Report says mandatory ship speeds required to protect right whales in Cabot Strait

OTTAWA — Voluntary speed restrictions in place for vessels passing through the Cabot Strait don't go far enough to protect endangered North Atlantic right whales, according to a newly released report.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

Oceana Canada says an analysis of vessel tracking data indicates that two-thirds — 1,055 out of 1,565 ship transits of the strait studied in 2020 — ignored the voluntary 10 knot slowdown measure that was put in place by Transport Canada to protect the whales against deadly strikes.

Tracking of vessels longer than 13 metres that was conducted last spring and fall using data collected by Global Fishing Watch also found that more than 40 per cent of those transits exceeded 12 knots, increasing the risk to the whales.

"What we found really is unless you are going to make something mandatory, your compliance rate is not going to be very high," said the organization's campaign director, Kim Elmslie

Elmslie said the numbers aren't favourable, especially when compared to Transport Canada's mandatory compliance rates in the western Gulf of St. Lawrence, which are around 90 to 95 per cent.

She said the data indicates voluntary slowdowns aren't working and the federal government should put in place a mandatory season-long slowdown in the Cabot Strait.

"You do need all vessels slowing down," Elmslie said. "We need to see that level of compliance that we are seeing in those mandatory (Gulf) rates."

Last week, Ottawa announced the same voluntary 10-knot limit -- roughly 19 kilometres per hour -- will remain in place for boats travelling through the strait from April 28 to June 29 and again from Sept. 29 to Nov. 15 to protect right whales migrating in and out of the Gulf of St. Lawrence.

There were no North Atlantic right whale deaths or entanglements in fishing gear recorded in Canadian waters in 2020, but the previous five years saw 25 deaths recorded for a species with an estimated world population of just 366.

According to Oceana, a total of 643 vessels made 1,565 transits through the strait during last year's slowdowns.

The study found that about 26 per cent of those transits occurred at speeds between 10 and 12 knots, while 40 per cent exceeded 12 knots.

Overall, it found there was greater compliance with speed restrictions in the spring period compared to the autumn, with a 10-percentage-point difference between the two. It said that may be due in part to more intense weather in the autumn, which would require some vessels to increase speeds.

Despite low compliance during the voluntary slowdown periods, the study found the measure did reduce vessel speeds.

In the two weeks before and after it took effect in the spring, 87 per cent of vessels travelled at speeds greater than 10 knots, while in the autumn, 92 per cent were above 10 knots. During the slowdowns, however, that number dropped to 67 per cent.

Oceana says while there was an improvement in the speed of vessels, it just isn't enough to save right whales.

"The faster you go the more risk it is to a whale ... especially with these big vessels," Elmslie said.

The organization points out that researchers have found that vessels of all sizes have the potential to cause lethal injuries to whales, with the risk increased significantly as the size and weight of vessels increases.

The federal Fisheries Department has announced that mandatory restrictions on ship speeds will remain in place throughout much of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, beginning April 28.

In addition to other measures, a monitoring program will include multiple aircraft, a drone, on-the-water vessel surveillance and underwater hydrophones.

"There hasn't been an overall weakening in the measures so that is positive, but we are always looking for those areas where things can be strengthened," Elmslie said.

As a result, Oceana is calling on Ottawa to extend speed restrictions throughout the Gulf of St. Lawrence to all vessels, including those smaller than 13 metres.

It also wants vessel monitoring system data made public, a reduction in the amount of fishing rope in the water through continued long-term support for ropeless gear, and an expansion in the use of technologies to monitor right whales among other measures.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 22, 2021.

- By Keith Doucette in Halifax

Amber Valley: Settlement in northern Alberta sees surge in visitors interested in Black history

Jayme Doll 

It feels like it's in the middle of nowhere. Remote and rural, if you're not looking for it you could easily blow by it. But it holds important history from Alberta's past 

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© Jayme Doll / Global News Gilbert Williams shows off pictures depicting many of the early settlers hang in the Amber Valley hall and museum

Amber Valley is about a two-hour drive north of Edmonton on single-lane highways busy with big rigs and instantly unkind driving conditions when snow falls and the wind picks up. But 115 years ago, when the first Black settlers came to this area, there were no roads at all.

"When they got to Edmonton they had to form wagon trains," said Mryna Wisdom, who grew up in Amber Valley and whose grandparents were some of the first to set down roots here.

"They would have to use makeshift bridges to cross bodies of water. It was very challenging."

Up to 400 Black Americans fled apartheid-like conditions in places like Oklahoma and Mississippi in the early 1900s. Gilbert Williams' father was one of them. He squeezed his eyes together and shook his head before taking a breath and explaining why his father left.

"He was on his way from his friends, heard a little ruckus going on and looked and they saw the (Ku Klux) Klan was hanging his friend," said Williams. "He got some money from his sister and he and his brother left, right then. They weren't sticking around to find out they'd be next."

Williams said it's still difficult to imagine what so many lived through.

At that time Canada had sent out an open invitation to anyone interested to come and settle in the West. It was offering $10-an-acre land to anyone who wanted it.

Amber Valley was one of four Black settlements in Alberta. It was the largest and the most northern community, and had a church, school and post office built by the people in the community.

But it didn't take long for some newcomers to be attacked by the same racism and discrimination they hoped to escape, especially in urban centres like Edmonton.

"Segregations started to happen here. Pools were segregated, cinemas were segregated; there were only certain places in town where Black people could live and only certain positions they could hold," Russell Cobb, an associate professor at the University of Alberta, told Global News.

Cobb, who is also an author who has documented the history of Alberta's Black settlers, said petitions circulated in the early 1910s and there was a movement to ban Black people from moving to Alberta and owning land.

"The Edmonton municipal council gathered tens of thousands of signatures and they presented that to the federal government," Cobb said.

Read more: Pandemic pushes Black-only spaces online — here’s what happened next

Rosemary Sadlier, an author and social justice advocate, said Canada's invitation to settlers "was an open call until Black people started to show up."

"And when that happened, there were efforts made to discourage them from coming into the country," she said. "Initially, some of that discouragement came through taxes or stopping them at the border.

"They would then start rumours that there was 20 feet of snow that just never went away; just ridiculous things."

And when those things didn't work, Prime Minister Wilfred Laurier signed an order-in-council in 1911 to prevent Black migration for one year.

Sadlier said the order was based on the false claim that “the climate and situation of the west was deemed unsuitable for habitation of people of Africa origin because we would just find it too cold and too hostile to be able to survive.”

It was never signed into law but Sadlier said it ultimately halted Black immigration to Canada.

Despite huge challenges, farmers in Amber Valley were resilient and some got jobs in the off-season working on the railway.

"They went so far north and the people survived -- as did their descendants. I give them very high marks for surviving and providing a way of life for us to go forward and become what we’ve become," Wisdom said.

"We grew up thinking we weren’t any different than anyone else. We had a good sense of who we were and our parents realized that education was power. We were taught, get an education and do better than what they had done."

Wisdom eventually moved to Edmonton and admits things were different.

"I remember very vividly knowing my skin colour -- that we wouldn’t find work, to get certain jobs," she said.

Only a couple of families remain in the Amber Valley area. A community hall painted with a large, bright mural of the first settlers and a quaint museum inside is helping to preserve the stories of this important place. The cabin of the first person born here sits on the same plot of land.

Gilbert Williams drives a school bus in the area and gives tours of the museum. He said he's never been busier, especially since the beginning of the Black Lives Matter movement.

"I've been busy right from end of last February up until now. There wasn't a weekend (it was quiet, and) people are trying to come out and during the week too. Some are just people calling up saying they want to tell their family about Amber Valley," he said.

He has made it his mission to share the stories of the brave men and women who blazed the trail to this historical place.

"History is important, history is a way of teaching," he said while standing outside the museum on a chilly winter's day. "The more we learn, the less likely we are to make the mistakes of the past."

Amber Valley is being commemorated on a Canada Post stamp. It features prominent members of the community not long ago feared forgotten.

Dozens of new lichen species discovered in East African mountain forests

UNIVERSITY OF HELSINKI

Research News

 

IMAGE: THE NAME OF THE GENUS LEPTOGIUM ALLUDES TO A THIN BUT UNIFORM CORTEX COVERING THE OUTER SURFACE OF THE THALLUS OF THESE LICHENS, IN CONTRAST TO MANY OF THEIR RELATIVES.... view more 

CREDIT: JOUKO RIKKINEN

"The lengthy groundwork is finally complete," says Jouko Rikkinen, Professor of Botany at the University of Helsinki, Finland, giving a sigh of relief.

The research article just published focuses on species diversity in the genus Leptogium, a group of jelly lichens that are common in the mountain forests of East Africa. Thousands of lichen specimens were collected from Kenya and Tanzania in 2009-2017, including nearly 600 Leptogium specimens.

DNA analyses revealed that the dataset on Leptogium included more than 70 different species, of which no more than a dozen or so are previously known. DNA analyses were necessary, as species identification based on thallus structure is notoriously difficult in this group.

"The morphological differences between species are often subtle and open to interpretation, and the outer appearances of individual species can also vary greatly depending on environmental factors. Even chemical characteristics cannot be used as an aid for identification to the extent to which they are used with many other groups of lichens," Rikkinen notes.

Due to problems in species delimitation and identification, Leptogium specimens with a more or less similar outer appearance collected from different parts of the world have traditionally been assigned to the same species. For example, Leptogium cyanescens and Leptogium rivulare, species which grow in Finland, have been thought to also inhabit the tropical rain forests of East Africa. However, the new research findings indicate that many Leptogium species can have narrow ranges, and that the total number of species in the genus is much higher than previously thought.

"Similar results have also been obtained from many other genera of lichens whose diversity has been recently studied with DNA analysis methods," says Docent Ulla Kaasalainen, who leads a research project on tropical lichens at the University of Göttingen.

Using human rights laws may be most effective way of harnessing international legislation to protect

UNIVERSITY OF EXETER

Research News

 

Using laws governing human rights may be the best way of harnessing international legislation and tribunals to protect the Amazon, a new study shows.

Safeguarding the rainforest is a critical priority because of the ecosystem's planetary importance. Recent increases in deforestation and fires in the region have made this even more urgent.

The new research, published in the Review of European, Comparative and International Environmental Law (RECIEL), says using human rights law to protect the Amazon is more likely to have stronger prospects, as campaigners wouldn't need to submit information about more than one nation for it to be upheld. Courts would only need to judge that environmental damage violated the rights of either certain individuals or tribal and indigenous peoples.

The experts behind the study, Dr Justine Bendel from the University of Exeter and Professor Tim Stephens from the University of Sydney, hope it will be used as a comprehensive guide for those working to protect the Amazon. It assesses the potential for litigation in international courts and tribunals, examining the possible claims, the risks associated with each of these and which are more likely to be successful.

The protection of the Amazon poses particular challenges for international law because global ways of protecting the environment exist alongside the territorial jurisdiction of the Amazon nations, which have permanent sovereignty over natural resources.

The hurdles in jurisdiction and evidence often prevent a clear?cut judgment and Amazon states from being compelled to take the urgent and direct measures needed to bring the ecosystem back from the brink.

A number of global legal frameworks have been invoked to advance Amazon conservation. These range from the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) to the more recent Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) mechanism. The study shows how they have had limited success, and gains are now being lost.

Domestic proceedings are more likely to be perceived as an unwarranted international intervention in a matter primarily of domestic concern. The study argues for close engagement by the international community with Brazil, and the other Amazon States, to implement internationally agreed conservation outcomes.

The rights of those living in the Amazon and in particular of the indigenous communities are protected by the American Convention on Human Rights (ACHR). Under the ACHR cases may be referred to the Inter?American Court of Human Rights (IACtHR) by the Inter?American Commission on Human Rights (IAComHR) or by Amazon States, all of which except Guyana and Peru, are parties to the ACHR.

Indigenous communities in South America have used the IACtHR when governments and firms have wanted to gain access to natural resources located on indigenous lands. The study warns this can be a lengthy process, and doesn't always effectively protect land as implementation of territorial claims often raises complex issues about rights.

Previous cases have established indigenous peoples have a legal right to a healthy environment and food and water. The study shows how this opens up the possibility for reparations for environmental damage independently from ownership of the land.

The IACtHR has recently confirmed large projects such as the construction of substantial infrastructures or energy?related projects with potential transboundary impacts may be open to challenge through human rights litigation. Such a transboundary element would also potentially allow claims based on climate change, and therefore the deforestation of the Amazon.

Dr Bendel said: "There are multiple opportunities for human rights litigation to take on the issue of deforestation of the Amazon, and the strengthening of both indigenous rights and the right to a healthy environment make cases to combat deforestation more likely to succeed.

"Recent cases show the IACtHR takes indigenous rights seriously, but compliance with decisions depend on political will, which may be lacking in the Amazonian region, in particular in Brazil.

"We hope organisations working to protect the Amazon will be able to use this study when they plan how to use international courts and tribunals. We have shown the options available, and the limitations of using these organisations and how to overcome them."

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Biological therapy has proved a suitable alternative to antibiotics

A "healthy" alternative to antibiotics

TEL-AVIV UNIVERSITY

Research News

IMAGE: DR. NATALIA FREUND AND RESEARCH TEAM. view more 

CREDIT: TEL AVIV UNIVERSITY

In the course of a new and groundbreaking study, led by Dr, Natalia Freund and the doctoral candidate Avia Waston at the Sackler Medical Faculty, the research group succeeded in isolating monoclonal antibodies, which hindered the growth of tuberculosis germs in laboratory mice. The antibodies were isolated from a patient who had succumbed to active tuberculosis disease but had since recovered. This is, in fact, the first time in history that researchers have managed to develop a "biological antibiotic" and demonstrate that human monoclonal antibodies can act as a substitute for the traditional chemical antibiotics and protect mice from pathogenic bacterial challenge. The study was carried out in a collaboration with two additional laboratories from the US and China and was published in the prestigious scientific journal Nature Communications.

For the last century, antibiotics have served as the main treatment against germs, being both efficient and cheap. Antibiotics are chemical agents, which are designed to block and destroy specific cells, such as microbial cells. However, since some biological mechanisms are common to both human and microbial cells, the range of antibiotics that can safely be used without harming the patient is limited. For example, cell wall components of many strains of microbes are common to human cells; therefore, any damage caused to the microbial cell walls can lead to extensive damage to body systems. Furthermore, in recent years the number of microbial strains that are antibiotic resistant is on the increase, which presents new challenges of how to defend the body from microbes in the post-antibiotic era.

For these reasons, Dr. Natalia Freund and her laboratory team have spent the recent years searching for a biological substitute for known antibiotics. Antibodies are proteins that are produced naturally by our immune response following infection or a vaccine. They harbor many advantages such as specificity, stability and safety. For these reasons, today, antibodies are in widespread use in the clinic for treatment of cancer, autoimmune diseases and viral infections such as COVID-19.

The research team chose Tuberculosis, which is caused by infection of the bacilli Mycobacterium tuberculosis, as a test model, and were successful, for the first time ever, in devising an effective treatment on the basis of anti-bacterial antibodies naturally developed during infection. Another reason for the choice of tuberculosis is, that although the vaccine against tuberculosis was developed already 100 years ago, and is based on the attenuated bacillus bovis (BCG) strain, it is not effective in adults and does not prevent infection. In addition, in recent years, more and more varieties of disease have developed that are resistant to the only treatment that is currently available, namely, treatment with antibiotics. Since tuberculosis germs are very infectious, transferred in the air and detrimental to the lungs, the spread of resistant strains of tuberculosis that modern medicine cannot combat is a real danger. Currently, approximately one-quarter of the world's population is infected by tuberculosis, with the rates of drug-resistant strains peaking to as high as 40% in some countries. In Israel, there are about 200 active tuberculosis cases per year.

According to Dr. Natalia Freund, "Antibiotics are highly efficacious and cost effective, and therefore for the last years have been our only weapon against bacterial infections. Unfortunately, antibiotics become less and less effective, and in the main cases of drug-resistance physicians are empty handed in finding an appropriate treatment for their patients. Therefore, new ways to kill bacteria are urgently needed. Advances in biological medicine have enabled us to rout the germs in new ways that are not based solely on antibiotics, and therefore allow a solution to the challenge posed by resistant germs. Our study is an initial proof of concept of employing monoclonal antibodies (derived from single cells) as an effective therapy in combating bacterial pathogens," stresses Dr. Freund.

It should be noted that owing to the size and complexity of the tuberculosis bacillus, isolation of monoclonal antibodies to it have been extremely challenging. But now, the researchers in Dr, Freund's laboratory have succeeded in pinpointing a phosphate pump protein on the bacillus cell wall, which supplies energy to the bacterium and is highly specific and conserved to all tuberculosis strains. The two types of antibodies the researchers have isolated, which block the action of the pump, inhibit the bacteria growth and reduced the bacterial levels by 50% in mice as compared with mice that were not treated with antibodies. Furthermore, these antibodies have been found to be active against three different strains of the tuberculosis bacillus; and seeing that the antibodies are directed against the phosphorus pump, which is common to all strains of this bacillus, it is expected that the vaccine will be effective against many other strains that were not investigated, including those that are resistant to antibiotics.

Presently, in view of the success of the study, Dr. Freund's laboratory is investigating the possibility of extending the "biological" substitute for antibiotics to include other diseases. "The model that has proven successful in this study will enable us to extend our future work to include other diseases such as pneumonia and staphylococcus infections," says Dr. Freund.

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Plant responses to climate are lagged

Climate drivers outside of the growing season may have stronger effects on plants than previously assumed.

GERMAN CENTRE FOR INTEGRATIVE BIODIVERSITY RESEARCH (IDIV) HALLE-JENA-LEIPZIG

Research News

 

Two in five of the world's plant species are at risk of extinction. In the face of climate change, understanding why certain plant species are vulnerable to extinction while others prevail is more urgent than ever before. Previous studies linking climate and plant vital rates have found relatively modest effects, sometimes leading to the conclusion that other threats, such as land use change, may still be more important than climate drivers. However, these conclusions could result from wrong assumptions about which times of the year (which "time window") climate drivers such as temperature and precipitation influence plant species. "Most researchers assume that plant populations respond to the climate within twelve months and only use this time window in their models to analyse plant responses," says first author Sanne Evers from iDiv and MLU.

Climate conditions during dormant seasons often neglected

For their study, the team of researchers led by iDiv, MLU and UFZ analysed 76 studies performed on 104 plant species that link climate drivers with demographic responses. They found that 85% of all studies considered 1-year time windows, and often focus on the growing season (e.g. spring and/or summer). However: "There are many ways in which climate during the dormant season, or climate that occurred few years in the past, can influence the survivorship, growth, and reproduction of plants. For example, species can grow substantially during the cold season, at least where the cold season temperature does not fall below 5° Celsius. In addition, it might take multiple years for plants to die after physiological damage from drought has occurred," says Aldo Compagnoni from iDiv and MLU and senior author of the paper.

To investigate which combination of climate drivers and temporal window have the best predictive ability, the researchers used four exceptionally long-term data sets: the montane plants Helianthella quinquenervis and Frasera speciosa and the arid plants Cylindropuntia imbricata, and Cryptantha flava. "For these plant species, 15 to 47 years of data was available. And even though they are all perennials, they come from very different habitats with clearly marked seasons," Sanne Evers explains.

Climate stress may become visible only years later

The results were clear: In many cases, it can take several years for plants to respond to climate. "Plant responses to climate drivers that are lagged and/or outside of the growing season are the rule rather than the exception," says co-author Tiffany Knight, professor at MLU and UFZ and head of a research group at iDiv. "This could be explained by the physiological features of some plants: For instance, in alpine environments, it may take up to four years until leaves and flowers of plants such as F. speciosa reach maturity." Accordingly, the effects of an extreme climate event may only become visible in the number of leaves and flowers four years after that event influenced the formation of these structures.

While this study focuses on examining the effects of past climate on plants, there are important implications for understanding how plants will be affected by future climate change. This study highlights that plant responses to climate are more complex than was previously appreciated. We need to prioritize experiments and observations of terrestrial ecosystems in order to create robust scenarios for the plant species that are critical to human well-being.

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The Milky Way may be swarming with planets with oceans and continents like here on Earth

UNIVERSITY OF COPENHAGEN - THE FACULTY OF HEALTH AND MEDICAL SCIENCES

Research News

 

IMAGE: 'ALL PLANETS IN THE MILKY WAY MAY BE FORMED BY THE SAME BUILDING BLOCKS, MEANING THAT PLANETS WITH THE SAME AMOUNT OF WATER AND CARBON AS EARTH', SAYS PROFESSOR ANDERS... view more 

CREDIT: NASA, ESA AND G. BACON (STSCI).

Astronomers have long been looking into the vast universe in hopes of discovering alien civilisations. But for a planet to have life, liquid water must be present. The chances of that finding scenario have seemed impossible to calculate because it has been the assumption that planets like Earth get their water by chance if a large, ice asteroid hits the planet.

Now, researchers from the GLOBE Institute at the University of Copenhagen have published an eye-opening study, indicating that water may be present during the very formation of a planet. According to the study's calculations, this is true for both Earth, Venus and Mars.

'All our data suggest that water was part of Earth's building blocks, right from the beginning. And because the water molecule is frequently occurring, there is a reasonable probability that it applies to all planets in the Milky Way. The decisive point for whether liquid water is present is the distance of the planet from its star', says Professor Anders Johansen from the Centre for Star and Planet Formation who has led the study that is published in the journal Science Advances.

Using a computer model, Anders Johansen and his team have calculated how quickly planets are formed, and from which building blocks. The study indicates that it was millimetre-sized dust particles of ice and carbon - which are known to orbit around all young stars in the Milky Way - that 4.5 billion years ago accreted in the formation of what would later become Earth.

'Up to the point where Earth had grown to one percent of its current mass, our planet grew by capturing masses of pebbles filled with ice and carbon. Earth then grew faster and faster until, after five million years, it became as large as we know it today. Along the way, the temperature on the surface rose sharply, causing the ice in the pebbles to evaporate on the way down to the surface so that, today, only 0.1 percent of the planet is made up of water, even though 70 percent of Earth's surface is covered by water', says Anders Johansen, who together with his research team in Lund ten years ago put forward the theory that the new study now confirms.

The theory, called 'pebble accretion', is that planets are formed by pebbles that are clumping together, and that the planets then grow larger and larger.

Anders Johansen explains that the water molecule H2O is found everywhere in our galaxy, and that the theory therefore opens up the possibility that other planets may have been formed in the same way as Earth, Mars and Venus.

'All planets in the Milky Way may be formed by the same building blocks, meaning that planets with the same amount of water and carbon as Earth - and thus potential places where life may be present - occur frequently around other stars in our galaxy, provided the temperature is right', he says.

If planets in our galaxy had the same building blocks and the same temperature conditions as Earth, there will also be good chances that they may have about the same amount of water and continents as our planet.

Professor Martin Bizzarro, co-author of the study, says:

'With our model, all planets get the same amount of water, and this suggests that other planets may have not just the same amount of water and oceans, but also the same amount of continents as here on Earth. It provides good opportunities for the emergence of life', he says.

If, on the other hand, it was random how much water was present on planets, the planets might look vastly different. Some planets would be too dry to develop life, while others would be completely covered by water.

'A planet covered by water would of course be good for maritime beings, but would offer less than ideal conditions for the formation of civilisations that can observe the universe', says Anders Johansen.

Anders Johansen and his research team are looking forward to the next generation of space telescopes, which will offer far better opportunities to observe exoplanets orbiting a star other than the Sun.

'The new telescopes are powerful. They use spectroscopy, which means that by observing which type of light is being blocked from the planets' orbit around their star, you can see how much water vapour there is. It can tell us something about the number of oceans on that planet', he says.

The appearance of robots affects our perception of the morality of their decisions

UNIVERSITY OF HELSINKI

Research News

 

Moralities of Intelligent Machines is a project that investigates people's attitudes towards moral choices made by artificial intelligence. In the latest study completed under the project, study participants read short narratives where either a robot, a somewhat humanoid robot known as iRobot, a robot with a strong humanoid appearance called iClooney or a human being encounters a moral problem along the lines of the trolley dilemma, making a specific decision. The participants were also shown images of these agents, after which they assessed the morality of their decisions. The study was funded by the Jane and Aatos Erkko Foundation and the Academy of Finland.

The trolley dilemma is a problem where a person sees a trolley careening on the tracks, without anyone in control, towards five people. The person can either do nothing or turn the trolley onto another track, saving the five people but killing another individual on the other track.

Attitudes more negative towards humanoid robots According to the study, people consider the choice made by the humanoid iRobot and iClooney less ethically sound than the same decision made by a human and a robot with a traditional robot-like appearance. Michael Laakasuo, senior researcher in University of Helsinki, project lead and the principal investigator of the study, links the findings to the uncanny valley effect, which has been identified in prior research.

"Humanness in artificial intelligence is perceived as eerie or creepy, and attitudes towards such robots are more negative than towards more machine-like robots. This may be due to, for example, the difficulty of reacting to a humanoid being: is it an animal, a human or a tool?"

According to Laakasuo, the findings indicate that humans do not find robots making moral decisions a strange idea, since the decisions made by a human and a traditional robot were seen as equally acceptable. Instead, the appearance of the robot makes a difference to evaluating their morality.

Discussion guides the regulation of AI Laakasuo says that the number of intelligent machines making moral choices is growing in our society, with self-driving cars as an example.

"It's important to know how people view intelligent machines and what kinds of factors affect related moral assessment. For instance, are traffic violations perpetrated by a stylish self-driving car perceived differently from those of a less classy model?"

This knowledge can influence the direction of AI and robotics development, as well as, among other things, product branding. Knowledge can also shape the political discussion relating to the regulation of artificial intelligence. For example, self-driving cars can become test laboratories of sorts for private companies: in the case of accidents, the consequences can be dealt with using money, risking human health in the name of technological advancement with appeals to consequentialist morals.

"What kind of robots do we want to have among us: robots who save five people from being run over by a trolley, sacrificing one person, or robots who refuse to sacrifice anyone even if it would mean saving several lives? Should robots be designed to look like humans or not if their appearance affects the perceived morality of their actions?"

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See the media release in University of Helsinki web page.

A sleep disorder associated with shift work may affect gene function

Going on holiday has a restorative effect on changes in DNA

UNIVERSITY OF HELSINKI

Research News

 

Long-term sleep deprivation is detrimental to health, increasing the risk of psychiatric and somatic disorders, such as depression and cardiovascular diseases. And yet, little is known about the molecular biological mechanisms set in motion by sleep deprivation which underlie related adverse health effects.

In a recently published study, the University of Helsinki, the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare, the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health and the Finnair airline investigated dynamic changes to DNA methylation in shift workers. DNA methylation denotes epigenetic regulation that modifies gene function and regulates gene activity without changing the sequence of bases in the DNA.

Short-term genetic changes caused by DNA methylation are not well known. While methylation is connected with our surroundings, more research is needed on how the environment affects epigenetic regulation and gene function.

The recently published study provides researchers with new information on both DNA methylation and the biological processes that have an impact on a sleep disorder related to shift work (shift work disorder, or SWD).

The study was published in the esteemed Scientific Reports publication series.

Changes to DNA methylation can mediate infections caused by sleep deprivation

A total of 32 shift workers participated in the study, of whom 21 suffered from shift work disorder and 11 were in the control group. Dynamic changes to DNA methylation were investigated through a genome-wide analysis during work and after a holiday period.

Changes to DNA methylation which affected gene function were identified in study subjects suffering from a sleep disorder caused by shift work. The findings demonstrated that rest and recovery during holiday periods also resulted in the restoration of DNA methylation in cases where changes had been observed during the work period.

The study proved the dynamic nature of DNA methylation, which was particularly emphasised in the activity of NMDA glutamate receptors. The strongest evidence was gained from the GRIN2C receptor: the methylation level of a specific CpG base pair in the regulatory region was lower during the work period in subjects suffering from shift work disorder. However, this change was reversed after the holiday period.

"Based on the results, we can deduce that changes to the DNA methylation of white blood cells are associated with shift work disorder. These changes, such as low methylation levels observed during the work period, are probably linked to sleep deprivation and related inflammatory consequences which DNA changes may mediate," says doctoral student Alexandra Lahtinen, MSc, from the University of Helsinki.

"Sufficient rest and recovery are important for everyone, but especially important for people with a background of long-term sleep deprivation due to, for example, living habits or irregular working conditions. Having said that, it's positive that the subjects recovered from at least some of the changes related to shift work disorder observed in the study," says Professor Tiina Paunio from the University of Helsinki and the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare, who was the principal investigator of the study.

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Can bacteria make stronger cars, airplanes and armor?

USC researchers harness the power of living organisms to make materials that are strong, tolerant and resilient

UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA

Research News

 

IMAGE: FIG. 1 THE LIVING MATERIALS CREATED BY USC VITERBI RESEARCHERS MIMICS THE BOULIGAND STRUCTURE FOUND IN MANY STRONG, FRACTURE-RESISTANT AND ENERGY DAMPING MATERIALS FOUND IN NATURE. view more 

CREDIT: QIMING WANG, USC VITERBI SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING

Biological systems can harness their living cells for growth and regeneration, but engineering systems cannot. Until now.

Qiming Wang and researchers at the USC Viterbi School of Engineering are harnessing living bacteria to create engineering materials that are strong, tolerant, and resilient. The research is published in Advanced Materials.

"The materials we are making are living and self-growing," said Wang, the Stephen Schrank Early Career Chair in Civil and Environmental Engineering and assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering in the Sonny Astani Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE). "We have been amazed by the sophisticated microstructures of natural materials for centuries, especially after microscopes were invented to observe these tiny structures. Now we take an important step forward: We use living bacteria as a tool to directly grow amazing structures that cannot be made on our own."

The researchers work with specific bacteria-- S. pasteurii--known for secreting an enzyme called urease. When urease is exposed to urea and calcium ions, it produces calcium carbonate, a fundamental and strong mineral compound found in bones or teeth. "The key innovation in our research," said Wang, "is that we guide the bacteria to grow calcium carbonate minerals to achieve ordered microstructures which are similar to those in the natural mineralized composites."

Wang added: "Bacteria know how to save time and energy to do things. They have their own intelligence, and we can harness their smartness to design hybrid materials that are superior to fully synthetic options.

Borrowing inspiration from nature is not new in engineering. As one would suspect, nature has great examples of complex mineralized composites that are strong, fracture resistant, and energy damping--for example nacre or the hard shell surrounding a mollusk.

Wang said: "Although microorganisms such as bacteria, fungi and viri are sometimes detrimental in causing diseases--like COVID-19--they can also be beneficial. We have a long history of using microorganisms as factories--for example, using yeast to make beer. But there is limited research on using microorganisms to manufacture engineering materials."

Combining living bacteria and synthetic materials, Wang said this new living material demonstrates mechanical properties superior to that of any natural or synthetic material currently in use. This is largely due to the material's bouligand structure, which is characterized by multiple layers of minerals laid at varying angles from each other to form a sort of "twist" or helicoidal shape. This structure is difficult to create synthetically.

Wang worked in collaboration with USC Viterbi researchers An Xin, Yipin Su, Minliang Yan, Kunhao Yu, Zhangzhengrong Feng, and Kyung Hoon Lee. Additional support was provided by Lizhi Sun, professor of civil engineering at the University of California, Irvine, and his student Shengwei Feng.

What's in a Shape?

One of the key properties of a mineralized composite, Wang said, is that it can be manipulated to follow different structures or patterns. Researchers long ago observed the ability of a mantis shrimp to use his "hammer" to break open a muscle shell. Looking at his "hammer"--a club-like structure or hand--more closely, they found it was arranged in a bouligand structure. This structure offers superior strength to one arranged at more homogenous angles--for example alternating the lattice structure of the material at 90 degrees with each layer.

"Creating this structure synthetically is very challenging in the field," Wang said. "So we proposed using bacteria to achieve it instead."

In order to build the material, the researchers 3-D printed a lattice structure or scaffolding. This structure has empty squares within it and the lattice layers are laid at varying angles to create scaffolding in line with the helicoidal shape.

The bacteria are then introduced to this structure. Bacteria intrinsically like to attach to surfaces and will gravitate to the scaffolding, grabbing on to the material with their "legs." There the bacteria will secrete urease, the enzyme which triggers formations of calcium carbonate crystals. These grow from the surface up, eventually filling in the tiny squares or voids in the 3-D printed lattice structure. Bacteria like porous surfaces, Wang said, allowing them to create different patterns with the minerals.

The Trifecta

"We did mechanical testing that demonstrated the strength of such structures to be very high. They also were able to resist crack propagation--fractures--and help dampen or dissipate energy within the material," said An Xin, a CEE doctoral student.

Existing materials have shown exceptional strength, fracture resistance, and energy dissipation but the combination of all three elements has not been demonstrated to work as well as in the living materials Wang and his team created.

"We fabricated something very stiff and strong," Wang said. "The immediate implications are for use in infrastructures like aerospace panels and vehicle frames."

The living materials are relatively lightweight, also offering options for defense applications like body armor or vehicle armor. "This material could resist bullet penetration and dissipate energy from its release to avoid damage," said Yipin Su, a postdoc working with Wang.

There's even potential for these materials to be reintroduced to bacteria when repairs are needed.

"An interesting vision is that these living materials still possess self-growing properties," Wang said. "When there is damage to these materials, we can introduce bacteria to grow the materials back. For example, if we use them in a bridge, we can repair damages when needed."

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