Research supporting increased crop growth published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA

 

IMAGE: JOHN PETERS, PH.D., CHAIR OF THE DEPARTMENT OF CHEMISTRY AND BIOCHEMISTRY, DODGE FAMILY COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES AT THE UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA, AND FELLOW RESEARCHERS EXPLORE THE WAY BACTERIA REGULATE THE EXPRESSION OF GENES RELATED TO NITROGEN FIXATION ­– THE CONVERSION OF NITROGEN IN THE AIR INTO AMMONIA THAT CAN HELP PLANTS GROW. view more 

CREDIT: PHOTO PROVIDED BY THE UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA

NORMAN, OKLA. – An article describing research conducted by John Peters, Ph.D., chair of the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Dodge Family College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Oklahoma, and fellow researchers, has been published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 

The article “Structural insights into redox signal transduction mechanisms in the control of nitrogen fixation by the NifLA system” explores the way bacteria regulate the expression of genes related to nitrogen fixation ­– the conversion of nitrogen in the air into ammonia that can help plants grow.

“Using small angle X-ray scattering and mass spectrometry-coupled surface labeling, we revealed how a protein can sense the levels of oxygen, nitrogen and energy in the (plant’s) cell and, in response, regulate the expression of genes that support nitrogen fixation,” Peters said.  

NifA is a protein that turns on these genes, while NifL is a protein that controls NifA by changing its shape in response to signals from the cell. Understanding the structure of NifL and how it changes in response to signals from the cell can help researchers develop new ways to engineer bacteria and biofertilizers in the form of ammonia in soils that can enable crop plants to grow better. With nitrogen composing 78% of the atmosphere, this could lead to a significantly improved yield, especially in poor soils.

“We are excited to see this article published because it answers a lot of questions about the way NifL works and enables a new line of research,” Peters said. “It also illustrates how to obtain detailed structural information about proteins that are recalcitrant to more traditional methods for structure characterization.” 

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About This Project 

The article, “Structural insights into redox signal transduction mechanisms in the control of nitrogen fixation by the NifLA system,” will be published July 21, 2023, in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. DOI no. 10.1073/pnas.2302732120.

About the University of Oklahoma Office of the Vice President for Research and Partnerships 

The University of Oklahoma is a leading research university classified by the Carnegie Foundation among the nation's highest tier of research universities. Faculty, staff and students at OU are tackling global challenges and accelerating the delivery of practical solutions that impact society in direct and tangible ways through research and creative activities. OU researchers expand foundational knowledge while moving beyond traditional academic boundaries, collaborating across disciplines and globally with other research institutions as well as decision-makers and practitioners from industry, government and civil society to create and apply solutions for a better world. Find out more at ou.edu/research

About the University of Oklahoma

Founded in 1890, the University of Oklahoma is a public research university in Norman, Oklahoma. OU serves the state, region and nation's educational, cultural, economic and healthcare needs. For more information, visit www.ou.edu.

 

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JOURNAL

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

DOI

10.1073/pnas.2302732120 

ARTICLE TITLE

Structural insights into redox signal transduction mechanisms in the control of nitrogen fixation by the NifLA system

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

17-Jul-2023

 

House Appropriations bill would slash life-saving medical research, disease prevention and treatment

Endocrine Society opposes cuts in the proposed Labor-HHS funding bill

Business Announcement

THE ENDOCRINE SOCIETY

WASHINGTON—The Endocrine Society opposes severe funding cuts proposed in the House Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies (Labor-HHS) funding bill that would put life-saving endocrine research, disease prevention, and treatment at risk.

The House Appropriations Committee is planning to mark up the Labor-HHS funding bill before Congress leaves for its August recess.

The proposed funding levels in the Labor-HHS bill would harm America’s public health infrastructure and restrict research investments needed to develop next-generation cures. Cutting funding will reduce or eliminate services that are essential to protecting the nation’s health.

The Society is the largest professional organization for researchers who study and clinicians who treat endocrine conditions, including diabetes, obesity, osteoporosis, thyroid conditions, cancer, and reproductive conditions. In the field of endocrinology, the proposed cuts would:

• Reduce or eliminate successful diabetes prevention programs that protect vulnerable Americans.
• Slash basic and clinical research to discover new treatments and cures for endocrine diseases, including cancer, obesity, and infertility.
• Make competitive grant funding even more difficult to attain, which will discourage early career researchers from joining the biomedical research pipeline, shrink the workforce, and have impacts on health research for decades to come.
   

The proposed L-HHS appropriations bill represents a 28% cut below Fiscal Year 2023 levels and includes:

• A 14% cut to the Department of Health and Human Services.
• A nearly $4 billion cut for the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and deep cuts for the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H).
• Devastating cuts to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
   

The Endocrine Society calls on Congress to build on the investments made in the FY 2023 L-HHS funding bill and reject the proposed FY 2024 bill. Cutting funding to health programs puts the health and well-being of the patients our members treat and all Americans at risk. It threatens the ability to conduct lifesaving endocrine research, limits endocrinologists’ ability to provide preventive care, and it damages the health care and research workforce.
 

# # #
 

Endocrinologists are at the core of solving the most pressing health problems of our time, from diabetes and obesity to infertility, bone health, and hormone-related cancers. The Endocrine Society is the world’s oldest and largest organization of scientists devoted to hormone research and physicians who care for people with hormone-related conditions.

The Society has more than 18,000 members, including scientists, physicians, educators, nurses and students in 122 countries. To learn more about the Society and the field of endocrinology, visit our site at www.endocrine.org. Follow us on Twitter at @TheEndoSociety and @EndoMedia.

Multi-society statement on US Supreme Court ruling on students for fair admissions

Business Announcement

AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR ANATOMY

ROCKVILLE, MD—JULY 19, 2023 – As organizations representing a wide range of scientific, engineering, and mathematical disciplines, we will not be deterred by the U.S. Supreme Court ruling on race considerations in college and university admissions.

America’s inherent strength and economic competitiveness among nations is its domestic and international talent across every race, ethnicity, gender, and geography. To meet current and emerging job demands and retain our research and development leadership globally, we must broaden who participates in science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and medicine. Doing so will improve lives, advance our nation’s living standards, and drive economic growth.

This court ruling will limit the ways our nation might expand talent in STEMM from historically excluded communities. Despite this outcome, we are committed to seeking legally attentive strategies to ensure a full range of talent is recruited, retained, and advanced across STEMM fields. We will continue to advance initiatives that will enable all students to cultivate their talent to the highest potential and tackle societal challenges while serving their communities.

ACA: The Structural Science Society; American Anthropological Association; American Association for Anatomy; American Association for Dental, Oral, and Craniofacial Research; American Association for the Advancement of Science; American Association of Physics Teachers; American Astronomical Society (AAS); American Chemical Society; American Educational Research Association; American Geophysical Union (AGU); American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering; American Institute of Biological Sciences; American Institute of Physics; American Mathematical Society; American Physical Society; American Political Science Association; American Society for Microbiology; American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics; American Society of Human Genetics; American Society of Plant Biologists; Association for Computing Machinery (ACM); Association for Women in Science; Association of Population Centers; AVS - The Society for Science and Technology of Materials, Interfaces, and Processing; Computing Research Association; Consortium of Social Science Associations; Ecological Society of America; Entomological Society of America; Geological Society of America; INFORMS (Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences); Linguistic Society of America; Mathematical Association of America; National Postdoctoral Association (NPA); Optica; Population Association of America; Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics; Society for Neuroscience; Society for Personality and Social Psychology; Society for Research in Child Development; Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues; Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers (SHPE); Society of Systematic Biologists; Society of Vacuum Coaters; Society of Women Engineers; The Executive Committee of the American Society of Criminology; The Gerontological Society of America; The Oceanography Society

 

The Pacific slope of Peru is greening, and this is not good news

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE

 

IMAGE: EXAGGERATED 3D MODEL OF THE PERUVIAN ANDES WITH AN OVERLAY OF THE GREENING STRIP, THE GREEN AREA REPRESENTS AN INCREASE IN THE ENHANCED VEGETATION INDEX WITH DARKER AREAS CORRESPONDING TO A LARGER RELATIVE GREENING. view more 

CREDIT: HUGO LEPAGE, CAVENDISH LABORATORY

Analysing satellite data spanning the past 20 years, the research team based at the Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge examined how vegetation has been changing along the Pacific coast of Peru and northern Chile. This area is known for its unique and delicate arid and semi-arid environments.

The analysis revealed that certain areas experienced positive vegetation growth, known as greening, while others displayed negative trends, referred to as browning. Unsurprisingly, the changes in vegetation are influenced by things like farming and urban development or change in land use practices.

But more interestingly this study, published in MDPI Remote Sensing, revealed the discovery of a huge section of the West Slope of the Andes undergoing significant greening in the past 20 years. This section, which extends from Northern Peru to Northern Chile, spanning a length of about 2000km, has seen its vegetation growing significantly over time. This greening trend varies with altitude, with different vegetation types at different elevations.

The research team, consisting of mathematicians, geographers, biologists, and earth scientists, used satellite images from 2000 to 2020 to observe changes in vegetation over time in this area. They plotted 450 data points and developed a mathematical model to remove artificial variations (such as cloudy days) and seasonality, and used statistical analysis to ensure that they were only analysing areas with a significant trend.

“It took three years to sort the methodology and the statistical model,” said Hugo Lepage, mathematician at the Cavendish laboratory and first author of the study. “We really needed to bulletproof it to make sure that something was really happening on a massive scale, and it was not just a fluke.”

To verify what they were seeing in the data, the researchers conducted numerous filed trips to make observations on the ground to corroborate their numerical statements.

“We started with a very local area to study the impact of mining on local vegetation,” explained Eustace Barnes, a geographer in the Cavendish Laboratory’s Environmental Physics Group, which ran the research. “To our surprise, the data was suggesting that the area was greening instead of browning. So, we zoomed out and realised other areas were also greening on large scale. When we went to check on the ground, we observed a similar trend.”

Beyond the empirical observation of the greening strip itself, the researchers were struck by its surprising features.

“First, the strip ascends as we look southward, going from 170-780 m in northern Peru to 2600-4300 m in the south of Peru”, explained Barnes. “This is counterintuitive, as we would expect the surface temperatures to drop both when moving south and ascending in altitude.”

Even more surprisingly, this huge greening strip does not align with the climate zones established by the Köppen-Geiger classification - the widely used, vegetation-based, empirical climate classification system, whereas the greening and browning trends in the coastal deserts and high Andes, do match well.

“Indeed, in northern Peru, the greening strip mostly lies in the climate zone corresponding to the hot arid desert,” said Lepage. “As we scan the strip going south, it ascends to lie mostly in the hot arid steppe and finally traverses to lie in the cold arid steppe. This did not match what we expected based on the climate in those regions.”

The results of this study have far-reaching implications for environmental management and policymaking in the region. Although the exact cause or resulting consequences of this greening are not known, any large change (30-60% index increase) in vegetation will necessarily have an impact on ecosystems and the environment.

“The Pacific slope provides water for two-thirds of the country, and this is where most of the food for Peru is coming from too,” said Barnes. “This rapid change in vegetation, and to water level and ecosystems, will inevitably have an impact on water and agricultural planning management.”

The researchers believe their findings will contribute significantly to the scientific community's understanding of the complex interactions between climate change and delicate ecosystems in arid and semi-arid environments.

“This is a warning sign, like the canary in the mine. There is nothing we can do to stop changes at such a large scale. But knowing about it will help to plan better for the future,” concluded Lepage.

This research was carried out by the Environmental Physics Group led by Prof. Crispin Barnes and funded by Universidad Nacional de Cañete (UNDC), dpto Lima, Peru.

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JOURNAL

Remote Sensing

DOI

10.3390/rs15143628 

ARTICLE TITLE

Greening and Browning Trends on the Pacific Slope of Peru and Northern Chile

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

21-Jul-2023

 

New study uncovers potential risk of arsenic release from sediment under organic matter influence

Peer-Reviewed Publication

CHINESE SOCIETY FOR ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES

 

IMAGE: GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT. view more 

CREDIT: ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE AND ECOTECHNOLOGY

Researchers from the Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Sciences have conducted a study to assess the impact of environmental factors and microbial communities on the mobilization of arsenic (As). The findings, published in Volume 15 of the journal Environmental Science and Ecotechnology, reveal important insights into the biogeochemical processes involved in As release. The study focused on processes such as desorption, reduction, complexation, and co-precipitation that affect the As behaviour in the environment. The interaction between Fe (hydro) oxides and organic matters (OMs), particularly dissolved organic matter (DOM), was identified as a crucial control mechanism. The OMs were characterized using fluorescence indices, which indicated sustained biological activities throughout the experimental period. The microbial community analysis unveiled the presence of bacteria capable of reducing Fe, Mn, and As, as well as bacteria involved in metabolic transformations using EOM. When bio-reactive and chemically reactive OMs were introduced, they created a reduction environment facilitating the release of As, Fe, and Mn, particularly at high OM concentrations. Glucose and sodium lactate, easily metabolized by microorganisms, resulted in higher releases than the control group without OMs. The addition of humic acid (HA), a chemically reactive OM, significantly influenced the release of Fe and Mn, albeit with a lesser impact on As. The study also observed the formation of secondary Fe minerals, such as siderite and mackinawite, which incorporated As and contributed to the decline in As, Fe, and Mn concentrations in the aqueous phase. Microbial decomposition altered the characteristics of DOM, leading to the production of amino acids and the presence of polysaccharides, as indicated by specific functional groups. Furthermore, the research employed canonical correspondence analysis (CCA) and redundancy analysis (RDA) to examine the relationship between environmental factors, the microbial community, and As mobilization. Positive correlations were found between As(III), Fe, and Mn, while a negative correlation was observed with oxidation-reduction potential (ORP). Several bacterial genera associated with As metabolism were identified, underscoring their role in the release process.

Highlights

•Groundwater arsenic mobilization regulated by exogenous organic matter (EOM) was revealed.

•Reactivity of Fe (hydro)oxides and SO42− reduction control groundwater As level.

•Secondary risk of anthropogenic EOM for groundwater As and Mn release merit noting.

The research significantly enhances our understanding of the intricate factors influencing the release of arsenic (As) and sheds light on the microbial processes involved in As mobilization in aquatic environments. The findings have important implications for managing and mitigating groundwater pollution caused by the infiltration of EOM. Specific sites, such as landfills, petrochemical sites, and managed aquifer recharge projects, are identified as particularly vulnerable to contamination. Further investigations are necessary to explore the effects of hydrodynamics and hydrogeochemical environments in practical applications. These findings underscore the need for comprehensive strategies to effectively control and mitigate the environmental risks associated with EOM infiltration, aiming to safeguard groundwater quality.

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References

DOI

10.1016/j.ese.2023.100243

Funding information

National Key Research and Development Program (2019YFC1806204)

National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 41907178).

About Environmental Science and Ecotechnology

Environmental Science and Ecotechnology (ISSN 2666-4984) is an international, peer-reviewed, and open-access journal published by Elsevier. The journal publishes significant views and research across the full spectrum of ecology and environmental sciences, such as climate change, sustainability, biodiversity conservation, environment & health, green catalysis/processing for pollution control, and AI-driven environmental engineering. ESE received its latest impact factor of 12.6, according to the Journal Citation ReportTM 2022.

 

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JOURNAL

Environmental Science and Ecotechnology

DOI

10.1016/j.ese.2023.100243 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Experimental study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE TITLE

Exogenous-organic-matter-driven mobilization of groundwater arsenic

 

Contribution of cultural heritage values to steppe conservation on ancient burial mounds of Eurasia

Peer-Reviewed Publication

ÖKOLÓGIAI KUTATÓKÖZPONT

 

IMAGE: ANCIENT BURIAL MOUNDS (KURGANS) PROVIDE THE LAST REFUGIA FOR STEPPIC PLANT AND ANIMAL SPECIES IN THE INTENSIVELY USED AGRICULTURAL LANDSCAPES OF THE WESTERN PARTS OF THE EURASIAN STEPPE BIOME view more 

CREDIT: PHOTO: BALÁZS DEÁK / CENTRE FOR ECOLOGICAL RESEARCH

During our history, ancient civilisations have considerably shaped the global ecosystems through a coevolution of landscape and local populations. In some cases, the legacy of the disappeared civilizations is still visible in the form of buildings and other monuments such as the Stonehenge, the buildings of the Roman and Hellenic Empires, and ancient burial places and fortresses built by several cultures. These monuments are invaluable parts of our history and cultural heritage. Although it is often not in the spotlight, they can also hold a considerable biodiversity conservation potential.

In the vast steppes of Eurasia (and probably in the Earth), the most widespread ancient manmade structures are the ancient burial mounds (so called ‘kurgans’) that were built by steppic cultures (such as Yamanayas, Scythians, Sarmatians) during the Copper, Bronze and Iron ages. Although most of these sacral monuments were destroyed during the past centuries, approximately 600,000 kurgans can still be found in the steppes from Central Europe to the Altai Mountains. Although the builders of the kurgans disappeared millennia ago, subsequent cultures recognised the importance of these sites and considered them spiritual and cultural hotspots even until the present day.

Besides their historical and archaeological importance, kurgans are also important sites for conservation. Originally, shortly after their construction steppe vegetation recovered on them, which could persist even till modern times. Therefore, kurgans that still hold grasslands could preserve a piece of the formerly existing vast steppes and a high biodiversity of steppe plant species. However, during the past centuries both the kurgans and the formerly vast steppes suffered serious losses due to the expansion of ploughlands and urban infrastructure in many regions of Eurasia. Therefore, the protection of the remaining steppe habitats is of the utmost importance especially in the highly populated European regions, where there are only a few and small protected areas.

By involving more than 30 researchers from seven countries and using an extensive dataset of 1072 kurgans covering large geographical scales from Hungary to Mongolia, an international research group led by Balázs Deák (Centre for Ecological Research, Hungary) aimed to explore the potential of ancient kurgans in steppe conservation, and reveal how still existing cultural and spiritual values bound to the kurgans support the preservation of grasslands.

The researchers pointed out that in agricultural landscapes (typical of the western steppe regions in Eastern and Central Europe) where grasslands were severely affected and almost completely disappeared due to landscape transformation, almost half of the kurgans still preserve the remnants of steppe grasslands. In such landscapes, kurgans can act as biodiverse terrestrial habitat islands, which provide ‘safe havens’ for grassland biota. As their former studies showed, even the smallest kurgans embedded in extensive arable lands can provide habitat for many red-listed plant species that otherwise disappeared from the landscape. In less intensively used landscapes where at least part of the former grassland stands remained, kurgans can function as stepping stones that can connect fragmented populations of grassland biota and also represent biodiversity hotspots.

The continent-wide study revealed that many kurgans are still actively used as spiritual or cultural hotspots in the steppe landscapes. Deák and colleagues found 57 different kinds of spiritual and cultural values (such as sanctuaries, churches, ancient statues, and stone pillars) on the studied kurgans. Like in the case of sacred grooves, saint mountains, Christian sanctuaries in Southern Europe, the recognition and respect of the local communities highly supported the maintenance of grassland vegetation on the mounds by preventing negative land use changes (e.g. ploughing) and by the extensive management (e.g. mowing and cutting woody species) provided for a well-kept appearance. Consequently, they found that the presence of cultural values on the kurgans could almost double the chance of grassland presence. Interestingly, the ‘protective power’ of spiritual and cultural values was comparable to the effect of protected areas. In other words, the potential for grassland presence was comparable on mounds within protected areas and on mounds located outside the reserves but with some kind of cultural value.

The study suggests that to complement and support the system of protected areas, it is crucial to acknowledge the conservation potential of sites that, due to their associated cultural values, can harbor natural habitats even in nonprotected landscapes. These results highlight that an integrative socio-ecological approach in conservation could support the positive synergistic effects of conservational, landscape, and cultural values.

A memorial statue from the 19th century protected the steppe grassland vegetation on this ancient burial mound in East Hungary.

The presence of cultural values can support the preservation of rare steppe specialist plant species, such as the Jerusalem Sage (Phlomis tuberosa).

CREDIT

Photo: Balázs Deák / Centre for Ecological Research

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JOURNAL

Conservation Biology

DOI

10.1111/cobi.14148 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Survey

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE TITLE

Contribution of cultural heritage values to steppe conservation on ancient burial mounds of Eurasia

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

30-Jul-2023

 

STREAMEXO: a new exoskeleton to support workers in railways maintenance and renewal operations

The exoskeleton StreamEXO has been developed within the European project STREAM coordinated by Christian Di Natali, researcher of the Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia and funded by the European Union

Business Announcement

ISTITUTO ITALIANO DI TECNOLOGIA - IIT

 

VIDEO: A BACK SUPPORT EXOSKELETON HAS BEEN DEVELOPED AT THE ISTITUTO ITALIANO DI TECNOLOGIA (ITALIAN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY - IIT) TO IMPROVE RAILWAY WORKERS' SAFETY AND CONDITIONS FOR HEAVY MANUAL MATERIAL HANDLING DURING MAINTENANCE AND RENEWAL OPERATIONS. THE PROTOTYPE, NAMED STREAMEXO, WAS VALIDATED IN APPROXIMATELY 100 HOURS OF USE BY 15 PEOPLE DURING A 6-MONTH TEST CAMPAIGN HOSTED IN ITALY HIGHLIGHTING A 50% REDUCTION IN THE ERGONOMIC RISK OF PHYSICAL OVERLOAD AND A 30% OF MUSCLE FATIGUE. THE EXOSKELETON STREAMEXO HAS BEEN DEVELOPED WITHIN THE EUROPEAN PROJECT STREAM (HTTPS://STREAMS2R.EU/) COORDINATED BY CHRISTIAN DI NATALI, RESEARCHER OF THE IIT AND FUNDED BY THE EUROPEAN UNION WITHIN HORIZON 2020 AND SHIFT2RAIL JOINT UNDERTAKING view more 

CREDIT: IIT-ISTITUTO ITALIANO DI TECNOLOGIA

Genoa (Italy), 21st July 2023 - A back support exoskeleton has been developed at the Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (Italian Institute of Technology - IIT) to improve railway workers' safety and conditions for heavy manual material handling during maintenance and renewal operations. The prototype, named STREAMEXO, was validated in approximately 100 hours of use by 15 people during a 6-month test campaign hosted in Italy highlighting a 50% reduction in the ergonomic risk of physical overload and a 30% of muscle fatigue. The exoskeleton was recently presented during a live demonstration with workers wearing StreamEXOs at the port of Tarragona, in Spain, and it is ready to start an industrialization process.

The exoskeleton StreamEXO has been developed within the European project STREAM (https://streams2r.eu/) coordinated by Christian Di Natali, researcher of the IIT and funded by the European Union within Horizon 2020 and Shift2Rail Joint Undertaking - the first major strategic transnational initiative aimed at promoting research and innovation in the railway sector to make it more competitive, efficient and sustainable. The STREAM project has introduced a new technological solution from Industry 5.0, where workers' activities are connected, through the IoT, to wearable technologies and enhanced occupational exoskeletons. STREAM developed the exoskeleton StreamEXO and a fully automated excavator for accomplishing tasks in the rail worksites, such as ballast and sleepers’ replacement.

On June 8th, researchers showed the exoskeleton and the automatic excavator in a rail worksite while simulating the project's target activities at the STREAM's final event in Tarragona, Spain. The event, hosted at Port of Tarragona, was attended by the Shift2Rail Project Office and the port’s authorities.

The STREAM exoskeleton (StreamEXO) generates forces which are distributed to the shoulders and legs to support the worker's back during handling activities, such as lifting and carrying heavy loads. The device's ergonomics have been studied to enhance comfort and provide totally free movements, ensuring a perfect fit on the worker's body while carrying out dynamic activities. The system has an innovative one-size-fits-all solution that guarantees both robustness and power, and a lightweight design (7 kg of weight with a battery of 6 hours autonomy).

The device comprises of a mechanical structure, some electric actuators, and an electronics system, completed by specific algorithms that assist workers during work tasks to reduce the risk of injury. Therefore, thanks to the control algorithms, the exoskeleton can interpret the movements that a person does to manage the different intensities of work and can automatically implement assistance strategies. Workers can use StreamEXO in a versatile way, also while they are driving vehicles or walking on rough terrain.

The benefits of the exoskeleton have been evaluated during an experimental campaign of six months hosted in railway construction sites by RFI and MERMEC STE s.p.a, including a final phase near Milan. The campaign saw several laboratory tests and an on-site validation with railway workers.

The final demonstration involved 15 workers for about 100 hours of use during real work activities in railways sites. They wore StreamEXO for carrying and positioning concrete conduit whose weight was between 20kg and 30kg.

Results showed a 50% reduction in the musculoskeletal system's ergonomic risk of physical overload, particularly for the lumbar region. Fatigue was reduced by up to 30%, and muscle activity was also reduced by 25%.

The experimental campaign was fundamental to obtaining an advanced technological maturity level for the prototype, which is ready for future industrialization. The design of the StreamEXO created by IIT was intended to be a comfortable solution to be used during work shifts for workers employed in the heavy-duty industry and in the construction sector, such as railways.

The exoskeleton StreamEXO for railways workers 

The STREAM exoskeleton (StreamEXO) generates forces which are distributed to the shoulders and legs to support the worker's back during handling activities, such as lifting and carrying heavy loads. The device's ergonomics have been studied to enhance comfort and provide totally free movements, ensuring a perfect fit on the worker's body while carrying out dynamic activities.

The STREAMEXO prototype was validated in approximately 100 hours of use by 15 people during a 6-month test campaign hosted in Italy highlighting a 50% reduction in the ergonomic risk of physical overload and a 30% of muscle fatigue. The design of the StreamEXO created by IIT was intended to be a comfortable solution to be used during work shifts for workers employed in the heavy-duty industry and in the construction sector, such as railways.

CREDIT

IIT-Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia

 

Maynooth University's RoboÉireann team wins global RoboCup

The team comprises staff and students of Departments of Electronic Engineering and Computer Science at Maynooth University

Grant and Award Announcement

MAYNOOTH UNIVERSITY

 

VIDEO: MAYNOOTH UNIVERSITY'S WINNING TEAM ROBOÉIREANN V DUTCH NAO IN THE ROBOCUP SEMI-FINAL view more 

CREDIT: MAYNOOTH UNIVERSIT