Framework could support more reliable electric power distribution systems

Texas A&M researchers are developing a reliability framework to help utility companies better prepare for uncertainties that may arise.

TEXAS A&M UNIVERSITY

Research News

 

Imagine the process of distributing electricity to homes from the power grid is like travelers boarding a train.

There are multiple steps to take before they can reach their final destination. First, they have to buy a ticket at the ticketing booth - this is where the power is generated. Then, they board a train that departs from the station - the power is transmitted over distances using transmission lines. Finally, the train takes the travelers (electricity) to their final destination. This final step of sending power to homes and businesses is called the distribution system - and it is critical that it remain reliable.

Chanan Singh and doctoral student Arun Karngala from the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Texas A&M University, are working to develop a reliability framework for the distribution system so that utility companies can be better prepared for uncertainties that may arise. Singh is a Regents Professor, the Irma Runyon Chair Professor and University Distinguished Professor.

By developing these models and methods to perform the analysis of the distribution level of the power grid, adverse effects of localized weather events or equipment failure can potentially be prevented.

The researchers' framework can be also used to test the systemwide impact of installing rooftop solar and energy storage by the customers in the distribution system.

"We found that with 40% of customers installing solar capacity, that amounts to 1.5 times the peak demand of the respective households," Karngala said. "With sufficient energy storage systems, the reliability indices measured significant improvements. For example, the system average interruption frequency index was improved by 50%, the system average interruption duration index was improved by 70% and the customer average interruption duration index was improved by 45%."

Karngala said that this framework can also be used to decide the capacity of solar rooftop installation: "If the installed solar capacity is increased from one time the peak demand to two times the peak demand, the reliability indices show steady improvement. The improvement in indices tapers off after the installed solar capacity is increased more than 2.5 times the peak demand."

Performing reliability studies can help create business cases for purchasing such storage, and ongoing research on storage technologies is helping to provide more affordable and reliable alternatives.

The research team is focused on the analysis and reliability at the distribution level as it is the most vulnerable of all stages of power allocation and therefore can cause the most trouble for customers. Further, unlike high-level sectors of the power grid - such as power generation and transmission - that have existing methods of analysis and procedures to ensure that the reliability will be maintained in the presence of uncertainties at specified levels, the distribution level generally does not have such standards.

Most independent system operators (ISOs) ensure they have enough power generation reserve so that if an unexpected issue arises (e.g., transmission line failure, generator failure, the load being higher than forecasted, etc.) resulting in the total load not being supplied, the load can be adjusted so that it is not lost completely for all customers. Many ISOs use criteria that ensure that, on average, this load curtailment would not occur more than one day in 10 years. Such standards are not typically used at the distribution level.

This work was published in IEEE Transactions on Sustainable Energy in January.

"The winter storm event that happened recently in Texas was of a different nature that spanned the entire state," Singh said. "But extreme weather can be in a variety of forms. For example, you can have tornadoes or hurricanes where the effect is not statewide but instead more limited areas are affected. We believe that in those situations these models and the tools that they will provide to us to manage the system will enhance the reliability of the distribution system because you don't have to rely only on the power that is coming from the grid, but also from other local sources such as solar and perhaps wind."

One challenge that the team is facing is the many different kinds of generating systems being integrated into distribution systems that must be accounted for. Karngala said distribution systems previously were considered the only consumers of energy, but today there are newer technologies and many more distributed energy resources coming into the distribution system such as solar panels, wind generation and storage.

"The exciting part about working on distribution systems is that these are in a phase of change now," Karngala said. "These are changing from traditional systems to much more advanced systems, and we are in that transition phase where we need to develop models and methodologies."

Ultimately, the team is looking to build a comprehensive framework of reliability analysis where approaches such as demand response, price strategies and operational strategies can be included and be expanded upon as the power grid evolves.

"There is no shortage of projects that can be developed around this framework as many models, methods and operational strategies can be included in the reliability evaluation," Karngala said.

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This work is funded by the Department of Energy as part of the U.S.-India Collaborative for Smart Distribution System with Storage project.

For girls, learning science outside linked to better grades, knowledge

NORTH CAROLINA STATE UNIVERSITY

Research News

 

In a new study, North Carolina State University researchers found that an outdoor science program was linked to higher average science grades and an increase in a measure of science knowledge for a group of fifth grade girls in North Carolina.

The findings, published in the International Journal of Science Education, indicates outdoor education could be a promising tool to help close gender gaps in science.

"The outdoors is a space where teachers can find tangible ways to make science come alive," said the study's lead author Kathryn Stevenson, assistant professor of parks, recreation and tourism management at NC State. "The natural environment is also a place that everybody has in common. In a way, it's also a great context for employing reform-based teaching practices like hands-on, inquiry-based learning or group work. These practices can be good for all students, but they may be particularly good for reaching students who aren't as well-served in classroom settings."

The researchers studied the impact of an outdoor science education program called Muddy Sneakers on fifth graders' science grades and knowledge of, and attitudes about, science. Fifth graders from western North Carolina attended between six and 10 days of Muddy Sneakers during the 2016-2017 school year. They had science lessons in nearby natural areas, including state parks and school grounds. Outdoor lessons followed the standard course of study for science through hands-on activities, hikes, science journaling, nature exploration and reflections.

Researchers compared the performance of 237 students who learned about science in the classroom to 403 students who participated in the outdoor program. They compared students' grades - which were provided by their teachers - and also used surveys to evaluate students' knowledge about how science works and their feelings about science.

When researchers evaluated students' science grades by gender, they saw that girls who participated in the outdoor science program maintained their science grades on average, while girls' average grades in the traditional science classes dropped. They also saw that participation in the outdoor program helped girls learn more about how science works on average, but traditional classrooms did not.

Boys in the outdoor and traditional class settings had fairly stable science grades on average and saw similar gains in knowledge of how science works.

The researchers reported their findings for girls was consistent with research that shows that girls start to disengage with science around age 10. The outdoor program could be providing a learning context that is different than those that enforce traditional gendered narratives about science and science learning, they argued.

"Outdoor education seems to be one of those contexts that helps everyone learn, but it may be really, really helpful for some students in particular," Stevenson said.

When they evaluated ratings of self-efficacy, which is students' confidence in their own science ability and interest in the field, they found boys' and girls' ratings actually declined on average.

The researchers argued that the measure of science efficacy may be missing an important component that could be more important for encouraging long-term interest in science: an attitude of persistence despite failure. It could be that the results captured that the students were less likely to see science ability as an innate talent rather than the product of hard work.

They also say the outdoor program could have been a new challenge for students. That might explain why students were less confident in their science ability after the program, but still showed gains in science grades and knowing how science works.

"A good combination for students to sustain success is - you need them to learn, but you need them to feel comfortable with not knowing it all," Stevenson said. "While self-efficacy dropped, achievement was stable."

###

Note to authors: The abstract follows.

"How outdoor science education can help girls stay engaged with science"

Authors: Kathryn T. Stevenson, Rachel E. Szczytko, Sarah J. Carrier and M. Nils Peterson.

DOI: 10.1080/09500693.2021.1900948

Published online March 22 in International Journal of Science Education.

Abstract: Although gender gaps associated with K-12 science achievement have narrowed significantly, gaps in science engagement and efficacy in childhood likely explain why women remain underrepresented in science careers. Early intervention programs may address root causes of gender gaps in science careers. Outdoor science education (OSE) is one understudied but promising strategy, that provides ample opportunity for reform-based instructional practices that may benefit girls, including girls of colour. Using a pre-post, treatment-control quasi-experimental design, we evaluated how an OSE program differentially impacted the science grades, science knowledge, and science self-efficacy of fifth grade girls versus boys (n = 640). We found the OSE treatment increased knowledge and maintained science grades for girls while grades fell for girls in the control group. We also found that science self-efficacy decreased for both boys and girls in the treatment group. We did not detect direct or interaction effects of race on science outcomes. Research suggests OSE may help students associate science learning with challenge, which may help explain the decrease in self-efficacy coupled with the increase in achievement for girls. We suggest future research continue to investigate how OSE can benefit all students, including those who may become disengaged with learning in traditional classroom settings.

UMD tracks the adoption of green infrastructure, from water conservation to policy

Collaborative study uses Tucson, Arizona, as a case study to explore the role of policy entrepreneurship and interest groups in the trajectory of green infrastructure

UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND

Research News

 

In a new paper published in the Journal of Environmental Policy & Planning, the University of Maryland teamed up with local researchers to examine green infrastructure adoption and leadership in Tucson, Arizona, an interesting case study where grassroots efforts have helped to drive policy change in a growing urban area surrounded by water-constrained desert. Green infrastructure (any installation that manages water or environmental factors, such as rain gardens, stormwater basins, or urban tree cover) is slowly transitioning from a fringe activity to an important part of the way governments and municipalities are dealing with water and the local effects of a changing climate. By examining the trajectory of sustainability and the role of policy entrepreneurship in broader adoption, Tucson can provide a peek into the future of green infrastructure in the Southwest and across the country.

"This work came out of a long term collaboration in Arizona trying to understand a lot of aspects of how green infrastructure (GI) is used there," says Mitchell Pavao-Zuckerman, assistant professor in Environmental Science and Technology at UMD. "We are looking at the functionality of GI, its practical benefits, but also how governance and learning around GI changes, inhibits, or helps adoption. Looking at evolution and adoption, we can see different types of players that are key, like policy entrepreneurs who are early adopters or innovators in either practice or policy and how they help diffuse knowledge around the city. Learning these lessons, we gain a lot of insight into how policy is changing, and how other areas could adapt going forward."

Funded by the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Coupled Human and Natural Systems program, Pavao-Zuckerman collaborated with the University of Arizona, the Udall Center for Public Policy in Tucson, and the University of Virginia to examine these GI trends. The researchers took a mixed methods approach to the work, examining policy, documentation, and newspaper reports to create a timeline of GI developments in the history of the city. The timeline was then used as a starting point when interviewing stakeholders and GI players in Tucson, providing a richer context and backdrop to the interview data.

"The timeline and our approach to gathering this information is innovative; it puts a method behind anecdotal stories," explains Pavao-Zuckerman. "Studying this kind of process in an urban setting around GI is a new thing, so that is one of the unique pieces of this paper. In lots of places, you have this knowledge and history of how things have come about, but using the timeline and interviews to document how things have changed, and putting it within theories of adaptation and governance - these are new frontiers for working with GI and urban environments."

As Pavao-Zuckerman describes it, Tucson provides a compelling look at how GI emerges in places that don't necessarily have water quality mandates, which are prominent in Maryland and the area surrounding the Chesapeake Bay. In Tucson and much of the Southwest, water sustainability and conservation is often the driver.

"In Maryland with the Bay, a lot of GI is implemented as a way to meet water quality standards and meet pollution reduction targets," says Pavao-Zuckerman. "But in this case, there aren't water quality mandates, and the focus is really on harvested water. A lot of water consumption in the Southwest goes to domestic irrigation for lawns and gardens, which can sometimes be up to 50% of potable water usage, so the demand is huge. You also see integration with urban tree canopy and stormwater basins that can help mitigate heat islands and buffer for future climate change when things get even hotter out there. So you see the same types of things there as in the Bay area, like curb cuts to redirect stormwater and urban tree cover, but it is coming from a different place. So it is interesting to see how you get to the same place from a different start point."

One thing that Pavao-Zuckerman and the team found in Tucson that the rest of the country can learn from is an overall culture of what is known as water ethics. Similar to the concept of One Health (the intersection and interconnectedness of animal, human, and environmental health), Tucson water municipalities call it One Water.

"Part of what we see going forward is a more holistic way of thinking about water," says Pavao-Zuckerman. "Stormwater is usually thought of as a waste stream that we want to get rid of as quickly as possible, but people are starting to see it as a resource and not a waste. The water municipality there calls it One Water, thinking about the integration of the whole water system. Instead of thinking of stormwater and drinking water as two separate things, we think about water collectively, and that gives you a different perspective for management. That mindset will hopefully also start to happen in other places."

Other key findings from the paper include the need to think about GI across all scales, from individual and neighborhood adoption to the city level. Additionally, there is a need for more equitable dispersion of GI to ensure environmental and social justice.

"A lot of this practice is done effectively voluntarily," explains Pavao-Zuckerman. "Neighborhoods and the city will promote it, but the city isn't necessarily going out and implementing most of these structures - that is up to the home or property owner. Because implementation has started from policy entrepreneurs and individuals in Tucson, it didn't happen randomly and also didn't happen necessarily in communities where it is most needed. Most cities are like this, with more affluent communities having more implementation, and places that have less money or more people of color tend to have less implementation, so they are bearing the brunt of the environmental harms that they are trying to solve. So that needs to be part of the trajectory going forward, thinking about how to shift practice to reflect that and encourage cooperation at all levels and scales to be more equitable."

Overall, this paper provides a landscape of GI implementation and gives researchers, policy makers, and advocates alike a chance to understand where things are coming from so they can think more strategically about where things are headed.

"It lets us do backcasting and forwardcasting," emphasizes Pavao-Zuckerman. "We can see where things came from and new threads that are starting to emerge. GI is important because it adds different aspects of resilience to an environment. It helps to buffer environmental extremes, and it adds more flexibility throughout the landscape to withstand and respond to extreme events. We think of climate change as this thing that is going to be hotter, wetter, or drier, but it is the extreme ends of weather events that really hit cities and people hard, and GI is something that we think is going to really help. We are paying particular attention to the role of people and organizations in driving GI change in this work to understand it as a way for how people can shape urban transformations to make a more sustainable and resilient community."

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This paper is entitled "Agency and governance in green infrastructure policy adoption and change" and is published in the Journal of Environmental Policy & Planning, DOI: 10.1080/1523908X.2021.1910018.

This work is funded by the National Science Foundation, Grant Number Award #1518376, Linking Ecosystem Services and Governance of Water Resources in Urbanized Landscapes.

BOURGEOIS PRESS REPORT

NDP convention targets inequality, as contentious planks threaten to steal spotlight

OTTAWA — Inequality is fast shaping up to be a key focus of the federal NDP policy convention as thousands of New Democrats prepare to gather online this afternoon to kick off the three-day event.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

Party members cast their votes recently to whittle down hundreds of proposed resolutions into a short list whose top policies include a $15 federal minimum wage and a call to "abolish billionaires" and for-profit long-term care.

Delegates also have the opportunity to insert the word "socialism" into the party constitution after members voted to scrub it from the preamble in 2013 under then-leader Thomas Mulcair.

The term, once a nearly taboo descriptor in federal politics, has surged back into discussion amid a widening wealth gap and the rise of avowedly social-democratic politicians such as Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in the U.S.

While the inequality motif is poised to rally New Democrats around a common theme this weekend, the lead-up to the convention threatened to expose fissures between party brass and the grassroots as well as among MPs.

NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh said this week he opposed a resolution from a downtown Toronto riding association to phase out the Canadian military, a proposal that failed to make it to the virtual convention floor.

But several controversial resolutions on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict are among the top-ranked. One demands Canada suspend arms dealing with Israel. A second, endorsed by more than 40 riding associations, rejects a working definition of anti-Semitism set out by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance on the grounds it is used to chill criticism of Israeli policy.

The proposal found NDP lawmakers and party members on opposite sides of a sensitive issue that threatens to distract from the message of unity the party aims to project.

"I don't think it's going to overshadow, because we've got a lot of really important and exciting policy debates on issues that impact people right now in the pandemic," Singh said in a recent interview.

The resolutions to be debated, voted on and distilled into policies by some 2,000 delegates will serve as de facto planks to construct a platform ahead of a possible election this year.

The event will also vie for attention with a virtual Liberal policy convention happening simultaneously.

Former federal NDP leader Ed Broadbent will help launch the convention with a speech Friday afternoon, followed by addresses from the leaders of the Manitoba and Yukon New Democrats.

B.C. Premier John Horgan — the only NDP leader who currently heads a government — will address attendees Saturday, with veteran leader of the Ontario NDP Andrea Horwath taking the virtual stage later on.

Singh aims to rally the base with the keynote speech Sunday, hoping to convey a sense of rah-rah enthusiasm despite there being no convention floor to stomp nor walls to rattle.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 9, 2021.

Christopher Reynolds, The Canadian Press

ENBRIDGE LINE 3
Opinion: The pipeline that President Biden needs to stop

Opinion by Ilhan Omar and Tara Houska 

By the Mississippi River headwaters -- the mighty river running through the center of our country and powering much of Minnesota -- is a small, clear stream. Its bends hold marshy reeds surrounded by towering pines. It's one of the places where traffic noise is a rarity and the forest looms large. Lately, however, the sounds of heavy equipment and excavators prepping the ground to transport tar sands oil under the riverbed echo through the wetlands. Segments of the Enbridge Line 3 replacement pipeline wait in nearby work yards, ready to redirect the dirtiest fossil fuel more than 300 miles through "The Land of 10,000 Lakes."

© CNN Enbridge Line 3 pipeline

© Bill Weir/CNN Tara Houska



We're just two months into President Joe Biden's administration. On his first day in office he revoked the permit to halt construction of the Keystone XL pipeline, another long-fought tar sands oil project proposed out of Alberta, Canada. Climate science and racial justice are clear priorities for this administration. Science isn't a bad word and Covid-19 is a crisis, not a hoax.

Yet, here in the north woods of Minnesota, any progress feels far away. It's hard to celebrate when your sacred places are threatened to be torn apart in front of your eyes. Tears swim in tired eyes and prayers go up for the delicate wild rice beds downstream, the generations not yet born and the pain of inequity as old as the state of Minnesota.

It isn't just a pipeline. To hear Enbridge, the fossil fuel corporation behind the Line 3 project, tell the tale, it's a replacement pipeline to bring crude oil through the territory, most for eventual foreign export.

The old Line 3 is leaking, they say, and it must be replaced for safety reasons. Their story omits the fact that the replacement pipeline would nearly double its current capacity, all but guaranteeing that our state would not meet its emissions reduction targets. It also ignores that the new route goes through hundreds of acres of wetlands and over 200 bodies of water untouched by pipeline, and that Enbridge wants a new pipeline corridor through Minnesota's wetlands to avoid congestion. Notably, the old pipeline route would be left in the ground to rot.

It omits the fact that we've been conditioned to believe that a company's "need" to build a new pipeline should be automatically approved and accepted by the public. The Minnesota Department of Commerce is now challenging the state's Public Utilities Commission in court for approving the pipeline -- arguing that Enbridge failed to submit a long-range forecast showing a demand for the oil Line 3 carries. It overlooks that the new Line 3 would emit 193 million tons of carbon dioxide each year -- more than the rest of the state -- and, moreover, that it is another nail in the coffin for sustainable human life on this planet and another slap in the face to indigenous sovereignty.

Many of the Ojibwe people gathered at the Mississippi to lend support to the George Floyd demonstrations last summer. We marched, we stood united against police brutality and demanded justice. Our liberatory fronts are intertwined -- stolen labor and stolen land lie at the foundation of the United States. Our watersheds are intertwined; what happens upstream affects the millions downstream. Our personhood is intertwined; what happens to the vulnerable reflects the societal whole.

In February, an excavator broke through the ice with the operator trapped inside. Thankfully, the operator lived. Enbridge released a statement in response, saying, "Safety is our first priority for the thousands workers who are currently replacing Line 3 on construction sites spread across the more than 330 mile route." In December, another Enbridge contractor who was the father of nine died after he was run over by a fork lift. Enbridge paused work until the next day and said, "safety standards and protocols were reinforced."

Several tribal-led lawsuits are waiting to be heard by the courts as Enbridge works at full steam ahead to bulldoze through our wetlands. Earlier this year, a US appeals court ruled in favor of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and upheld a lower court's decision to strike down a key federal permit for the Dakota Access oil pipeline. That victory, however, came over three years after the Dakota Access pipeline was finished, and the pipeline has already leaked multiple times. It is a common tactic of the fossil fuel industry to slam through projects that tribes may oppose before their legal issues are heard.

The Line 3 replacement, which would be one of the largest tar sands infrastructure in North America, won't run through wealthy suburbs. It largely threatens places that are out of sight and out of mind for most Americans: the prairies, the wetlands, the wild rice tributaries and the treaty lands of indigenous peoples. And at its terminus, like so many other refineries across the US, we find communities of low wealth, communities treated as sacrifice zones. Cancer clusters, contaminated water and deadly explosions are too often overlooked when corporations stand to benefit. It's convenient to continue relying on fossil fuels and dangerous chemicals. Dehumanization comes at a steep cost -- our lands, our waters, our lives become expendable and inequity the norm.

As an immigrant and an indigenous person, we see the interconnectedness of climate justice, of structural racism and disregard for human life. Climate change does not stop at the border of a reservation or a state or a country -- it impacts us all. The decision to move forward with the implementation of Line 3 is a decision made for the entire world and for all future generations of humanity. Now is not the time to be silent. Now is the time to raise our voices and urge President Biden to take action to stop Line 3.

© U.S. House Office of Photoraphy Ilhan Omar

 

Fungi are present in your lungs

THE UNIVERSITY OF BERGEN

Research News

 

The lungs were for a long time considered to be sterile in health, while in diseases like chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) failure in immune mechanisms were thought to allow microorganisms to proliferate and persist. New sequencing techniques have shown that several microorganisms reside in the lungs of healthy individuals, as well. Few studies have examined the fungal community in COPD and compared it to healthy controls using such techniques. According to the study findings, the compositions of these environments seem to be unaffected by the use of inhaled steroids.

Lungs have a unique fungal environment

The Bergen COPD Microbiome study (short name "MicroCOPD") is the world's largest single-centre study on the fungal community in lungs of persons with COPD. The Bergen Respiratory Research Group collected samples from the lungs of 233 individuals with and without COPD using bronchoscopy. Lung and mouth samples from 193 of these individuals were subsequently sequenced to detect residing fungi.

"Results showed that both healthy and diseased lungs had a different fungal composition than the mouth, suggesting that lungs have a unique fungal environment", says PhD candidate Einar Marius Hjellestad Martinsen.

The lungs were dominated by the fungus Candida. Interestingly, there were no differences in compositions between lungs from healthy individuals and patients with COPD. Furthermore, patients with COPD using inhaled steroids did not have any differences in the fungal community of their lungs compared to those not using inhaled steroids.

Disease-causing fungus

The prevalence and severity of fungal infections have increased in recent years. The finding that Candida is frequently found in healthy lungs could thus be of special importance. Candida is found as part of the normal flora on several mucous membranes, and is capable of causing disease, for instance thrush in the mouth or vagina.

"It would be of great interest to further examine if fungal lung infections are caused by fungi that are already present in the lungs", says Hjellestad Martinsen.

"If so, emphasis should be placed on these fungi to reveal what triggers are responsible for converting them from being "friendly residents" of our lungs to disease-causing intruders."

We know that use of inhaled steroids can have immunosuppressive effects, which can predispose to fungal outgrowth. The observation that inhaled steroids did not seem to affect the composition of the fungal environments in the lungs is interesting in this regard. Inhaled steroids are frequently used by patients with COPD and asthma, hence it would be of importance to know more about their influence on fungi found in the lungs.

The research group consists of several researchers working on the bacterial and fungal microbiota in the lungs, and the group is currently examining whether fungi is present also in other lung diseases.

The Colour Out of Space - Wikipedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Colour_Out_of_Space

• Overview
• Synopsis
• Background
• Reception and legacy
• See also
• External links

"The Colour Out of Space" is a science fiction/horror short story by American author H. P. Lovecraft, written in March 1927. In the tale, an unnamed narrator pieces together the story of an area known by the locals as the "blasted heath" in the wild hills west of the fictional town of Arkham, Massachusetts. The narrator discovers that many years ago a meteorite crashed there, poisoning every living being nearby; vegetation grows large but foul tasting, animals are driven mad and deformed into grotesque shapes, 

"The Colour out of Space" by H. P. Lovecraft

 

Robots can be more aware of human co-workers, with system that provides context

KTH, ROYAL INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY

VIDEO: KTH RESEARCHER HONGYI LIU TESTS A ROBOT ARM BY PLACING HIS HAND IN ITS PATH. view more 

CREDIT: HONGYI LIU

Working safely is not only about processes, but context - understanding the work environment and circumstances, and being able to predict what other people will do next. A new system empowers robots with this level of context awareness, so they can work side-by-side with humans on assembly lines more efficiently and without unnecessary interruptions.

Instead of being able to only judge distance between itself and its human co-workers, the human-robot collaboration system can identify each worker it works with, as well as the person's skeleton model, which is an abstract of body volume, says Hongyi Liu, a researcher at KTH Royal Institute of Technology. Using this information, the context-aware robot system can recognize the worker's pose and even predict the next pose. These abilities provide the robot with a context to be aware of while interacting.

Liu says that the system operates with artificial intelligence that requires less computational power and smaller datasets than traditional machine learning methods. It relies instead on a form of machine learning called transfer learning - which reuses knowledge developed through training before being adapted into an operational model.

The research was published in the recent issue of Robotics and Computer-Integrated Manufacturing, and was co-authored by KTH Professor Lihui Wang.

Liu says that the technology is out ahead of today's International Organization for Standards (ISO) requirements for collaborative robot safety, so implementation of the technology would require industrial action. But the context awareness offers better efficiency than the one-dimensional interaction workers now experience with robots, he says.

"Under the ISO standard and technical specification, when a human approaches a robot it slows down, and if he or she comes close enough it will stop. If the person moves away it resumes. That's a pretty low level of context awareness," he says.

"It jeopardizes efficiency. Production is slowed and humans cannot work closely to robots."

Liu compares the context-aware robot system to a self-driving car that recognizes how long a stoplight has been red and anticipates moving again. Instead of braking or downshifting, it begins to adjust its speed by cruising toward the intersection, thereby sparing the brakes and transmission further wear.

Experiments with the system showed that with context, a robot can operate more safely and efficiently without slowing down production.

In one test performed with the system, a robot arm's path was blocked unexpectedly by someone's hand. But rather than stop, the robot adjusted - it predicted the future trajectory of the hand and the arm moved around the hand.

"This is safety not just from the technical point of view in avoiding collisions, but being able to recognize the context of the assembly line," he says. "This gives an additional layer of safety."

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The research was an extension of the Symbiotic Human Robot Collaborative Assembly project, which was completed in 2019.

 LOU GEHRIG DISEASE

Manual workers face twice the risk of developing ALS

Scientists discover that the majority of ALS patients had a blue-collar job

UNIVERSITY OF MALTA

Research News

IMAGE: CONSTRUCTION WORKERS IN MALTA view more 

CREDIT: SOURCE: MARK ZAMMIT CORDINA, TIMES OF MALTA

ALS is a progressive neurological disease that attacks the nerves that interact with the body's muscles. The disease typically leads to complete paralysis of the body, robbing patients of their ability to walk, speak, eat and breathe.

Researchers studied ALS patients and healthy elderly volunteers living in Malta who took part in an ongoing study aiming at identifying genetic and environmental risk factors. Malta is a sovereign microstate in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and is home to a geographically and culturally isolated population. Recently, Maltese ALS patients were found to have a unique genetic makeup compared to their European counterparts.

In this study, based on demographic data collected over a four-year period, the researchers found that manual workers were twice as likely to develop ALS. Indeed, close to two thirds of ALS patients reported a blue-collar job as their main occupation during their entire career.

"We have long known that Italian football players, American National Football League players and military serviceman have an increased risk of ALS compared to the general population. A common thread running through these professions is sustained or strenuous physical exertion. Our study supports this notion," said the study's lead researcher Dr Ruben J. Cauchi, PhD, a senior lecturer at the University of Malta's School of Medicine and lead investigator at the University of Malta's Centre for Molecular Medicine and Biobanking.

Despite the fact that Malta does not have professional football players nor an elite military service, the study found that sweat-inducing jobs including those in construction and carpentry were associated with a higher ALS risk. Patients in these occupations were more prone to develop bulbar-onset ALS, a form of the disease in which speech or swallowing problems appear before muscle weakness in the limbs. Patients with bulbar-onset ALS fare worse than those with limb-onset.

The setting up of a national ALS Registry and Biobank at the University of Malta in 2017, with the aim of identifying and tracking ALS patients and healthy volunteers, was key for this discovery. Right now, the research team is studying the interplay between genetics and environmental exposures in causing ALS in patients.

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Study co-authors are Maia Farrugia Wismayer, Rebecca Borg, Dr Andrew Farrugia Wismayer, Dr Karl Bonavia and Prof Neville Vassallo from the University of Malta; Dr Malcolm Vella from Mater Dei Hospital; and, Dr Adrian Pace from Karin Grech and Gozo General Hospitals.

The study was funded by the University of Malta Research Excellence Fund, an Endeavour Scholarship (part-financed by the European Social Fund), a Malta Council for Science & Technology Internationalisation Partnership Award, ALS Malta Foundation and the University of Malta's Research Trust (RIDT).

 

Conspiracy theories and cognitive biases in the COVID-19 pandemic

UNIVERSITY OF BASEL

Research News

 

Conspiracy theories appear to be increasing in popularity as the Covid-19 pandemic continues. But to what extent do people really agree with them, and what is the association with cognitive biases? A research team from the University of Basel studied these questions in German-speaking Switzerland and Germany.

Periods of crisis are often conducive to the emergence and spread of conspiracy theories, and the Covid-19 pandemic is a case in point. A research team led by Sarah Kuhn and Dr. Thea Zander-Schellenberg of the University of Basel has investigated the endorsement rates of coronavirus-related conspiracy theories in German-speaking Switzerland and Germany, together with the associated psychological factors. More than 1,600 people, 554 of which in Switzerland, took part in the anonymous online survey in July 2020. The findings have now been published in the journal Psychological Medicine.

Alongside demographic information, the survey assessed respondents' agreement with several coronavirus-related statements based on suspicions of a conspiracy behind the emergence of the pandemic or the related communication. Questions were also asked about current feelings of stress and paranoia-like experiences, and various cognitive biases were identified based on inference tasks. These biases include, for example, tendencies to systematically draw conclusions on the basis of insufficient information, or to exclude information that contradicts an individual's stance in their conclusions.

About one in ten respondents agreed strongly with conspiratorial statements

On average, just below 10% of all respondents agreed strongly with a conspiratorial statement, a further 20% slightly or moderately, and approximately 70% not at all. This distribution was identified within both the Swiss and German cohorts. Most popular were statements suggesting that the virus was man-made, or that the official explanation of the cause of the virus was questionable.

Participants who agreed more strongly with the statements presented were on average younger, more stressed and reported more paranoia-like experiences (e.g. "Strangers and friends look at me critically"). They also held a more extreme political stance and had a lower level of education. The agreement values did not vary between the sexes.

A further result revealed that Swiss respondents agreed slightly more with certain statements than German respondents; some of the more strongly supported statements related to the biological aspects and the purpose of Covid-19 vaccines (e.g. "Big Pharma created coronavirus to profit from the vaccines"). Although statistically significant, the differences revealed are small. This finding complements existing research results that show that vaccine acceptance is lower in Switzerland than in other western European countries, such as Germany.

"As our survey represents a snapshot of attitudes as they stood last summer, further studies are now required in order to demonstrate whether endorsement levels have remained stable or changed in the meantime," says Zander-Schellenberg.

Cognitive biases, but not always

The study team also found indications that endorsement of conspiracy theories was associated with certain peculiarities in thought processes. Participants who found coronavirus conspiracy theories to be plausible jumped to conclusions and reached them with greater uncertainty than those who considered them to be less plausible. They also paid less attention to information that contradicted their own opinion.

In an adjunct in-depth statistical analysis, the researchers also found that the link between conspiracy theories and cognitive biases was not as linear as assumed. It emerged that the group of participants who agreed strongly with conspiracy theories contained several individuals who demonstrated even less cognitive biases than those who tended to reject conspiracy theories. This group of respondents took a more cautious and adaptive approach when reaching its conclusions.

"These results suggest that not everyone who agrees with a conspiracy theory automatically processes information in an unfavorable way and decides accordingly," says lead author Sarah Kuhn. The results show rather that the group of conspiracy theory supporters might also contain various subgroups characterized by different thought processes.

"These findings were surprising for us in that psychological research has previously assumed that conspiracy theories went hand in hand with characteristics such as poor analytical thinking skills and hasty conclusions," says Kuhn. "The fact that with some people the opposite might be the case means we should be careful with generalizations about supporters of conspiracy theories; it also shows the potential from a research perspective of studying the cognitive mechanisms of conspiracy theories more closely in future."

Due to the survey approach, the study by definition cannot be considered to be a representative survey of the population, but the respondent samples were nevertheless similar to the general Swiss and German population in terms of age and gender.

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