.

Among investors, a hopeful scenario holds currency: The recession will be painful but short-lived, giving way to a robust recovery this year. The global economy is in a temporary deep freeze, the logic goes. Once the virus is contained, enabling people to return to offices and shopping malls, life will snap back to normal. Jets will fill with families going on merely deferred vacations. Factories will resume, fulfilling saved up orders.

But even after the virus is tamed — and no one really knows when that will be — the world that emerges is likely to be choked with trouble, challenging the recovery. Mass joblessness exacts societal costs. Widespread bankruptcy could leave industry in a weakened state, depleted of investment and innovation.


Trafalgar Square in London (March 27).

Credit...Andrew Testa for The New York Times

Households may remain agitated and risk averse, making them prone to thrift. Some social distancing measures could remain indefinitely. Consumer spending amounts to roughly two-thirds of economic activity worldwide. If anxiety endures and people are reluctant to spend, expansion will be limited — especially as continued vigilance against the coronavirus may be required for years.

“The psychology won’t just bounce back,” said Charles Dumas, chief economist at TS Lombard, an investment research firm in London. “People have had a real shock. The recovery will be slow, and certain behavior patterns are going to change, if not forever at least for a long while.”

Rising stock prices in the United States have in recent years propelled spending. Millions of people are now filing claims for unemployment benefits, while wealthier households are absorbing the reality of substantially diminished retirement savings.

Americans boosted their rates of savings significantly in the years after the Great Depression. Fear and tarnished credit limited reliance on borrowing. That could happen again.


Rush-hour traffic has begun to pick up again in Beijing (March 17).

Credit...Giulia Marchi for The New York Times

“The loss of income on the labor front is tremendous,” Mr. Dumas said. “The loss of value in the wealth effect is also very strong.”

The sense of alarm is enhanced by the fact that every inhabited part of the globe is now in trouble.

The United States, the world’s largest economy, is almost certainly in a recession. So is Europe. So probably are significant economies like Canada, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Brazil, Argentina and Mexico. China, the world’s second-largest economy, is expected to grow by only 2 percent this year, according to TS Lombard, the research firm.

For years, a segment of the economic orthodoxy advanced the notion that globalization came with a built-in insurance policy against collective disaster. So long as some part of the world economy was growing, that supposedly moderated the impact of a downturn in any one country.


Sydney Harbor and the Sydney Opera House (March 26)

Credit...Matthew Abbott for The New York Times

The global recession that followed the financial crisis of 2008 beggared that thesis. The current downturn presents an even more extreme event — a worldwide emergency that has left no safe haven.

When the pandemic emerged, initially in central China, it was viewed as a substantial threat to that economy. Even as China closed itself off, conventional wisdom held that, at worst, large international companies like Apple and General Motors would suffer lost sales to Chinese consumers, while manufacturers elsewhere would struggle to secure parts made in Chinese factories.

But then the pandemic spread to Italy and eventually across Europe, threatening factories on the continent. Then came government policies that essentially locked down modern life, business included, while the virus spread to the United States.

“Now, anywhere you look in the global economy we are seeing a hit to domestic demand on top of those supply chain impacts,” said Innes McFee, managing director of macro and investor services at Oxford Economics in London. “It’s incredibly worrying.”


The Dumbo section of Brooklyn (March 28).

Credit...Victor J. Blue for The New York Times

Oxford Economics estimates that the global economy will contract marginally this year, before improving by June. But this view is likely to be revised down sharply, Mr. McFee said.

Trillions of dollars in credit and loan guarantees dispensed by central banks and governments in the United States and Europe have perhaps cushioned the most developed economies. That may prevent large numbers of businesses from failing, say economists, while ensuring that workers who lose jobs will be able to stay current on their bills.

“I am attached to the notion that this is a temporary crisis,” said Marie Owens Thomsen, global chief economist at Indosuez Wealth Management in Geneva. “You hit the pause button, and then you hit the start button, and the machine starts running again.”

But that depends on the rescue packages proving effective — no sure thing. In the typical economic shock, government spends money to try to encourage people to go out and spend. In this crisis, the authorities are demanding that people stay inside to limit the virus.

“The longer this goes on, the more likely it is that there will be destruction of productive capacity,” Ms. Owens Thomsen said. “Then, the nature of the crisis morphs from temporary to something a bit more lasting.”

Worldwide, foreign direct investment is on track to decline by 40 percent this year, according to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development. This threatens “lasting damage to global production networks and supply chains,” said the body’s director of investment and enterprise, James Zhan.

“It will likely take two to three years for most economies to return to their pre-pandemic levels of output,” IHS Markit said in a recent research note.

In developing countries, the consequences are already severe. Not only is capital fleeing, but a plunge in commodity prices — especially oil — is assailing many countries, among them Mexico, Chile and Nigeria. China’s slowdown is rippling out to countries that supply Chinese factories with components, from Indonesia to South Korea.



The Dongfeng Honda auto plant in Wuhan, China (March 23). 

Credit...Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Between now and the end of next year, developing countries are on the hook to repay some $2.7 trillion in debt, according to a report released Monday by the U.N. trade body. In normal times, they could afford to roll most of that debt into new loans. But the abrupt exodus of money has prompted investors to charge higher rates of interest for new loans.

The U.N. body called for a $2.5 trillion rescue for developing countries — $1 trillion in loans from the International Monetary Fund, another $1 trillion in debt forgiveness from a broad range of creditors and $500 billion for health recovery.

“The great fear we have for developing countries is that the economic shocks have actually hit most of them before the health shocks have really begin to hit,” said Richard Kozul-Wright, director of the division on globalization and development strategies at the U.N. trade body in Geneva.

A barber waiting for customers in São Paulo, Brazil (March 20).

Credit...Victor Moriyama for The New York Times

In the most optimistic view, the fix is already underway. China has effectively contained the virus and is beginning to get back to work, though gradually. If Chinese factories spring back to life, that will ripple out across the globe, generating demand for computer chips made in Taiwan, copper mined in Zambia and soybeans grown in Argentina.

But China’s industry is not immune to global reality. Chinese consumers are an increasingly powerful force, yet cannot spur a full recovery. If Americans are still contending with the pandemic, if South Africa cannot borrow on world markets and if Europe is in recession, that will limit the appetite for Chinese wares.

“If Chinese manufacturing comes back, who exactly are they selling to?” asked Mr. Rogoff, the economist. “How can global growth not take a long-term hit?”

Peter S. Goodman is a London-based European economics correspondent. He was previously a national economic correspondent in New York. He has also worked at The Washington Post as a China correspondent, and was global editor in chief of the International Business Times. @petersgoodman

A version of this article appears in print on April 2, 2020, Section A, Page 1 of the New York edition with the headline: Economists Fear Drawn-Out Slump as Losses Deepen.

SLSCO receives $61.4M for border wall construction
By Christen McCurdy

People in El Paso wave through the border wall to their families in Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua, in October 2019. This week SLSCO was awarded $61.4 million to construct a section of border wall near El Paso. Photo by Justin Hamel/UPI | License Photo

April 3 (UPI) -- The U.S. Army awarded SLSCO Ltd. with a $61.4 million contract modification Friday for wall construction along the southern U.S. border.

This deal amends an earlier contract, awarded in April 2019, for work on the wall near Santa Teresa, N.M., or what the new contract announcement describes as the "El Paso sector" of the wall.

Earlier this week the Galveston, Texas-based company was awarded a $250 million contract to build emergency hospitals in the National Tennis Center in Queens and at a cruise ship terminal in Brooklyn.

The original contract had an estimated completion date of Oct. 1, 2020, but work covered under the modification is expected to wrap by Dec. 31, 2020.

In December 2018 SLSCO received $166.8 million to construct six miles of a border wall near McAllen, Texas.

This week a federal judge allowed two environmental suits challenging President Donald Trump's border wall strategy to proceed, though the judge also ruled that Trump did not overstep his authority when he declared a national emergency at the U.S.-Mexico border.

Photocatalytic optical fibers convert water into solar fuel

by University of Southampton

Computerized tomography of a MOFC, showing buildup of TiO2 (light blue particles) 

in the triangular channels. Credit: Zepler Institute, University of Southampton

Researchers at the University of Southampton have transformed optical fibers into photocatalytic microreactors that convert water into hydrogen fuel using solar energy.

The ground-breaking technology coats the inside of microstructured optical fiber canes (MOFCs) with a photocatalyst which—with light—generates hydrogen that could power a wide range of sustainable applications.

Chemists, physicists and engineers at Southampton have published their proof of concept in ACS Photonics and will now establish wider studies that demonstrate the scalability of the platform.

The MOFCs have been developed as high pressure microfluidic reactors by each housing multiple capillaries that pass a chemical reaction along the length of the cane.

Alongside hydrogen generation from water, the multi-disciplinary research team is investigating photochemical conversion of carbon dioxide into synthetic fuel. The unique methodology presents a potentially feasible solution for renewable energy, the elimination of greenhouse gases and sustainable chemical production.

Dr. Matthew Potter, Chemistry Research Fellow and lead author, says: "Being able to combine light-activated chemical processes with the excellent light propagation properties of optical fibers has huge potential. In this work our unique photoreactor shows significant improvements in activity compared to existing systems. This as an ideal example of chemical engineering for a 21st century green technology."

Advances in optical fiber technology have played a major role in telecommunications, data storage and networking potential in recent years. This latest research involves experts from Southampton's Optoelectronics Research Centre (ORC), part of the Zepler Institute for Photonics and Nanoelectronics, to tap into the fibers' unprecedented control of light propagation.

The scientists coat the fibers with titanium oxide, decorated with palladium nanoparticles. This approach allows the coated canes to simultaneously serve as both host and catalyst for the continuous indirect water splitting, with methanol as a sacrificial reagent.

Dr. Pier Sazio, study co-author from the Zepler Institute, says: "Optical fibers form the physical layer of the remarkable four billion kilometer long global telecommunications network, currently bifurcating and expanding at a rate of over Mach 20, i.e. over 14,000 ft/sec. For this project, we repurposed this extraordinary manufacturing capability using facilities here at the ORC, to fabricate highly scalable microreactors made from pure silica glass with ideal optical transparency properties for solar photocatalysis."

The new paper in the American Chemical Society (ACS) journal is led by Matthew, with contributions from Chemistry's Professor Robert Raja, Alice Oakley and Daniel Stewart, the ORC's Dr. Pier Sazio and Dr. Thomas Bradley, and Engineering's Dr. Richard Boardman at the µ-VIS X-ray Imaging Centre.

The research builds upon findings from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council funded Photonic fiber technologies for solar fuels catalysis (EP/N013883/1).

Professor Robert Raja, study co-author and Professor of Materials Chemistry and Catalysis, says: "Over the past 15 years, we have pioneered the development of a predictive platform for the design of multifunctional nanocatalysts and we are excited this partnership with the ORC will lead to multiscale developments in photonics and catalysis."Leap in performance sees hollow-core fiber technology close in on mainstream optical fiber

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More information: Matthew E. Potter et al. Combining Photocatalysis and Optical Fiber Technology toward Improved Microreactor Design for Hydrogen Generation with Metallic Nanoparticles, ACS Photonics (2020). DOI: 10.1021/acsphotonics.9b01577

Journal information: ACS Photonics 

Italy's doctors look for help from sleek new robots

by Miguel Medina

One of the six robots at the Circolo di Varese hospital in northern Italy checks 

up on a patient in the intensive care unit, helping medical staff reduce the risk 

of direct contact

The shiny new robots gently check the pulses of highly infectious patients on life support in the Italian epicentre of COVID-19.

The doctors and nurses love them because they also help save their own lives.

Italians have seen the world around them turn unrecognisable from the various lockdowns and social distancing measures used to fight the new coronavirus outbreak.

But little appears to have pained them as much as seeing dozens of doctors and nurses die while trying to save the tens of thousands of patients who have suddenly ended up in hospitals across Italy's pandemic-hit north.

The country's medical association said Friday that at least 70 medics have died from various causes since Italy recorded the first official COVID-19 death on February 21.

The fear is that an overwhelmingly majority of the 70 would still be alive today had they been better protected against the coronavirus.

This helps explain why the doctors are nurses in a hospital near Italy's mountainous border with Switzerland are laughing behind their facemasks while posing for photos with their new robot friends.

The Varese hospital has received six of the sleek and slightly human looking machines on wheels.

A nurse (left) operates a robot used to check up on seriously ill coronavirus 

patients in Varese, northern Italy.

Some are white and have screens and various sensors in place of a human head.

Others are simpler and look a little like a black broomstick on wheels.

The doctors say the robots bring smiles from the younger patients.

But their real purpose is to help save doctors from both catching and spreading the disease.

"Robots are tireless assistants that can't get infected, that can't get sick," said the Circolo Hospital's intensive care unit director Francesco Dentali.

"Doctors and nurses have been hit hard by this virus. The fact that the robots can't get infected is a great achievement."

The readings from the machines allows medics to stay out of the intensive care units and monitor patients' vital signs on computer screens in separate rooms.

Italy's death toll, the worst globally, has reached 14,681 and is on course to top 15,000 this weekend.

Medical staff in Varese, northern Italy, with Ivo the robot who helps them treat 

seriously ill coronavirus patients and reduce the risk of them getting infected

Doctors doubt the official figures and think the real number of dead may be twice as high in Varese's Lombardy region.

Italy is expected to remain under a general lockdown at least through the end month.

US disaster group opens camp hospital in Italy's north

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© 2020 AFP

Anterior insula activation restores prosocial behavior in animal model of opioid addiction

by Arizona State University

Credit: CC0 Public Domain

A new study in animals suggests that the social and interpersonal problems associated with opioid addiction might be reversible.

Researchers in the Arizona State University Department of Psychology previously used an animal model of opioid addiction and empathy to show that animals stopped prosocial behaviors—helping another animal—when heroin was available. The same research group has now shown that activating the anterior insula restored prosocial behaviors in opioid-addicted animals. The study will be published in Social Neuroscience and is now available online.

"As a master's student, I led support groups for opioid addicts, and the biggest problems people wanted help dealing with were social. Our finding in an animal model of opioid addiction that chemogenetic activation of the anterior insula restores prosocial behavior suggests a glimmer of hope that some of the social behavioral deficits in opioid addiction are not permanent," said Seven Tomek, who just defended her doctoral dissertation at ASU. Tomek is first author on the paper and received training in substance abuse treatment while earning her master's in clinical psychology from the University of North Carolina, Wilmington.

To measure prosocial behavior, the researchers trained animals to free another animal that was trapped in a clear plastic tube. The animals had access to heroin for two weeks and then were given the choice of consuming heroin or helping another animal. Like before, the animals again chose heroin over helping another.

To try and restore the prosocial behaviors in the animals, the research team targeted a brain region involved in both prosocial behaviors like helping and addictive behaviors like craving: the anterior insula.

"We designed our animal study based on work in people showing that damage in the anterior insula area—from a stroke for example—was correlated with easily quitting cigarette smoking," Tomek said. "This brain area is also important for motivation and emotions in people."

The insula is nicknamed the "hidden lobe" because it is tucked underneath the brain's frontal, parietal and temporal lobes. This location makes access difficult, so the research team used chemogenetic methods—called Designer Receptors Exclusively Activated by Designer Drugs, or DREADDs for short—to selectively activate the anterior insula in the animals. Using DREADDs is like installing a smart lock on specific neurons, and then only granting access the lock when scientists want to activate the neurons. The DREADD method inserts mutant receptors into neurons, and those receptors can only be activated by a chemical that is not naturally present in the body.

"Once we activated the excitatory DREADD in the anterior insula, the animals started rescuing the trapped animals again," Tomek said.

The research team tested the role of anterior insula activation twice. In the first experiment, the animals who underwent DREADD activation helped other animals 67% of the time when heroin was available. The control group only helped other animals 17% of the time. In the second experiment, activation of the anterior insula was again associated with helping other animals 67% of the time. The second control group helped other animals 44% of the time.

"This work demonstrates an important role for the anterior insula in opioid addiction and shows the possibilities of changing a social behavior that has been compromised by drug use," said Foster Olive, professor of psychology at ASU and senior author on the paper.

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Explore further

Activating parts of the brain could help alleviate opioid-related social isolation

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More information: Seven E. Tomek et al, Restoration of prosocial behavior in rats after heroin self-administration via chemogenetic activation of the anterior insular cortex, Social Neuroscience (2020). DOI: 10.1080/17470919.2020.1746394

Provided by Arizona State 

Plant root hairs key to reducing soil erosion

by University of Bristol

Credit: University of Bristol

The tiny hairs found on plant roots play a pivotal role in helping reduce soil erosion, a new study has found. The research, led by the University of Bristol and published in Communications Biology, provides compelling evidence that when root hairs interact with the surrounding soil they reduce soil erosion and increase soil cohesion by binding soil particles.

Soil erosion can have a devastating impact across the globe and a serious threat for modern agriculture. The increased demand for agriculture has led to forests and natural grasslands being converted to farm fields and pastures.

However, many of the plants grown, such as coffee, cotton and palm oil, can significantly increase soil erosion beyond the soil's ability to maintain and renovate. It can also lead to increased pollution and sedimentation in streams and rivers or, because these areas are often less able to hold onto water, can worsen flooding. This problem is particularly urgent considering the ever-expanding human population and climate change.

Researchers from the Universities of Bristol and Exeter have revealed the crucial function the microscopic roots hairs play in binding and reinforcing soil.

While the larger-scale root properties such as diameter, length and surface area have been extensively studied to understand their role in preventing soil erosion, the effect that micro-scale properties, such as root hairs, has is less well documented.

The research team looked at how wild plants Arabidopsis thaliana, which produced root hairs, compared with an almost identical Arabidopsis with the same root hair structure in reducing soil erosion.

They found that, when planted in sufficient density, plants with root hairs reduced soil loss almost completely—while otherwise identical plants without hairs could not stem the flow of erosion.

Three methods were used to explore the soil retention benefits of root hairs. First, the samples were placed in a sterile gel, in a petri dish, and then subjected to increasing centrifugal force. The study found that the hairless seedlings were easier to remove from the gel compared to seedlings abundant with root hairs.

Second, the study found that root hairs were also shown to stabilise the plant in the soil, as they increased the force needed to uproot the plant.

Third, in the experimental landscapes laboratory at Exeter, root hairs reduced water erosion to almost zero.

Professor Claire Grierson, one of the study's lead authors from Bristol's School of Biological Sciences explained: "These findings could be the key in helping to tackle soil erosion. There are three possible ways root hairs could enhance soil, either the soil might bind directly to root hair surfaces, root hairs might release material that reinforces soil, or root hairs might release material that is processed by microbes into something that can reinforce soil.

"We hope our knowledge about the properties of plants that minimise soil erosion will allow the creation and selection of best-suited agricultural plants."

Professor Quine, an expert in Earth System Science at the University of Exeter, added: "This exciting, truly interdisciplinary project across biology, maths, engineering and environmental science has given us invaluable new insights into the influence of microscopic root structures on the macroscopic behavior of soils.

"I was amazed at the difference that root density made in reducing soil erosion to almost zero, when root density was high, whereas soil loss was still significant when roots at the same density had no hairs.

"We are excited to explore how the hairs exert this extraordinary influence."

The team are now working to distinguish between these hypotheses and identify the molecules involved.

How roots grow hair

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More information: Sarah De Baets et al. Micro-scale interactions between Arabidopsis root hairs and soil particles influence soil erosion, Communications Biology (2020). DOI: 10.1038/s42003-020-0886-4

Journal information: Communications Biology 

Clues to COVID-19 coronavirus's vulnerability emerge from an antibody against SARS

by The Scripps Research Institute

Antibody CR3022 bound to the receptor binding domain of SARS2-CoV-2. Credit: Meng Yuan and Nicholas Wu

An antibody recovered from a survivor of the SARS epidemic in the early 2000s has revealed a potential vulnerability of the new coronavirus at the root of COVID-19, according to a study from scientists at Scripps Research.

The study, published today in Science, is the first to map a human antibody's interaction with the new coronavirus at near-atomic-scale resolution. Although the antibody was produced in response to an infection of SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome), which is caused by the SARS-CoV virus, it cross-reacts with the new coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2.

The structural mapping revealed a nearly identical site on both coronaviruses to which the antibody binds, suggesting a functionally important and vulnerable site for this family of coronaviruses.

"The knowledge of conserved sites like this can aid in structure-based design of vaccines and therapeutics against SARS-CoV-2, and these would also protect against other coronaviruses—including those that may emerge in the future," says the study's senior author Ian Wilson, DPhil, Hansen Professor of Structural Biology and Chair of the Department of Integrative Structural and Computational Biology at Scripps Research.

SARS-CoV, which causes SARS, originated in horseshoe bats, but jumped to humans in South China in 2002, eventually infecting more than 8,000 people and killing almost 800 before it was quelled by lockdowns, quarantines and other measures.

SARS-CoV-2, a closely related coronavirus that causes COVID-19, first emerged in the Chinese city of Wuhan in late 2019. Much more infectious than its viral cousin, it has led to a pandemic, causing far more cases of illness and fatalities than SARS. The development of a vaccine or even an effective treatment could significantly ameliorate the crisis.

The Wilson lab is known for its pioneering structural studies of antibodies bound to viruses including HIV and influenza. These studies have been used to inform designs of vaccines and antibody drugs, as well as other therapeutics. Along with hundreds of other labs around the world, Wilson's team is now focused on SARS-CoV-2.

"Our ultimate goal here is to obtain structural information on antibodies and their binding sites, and use that to guide SARS-CoV-2 vaccine design, just as our lab has done with influenza and HIV," says the study's co-first author Nicholas Wu, Ph.D., a postdoctoral research associate in the Wilson lab.

The new study centers on an anti-SARS-CoV antibody called CR3022 that was originally isolated in 2006 by the pharmaceutical company Crucell Holland B.V. in the Netherlands. A report from Chinese scientists earlier this year indicated that CR3022 cross-reacts against SARS-CoV-2. Wilson's team used their structural mapping expertise to determine how the antibody binds to SARS-CoV-2.

A key finding is that the antibody's binding site is highly similar between the two coronaviruses—differing by just four protein building blocks called amino-acids. That high degree of similarity implies that the site has an important function that would be lost if it mutated significantly.

Yet, the site's function remains mysterious. The Scripps Research analysis found that the antibody binding site is relatively remote from the part of the virus that grabs hold of cell-surface protein receptors in preparation for penetrating cells in our lungs. That suggests that, at least for SARS-CoV, CR3002 neutralizes the virus's ability to infect cells in some indirect way.

Adding to the mystery is the finding that the antibody binding site on these viruses is not normally accessible to antibodies.

"We found that this region is usually hidden inside the virus, and only exposed when that part of the virus changes its structure, as it would in natural infection," says co-first author Meng Yuan, Ph.D., also a research associate in the Wilson lab.

Despite the slightness of difference between the two coronaviruses, the antibody binds much less tightly to SARS-CoV-2 than it does to the SARS virus, and cannot neutralize SARS-CoV-2 in lab dish tests as it does SARS-CoV.

Still, the findings suggest that the binding site for this antibody on SARS-CoV-2 is a site of vulnerability, and that antibodies binding it more tightly would plausibly succeed in neutralizing the virus. Such neutralizing antibodies, if developed into therapies, could be used to treat COVID-19 patients and to provide temporary protection from the virus to uninfected individuals, for example healthcare workers.

The fact that this binding site is highly conserved between SARS-CoV and SARS-CoV-2 also hints that there may be antibodies, still to be discovered, that can effectively neutralize both viruses—and perhaps in the same way, can neutralize future emergent coronaviruses before they can cause pandemics.

Labs at Scripps Research and throughout the world are currently seeking antibodies, via blood donations, from people who have recovered from COVID-19 for further studies along these lines.How the novel coronavirus binds to human cells

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More information: Meng Yuan et al. A highly conserved cryptic epitope in the receptor-binding domains of SARS-CoV-2 and SARS-CoV, (2020). DOI: 10.1101/2020.03.13.991570

Alphabet's DeepMind masters Atari games

I MASTERED THEM TOO DIDN'T YOU

by Peter Grad , Tech Xplore

Illustration of the mean, median and 5th percentile performance of two hypothetical agents on the same benchmark set of 20 tasks. Credit: Google

In order to better solve complex challenges at the dawn of the third decade of the 21st century, Alphabet Inc. has tapped into relics dating to the 1980s: video games.

The parent company of Google reported this week that its DeepMind Technologies Artificial Intelligence unit has successfully learned how to play 57 Atari video games. And the computer system plays better than any human.

Atari, creator of Pong, one of the first successful video games of the 1970s, went on to popularize many of the great early classic video games into the 1990s. Video games are commonly used with AI projects because they challenge algorithms to navigate increasingly complex paths and options, all while encountering changing scenarios, threats and rewards.

Dubbed AGENT57, Alphabet's AI system probed 57 leading Atari games covering a huge range of difficulty levels and varying strategies of success.

"Games are an excellent testing ground for building adaptive algorithms," the researchers said in a report on the DeepMind blog page. "They provide a rich suite of tasks which players must develop sophisticated behavioral strategies to master, but they also provide an easy progress metric —game score—to optimize against.

"The ultimate goal is not to develop systems that excel at games, but rather to use games as a stepping stone for developing systems that learn to excel at a broad set of challenges," the report said.

DeepMind's AlphaGo system earned wide recognition in 2016 when it beat world champion Lee Sedol in the strategic game of Go.

Among the current crop of 57 Atari games, four are considered especially difficult for AI projects to master: Montezuma's Revenge, Pitfall, Solaris and Skiing. The first two games pose what DeepMind calls the perplexing "exploration-exploitation problem."

"Should one keep performing behaviors one knows works (exploit), or should one try something new (explore) to discover new strategies that might be even more successful?" DeepMind asks. "For example, should one always order their same favorite dish at a local restaurant, or try something new that might surpass the old favorite? Exploration involves taking many suboptimal actions to gather the information necessary to discover an ultimately stronger behavior."

The other two challenging games impose long waiting times between challenges and rewards, making it more difficult for AI systems to successful analyze.

Previous efforts to master the four games with AI all failed.

The report says there is still room for improvement. For one, long computational times remain an issue. Also, while acknowledging that "the longer it trained, the higher its score got," DeepMind researchers want Agent57 to do better. They want it to master multiple games simultaneously; currently, it can learn only one game at a time and it must go through training each time it restarts a game.

Ultimately, DeepMind researchers foresee a program that can apply human-like decision-making choices while encountering ever-changing and previously unseen challenges.

"True versatility, which comes so easily to a human infant, is still far beyond AIs' reach," the report concluded.

Atari master: New AI smashes Google DeepMind in video game challenge

"The ultima
te goal is not to develop systems that excel at games, but rather to use games as a stepping stone for developing systems that learn to excel at a broad set of challenges," the report said.DeepMind's AlphaGo system earned wide recognition in 2016 when it beat world champion Lee Sedol in the strategic game of Go.Among the current crop of 57 Atari games, four are considered especially difficult for AI projects to master: Montezuma's Revenge, Pitfall, Solaris and Skiing. The first two games pose what DeepMind calls the perplexing "exploration-exploitation problem."

"Should one keep performing behaviors one knows works (exploit), or should one try something new (explore) to discover new strategies that might be even more successful?" DeepMind asks. "For example, should one always order their same favorite dish at a local restaurant, or try something new that might surpass the old favorite? Exploration involves taking many suboptimal actions to gather the information necessary to discover an ultimately stronger behavior."The other two challenging games impose long waiting times between challenges and rewards, making it more difficult for AI systems to successful analyze.Previous efforts to master the four games with AI all failed.

The report says there is still room for improvement. For one, long computational times remain an issue. Also, while acknowledging that "the longer it trained, the higher its score got," DeepMind researchers want Agent57 to do better. They want it to master multiple games simultaneously; currently, it can learn only one game at a time and it must go through training each time it restarts a game.Ultimately, DeepMind researchers foresee a program that can apply human-like decision-making choices while encountering ever-changing and previously unseen challenges."True versatility, which comes so easily to a human infant, is still far beyond AIs' reach," the report concluded.Atari master: New AI smashes Google DeepMind in video game challenge