Conservation Research: Sustaining flamingo populations – size matters

Flocking flamingos in groups of 50 or more may be one key to encouraging successful reproduction

Peer-Reviewed Publication

SPECIES360

 

IMAGE: FLAMINGO STUDY RESULTS INFOGRAPHIC view more 

CREDIT: DR. ANDREW MOONEY

Flocking flamingos in groups of 50 or more may be one key to encouraging successful reproduction, according to a study published this month in Zoo Biology. Researchers used global data shared by zoos and aquariums to study reproductive success and factors such as climate, flock numbers, and an equal sex ratio in four species of flamingo in 540 ex situpopulations worldwide. The zoos and aquariums curate data on groups of flamingos using the Zoological Information Management System (ZIMS) provided by the nonprofit Species360.

The open-access paper in Zoo Biology looks at strategies for encouraging reproductive success in ex situ populations of flamingos, or flamingos living in zoological institutions like wildlife refuges, zoos, and aquariums. Population managers across the national and regional zoo and aquarium associations as well as other organizations, can use this information to provide guidelines for protecting and sustaining flamingo populations.

The Conservation Science Alliance (CSA),and University of Southern Denmark data analysts and population management scholars, collaborated with lead researcher Dr. Andrew Mooney, Conservation and Research Officer at Dublin Zoo, and former Ph.D. student of the CSA, who graduated from Trinity College Dublin, to complete the study.

Applying modern analytics to ZIMS data, the team found that, to encourage reproduction and sustain populations, ex situ flamingo flocks should be as large as 50 –100 individuals and consist of an even sex ratio. Additionally, adding new individuals to a flock can sometimes seemingly spice things up and increase reproductive success, while climatic variables play a limited role.

Dr. Johanna Stärk, study co-author and researcher with University of Southern Denmark and the Species360 Conservation Science Alliance, said: “High quality data collected by Species360 members worldwide is critical for improving our understanding of what animals under human care need. At the Species360 Conservation Science Alliance, we aim to transform ZIMS data into real-world recommendations by working in close collaboration with researchers and species experts. This study is an excellent example of such a successful collaboration that could lead to more sustainable population management and improve global conservation efforts for flamingos.”

Describing the approach, lead researcher Dr. Andrew Mooney says:

“We utilized current and historic zoological records from Species360 member institutions to investigate how flock size and structure influence reproductive success in captive flamingos. We combined demographic data with high resolution global climatic data within the same statistical modeling framework to gain a more complete view of the determinants of reproductive success in captive flamingo populations, while also revealing temporal trends in institutional flock sizes.”

Dr. Mooney continues, “This has been seen first-hand at Dublin Zoo, where we have found that adding new birds to our Chilean flamingo flock stimulated reproduction in the subsequent year, while rainfall had little impact."

For more information, read the full study: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/zoo.21753

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JOURNAL

Zoo Biology

DOI

10.1002/zoo.21753 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Data/statistical analysis

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Animals

ARTICLE TITLE

Flock size and structure influence reproductive success in four species of flamingo in 540 captive populations worldwide

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

15-Jan-2023

Red algae-derived metal-polysaccharide shows promise for anti-microbial applications because of its long and dense spikes

Peer-Reviewed Publication

BEN-GURION UNIVERSITY OF THE NEGEV

BEER-SHEVA, Israel, January 26, 2023 – Antibiotic resistant bacteria are becoming more and more of a concern as traditional sources of anti-microbial treatments become less effective. Therefore, researchers at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev are looking farther afield for promising compounds to treat wounds and infections.

Prof. Shoshana (Mails) Arad and Prof. Ariel Kushmaro, Prof. Levi A. Gheber and PhD. student Nofar Yehuda joined a metal and a polysaccharide together and discovered the new compound worked well against bacteria and fungus (Candida albicans) because of the longer and denser spikes on its surface that poked holes in the membrane and killed off the bacteria and the fungus.

"A polysaccharide is a carbohydrate with linked sugar molecules and by adding a metal (Cu), we were able to create an effective new material," according to the researchers.

Their findings were published recently in the peer-reviewed journal Marine Drugs as the new compound is derived from marine red microalga Porphyridium sp.

Commercialization of these new compounds could come sooner rather than later.

"In light of the increased resistance to antibiotic and antifungal agents, there is a growing need for the development of new and improved treatments. BGN Technologies holds a patent application ready for licensing in the field," say BGN's Galit Mazooz-Perlmuter and Anat Shperberg Avni. BGN Technologies is Ben-Gurion University's technology transfer company.

The research was conducted by Prof. Shoshana (Mails) Arad, Prof. Kushmaro and PhD. student Nofar Yehuda, as well as Prof. Levi A. Gheber. Prof. Shoshana (Mails) Arad is from the Avram and Stella Goldstein-Goren Department of Biotechnology Engineering, Prof. Kushmaro is a member of the Goldman-Sonnenfeldt School of Sustainability and Climate Change and the Avram and Stella Goldstein-Goren Department of Biotechnology Engineering. Prof. Gheber is a member of the same department as well as The Ilse Katz Institute for Nanoscale Science and Technology.

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JOURNAL

Marine Drugs

DOI

10.3390/md20120787 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Experimental study

ARTICLE TITLE

Complexes of Cu–Polysaccharide of a Marine Red Microalga Produce Spikes with Antimicrobial Activity

RaiBo - a versatile robo-dog runs through the sandy beach at 3 meters/sec

Peer-Reviewed Publication

THE KOREA ADVANCED INSTITUTE OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY (KAIST)

 

IMAGE: PHOTO 1. RAI LAB TEAM WITH PROFESSOR HWANGBO IN THE MIDDLE OF THE BACK ROW. view more 

CREDIT: KAIST ROBOTICS & ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE LAB.

KAIST (President Kwang Hyung Lee) announced on the 25th that a research team led by Professor Jemin Hwangbo of the Department of Mechanical Engineering developed a quadrupedal robot control technology that can walk robustly with agility even in deformable terrain such as sandy beach.

< Photo. RAI Lab Team with Professor Hwangbo in the middle of the back row. >

Professor Hwangbo's research team developed a technology to model the force received by a walking robot on the ground made of granular materials such as sand and simulate it via a quadrupedal robot. Also, the team worked on an artificial neural network structure which is suitable in making real-time decisions needed in adapting to various types of ground without prior information while walking at the same time and applied it on to reinforcement learning. The trained neural network controller is expected to expand the scope of application of quadrupedal walking robots by proving its robustness in changing terrain, such as the ability to move in high-speed even on a sandy beach and walk and turn on soft grounds like an air mattress without losing balance.

This research, with Ph.D. Student Soo-Young Choi of KAIST Department of Mechanical Engineering as the first author, was published in January in the Science Robotics. (Paper title: Learning quadrupedal locomotion on deformable terrain).

Reinforcement learning is an AI learning method used to create a machine that collects data on the results of various actions in an arbitrary situation and utilizes that set of data to perform a task. Because the amount of data required for reinforcement learning is so vast, a method of collecting data through simulations that approximates physical phenomena in the real environment is widely used.

In particular, learning-based controllers in the field of walking robots have been applied to real environments after learning through data collected in simulations to successfully perform walking controls in various terrains.

However, since the performance of the learning-based controller rapidly decreases when the actual environment has any discrepancy from the learned simulation environment, it is important to implement an environment similar to the real one in the data collection stage. Therefore, in order to create a learning-based controller that can maintain balance in a deforming terrain, the simulator must provide a similar contact experience.

The research team defined a contact model that predicted the force generated upon contact from the motion dynamics of a walking body based on a ground reaction force model that considered the additional mass effect of granular media defined in previous studies.

Furthermore, by calculating the force generated from one or several contacts at each time step, the deforming terrain was efficiently simulated.

The research team also introduced an artificial neural network structure that implicitly predicts ground characteristics by using a recurrent neural network that analyzes time-series data from the robot's sensors.

The learned controller was mounted on the robot 'RaiBo', which was built hands-on by the research team to show high-speed walking of up to 3.03 m/s on a sandy beach where the robot's feet were completely submerged in the sand. Even when applied to harder grounds, such as grassy fields, and a running track, it was able to run stably by adapting to the characteristics of the ground without any additional programming or revision to the controlling algorithm.

In addition, it rotated with stability at 1.54 rad/s (approximately 90° per second) on an air mattress and demonstrated its quick adaptability even in the situation in which the terrain suddenly turned soft.

The research team demonstrated the importance of providing a suitable contact experience during the learning process by comparison with a controller that assumed the ground to be rigid, and proved that the proposed recurrent neural network modifies the controller's walking method according to the ground properties.

The simulation and learning methodology developed by the research team is expected to contribute to robots performing practical tasks as it expands the range of terrains that various walking robots can operate on.

The first author, Suyoung Choi, said, “It has been shown that providing a learning-based controller with a close contact experience with real deforming ground is essential for application to deforming terrain.” He went on to add that “The proposed controller can be used without prior information on the terrain, so it can be applied to various robot walking studies.”

This research was carried out with the support of the Samsung Research Funding & Incubation Center of Samsung Electronics.

< Figure 1. Adaptability of the proposed controller to various ground environments. The controller learned from a wide range of randomized granular media simulations showed adaptability to various natural and artificial terrains, and demonstrated high-speed walking ability and energy efficiency. >

  

Figure 1. Adaptability of the proposed controller to various ground environments. The controller learned from a wide range of randomized granular media simulations showed adaptability to various natural and artificial terrains, and demonstrated high-speed walking ability and energy efficiency.

CREDIT

KAIST Robotics & Artificial Intelligence Lab.

< Figure 2. Contact model definition for simulation of granular substrates. The research team used a model that considered the additional mass effect for the vertical force and a Coulomb friction model for the horizontal direction while approximating the contact with the granular medium as occurring at a point. Furthermore, a model that simulates the ground resistance that can occur on the side of the foot was introduced and used for simulation. >

Photo 2. RaiBo in a beach run

CREDIT

KAIST Robotics & Artificial Intelligence Lab.

Figure 2. Contact model definition. (A) The terrain model predicts a vertical component of a ground reaction force based on the intruder’s penetration depth and velocity. The calculation involves the developing granular cone beneath the intruder, as Aguilar et al. (27) proposed. (B) The surface contact between the intruder and the adjacent substrates is approximated as a point contact at the deepest point. The bulk tangential force from the substrates is assumed to be Coulomb friction. (C) The horizontal stroke resistive force model is introduced to simulate the reaction from the substrates when the intruder moves horizontally in the substrates. The force is computed based on the travel distance dHSR and the current penetration depth zt.

CREDIT

KAIST Robotics & Artificial Intelligence Lab.

JOURNAL

Science Robotics

DOI

10.1126/scirobotics.ade2256 

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE TITLE

Learning quadrupedal locomotion on deformable terrain

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

25-Jan-2023

Artificial intelligence for soil health

Grant and Award Announcement

AARHUS UNIVERSITY

Soils are under pressure from current farming practices, and the challenges are only increasing with the growing demand for food production. Threats to soil health include loss of organic matter, loss of biodiversity, soil compaction from large machinery and, not least, loss of soil itself due to erosion.

"We are at a crossroad; we need to do something if we are to preserve European and global soil resources. It is a paradox that on the one hand soil is part of the solution to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and at the same time 60-70% of Europe's soil is not doing well. It is therefore imperative that we have better monitoring of soil quality," says Professor Mogens H. Greve from the Department of Agroecology.

Ambitious climate goals cannot be achieved without increased focus on soil

Similar to the ambitious Danish climate targets, the European Commission has set several concrete goals to prevent further soil degradation and to combat climate change. The targets include zero emissions and the planting 3 billion trees by 2030.

"By 2028, all land managers should have access to verified data on CO2 emissions and removals. In addition, the ambition is for agriculture to have an increased focus on carbon storage and thereby contribute to meeting the 2030 target of a reduction in climate impact of 310 million tonnes CO2eq for the entire soil sector in the EU," explains Mogens H. Greve.

To succeed in improving soil health across Europe and meet the ambitious targets, methods are needed to measure and assess progress towards healthier soils. This is where the Horizon Europe project AI4SoilHealth comes into play. The aim is to support the EU's Soil Health & Food Mission to achieve the goals set out in the EU Soil Strategy 2030.

"We will develop and maintain a digital infrastructure with free access across Europe. The aim is that the infrastructure will be used to assess and continuously monitor soil health in relation to its management," says Professor Lis W. de Jonge, also from the Department of Agroecology at Aarhus University.

Artificial intelligence rhymes with soil 

The kind of artificial intelligence the researchers will be working with includes software and big data solutions that can improve and automate decision-making systems. Artificial intelligence can be used for many things in soil science. Soil analysis, remote sensing, and soil mapping are just a few examples.

"In this project, we will use artificial intelligence more systematically to assess soil datasets and measurements, so that we can build an automated data-driven decision support system for European soils. We propose to develop an indicator framework that can provide new and untapped opportunities for monitoring soil properties. AI4SoilHealth will use a pan-European soil monitoring system called LUCAS along with remote sensing and soil observations to improve soil health," says Lis W. de Jonge.

The expectation is that AI4SoilHealth will create:

• a method to calculate a soil health index
• a toolbox for rapid soil health assessment
• AI4SoilHealth data for the whole of Europe
• Soil health monitoring 
• An AI4SoilHealth app

"Our goal with AI4SoilHealth is to create an effective soil health certification system that can be used by farmers, landowners and not least policy makers in the context of the new Green Deal for Europe," says Mogens H. Greve.

More about the project
Collaborators	Aarhus University, OpenGeoHub Foundation, UK Center for Ecology and Hydrology, Soil Association, Planet Labs, IIASA, Institute of Geo-Hydroinformatics at TUHH, University of Zagreb, Stockholm University, Aalborg University, Thünen Institue of Climate-Smart Agriculture, Universitá degli studi Roma Tre, NEIKER, University of Aberdeen, Max Planck Institute of Biogeochemistry, Basel University, ETH Zurich, Bern University for Applied Sciences, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke), INRAE, Sorbonne University, ISINNOVA, Institute for Soil Sciences at ATK, MultiOne, Digit Soil and Sustinn
Funding	HORIZON-MISS-2021-SOIL-02-02-02 – HORIZON-RIA
Amount granted	13.789.328 EUR
Project period	January 2023 – December 2026
Read more	You can read more about AI4SoilHealth here
Contact	Professor Mogens H. Greve, Department of Agroecology, Aarhus University. Tel.: +45 20726734 or mail greve@agro.au.dk

Modern arms technologies help autocratic rulers stay in power

Autocrats and dictators quickly acquire new arms technologies from abroad and often use them against their own citizens. Now a study covering all countries from 1820 to 2010 shows that the spread of military technologies inhibits democratic reform

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF COPENHAGEN

 

IMAGE: DEMOCRATISATION OF REGIMES IN THE PERIOD 1820-2010: THE FIGURE SHOWS THE CUMULATED NUMBER OF DEMOCRATISED AUTOCRACIES, WHEN DIVIDING THEM INTO TWO EQUAL-SIZED GROUPS AFTER MILITARY-TECHNOLOGICAL CAPABILITY. SIGNIFICANTLY FEWER DEMOCRATISATIONS HAVE TAKEN PLACE AMONG AUTOCRACIES WITH ACCESS TO FEWER MILITARY TECHNOLOGIES. THE PARTITIONING OF COUNTRIES TAKES INTO ACCOUNT THAT THE COUNTRIES’ DIFFERENT LEVELS OF ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AFFECT THEIR ACCESS TO MILITARY TECHNOLOGIES. view more 

CREDIT: UNIVERSITY OF COPENHAGEN

When autocratic rulers have access to modern arms that are both fast and accurate at long ranges, it allows them to suppress protests and riots more effectively and at a lower cost. Now a large study confirms that access to modern military technology substantially reduces the probability of democratisation of authoritarian regimes.

The study minutely details the spread of 29 ground-breaking military technologies in all independent states in the period 1820-2010 (see box) as well as the form of government in these states. Based on statistical analysis of the data, the study establishes connections between states’ access to specific weapons, their economy and form of government.

According to the researchers, it makes sense that modern weapons play a key role in suppressing democratic movements.

“In short, the more protesters a regime can kill using as few resources as possible, the stronger it will be. But this is the first scientific study to show that regimes’ access to weapons do have a systematic, measurable effect on democratisation,” says Associate Professor Asger Mose Wingender from the Department of Economics, UCPH, who conducted the study together with Professor Jacob Gerner Hariri from the Department of Political Science.

Less chance of democratisation

Incumbent rulers often use violence, or the mere threat thereof, to suppress popular uprisings. Although such uprisings contributed to two in three successful democratisations in the period 1820-2010, many more were nipped in the bud.

The study shows that the success of pro-democracy movements crucially depends on the incumbent rulers’ (in)ability to inflict violence on protesters, and that this ability depends on arms technology. Overall, the study concludes that the chance of a democratic transition today is about 1.3 percentage points lower per year in the autocracies with the most advanced arms compared with the autocracies having access to the least advanced weaponry.

A difference of 1.3 percentage points may seem small, but over many years, it becomes significant. And because modern arms technologies have become far more effective, the resources available to present-day autocratic regimes are radically different from those of their predecessors. The poorest countries in the world have access to potent arms technologies that are merely a few decades old, despite that they, on some metrics, are less economically developed than Western Europe was two centuries ago.

This is an entirely new situation, Asger Mose Wingender explains:

“Historically, the development in military technology has run parallel to economic and other technological developments. It propelled the democratisation of the Western world, because in order to wage war, the state collected taxes from its citizens, who in turn would often demand and be granted the right to vote,” he says.

“Today, there is less pressure on autocratic regimes. Weapons are more cost-efficient, and technologies have spread to poor countries, giving authoritarian rulers access to extremely strong means of repression. Consequently, an imbalance has emerged between military-technological development and economic development that inhibits democratisation.”

Democratisation does not occur automatically

This imbalance between prosperity and democratic reform may be the most thought-provoking result of the study. Many Western economists and political scientists have suggested that a country’s level of economic development is a deciding factor in democratic reform: When the wealth of the state and its citizens increases, many countries will move towards democratisation.

The new study confirms that economic modernisation is indeed a key factor in democratisation, but it refutes the idea that it happens automatically as authoritarian regimes’ increased access to highly effective arms outbalance economic progress and prosperity.

“Our conclusion is in fact rather pessimistic,” says Asger Mose Wingender.

“We have this idea in the West that the economic development of countries such as China and Russia will lead to democracy when the growing middle classes begin to demand a say. And it is true that the economic development has made people in general want democracy, but at the same time, the states have access to better means of repression. This makes revolutionary waves like the ones we saw in Europe in e.g. 1848-1849 and after the fall of the Berlin Wall less likely to succeed today. Particularly in parts of the world that are less developed than Europe.”

This may also affect the way the Western world relates to autocratic regimes.

“Our study suggests that we in the Western world may have been naïve when it comes to modern dictatorships, and that we cannot simply apply Western European experiences with democratisation to the rest of the world,” Wingender says.

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About the study

The study, ‘Jumping the gun: how dictators got ahead of their subjects’ is conducted by Associate Professor Asger Mose Wingender from the Department of Economics and Professor Jacob Gerner Hariri from the Department of Political Science, UCPH.

The study details the spread of weapons technology in all independent states in the period 1820-2010 with focus on 29 types of weapons divided into six categories: small arms, machine guns, artillery, tanks, attack aircraft and combat helicopters. All 29 weapon types are ground-breaking in military history and can potentially be used against a country’s own population.

Moreover, the study identifies the form of government in the countries throughout the period, including changes in form of government. Through statistical (econometric) analysis of the two datasets and inclusion of a number of other factors, i.a. economic development and geographic location, the study calculates the impact of military technologies of processes of democratisation controlling for causal errors.

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JOURNAL

The Economic Journal

DOI

10.1093/ej/ueac073 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Data/statistical analysis

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE TITLE

Jumping the Gun: How Dictators Got Ahead of Their Subjects

Virologists call for rational discourse on gain of function research

Peer-Reviewed Publication

AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR MICROBIOLOGY

Washington, DC – January 26, 2023 – The study of viruses is under renewed scrutiny, say more than 150 experts in a new commentary published today in mSphere, mBio and the Journal of Virology, journals of the American Society for Microbiology 

The commentary’s authors call on policymakers to recognize the need for more rational discourse around the future of virology. They implore a more nuanced, evidence-based discussion around gain of function research and provide evidence to support the benefits of this type of research for human health. These concerns are especially focused on enhanced potential pandemic pathogen (ePPP) research and dual use research of concern (DURC). 

“To respond rapidly to emerging viral threats we must be able to apply modern biology tools to viruses which will ensure that we reduce the burden of future disease outbreaks,” said Felicia Goodrum, Ph.D., co-Editor-in-Chief of ASM’s Journal of Virology.   

The current debate regarding the origin of SARS-CoV-2 pandemic is partly due to a theory that suggests it may have been caused by an accidental or intentional lab leak. However, evidence strongly suggests that the virus originated from zoonotic transmission, through the transfer of the virus from wild animals to humans.  

Despite this, a narrative against this valuable research tool has developed, putting the field of virology at risk, despite its critical role in preparing humanity to fight threats posed by viruses.  

"Research on dangerous pathogens does require oversight, but we must be careful to not overly restrict the ability of scientists to generate the knowledge needed to protect ourselves from these pathogens, said Michael Imperiale, Ph.D., a professor with the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at the University of Michigan Medical School and Editor-in-Chief of ASM’s journal mSphere.  

As policymakers take a renewed look at policies surrounding gain of function research, the authors state, the abundance of existing oversight around virology research should be considered and a concerted effort to avoid redundant measures should be implemented. 

Gain of function research and regulations around virus research is the subject of a meeting by the National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity to be held on January 27, which has released draft findings and recommendations.   

 

“It is critical that policy makers, virologists, and biosafety experts work together to ensure that research is conducted safely, with the common goal of reducing the burden of disease caused by viruses,” said Seema Lakdawala, Ph.D., an associate professor with the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at Emory University.  

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The American Society for Microbiology is one of the largest single life science societies, composed of more than 30,000 scientists and health professionals. ASM's mission is to promote and advance the microbial sciences.   

ASM advances the microbial sciences through conferences, publications, certifications, educational opportunities and advocacy efforts. It enhances laboratory capacity around the globe through training and resources. It provides a network for scientists in academia, industry and clinical settings. Additionally, ASM promotes a deeper understanding of the microbial sciences to diverse audiences. 

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JOURNAL

mSphere

New facility at KIT produces carbon out of air

The climate-friendly NECOC process produces carbon out of the CO2 from ambient air

Business Announcement

KARLSRUHER INSTITUT FÜR TECHNOLOGIE (KIT)

 

IMAGE: THE NEW NECOC FACILITY AT KIT PRODUCES THE HIGH-TECH RESOURCE CARBON OUT OF THE CLIMATE-HARMING CO2 IN THE AMBIENT AIR. (PHOTO: MARKUS BREIG) view more 

CREDIT: MARKUS BREIG, KIT

Germany is progressing on its way to climate neutrality – and has to close carbon cycles in its industries as soon as possible to get there. To reach the 1.5-degree target, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) suggests to remove and permanently store already emitted CO2. “We have to find completely new technological solutions if we want to keep up industrial production,” says Dr. Benjamin Dietrich of the KIT Institute of Thermal Process Engineering (TVT). ”This includes the industrial carbon supply. Carbon is needed for the production of batteries, building materials, colors, and in the agricultural sector. So far, it comes largely from fossil sources.” In the research project NECOC (short for: NEgative CarbOn Dioxide to Carbon) coordinated by Dietrich, the associated partners KIT, INERATEC, and Climeworks develop a process to convert CO2 from the atmosphere into carbon. “If this carbon remains permanently bound, we successfully combine negative emission with a component of the post-fossil resource supply as part of a future carbon management strategy. This represents a double contribution to a sustainable future,” Dietrich explains. In the first project phase, the research team constructed a container-sized test facility, which now went into operation. This first-phase installation removes two kilograms of CO2 from the ambient air in one day and turns it into 0.5 kilogram of solid carbon.

 

In Three Steps from Greenhouse Gas to Useful Resource

The NECOC process combines three steps: The first is an absorber to separate the CO2 from the ambient air (Direct Air Capture). In the second step, the CO2 is moved to a microstructured reactor, where it reacts with sustainably produced hydrogen from a connected electrolyzer. Its components, carbon and oxygen, form new bonds and the CO2 becomes methane and water. While the water flows back to the electrolyzer, the methane including the carbon ends up in a reactor with liquid tin. This is where the third process step takes place: In rising bubbles, a pyrolysis-reaction splits the methane molecules, creating hydrogen, which can be returned to split CO2. The only remaining part is carbon, which floats on the tin as micro granular that can be taken off mechanically on a regular basis. Changing process parameters like the temperature level allows the production of different carbon modifications like graphite, carbon black, or even graphene.

 

Optimize and Scale for Industrial Application

The start of the test installation is an important milestone for the NECOC project, as well as the end of the first funding phase. In a second project phase, the NECOC procedure will now be scaled up and optimized for expansion. “We are planning to make the procedure more energy-efficient by improving the energy recovery from the process heat,” states project director Dr. Leonid Stoppel from the Karlsruhe Liquid Metal Laboratory (KALLA).  “We are also looking into an integration of high-temperature heat storages and direct solar heating.” Additional points of research are the inclusion of CO2 point sources, novel approaches to the extraction of CO2 from the air, and the influence of trace components and impurities in the process network on the carbon quality.

 

About NECOC

In the framework of the NECOC research project, a climate-friendly procedure with negative emissions is developed for the production of the high-tech resource carbon from atmospheric CO2 as an element of a carbon management strategy. NECOC started at the end of 2019 with the construction of the components for the three underlying process steps: Direct Air Capture, methanization, and pyrolysis. After the successful testing of each individual component, the combined installation was realized in 2022 and put into operation at the beginning of December. Involved in the project are the Karlsruhe Liquid Metal Laboratory (KALLA) as part of the Institute for Thermal Energy Technology and Safety (ITES), as well as the Institute of Thermal Process Engineering (TVT). Project partners are INERATEC GmbH, a KIT spinoff, and Climeworks Deutschland GmbH.

 

More Information (in German): https://www.tvt.kit.edu/21_3547.php

 

More about the KIT Energy Center

 

Being “The Research University in the Helmholtz Association”, KIT creates and imparts knowledge for the society and the environment. It is the objective to make significant contributions to the global challenges in the fields of energy, mobility, and information. For this, about 9,800 employees cooperate in a broad range of disciplines in natural sciences, engineering sciences, economics, and the humanities and social sciences. KIT prepares its 22,300 students for responsible tasks in society, industry, and science by offering research-based study programs. Innovation efforts at KIT build a bridge between important scientific findings and their application for the benefit of society, economic prosperity, and the preservation of our natural basis of life. KIT is one of the German universities of excellence.

Overview of the climate-friendly NECOC process to turn CO2 into carbon. (Graph: modus: medien + kommunikation gmbh)

Graph: modus: medien + kommunikation gmbh

Urgent need to address ‘regulatory void’ for online gambling across sub-Saharan Africa – new study

University of Bath Press Release

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF BATH

Governments across sub-Saharan Africa are struggling to keep pace with the mass expansion of gambling, brought about through online technologies and smartphone apps, say the authors of a new study funded by the British Academy and Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF).

An international team, coordinated by the universities of Ghana, Bath, and Glasgow, in partnership with the Malawi Epidemiology and Intervention Research Unit (MEIRU), comprehensively reviewed existing policies in place to regulate the gambling industry across 49 countries.

They found that in 41 countries where gambling was legal (of 49 in total), only two published annual reports about its impacts. In 36, no public reporting was accessible.

This lack of transparency and general lack of coherence about gambling regulation suggests that as the industry grows, governments are increasingly unaware of the scale of the problem; namely, the negative effects gambling is having on users’ finances and their mental health.

With the advent of digital technologies fuelling the expansion of the industry, the researchers argue that regulation is outdated and ill-equipped for a digital age. At present, many territories lack explicit regulation for online gambling, or protections against the deluge of advertising that has become commonplace in more established gambling markets, like the UK.

What’s more, smartphones are allowing more and more users to access sports gambling 24/7 via a range of apps for both domestic and international fixtures. Whilst there is growing concern about the industry’s expansion in the Global North, little attention has so far been paid to gambling growth across Africa.

There, the review argues gambling has fast become ubiquitous across daily life from billboard to TV advertising. Young people are particularly exposed to this. Two separate recent studies found that up to 10% of urban Ethiopian teenagers were compulsive gamblers; in Uganda, over 90% of urban young people had at least one gambling problem.

Overall, limited information was available from governments about the size of the gambling market, participation, harms, and prevention. Only in Malawi and South Africa was market size reported. Botswana’s regulatory authority was the only one to offer participation statistics. Rates of harmful gambling were only reported in Botswana and South Africa.

First author on the paper, Junious Sichali of the Malawi Epidemiology and Intervention Unit (MEIRU), explained: “We’re witnessing an exponential growth of gambling across Africa. In Malawi alone, exposure to gambling, either via street vendors and betting shops, or the deluge of adverts across billboards, TV, live sport and social media, is everywhere.

“What is most concerning is that weak regulation means that many people don’t understand the risks of harm; some even see gambling as a way to earn a living in hard times. Urgent action cannot come soon enough.”

Co-Investigator from the University of Ghana, Dr Joana Salifu Yendork added: “The findings will come as no surprise to many in Ghana, where existing regulation has not been effective in either curbing the rapid growth of gambling or protecting against its potentially harmful effects.

“What is most concerning is that for unemployed youth in particular, gambling is not just a leisure form but a potential source of income and wealth. Robust policymaking is essential to prevent further harms.”

Principal Investigator on the project, Dr Darragh McGee at the University of Bath said: “The findings point to a lack of regulation, transparency, and protection from gambling harms across Sub-Saharan Africa, despite evidence that the industry is rapidly expanding. The need to address this regulatory void and prioritise a public health approach is urgent.

“Decisive action by policymakers across Africa can safeguard against the kind of runaway excess and harms that have been an avoidable by-product of gambling in markets such as the UK.”

Professor Gerda Reith, Professor of Social Sciences at the University of Glasgow, added: “The rapid expansion of the gambling industry into Sub Saharan Africa is especially worrying when the regulatory frameworks that might control them are often weak or poorly enforced, as this research has found.

“This trend raises serious concerns about the potential impacts of harm on the health and wellbeing of vulnerable populations, many of whom live in conditions of poverty and unemployment. Urgent, joined up action by national and international policymakers is badly needed in response.”

To access the latest paper ‘Regulating of gambling in Sub-Saharan Africa: findings from a comparative policy analysis is accessible via the Journal of Public Health https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0033350622002281 .

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JOURNAL

Public Health

DOI

10.1016/j.puhe.2022.07.018 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Content analysis

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

Regulation of gambling in Sub-Saharan Africa: findings from a comparative policy analysis