Saturday, January 14, 2023

How brachyuran crabs survive in highly acidic areas near shallow-water hydrothermal vents

by Bob Yirka , Phys.org

A team of researchers affiliated with multiple institutions in Taiwan and one in Germany has discovered the means by which brachyuran crabs are able to survive in highly acidic waters near shallow-water hydrothermal vents. In their paper published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B, the group describes how they studied crab specimens and the environment in which they live to solve the puzzle of their existence.

Hydrothermal vents are hot springs that exist on the sea floor. In most instances, they occur along mid-ocean ridges. Such vents spew heated water, along with other materials, into the surrounding water creating a mix. In this new effort, the researchers were curious about a species of crab that lives in a shallow-water hydrothermal vent field off the southeast coast of Kueishantao Island, near Taiwan. They noted that the crab is the only metazoan creature living in the area due to the large amount of sulfide emitted by the hydrothermal vent.

To find out how the crab survives in such a hostile environment (hydrogen sulfide is toxic to most animals) the researchers collected samples of the water in which they lived and conducted experiments on the crabs they found living there. They also captured some of the crabs and brought them back to their lab for closer inspection.

In looking at the crabs, the researchers found that they had unique gills (located under the carapace)—they were able to oxidize the sulfide to thiosulfate and to bind it to hypotaurine which led to the generation of thiotaurine, which is much less toxic than hydrogen sulfide. And then, bacteria living in the gills absorbed the thiotaurine—they used it as an energy source and in so doing made it even less toxic.

The net result was that the crab was able to get the oxygen it needed from the water without succumbing to the hydrogen sulfide from the hydrothermal vent. The researchers suspect that the detoxification allows the crab to gain energy from the thiotaurine as well. They note that the arrangement with the bacteria makes the crab a holobiont—a species able to survive in an environment inhospitable to virtually all other creatures.

More information: Pei-Hsuan Chou et al, Cellular mechanisms underlying extraordinary sulfide tolerance in a crustacean holobiont from hydrothermal vents, Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences (2023). DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2022.1973

Journal information: Proceedings of the Royal Society B

Making the case for using insects as food for both humans and livestock

crickets food

Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain

Two pairs of academics are making the case for using insects as a food source in Perspectives pieces published in the journal Science.

The first pair, Arup Kumar Hazarika and Unmilan Kalita, with Cotton University and Barnagar College, respectively, both in India, argue that a strong case can be made for using insects to meet the growing need for food around the world in the coming years. Arnold van Huis with Wageningen University & Research in the Netherlands and Laura Gasco with the University of Torino in Italy argue that there is a strong case to be made for using insects as feed for livestock.

As the global population rises and the land available for growing more food becomes more scarce, scientists around the around the world have begun looking for alternative sources. In the two papers in Science, the authors all agree that insects could provide the answer.

In the first paper, the authors note that humans eating insects is not novel. People have been eating them for as long as there have been people. And many people in the world today still eat them; however, most do not. And in fact, in most places, people see eating insects as disgusting or even dirty. That could change, the authors argue, if insects were provided through commercially viable outlets.

They note that eating insects can provide many nutritional benefits—common crickets, for example, are high in protein. That makes them competitive with meat from animals. The researchers note also that insects require fewer resources to raise than livestock, making them a prime green alternative.

In the second paper, the authors note that currently, most livestock feed is made from fishmeal and soybean meal. They also note that the production of meat worldwide uses between 70% and 80% of all agricultural land and yet produces about 25% of the protein consumed by humans.

They suggest that replacing conventional feed with feed made from insects would free up large parcels of land now used to grow food for livestock. It would also be a healthier food source for the animals. Also, farming insects is likely to become more feasible as the planet continues to warm.

In both articles, the authors argue that the only factor holding back the use of insects as a food source is the will to do so by those producing the food.

More information: Arup Kumar Hazarika et al, Human consumption of insects, Science (2023). DOI: 10.1126/science.abp8819

Arnold van Huis et al, Insects as feed for livestock production, Science (2023). DOI: 10.1126/science.adc9165

Journal information: Science

Singing gibbons found to be more rhythmic when performing duets

Singing gibbons found to be more isochronous when performing duets

Organization of lar gibbon's songs. (a) Male lar gibbon singing in the Huai Kha Khaeng

Wildlife Sanctuary (Thailand). (b) Spectrogram and inter-onset-interval graphs of the male

solo. The fundamental frequency is highlighted in light blue on the spectrogram. The

colored bar indicates inter-onset intervals (tk) of the solo singing male, where solid white

lines on the bar represent the onsets. (c) Spectrograms and inter-onset-interval graphs of

the reproductive couple's whole duet. The fundamental frequency of individuals'

contributions is highlighted on the spectrogram in dark blue for the male contribution to

duet and dark yellow for the female contribution to duet. The sections of the song are

labeled in the upper part of the spectrogram and separated with dotted lines. Colored bars

indicate inter-onset intervals (tk) of the contributions of each individual with white lines

again corresponding to the onsets. Black bars turn white when the co-singers overlap.

Notice how rhythmicity unfolds heterogeneously throughout the duet, alternating periods

of higher and lower overlap. Note clusters onsets of the duetting gibbons influence each

other (see also figure 4), with introductory sequences and interludes showing higher levels

of synchrony, while great calls and codas partly overlap.

Credit: Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences (2023).

DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2022.2244

A team of researchers at the University of Turin, working with a colleague from the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics and another from Aarhus University and The Royal Academy of Music, has found that the lar gibbon tends to be more isochronous (repeating notes more regularly) when singing as part of a duet with a member of the opposite gender. The research is published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences.

The researchers recorded and studied songs performed by lar gibbons (also known as white-handed gibbons) living in a wildlife sanctuary in Thailand and a zoo park in Italy. Lar gibbons, they note, are among the few singing primates. Their work was part of an effort aimed at learning about the origins of rhythm in humans. Prior research has shown that not only do both genders of lar gibbons sing, they sometimes do so together as duets.

In all, the researchers made 215 recordings of songs voiced by 12 gibbons. Their analysis consisted of labeling notes making it possible to discern patterns, particularly those that were repeating. They also measured the intervals and the intertwining of notes as duets occurred.

The researchers found evidence of rhythm in all of the songs on their recordings, noting that they were in many respects similar to rhythm in human songs. They also found differences in rhythm based on gender—males tended to sing with more beats when singing with a female partner. During duets, the researchers found that notes sung by the male and female singers overlapped approximately 16 to 18% of the time, which they note is greater than chance.

The researchers also found that during duets, the males tended to sing more than the females, which they discovered meant that the females sang fewer notes when singing with a partner. This, they suggest, was evidence of rhythm playing a social role with the apes.

The researchers suggest that rhythmic ability in apes may have evolved as a means for coordinating vocalisms between genders. They also note that it is still not known if the last common ancestor between primates had similar abilities or if they evolved independently.

More information: Teresa Raimondi et al, Isochrony and rhythmic interaction in ape duetting, Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences (2023). DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2022.2244

Journal information: Proceedings of the Royal Society B

Looking for musical abilities in primates

NESUN DORMA PAVAROTTI & FREDDY MERCURY

ChatGPT writes convincing fake scientific abstracts that fool reviewers in study

by Marla Paul, Northwestern University

Could the new and wildly popular chatbot ChatGPT convincingly produce fake abstracts that fool scientists into thinking those studies are the real thing?

That was the question worrying Northwestern Medicine physician-scientist Dr. Catherine Gao when she designed a study—collaborating with University of Chicago scientists—to test that theory.

Yes, scientists can be fooled, their new study reports. Blinded human reviewers—when given a mix real and falsely generated abstracts—could only spot ChatGPT generated abstracts 68% of the time. The reviewers also incorrectly identified 14% of real abstracts as being AI generated.

"Our reviewers knew that some of the abstracts they were being given were fake, so they were very suspicious," said corresponding author Gao, an instructor in pulmonary and critical care medicine at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. "This is not someone reading an abstract in the wild. The fact that our reviewers still missed the AI-generated ones 32% of the time means these abstracts are really good. I suspect that if someone just came across one of these generated abstracts, they wouldn't necessarily be able to identify it as being written by AI."

The hard-to-detect fake abstracts could undermine science, Gao said. "This is concerning because ChatGPT could be used by 'paper mills' to fabricate convincing scientific abstracts," Gao said. "And if other people try to build their science off these incorrect studies, that can be really dangerous."

Paper mills are illegal organizations that produce fabricated scientific work for profit.

The ease with which ChatGPT produces realistic and convincing abstracts could increase production by paper mills and fake submissions to journals and scientific conferences, Gao worries.

AI sleuths can identify AI fakes

For the study, Gao and co-investigators took titles from recent papers from high-impact journals and asked ChatGPT to generate abstracts based on that prompt. They ran these generated abstracts and the original abstracts through a plagiarism detector and AI output detector, and had blinded human reviewers try to differentiate between generated and original abstracts. Each reviewer was given 25 abstracts that were a mixture of the generated and original abstracts and asked to give a binary score of what they thought the abstract was.

"The ChatGPT-generated abstracts were very convincing," Gao said, "because it even knows how large the patient cohort should be when it invents numbers." For a study on hypertension, which is common, ChatGPT included tens of thousands of patients in the cohort, while a study on a monkeypox had a much smaller number of participants.

"Our reviewers commented that it was surprisingly difficult to differentiate between the real and fake abstracts," Gao said.

The study found that the fake abstracts did not set off alarms using traditional plagiarism-detection tools. However, in the study, AI output detectors such as GPT-2 Output Detector, which is available online and free, could discriminate between real and fake abstracts.

"We found that an AI output detector was pretty good at detecting output from ChatGPT and suggest that it be included in the scientific editorial process as a screening process to protect from targeting by organizations such as paper mills that may try to submit purely generated data," Gao said.

ChatGPT also can be used for good

But ChatGPT can also be used for good, said senior study author Yuan Luo, director of the Institute for Augmented Intelligence in Medicine at Feinberg.

"AI language models such as ChatGPT have a potential to help automate the writing process, which is often the speed bottleneck in knowledge generation and dissemination," Luo said. "The results from the paper showed this is likely doable for the field of medicine, but we need to bridge certain ethical and practical gaps."

For example, is AI-assisted writing still considered original, Luo asked. Also, AI-generated text currently has difficulty in proper citation, which is a must for scientific writing, he noted.

"Generative text technology has a great potential for democratizing science, for example making it easier for non-English-speaking scientists to share their work with the broader community," said senior author Dr. Alexander Pearson, director of data sciences and the Head/Neck Cancer Program in Hematology/Oncology at the University of Chicago. "At the same time, it's imperative that we think carefully on best practices for use."

The research is available on the bioRxiv preprint server.

More information: Catherine A. Gao et al, Comparing scientific abstracts generated by ChatGPT to original abstracts using an artificial intelligence output detector, plagiarism detector, and blinded human reviewers, bioRxiv (2022). DOI: 10.1101/2022.12.23.521610

Provided by Northwestern University EXPLAINER: What is ChatGPT and why are schools blocking it?

The world in grains of interstellar dust

by Hokkaido University

Understanding how dust grains form in interstellar gas could offer significant insights to astronomers and help materials scientists develop useful nanoparticles.

Laboratory and rocket-borne studies have revealed new insights into how interstellar dust grains came into being before our solar system formed. The results, published by Hokkaido University researchers and colleagues in Japan and Germany in the journal Science Advances, might also help scientists make nanoparticles with useful applications in more efficient and eco-friendly ways.

These "presolar" grains can be found in meteorites that fall to Earth, allowing laboratory studies that reveal possible routes for their formation.

"Just as the shapes of snowflakes provide information on the temperature and humidity of the upper atmosphere, the characteristics of presolar grains in meteorites limits the environments in the outflow of gas from stars in which they could have formed," explains Yuki Kimura of the Hokkaido team. Unfortunately, however, it has proved difficult to pin down the possible environments for the formation of grains consisting of a titanium carbide core and a surrounding graphitic carbon mantle.

Better understanding of the environment around stars in which the grains could have formed is crucial to learning more about the interstellar environment in general. That could, in turn, help clarify how stars evolve and how the materials around them become the building blocks for planets.

The structure of the grains appears to suggest that their titanium carbide core first formed and was then subsequently coated in a thick layer of carbon in more distant regions of gas outflow from stars that formed before the sun.

The team explored the conditions that might recreate the grain formation in laboratory modeling studies guided by theoretical work on grain nucleation—the formation of grains from tiny original specks. This work was augmented by experiments performed in the periods of microgravity experienced aboard sub-orbital rocket flights.

The results offered some surprises. They suggest the grains most likely formed in what the researchers call a non-classical nucleation pathway: a series of three distinct steps not predicted by conventional theories. First, carbon forms tiny, homogenous nuclei; titanium then deposits on these carbon nuclei to form carbon particles containing titanium carbide; finally, thousands of these fine particles fuse to form the grain.

"We also suggest that the characteristics of other types of presolar and solar grains that formed at later stages in the development of the solar system might be accurately explained by considering non-classical nucleation pathways, such as those suggested by our work," Kimura concludes.

The research could aid understanding of distant astronomical events, including giant stars, newly forming planetary systems, and the atmospheres of planets in alien solar systems around other stars. But it might also help scientists here on Earth to gain better control over the nanoparticles they are exploring for use in many fields, including solar energy, chemical catalysis, sensors and nanomedicine. The potential implications of studying the tiny grains in meteorites therefore range from the future industries of Earth to as far away as we can imagine.

More information: Yuki Kimura, Nucleation experiments on a titanium-carbon system imply nonclassical formation of presolar grains, Science Advances (2023). DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.add8295. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.add8295

Journal information: Science Advances

Provided by Hokkaido University

Meteoritic stardust unlocks timing of supernova dust formation

Researchers identify protein that counteracts key rattlesnake venom toxins

by University of Maryland

Venomous snakes cause an estimated 120,000 deaths and 400,000 disabling injuries worldwide each year, with approximately 8,000 snake bite cases in the United States alone.

To reduce and mitigate the severity of venomous snake bites, a team of University of Maryland biologists launched an investigation into the genome of the western diamondback rattlesnake (Crotalus atrox), a species with more venom toxins encoded in its genome than any other known rattlesnake. The team pinpointed a single protein—called FETUA-3—that inhibits a broad spectrum of rattlesnake venom toxins.

Published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the team's findings have notable implications for the development of improved snake bite treatments.

"A good snakebite treatment needs to be able to counteract the venoms of more than just one species of snake," said the study's senior author Sean Carroll, a Distinguished University Professor of Biology at UMD and vice president for science education at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI).

"FETUA-3 inhibited a huge number of toxins—over 20—that we detected and even bound to and inhibited the toxins of venoms from several other rattlesnakes we tested. We'll need to learn more about how broadly FETUA-3 can be applied or if it'll need some additional tinkering but knowing that this one protein can neutralize an entire class of toxins brings researchers even closer to creating a better anti-venom."

A natural history mystery

According to Carroll, the team's research began with a simple yet intriguing enigma that has long eluded researchers: how and why are poisonous snakes resistant to their own venom?

"It's like a constant, three-way biological arms race where each side is always innovating to conquer the other," explained Carroll, who is also the Andrew and Mary Balo and Nicholas and Susan Simon Endowed Chair at UMD.

"To survive a venomous snake bite, prey have to evolve resistance to the venom. If the prey become a little resistant, then the snakes have to adjust with a better venom. But snakes have also been able to protect themselves from their own evolving venom during their arms race against prey—our goal was to figure out exactly how."

Most snake venoms carry an arsenal of dangerous toxins that facilitates the paralysis, killing and digestion of prey. One of the core components in rattlesnake venom is a class of molecules called metalloproteinases, which prevent blood clots from forming, break down tissue and ultimately cause hemorrhage. To protect themselves from these toxins, both snakes and their prey rely on special proteins encoded within their genomes that stymie the venom's debilitating effects.

The researchers investigated a family of five proteins generally attributed to venom resistance. Unexpectedly, only a single member of the protein family had most of the venom-counteracting activity—FETUA-3—binding nearly all the toxins in the western diamondback's venom. It also bound to and inhibited the toxins of venoms from several other rattlesnakes.

After tracing the evolutionary origins of FETUA-3, the researchers were surprised to find that while FETUA-3 was present in the western diamondback rattlesnake's closest Asian and South American relatives, a different protein from the same family was responsible for protecting them against venom toxins.

In other words, the rattlesnakes developed their resistance through two separate genetic events. The discovery suggests that a major evolutionary shift occurred somewhere in the species' evolutionary timeline, causing the family of inhibitors to expand and diversify throughout the Crotalus lineage.

With this new knowledge, the team gained insight into how ecological situations drive innovation and "arms races" in animals like rattlesnakes and their prey. They hope their findings will help researchers learn more about how FETUA-3 and other evolving toxin-blocking proteins may serve as ingredients for more effective snake bite treatments.

"Many current treatments using antiquated technologies and anti-venoms have drawbacks, including variation in or lack of potency, impurities that trigger side effects, and manufacturing inconsistency," said the study's lead author Fiona Ukken, a visiting faculty specialist in UMD's Department of Biology and HHMI. "But by improving our understanding of the molecular basis of venom inhibition, we can help create novel and more effective therapeutic treatments."

More information: Fiona P. Ukken et al, A novel broad spectrum venom metalloproteinase autoinhibitor in the rattlesnake Crotalus atrox evolved via a shift in paralog function, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2022). DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2214880119

Journal information: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

Provided by University of Maryland To keep up with evolving prey, rattlesnakes tap genetically diverse venom toolbox

Friday, January 13, 2023

Using paleogenomics to elucidate 10,000 years of immune system evolution

by Pasteur Institute

In the 1950s, the geneticist J.B.S. Haldane attributed the maintenance or persistence of the mutation responsible for anomalies in red blood cells commonly observed in Africa to the protection these anomalies provided against malaria, an endemic infection that claims millions of lives. This theory suggested that pathogens are among the strongest selective pressures faced by humans. Several population genetics studies subsequently confirmed the theory.

But major questions remained, especially regarding the specific epochs during which the selective pressures exerted by pathogens on human populations were strongest and their impact on the present-day risk of developing inflammatory or autoimmune disorders.

To address these questions, scientists from the Institut Pasteur, Université Paris Cité, the CNRS and the Collège de France, in collaboration with the Imagine Institute and The Rockefeller University (United States), adopted an approach based on paleogenomics.

This discipline, which studies the DNA from fossil remains, has led to major discoveries about the history and evolution of humans and human diseases, as illustrated by the decision to award the 2022 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine to the paleogeneticist Svante Pääbo.

In the study led by the Institut Pasteur, published on January 13 in the journal Cell Genomics, the scientists analyzed the variability of the genomes of more than 2,800 individuals who lived in Europe over the past ten millennia—a period covering the Neolithic, the Bronze Age, the Iron Age, the Middle Ages and the present.

By reconstituting the evolution over time of hundreds of thousands of genetic mutations, the scientists initially identified mutations that rapidly increased in frequency in Europe, indicating that they were advantageous. These mutations that evolved under "positive" natural selection are mainly located in 89 genes enriched in functions relating to the innate immune response, including especially the OAS genes—which are responsible for antiviral activity—and the gene responsible for the ABO blood group system.

Surprisingly, most of these positive selection events, which demonstrate a genetic adaptation to the pathogenic environment, began recently, from the start of the Bronze Age, around 4,500 years ago. The scientists explain this "acceleration" in adaptation by the growth in the human population during this period and/or by strong selective pressures exerted by pathogens in the Bronze Age, probably linked to the spread of severe infectious diseases such as plague.

At the same time, the scientists also looked at the opposite situation, in other words, mutations whose frequency fell significantly over the past ten millennia. These mutations are probably subject to "negative" selection because they increase the risk of disease.

They noted that once again, these selection events mainly began in the Bronze Age. Many of these disadvantageous mutations were also located in genes associated with the innate immune response, such as TYK2, LPB, TLR3 and IL23R, and have been confirmed in experimental research to have a deleterious effect in terms of infectious disease risk. The results emphasize the value of adopting an evolutionary approach in research on genetic susceptibility to infectious diseases.

Finally, the scientists explored the theory that the selection exerted by pathogens in the past gave an advantage to alleles conferring resistance to infectious diseases, but that in turn these alleles have increased the present-day risk of autoimmune or inflammatory disorders. They investigated the few thousand mutations known to increase susceptibility firstly to tuberculosis, hepatitis, HIV or COVID-19, and secondly to rheumatoid arthritis, systemic lupus erythematosus or inflammatory bowel disease.

By looking at the evolution of these mutations over time, they observed that those associated with an increased risk of inflammatory disorders—including Crohn's disease—became more frequent over the past 10,000 years, while the frequency of those associated with a risk of developing infectious diseases decreased.

"These results suggest that the risk of inflammatory disorders has increased in Europeans since the Neolithic period because of a positive selection of mutations improving resistance to infectious diseases," explains Lluis Quintana-Murci, director of the study and Head of the Human Evolutionary Genetics Unit (Institut Pasteur/CNRS Evolutionary Genomics, Modeling and Health Unit/Université Paris Cité).

The results of the study, which harnessed the huge potential of paleogenomics, show that natural selection has targeted human immunity genes over the past ten millennia in Europe, especially since the start of the Bronze Age, and contributed to present-day disparities in terms of the risk of infectious and inflammatory diseases.

More information: Gaspard Kerner et al, Genetic adaptation to pathogens and increased risk of inflammatory disorders in post-Neolithic Europe, Cell Genomics (2023). DOI: 10.1016/j.xgen.2022.100248

Provided by Pasteur Institute Ancient DNA reveals clues about how tuberculosis shaped the human immune system

CBC DOES OPPO RESEARCH FOR TORIES

Poilievre calls for parliamentary probe of Liberals' relationship with McKinsey consulting firm

SAY MERCI PIERRE

Story by Peter Zimonjic • Tuesday- Global News

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre said Tuesday he wants a Commons committee to probe the Liberal government's relationship with McKinsey & Company after a report revealed that the value of federal contracts held by the consulting firm has increased dramatically since 2015.

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre says he wants a Commons committee to investigate the Liberal government's relationship with consulting firm McKinsey & Company.

© Justin Tang/The Canadian Press

Radio-Canada reported recently that the cost of McKinsey's federal contracts has increased 30-fold under the current Liberal government.

"It's time for Canadians to get answers," Poilievre said. "We need to know what this money was for, what influence McKinsey has had in our government, and it is time for Canadian taxpayers to have answers to these questions."

According to public accounts data from Public Services and Procurement Canada (PSPC), McKinsey was awarded $2.2 million in federal contracts during the Harper years. Over Trudeau's seven years in office, the company has received $66 million from the federal government.

McKinsey, an American firm with 30,000 consultants in 130 offices in 65 countries, provides advice to both private and public entities — which sometimes have conflicting interests — and does not disclose its business ties.

McKinsey has advised many national governments on their COVID-19 pandemic response in recent years, including those in the U.S., U.K., Germany and Mexico.

Radio-Canada's analysis showed that Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) and the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) account for 44 per cent of federal contracts issued to the consultancy since 2015.

IRCC alone has given McKinsey $24.5 million in contracts for management advice since 2015.

Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada also hired the firm for management advice, science and research services, while the Department of National Defence paid McKinsey several million dollars for leadership development.

Since the start of 2021, PSPC has called upon McKinsey on behalf of various federal entities for contracts worth more than $45 million. All of those contracts were sole-source, according to documents obtained by Radio-Canada.

Amount paid to consulting firm McKinsey by the Trudeau government

Poilievre said that he is not calling for a full public inquiry. He said a Conservative MP will propose a motion before a parliamentary committee calling for a probe into the firm's relationship with the Liberal government.

"We want to know what all this money was for," Poilievre said. "We also want to know about the outsized influence of this company in the operation of our government, our democracy."

Related video: Blanchet calls for 'scrutiny' as Conservatives press for committee probe of McKinsey contracts (cbc.ca) Duration 2:14 View on Watch

The Conservative leader said his MPs will be requesting copies of all contracts the Liberal government has with McKinsey as well as all text messages, emails and other communications between officials regarding the firm's work.

In a statement issued Tuesday, McKinsey said its work for the federal government has been nonpartisan and focuses on managerial and operational issues.

"Our firm does not make policy recommendations," the statement said, adding that the company has followed federal procurement rules.

"We are proud of the work we do on behalf of the Government of Canada and the programs which we have strengthened through our independent analyses and advice," the statement said.

The statement said the company would appear before a committee if asked to do so.

Blanchet says opposition must scrutinize Liberal government

Poilievre said a future Conservative government led by him would get better value for money by relying less on consultants and more on the public service.

The federal government said it employs consulting firms to provide high-quality services and ensure the best possible value for taxpayers. It said departments are required to award contracts in a fair, open and transparent manner.

The governments of Quebec and Ontario also hired McKinsey to advise them on their pandemic responses and plan for the economic recovery.

An investigation by the French Senate accused consulting firms like McKinsey of undermining national sovereignty and making the state dependent on them.

McKinsey also has been under investigation in France over tax filings, the awarding of contracts and its role in President Emmanuel Macron's 2017 and 2022 election campaigns.

Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-François Blanchet stopped short of accusing the Liberal government of wrongdoing. He said that while he may have his suspicions, his job is to find out what's going on.

"Our job is to make sure that we know as much as possible and for each and every detail that we will not know. The population of Quebec and Canada will have to ask questions themselves," he said.

Blanchet would not weigh in on the Quebec provincial government's use of McKinsey, saying his job is to focus on holding the federal Liberals to account.

"This government cannot be left alone. It has to be under scrutiny all the time because they have some bad really habits," he said.

The NDP also supports a parliamentary review of the contracts.

NDP ethics critic Matthew Green issued a statement Tuesday noting the Conservatives also awarded McKinsey $2.2 million in contracts when they were in power. He said Canadians are "disgusted" by the enormous contracts awarded under the Liberals.

"Canada has a strong public service who can do this work at a fraction of the cost, so there's no reason for Trudeau to choose to hand buckets of money to his billionaire CEO friends instead," Green said.

"This is part of a sustained campaign to undermine our public service workers. The Liberals should be ashamed of themselves."

KILL A WORKER GO TO JAIL
Worker died after getting tangled in rolling machine, feds say. Company pleads guilty

MURDER NOT MANSLAUGHTER

Julia Marnin
Wed, January 11, 2023

A woman died within months of starting a job as a machine operator at a plastic manufacturing plant in Alabama, according to federal prosecutors. They argue the company running the facility was to blame for her death.

Catalina Estillado, who also went by Eva Saenz, became tangled in a set of moving rollers as part of machinery producing flat plastic sheets and was killed while working for ABC Polymer Industries LLC in Helena, a city about 20 miles south of Birmingham, court documents state.

The machinery was supposed to have a barrier in place while active under Occupational Safety and Health Administration standards, according to prosecutors. However, it wasn’t in place when Estillado was pulled into it on Aug. 16, 2017, officials said.

Now, ABC Polymer on Jan. 10 pleaded guilty to an OSHA violation causing the employee’s death, the Justice Department announced in a Jan. 11 news release.

Estillado’s “tragic death was entirely preventable,” Assistant Attorney General Todd Kim, of the department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division, said in a statement.

The company could be sentenced to paying up to a $500,000 fine at a hearing on Jan 24, according to officials.

Erica Williamson Barnes, a company spokeswoman, told McClatchy News in a statement on Jan. 11 that ABC Polymer has “worked tirelessly” since Estillado’s death by making “its manufacturing operations safer by installing new equipment, implementing new policies and procedures, and engaging a third party safety consultant.”

Barnes added that the government has recognized this effort in the company’s plea agreement and that the company “welcomes the opportunity to close this dark chapter in its history and move forward.”

In June, Estillado’s husband was awarded $3 million in damages in a wrongful death lawsuit he filed after his wife was killed, The Birmingham News reported.

More on the case

ABC Polymer, an international plastics manufacturer headquartered in Alabama, hired Estillado on April 25, 2017, according to court documents.

The facility’s machinery Estillado worked with molded materials into plastic sheets before the sheets got pulled through a set of rollers, prosecutors said. Then, the sheets would get sliced into smaller pieces of plastic, according to officials.

For safety, the machinery had an installed barrier guard near the rollers that was supposed to be pulled down while it was moving, according to court documents.

ABC Polymer’s safety policies in place since 2008 stated that the barrier guards were there to protect employees from the equipment, court documents show.

However, this was not the case on Aug. 16, 2017, when Estillado was working unsupervised and got “entangled in the roller drums,” prosecutors said.

ABC Polymer knew employees would lift the barrier guards to cut off plastic that became tangled on the rollers because it trained them to do so, according to officials.

Now the company has “admitted that it knew or should have known that these practices exposed employees to a risk of injuries and death in violation of federal law,” the release said.

ALBERTA

Victim's parents call for better jobsite safety after 28 charges laid in oilsands tailings pond death

Story by Wallis Snowdon • Tuesday

The parents of a 25-year-old oilsands worker who died in a frozen tailings pond in northern Alberta say charges in the case reveal disturbing details about safety failures on site.

Suncor and Christina River Construction face a total of 28 charges under the Alberta Occupational Health and Safety Act in the death of Patrick Poitras.

Poitras was operating a bulldozer on Jan. 13, 2021, at Suncor's base mine about 30 kilometres north of Fort McMurray, when the ice beneath the machine gave way.

Three days later, his body was pulled from the pond.

"Someone didn't do their job and I lost my son because of that," Marcel Poitras said in an interview from his home in New Brunswick.

"My son gave his life for that job."

The charges, laid in November, allege the companies ignored a series of safety protocols when they directed Poitras to operate a dozer on dangerously thin ice.

The case details how the companies allegedly failed to properly check the thickness of the ice and ignored previous measurements that showed it was too thin to bear the weight of the machine.

Christina River Construction, owned by Fort McMurray 468 First Nation, is facing nine charges in the death of their contractor. Suncor is facing 19 counts.

A plea hearing is scheduled for March 15 in Fort McMurray provincial court. Suncor declined to comment on the case as it is before the court. Christina River Construction has not responded to questions about the charges.

None of the allegations have been proven in court.

Poitras said his son's death was preventable and someone needs to be held accountable.

"It's not the first time this has happened," he said. "With the safety we have today, this is not supposed to happen."

Suncor, one of the largest players in the Alberta oilsands, has been under increased scrutiny for its safety record. At least 12 workers have died at its Alberta oilsands operations since 2014.

Former CEO Mark Little pledged to address the problem, including a promised independent safety review, but stepped down in July 2022, a day after a 26-year-old contractor died after being struck by equipment at Suncor's Base Mine.

Poitras's mother, Cathina Cormier, said she felt grief and disbelief when she learned of the allegations.

"I know there is no price for a human being but when I read the charges, I was angry," Cormier said.

"I had told myself it was just a bad accident."

Cormier said learning details of her son's death has made her grief raw again. She wants answers about what went wrong that day.

"The question and keep asking myself is who sent him there? Who sent my son to do that job?

"I cannot lay my boy to rest because of this."

According to the charges, Poitras was directed to operate a John Deere dozer on the ice of a tailings pond when available ice measurements showed the minimum ice thickness was less than 17 inches, as required by Suncor's safety plan.

The companies are accused of failing to complete adequate ice checks and failing to ensure ground-penetrating radar was used for ice profiling before dozers were permitted to operate.

They also allegedly failed to ensure dozer operators were wearing personal flotation devices when on the ice.

It is also alleged the companies failed to have a safety plan in place directing Poitras to keep his seatbelt off — and the door unlatched — while he was operating the dozer on the pond.

Suncor also faces a charge for underestimating how much the dozers weighed, and failing to account for the weight of snow when calculating required ice thickness.

It's further alleged that Suncor ignored its own winter geology guidelines that called for work to be deferred on any sites with more than one metre of standing water.

Marcel Poitras said Patrick called him the night before he died and told him that he was worried about safety at the site. He said he was scared to go out on the ice.

"I said, 'If you find that it's dangerous, please stop, because I need you more than you know. I don't want to lose you.' And he said, 'Dad, I'm here to work.'"

Poitras, of Saint-André, N.B., had worked in the oilsands for six years. He had recently returned to New Brunswick for Christmas and planned on moving home for good that spring.

Patrick Poitras died after the dozer he was operating plunged through the ice on an oilsands tailings pond. He was 25.© Patrick Poitras/Facebook

Cormier said her son was serious about his work, but also a "goof" with a penchant for sporting a mullet and making people laugh.

After two years of uncertainty and overwhelming grief, she hopes the outcome of the case will give her some closure.

She is still coming to grips with her son's death, and the death of her father weeks later.

She hopes Patrick's legacy will be ensuring other workers are protected on the job.

"I just want this to never happen again. It's a worst nightmare for a mother.

"Our family went through hell for this."

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