New sensor can prevent defects in major structures reaching costly and dangerous levels

Business Announcement

BOURNEMOUTH UNIVERSITY

 

IMAGE: CORROSION SENSOR - FURTHER INFORMATION view more 

CREDIT: BOURNEMOUTH UNIVERSITY

Researchers at Bournemouth University have developed and patented a new corrosion sensor that could improve safety and reliability of large structures such as bridges, aircraft, military vehicles and gas pipelines.

The device can detect defects and risks in major infrastructure at a much earlier stage than the methods that are currently used. As well as improving safety, it could reduce the need for time consuming repairs which can come at significant cost and inconvenience to industries and the public.

“Our doctors often encourage us to take health screenings regularly, so they can diagnose conditions at an early stage which gives us better options for treatment,” said Zulfiqar Khan Professor of Design Engineering and Computing at Bournemouth University who led the development.

“This sensor works on the same principal. If we can spot health risks in vehicles and mechanical structures before corrosion reaches an advanced and dangerous stage, we can avoid costly, lengthy repairs and hopefully prevent structures from being scrapped altogether.”

Whilst other corrosion sensors are used by industry – and some can even be bought on eBay – they all require cables to be plugged in to a computer. This means that maintenance must take place with a worker present at the site. Professor Khan’s device is wireless so it can be attached to a structure and its readings could be continuously monitored off-site.

As a further benefit, the sensor can be used on any kind of surface, whereas most current devices only work on metallic surfaces which the electricity from the sensor must pass through.

“The aerospace industry, for example, would prefer a sensor which can detect failures beneath non-metallic coatings. Currently this involves removing a patch of the non-conductive coating to make the conductive surface available - this could be counter-productive as it can initiate corrosion more rapidly,” explained Professor Khan.

“Unmonitored failures lead to costly consequences. Scheduled inspections are tedious, time consuming and are mostly limited to visual or surface failures. Our latest sensor technology is a futuristic, much needed solution. It can work remotely, it works on metallic and non-metallic surfaces and can detect defects several millimetres below the surface which are not visible to the naked eye,” he continued.

Professor Khan’s product is the latest development from a series of research projects which began over a decade ago at the Bovington Tank Museum in Dorset. The museum holds one of the most significant collections of tanks and military vehicles in the world. Professor Khan’s team applied their expertise to develop a means to monitor corrosion in the vehicles to help preserve their cultural heritage.

This work ultimately led to the development of a £2.5 million conservation centre for the most at-risk tanks. The team also identified maintenance work which could be carried on some tanks so they could be driven safely at showgrounds and the public could see them in action.

The team then secured funding in 2016 to work with infrastructure companies in the US where the technology enhanced their business and brought commercial benefits.

The technology has now been granted patents in the UK and the US and Professor Khan and his team are keen to work with partners so that it can be rolled out across industry and engineering and construction companies can start realising the benefits. As well as benefits for operational infrastructure, the device would help companies with large fleets of vehicles or machinery that may be kept in depots and not regularly used or serviced.

“It is a bit like coming home from work and deciding you want some food that has been at the back of the cupboard, only to find that it is past its use-by date,” he said. “Our device can continually monitor mechanical structures to ensure they always remains in date and will not have to be thrown out,” Professor Khan concluded.

CAPTION

Corrosion Sensor Further information 2

CREDIT

Bournemouth University

---

DOI

10.1109/ACCESS.2017.2777532 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Experimental study

New study from Pusan National University explores artificial intelligence in fashion

Researchers explore the use of collaborative artificial intelligence models in the realm of fashion design

Peer-Reviewed Publication

PUSAN NATIONAL UNIVERSITY

 

IMAGE: RESEARCHERS FROM PUSAN NATIONAL UNIVERSITY IN KOREA HAVE CONDUCTED AN IN-DEPTH STUDY EXPLORING THE USE OF COLLABORATIVE AI MODELS TO CREATE NEW DESIGNS AND THE ENGAGEMENT OF COMPLEX SYSTEMS. THIS ENCOURAGES HUMAN-AI COLLABORATIVE DESIGNING WHICH INCREASES EFFICIENCY AND IMPROVES SUSTAINABILITY. view more 

CREDIT: YOON KYUNG LEE FROM PUSAN NATIONAL UNIVERSITY

The use of artificial intelligence (AI) in the fashion industry has grown significantly in recent years. AI is being used for tasks such as personalizing fashion recommendations for customers, optimizing supply chain management, automating processes, and improving sustainability to reduce waste. However, creative processes in fashion designing continue to be human driven, mostly, and not a lot of research exists in the realm of using AI for designing in fashion. Moreover, studies are generally done with data scientists, who build the AI platforms and are involved with the technologic aspect of the process. However, the other side of this equation, i.e., designers themselves, are not roped into research often.

To investigate the practical applicability of AI models to implement creative designs and work with human designers, Assistant Professor Prof. Yoon Kyung Lee from Pusan National University in Korea conducted an in-depth study. Her study was made available online in Thinking Skills and Creativity on September 15, 2022, and subsequently published in Volume 46 of the Journal in December 2022.

“At a time when AI is so deeply ingrained into our lives, this study started instead with considering what a human can do better than AI,” says Prof. Lee, explaining her motivation behind the study. “Could there be an effective collaboration between humans and AI for the purpose of creative design?”

Prof. Lee started with generating new textile designs using deep convolution generative adversarial networks (DC-GANs) and cycle-GANs. The outputs from these models were compared to similar designs produced by design students.

The comparison revealed that though designs produced by both were similar, the biggest difference was the uniqueness and originality seen in the human designs, which came from the person’s experiences. However, the use of AI in repetitive tasks can improve the efficiency of designers and frees up their time to focus on more high-difficulty creative work. AI-generated designs can also be used as a learning tool for people who lack expertise in fashion want to explore their creativity. These people can create designs with assistance from AI.  Thus, Prof. Lee proposes a human-AI collaborative network that integrates GANs with human creativity to produce designs. The professor also defined and studied the various elements of a complex system that are involved in human-AI collaborated design. She also went on to establish a human-AI model in which the designer collaborates with AI to create a novel design idea. The model is built in such a way that if the designer shares their creative process and ideas with others, the system can interconnect and evolve, thereby improving its designs.

The fashion industry can leverage this to foresee changes in the fashion industry and offer recommendations and co-creation services. Setting objectives, variables, and limits is part of the designer's job in the Human-AI collaborative design environment. Therefore, their work should go beyond only the visual aspect and instead cover a variety of disciplines.

“In the future, everybody will be able to be a creator or designer with the help of AI models. So far, only professional fashion designers have been able to design and showcase clothes. But in the future, it will be possible for anyone to design the clothes they want and showcase their creativity,” concludes Prof. Lee.

We hope her dreams are very close to realization!

 

***

 

Reference

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tsc.2022.101137

Authors: Yoon Kyung Lee1

Affiliations: 1Department of Clothing and Textiles in the College of Human Ecology, Pusan National University

 

About Pusan National University

Pusan National University, located in Busan, South Korea, was founded in 1946, and is now the no. 1 national university of South Korea in research and educational competency. The multi-campus university also has other smaller campuses in Yangsan, Miryang, and Ami. The university prides itself on the principles of truth, freedom, and service, and has approximately 30,000 students, 1200 professors, and 750 faculty members. The university is composed of 14 colleges (schools) and one independent division, with 103 departments in all. Website: https://www.pusan.ac.kr/eng/Main.do   

 

About the author

Prof. Yoon Kyung Lee is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Clothing and Textiles at Pusan National University, South Korea. Her research interests include sustainability in fashion, creativity, innovative design education, digital fashion technologies, AI, and neuroscience in fashion. Before joining Pusan National University, she worked as an Assistant Research Professor at Seoul National University. She completed her Postdoctoral training at DeLong’s lab at the University of Minnesota. She received a Ph.D. in Aesthetics in Dress from Seoul National University and an MFA in Fashion and Textile Design from the Institute European of Design (IED) Milan, Italy.

Personal website address: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=f-ClNBkAAAAJ&hl=en

ORCID id: 0000-0002-5118-3789.

---

JOURNAL

Thinking Skills and Creativity

DOI

10.1016/j.tsc.2022.101137 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Computational simulation/modeling

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE TITLE

How complex systems get engaged in fashion design creation: Using artificial intelligence

Falling birth rate not due to less desire to have children

Young people’s concern about future may be delaying parenthood

Peer-Reviewed Publication

OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY

COLUMBUS, Ohio – While some people are concerned about America’s falling birth rate, a new study suggests young people don’t need to be convinced to have more children.

 

In fact, young Americans haven’t changed the number of children they intend to have in decades.

 

Women born in 1995-1999 wanted to have 2.1 children on average when they were 20-24 years old – essentially the same as the 2.2 children that women born in 1965-1969 wanted at the same age, the study found.

 

Still, the total fertility rate in the United States was 1.71 in 2019, the lowest level since the 1970s.

 

What’s going on?

 

The results suggest that today’s young adults may be having a more difficult time achieving their goals of having children, said Sarah Hayford, co-author of the study and professor of sociology at The Ohio State University.

 

The data in the study can’t explain why, but the results fit evidence indicating that young people today don’t think now is a good time for them to have children.

 

“It’s hard to have children in the United States right now,” said Hayford, who is also director of Ohio State’s Institute for Population Research.

 

“People feel more worried about the future than they might have been several decades ago.  They worry about the economy, child care and whether they can afford to have children.”

 

Hayford conducted the study with Karen Benjamin Guzzo, professor of sociology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and director of the Carolina Population Center.  Their results were published online Jan. 10, 2023 in the journal Population and Development Review.

 

The researchers used data from the National Survey of Family Growth, which has been asking people about their childbearing goals and behaviors for several decades.

 

The NSFG doesn’t interview the same people each time, but it allowed the researchers to track a group of people born around the same time – a cohort, as scientists call these groups – as they passed through their childbearing years.

 

They looked at 13 cohorts of women and 10 cohorts of men born between the 1960s and the 2000s. They were all asked how many children they intended to have, if any.

 

“Americans have been pretty consistent with how many children they say they want to have from the 60s to the 2000s,” Hayford said. “Men generally say they want slightly fewer children than women do, but, like women, their preferred number of children hasn’t changed much.”

 

The percentage of people who said they don’t plan to have any children has increased, from about 5-8% in the 1960s and 1970s to 8-16% in the 1990s and 2000s.  But that alone can’t explain the decline in the number of babies being born.

 

Hayford noted that the number of unintended births, especially among people in their 20s, has declined in recent decades, which has helped reduce the birth rate.

 

“But that doesn’t change the fact that people aren’t having as many children as they say they want, especially at earlier ages,” Hayford said.

 

“It may be that they’re going to have those kids when they’re 35, but maybe they won’t.”

 

For example, the study found some evidence that people are reducing the number of children they say they intend to have as they get older.

 

“As they age, they may be realizing how hard it is to have kids and raise kids in the United States and they’re saying they only want to have the one child, and don’t want a second one,” she said.

 

In addition, would-be parents may have more difficult conceiving as they get older.

 

Larger economic and social forces are also having an impact on birth rates.

 

The birth rate declined significantly during the Great Recession that started in 2008, which is a typical response to an economic downturn. However, the birth rate continued to decline even after the recession was over, Hayford said.

 

This study ended before COVID-19, but the pandemic served as another fertility shock, at least at first.

 

“It remains to be seen whether fertility will be able to rebound not just from the Great Recession, but from the pandemic as well,” she said.

 

For those who are concerned about America’s dropping birth rates, this study suggests that there is no need to pressure young people into wanting more kids, Hayford said.

 

“We need to make it easier for people to have the children that they want to have,” she said.  “There are clear barriers to having children in the United States that revolve around economics, around child care, around health insurance.”

 

The research was supported by grants from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.

---

JOURNAL

Population and Development Review

DOI

10.1111/padr.12535 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Data/statistical analysis

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

Evolving Fertility Goals and Behaviors in Current U.S. Childbearing Cohorts

ICYMI

*Free* ExxonMobil’s own global warming projections predicted climate warming, quantitative analysis shows

Summary author: Walter Beckwith

Peer-Reviewed Publication

AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE (AAAS)

Since the late 1970s and early 1980s, climate models used internally by ExxonMobil’s own scientists accurately projected and skillfully modeled global warming due to fossil fuel burning and produced results that were consistent with independent academic and government climate models at the time, according to a new Review. Although it has been widely reported that Exxon has known about the threat of global warming since the 1970s, “this study is the first quantitative review of the company’s early climate science,” according to a related press release included in the press package. Internal documents disclosed in 2015 have suggested that ExxonMobil scientists have informed company executives about dangerous human-driven climate warming since at least 1977. However, while the text of these documents has been examined in detail, far less attention has been given to numerical and graphical data in these documents related to explicit projections of future warming. In this Review, Geoffrey Supran and colleagues systematically evaluated the accuracy of ExxonMobil’s internal climate modeling projections – some of the most abundant and robust in the industry – and compared their performance against academic and government models. Supran et al. analyzed 32 internal documents produced by ExxonMobil scientists between 1977 and 2002 and 72 peer-reviewed scientific publications authored or coauthored by ExxonMobil scientists between 1982 and 2014 – a dataset that constitutes all publicly available internal documents and research publications disclosed by the company. According to the findings, the climate projections reported by ExxonMobil scientists during this period were accurate in predicting subsequent global climate warming, suggesting that the company understood as much about climate change as academic and government scientists did, despite their active efforts to sow uncertainty and doubt. “These findings corroborate and add quantitative precision to assertions by scholars, journalists, lawyers, politicians, and others that ExxonMobil accurately foresaw the threat of human-caused global warming, both prior and parallel to orchestrating lobbying and propaganda campaigns to delay climate action, and refute claims by ExxonMobil Corp and its defenders that these assertions are incorrect,” write Supran et al.

---

JOURNAL

Science

DOI

10.1126/science.abk0063 

ARTICLE TITLE

Assessing ExxonMobil’s global warming projections

New Harvard study puts a number on what ‘Exxon knew’ decades ago about climate science

Peer-Reviewed Publication

HARVARD UNIVERSITY

 

IMAGE: SUMMARY OF ALL GLOBAL WARMING PROJECTIONS REPORTED BY EXXONMOBIL SCIENTISTS IN INTERNAL DOCUMENTS AND PEER-REVIEWED PUBLICATIONS BETWEEN 1977 AND 2003 (GRAY LINES), SUPERIMPOSED ON HISTORICALLY OBSERVED TEMPERATURE CHANGE (RED). SOLID GRAY LINES INDICATE GLOBAL WARMING PROJECTIONS MODELED BY EXXONMOBIL SCIENTISTS THEMSELVES; DASHED GRAY LINES INDICATE PROJECTIONS INTERNALLY REPRODUCED BY EXXONMOBIL SCIENTISTS FROM THIRD-PARTY SOURCES. SHADES OF GRAY SCALE WITH MODEL START DATES, FROM EARLIEST (1977: LIGHTEST) TO LATEST (2003: DARKEST). view more 

CREDIT: GEOFFREY SUPRAN

Cambridge, MA — Climate projections reported by ExxonMobil scientists between 1977 and 2003 were accurate and skillful in predicting subsequent global warming and contradicted the company’s public claims, a new Harvard study shows.

 

In the first ever systematic assessment of the fossil fuel industry’s climate projections, researchers at Harvard University and the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research have put a number on what ‘Exxon knew’ decades ago about climate science: that fossil fuel burning would lead to 0.20 ± 0.04 degrees Celsius of global warming per decade. 

 

The findings, published in the peer-reviewed journal Science and summarized by a single chart displaying every global warming projection reported by Exxon and ExxonMobil Corp scientists between 1977 and 2003, are based on statistical analyses of never-previously reported data buried in the company’s own documents. 

Although it has been widely reported that Exxon has known about the threat of global warming since the 1970s, this study is the first quantitative review of the company’s early climate science. Previous research focused on Exxon's inconsistent internal and external rhetoric on climate change. This report dives into company data revealing that the company knew how much warming would occur with startling accuracy.

 

“We find that most of their projections accurately forecast warming consistent with subsequent observations,” the report concludes. “Their projections were also consistent with, and at least as skillful as, those of independent academic and government models.”

 

Using established IPCC statistical techniques, the study finds that 63-83% of global warming projections reported by ExxonMobil scientists were consistent with subsequently observed temperatures. Moreover, projections modeled by ExxonMobil scientists had an average ‘skill score’ of 72 ± 6 %, with the highest scoring 99%. For comparison, NASA scientist Dr. James Hansen’s global warming predictions presented to the U.S. Congress in 1988 had skill scores ranging from 38% to 66%. (When we account for differences between forecast and observed atmospheric CO2 levels, the ‘skill score’ of projections modeled by ExxonMobil scientists was 75 ± 5%, with seven projections scoring 85% or above. Again, for comparison, Hansen’s 1988 projections had corresponding skill scores of 28 to 81%.)

 

 

The study finds that “Exxon and ExxonMobil Corp also correctly rejected the prospect of a coming ice age, accurately predicted when human-caused global warming would first be detected, and reasonably estimated the ‘carbon budget’ for holding warming below 2°C. On each of these points, however, the company’s public statements about climate science contradicted its own scientific data.”

 

The study adds weight to ongoing legal and political investigations into ExxonMobil.

 

“These findings corroborate and add quantitative precision,” the authors write, “to assertions by scholars, journalists, lawyers, politicians, and others that ExxonMobil accurately foresaw the threat of human-caused global warming, both prior and parallel to orchestrating lobbying and propaganda campaigns to delay climate action, and refute claims by ExxonMobil Corp and its defenders that these assertions are incorrect.”

 

“This is the nail-in-the-coffin of ExxonMobil’s claims that it has been falsely accused of climate malfeasance,” commented lead author and Harvard University Research Associate Geoffrey Supran (Supran began as an Associate Professor of Environmental Science and Policy at the University of Miami’s Rosenstiel School of Marine, Atmospheric, and Earth Science Jan 2023). “Our analysis shows that ExxonMobil’s own data contradicted its public statements, which included exaggerating uncertainties, criticizing climate models, mythologizing global cooling, and feigning ignorance about when — or if — human-caused global warming would be measurable, all while staying silent on the threat of stranded fossil fuel assets.”

 

The paper’s Acknowledgments state that this research was supported by Harvard University Faculty Development Funds and by the Rockefeller Family Fund.

 

---

JOURNAL

Science

DOI

10.1126/science.abk0063 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Data/statistical analysis

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE TITLE

Assessing ExxonMobil’s global warming projections

Study identifies cause for mysterious cases of epilepsy in children

International collaboration uncovers mosaicism, a condition in which cells within the same person have a different genetic makeup, as a cause for pediatric seizures

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA - SAN DIEGO

 

VIDEO: AN INTERNATIONAL CONSORTIUM LED BY UC SAN DIEGO HAS IDENTIFIED AT LEAST SOME OF THE GENETIC DRIVERS OF A MYSTERIOUS FORM OF PEDIATRIC EPILEPSY. view more 

CREDIT: UC SAN DIEGO HEALTH SCIENCES

Epilepsy is present in 4% of the population, and is among the most common brain disorders in children. Modern medicine can prevent most seizure recurrences, but approximately 20% of patients do not respond to treatment.

In these cases, the reason may originate in patches of damaged or abnormal brain tissue known as “malformations of cortical development” (MCD), which results in a diverse group of neurodevelopment disorders. Surgical resection or removal of the patch can cure the seizures, and epilepsy surgery to improve neurological outcomes is now a key part of the modern medical armamentarium, but what causes the patches has largely remained a mystery.

Writing in the January 12, 2023 issue of Nature Genetics, researchers at University of California San Diego School of Medicine and Rady Children’s Institute for Genomic Medicine, collaborating with an international consortium of more than 20 children’s hospitals worldwide, report a significant breakthrough in understanding the genetic causes of MCD.

Members of the Focal Cortical Dysplasia Neurogenetics Consortium investigated 283 brain resections from children across a range of MCD types, with parental consent, looking for potential genetic causes.  Because most brain tissue in these children is normal, the scientists focused on mutations present in a small subset of brain cells, a phenomenon termed genetic somatic mosaicism.

“This was a decade-long journey, bringing specialists together from around the world, to recruit patients for this study,” said senior study author Joseph Gleeson, MD, Rady Professor of Neuroscience at UC San Diego School of Medicine and director of neuroscience research at the Rady Children’s Institute for Genomic Medicine. “Until recently, most hospitals did not study resected brain tissue for genetic causes. The consortium organized a biobank to store tissue for high-throughput mosaicism analysis.”

Previous research by Gleeson and colleagues had shown that genetic somatic mosaicism in the mTOR signaling pathway was a contributing factor, said co-first author Changuk Chung, PhD, a postdoctoral fellow in the Gleeson lab.

“But most patients remain undiagnosed, which hinders treatment. We tested for hidden mutations, detectable only by greatly expanding the cohort size and improving methods so that the results could be meaningful. We collaborated to solve technical and logistical bottlenecks. The pieces fell into place, but it took 10 years.”

The team conducted intensive genomic discovery using state-of-art somatic mosaic algorithms developed by the National Institutes of Health-sponsored Brain Somatic Mosaicism Network, of which UC San Diego is a member.

“We tried our best to detect mutations in as little as 1 percent of cells,” said co-first author Xiaoxu Yang, PhD, a postdoctoral scholar in Gleeson’s lab. “Initially we failed. To solve these problems, we needed to develop novel artificial intelligence methods to overcome barriers in sensitivity and specificity.”

The team ultimately identified 69 different genes carrying somatic brain mutations, the majority of which have never previously reported in MCD.

“We can draw parallels with the cancer field because these mutations disrupt cellular function and need to be resected,” said co-first author Chung. “However, unlike cancer cells, brain cells mostly do not divide so these cells misbehave by stimulating epileptic seizures. The question that arose was whether the newly found gene mutations were sufficient to cause MCD disease.”

Gleeson said the scientists found that the genes converged on calcium signaling, gene expression and synaptic functions, and noted that when the mutations were introduced into a mouse model, abnormalities similar to those seen in patients were observed. The study authors suggest the findings could be used to improve diagnosis and develop cures for MCD disease.

“The MCD genes in patient brains have demonstrated critical roles during cortical development,” said Gleeson. “These findings could lead to new molecular classifications for MCD, and ultimately to personalized therapies for epilepsy.”

For a complete list of co-authors, see full study.

Full study: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41588-022-01276-9

# # #

---

JOURNAL

Nature Genetics

Boards of directors and the media generally ‘get it right’ in rewarding CEOs based on performance, study shows

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE DAME

A main focus in corporate governance research is whether boards of directors and the media appropriately reward and sanction CEOs based on their performance.

Evidence shows CEOs vary significantly in their ability to generate positive firm results. While some revitalize underperforming companies, others assume the reins of successful companies only to lead them to failure.

Prior research provides a pessimistic view of boards of directors, portraying them as inefficient and unable to monitor CEOs. But many of these studies approach the problem in the wrong way, according to new research from the University of Notre Dame. The study takes a broader view of these relationships and asks the question: Do boards generally get it right? The answer, the researchers find, is yes.

“Do Boards and the Media Recognize Quality? An Assessment of CEO Contextual Quality Using Pay, Dismissal, Awards, and Linguistics” is forthcoming in the Academy of Management Journal from Timothy Hubbard, assistant professor of strategic management at Notre Dame’s Mendoza College of Business, along with Cole Short from Pepperdine University.

Boards of directors are responsible for the monitoring, rewarding and sanctioning of CEOs, while the media also plays an important role in corporate governance by distilling and disseminating key information about firms and their leaders.

“We find that boards of directors and the media do accurately reward CEOs based on their performance,” Hubbard said. “Higher-performing CEOs earn more, are dismissed less and receive more CEO media awards.”

The study looks at performance based on the impact the CEO has on the firm within the context of the performance they inherited and the time period in which they ran the firm. After establishing this relationship, it examines the signals that boards and the media may use to ascertain quality.

Using advanced linguistic methods, the researchers show that CEOs differ in the language they use. More specifically, they introduce the idea of CEO unscripted novelty, or how much a CEO deviates from the prepared portion of earnings calls in the unscripted question-and-answer portion.

They looked at CEOs and performance from the S&P 500 using company financials, media reports and earnings calls transcripts and studied CEO pay, dismissal and CEO of the Year awards. They used a separate sample to look at earnings calls and unscripted novelty and used natural language processing as a method to understand the topics CEOs discuss during their calls.

“CEO quality is positively related to unscripted novelty, which positively influences stock market reactions,” Hubbard said.

According to Hubbard, past research in this area has attempted to relate board characteristics, such as the proportion of independent directors or CEO duality, to short-term performance. He points to the study’s broader look at relationships, which he says should re-energize boards and remove some of the pessimism around their role, as well as linguistic signals that can indicate CEO quality. 

“Our results should encourage board members to pay attention to the language CEOs are using in their earnings calls to understand motivations and ability based on what they say,” Hubbard said.

The study states, “Appropriate rewards for and sanctions against CEOs are important as CEOs have considerable influence over firm outcomes. Firms and society benefit when CEOs are compensated, awarded and dismissed based on their performance.”

---

JOURNAL

Academy of Management Journal

Team streamlines DNA collection, analysis for wildlife conservation

Costs less, doesn't harm animals or endanger researchers

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT URBANA-CHAMPAIGN, NEWS BUREAU

 

IMAGE: A NEW APPROACH TO OBTAINING DNA FROM ELEPHANT DUNG IS FASTER, CHEAPER AND MORE COMPREHENSIVE THAN PREVIOUS METHODS, RESEARCHERS REPORT. PICTURED: AFRICAN SAVANNA ELEPHANTS IN ADDO ELEPHANT NATIONAL PARK IN SOUTH AFRICA. view more 

CREDIT: PHOTO BY RUDI VAN AARDE

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — A new DNA-collection approach allows scientists to capture genetic information from wildlife without disturbing the animals or putting their own safety in jeopardy. The protocol, tested on elephant dung, yielded enough DNA to sequence whole genomes not only of the elephants but also of the associated microbes, plants, parasites and other organisms – at a fraction of the cost of current approaches.

The researchers report their findings in the journal Frontiers in Genetics.

“We combined existing methodologies in such a way that we are now able to use noninvasive samples to generate genome-scale data,” said Alida de Flamingh, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign who led the work with U. of I. animal sciences professor Alfred Roca. “This allows us to assess wildlife populations without having to dart, capture or immobilize animals.”

Collecting DNA from elephant dung is not new, Roca said.

“Elephant fecal samples have been used for decades to study the genetics of elephants,” he said. “But this relies on very cumbersome methods, often involving chemicals that in some cases may be dangerous. The collections are bulky, they’re hard to ship and they have to be refrigerated, making the whole process very costly."

De Flamingh tested a relatively inexpensive alternative: using postcard-sized data-collection cards that have been treated to prevent the samples from degrading. Previous research has shown that once samples are smeared on the cards, they can be stored for months without refrigeration.

The inspiration for the study came from de Flamingh’s work with U. of I. anthropology professor and study co-author Ripan Malhi, whose laboratory focuses on ancient DNA.

“Ancient DNA can be problematic because samples are degraded and may yield very low levels of target species DNA,” de Flamingh said. Obtaining genomic data from dung can be similarly challenging, with lower elephant DNA concentrations than are available from blood samples. “I thought, this sounds like an excellent opportunity to test whether the same methodologies can be applied to noninvasive samples to generate the same type of data.”

The team first collected samples from zoo elephants in experiments designed to determine how long after defecation the dung would yield viable genomic data. The Jacksonville Zoo and Gardens in Florida and the Dallas Zoological Gardens allowed the team to collect samples from their African savanna elephants. The researchers retrieved the samples immediately after defecation and 24, 48 and 72 hours later.

Their tests revealed that even three-day-old dung yielded enough DNA for genomic studies of the elephants.

The researchers next tested their approach on samples collected from wild African savanna elephants. Study collaborator and co-author Rudi van Aarde, a professor emeritus of zoology and entomology at the University of Pretoria, South Africa, and his colleagues used the cards to collect elephant dung samples after identifying a geographically and ecologically diverse set of wild areas across South Africa.

By running the sequence data obtained from the cards through genomic databases, the team found a treasure trove of information in the dung.

“I was surprised,” Roca said. “I thought we might get some elephant DNA from the cards, but I was thinking on the order of 2%. However, on average, more than 12% of the DNA was attributed to the elephant.”

This was achieved without using laboratory methods that target only elephant DNA, a costly and time-consuming procedure, the researchers said. As a result, each sample yielded a vast amount of data about the elephant, the microbial composition of its gut, its habitat and diet. The researchers even detected the DNA of butterflies and other arthropods that interact with the dung after it is deposited.

“It’s really beneficial to get an idea of everything that’s in there because now you can start asking questions, not only about elephant genomes but also about things like their health, their diet and whether there are pathogens or parasites present,” de Flamingh said.

When it comes to the elephant genomes, the results are comparable to those obtained via blood samples, Roca said.

“You can explore the connectivity of different elephant populations, the level of genetic diversity, the level of inbreeding and relatedness among elephants,” he said. “And I would say there are lots of reasons you don’t want to have to collect blood samples from wild elephants.”

“It’s possible to do what you could do with blood, but it goes beyond that,” de Flamingh said. “You now can do analyses that you couldn’t do before with blood DNA, which only provides information about the elephant’s genome.”

De Flamingh is a postdoctoral researcher and Malhi and Roca are professors at the Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology at the U. of I.

The International Fund for Animal Welfare, the Conservation Ecology Research Unit of the University of Pretoria, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service African Elephant Conservation Fund supported this research.

The paper “Combining methods for non-invasive fecal DNA enables whole genome and metagenomic analyses in wildlife biology” is available to members of the media from the U. of I. News Bureau.

  

A team led by U. of I. postdoctoral researcher Alida de Flamingh, left, and animal sciences professor Alfred Roca developed a new, more efficient approach to obtaining DNA from wild animals without disturbing the animals or putting researchers’ lives at risk.

Postcard-sized sample collection cards offer an affordable alternative to more cumbersome methods of collecting and storing the genetic information in dung. The cards do not need to be refrigerated and maintain viable DNA for months after collection.

CREDIT

Photo by Fred Zwicky

African savanna elephants.

 A young African savanna elephant walks with the herd.

CREDIT

Photo by Rudi van Aarde

---

JOURNAL

Frontiers in Genetics

DOI

10.3389/fgene.2022.1021004 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Experimental study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Animals

ARTICLE TITLE

Combining methods for non-invasive fecal DNA enables whole genome and metagenomic analyses in wildlife biology