Space station motors make a robotic prosthetic leg more comfortable, extend battery life

UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN

A new robotic prosthetic leg prototype offers a more natural gait while also being quieter and more energy efficient than other designs.

The key is the use of new small and powerful motors, originally designed for a robotic arm on the International Space Station. The streamlined design offers a free-swinging knee and regenerative braking, which charges the battery with energy captured when the foot hits the ground. This feature enables the leg to more than double a typical prosthetic user's walking needs with one charge per day.

"Our prosthetic leg consumes approximately half the battery power of state-of-art robotic legs, yet can produce more force," said Robert Gregg, an associate professor of electrical and computer engineering at the University of Michigan and a member of the U-M Robotics Institute, who led the study while at the University of Texas at Dallas. Gregg moved to U-M last year.

Using conventional prosthetics, amputees must raise their hips to lift the prosthetic foot from the floor and swing the leg forward. This unnatural gait takes more energy than ordinary walking, causes extra stress and pain in the hips and lower back, and eventually damages the joints. Robotic legs have the potential to provide a much more comfortable gait, but one of their drawbacks is stiffness in the joints.

"We designed our joints to be as compliant, or flexible, as possible," said Toby Elery, first author of the study and recent doctoral graduate from UT Dallas. "Our robotic leg can perform and even react like a human joint would, enabling a naturally free-swinging knee and shock absorption when contacting the ground."

Motors in robotic legs need to fit into the space that an ordinary limb would take up. In the past, this has meant using small motors that spin quickly, and then using a series of gears to convert the fast spin into a more powerful force.

The problem is that the gears are noisy, inefficient, add weight and make it harder for the joints to swing. Gregg's group surmounted this by incorporating two of those stronger space station motors, one powering the knee and the other powering the ankle.

There are many benefits to using fewer gears. In addition to enabling the free-swinging knee, removing gears brought the noise level down from the scale of a vacuum cleaner to a refrigerator. Also, the regenerative braking absorbs some of the shock when the prosthetic foot hits the ground.

"If the joints are stiff or rigid, the force is transferred to the residual limb, and that can be painful," Gregg said. "Instead, we use that force to charge the battery."

The amputees who test drive the prosthetics in Gregg's lab say they can feel the leg helping them push off the ground as they walk.

"In some cases, they have observed that they feel like muscles in their hips and back are working less with our leg, compared to their conventional leg," Gregg said. "We're able to reduce compensations at the hips."

The team's next step is to improve the control algorithms that can help the leg automatically adjust to different terrain, changes in pace and transitions between different types of activity.

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The study is published in the journal IEEE Transactions on Robotics. It was funded by the National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation and Burroughs Wellcome Fund.

UT Dallas and U-M are jointly pursuing patent protection. As Gregg continues his work, U-M Tech Transfer is actively seeking commercial partners to help bring the technology to market.

Image: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1cpdYr

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GRT7FF2eVwU

Study abstract: Design and validation of a powered knee-ankle prosthesis with high-torque, low-impedance actuators

Robert Gregg

"Alexa, go to the kitchen and fetch me a snack"

New model aims to give robots human-like perception of their physical environments.

MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY

 

Wouldn't we all appreciate a little help around the house, especially if that help came in the form of a smart, adaptable, uncomplaining robot? Sure, there are the one-trick Roombas of the appliance world. But MIT engineers are envisioning robots more like home helpers, able to follow high-level, Alexa-type commands, such as "Go to the kitchen and fetch me a coffee cup."

To carry out such high-level tasks, researchers believe robots will have to be able to perceive their physical environment as humans do.

"In order to make any decision in the world, you need to have a mental model of the environment around you," says Luca Carlone, assistant professor of aeronautics and astronautics at MIT. "This is something so effortless for humans.

But for robots it's a painfully hard problem, where it's about transforming pixel values that they see through a camera, into an understanding of the world." Now Carlone and his students have developed a representation of spatial perception for robots that is modeled after the way humans perceive and navigate the world.

The new model, which they call 3D Dynamic Scene Graphs, enables a robot to quickly generate a 3D map of its surroundings that also includes objects and their semantic labels (a chair versus a table, for instance), as well as people, rooms, walls, and other structures that the robot is likely seeing in its environment.

The model also allows the robot to extract relevant information from the 3D map, to query the location of objects and rooms, or the movement of people in its path.

"This compressed representation of the environment is useful because it allows our robot to quickly make decisions and plan its path," Carlone says. "This is not too far from what we do as humans. If you need to plan a path from your home to MIT, you don't plan every single position you need to take. You just think at the level of streets and landmarks, which helps you plan your route faster."

Beyond domestic helpers, Carlone says robots that adopt this new kind of mental model of the environment may also be suited for other high-level jobs, such as working side by side with people on a factory floor or exploring a disaster site for survivors.

He and his students, including lead author and MIT graduate student Antoni Rosinol, will present their findings this week at the Robotics: Science and Systems virtual conference.

A mapping mix

At the moment, robotic vision and navigation has advanced mainly along two routes: 3D mapping that enables robots to reconstruct their environment in three dimensions as they explore in real time; and semantic segmentation, which helps a robot classify features in its environment as semantic objects, such as a car versus a bicycle, which so far is mostly done on 2D images.

Carlone and Rosinol's new model of spatial perception is the first to generate a 3D map of the environment in real-time, while also labeling objects, people (which are dynamic, contrary to objects), and structures within that 3D map.

The key component of the team's new model is Kimera, an open-source library that the team previously developed to simultaneously construct a 3D geometric model of an environment, while encoding the likelihood that an object is, say, a chair versus a desk.

"Like the mythical creature that is a mix of different animals, we wanted Kimera to be a mix of mapping and semantic understanding in 3D," Carlone says.

Kimera works by taking in streams of images from a robot's camera, as well as inertial measurements from onboard sensors, to estimate the trajectory of the robot or camera and to reconstruct the scene as a 3D mesh, all in real-time.

To generate a semantic 3D mesh, Kimera uses an existing neural network trained on millions of real-world images, to predict the label of each pixel, and then projects these labels in 3D using a technique known as ray-casting, commonly used in computer graphics for real-time rendering.

The result is a map of a robot's environment that resembles a dense, three-dimensional mesh, where each face is color-coded as part of the objects, structures, and people within the environment.

A layered scene

If a robot were to rely on this mesh alone to navigate through its environment, it would be a computationally expensive and time-consuming task. So the researchers built off Kimera, developing algorithms to construct 3D dynamic "scene graphs" from Kimera's initial, highly dense, 3D semantic mesh.

Scene graphs are popular computer graphics models that manipulate and render complex scenes, and are typically used in video game engines to represent 3D environments.

In the case of the 3D dynamic scene graphs, the associated algorithms abstract, or break down, Kimera's detailed 3D semantic mesh into distinct semantic layers, such that a robot can "see" a scene through a particular layer, or lens. The layers progress in hierarchy from objects and people, to open spaces and structures such as walls and ceilings, to rooms, corridors, and halls, and finally whole buildings.

Carlone says this layered representation avoids a robot having to make sense of billions of points and faces in the original 3D mesh.

Within the layer of objects and people, the researchers have also been able to develop algorithms that track the movement and the shape of humans in the environment in real time.

The team tested their new model in a photo-realistic simulator, developed in collaboration with MIT Lincoln Laboratory, that simulates a robot navigating through a dynamic office environment filled with people moving around.

"We are essentially enabling robots to have mental models similar to the ones humans use," Carlone says. "This can impact many applications, including self-driving cars, search and rescue, collaborative manufacturing, and domestic robotics.

Another domain is virtual and augmented reality (AR). Imagine wearing AR goggles that run our algorithm: The goggles would be able to assist you with queries such as 'Where did I leave my red mug?' and 'What is the closest exit?'

You can think about it as an Alexa which is aware of the environment around you and understands objects, humans, and their relations."

"Our approach has just been made possible thanks to recent advances in deep learning and decades of research on simultaneous localization and mapping," Rosinol says. "With this work, we are making the leap toward a new era of robotic perception called spatial-AI, which is just in its infancy but has great potential in robotics and large-scale virtual and augmented reality."

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This research was funded, in part, by the Army Research Laboratory, the Office of Naval Research, and MIT Lincoln Laboratory.

Additional background

Paper: "3D Dynamic scene graphs: Actionable spatial perception with places, objects, and humans" https://roboticsconference.org/program/papers/79/

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SWbofjhyPzI

Invasive hedgehogs and ferrets habituate to and categorize smells

Understanding predator hunting behavior and strategies is key to protecting vulnerable native species

ECOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA

 

IMAGE: A WILD INVASIVE HEDGEHOG, CAPTURED FOR THE DURATION OF THIS EXPERIMENT, SMELLS THE JAR IN ITS ENCLOSURE. view more 

CREDIT: GRANT NORBURY

To catch a thief, the saying goes, you have to think like a thief. The same is true for invasive predators: to foil their depredations on native wildlife, scientists have to understand how they think.

A new study published in the Ecological Society of America's journal Ecological Applications examines how invasive mammalian predators both habituate to and generalize avian prey cues. Dr. Price and her team at Manaaki Whenua Landcare Research studied the behavior of ferrets and hedgehogs--invasive mammals in New Zealand--in an outdoor enclosure experiment to understand how they hunt avian prey. The discovery could have conservation applications for protecting native bird species.

Previous research has established that "chemical camouflage" could be an effective way to deter invasive species from harming vulnerable bird populations: scientists can distribute appealing bird odors near nests before eggs appear, so that the predator eventually starts ignoring the smell--even after tasty eggs become available.

This study goes a step further, showing that invasive predators not only learn to pinpoint (or ignore) certain smells that are associated with food--they can also classify similar smells into groups.

"We are trying to understand how these predators have been so effective at destroying the native fauna," says Catherine Price, a postdoctoral research associate at the University of Sydney and the study's lead author. "We are researching new ways to exploit behavioral patterns and traits to understand why native species are so vulnerable and how to protect them."

In New Zealand, invasive mammalian predators have devastated local bird populations, especially of the wrybill, double-banded plover, kak?, and black-fronted tern, whose populations nest at the same time and in similar locations. Such nesting colonies are the proverbial sitting duck: with no defenses, small numbers of predators like ferrets and hedgehogs can essentially wipe out nearly a generation with very little effort.

Hedgehogs and ferrets are generalists. Ferrets mainly hunt rabbits but will not turn down an easy meal of eggs or chicks. Hedgehogs eat mostly invertebrates and berries but also love eggs, especially right out of hibernation when they are especially hungry.

Price wanted to understand how the predators seek out bird colonies. While humans are primarily visual, many other animals--including ferrets and hedgehogs--draw more information from other senses, including their sense of smell.

"Because humans aren't olfactory species, we don't often think about odor," Price said. "But these predators are very sensitive to odor, and to the costs of odor. They respond very quickly if a hunting tactic--like following a certain odor--isn't working."

Price and her team captured local ferrets and hedgehogs and ran them through a series of controlled treatments in outdoor enclosures resembling their natural habitat to examine how these predators categorize smells--whether they group smells of similar types of birds together--and how and whether they habituate to smells. This is the first time this kind of research has been done on these predators in a controlled outdoor setting.

A wild ferret, captured for this experiment and then released, investigates scent in a jar placed in its pen. Researchers used cameras to monitor the predators' nightly activity. Ferrets hunt primarily rabbits, but will eat eggs or chicks if they find them.

The question of categorization reveals a substantial amount about the hunting strategies and priorities of the predator. Separating smells into individual species requires an investment that might not always be merited. In some cases, it is sufficient for ferrets or hedgehogs to simply sniff out a broad category of prey, such as "ground-nesting bird with eggs this time of year," but knowing exactly what kind of bird they are smelling is irrelevant.

"The idea that animals are grouping prey together by smell is exciting," Price said. "We never assumed wild animals did that before, and now we've shown that they can do this using smell."

The team discovered that ferrets generalized the avian smells (in this case gulls and quail) but the hedgehogs did not. In many ways, this makes sense: ferrets consume lots of prey besides bird species, so distinguishing between bird smells may not be worth a ferret's time or energy. Seasonality may also have played a role. In the experiment, hedgehogs were getting ready to go into hibernation, making them especially motivated to find high-quality meals easily.

This finding indicates it might be possible to protect bird colonies by distributing bird smell around the area. If an entire area were saturated with the smell of a nesting ground species, it could protect a nesting colony. Predators would become accustomed to the smell and ignore it, seeking out other prey.

Kaki, or black stilt (Himantopus himantopus) like this one are a ground-nesting bird species native to New Zealand whose population is threatened by invasive species. Chemical camouflage like that in Dr. Price's experiment may help protect their population, which is critically endangered.

"Understanding how predators group smell is important because if they generalize, we don't have to actually put out the smell of the bird we're protecting; we can put out chicken or quail odors that we can easily get in abundance," Price said.

Understanding how invasive predators hunt and think gives scientists and conservationists an edge in protecting native prey. Further studies may reveal more ways to protect native populations by exploiting predators' behaviors.

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Journal article:Price, Catherine, et al. 2020. "Invasive mammalian predators habituate to and generalize avian prey cues: a mechanism for conserving native prey." Ecological Applications. DOI: doi.org/10.1002/eap.2200

Authors:Catherine J Price, Peter B Banks; School of Life and Environmental Sciences, The University of Sydney, Camperdown, New South Wales, Australia
Samantha Brown, Cecilia Latham, A. David M. Latham, Roger P. Pech, Grant L. Norbury; Manaaki Whenua Landcare Research, Lincoln, New Zealand

Author contact:Catherine Price (catherine.price@sydney.edu.au">catherine.price@sydney.edu.au)

Common FDA-approved drug may effectively neutralize virus that causes COVID-19

Heparin could be used as a decoy to prevent SARS-CoV-2 from infecting human cells

RENSSELAER POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE

 

IMAGE: BUT HEPARIN, A BLOOD THINNER ALSO AVAILABLE IN NON-ANTICOAGULANT VARIETIES, BINDS TIGHTLY WITH THE SURFACE SPIKE PROTEIN ON SARS-COV-2, POTENTIALLY BLOCKING THE INFECTION FROM HAPPENING. view more 

CREDIT: RENSSELAER POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE

TROY, N.Y. -- A common drug, already approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), may also be a powerful tool in fighting COVID-19, according to research published this week in Antiviral Research.

SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, uses a surface spike protein to latch onto human cells and initiate infection. But heparin, a blood thinner also available in non-anticoagulant varieties, binds tightly with the surface spike protein, potentially blocking the infection from happening. This makes it a decoy, which might be introduced into the body using a nasal spray or nebulizer and run interference to lower the odds of infection. Similar decoy strategies have already shown promise in curbing other viruses, including influenza A, Zika, and dengue.

"This approach could be used as an early intervention to reduce the infection among people who have tested positive, but aren't yet suffering symptoms. But we also see this as part of a larger antiviral strategy," said Robert Linhardt, lead author and a professor of chemistry and chemical biology at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. "Ultimately, we want a vaccine, but there are many ways to combat a virus, and as we've seen with HIV, with the right combination of therapies, we can control the disease until a vaccine is found."

To infect a cell, a virus must first latch onto a specific target on the cell surface, slice through the cell membrane, and insert its own genetic instructions, hijacking the cellular machinery within to produce replicas of the virus. But the virus could just as easily be persuaded to lock onto a decoy molecule, provided that molecule offers the same fit as the cellular target. Once bound to a decoy, the virus would be neutralized, unable to infect a cell or free itself, and would eventually degrade.

In humans, SARS-CoV-2 binds to an ACE2 receptor, and the researchers hypothesized that heparin would offer an equally attractive target. In a binding assay, the researchers found that heparin bound to the trimeric SARS-CoV-2 spike protein at 73 picomoles, a measure of the interaction between the two molecules.

"That's exceptional, extremely tight binding," said Jonathan Dordick, a chemical and biological engineering professor at Rensselaer who is collaborating with Linhardt to develop the decoy strategy. "It's hundreds of thousands of times tighter than a typical antibody antigen. Once it binds, it's not going to come off."

To hear Linhardt and Dordick discuss this research, watch this video.

Internationally recognized for his creation of synthetic heparin, Linhardt said that, in reviewing sequencing data for SARS-CoV-2, the team recognized certain motifs on the spike protein and strongly suspected it would bind to heparin. In addition to the direct binding assay, the team tested how strongly three heparin variants -- including a non-anticoagulant low molecular weight heparin -- bind to SARS-CoV-2, and used computational modeling to determine the specific sites where the compounds bind to the virus. All the results confirm heparin as a promising candidate for the decoy strategy. The researchers have subsequently initiated work on assessments of antiviral activity and cytotoxicity in mammalian cells.

"This isn't the only virus that we're going to confront in a pandemic," Dordick said. "We don't really have great antivirals, but this is a pathway forward. We need to be in a position where we understand how things like heparin and related compounds can block virus entry."

In previous work, a team led by Linhardt and Dordick demonstrated the decoy strategy on viruses with a mechanism similar to SARS-CoV-2. In 2019, the team created a trap for dengue virus, attaching specific aptamers -- molecules the viral latches will bind to -- precisely to the tips and vertices of a five-pointed star made of folded DNA. Floating in the bloodstream, the trap lights up when sprung, creating the world's most sensitive test for mosquito-borne diseases. In work prior to that, they created a synthetic polymer configured to match the sialic acid latch points on influenza virus, reducing influenza A mortality in mice from 100% to 25% over 14 days.

"This innovative approach to effectively trapping virusus is a prime example of how biotechnology approaches developed at Rensselaer are being brought forward to address challenging global health problems," said Deepak Vashishth, the director of the Center for Biotechnology and Interdisciplinary Studies at Rensselaer, of which both Dordick and Linhardt are a part. "Professors Dordick and Linhardt have worked collaboratively across disciplines, and their research shows promise even beyond this current pandemic."

"Characterization of glycosaminoglycan and novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) spike glycoprotein binding interactions" was published in Antiviral Research. At Rensselaer, Linhardt and Dordick were joined on the research by Fuming Zhang, and also by researchers at the University of California San Diego, Duke University, and the University of George, Athens with support from the National Institutes of Health.

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About Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

Founded in 1824, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute is America's first technological research university. Rensselaer encompasses five schools, 32 research centers, more than 145 academic programs, and a dynamic community made up of more than 7,900 students and over 100,000 living alumni. Rensselaer faculty and alumni include more than 145 National Academy members, six members of the National Inventors Hall of Fame, six National Medal of Technology winners, five National Medal of Science winners, and a Nobel Prize winner in Physics. With nearly 200 years of experience advancing scientific and technological knowledge, Rensselaer remains focused on addressing global challenges with a spirit of ingenuity and collaboration. To learn more, please visit http://www.rpi.edu.

UCalgary research study finds MRI effective in predicting major cardiac events

MRI can detect risk of heart failure and death in those with dilated cardiomyopathy

UNIVERSITY OF CALGARY

 

Heart Failure impacts between three to four per cent of the general population. While commonly related to heart attacks it can also be due to a condition called dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM), a disease characterized by an enlarged and weak heart muscle that can't efficiently pump blood.

An international, multi-centre study led by Dr. James White, MD, a clinician and researcher at the University of Calgary's Cumming School of Medicine (CSM), has revealed magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) can be used to predict major cardiac events for people diagnosed DCM.

White's study, published in Circulation Cardiovascular Imaging, confirms about 40 per cent of patients with DCM have scarring patterns on their heart muscle which can be seen with MRI. These patterns are associated with higher risk of future heart failure admissions, life-threatening heart rhythms and death.

The study, which was the largest ever-conducted using MRI in patients with DCM, also shows that cardiac MRI can play an important role in guiding the care of individual patients with heart failure. White says that treating patients with DCM is challenging because there is a lack of understanding into what causes the disease, and why patients respond differently to the available treatments.

"We have tended to think of dilated cardiomyopathy as one type of heart disease and that all patients should respond the same way, but we are learning that it is a collection of disease states that affect each patient differently," says White, explaining those that don't respond well to treatments are more prone to cardiac arrest, which kills about 35,000 Canadians annually. "The purpose of our study was to see if we could find individual patient features that can help us prescribe life-saving therapies, such as the implantable cardioverter defibrillator."

White and his team assembled the MINICOR (Multimodal International Cardiovascular Outcomes Registry) group, which involves 12 centres from Canada, the United States, Spain and Italy, to provide researchers access to highly standardized data collected from patients around the world with the goal of promoting personalized care for patients with cardiovascular disease.

"We can have a much greater impact on patient care and on clinical practice in general when we work together," says White "The true benefit of initiatives like this is our ability to test innovative ideas quickly and show they can work in different health-care systems and patient populations. This is the unique power of multi-national collaborations."

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The results of this study could lead to trials looking at how patients at higher risk may benefit from more intensive treatments.

James White, MD, PhD, is a Professor in the departments of Cardiac Sciences, Radiology and Medicine and a member of the Libin Cardiovascular Institute at the Cumming School of Medicine.

Two new species of parasite discovered in crabs -- discovery will help prevent infection of other marine species

SWANSEA UNIVERSITY

 

IMAGE: (A). PHASE-CONTRAST MICROGRAPH SHOWING MONONUCLEATED HAPLOSPORIDIANS IN THE HAEMOLYMPH OF AN INFECTED CRAB. NOTE UNUSUAL CHROMATIN ARRANGEMENT (UNLABELLED ARROWS). (B). UNINUCLEATE HAPLOSPORIDIANS IN THE TERMINAL VESSEL OF A GILL LAMELLA.... view more 

CREDIT: BLUEFISH PROJECT/SWANSEA UNIVERSITY

Swansea University researchers have discovered two new species of parasite, previously unknown to science, in crabs in Swansea Bay, during a study on disease in the Celtic and Irish Seas.

Both species are emerging pathogens, and were discovered infecting the common shore crab, so they could potentially have damaging effects on fisheries and other marine species. The researchers' discovery will help inform measures to reduce this risk.

The common European shore crab is native to the UK, Ireland and the north east Atlantic. It shares this habitat with many commercially important species such as the edible crab and several lobster species.

The shore crab is also an invasive species in other countries as it can survive in a wide range of different environments, potentially carrying diseases with it.

The discovery was made by researchers from the BlueFish project in the University's Biosciences department. They were carrying out a year-long, multi-disease monitoring survey over two locations in Swansea Bay: Mumbles Pier and Prince of Wales dock.

When they were examining the crabs, they noticed parasites in the blood which they had never seen before.

They used a range of methods, from analysing diseased tissue from the crabs, to examining the parasite DNA using a technique called Sanger sequencing. The sequences seemed to indicate a new species.

Collaborators at the Natural History Museum, London and CEFAS in Weymouth were able to generate a longer sequence of the parasite DNA, verifying the presence of two new parasite species.

The team have named the new species Haplosporidium carcini, after the host species, (Carcinus maenas) and Haplosporidium cranc, with 'Cranc' being Welsh for crab, a reference to both their Ireland-Wales funding, and the location of discovery, or 'Welsh' nature of the parasite.

Swansea University researchers have discovered two new species of parasite in crabs in Swansea Bay. The find will help experts identify measures to stop the infection spreading to other marine species.

The researchers also observed that:

• Infections were found in only one of the two locations - Mumbles Pier, Swansea Bay
• Infection levels were very low, around 1-2%

Dr Charlotte Eve Davies from Swansea University College of Science, Scientific Officer on the Bluefish project, said:

"It is so important to understand the role of the shore crab in hosting parasites and disease, and if they are passing these on to other commercially important crustaceans.

The systematic approach we used, employing different detection methods, is vital in getting the best possible picture of these new pathogens.

Our study and broader work also suggest that the overall habitat - physical surroundings and ecosystem -may be influencing the presence and prevalence of pathogens, depending on the location.

It's been really exciting to be able to characterise two new species and a real team effort. Professor Andrew Rowley first noticed these new parasites and named them parasites x, y and z for months before we realised that we really did have a new species!"

The research was published in the journal Parasitology.

The microscope image shows the newly-discovered parasites in crab blood

Notes to editors:

The research was published in the journal Parasitology.DOI: 10.1017/S0031182020000980

The BlueFish Project has been funded by the European Regional Development Fund through the Ireland-Wales Co-operation Programme 2014-2020, a cross-border programme investing in the overall economic, environmental and social well-being of Ireland and Wales.

Swansea University is a world-class, research-led, dual campus university offering a first-class student experience and has one of the best employability rates of graduates in the UK. The University has the highest possible rating for teaching - the Gold rating in the Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF) in 2018 and was commended for its high proportions of students achieving consistently outstanding outcomes.

Swansea climbed 14 places to 31st in the Guardian University Guide 2019, making us Wales' top ranked university, with one of the best success rates of graduates gaining employment in the UK and the same overall satisfaction level as the Number 1 ranked university.

The 2014 Research Excellence Framework (REF) 2014 results saw Swansea make the 'biggest leap among research-intensive institutions' in the UK (Times Higher Education, December 2014) and achieved its ambition to be a top 30 research University, soaring up the league table to 26th in the UK.

The University is in the top 300 best universities in the world, ranked in the 251-300 group in The Times Higher Education World University rankings 2018. Swansea University now has 23 main partners, awarding joint degrees and post-graduate qualifications.

The University was established in 1920 and was the first campus university in the UK. It currently offers around 350 undergraduate courses and 350 postgraduate courses to circa 20,000 undergraduate and postgraduate students. The University has ambitious expansion plans as it moves towards its centenary in 2020 and aims to continue to extend its global reach and realise its domestic and international potential.

Swansea University is a registered charity. No.1138342. Visit http://www.swansea.ac.uk

For more information:

Kevin Sullivan, Swansea University Public Relations Office k.g.sullivan@swansea.ac.uk

Follow us on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/SwanseaUni

Find us on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/swanseauniversity

New Mygatt-Moore quarry research leads to prehistoric climate finds

Local paleontologist and professor Dr. Julia McHugh authors new study

PEERJ

 

IMAGE: DECOMPOSITION OF DINOSAURIAN REMAINS INFERRED BY INVERTEBRATE TRACES ON VERTEBRATE BONE REVEAL NEW INSIGHTS INTO LATE JURASSIC ECOLOGY, DECAY, AND CLIMATE IN WESTERN COLORADO view more 

CREDIT: BRIAN ENGH

[Wednesday, July 14th Fruita, Colorado] Top predators dinosaurs like the Allosaurus and Ceratosaurus devouring dinosaur remains isn't all that surprising, but the smaller creatures feasting on dinosaur remains may just give us a more complete picture of what life was like at Mygatt-Moore Quarry outside Fruita, Colorado 152 million years ago. A new study out in PeerJ on Wednesday, July 15th, 2020 authored by Museums of Western Colorado's Paleontologist Dr. Julia McHugh, looks at the insect species who feasted on decaying dinosaurs back in the Jurassic period.

Researchers Dr. Julia McHugh (Museums of Western Colorado, Colorado Mesa University), Dr. Stephanie K. Drumheller (University of Tennessee), Anja Riedel (Colorado Mesa University), and Miriam Kane (Colorado Mesa University) examined more than 2,300 fossil bones over a two-year study and found over 400 traces left by insects and snails, a surprisingly high number. The marks researchers found on the fossils also came from at least six different invertebrates. These findings are a huge step to understanding the long-lost paleo diversity, and paleo climate of the Jurassic period.

It also gave researchers a better understanding of just how stinky the Jurassic period was too. The abundance of traces meant that the dinosaur carcasses must have been unburied for a long time - 5 months to 6 years or more according to this new study. "Large carcasses take a long time to decompose. The smell from a dead mouse in your basement is bad enough, but then imagine that mouse was a 65-foot long animal! The stench of rotting meat would have been a magnet for carrion insects and other scavengers," Dr. McHugh explains.

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For more information visit: http://www.museumofwesternco.com/

Additional information will be available on the Museums social media channels - Instagram: @museumsofwesternco Facebook: @crossorchards Twitter: @museumsofwc You Tube: Museums of Western Colorado

About: Museums of Western Colorado encompass the Dinosaur Journey Museum, Museum of the West, and Cross Orchards historic site. The Museums of Western Colorado inspires and connects our community by championing the scientific and cultural heritage of the Colorado Plateau.

Artwork: Illustration by Brian Engh, dontmesswithdinosaurs.com

Full paper link: https://peerj.com/articles/9510/

About: PeerJ is an Open Access publisher of seven peer-reviewed journals covering biology, environmental sciences, computer sciences, and chemistry. With an emphasis on high-quality and efficient peer review, PeerJ's mission is to help the world efficiently publish its knowledge. All works published by PeerJ are Open Access and published using a Creative Commons license (CC-BY 4.0). PeerJ is based in San Diego, CA and the UK and can be accessed at peerj.com?

PeerJ - the Journal of Life and Environmental Sciences is the peer-reviewed journal for Biology, Medicine and Environmental Sciences. PeerJ has recently added 15 areas in environmental science subject areas, including Natural Resource Management, Climate Change Biology, and Environmental Impacts. peerj.com/environmental-sciences

Across its journals, PeerJ has an Editorial Board of over 2,000 respected academics, including 5 Nobel Laureates. PeerJ was the recipient of the 2013 ALPSP Award for Publishing Innovation. PeerJ Media Resources (including logos) can be found at: peerj.com/about/press ?

For PeerJ: email: press@peerj.com , https://peerj.com/about/press/

Tree planting does not always boost ecosystem carbon stocks, study finds

UNIVERSITY OF STIRLING

 

IMAGE: DR NINA FRIGGENS view more 

CREDIT: UNIVERSITY OF STIRLING

Planting huge numbers of trees to mitigate climate change is "not always the best strategy" - with some experimental sites in Scotland failing to increase carbon stocks, a new study has found.

Experts at the University of Stirling and the James Hutton Institute analysed four locations in Scotland where birch trees were planted onto heather moorland - and found that, over decades, there was no net increase in ecosystem carbon storage.

The team - led by Dr Nina Friggens, of the Faculty of Natural Sciences at Stirling - found that any increase to carbon storage in tree biomass was offset by a loss of carbon stored in the soil.

Dr Friggens said: "Both national and international governments have committed to plant huge numbers of trees to mitigate climate change, based on the simple logic that trees - when they photosynthesise and grow - remove carbon from the atmosphere and lock it into their biomass. However, trees also interact with carbon in soil, where much more carbon is found than in plants.

"Our study considered whether planting native trees on heather moorlands, with large soil carbon stores, would result in net carbon sequestration - and, significantly, we found that over a period of 39 years, it did not."

The tree-planting experiments - in the Grampians, Cairngorms and Glen Affric - were set up by the late Dr John Miles, of the then Institute of Terrestrial Ecology (a forerunner to the UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology), in 1980, and the Hutton Institute in 2005. The research sites enabled the team to assess the impact of tree planting on vegetation and soil carbon stocks, by comparing these experimental plots to adjacent control plots consisting of original heath vegetation.

Working with Dr Ruth Mitchell and Professor Alison Hester, both of the James Hutton Institute, Dr Friggens measured soil respiration - the amount of carbon dioxide released from the soil to the atmosphere - at regular intervals during 2017 and 2018. Along with soil cores taken by Dr Friggens and Dr Thomas Parker to record soil carbon stocks and calculated tree carbon stocks by using non-destructive metrics, including tree height and girth.

The study recorded a 58 percent reduction in soil organic carbon stocks 12 years after the birch trees had been planted on the heather moorland - and, significantly, this decline was not compensated for by the gains in carbon contained in the growing trees.

It also found that, 39 years after planting, the carbon sequestered into tree biomass offset the carbon lost from the soil - but, crucially, there was no overall increase in ecosystem carbon stocks.

Dr Friggens said: "When considering the carbon stocks both above and below ground together, planting trees onto heather moorlands did not lead to an increase in net ecosystem carbon stocks 12 or 39 years after planting. This is because planting trees also accelerated the rate at which soil organisms work to decompose organic matter in the soil - in turn, releasing carbon dioxide back into the atmosphere.

"This work provides evidence that planting trees in some areas of Scotland will not lead to carbon sequestration for at least 40 years - and, if we are to successfully manage our landscapes for carbon sequestration, planting trees is not always the best strategy.

"Tree planting can lead to carbon sequestration; however, our study highlights the need to understand where, in the landscape, this approach is best deployed in order to achieve maximum climate mitigation gains."

Dr Ruth Mitchell, a researcher within the James Hutton Institute's Ecological Sciences department and co-author of the study, said: "Our work shows that tree planting locations need to be carefully sited, taking into account soil conditions, otherwise the tree planting will not result in the desired increase in carbon storage and climate change mitigation."

Although conducted in Scotland, the study's results are relevant in vast areas around the northern fringes of the boreal forests and the southern Arctic tundra, of North America and Eurasia.

Dr Friggens added: "The climate emergency affects us all - and it is important that strategies implemented to mitigate climate change - such as large-scale tree planting - are robust and achieve the intended outcomes.

"Changes to carbon storage - both above and below ground - must be better quantified and understood before we can be assured that large-scale tree planting will have the intended policy and climate outcomes."

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The paper, Tree planting in organic soils does not result in net carbon sequestration on decadal timescales, is published in Global Change Biology.

Setting up an alarm system in the Atlantic Ocean

Early detection of changes to ocean currents

UNIVERSITY OF COPENHAGEN

 

Climate scientists Laura Jackson and Richard Wood from The Met Office, UK have identified metrics that may give us early warnings of abrupt changes to the European Climate. The work is part of the EU Horizon 2020 TiPES project which is coordinated by the Niels Bohr Institute at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark.

An important goal in climate science is to establish early warning systems - a climate alarm device, one might say - for abrupt changes to the system of sea currents in the Northern Atlantic Ocean.

These currents, known as the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (AMOC) includes the Gulf Stream which transport upper ocean waters northwards in the Atlantic. Here, they get colder and denser and then sink. In the process, the AMOC transports heat to the coasts of North Western Europe, keeping the continent much warmer than comparable landmasses on the same latitudes.

From the study of past climates, it is well documented that large and sudden changes of temperatures have occurred in and around the North Atlantic. This is thought to be caused by the AMOC shifting abruptly between stronger and weaker states by passing over tipping points.

A collapse of the AMOC in the next century is considered unlikely, but since it would have big impacts on society we need to be prepared to identify signals of tipping in time to mitigate or prepare for abrupt shifts in the AMOC.

One question to answer in that line of work, is which metrics should trigger the alarm system?

The scientific paper "Fingerprints for early detection of changes in the AMOC" now contributes to the clarification of this important question. The study is based on climate simulations and published in Journal of Climate by Laura Jackson and Richard Wood, The Met Office, UK as part of the European Horizon 2020 TiPES project.

"We show, that using metrics based on temperatures and densities in the North Atlantic in addition to continuing to directly monitor the AMOC can improve our detection of AMOC changes and possibly even provide an early warning," explains Laura Jackson.

The authors also conclude that using multiple metrics for monitoring is important to improve detection.

Two systems directly monitor the AMOC. The RAPID array runs from the Florida Strait to the west coast of Northern Africa. The OSNAP array spans from Labrador in Canada to the tip of Greenland on to the west coast of Scotland. There are also current observing systems in place which allow the temperature and density metrics to be monitored.

"Still, it is difficult from these measurements to tell whether a change in the AMOC is from natural variability that takes place across decades, from a gradual weakening because of anthropogenic climate change, or from crossing a tipping point," says Laura Jackson.

In other words, neither is the alarm fully developed, nor does anyone today know exactly which kind of changes to expect, should it go off.

More science is needed. One step in the right direction will be the evaluation of the available metrics in competing climate models to estimate the robustness of the results from the current work.

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What COVID-19 can teach tourism about the climate crisis

LUND UNIVERSITY

 

The global coronavirus pandemic has hit the tourism industry hard worldwide. Not only that, but it has exposed a lack of resilience to any type of downturn, according to new research from Lund University in Sweden. While the virus may or may not be temporary, the climate crisis is here to stay - and tourism will have to adapt, says Stefan Gössling, professor of sustainable tourism.

Tourism has been under pressure even before the current pandemic paralysed the world. The airline industry has seen declining profits, and flying has become cheaper. The platform economy - AirBnB, booking.com and TripAdvisor, to name some of the few dominant global players - has further toughened the market. Tourists book shorter stays, meaning destinations have to attract a higher volume of travelers.

"Even though we have warned for decades that a virus, for example SARS, could significantly affect tourism, nobody expected a virus to have this kind of impact", says Stefan Gössling.

In the same way, there have been clues that another looming crisis is starting to affect tourism. The demise of UK tour operator Thomas Cook in 2019 was attributed to the summer heatwave leading to fewer bookings - and the heatwave has, in turn, been attributed to a changing climate.

"Imagine several crises of similar magnitude to COVID-19. Extreme and unpredictable weather, a global food shortage or other consequences of climate change. And since this will possibly go on for longer than the current pandemic, the tourism industry will suffer greatly," says Stefan Gössling.

Gössling says there are a few tanglible guidelines for both the industry and tourists to pivot towards, that would make tourism more resilient as well as climate friendlier. Encouraging destinations that are closer to the traveler, making stays longer and keeping profits local, are some ways to move away from the focus on volume and energy-intense products:

Increase the length of stay or the length of days in packages sold.

Focus on closer markets, long-haul travelers are the ones contributing to vast emissions of greenhouse gases.

Rethink the food that you serve, organic and regional can benefit farmers nearby.

Move towards a high-value model, where individuals spend more.

Think about what you buy: a lot of the profit is made by foreign-owned, global platforms such as AirBnB and booking.com.

Rethink carbon-intense travel, for example cruise holidays.

Despite this advice, there are many conditions that are beyond the grasp of individual businesses, says Gössling.

"Even if you are a small family-owned business that does everything according to the sustainability book, you may still suffer the consequences of climate change. Many of the major structural changes will of course have to come from policy makers", Stefan Gössling concludes.

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