Main factor inducing mining dynamic disasters: Fault activation in mining disturbance

Peer-Reviewed Publication

KEAI COMMUNICATIONS CO., LTD.

 

IMAGE: FIG.1 COAL SEAM ROOF DISPLACEMENT AND STRESS CHANGE CURVE NEAR FAULT ACTIVATION DURING LOWER PLATE MINING view more 

CREDIT: CHEN J, SHI K, PU Y, ET AL.

In underground geological structures, faults activation is frequently encountered during the process of coal mining. These geological structures have seriously damaged the continuity and integrity of the rock strata, in many parts of the world. The activation of faults has consistently been a critical factor impacting the safety of coal mining operations. Consequently, there is an urgent need to investigate the instability and failure of surrounding rock caused by fault activation.

To that end, a team of researchers from China conducted a comprehensive study on the impact of disturbance stress and roof abscission layer monitoring within zones affected by fault activation. The aim was to establish a theoretical foundation for effective roadway support.

“We utilized the discrete element 3DEC numerical analysis method to construct a model that simulates the unstable fracture of the surrounding rock resulting from fault activation,” explained Jie Chen, lead author of the study. “Specifically, we focused on the excavation of the upper and lower side walls of the faults, examining the characteristics of unstable fracture and stress variations in the surrounding rock induced by fault activation.”

The team found that as the coal working face progresses, the mining stress progressively intensifies. A zigzag wave pattern was observed on the relationship curve between coal mining and roof displacement in the vicinity of the fault (Figs. 1 and 2).

“This pattern indicates that the surrounding rock in the fault activation affected zone experiences a combination of static and dynamic loads,” added Chen.

“Simulation results further demonstrate that the stress and displacement of the surrounding rock near the fault increase as the coal mining face advances,” said co-corresponding author Yuanyuan Pu. “The recommended safe distance when approaching the fault is 30 meters. Conversely, the numerical tests indicate a slightly shorter safe distance of 26 meters when approaching the fault.” (Fig. 3)

The team hopes that their latest findings, published in the KeAi journal Rock Mechanics Bulletin, can get more attention in the field of mining safety to improve the safe and efficient mining of coal mines.

###

Contact the author: Jie Chen, School of Resources and Safety Engineering, Chongqing University, Chongqing 400044, China, jiechen023@cqu.edu.cn; Yuanyuan Pu, School of Resources and Safety Engineering, Chongqing University, Chongqing 400044, China, yuanyuanpu@cqu.edu.cn.

The publisher KeAi was established by Elsevier and China Science Publishing & Media Ltd to unfold quality research globally. In 2013, our focus shifted to open access publishing. We now proudly publish more than 100 world-class, open access, English language journals, spanning all scientific disciplines. Many of these are titles we publish in partnership with prestigious societies and academic institutions, such as the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC).

Fig. 2 Variation curve of positive stress and shearing stress of fault plane

Fig. 3 horizontal and vertical slip variation curves of fault plane

CREDIT

Chen J, Shi K, Pu Y, et al.

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JOURNAL

Rock Mechanics Bulletin

DOI

10.1016/j.rockmb.2023.100037 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Experimental study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE TITLE

Study on instability fracture and simulation of surrounding rock induced by fault activation under mining influence

New book explores the history of witchcraft across seven centuries and 13 notorious cases

Book Announcement

UNIVERSITY OF EXETER

The history of witchcraft and the centuries of persecution that it has aroused have been explored in a new book focusing on 13 of the most infamous cases from around the world.

Witchcraft: A History in 13 Trials covers a 700-year time span that encompasses some of the earliest witch trials in Europe to the very modern ‘witch hunt’ of Stormy Daniels in Donald Trump’s America.

Authored by Professor Marion Gibson, of the University of Exeter, the book also includes the iconic 17th century cases at Salem, Massachusetts, and the Manningtree witches of Civil War-era Essex, which saw hundreds of people put on trial – and many executed.

Professor Gibson, Professor of Renaissance and Magical Literatures, has spent more than 25 years researching the subject and says that the issue of witchcraft is still relevant today.

“What I wanted to do with this history book was show that the age of the ‘witch trial’ has never really ceased,” Professor Gibson says. “We still talk about ‘witch-hunts’, especially in a political context as we’ve seen from the comments by Boris Johnson in just the last week. All around the world people are being accused and executed in large numbers. I wanted people to think about how the idea of witches came to be, what we use it for now and if there are any similarities between the groups of people who have been accused over the 700 years.” 

The first half of the book spans a 200-year period that explores key witchcraft cases during the Middle Ages, beginning with the trial of Helena Scheuberin in 1485 Innsbruck. Scheuberin fought back against her accuser – Heinrich Kramer – and won the case, but the result was Kramer’s highly influential work Malleus Maleficarum, which established a blueprint for persecution of women across the continent. 

This section also covers the notorious work of Matthew Hopkins, the self-styled Witchfinder General, who largely operated in East Anglia from 1644 to 1647. Professor Gibson says the legacy of Hopkins’ actions has been somewhat overlooked by history.

“I don’t think we really talk enough in England about how we had this awful history of witch-hunting,” she says. “We project an image of being a fair and just country, one that treats people quite well. But we haven’t always done that, as evidenced in this period when up to 300 people were accused and around 200 executed. This was mass scapegoating and an event that we as a nation need to know more about.” 

The second half of the book covers the 18th century onwards, a period where witchcraft was redefined, says Professor Gibson, focusing less upon magic and more on politics, religion, and social factors. This includes cases from the 1920s and 40s such as that of Helen Duncan, whose nine-month jail sentence in 1944 was the last time anyone in Britain was convicted of witchcraft.

The book concludes with the case of Stormy Daniels – a self-confessed witch and former pornographic film star – who sued Donald Trump over a Non-Disclosure Agreement.

“I think it is important that Helena Scheuberin and Stormy Daniels open and close this book,” adds Professor Gibson. “Like Scheuberin, Daniels fought back, and she suffered her own witch-hunt through the media and the actions of Trump’s supporters. 

“It reveals that, while these cases have their own textures and contexts, the underlying and overwhelming connection is that misogyny lies at the heart of accusations of witchcraft. We estimate that around 75% of those accused during the 15th—18th centuries were women, and that is still the case today in areas such as Southern Africa. The irony is that those people who often cry foul that they are being ‘witch-hunted’ are powerful white men.”

Professor Gibson, based in the University’s Department of English and Creative Writing, travelled around the country to find archives of material on witchcraft. This included fascinating insights into countries such as Lesotho, thanks to colonial-era documents stored in London. 

“I do think it’s a really topical issue,” Professor Gibson concludes. “We can all think of examples of injustice, of women who have been treated unjustly. It’s a history of misogyny and people being persecuted without good reason. At the same time, people are inherently fascinated by that element of magic and mystique that surrounds the witch figure. When I say to people that I research witch trials they immediately respond to it – I even get asked if I am a witch or pagan!” 

Withcraft: A History in 13 Trials has been published by Simon & Schuster and is released on Thursday

Witchcraft: A History in Thirteen Trials: Gibson, Marion: 9781668002421: Amazon.com: Books

A fascinating, vivid global history of witch trials across Europe, Africa, and the Americas, told through thirteen distinct trials that illuminate the pattern of demonization and conspiratorial thinking that has profoundly shaped human history.

Witchcraft is a dramatic journey through thirteen witch trials across history, some famous—like the Salem witch trials—and some lesser-known: on Vardø island, Norway, in the 1620s, where an indigenous Sami woman was accused of murder; in France in 1731, during the country’s last witch trial, where a young woman was pitted against her confessor and cult leader; in Pennsylvania in 1929 where a magical healer was labelled a “witch”; in Lesotho in 1948, where British colonial authorities executed local leaders. Exploring how witchcraft became feared, decriminalized, reimagined, and eventually reframed as gendered persecution, Witchcraft takes on the intersections between gender and power, indigenous spirituality and colonial rule, and political conspiracy and individual resistance.

Offering a vivid, compelling, and dramatic story, unspooling through centuries, about the men and women who were accused—some of whom survived their trials, and some who did not—Witchcraft empowers the people who were and are victimized and marginalized, giving a voice to those who were silenced by history.

The surprising path to life: Breaking free from Plate Tectonics

New research reveals that the emergence of life on Earth did not require Plate Tectonics

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF THE WITWATERSRAND

 

IMAGE: NEW RESEARCH INDICATES THAT MOBILE PLATE TECTONICS—THOUGHT TO BE NECESSARY FOR THE CREATION OF A HABITABLE PLANET — WAS NOT OCCURRING ON EARTH 3.9 BILLION YEARS AGO. view more 

CREDIT: UNIVERSITY OF ROCHESTER ILLUSTRATION/MICHAEL OSADCIW

A groundbreaking study published in Nature has challenged the long-held belief that plate tectonics is a prerequisite for the emergence of life on Earth. 

The study, which was done by examining detrital zircon crystals from the Barberton Greenstone Belt in South Africa, shows a lack of plate tectonics between 3.9 and 3.3 billion years ago – the time that life on Earth originated. South Africa is only one of three places in the world where zircon grains as old as 4 billion years old have been reported, with the other places being in Australia and India. 

“Our study highlights the complex nature of Earth’s evolution and challenges the assumption that plate tectonics is the only path to habitability,” says Dr Jaganmoy Jodder from the Evolutionary Studies Institute, at the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa. “By delving into the secrets these minuscule zircon crystals hold, we gain a deeper understanding of our planet’s origins and the potential for life beyond the boundaries of plate tectonics.” 

The new findings in the study, titled “Hadaean to Palaeoarchaean stagnant-lid tectonics revealed by zircon magnetism” suggest that while plate tectonics is crucial for sustaining life on Earth, it is not an absolute requirement for the emergence of microbial life on planets similar to ours. 

“Our data suggests that when we’re looking for exoplanets that harbour life, these planets do not necessarily need to have plate tectonics,” says Professor John Tarduno, the William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor of Geophysics, at the University of Rochester, United States of America, and the lead author of the study. 

As a fundamental theory of geology, plate tectonics, the movement of Earth’s rigid outer shell, has been considered essential for facilitating heat transfer and enabling geological activities crucial for life.

By examining the “palaeointensity” of zircon grains from the Barberton Greenstone Belt, the researchers found that during the Hadean to Palaeoarchaean times (4 billion to 3.2 billion years ago), Earth did not experience mobile plate tectonics as it does today, but instead exhibited a phenomenon called a “stagnant lid regime”, where heat was released by through conduction and cracks in a solid, immobile crust that was covering the planet’s surface at the time. While the stagnant lid tectonics caused a less efficient heat transport and limited crustal recycling, it can still lead to continent formation. 

Zircon crystals are rare minerals that act as time capsules, preserving information about Earth's magnetic field from billions of years ago. Only a few places on Earth preserve ancient rocks that have not undergone significant deformations over several billion years throughout their geologic history. These are found in Archaean cratons namely the Kaapvaal (South Africa), Pilbara (Australia) and Singhbhum (India) cratons.

“By studying these tiny, rare detrital zircon minerals, we gain insights into Earth’s early geological past and the immense forces that have shaped our planet over billions of years,” says Jodder. 

“It also paves the way for further research , providing valuable information to evaluate conditions on early Earth and investigate similar environments elsewhere. This is an exciting time to study early Earth conditions because defines conditions for the origin of life on Earth. Therefore, such studies will serve as the foundation for research on other planets/moons and elsewhere to be conducted by geologists, astrobiologists and geobiologists. For example, Enceladus, a moon of Saturn, harbours a “soda ocean”, with phosphorus, a key element for life. 

A report on phosphorus from Enceladus was published in another Nature article on the same day, highlighting the close relationship between discoveries about the early Earth and planetary geology, all aimed at understanding the origin and potential for life in the Solar System. 

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JOURNAL

Nature

ARTICLE TITLE

Hadaean to Palaeoarchaean stagnant-lid tectonics revealed by zircon magnetism

Surrey researchers unravel the workings of a unique carbon capture technology, advancing the UK's mission to reach net zero

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF SURREY

 

IMAGE: DR MELIS DUYAR, LECTURER IN CHEMICAL AND PROCESS ENGINEERING view more 

CREDIT: UNIVERSITY OF SURREY

The UK can lead the way in technologies that effectively capture carbon dioxide and convert them into useful products such as hydrogen, says Dr Melis Duyar, an expert in carbon capture technology from the University of Surrey.  

The comments come after Surrey's research team conducted a first-of-its-kind experiment to understand how their new technology, which uses a switchable dual function material (DFM), captures and converts carbon dioxide (CO2) into green fuels or useful industrial chemicals. 

The Surrey team’s switchable DFM, “NiRuNa/CeAl “, consists of nanoparticles of a bimetallic alloy, in combination with a dispersed Na-based adsorbent. These elements are combined to create a unique material for capturing and converting CO2 in not just one, but three chemical reactions, offering versatility in an ever-changing energy landscape. 

Dr Melis Duyar, lead author of the study from the University of Surrey, said: 

"Pursuing advanced carbon capture technology is more than just the right thing to do for our planet—it's an exceptional opportunity for the UK to emerge as a global front-runner, leveraging the vast potential of green energy products born from this process. 

"We'll continue to apply the lessons learnt from this study and work with others in the higher education sector and industry to continue to mature this process." 

Surrey researchers found that NiRuNa/CeAl can be used to capture CO2 in three important chemical reactions:  

• CO2 methanation (converting CO2 into methane) – a process where CO2 is converted into methane*. It combines CO2 with hydrogen (H2) to produce methane (also called “synthetic natural gas”) and water. 

• Reverse water-gas shift – a chemical process that involves the conversion of CO2 and H2 into carbon monoxide (CO) and water (H2O). This reaction can be used to make sustainable “synthesis gas” which is a mixture of CO and H2, that can be converted to a vast variety of chemicals using techniques that already exist within the chemical industry, moving us closer to a circular economy. 

• Dry reforming of methane (DRM) – a chemical process that involves the conversion of methane and CO2 into “synthesis gas”, taking advantage of underutilised hydrocarbon resources such as biogas and offering opportunities for decarbonisation and CO2 recycling in the absence of green hydrogen. 

 By using a technique called operando-DRIFTS-MS, the team were able to observe interactions of molecules with the surface of these unique dual function materials while CO2 was being captured and while it was further converted to products via these 3 reactions. This allows researchers to determine what makes a DFM work, greatly advancing their ability to design high performance materials. 

Dr Duyar continues: 

"Capturing and using carbon dioxide is key to reach the ultimate goal of net zero by 2050. We now have a clearer understanding of how switchable DFMs are able to perform a multitude of reactions directly from captured CO2 which will help us improve the performance of these materials even more via rational design." 

 The research has been published by the Journal of Materials Chemistry A. 

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JOURNAL

Journal of Materials Chemistry A

DOI

10.1039/D3TA01892J 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Experimental study

ARTICLE TITLE

Unravelling the CO2 capture and conversion mechanism of a NiRu–Na2O switchable dual-function material in various CO2 utilisation reactions

Birds aren’t the only creatures who flock together

Virginia Tech researchers will work to increase access and inclusivity in ornithology as part of a collaborative effort funded by the National Science Foundation

Grant and Award Announcement

VIRGINIA TECH

 

IMAGE: ASHLEY DAYER (RIGHT) CONDUCTS A SURVEY IN THE FIELD. view more 

CREDIT: VIRGINIA TECH

Virginia Tech researchers are working to increase access and inclusivity in ornithology as part of a collaborative effort funded by the National Science Foundation. 

The Leading Cultural Change Through Professional Societies of Biology program has awarded $500,000 to help researchers in the co-creation of affinity groups to facilitate diverse and inclusive ornithological societies. The program supports the design, implementation, and evaluation of projects that leverage the work of professional societies to advance diversity, equity, and inclusion in the biological sciences. 

Goals of the project

• Understand the climate of three ornithological societies with respect to diversity and culture in order to recommend changes and resources needed to foster more welcoming and supportive organizations.
• Design a process for co-creating affinity groups, or “flocks” — identity-based groups created by and for members of these communities — that will facilitate “transformative resilience” for historically marginalized groups.

Why it matters

The landscape of science is changing: people from increasingly varied backgrounds, identities, cultures, and genders are pursuing careers in STEM fields. Support for this more diverse population of scientists needs to extend beyond “one size fits all” to better meet the today's needs. Expanding support and strengthening the sense of community for individuals and groups who have not been historically welcomed in a discipline can foster a deeper sense of belonging and meaningfully broaden representation within that field.

Professional scientific associations and societies can guide and shape the culture within their respective fields, cultivating supportive communities and providing relevant resources to ensure that all scientists have the professional and personal support they need to succeed on their chosen career paths. This initiative will use an internal culture assessment conducted by the American Ornithological Society in 2022 as its starting point and seeks to build a scientific field that fosters a greater sense of belonging among society members from historically excluded communities.

How Hokies are leading

Ashley Dayer of the College of Natural Resources and Environment is the co-principle investigator for the project. Dayer is an associate professor in the Department of Fish and Wildlife Conservation and an affiliated faculty member of the Center for Coastal Studies and the Global Change Center, both part of the Fralin Life Sciences Institute. As a conservation social scientist, her research program focuses on 1) involving private landowners in durable working lands conservation, 2) managing coastal lands for birds and people, and 3) engaging underserved, marginalized, and uninvolved audiences in conservation, community science, and wildlife management.

“As a social scientist focused on bird conservation, inclusive research, and diversifying the field of science, I’m excited about this opportunity to work with the societies to co-produce evidence-based affinity groups,” Dayer said. “I look forward to working with Nathan Thayer to conduct surveys, focus groups, and workshops with members of the societies and build these affinity groups from the bottom up to meet ornithologists’ needs.”

Nathan Thayer, a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Fish and Wildlife Conservation, will collaborate with Dayer.

The project also will provide educational and professional development opportunities for a postdoctoral scholar and undergraduate researchers in the university’s Multicultural Academic Opportunities Program.

Partners

• University of Nebraska–Lincoln
• American Ornithological Society
• Association of Field Ornithologists
• Wilson Ornithological Society

 

Specialization in sheep farming, a possible strategy for Neolithic communities in the Adriatic to expand throughout the Mediterranean

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITAT AUTONOMA DE BARCELONA

 

IMAGE: SHEEP TEETH AND JAWS ANALYZED IN THE STUDY. view more 

CREDIT: ALEJANDRO SIERRA.

The specialization in sheep in the early Neolithic populations of Dalmatia, Croatia, may have been related to the rapid expansion of these communities and the spread of agriculture throughout the central and western Mediterranean. This is suggested by a study led by the UAB and the CNRS, which also represents a methodological innovation in the study of prehistoric flocks. The research was recently published in Scientific Reports.

The spread of agriculture in the central and western Mediterranean took place rapidly. The first peasants, coming from the Adriatic, spread westwards across the Mediterranean to the Iberian Peninsula approximately 8000 years ago. The study of these societies provides insight into how they organized and expanded. It is known that they had an economy based on cereal agriculture and sheep and goat farming, but there is little information on how this agropastoral system worked.

The study now published investigated pastoral practices and the use of animal products in the Eastern Adriatic region, specifically in the Dalmatian sites of Tinj-Podlivade and Crno Vrilo. It was carried out by a team of researchers led by Alejandro Sierra, researcher at the Department of Prehistory of the UAB and the Natural History Museum of Paris, CNRS.

Researchers demonstrate that the early farmers at both sites specialized in sheep farming - and not sheep and goats as previously thought - with early pastoral practices and the use of products such as milk and meat from these ruminants. Most of the births at both sites were concentrated in early winter, probably in an attempt to organize the annual agropastoral calendar.

The results suggest that there was a common animal economy at both sites, which could be related to the mobility practiced by these early agricultural societies throughout the Mediterranean.

The rapid spread across the central and western Mediterranean probably occurred by sea, according to archaeological records found on different islands. "Sheep specialization may have had to do with an anticipatory mobility strategy, in which population groups carried out planning adapted to navigation in order to increase their chances of success, focusing on a species with many advantages, both for movement and settlement," says Alejandro Sierra.

For the first time, the research combined zooarchaeology, palaeoproteomics and stable isotopes to demonstrate the main composition of the herds and their management. "It is not only a historical finding, but also a methodological innovation," Sierra points out.

"It will be important to examine other sites around the Adriatic with the same methods to assess whether our results are specific to these two Dalmatian sites or represent a coherent pattern of Early Neolithic animal management across the region," the UAB researcher concludes.

En el estudio han participado también expertos del Museo de Historia Natural de Paris, la Universidad de York y la Academia de Ciencias y Artes croata. El trabajo ha sido financiado por la Fundación Fyssen.

The study also involved experts from the Natural History Museum of Paris, the University of York, and the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts. The work was funded by the Fyssen Foundation.

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JOURNAL

Scientific Reports

DOI

10.1038/s41598-023-37516-z 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Observational study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Animals

ARTICLE TITLE

Early Dalmatian farmers specialized in sheep husbandry

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

26-Jun-2023

Air pollution speeds snowmelt

Peer-Reviewed Publication

PNAS NEXUS

 

IMAGE: CHANGES IN HIMALAYAN POSITIVE RADIATIVE FORCING ON SNOW FROM LIGHT-ABSORBING PARTICLES LINKED TO INDIAN LOCKDOWN. view more 

CREDIT: HOU ET AL

Diminished anthropogenic pollutant emissions during 2020 Covid-19 lockdowns reduced snowmelt in the Himalayas, according to a study. Liqiang Zhang and colleagues used multiple satellite data from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) and Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI), as well as a coupled atmosphere-chemistry-snow model (GEOS-Chem-SNICAR) to explore how the sudden, dramatic reduction in particulate pollution in the region affected snow and ice melt. Snow and ice on the Tibetan plateau act as a water source for over 20% of the global population. However, ice and snow in the Himalayas have been melting at an accelerating rate in recent decades. While much of this melting is attributable to climate change, air pollution also plays a role, because dark particles of dust and soot that fall on frozen surfaces absorb solar energy and melt the nearby snow and ice. The COVID-19 pandemic created a natural experiment because the Indian national lockdown from 25 March 2020 to 31 May 2020 reduced economic and transportation activities. The authors estimate that the reduced anthropogenic pollutant emissions during the Indian lockdown was responsible for 71.6% of the reduction in radiative forcing on snow in April 2020 compared to the same period in 2019. This reduction in radiative forcing may have prevented 27 Mt in ice and snow melt. The results emphasize the power of reducing anthropogenic pollutant emissions when combating snow and ice melt, according to the authors.

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JOURNAL

PNAS Nexus

DOI

10.1093/pnasnexus/pgad172 

ARTICLE TITLE

The COVID-19 lockdown: A unique perspective into heterogeneous impacts of transboundary pollution on snow and ice darkening across the Himalayas

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

27-Jun-2023

Black families growing up on either side of the tracks have same economic outcomes

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE DAME

For many, neighborhoods that offer children access to better resources, less crime and less violence often result in better opportunities for healthier and more prosperous lives. Indeed, researchers studying the effects of moving to “opportunity neighborhoods” argue that very point and many policymakers have taken notice. However, so far, researchers have only accounted for the neighborhoods where children grow up, ignoring the long-term effects that parents’ childhood neighborhoods have on children’s adult economic well-being.

Expanding on the relatively short-term and single-generation body of research, University of Notre Dame assistant professor of sociology Steven Alvarado used 35 years of data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth from 1979 to 2014 to study what happened when multiple generations of Black, white and Latino families lived on one side of the tracks versus the other. 

Somewhat surprisingly, Alvarado and his co-author, Alexandra Cooperstock, a doctoral candidate in sociology at Cornell University, found that Black families — regardless of where they lived — still ended up in similar economic circumstances as they moved into adulthood and entered the workforce. 

In their study, “The Echo of Neighborhood Disadvantage: Multigenerational Contextual Hardship and Adult Income for Whites, Blacks, and Latinos,” which was recently published in the journal City and Community, the researchers concluded that race was the chief factor in contributing to one’s economic success in the U.S. over multiple generations.

“Any benefits accrued by growing up in more advantaged neighborhoods may be undercut by enhanced discrimination in the labor market and society at large,” the researchers wrote. “Race, not class origins, is the dominant factor governing the economic mobility of Black individuals.”  

Alvarado explained that neighborhood mobility does not work as well for Blacks in the United States as it does for whites and Latinos in terms of economic development. 

“When comparing Black families who were exposed to multiple generations of neighborhood disadvantage versus Black families who were not, they both end up having the same economic outcomes in adulthood,” he said. “Race still trumps class origins in America when it comes to the labor market.”

Alvarado said his study employed a novel technique not used in previous studies of the effects of neighborhood processes on economic outcomes: the examination of intergenerational associations rather than just using a single generation. The researchers linked exposure to neighborhood disadvantage in both mothers’ and children’s childhoods with the adult income of the children — which, researchers wrote, “will provide a more complete picture of neighborhood influence and expand our understanding of how inequality forms and is maintained over time.” 

The longitudinal survey data allowed the researchers to link neighborhood conditions with economic outcomes across multiple generations for white, Latino and Black families.

“When comparing Black families who were exposed to multiple generations of neighborhood disadvantage versus Black families who were not, they both end up having the same economic outcomes in adulthood. Race still trumps class origins in America when it comes to the labor market.”

One of the more compelling findings of their study, researchers said, was that Latino families experienced the most positive growth in adult earnings. These findings suggest that Latinos — especially non-Black Latinos — are likely to benefit more in the long run, economically speaking, than whites or Blacks when removed from their disadvantaged neighborhoods. 

“There’s definitely a lot more room for neighborhood-level opportunity to manifest into economic success for Latinos than for Blacks,” Alvarado added.

And Black residents’ incomes, the researchers said, “continue to be immune” to whether their family lives in a good neighborhood or a bad neighborhood, across generations.   

“Moving Blacks to better neighborhoods could procure positive outcomes — such as improved cognitive development and behavior and decreased illicit drug use during childhood and adolescence,” Alvarado concluded. “But once it gets to the labor market, it’s a whole different story.” 

The researchers argued that structural change is needed in the way that Black individuals are treated in the U.S. labor market to increase their economic success. Efforts to simply move Black residents to better neighborhoods “are unlikely to have a significant impact on racial income gaps,” they said.    

Contact: Tracy DeStazio, assistant director of media relations, 574-631-9958 or tdestazi@nd.edu

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JOURNAL

City and Community

DOI

10.1177/15356841231179436 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Data/statistical analysis

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE TITLE

The Echo of Neighborhood Disadvantage: Multigenerational Contextual Hardship and Adult Income for Whites, Blacks, and Latinos

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

27-JUN-2023

 How secure are voice authentication systems really?

Attackers can break voice authentication with up to 99 per cent success within six tries

Reports and Proceedings

UNIVERSITY OF WATERLOO

Computer scientists at the University of Waterloo have discovered a method of attack that can successfully bypass voice authentication security systems with up to a 99% success rate after only six tries. 

Voice authentication – which allows companies to verify the identity of their clients via a supposedly unique “voiceprint” – has increasingly been used in remote banking, call centers and other security-critical scenarios. 

“When enrolling in voice authentication, you are asked to repeat a certain phrase in your own voice. The system then extracts a unique vocal signature (voiceprint) from this provided phrase and stores it on a server,” said Andre Kassis, a Computer Security and Privacy PhD candidate and the lead author of a study detailing the research. 

“For future authentication attempts, you are asked to repeat a different phrase and the features extracted from it are compared to the voiceprint you have saved in the system to determine whether access should be granted.” 

After the concept of voiceprints was introduced, malicious actors quickly realized they could use machine learning-enabled “deepfake” software to generate convincing copies of a victim’s voice using as little as five minutes of recorded audio. 

In response, developers introduced “spoofing countermeasures” – checks that could examine a speech sample and determine whether it was created by a human or a machine. 

The Waterloo researchers have developed a method that evades spoofing countermeasures and can fool most voice authentication systems within six attempts. They identified the markers in deepfake audio that betray it is computer-generated, and wrote a program that removes these markers, making it indistinguishable from authentic audio. 

In a recent test against Amazon Connect’s voice authentication system, they achieved a 10 per cent success rate in one four-second attack, with this rate rising to over 40 per cent in less than thirty seconds. With some of the less sophisticated voice authentication systems they targeted, they achieved a 99 per cent success rate after six attempts. 

Kassis contends that while voice authentication is obviously better than no additional security, the existing spoofing countermeasures are critically flawed.

“The only way to create a secure system is to think like an attacker. If you don’t, then you’re just waiting to be attacked,” Kassis said.

Kassis’ supervisor, computer science professor Urs Hengartner added, “By demonstrating the insecurity of voice authentication, we hope that companies relying on voice authentication as their only authentication factor will consider deploying additional or stronger authentication measures.”

The research, Breaking Security-Critical Voice Authentication, by Kassis and Dr. Hengartner, was published in the proceedings of the 44th IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy.