It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Thursday, December 22, 2022
Walking “Teabag style” for a few minutes a day could help adults meet physical activity targets
Monty Python inspired study suggests that increasing the inefficiency of physical activity could have important public health benefits
Adults could achieve global physical activity targets by walking inefficiently for just a few minutes each day, finds a study in the Christmas issue of The BMJ.
Global rates of physical inactivity have not budged in the past 20 years, despite campaigns to increase physical activity and boost cardiovascular fitness in adults.
The inefficient walking styles of Mr Teabag and Mr Putey, acted by John Cleese and Michael Palin in the 1971 Monty Python Ministry of Silly Walks sketch, have been shown to be more variable than usual walking, but their energy expenditure has never been measured.
To fill this vital research gap, a team of US researchers set out to compare the energy expenditure of low efficiency walking with high efficiency walking.
Their findings are based on data from 13 healthy adults (six women, seven men) aged 22-71 years (average age 34) with no history of heart or lung disease, and no known gait disorder.
Height and body weight were measured and each participant was shown a video of the Ministry of Silly Walks sketch before performing three walking trials, each lasting five minutes, around an indoor 30 metre course.
In the first trial, participants walked in their usual style at a freely chosen pace. For the next two trials, participants were asked to recreate, to the best of their ability, the walks of Mr Teabag and Mr Putey they had seen in the video.
Distance covered during the five minute walks was used to calculate average speed. Oxygen uptake (mL/kg/min), energy expenditure (kcal/kg/min) and exercise intensity (METs) - the amount of calories expended per minute of physical activity - were also measured.
The researchers found that only the Teabag walk resulted in a significantly greater energy expenditure—about 2.5 times that of usual walking.
For men and women combined, oxygen uptake during normal walking was 11.3 mL/kg/min (or 3.2 METs), which was similar to that of the Putey walk (12.3 mL/kg/min, or 3.5 METs). However, the Teabag walk elicited an oxygen uptake of 27.9 mL/kg/min, or 8 METs, which qualifies as vigorous intensity exercise.
In terms of energy expenditure, exchanging just one minute of usual walking style with one minute of Teabag walking was associated with an increase in energy expenditure of 8 kcal/min for men and 5 kcal/min for women.
The researchers estimate that adults could achieve 75 minutes of vigorous intensity physical activity per week by walking in Teabag style—rather than their usual style—for about 11 min/day. And substituting usual style steps with Teabag style steps for about 12-19 min/day would increase daily energy expenditure by approximately 100 kcal.
This amount of walking in Teabag style would likely increase cardiorespiratory fitness, reduce mortality risk, and would require no extra time commitment because it replaces movement adults already do with higher energy physical activity, they add.
This is an experimental study based on a small sample, and the researchers acknowledge that some people, including those with disabilities, gait disorders, joint disease, or other health conditions might not be able to perform the Putey or Teabag walks. “But they might be able to otherwise increase energy expenditure in their daily movements, with inefficiency as the goal,” they say.
They also note that bursts of physical activity as short as one to two minutes, accumulated over time, can produce cardiovascular benefits, so people could engage in regular bursts of inefficient walking, at times and places that are most convenient for them, including indoors.
“Our analysis of the energy consumed during different styles of walking seeks to empower people to move their own bodies in more energetic—and hopefully joyful—ways,” they write. “Efforts to boost cardiovascular fitness should embrace inclusivity and inefficiency for all.”
IMAGE: EMISSION ESTIMATES FOR 2010–2018 IN CHINA. THE FOUR REGIONS ANALYZED INCLUDE NORTH CHINA (NE), SOUTH CHINA (SE), NORTH-WEST CHINA (NW), AND THE QINGHAI-TIBETAN PLATEAU (TP).view more
CREDIT: NATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES
1. Background
Natural gas is a relatively clean burning fossil fuel, that causes less air pollution than coal and is widely used in the world. Recent studies have shown that the natural gas leaks from production, supply chain, and end-use facilities are a large source of atmospheric methane (CH4), and the leaking budget is underestimated in many places by bottom-up inventories. CH4 is the second most important greenhouse gas (GHG) contributing to global warming after carbon dioxide (CO2), with a relatively shorter lifetime, making the reduction of CH4 emission a suitable target for implementing rapid and achievable mitigation strategies of the Paris Agreement.
Over the last decade, natural gas has become the fastest-growing fossil energy source in China due to the coal-to-gas government initiative that has been implemented to reduce air pollution and CO2 emissions. Natural gas consumption has increased dramatically from 108.5 billion standard cubic meters (bcm) (4% of primary energy consumption) in 2010 to a record level of 280 bcm (7.6% of primary energy consumption) in 2018. In addition, according to China’s energy plan, the share of primary energy from gas will keep increasing and is likely to reach 15% by 2030, while coal and oil consumption will decline. From 2010 to 2018, the length of gas supply pipelines in urban areas of China increased approximately three-fold from 298 to 842 thousand kilometers. However, CH4 leakage from those pipelines has not been actively reported, and there is limited publicly available data on upstream emissions and local distribution of natural gas emissions in China.
2. Research Outline and Results
In this study, we used nine years (2010–2018) of CH4 observations by the Greenhouse gases Observing SATellite “IBUKI” (GOSAT) and surface station data from the World Data Centre for Greenhouse Gases (WDCGG) to estimate CH4 emissions in different regions of China. GOSAT observes the column-averaged dry-air mole fractions of CH4 in the atmosphere, and the surface stations monitor CH4 concentrations near surface. The observation data were used for simulations by the high-resolution inverse model NTFVAR (NIES-TM-FLEXPART-variational) to infer the surface flux of CH4 emissions. Inverse modelling optimizes prior flux estimates, which are constrained so that an acceptable agreement between the simulated and observed atmospheric concentrations is achieved.
Figure 1 shows the model-estimated CH4 fluxes in four regions of China. The four regions, North China (NE), South China (SE), North-west China (NW), and the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau (TP), vary with respect climate, geographical features, types of agriculture, major economic activities, and CH4 emission sources. The model-estimated average CH4 emissions from the four subregions over the period 2010–2018 are 30.0±1.0 (average ± standard deviation) Tg CH4 yr-1 from the SE region, 23.3±2.7 Tg CH4 yr-1 from the NE region, 2.9±0.2 Tg CH4 yr-1 from the NW region, and 1.7±0.1 Tg CH4 yr-1 from the TP region. The trends in CH4 emissions have varied in the different regions of China over the last nine years, with significant increase trends detected in the NE region and the whole China.
We focused our analysis on the NE region where natural gas production and consumption have increased dramatically and are likely one of the main contributors to the increase estimated in regional total CH4 emissions. The CH4 emissions from natural gas, including leakage from fuel extraction, processing, transport, and the end-use stage, were estimated using an approach that combined data for the province-level emissions inventory and published inverse model studies. The model-estimated total CH4 emissions and the estimated natural gas emissions both increased significantly during 2010–2018 (Figure 2). The total amount of natural gas emissions due to leakages constitutes a significant waste of energy and value. For example, in 2018, natural gas consumption in the NE region was 101.5 bcm and the estimated total natural gas emissions were 3.2%–5.3% of regional consumption.
Figure 3 shows the changes in estimated CH4 emissions from natural gas and the model-estimated total CH4 emissions for 2010-2018 compared to previous years in the NE region. The year-over-year change in the model-estimated total CH4 emission closely follows the changes in CH4 emissions from natural gas. In January 2016, record cold wave hit the region causing a sudden increase in natural gas use, and natural gas suppliers recorded an increase in natural gas loss (i.e., the difference between the amount of gas purchased and the amount of gas sold). Simultaneously, the atmospheric observations also captured the emission changes, as reflected in our inverse estimates (Figure 3). The analysis shows a strong correlation between trends in natural gas use and the increase in the atmospheric CH4 concentration over the NE region, which is indicative the ability of GOSAT to monitor variations in regional anthropogenic sources.
3. Future Perspectives
The findings of our study highlight that the increase in natural gas use threatens China’s carbon reduction efforts. The increase in CH4 leaks from natural gas production and the supply chain will adversely affect the interests of diverse stakeholders, despite the introduction of carbon reduction measures. Given that the large natural gas distribution pipelines span more than 900 thousand kilometers in China, natural gas leaks constitute a significant waste of energy and value. The year-over-year changes in regional emissions and trends were detected by satellite and surface observations in this study. In the future, additional observations using high-resolution satellites will help to more accurately quantify emissions and provide scientific directions for emission reduction measures. There is also a need to further detect and locate such leaks using advanced mobile platforms in order to effectively mitigate CH4 emissions in China and bring about economic, environmental, and health benefits.
4. Data Availability
GOSAT data used in this study are available from the GOSAT Data Archive Service https://data2.gosat.nies.go.jp/index_en.html
In-situ methane observation data are archived on the WDCGG Global Network: https://gaw.kishou.go.jp/
Emissions Database for Global Atmospheric Research (EDGAR) emission inventories are available for download at
https://edgar.jrc.ec.europa.eu/
Global Fire Assimilation System (GFAS) fire emissions Database are from https://www.ecmwf.int/en/forecasts/dataset/global-fire-assimilation-system
Wetland emission by Vegetation Integrative SImulator for Trace gases (VISIT) model are available at
The Greenhouse Gases Observing Satellite "IBUKI" (GOSAT) is the world’s first spacecraft to monitor the concentrations of the two major GHGs CO2 and CH4 from space. NIES has promoted the GOSAT series projects for GHG observation from space, together with the Ministry of the Environment, Japan (MOE) and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). GOSAT (IBUKI) is the first satellite in the series and has been observing column-averaged concentrations of CO2 and CH4 for more than 13 years since its launch in 2009. The second satellite, GOSAT-2 (IBUKI-2) was launched in 2018 and started observing carbon monoxide in addition to CO2 and CH4. Furthermore, the third satellite, Global Observing SATellite for Greenhouse gases and Water cycle (GOSAT-GW) is under development and due for launch in Japanese fiscal year 2023.
○ Lifetime of methane in the atmosphere
Methane is the second most important well-mixed GHG contributing to human-induced climate change after CO2. The lifetime of CH4 in the atmosphere refers to the time that CH4 stays in the air after being emitted from a variety of sources. CH4 is removed from the atmosphere mostly by chemical reactions. The atmospheric lifetime of CH4 is 10 ± 2 years, which is relatively shorter than that of CO2 (approximately 5 to 200 years) (IPCC, 2013).
○ Methane emission sources
Methane is emitted from a variety of anthropogenic and natural sources. Approximately 60% of all CH4 emissions come from anthropogenic sources, such as agricultural activities, waste treatment, oil and natural gas systems, coal mining, stationary and mobile combustion, and certain industrial processes. Natural emissions include wetlands, freshwater bodies such as lakes and rivers, and geological sources such as terrestrial and marine seeps and volcanoes. Other smaller sources include ruminant wild animals, termites, hydrates and permafrost.
○ Underestimation of methane emissions from oil and gas using bottom-up inventories
Methane can leak into the atmosphere from upstream/downstream natural gas operations (i.e., extraction and gathering, processing, transmission and storage, and distribution) and end-use combustion. Atmospheric measurement studies have shown that a large amount of CH4 emissions from oil and gas production are unaccounted for in bottom-up inventories. Using high-resolution satellite observations, Zhang et al. (2020) estimated a leakage equivalent to 3.7% (~60% higher than the national average leakage rate) of all the gas extracted from the largest oil-producing basin in the United States. Chan et al. (2020) reported eight-year estimates of CH4 emissions from oil and gas operations in western Canada and found that they were nearly twice that from inventories. Weller et al. (2020) used an advanced mobile leak detection (AMLD) platform combined with GIS information of utility pipelines to estimate CH4 leakage from pipelines of local distribution systems in the United States. They found that the leakage from those pipelines was approximately five times greater than that reported in inventories compiled based on self-reported utility leakage data.
○ High-resolution inverse model NIES-TM-FLEXPART-variational (NTFVAR)
Inverse modeling is an important and essential method for estimating GHGs emissions. The model uses atmospheric observation data as a controller in atmospheric models to optimize bottom-up emission inventories (prior fluxes).
The NIES-TM-FLEXPART-variational (NTFVAR) global inverse model was developed by Dr.Shamil Maksyutov’s group at NIES. NTFVAR is combined with a joint Eulerian three-dimensional transport model, the National Institute for Environmental Studies Transport Model (NIES-TM) v08.1i, and a Lagrangian model, the FLEXPART model v.8.0. The transport model is driven by JRA-55 meteorological data from JMA. The prior fluxes include gridded anthropogenic emissions from the EDGAR database, such as energy, agriculture, waste and other sectors; wetland emissions estimated by the Wetland emission by the VISIT model; biomass burning emissions estimated by GFAS; and climatological emissions from oceanic, geological, and termite sources. The inverse modeling problem is formulated and solved to find the optimal value of corrections to prior fluxes minimizing mismatches between observations and modelled concentrations. Variational optimization is applied to obtain flux corrections to vary prior uncertainty fields at a resolution of 0.1° × 0.1° with bi-weekly time steps. A variational inversion scheme is combined with the high-resolution variant of the transport model and its adjoint described by Maksyutov et al. (2021).
References:
Chan, E. et al. Eight-Year Estimates of Methane Emissions from Oil and Gas Operations in Western Canada Are Nearly Twice Those Reported in Inventories. Environmental Science & Technology54, 14899-14909, doi:10.1021/acs.est.0c04117 (2020).
IPCC 2013: Climate Change 2013: The Physical Science Basis. Contribution of Working Group I to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. [Stocker, T. F. Q. et al.]. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, United Kingdom and New York, NY, USA.
Maksyutov, S. et al. Technical note: A high-resolution inverse modelling technique for estimating surface CO2 fluxes based on the NIES-TM - FLEXPART coupled transport model and its adjoint. Atmospheric Chemistry Physics21, 1245–1266 doi:10.5194/acp-21-1245-2021(2021).
Weller, Z., Hamburg, S. & von Fischer, J. A National Estimate of Methane Leakage from Pipeline Mains in Natural Gas Local Distribution Systems. Environmental Science & Technology54, 8958-8967, doi:10.1021/acs.est.0c00437 (2020).
Zhang, Y. et al. Quantifying methane emissions from the largest oil-producing basin in the United States from space. Science Advances6, doi:10.1126/sciadv.aaz5120 (2020).
Atmospheric Observations Suggest Methane Emissions in North-east China Growing with Natural Gas Use
Energy crisis, the five challenges for 2023
Simone Tagliapietra, researcher in the Faculty of Political and Social Sciences at the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, has outlined for the journal “Nature” some possible global energy scenarios
How will the map of global energy change? Will sky-high energy prices boost renewables? How will the industrial landscape shift? What will the lasting economic impacts be? How will the energy crisis affect climate action?These are the five crucial questions that researchers around the world will be asked to focus on in 2023. It will be up to them to find adequate answers to support government action in the coming months to deal with the emergency.
Identifying the crucial issues in an area that has become key for global politics and economics, is Simone Tagliapietra, researcher in the Faculty of Political and Social Sciences at the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, whom was commissioned by the journal “Nature” to outline some possible energy scenarios for 2023. Together with the co-author of the article to be published in the end-of-year issue of the prestigious journal, Andreas Goldthau, director of the Willy Brandt School at the University of Erfurt, in addition to focusing on the new post-war world energy map in Ukraine, he tried to indicate the industrial, economic and social repercussions of the energy crisis. With a focus on the effects-potentially positive-that it will have in fostering the ecological transition.
“In 2022, energy markets have been on a roller coaster”, the researchers argue. For this reason, what is about to close will go down in history as an annus horribilis. Blame it on an “energy crisis” “triggered by the Russian invasion of Ukraine” and, as a result, the Kremlin’s “geopolitical use of natural gas flows” to Europe. Thus, 2023 will be a crucial year to understand how the energy crisis will evolve and how it will affect the choices that will be made globally to ensure a more sustainable future.
How will the map of global energy change? “The events of the past year have fundamentally altered Russia's position in global energy markets and the shape of those markets. New alliances are being built and old ones consolidated”, says Tagliapietra. For its part, the European Union is is approaching major gas suppliers such as Norway, Algeria and the United States, as well as producers in Africa and the Middle East of liquefied natural gas. Russia is shifting lost European exports to Asia. Europe will see lasting reductions in its consumption of natural gas as a result of greater energy efficiency, a switch to green alternatives. Faced with this scenario in 2023, “researchers need to consider whether such steps are enough to compensate for lost Russian imports and avoid global supply shortages”, says Tagliapietra.
Will sky-high energy prices boost renewables?
The extent to which countries can fast-track the switch to green energy is a key question for 2023. High global oil and gas prices offer an incentive for households and businesses to install solar panels and heat pumps to lower their energy bills, as many did this year in Europe.
How will the industrial landscape shift?
High costs and limited supplies of energy will reorganize industries, including processes and locations. Some energy-intensive manufacturing sectors, including for aluminium, fertilizers and other chemicals, are starting to move to places offering cheaper energy, such as the United States or the Middle East. Other industries are innovating.
What will the lasting economic impacts be?
The coming year will bring clarity about trends in ‘deglobalization’ and economic nationalism. Some economists predict that reshoring will slow the global energy transition as markets fragment. Researchers also need to watch what happens to the global division of labour that drove the development of clean technologies and slashed the cost of solar panels in the first place - a blend of innovation in the United States, Chinese investments in manufacturing and subsidies in Europe. If countries act in isolation and do so purely competitively, this virtuous circle might break.
“The energy crisis is exacerbating social inequality within and between countries. Vulnerable households and low- and middle-income nations have been hit hardest by energy cost hikes”, says Tagliapietra. “Researchers must evaluate the implications for national policies and multilateral aid, lending and development policies. They should shed light on the extent to which increasing energy poverty, energy price shocks and energy-induced inflation weaken social cohesion and threaten political stability. Rich nations can also be affected, as protests in the United Kingdom and Czech Republic attest”.
How will the energy crisis affect climate action?
The ramifications here are potentially severe. Low- and middle-income nations are uneasy with Western responses to the energy crisis; rich countries that are turning to coal to replace Russian imports while calling on poorer nations to do their utmost to decarbonize seem hypocritical
“Social and political scientists and economists need to identify which bilateral, regional and multilateral mechanisms are best placed to foster climate finance, technology transfer and capacity building as pledged under the Paris climate agreement. A re-examination is needed of cross-border carbon measures”, says Tagliapietra.
JOURNAL
Nature
METHOD OF RESEARCH
Commentary/editorial
ARTICLE TITLE
Energy crisis, the five challenges for 2023
RITHMS, the new EU-funded project focused on technology to tackle illicit trafficking of Cultural Heritage
Funded by the European Union, the project is coordinated by Arianna Traviglia, Director at IIT’s Centre for Cultural Heritage Technology in Venice
Venice (Italy), 22nd December 2022 - Four police authorities, two border agencies, a police academy, companies and research institutes with expertise in the field of Cultural Heritage and technologies concerning integrated telecommunication systems and IT security protocols. This is the Consortium coordinated by Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (IIT-Italian Institute of Tecnology) involved in RITHMS (Research, Intelligence and Technology for Heritage and Market Security), a project funded by the European Union. RITHMS aims to enhance, with the help of the most innovative technologies, the operational capacity of police forces and customs and border authorities in tackling the illicit trafficking of cultural goods, while investigating the mechanisms behind this phenomenon.
The illicit trafficking of Cultural Heritage has upgraded from a local phenomenon, limited to the initiative of a few individuals, to a highly organised activity, a highly profitable source of income for criminal organisations and terrorist groups that have exploited the opportunities offered by the web and social media to further expand an already flourishing market. In this context, RITHMS proposes an interdisciplinary approach, also made necessary by the transnational nature of this type of crime, which will range from art market analysis to criminology, from legal studies to forensic science. The goal is the development of an artificial intelligence-based platform that will allow to identify organised criminal networks and to provide investigators with valuable information on their activity and possible evolution. In particular, the platform will exploit the potential of Social Network Analysis (SNA), a methodology that allows to better understand the behaviour of people involved in illicit trafficking through their online reactions and interactions.
The project received 5 million euros in funding from the European Union, under the Horizon Europe Research and Innovation Programme [agreement n. 101073932]. The project’s coordinator is Arianna Traviglia, Director at IIT’s Centre for Cultural Heritage Technology in Venice (Italy).
“The broad Consortium will ensure that the RITHMS project will benefit from an articulated spectrum of expertise - explains Arianna Traviglia - relying on partners who are specialised in both information technology and legal and cultural sciences. Besides, the participation of such a variegated group of law enforcement agencies, from different countries, will allow to set the RITHMS digital platform on robust and detailed procedural and legal information, and to adapt and validate its functionalities at a supranational level."
The partners list includes: Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (Italy, coordinator), StAG srl (Italy), VTT - Technical Research Centre of Finland (Finland), European Software Institute - Central Eastern Europe (Bulgaria), RiniGARD DOO ZA USLUGE (Croatia), Houston Analytics (Finland), BEIA Consult International srl (Romania), SatCen - European Union Satellite Centre (Spain), Universidade da Coruña (Spain), Hochschule für den öffentlichen Dienst in Bayern (Germany), European Institute Foundation (Bulgaria), Italian Ministry of Defence with the Comando dei Carabinieri per la Tutela del Patrimonio Culturale (Italy), Spanish National Police (with the Brigada de Patrimonio Histórico), National Police of the Netherlands, Bulgarian Border Police, Moldavian Police, Border Police of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Involved also as Affiliated Entity the association Art Crime Project-APS (Italy), and as Associated Partner Conceptivity sarl (Switzerland).
Researchers survey rural residents’ Internet usage in Aotearoa New Zealand’s North Island
Survey observes how well rural residents are making use of new broadband connections
IMAGE: CRITICAL LEVEL OF THE INTERNET TO THE SURVEY RESPONDENTS’ EVERYDAY LIFE IN AOTEAROA NEW ZEALAND.view more
CREDIT: INTELLIGENT AND CONVERGED NETWORKS, TSINGHUA UNIVERSITY PRESS
Several years ago, the government of Aotearoa New Zealand undertook an initiative to provide Internet access throughout the country. To observe the status of broadband adoption and usage in the rural areas, a group of final year research and development (R&D) undergraduate students with their supervisors conducted a statistical survey of broadband availability, quality and adoption.
The study first appeared online in September 2022 in Intelligent and Converged Network, and then published in the journal’s print version on December 22, 2022.
The Aotearoa New Zealand government’s Rural Broadband Initiative was investing 400 million New Zealand dollars to provide 99 percent of the country with access to 50 Mbps peak broadband speed, with the remaining 1 percent of the country at 10 Mbps, by the year 2025. By 2017, the stage 1 of the initiative was completed. The research team sets out to study and observe the level of usage, proficiency, and productivity achieved with the broadband installation the initiative had completed.
The research team conducted a survey to learn whether the rural residents and their communities are making good use of the new fast broadband connections. The survey was conducted between February and July 2018, with the data collected from 217 rural residents from New Zealand’s North Island. The team conducted the hybrid face-to-face and online questionaries with rural Internet users to gather the survey information.
Their survey results showed that while providing the technology infrastructure is the first step, the technology alone is not enough. “Internet skills in-depth training and education need to catch up with the infrastructure deployment, which is useful to fuel the digital productivity and inclusion for booming rural economies,” said Dr Ming (Simon) Xiang, who is the graduate of Auckland University of Technology, New Zealand and had mainly finalized the survey technical report. He is now with the South China University of Technology, and also with the Ministry of Natural Resources, People's Republic of China.
The rural Internet users surveyed is age ranged from 16 to over 70 years old. The majority of the people surveyed (70.83 percent) had never received any form of lessons or training on Internet skills. When the people were asked if they were interested in learning more ways to make better use of the Internet, the majority of answers were neutral (40.63 percent), suggesting that these users are not sure what additional benefits they can get from receiving instruction on Internet skills.
The results shows that about half the people surveyed are satisfied with the speed and reliability of their Internet connections provided by the government initiative. However, the remaining half of the people surveyed are unsatisfied. The people surveyed use the Internet mainly for information and news, online entertainment, and banking. A large proportion of the people are unsure how else the Internet can help them in their day-to-day activities.
In order for people living in rural areas to take full advantage of the Internet being installed, they need to learn how to use the technology effectively. For example, the majority of school teachers say they are not equipped to maximize the educational opportunities provided through fast broadband. Among farmers, only a minority are willing to change practices they have been using for decades, even though the Internet could help them in a variety of ways from managing their accounts and budgets to measuring the yields of their herds. To make broadband Internet beneficial, people must use the connection effectively. If rural residents do not know how to use the technologies, they cannot see the opportunities and potential benefits that may come from their use. The survey findings suggest that if these users were provided with training to help them catch up with the faster internet being installed, it could result in enhanced digital productivity and inclusion for rural businesses and the residents’ well-being.
Looking ahead, the team hopes to effectively communicate their findings to the government and related agencies to steer the actions and activities in order to address the problems that have been identified. “The survey data-driven findings presented in this paper could serve as a reference to inform government policymakers and those who wish to create, invest, and take actions to speed up the economic and social growth of rural communities in Aotearoa New Zealand through the Internet,” said Dr Xiang.
The research team includes Dr Ming (Simon) Xiang, with the South China University of Technology and also with the South China Sea Institute of Planning and Environmental Research, Ministry of Natural Resources, People's Republic of China; Dr William Liu, Professor Edmund Lai, and Professor Jairo Gutierrez are with Auckland University of Technology, New Zealand; Associate Professor Luca Chiaraviglio is with the University of Rome “Tor Vergata” and also with Consorzio Nazionale Interuniversitario per le Telecomunicazioni, Italy; and Professor Jinsong Wu is with the Guilin University of Electronic Technology, China, and the University of Chile, Chile.
It is also acknowledged that the survey data collection work had been done by the final year undergraduate students: Rory Knight, Louie Faundo, Chung But, Keli Liu and Khodesh Temita, as well as this research is fully funded by InternetNZ (https://internetnz.nz/) which is officially Internet New Zealand Inc., formerly the Internet Society of New Zealand. It is a not-for-profit open membership organization and the designated manager for the .nz country code top-level Internet domain. It also supports the development of New Zealand's Internet through policy, community grants, research, and events.
Intelligent and Converged Networks is an international specialized journal that focuses on the latest developments in communication technology. The journal is co-published by Tsinghua University Press and the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the United Nations specialized agency for information and communication technology (ICT). Intelligent and Converged Networks draws its name from the accelerating convergence of different fields of communication technology and the growing influence of artificial intelligence and machine learning.
Established in 1980, belonging to Tsinghua University, Tsinghua University Press (TUP) is a leading comprehensive higher education and professional publisher in China. Committed to building a top-level global cultural brand, after 41 years of development, TUP has established an outstanding managerial system and enterprise structure, and delivered multimedia and multi-dimensional publications covering books, audio, video, electronic products, journals and digital publications. In addition, TUP actively carries out its strategic transformation from educational publishing to content development and service for teaching & learning and was named First-class National Publisher for achieving remarkable results.
INSTITUTE OF ATMOSPHERIC PHYSICS, CHINESE ACADEMY OF SCIENCES
IMAGE: THIS CHAIN OF MOUNTAINS IS LOCATED AT THE NORTHERN EDGE OF THE TIBETAN PLATEAU, HAS AN ALTITUDE OF MORE THAN 4600 M, AND IS CLASSIFIED AS A PERMAFROST REGION. THE GEOLOGY IS COMPLEX AND THE NATURAL CONDITIONS ARE HARSH.view more
CREDIT: CHEN CHENG
The Tibetan Plateau has experienced prominent warming and wetting since the mid-1990s that has altered the thermal and hydrological properties of its frozen ground. In a new study, published in Advances in Atmospheric Sciences, scientists used the Community Land Surface Model to uncover that the dual effect of this wetting and the projected increase in precipitation over the Tibetan Plateau in the future is becoming a critical factor in determining the thermodynamics of the frozen ground.
The lead author of the study, Dr Xuewei Fang from the School of Atmospheric Sciences at Chengdu University of Information Technology in China, explains that, “In the face of the greatest increase in the occurrence frequency of heavy precipitation over the entire Tibetan Plateau, we need to address how warming and wetting might be jointly influencing the thermal responses of the permafrost and seasonally frozen ground to climate change.”
Dr Fang and her colleagues used the average annual precipitation as a criterion to divide the Tibetan Plateau into an arid zone (annual precipitation: < 200 mm), a semi-arid zone (annual precipitation: 200–400 mm), a semi-humid zone (annual precipitation: 400–800 mm), and a humid zone (annual precipitation: > 800 mm). Results showed that, compared with 1961–1990, the average annual air temperature and precipitation over the Tibetan Plateau during 1991–2010 increased by 0.72℃ and 75.64 mm, respectively. Spatially, the arid and semi-arid zones became warmer and wetter, while the humid and semi-humid zones became warmer but drier.
The team also compared the freezing and thawing durations of the ground surface in the two periods, and found that the wetting in drier regions before the 1990s prolonged the duration of freezing of the frozen ground and that the continuously wetting after the 1990s reduced the thawing period. This implies that the substantial wetting in arid areas has exerted the opposite warming effect on the permafrost body since the 1990s, with the permafrost area having shrunk by 28%.
This finding lies in contrast to the frozen ground presented in wetter regions, i.e., the decline in precipitation in the humid zones has prolonged the thawing duration in seasonally frozen ground significantly since the start of the 1990s. A drying and warming environment tends to enhance heat loss at the ground surface, thereby decreasing the heat supply for the melting of ice and extending the thawing process.
“Next, we plan to investigate how energy and water fluxes in the frozen ground interact with wetting and warming conditions,” concludes Dr Fang.
Response of Freezing/Thawing Indexes to the Wetting Trend under Warming Climate Conditions over the Qinghai -Tibetan Plateau during 1961–2010: A Numerical Simulation
IU researchers discover “Humpty-Dumpty” water-based mechanism of human sex reversal at edge of developmental ambiguity
INDIANAPOLIS—Researchers from Indiana University School of Medicine have discovered a molecular “clamping” mechanism within a male-specific protein-DNA complex whose mutation causes sex reversal: children with XY chromosomes but female bodies, a condition called Swyer Syndrome. The clamp exploits a water molecule bridging the male factor (designated SRY) and DNA control sites at the tenuous beginnings of male development.
The study focuses on the subtle substitution of a conserved aromatic residue in SRY (tyrosine) by a closely related aromatic residue (phenylalanine). The clinical mutation, shared by a fertile XY father and his sterile XY daughter, positions the embryonic male switch at the borderline of genetic function. The two aromatic rings are seemingly interchangeable in the structure of the protein, but differ in their ability to anchor a bridging water molecule in the protein-DNA complex.
“Loss of a single atom in SRY, an oxygen atom in a critical tyrosine, impairs the robustness of male development,” said Michael Weiss, MD, PhD, chair of the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. “Normally, the father has XY chromosomes and the daughter has XX chromosomes but in some families, the daughters can have XY chromosomes because there is a mutation in SRY. Sex chromosomes can degenerate over evolutionary time scales, leading to new upstream switches being recruited as male-determining pathways grow backwards. Such initial steps can be tenuous in biochemical terms.”
In the study, researchers focused on position 72 in the DNA-binding domain of SRY, which was not previously considered of special interest. However, the researchers discovered that tyrosine at this position enables operation of a water-mediated kinetic clamp, extending the lifetime of the protein-DNA complex. This mechanism is conserved in all mammalian SRY factors and is broadly observed in a related family of switch factors in multicellular (and some unicellular) animals. The latter family, designated “SOX” (SRY-related HMG box) is fundamental to patterning and development in metazoans.
Researchers published two recent papers about their work in Frontiers in Endocrinology. The first describes their findings related to focusing on box 72, and the second describes how the water-mediated clamp mechanism works. Weiss said they call it a “humpty-dumpty” model because of accelerated disassembly of the male-determining protein-DNA complex in the absence of the water-mediated clamp.
“Because the normal and mutant version of SRY are so similar in standard experimental assays,” said Joseph D. Racca, PhD, Assistant Research Professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and first author of the new study. “Uncovering the water-mediated mechanism took several years. Critical insight was provided by molecular dynamics (MD) simulations of boundary water molecules in this system.”
“In the MD simulations a distinctive water molecule is anchored by the tyrosine as a bridge to the DNA: this special site of hydration is occupied for thousands of picoseconds, and then it will leave,” Weiss said. “But then another water molecule in the bulk solvent will almost immediately hop in its place, restoring the bridge.”
The subtle change from tyrosine to phenylalanine alters such hydration, a perturbation that propagates from position 72 predicted to destabilize successive protein-DNA contacts in the tail of the domain. Detachment of the tail would hasten dissociation of the protein-DNA complex and presumably male-specific gene-regulatory assemblies at target genes.
XY female children with differences in sexual differentiation due to Swyer Syndrome lack functional ovaries and are at risk for rare forms of early-onset gonadal cancer. Recognition of this syndrome is important allowing surgical removal of the gonads before cancer begins. The affected woman otherwise has a normal uterus and birth canal, and so they may bear children following in vitro fertilization of a donated egg.
Weiss said analogous mutations can occur in SOX genes, causing a variety of birth defects or diseases.
“Swyer mutations provide clues to help us understand a broad range of SOX diseases and may give rise to much improved protocols for different areas of medicine, such as regenerative medicine or cancer,” Weiss said. “This discovery thus goes way beyond sex determination because SRY is a prototype switch.”
IU School of Medicine is the largest medical school in the U.S. and is annually ranked among the top medical schools in the nation by U.S. News & World Report. The school offers high-quality medical education, access to leading medical research and rich campus life in nine Indiana cities, including rural and urban locations consistently recognized for livability.
Just like a smartwatch can tell its wearer how many calories they consume during exercise, data from dolphin wearables can now be used to estimate how much energy dolphins use when they swim.
University of Michigan engineers, in collaboration with marine mammal specialists at Dolphin Quest Oahu, have led the development of wearable sensors for marine mammals to monitor movement and behavior in order to enhance marine conservation efforts for these animals.
Dolphins and other sea creatures are affected by human disturbances in their habitat, including climate change, overfishing, noise pollution from shipping, construction, oil exploration and navy sonar activity. These types of disturbances can interrupt important animal behavior like foraging for fish and socializing, but measuring disturbance is difficult because the animals live under water.
Devices very similar to fitness trackers used by humans—known as biologging tags—are used in biology research, but estimating the energetic cost of swimming has been challenging. Now, with custom biologging tags made in collaboration with Loggerhead Instruments, the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts and Aarhus University in Denmark, Michigan engineers are able to measure animal movement during thousands of strokes as they swim.
"Our goal is to use tag data to estimate foraging events, how many fish were consumed during a day, and connect that to estimates of how much energy dolphins use during the movement required to catch those fish," said Alex Shorter, U-M assistant professor of mechanical engineering and senior author of a paper in the Journal of Experimental Biology. "This is important for conservation because we can then use our approach to estimate energetic costs when these animals are disturbed."
In their new work, the researchers were able to develop estimates of energetic cost from tag data by working with their human and animal collaborators at Dolphin Quest. In this unique environment, the researchers were able conduct repeatable swimming trials over a range of speeds from multiple animals to generate the data needed to estimate how much energy the animals were using as they swam. Marine mammal specialists trained the dolphins to wear the tracker during lap trials and periods of free swimming.
The tag sits between the blowhole and dorsal fin of the dolphin, attached with suction cups, where it noninvasively measures speed, temperature, pressure and movement. Six dolphins participated in the work, and just like data collection with humans, the animals were free to decline to participate in the work at any time.
During the prescribed lap trials, the animals started from rest at a floating dock and swam an 80-meter lap underwater around one of the marine mammal specialists and back to the dock at speeds of up to 21 kilometers per hour. During free swimming, in which the dolphins received no instructions, tags tracked movement for periods that ranged from 9.5 to 24 hours. One of the dolphins tracked for a 24-hour period swam over 70 kilometers, and these data were used for a case study of daily activity and energetic cost for a bottlenose dolphin. Importantly, these findings can be extended to tag data from animals in the wild.
"Our tag-based method is universally applicable to both animals in managed and wild settings, and can lead to a host of new research in monitoring the physical well-being of dolphin populations, which in turn will inform how we as humans are affecting their travel patterns, feeding requirements and lives in general," said Joaquin Gabaldon, a postdoctoral researcher in robotics and first author of the study.
"From a technological perspective, it is our hope that other researchers see the potential of dedicated on-tag speed sensing, and pursue the development of more adaptable speed sensors to enable energetics monitoring for a wider variety of marine animals," Gabaldon said.
This work dovetails with two of Shorter's other projects related to dolphin conservation. He and Bogdan Popa, U-M assistant professor of mechanical engineering, are studying how dolphins use echolocation to capture fish and image their environments. In addition, current work led by researchers at Duke University and the Oceanogrà fic Foundation of Valencia, in collaboration with Dolphin Quest, seeks to estimate energy used during swimming by measuring movement and oxygen consumption.
The study was supported by the Office of Naval Research, the National Science Foundation, the Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada, and the University of Michigan.
