It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Friday, May 26, 2023
Red Sea corals threatened by mass sea urchin die-off, Israeli researchers say
ByIlan Ben Zion
yesterday Dr. Omri Bronstein holds a sea urchin specimen of the long-spined Diadema setosum, found in the Mediterranean, at the Steinhardt Museum of Natural History of Tel Aviv University in Tel Aviv, Israel, Wednesday, May 24, 2023. Tel Aviv University scientists say that sea urchins in Israel's Gulf of Eilat in the Red Sea are dying at an alarming rate, threatening the sea's prized coral reef ecosystems. (AP Photo/ Maya Alleruzzo)
JERUSALEM (AP) — Sea urchins in Israel’s Gulf of Eilat have been dying off at an alarming rate, researchers announced Wednesday — a development that threatens the Red Sea’s prized coral reef ecosystems.
According to Tel Aviv University scientists, an unknown pathogen is killing off the black sea urchin, Diadema setosum. The massive die-off was first observed in the eastern Mediterranean Sea in July and gradually spread. It was observed in the northern Gulf of Eilat in January, and researchers have since seen it spread south to the neighboring Red Sea, the scientists said.
The black sea urchin is critical to maintaining a healthy reef habitat. Without them, algae grow unchecked, choking off corals and compromising the delicate balance of the reef ecosystem.
A paper outlining the findings was published Wednesday in the journal Royal Society Open Science.
“It’s a fast and violent death: within just two days a healthy sea urchin becomes a skeleton with massive tissue loss,” said Omri Bronstein, a marine biologist at Tel Aviv University and lead author on a series of papers on the sea urchin deaths.
He added that they have ruled out localized poisoning or pollution, and instead suspect a “rapidly spreading epidemic” caused by an as-yet-unidentified pathogen.
Last month, researchers in the United States identified a single-celled parasite responsible for a similar mass die-off of sea urchins in the Caribbean that has laid waste to reef ecosystems.
The Israeli researchers believe a similar pathogen might also be responsible for killing sea urchins in the Mediterranean and the Red Sea, and have called for urgent action by the Nature and Park Authority to protect Israel’s already endangered reef ecosystems.
“This new outbreak of disease is a grave concern,” said Ian Hewson, a professor at Cornell University’s Marine Mass Mortality Lab who was not involved in the Tel Aviv University study.
He added that it “would be interesting to know if the same agent is at work” in the Mediterranean as has been identified killing sea urchins in the Caribbean. “If that is the case it will raise questions about how it is vectored between such geographically separated sites.” The Gulf of Eilat, a branch of the Red Sea shared by Israel, Jordan, Egypt and Saudi Arabia, is home to exquisite coral reefs that scientists believe might be more resilient to warming waters resulting from human-caused climate change.
A scientist holds holds a sea urchin specimen of the long-spined Diadema setosum, found in the Mediterranean, at the Steinhardt Museum of Natural History of Tel Aviv University in Tel Aviv, Israel, Wednesday, May 24, 2023. Tel Aviv University scientists say that sea urchins in Israel's Gulf of Eilat in the Red Sea are dying at an alarming rate, threatening the sea's prized coral reef ecosystems.
(AP Photo/ Maya Alleruzzo)
Within just a few months a deadly epidemic killed all the black sea urchins in the Gulf of Eilat - a great threat to the coral reef in Eilat
New studies reveal a great threat to the coral reef in Eilat:
The researchers: "Mass mortality of sea urchins in the Mediterranean Sea has spread to the Gulf of Eilat and threatens to destroy the coral reef. Within just two days a healthy sea urchin becomes a skeleton with no tissues." The source of the pandemic is probably a pathogenic ciliate parasite which in the 1980s eradicated the entire sea urchin population in the Caribbean, damaging the coral reef irreversibly. The current epidemic was first discovered in the Mediterranean but quickly reached the Red Sea, where it is spreading at an unprecedented rate.
Sea urchins in general, and black sea urchins specifically, are considered key species essential for the healthy functioning of coral reefs. Following the studies, an urgent report describing the current situation was submitted to the Israel Nature and Parks Authority, and emergency steps for saving the coral reef are now being considered.
A series of new, disturbing studies from Tel Aviv University reveal a deadly epidemic causing mass mortality of black sea urchins in the Mediterranean Sea and the Gulf of Eilat. The entire population of black sea urchins in Eilat was wiped out over a couple of months. For example, thousands of sea urchins living in a site near the northern shore of the Gulf of Eilat died out over the course of a few weeks. The epidemic was so severe, that today no living black sea urchins have remained at the site, only skeletons. The same has happened at other sites in the Gulf of Eilat. The studies note that such extensive mortality is also occurring in other countries in the region, including Jordan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Greece, and Turkey.
The researchers emphasize that sea urchins in general, and the long-spinedDiadema setosumin particular, are considered key species essential for the healthy functioning of the coral reef. The researchers: "It must be understood that the threat to coral reefs is already at an all-time peak, and now a previously unknown variable has been added. This situation is unprecedented in the entire documented history of the Gulf of Eilat."
The researchers assume that the source of the deadly epidemic is a pathogenic ciliate parasite that has spread from the Mediterranean to the Red Sea. An urgent report describing the current situation was submitted to the Israel Nature and Parks Authority, and emergency steps for protecting Israel's coral reefs are now under consideration.
The studies were led by Dr. Omri Bronstein and PhD students Rotem Zirler, Lisa-Maria Schmidt, Gal Eviatar, and Lachan Roth from the School of Zoology, Wise Faculty of Life Sciences, and The Steinhardt Museum of Natural History at Tel Aviv University. The papers were published in Frontiers in Marine science and Royal Society Open Science.
Dr. Bronstein: "At first we thought it was some kind of pollution or poisoning, or a local chemical spill, from the industry and hotels in the north of the Gulf of Eilat, but when we examined additional sites in Eilat, Jordan, and Sinai, we quickly realized that this was not a local incident. All findings pointed to a rapidly spreading epidemic. Similar reports are coming in from colleagues in Saudi Arabia. Even sea urchins that we grow for research purposes in our aquariums at the Interuniversity Institute, and sea urchins at the Underwater Observatory Marine Park in Eilat, contracted the disease and died, probably because the pathogen got in through the pumping systems. It's a fast and violent death: within just two days a healthy sea urchin becomes a skeleton with massive tissue loss. While some corpses are washed ashore, most sea urchins are devoured while they are dying and unable to defend themselves, which could speed up contagion by the fish who prey on them."
Dr. Bronstein: "In recent years my research group has been studying the issue of marine invasions. One of the species we focus on is the long-spinedDiadema setosum. Until recently this was one of the dominant species in Eilat's coral reef – the black sea urchins with long spines familiar to all of us. Sea urchins in general, and Diadema setosum in particular, are considered key species essential for the healthy functioning of coral reefs. The sea urchins are the reef's 'gardeners' – they feed on the algae and prevent them from taking over and suffocating the corals that compete with them for sunlight. Unfortunately, these sea urchins no longer exist in the Gulf of Eilat and are quickly disappearing from constantly expanding parts of the Red Sea further south."
The first reports on mass mortality reached Dr. Bronstein several months ago, from colleagues in Greece and Turkey, which the sea urchins had invaded, probably through the Suez Canal.
"In 2006 the first sea urchin of this species was discovered in the south of Turkey," adds Dr. Bronstein. "This phenomenon, known as biological invasion, has extensive ecological implications, and is widespread in the eastern Mediterranean, especially along Israel's coastline. We have been tracking the dynamics of this species' invasion in the Mediterranean since its first appearance. In 2016 we discovered the first Diadema setosum sea urchin along Israel’s Mediterranean coastline – a single urchin at the Gordon Beach in Tel Aviv. For over a decade since the first discovery in Turkey, populations in the Mediterranean remained small and usually hidden. But since 2018 the sea urchin population in the Mediterranean has been growing exponentially, reaching a state of population explosion – with giant populations of thousands and even tens of thousands found in Greece and Turkey. However, as we worked on studies summarizing the invasion of sea urchins in the Mediterranean, we began to receive reports on sudden extensive mortality. Supposedly the extinction of an invasive species is not a bad thing, but we must be aware of two major risks: First, we don't yet know how this mortality and its causes might impact local species in the Mediterranean; and second, and much more critical, the geographic proximity between the eastern Mediterranean and the Red Sea might enable the pathogen to quickly cross over to the natural population in the Red Sea. As we feared and predicted, this is what appears to have happened."
The mass mortality reminded the TAU researchers of one of the most famous and devastating events in the history of marine ecology: the disappearance of the sea urchins in the Caribbean. Until 1983 the Caribbean coral reef was a thriving tropical reef, quite similar to the coral reef in the Gulf of Eilat. Once the sea urchins disappeared, the algae multiplied without control, blocked the sunlight from reaching the corals, and the entire reef changed irreversibly – from a coral reef to an algae field."
"Last year the disease broke out again in the Caribbean, killing the surviving urchin populations and individuals," says Dr. Bronstein. "Unlike past events, today we have the scientific and technological tools to analyze the forensic evidence. A group of researchers from Cornell University identified the cause of mortality in the Caribbean: a pathogenic ciliate parasite. The pathology observed in the sea urchins dying in Greece and Turkey is identical to the pathology in the Caribbean, and it's also the pathology we see in the sea urchins dying here in the Red Sea."
Dr. Bronstein's studies were the first to identify mass mortality in an invasive species in the Mediterranean, and also the first to indicate mass mortality of sea urchins of the species Diadema setosum – one of the world's most common species of sea urchins. Dr. Bronstein concluded one of these groundbreaking studies with a warning - that the epidemic breaking out in the Mediterranean might spread to the nearby Red Sea. Unfortunately, this warning has come true.
"We must understand the seriousness of the situation: in the Red Sea, mortality is spreading at a stunning rate, and already encompasses a much larger area than we see in the Mediterranean. In the background there is still a great unknown: What is actually killing the sea urchins? Is it the Caribbean pathogen or some new unfamiliar factor? Either way, this pathogen is clearly carried by water, and we predict that in just a short time, the entire population of these sea urchins, in both the Mediterranean and the Red Sea, will get sick and die.
"In my opinion we must urgently establish a broodstock population for these sea urchins, so that if needed, we will be able to return them to nature in the future. As with COVID-19, at this point no one knows what will happen – will this epidemic disappear by itself, or will it stay with us for many years and cause a dramatic change in coral reefs? However, unlike the COVID-19 pandemic, in this case we have no way of vaccinating or treating the sea urchins, and so we must focus all efforts on prevention. The window of opportunity for preserving a healthy population of this species in Eilat has already closed. If we want to establish a broodstock population, we must do it today, by preserving healthy individuals from the Israeli Mediterranean – before the disease, spreading from the north, reaches this area. This is a complex task, but it is absolutely necessary if we wish to ensure the survival of this unique species that is so critical to the future of coral reefs."
Fish feeding on a dying D. setosum urchin in the Mediterranean Sea
Fish feeding on a dying D. setosum urchin in the Mediterranean Sea
A DYING D. SETOSUM URCHIN.
Fish feeding on a D. setosum urchin carcass in the Mediterranean Sea
The research team in the lab of Dr. Omri Bronstein.
CREDIT
Tel Aviv University
AI tool outperforms human emergency call handlers in identifying stroke, new study shows
A team of researchers from Denmark have developed a new artificial intelligence (AI) framework to address the number of strokes that go unrecognised by human emergency call handlers.
(24 May 2023, Munich, Germany) A team of researchers from Denmark have developed a new artificial intelligence (AI) framework to address the number of strokes that go unrecognised by human emergency call handlers.1 The framework outperformed emergency call handlers in recognising stroke for both sexes and across all age groups studied, indicating its potential as a supplementary tool for early and precise stroke identification in the future.
The retrospective study, presented today at the European Stroke Organisation Conference (ESOC) 2023, drew from the Danish Stroke Registry and a dataset of over 1.5 million calls made to the Copenhagen Emergency Medical Services between 2015 and 2020, which included over 7000 stroke-related calls. Researchers utilised this data to train an AI framework to firstly transcribe the call audio and then predict the risk of stroke based on the transcribed text.
The results, which were evaluated on calls from 2021, revealed that the AI framework performed more effectively than emergency call handlers in identifying stroke cases. The AI framework achieved a recall (sensitivity) of 63.0% and a precision (positive predictive value) of 24.9%, which resulted in an F1 score of 35.7.* In contrast, emergency call handlers had a recall of 52.7% and precision of 17.1%, resulting in an F1 score of 25.8.
Dr Jonathan Wenstrup, one of the lead authors of the study from Copenhagen University Hospital, commented, “As one of the first points of contact for patients seeking medical assistance, emergency call handlers play a critical role in facilitating early and accurate stroke recognition. Many stroke cases can go undetected at this stage, leading to delays in treatment that can have potentially life-threatening consequences for patients.”
Across Europe, stroke is the second leading cause of death and a major cause of adult disability, affecting over 1 million people each year.2,3 As populations continue to grow and age, the number of people living with stroke is projected to increase by 27% between 2017 and 2047 in the European Union (EU).3 Despite this, many strokes can be prevented, and if treated early, the likelihood of a positive outcome can be greatly improved.4,5
“With the implementation of this new, cost-effective supporting tool, we can enhance stroke identification by call handlers and ensure more patients receive appropriate and timely care, ultimately improving patient outcomes”, added Dr Wenstrup.
“As with any new tool, further research and development are necessary to improve the framework’s accuracy and expand its capabilities. In the future, it may be possible to train the framework directly from the call audio, bypassing the transcription step, as well as incorporating non-word audio – such as a slurred voice – into the training data. However, given the promising results of this study, it is already clear that technologies like this have the capability to completely transform stroke diagnosis and care.”
END
Note to editors:
A reference to the ESOC 2023 must be included in any coverage or articles associated with this study.
Recall (sensitivity): A measure of the proportion of actual positive cases that are correctly identified
Precision (positive predictive value): A measure of the proportion of predicted positive cases that are actually positive
F1: A harmonic mean of precision and recall, which combines both metrics into a single score
About the study author:
Dr Jonathan Wenstrup works in the Department of Neurology, Copenhagen University Hospital – Herlev and Gentofte, Copenhagen, Denmark and Copenhagen EMS, Denmark.
About ESO:
The ESO is a pan-European society of stroke researchers and physicians, national and regional stroke societies and lay organisations, founded in December 2007. The ESO is an NGO comprised of individual and organisational members. The aim of the ESO is to reduce the burden of stroke by changing the way that stroke is viewed and treated. This can only be achieved by professional and public education and making institutional changes. ESO serves as the voice of stroke in Europe, harmonising stroke management across the whole of Europe and taking action to reduce the burden.
Four facts about stroke:
In 2017, there were 1.12 million incident strokes in the EU and 460,000 deaths3
In 2017, there were 7.06 million disability-adjusted life years lost due to stroke in the EU3
In 2017, the cost associated with stroke was estimated at €45 billion across the EU, including direct and indirect costs of care provision and productivity loss3
Approximately 1 in 4 stroke survivors will have another one, but up to 80% of strokes may be prevented with a combination of medication and healthy habits4
1. Havtorn, J.D., Wenstrup J., Borgholt L., et al. A retrospective study on deep learning-enabled stroke recognition for a medical help line. Presented at the European Stroke Organisation Conference; 24 May 2023; Munich, Germany.
3. Wafa HA, et al. Burden of stroke in Europe: Thirty-year projections of incidence, prevalence, deaths, and disability-adjusted life years. Stroke. 2020;51(8):2418–2427.
In this study, the researchers focused on para-nitro-L-phenylalanine (pN-Phe), a non-standard amino acid that is neither one of the twenty standard amino acids nor been observed in nature. pN-Phe has been used by other research groups to help the immune system mount a response to proteins that it does not ordinarily respond to.
“The nitro chemical functional group has valuable properties and has been underexplored by folks who are trying to rewire metabolism,” Kunjapur said. “pN-Phe also has a nice history in the literature — it can be added onto a protein from a mouse, delivered back to mice, and the immune system will no longer tolerate the original version of that protein. That ability has promise for the treatment or prevention of diseases that are caused by rogue proteins that the immune system struggles to lock onto.”
Genetic code expansion methods allowed the researchers to increase the “alphabet” of available amino acids encoded by DNA. By coupling metabolic engineering techniques with genetic code expansion, the researchers were able to create a system that produces nitrated proteins autonomously.
“Because of the nitro functional group chemistry, the amino acid that we picked as our target for this project was unconventional, and many scientists within our field may not have expected that it could be made using biosynthesis,” Kunjapur said.
The next step for this research is to optimize their methods to synthesize higher amounts of nitrated proteins and expand this work into other microorganisms. The long-term goal is to further refine this platform for applications related to vaccines or immunotherapies, efforts that are supported by Kunjapur’s 2021 AIChE Langer Prize and the 2022 National Institutes of Health Director’s New Innovator Award. To further support this long-term goal, Kunjapur and Neil Butler, doctoral candidate and first author on this paper, co-founded Nitro Biosciences.
“I think the implications are interesting, in that you can take a bacterium’s central metabolism, its ability to produce different compounds, and with a few modifications you are able to expand its chemical repertoire,” said Butler. “The nitro functionality is rare in biology and absent from the standard 20 amino acids, but we showed bacterial metabolism is malleable enough that it can be rewired to create and integrate this functionality.”
Kunjapur added, “Bacteria are potentially useful drug delivery vehicles. We think we have created a tool that could leverage the ability of bacteria to produce target antigens within the body and exploit the ability of nitration to shine a light on those antigens at the same time.”
The complete list of co-authors includes University of Delaware’s Neil Butler, Sabyasachi Sen, Lucas Brown, Minwei Lin, and Aditya Kunjapur. This research was supported by a grant from the National Science Foundation (CBET 2032243).
VIDEO: A MOUSE DIGGING AT A PATCH TREATED WITH WHEAT GERM OIL.view more
CREDIT: PETER BANKS
A non-toxic method to prevent mice from devouring wheat crops has been shown to drastically reduce seed loss.
The technique, developed by scientists at the University of Sydney, could be a game-changer in the management of crop loss to mice plague. In 2021, NSW Farmers said the mice plague at the time could cause $1 billion of damage to Australian crops.
The team estimates that mice successfully steal 63 percent fewer wheat seeds, compared to untreated controls, if a wheat crop is sprayed with diluted wheat germ oil during and after sowing.
The researchers found that if the wheat plot was also sprayed with the same solution before planting, then seed loss reduced by an even better 74 percent. This, they say, is because the mice had learned to ignore unrewarding wheat odour by the time the crop is planted.
“We found we could reduce mice damage even during plague conditions simply by making it hard for mice to find their food, by camouflaging the seed odour. Because they're hungry, they can’t spend all their time searching for food that’s hard to find,” Professor Banks said.
“When the smell of the seed is everywhere, they'll just go and look for something else instead of being encouraged to dig. That’s because mice are precise foragers that can smell seeds in the ground and dig exactly where a seed is, but they can’t do that in this situation because everything smells like the seeds.
“This misinformation tactic could work well in other crop systems, indeed any animal that finds food by smell is potentially vulnerable to us manipulating that smell and undermining their ability to search.”
Mr Parker said the camouflage treatment could be an effective solution for wheat growers, given wheat’s brief vulnerability.
“The camouflage appeared to last until after the seeds germinated, which is the period of vulnerability when wheat needs to be protected,” he said.
“Most mouse damage occurs from when seeds are sown up to germination, just under two weeks later.
“Mice can’t evolve resistance to the method either because it uses the same odour that mice rely on to find wheat seeds.”
The research was conducted in May 2021 on a farm 10 kilometres north-west of Pleasant Hills, New South Wales, where five treatments were tested across 60 plots.
Two of the treatments involved the wheat germ oil solution. The other three treatments were controls, with plots covered in canola oil, trampled or left untreated. All control treatments performed similarly, receiving significantly more damage than treated plots.
Wheat germ oil is a relatively inexpensive by-product of the milling process. The authors said their solution, which contains only wheat germ oil diluted in water, offers a sustainable, non-lethal alternative to pesticides and baits.
“If people want to control mice but can't get numbers down low enough, our technique can be a potent alternative to pesticides or add value to existing methods,” Dr Price said.
The research could aid wheat farmers at a crucial time. Mouse numbers are on the rise, and wheat is sowed in mid-autumn.
Next, the researchers plan to discover how diluted the concentration can be while effectively repelling mice, and how often the solution must be sprayed on a crop to remain effective.
The Department of Agriculture expects the value of Australian wheat to reach a record high of $15 billion this financial year.
Precise mouse digging exactly where the seeds are.
IMAGE: KATHRYN DEROSE IS A PROFESSOR OF COMMUNITY HEALTH EDUCATION AT THE UMASS AMHERST SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH AND HEALTH SCIENCES.view more
CREDIT: RAND/UMASS AMHERST
A University of Massachusetts Amherst public health scientist has received a five-year, $3.4 million grant from the National Institute of Mental Health to lead an urban gardening and peer nutritional counseling program aimed at improving the health of HIV-positive people with food insecurity in the Dominican Republic.
The project involving an international team of researchers and community partners is believed to the first full-scale trial to integrate nutritional counseling with food-generating activities among people with HIV who have food insecurity, says principal investigator Kathryn Derose, professor of community health education. The research also supportsnational and international goals of achieving viral suppression and reducing the disease and economic burden of HIV.
A little over a decade ago in Latin America and the Caribbean, as highly effective antiretroviral therapy (ART) was made widely available for people with HIV, Derose discovered an unexpected barrier to effective treatment.
“We kept hearing from people we interviewed that food insecurity – not having food to take the medication with – was either causing people to not take it or to take it irregularly,” says Derose, acting director of the Center for Community Health Equity Research. “This was interesting because everybody was all worried about the cost of this treatment, and the problem was people not having food. And those early lines of therapy particularly required that they be taken with food because the medication was very toxic to the system.”
The new randomized, controlled trial, called ProMeSA – which means promise and is an acronym for Project to Improve Food Security – was preceded by several pilot projects in Latin America and the Caribbean, including a ProMeSA pilot in the Dominican Republic that showed positive results. Among participants in the pilot, the intervention decreased food insecurity, reduced detectable viral loads and missed clinic appointments, and increased ART adherence.
HIV ranks as one of the top five causes of death in the Dominican Republic, and the team’s previous work found that nearly 70% of people with HIV have moderate or severe food insecurity. “In Latin America, the people living with food insecurity tend to span the nutritional spectrum, from underweight to overweight and obesity,” Derose says, explaining the need for not just nonperishable food that can be more easily delivered, but for fresh fruits and vegetables. “We started thinking about it and proposed urban gardens as the food access component, paired with the peer nutritional counseling, which would me more appropriate across the spectrum of nutritional status and more sustainable in the long term.”
The project continues an international partnership among researchers from UMass Amherst; the University of California, San Francisco, where the study’s other principal investigator, Kartika Palar, is based; the RAND Corporation, where Derose was working when she began this research; and the Universidad Autonóma de Santo Domingo, as well as the Dominican Ministries of Agriculture and Public Health, the Dominican National HIV/AIDS Council and the United Nations World Food Program.
The team will implement the program in seven provinces that have the highest HIV prevalence in the country. They will measure the effects on HIV clinical outcomes and food security, as well as other important outcomes such as internalized and experienced stigma, at six months, 12 months and 18 months.
“Social relations are intentionally strengthened in the intervention,” Derose says. “The garden training is done in groups, and there are cooking workshop that integrate nutritional knowledge, education and the gardens. And the peer nutritional counseling is also a social intervention and incorporates the peer leader’s experience growing a garden and eating healthy on a low income. These components are all meant to reinforce each other and interrupt the ways that food insecurity leads to poor HIV outcomes, and we will be able to look at this in fine detail in this larger study.”
The findings ultimately may have a broader application to help people with food insecurity who have other medical conditions, such as diabetes, an area that Palar has examined. “We will have the numbers to inform not only this intervention going forward but potentially other interventions that are trying to address food insecurity among people with chronic disease,” Palar says.
NTT and OIST make the first simultaneous atmospheric and marine observations directly beneath a violent, Category 5 typhoon in the North-West Pacific
OKINAWA INSTITUTE OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY (OIST) GRADUATE UNIVERSITY
Joint Press Release
Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation (NTT, Head Office: Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo; President & CEO: Akira Shimada) and the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST, Head office: Onna-son, Kunigami-gun, Okinawa, Japan, Acting President: Dr. Albrecht Wagner) have successfully conducted the world’s first simultaneous marine and atmospheric measurements at multiple locations directly beneath a violent, Category 5*1, which is the strongest class, typhoon in the North-West Pacific, before it reached land.
These observations were made directly beneath typhoon No. 11, called “Hinnamnor”/”Henry”, in the summer of 2022. NTT and OIST plan to continue joint research contributing to observation methods that improve the accuracy of typhoon predictions, and to explain the mechanisms of interaction between the atmosphere and ocean using observation data from directly beneath typhoons.
1．Background
Typhoons, which can have major impacts on society and the environment, have recently been intensifying in strength and causing more damage due to global warming and other climate change effects. To prepare effectively for a typhoon, it is important to have an accurate understanding, as early as possible, of how the storm conditions will be upon landfall. However, there is currently no way to accurately know the state and intensity of a typhoon while it is still over the ocean from available satellite images and other observations. As such, typhoon information in weather reports is estimated based on analysis of weather satellite images with limited accuracy.
In an effort to improve the accuracy of forecasts, a national research project used aircraft to make direct observations in 2017*2. This project demonstrated that observation data from aircraft can contribute to increasing the accuracy of typhoon forecasts. In 2013, OIST made marine and atmospheric observations directly under a very strong Category 4 typhoon (Typhoon No. 24, “Danas”) using a Wave Glider*3 (model SV2) from Liquid Robotics Inc., an autonomous, unmanned surface vehicle which they nicknamed “OISTER”*4. This research demonstrated the need-to-know conditions accurately at the ocean’s surface, directly below the typhoon. However, it has not been possible to make such observations accurately with stronger typhoons, because conditions become too severe.
With a warming climate creating conditions conducive to intensification, research on typhoons has become increasingly important, as signified by the establishment of Japan’s only research facility dedicated to the study of typhoons in 2021*5.
In 2021, NTT and OIST began joint research to implement the observation of factors necessary to predict typhoons, even in the harsh environment of a strong typhoon. In 2022, NTT purchased a new Wave Glider (model SV3) which was called “Seiuchi-san” and began typhoon observations using both Wave Glider devices (Photo 1).
2．Key results
Successful observation of various factors important in predicting typhoon intensity.
[Point 1] Sudden drop in air pressure near the center of the typhoon (violent wind region). [Point 2] Drop in seawater temperature in two areas (violent and strong wind regions) due to churning by the typhoon. [Point 3] Sudden increase in significant wave height near the center of the typhoon (in the violent wind region).
These are described in more detail in the next section.
3．Demonstration overview
Typhoon Hinnamnor began on August 28, 2022, near the island of Minamitorishima, with air pressure dropping to 920 hPa as it moved westward and became a violent, Category 5 typhoon. After checking the predicted path of the typhoon, the two Wave Gliders were put into operation.
Seiuchi-san operated in the violent wind region, not less than 11 km from the typhoon center (with average wind speeds of 25 m/s or more), and OISTER operated in the strong wind region approximately 100 km from the center (with average wind speeds of 15 m/s or more). Both vehicles took atmospheric and ocean measurements simultaneously. The typhoon-related observations made are summarized in Table 1.
Air pressure is directly related to intensity of a typhoon, and Seiuchi-san was able to capture sudden, rapid changes in air pressure in the violent wind region of the typhoon. It was able to confirm the lowest pressure value at its closest approach to the typhoon, at approximately 20:00 on August 31. In contrast, OISTER made observations in the strong wind region, and was not able to recognize such drops (Fig. 1 top, Point (1)).
These experiments were also able to measure changes in the temperature of sea water, which is important in estimating the intensity of a typhoon. Changes in water temperature affect the supply of energy to the typhoon and correlate with the strength of the typhoon, so it is another essential element in predicting intensity precisely. With Seiuchi-san near the center of the typhoon, the scientists were able to detect that the drop in sea-water temperature (approx. 2°C) occurred more suddenly (Fig. 1 middle, Point (2)).
Seiuchi-san also measured a maximum wave height of approximately 9 m. Since waves are caused by wind, knowing the wave height makes it possible to estimate wind strength. As such, it is useful to obtain wave height data from directly below a typhoon, but these data have been difficult to obtain from satellite observations (Fig. 1 bottom, Point (3)).
The data also showed changes in the speed of ocean currents as the typhoon passed. The researchers also measured ecosystem factors, including salt concentrations related to nutritive salts, and amounts of chlorophyll a, which is useful for analyzing phytoplankton. The team plan to perform more detailed analysis on the effects of typhoons in the future.
These results were published in the May 22, 2023 issue of Scientific Online Letters on the Atmosphere (SOLA), by the Meteorological Society of Japan, which has been leading meteorological research since it was established in 1882*7.
[Title] Simultaneous Observations of Atmosphere and Ocean Directly under Typhoons Using Autonomous Surface Vehicles
The experiments also collected data on the behavior of the Wave Gliders themselves, in addition to atmospheric and ocean data, including orientation and movement. The scientists will analyze this behavior data and use it to improve observation equipment so that they can continue to make stable observations in the future. They also plan to continue accumulating and verifying observation data, and to develop explanations for the mechanisms of interaction between the atmosphere and the oceans.
4．Future prospects
The research team aim to improve the accuracy of typhoon predictions by establishing methods for making typhoon observations, and to improve typhoon prediction models by explaining the mechanisms at work within typhoons*8. This will enable scientists to more accurately analyze and predict the conditions of typhoons before they reach land.
In the future, the researchers also plan to collaborate with various industries and facilities to optimize methods for real-time typhoon observation, and to apply them in Earth Information Analysis Infrastructure Technology*9 using the Space integrated computing network*10. They will also contribute to realizing a resilient society that can co-exist with typhoons, by adapting proactively to the environment based on highly accurate typhoon prediction.
By using observation data to understand the effects of global warming on typhoons, and conversely, the effects of typhoons on the global environment, the researchers hope to gain a better understanding of the global environment, and be better able to promote changes in our society’ behavior to preserve and regenerate the Earth.
Modern cars and autonomous vehicles use millimeter wave (mmWave) radio frequencies to enable self-driving or assisted driving features that ensure the safety of passengers and pedestrians. This connectivity, however, can also expose them to potential cyberattacks.
To help improve the safety and security of autonomous vehicles, researchers from the lab of Dinesh Bharadia, an affiliate of the UC San Diego Qualcomm Institute (QI) and faculty member in the university’s Jacobs School of Engineering Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, and colleagues from Northeastern University devised a novel algorithm designed to mimic an attacking device. The algorithm, described in the paper “mmSpoof: Resilient Spoofing of Automotive Millimeter-wave Radars using Reflect Array,” lets researchers identify areas for improvement in autonomous vehicle security.
“The invention of autonomous systems, like self-driving cars, was to enable the safety of humanity and prevent loss of life,” said Bharadia. “Such autonomous systems use sensors and sensing to deliver autonomy. Therefore, safety and security rely on achieving high-fidelity sensing information from sensors. Our team exposed a radar sensor vulnerability and developed a solution that autonomous cars should strongly consider.”
Defending Against Cyberattacks
Autonomous cars detect obstacles and other potential hazards by sending out radio waves and recording their reflections as they bounce off surrounding objects. By measuring the time it takes for the signal to return, as well as changes in its frequency, the car can detect the distance and speed of other vehicles on the road.
Like any wireless system, however, autonomous cars run the risk of cyberattacks. Attackers driving ahead of an autonomous unit can engage in “spoofing,” an activity that involves interfering with the vehicle’s return signal to trick it into registering an obstacle in its path. The vehicle may then brake suddenly, increasing the risk of an accident.
To address this potential chink in autonomous cars’ armor, Vennam and colleagues devised a novel algorithm designed to mimic a spoofing attack. Previous attempts to develop an attacking device to test cars’ resistance have had limited feasibility, either assuming the attacker can synchronize with the victim’s radar signal to launch an assault, or assuming both cars are physically connected by a cable.
In its new paper, presented by Vennam at the IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy in San Francisco on May 22, the team describe a new technique that uses the victim vehicle’s radar against itself. By subtly changing the received signal’s parameters at “lightspeed” before reflecting it back, an attacker can disguise their sabotage and make it much harder for the vehicle to filter malicious behavior. All of this can be done “on the go” and in real-time without knowing anything about the victim’s radar.
“Automotive vehicles heavily rely on mmWave radars to enable real-time situational awareness and advanced features to promote safe driving,” said Vennam. “Securing these radars is of paramount importance. We—mmSpoof—uncovered a serious security issue with mmWave radars and demonstrated a robust attack. What’s alarming is that anyone can build the prototype using off-the-shelf hardware components.”
To counter this type of attack, Vennam suggests, researchers seeking to improve the safety of autonomous vehicles can use a high-resolution radar capable of capturing multiple reflections from a car to accurately identify the true reflection. Researchers might also create backup options for radar by incorporating cameras and “light detecting and ranging” (LiDAR), which records the time it takes for a laser pulse to hit an object and return to measure its surroundings, into their defense.
Alternately, the team presents mmSpoof as a means of preventing dangerous tailgating. By placing an mmSpoof device on the back of their car, drivers can trick a tailgating car into registering a decelerating car in front of them and activating the brakes.
In addition to Vennam and Bharadia, “mmSpoof: Resilient Spoofing of Automotive Millimeter-wave Radars using Reflect Array” (https://wcsng.ucsd.edu/mmspoof/) was authored by Ish Kumar Jain, Kshitiz Bansal, Joshua Orozco and Puja Shukla of the UC San Diego Wireless Communication, Sensing and Networking Group and Jacobs School of Engineering, and Aanjhan Ranganathan of Northeastern University.
The research was partially supported by grants from the National Science Foundation.
