Tuesday, October 17, 2023

Study demonstrates antimicrobial action of polyalthic acid from copaiba oil

Findings reported in the journal Antibiotics by scientists working in Brazil and the United States pave the way for the development of drugs against resistant bacteria

Peer-Reviewed Publication

FUNDAÇÃO DE AMPARO À PESQUISA DO ESTADO DE SÃO PAULO

Polyalthic acid from copaiba oil is an effective antibacterial and should be used to develop alternative medications that can contribute to the effort to overcome antimicrobial resistance (“superbugs”), according to an article by researchers based in Brazil and the United States published in the journal Antibiotics.

More than 2.8 million antibiotic-resistant infections occur in the US and more than 35,000 people die as a result each year, says a report issued in 2019 by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Antimicrobial or antibiotic resistance is when germs (bacteria, fungi) develop the ability to defeat the antibiotics designed to kill them (it does not mean our bodies are resistant to antibiotics). It is expected to become the main global cause of death by 2050.

The crisis is due to improper prescribing of antibiotics, intense use of these drugs in agriculture, and overuse of a small number since the leading pharmaceutical companies decided to abandon the development of antibiotics owing to high cost and low return on investment.

In this context, resorting to plants as a source of novel drugs has proved a promising alternative. To stimulate knowledge production in this field, researchers in Brazil at the University of São Paulo’s Ribeirão Preto School of Pharmaceutical Sciences (FCFRP-USP) and São Carlos Institute of Physics (IFSC-USP), in collaboration with colleagues at the University of Franca (UNIFRAN), also in Brazil, and the College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences at Western New England University (WNE) in the US, investigated copaiba oil, derived from Copaifera trees and traditionally used in the Amazon region as a natural remedy for its wound-healing, anti-inflammatory and antimicrobial properties. Its main constituents are diterpenes (20%), including polyalthic acid, and sesquiterpenes (80%). Both groups of compounds are anti-inflammatory and antimicrobial.

The research was supported by FAPESP via six projects (13/07600-3, 11/23493-7, 11/13630-7, 22/07984-5 and 19/04788-8.

The researchers synthesized four polyalthic acid analogs with structural modifications to make them more active against pathogens, and investigated their efficacy against biofilms of Staphylococcus epidermidis, a bacterium that causes skin and digestive tract infections, and against several Gram-positive bacteria (Enterococcus faecalis, Enterococcus faecium, S. epidermidis and Staphylococcus aureus). They also determined the minimum dosage required to inhibit planktonic (free-floating) bacteria.

Activity tests and comparisons with the original polyalthic acid and the drug most prescribed by physicians showed that the analogs developed by the researchers eradicated S. epidermidis, and were active against all the Gram-positive bacteria tested. Although they were less active than the prescribed drug, the results reinforced the importance of additional in vitro and in vivo testing of the substance.

“The advantage of studying polyalthic acid is that previous research has shown that some terpenes don’t lose their activity, and their continuous use therefore doesn’t make bacteria develop resistance,” said Cássia Suemi Mizuno, a researcher at WNE and last author of the article.

The analogs were found to be safe in an analysis of hemolytic activity, i.e. their ability to destroy red blood cells.

Next steps

“Our research is an important contribution to efforts to beat antimicrobial resistance and serves as a foundation on which other groups can made further progress,” Mizuno said.

Next steps will include producing more derivatives with other parts of the polyalthic acid molecule, improving their activity and pursuing prospective partners in the pharmaceutical industry for more research, she added.

Investment in copaiba oil extraction in the Amazon will be needed, as will the recruitment of forest dwellers who are familiar with the native vegetation and can identify the species with the highest level of polyalthic acid content (Copaifera reticulata Ducke).

“It should be stressed that we don’t destroy any trees in our research. Extraction of copaiba oil is like rubber tapping. You just make a groove in the bark of the tree trunk,” Mizuno said.

About São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP)

The São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP) is a public institution with the mission of supporting scientific research in all fields of knowledge by awarding scholarships, fellowships and grants to investigators linked with higher education and research institutions in the State of São Paulo, Brazil. FAPESP is aware that the very best research can only be done by working with the best researchers internationally. Therefore, it has established partnerships with funding agencies, higher education, private companies, and research organizations in other countries known for the quality of their research and has been encouraging scientists funded by its grants to further develop their international collaboration. You can learn more about FAPESP at www.fapesp.br/en and visit FAPESP news agency at www.agencia.fapesp.br/en to keep updated with the latest scientific breakthroughs FAPESP helps achieve through its many programs, awards and research centers. You may also subscribe to FAPESP news agency at http://agencia.fapesp.br/subscribe.

ARTICLE TITLE

Synthesis and Antibacterial Activity of Polyalthic Acid Analogs

Cocoa pods — a source of chocolate, and potentially, flame retardants

Peer-Reviewed Publication

AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY

Cocoa pods — a source of chocolate, and potentially, flame retardants — IMAGE:
COCOA PODS, LIKE THIS ONE WITH PARTS OF THE HUSK REMOVED FOR ANALYSES, COULD BE A USEFUL STARTING MATERIAL FOR FLAME RETARDANTS.
view more
CREDIT: DIMITRIS CHARALAMPOPOULOS

As Halloween approaches, so too does the anticipation of a trick-or-treating stash filled with fun-sized chocolate candy bars. But to satisfy our collective craving for this indulgence, millions of cocoa pods are harvested annually. While the beans and pulp go to make chocolate, their husks are thrown away. Now, researchers reporting in ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering show that cocoa pod husks could be a useful starting material for flame retardants.

It’s estimated that about 24 million tons of leftover cocoa pod husks are produced yearly. Waste husks have been explored as a source of carbohydrates and sugars, but they also contain lignin, a tough lipid polymer found in many woody plants. And lignin could be a renewable replacement for some substances typically derived from petroleum, such as flame retardants. While most methods to produce lignin have centered on hardwood trees, some scientists have processed other plant materials that would otherwise go to waste, such as rice husks and pomegranate peels. So, Nicholas J. Westwood and coworkers wanted to see if high-quality lignin could be extracted from cocoa pod husks and determine whether it has the potential to make valuable, practical materials.

The researchers obtained cocoa husks and milled them into a powder. After rinsing to remove fatty residues, they boiled the powdered husks in a mixture of butanol and acid, a standard lignin extraction method called the butanosolv process. They next confirmed the isolated lignin’s quality and high purity, finding no evidence of carbohydrates or other contaminants.

Then, over the course of three chemical steps, the team modified the pure lignin biopolymer to have flame-retardant properties. They attached 9,10-dihydro-9-oxa-10-phosphaphenanthrene-10-oxide, which is a fire suppressant molecule called DOPO, into the backbone of the lignin polymer. In experiments, when the modified lignin was heated, it charred — but did not burn up — a sign that it could act as a flame retardant. The researchers recognize that human safety tests are important and plan to conduct them after the next phase of testing. In the future, the researchers say they will optimize the properties of their cocoa pod husk-based flame-retardant materials.

The authors acknowledge funding from the UK Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council through the Global Challenges Research Fund and for in-kind contributions from Mars Wrigley Confectionery.

The American Chemical Society (ACS) is a nonprofit organization chartered by the U.S. Congress. ACS’ mission is to advance the broader chemistry enterprise and its practitioners for the benefit of Earth and all its people. The Society is a global leader in promoting excellence in science education and providing access to chemistry-related information and research through its multiple research solutions, peer-reviewed journals, scientific conferences, eBooks and weekly news periodical Chemical & Engineering News. ACS journals are among the most cited, most trusted and most read within the scientific literature; however, ACS itself does not conduct chemical research. As a leader in scientific information solutions, its CAS division partners with global innovators to accelerate breakthroughs by curating, connecting and analyzing the world’s scientific knowledge. ACS’ main offices are in Washington, D.C., and Columbus, Ohio.

To automatically receive news releases from the American Chemical Society, contact newsroom@acs.org.

JOURNAL

ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering

DOI

10.1021/acssuschemeng.2c03670

ARTICLE TITLE

Organosolv Pretreatment of Cocoa Pod Husks: Isolation, Analysis, and Use of Lignin from an Abundant Waste Product

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for SPAGYRIC

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for HOMEOPATHY

Chemical additives replace menthol in new ‘non-menthol’ cigarettes

Peer-Reviewed Publication

YALE UNIVERSITY

New Haven, Conn. — Some “non-menthol” cigarettes that are being marketed as a “fresh” alternative in states where traditional menthol cigarettes are banned use synthetic chemicals to mimic menthol’s distinct cooling sensations, researchers at Yale and Duke University have found.

The synthetic additives could undermine existing policies and a U.S. Food and Drug Administration ban on menthol cigarettes expected later this year that is intended to discourage new smokers and address the harmful health effects of tobacco use.

Hundreds of municipalities across the United States and some states – Massachusetts and California – have already restricted the sale of flavored tobacco products, including menthol cigarettes.

In a study published Oct. 9 in the Journal of the American Medical Association, researchers from the Yale School of Public Health, the Center for Green Chemistry & Green Engineering at Yale, and Duke School of Medicine identified a synthetic flavoring agent known as WS-3 in the newly introduced “non-menthol” cigarettes that delivers similar, or stronger, cooling sensations as menthol but without the minty aroma or taste.

“The simple replacement of menthol with another cooling agent that lacks a ‘characterizing’ odor threatens to derail the existing local and proposed federal menthol bans,” said study coauthor Julie Zimmerman, professor of green engineering and of epidemiology (environmental health sciences) at the Yale School of Public Health, and vice provost for planetary solutions at Yale. “This is concerning as the goal of these bans is to attempt to curb smoking and reduce the number of new smokers.”

Flavored tobacco products such as menthol cigarettes tend to reduce tobacco’s harsh effects making them particularly popular among young people and those just starting to smoke. Historically, menthol cigarettes have also been aggressively marketed towards African Americans, with up to 90% of African Americans who smoke using menthol cigarettes. Sustained tobacco use can cause nicotine addiction, severe respiratory problems, cancer, numerous other adverse health conditions, and death.

When California’s menthol ban was enacted in December 2022, the big tobacco companies – RJ Reynolds (makers of Newport menthol cigarettes) and ITG (makers of Kool menthol cigarettes) – introduced “non-menthol” cigarette brands as menthol substitutes, with very similar packaging and marketing strategies as their menthol counterparts.

In the present study, co-lead authors Hanno Erythropel, an associate research scientist at the Center for Green Chemistry & Green Engineering at Yale, and Sairam Jabba, a senior research scientist at Duke University, combined a bioassay with chemical analysis to determine whether “non-menthol” cigarettes purchased in California and Massachusetts contain chemicals that activate the cold/menthol receptor similar to menthol.

Their analysis detected WS-3 in four of the nine currently marketed products. All four products were manufactured by RJ Reynolds. The analysis also detected vanilla and tropical flavor chemicals in flavor capsules in the filters of the “non-menthol” cigarettes.

“These results mean that these ‘non-menthol’ cigarettes produce effects similar to menthol when smoked, which in turn facilitates the inhalation of the other, more unpleasant components of tobacco smoke,” said Erythropel. “In addition, we were surprised to find ‘sweet’ flavor molecules, such as vanilla, in some cigarettes, which seems incompatible with federal legislation that forbids such flavors in cigarettes to reduce their attractiveness.

“These findings are concerning, and the U.S. FDA should develop strategies on how to address odorless cooling agents that could bypass tobacco product flavor regulations.”

Other countries have in fact begun to address this, said Erythropel. For example, Canada has detailed lists of specific ingredients that are allowed, and Belgium has restrictions on any ‘cooling’ activity in tobacco products.

“This study brings together many disciplines including toxicology, chemistry, psychiatry, and engineering and highlights the importance of interdisciplinary collaborations in producing relevant research,” said Paul Anastas, the Theresa and H. John Heinz III Professor in the Practice of Chemistry for the Environment at Yale School of the Environment and coauthor of the study.

The study received funding support from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (U54DA036151), the National Institutes of Health, and the Center for Tobacco Products of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Sven-Eric Jordt, associate professor in the Department of Anesthesiology at Duke University School of Medicine, is the paper’s senior author.

Content from a Duke Health news article was included in this release.

JOURNAL

Journal of the American Medical Association

DOI

10.1001/jama.2023.17134

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

17-Oct-2023

SwRI develops novel solution to advance synthesis for nerve agent antidotes

Innovative chemical method addresses critical steps to safely synthesize, develop promising medical countermeasures

Business Announcement

SOUTHWEST RESEARCH INSTITUTE

SAN ANTONIO - October 17, 2023 — Southwest Research Institute has developed a unique technology (US20230242487A1) that enables the safe and efficient synthesis of organophosphorus nerve agent (OPNA) oxime antidotes. Using this technology, SwRI scientists can not only successfully synthesize currently known highly effective nerve agent countermeasures, but also effectively develop promising new drug candidates to treat nerve agent exposure.

Current treatments for OPNA exposure have not changed significantly since the 1950s. OPNAs are odorless and colorless chemicals that are used in both pesticides as well as in chemical weapons. OPNAs affect the central nervous system by interrupting the signals between nerve cells, which can cause nausea, vomiting, and abdominal cramps upon moderate exposure and finally arrhythmias, loss of consciousness and death upon severe exposure if not properly treated. An estimated 300,000 deaths per year are caused by OPNA exposure, making this issue a significant threat to both military and civilian populations worldwide.

“Overcoming the difficulties with synthesizing medical countermeasures is a longstanding challenge that SwRI has been actively addressing since the early 1990s. We recently had a breakthrough, developing an innovative manufacturing process that enabled us to develop two highly sought-after antidotes,” said SwRI’s Dr. Shawn Blumberg, a lead scientist in SwRI’s Pharmaceutical and Bioengineering Department. “Using this new methodology, we synthesized Hlö-7 and HI-6, which have strong potential to successfully treat OPNA exposure.”

The traditional development process for these complex compounds is challenging, requiring the use of an OSHA-regulated carcinogenic compound as well as limited ways to purify the resulting compounds. SwRI’s method circumvents the need for dangerous ingredients and integrates new methods for purification of the antidotes.

SwRI is one of more than 300 industry, government and nonprofit organizations supporting the medical countermeasures sector in the Medical CBRN Defense Consortium (MCDC). This sector was founded to support U.S. Department of Defense needs in areas of infectious diseases, chemical threats, and other medical countermeasures for military personnel.

SwRI’s Chemistry and Chemical Engineering Division is ISO 9001:2015 certified, meeting international quality standards for product development from initial design through production and service. SwRI scientists support drug development from discovery to clinical trials in FDA-inspected Current Good Manufacturing Practice facilities.

For more information, visit https://pharmdev.swri.org/.

U$A

Study reveals the complex impacts of the earned income tax credit enhancements on mental and physical health

Peer-Reviewed Publication

COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY'S MAILMAN SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH

October 17, 2023-- – The effects of an enhanced Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) for single adults without dependent children might damage mental health for some recipients, according to a study at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health called the Paycheck Plus Experiment for Healthy Aging, a comprehensive study aimed at understanding the health ramifications of adjustments to the Earned Income Tax Credit, a tax credit available to low-income workers when they file taxes. The findings are published online in the Milbank Quarterly.

The study which focuses on the interplay of economic incentives and health outcomes, spans multiple years and juxtaposes results from trials carried out in two cities—Atlanta and New York.

The Paycheck Plus randomized-controlled trial tested an enhanced EITC for single adults across three years in both NYC and Atlanta. The NYC trial concluded two years prior to the Atlanta one and reported positive impacts on economic, mental, and physical health for those best responding to the economic incentives. For instance, women would gain roughly 2 months of perfect health if the intervention were sustained over their lifetime.Conversely, the Atlanta study revealed no significant economic benefits and, more concerningly, a potentially detrimental effect on mental health.

“A major differential in the Atlanta trial was the defunding of tax assistance centers in its second year,” said Peter Muennig, MD, professor of Health Policy and Management at Columbia Public Health. “This could elucidate the absence of economic benefits in Atlanta. It raises an imperative issue: difficult-to-access social programs could not only be ineffectual but also potentially harmful.”

In the Atlanta study, 3,971 participants were randomly assigned to one of two groups: a control group receiving the standard federal EITC, or a treatment group receiving an EITC supplement of up to $2,000 across three tax years (2017-2019). Data were gathered from various sources, including the Georgia Department of Labor and personal surveys. In NYC, nearly 6,000 participants were either given the standard federal EITC or received the cash supplement.

Initial results indicated a surge in earnings for the treatment group in the first year of the project in Atlanta. However, overall cumulative earnings across the 3-year study period did not significantly surpass those of the control group. Alarmingly, the treatment group also showcased markedly lower scores on two mental health assessments: the Patient Health Questionnaire 9 and the Kessler 6—two measures that improved for women in New York City. Notably, a steeper decline in mental health may have been observed among those in the treatment group who did not receive a bonus.

According to Muennig and colleagues, the study prompts contemplation on the real-life impacts of well-intentioned welfare programs. The distress possibly associated with an attractive, yet difficult-to-obtain welfare bonus might inadvertently jeopardize participant health. “As a crucial takeaway, the design of welfare programs should pivot toward ease of access to avert potential pitfalls.”

However, the authors caution that the income benefits and health impacts were relatively small in both cases, and there was imperfect follow up of participants in Atlanta. “The findings should be interpreted with some caution. Nevertheless, similar findings have been seen from other welfare experiments—those recipients who have the hardest time receiving benefits can sometimes be harmed rather than helped by welfare.

“The American welfare system is broken,” states Peter Muennig, the lead author. “People who cannot work or even face difficulty applying for benefits because they are homeless, carless, have big families, or face mental or physical health challenges simply cannot get welfare. More than half of the recipients could not even file taxes to try to get the benefit.” Dr. Muennig continued, “We sometimes refer to people who cannot manage to even get stimulus checks as ‘falling through the cracks.’ This is too gentile. Our earlier studies on welfare reform found that they not only fell through the cracks, they sometimes fell to their death.”

Co-authors are Daniel Belsky, Columbia Mailman School of Public Health and Butler Columbia Aging Center; Daniel Malinsky and Zohn Rosen, Columbia Mailman Public Health; Kieu-Giang Nguyen, Butler Columbia Aging Center; and Heidi Allen, Columbia School of Social Work.

The study was supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health, grants R01AG054466 and R01AG073402, and a pilot award from P2CHD058486.

Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health

Founded in 1922, the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health pursues an agenda of research, education, and service to address the critical and complex public health issues affecting New Yorkers, the nation and the world. The Columbia Mailman School is the fourth largest recipient of NIH grants among schools of public health. Its nearly 300 multi-disciplinary faculty members work in more than 100 countries around the world, addressing such issues as preventing infectious and chronic diseases, environmental health, maternal and child health, health policy, climate change and health, and public health preparedness. It is a leader in public health education with more than 1,300 graduate students from 55 nations pursuing a variety of master’s and doctoral degree programs. The Columbia Mailman School is also home to numerous world-renowned research centers, including ICAP and the Center for Infection and Immunity. For more information, please visit www.mailman.columbia.edu

DOI

10.1111/1468-0009.12675

ARTICLE TITLE

The Effect of the Earned Income Tax Credit on Physical and Mental health—Results from the Atlanta Paycheck Plus Experiment

Accounting is facing a labor crisis. Could fraud be part of the solution?

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA

The field of accounting is facing a labor crisis. From the high rates of baby boomer CPAs that are retiring to the 4% decline in the number of college graduates earning a bachelor’s or master’s degree in accounting since the pandemic, accounting is steadily losing members of its work force.

The drop in accounting professionals in the labor force has experts concerned with the potential for declining accountability in business financial reporting, which could have consequences as severe as leading to a rise in financial fraud.

With the loss of $2 billion in retiree pension funds from the Enron scandal of the early 2000s to the $8.9 billion in customer assets lost in the fallout of the recently-collapsed cryptocurrency exchange FTX, expert concerns about declines in accounting professionals who hold businesses accountable in financial reporting is notably valid.

Expert concerns of a potential rise in financial fraud with less accounting professionals in the field notwithstanding, fraud plays a surprising role in the accounting labor force, according to new research from the University of Florida.

“Research to date suggests that financial fraud can have damaging consequences, like increased criminal activity as well as reduced trust and participation in capital markets,” said Assistant Professor Robert Carnes. “Insights from these studies imply that fraud would create a negative stigma around the labor market for all business fields, and accounting in particular, but we find the opposite.”

Carnes, along with co-authors Paul Madsen of the University of Florida and Dane Christensen of the University of Oregon, find that incoming students are actually more likely to major in accounting when local frauds occur during their formative years. Specifically, the researchers find a 4% increase in the likelihood of majoring in accounting when local financial frauds are covered by the news media during students’ formative high-school years.

“This size effect is modest,” Carnes explained. “But we view it as meaningful because it suggests that fraud does not harm the flow of students into the accounting major, but rather it attracts more students.”

The researchers’ findings extend to other business majors, as well. Students who are exposed to local fraud during their formative years are more likely to choose to study subjects like business administration, finance, international business, management and marketing.

Compared to other business majors, however, fraud has a unique effect on the quality of students interested in joining the accounting field. The researchers find that students who are exposed to frauds in their formative years are also more likely to have the attributes desired by the accounting profession, like an increased academic aptitude (e.g., higher SAT and ACT scores) and a greater desire for public service work as opposed to commercial careers. These findings are stronger when frauds receive higher media attention.

“Overall, our results seem to arise from situations where students, or those who influence their career decisions, are more likely to have been aware of the frauds,” Carnes noted. “These local frauds may influence student self-selection into the accounting major by providing them and their advisors with new information about, or attracting their attention to, the accounting profession.”

The impacts of fraud on students extends into their time in college and post-graduation outcomes. In a supplemental analysis of educational and labor market data of more than half a million accounting graduates in the United States, the researchers corroborate their initial findings with data suggesting that accounting graduates with higher rates of fraud exposure in high schools are more likely to (1) work in an accounting job, (2) go into public accounting, (3) work for a Big N accounting firm (like today’s Big 4, comprised of Deloitte, Ernst & Young, KPMG and PricewaterhouseCoopers) and (4) become Certified Public Accountants.

The complete research, “Externalities of Financial Statement Fraud on the Incoming Accounting Labor Force,” is forthcoming in the Journal of Accounting Research.

JOURNAL

Journal of Accounting Research

DOI

10.1111/1475-679X.12501

ARTICLE TITLE

Externalities of Financial Statement Fraud on the Incoming Accounting Labor Force

Do humans get lazier when robots help with tasks?

Scientists find that humans pay less attention to their work when they think robots have already checked it

Peer-Reviewed Publication

FRONTIERS

Now that improvements in technology mean that some robots work alongside humans, there is evidence that those humans have learned to see them as team-mates — and teamwork can have negative as well as positive effects on people’s performance. People sometimes relax, letting their colleagues do the work instead. This is called ‘social loafing’, and it’s common where people know their contribution won’t be noticed or they’ve acclimatized to another team member’s high performance. Scientists at the Technical University of Berlin investigated whether humans social loaf when they work with robots.

“Teamwork is a mixed blessing,” said Dietlind Helene Cymek, first author of the study in Frontiers in Robotics and AI. “Working together can motivate people to perform well but it can also lead to a loss of motivation because the individual contribution is not as visible. We were interested in whether we could also find such motivational effects when the team partner is a robot.”

A helping hand

The scientists tested their hypothesis using a simulated industrial defect-inspection task: looking at circuit boards for errors. The scientists provided images of circuit boards to 42 participants. The circuit boards were blurred, and the sharpened images could only be viewed by holding a mouse tool over them. This allowed the scientists to track participants’ inspection of the board.

Half of the participants were told that they were working on circuit boards that had been inspected by a robot called Panda. Although these participants did not work directly with Panda, they had seen the robot and could hear it while they worked. After examining the boards for errors and marking them, all participants were asked to rate their own effort, how responsible for the task they felt, and how they performed.

Looking but not seeing

At first sight, it looked as if the presence of Panda had made no difference — there was no statistically significant difference between the groups in terms of time spent inspecting the circuit boards and the area searched. Participants in both groups rated their feelings of responsibility for the task, effort expended, and performance similarly.

But when the scientists looked more closely at participants’ error rates, they realized that the participants working with Panda were catching fewer defects later in the task, when they’d already seen that Panda had successfully flagged many errors. This could reflect a ‘looking but not seeing’ effect, where people get used to relying on something and engage with it less mentally. Although the participants thought they were paying an equivalent amount of attention, subconsciously they assumed that Panda hadn’t missed any defects.

“It is easy to track where a person is looking, but much harder to tell whether that visual information is being sufficiently processed at a mental level,” said Dr Linda Onnasch, senior author of the study.

Safety at risk?

The authors warned that this could have safety implications. “In our experiment, the subjects worked on the task for about 90 minutes, and we already found that fewer quality errors were detected when they worked in a team,” said Onnasch. “In longer shifts, when tasks are routine and the working environment offers little performance monitoring and feedback, the loss of motivation tends to be much greater. In manufacturing in general, but especially in safety-related areas where double checking is common, this can have a negative impact on work outcomes.”

The scientists pointed out that their test has some limitations. While participants were told they were in a team with the robot and shown its work, they did not work directly with Panda. Additionally, social loafing is hard to simulate in the laboratory because participants know they are being watched.

“The main limitation is the laboratory setting,” Cymek explained. “To find out how big the problem of loss of motivation is in human-robot interaction, we need to go into the field and test our assumptions in real work environments, with skilled workers who routinely do their work in teams with robots.”

JOURNAL

Frontiers in Robotics and AI

DOI

10.3389/frobt.2023.1249252

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Experimental study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

Lean Back or Lean In? Exploring Social Loafing In Human-Robot Teams

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

18-Oct-2023

New robot takes its first intuitive steps

Pitt researchers receive more than $1.6 million from the NSF to develop miniature robots that can navigate complex terrains using neuroscience concepts

Grant and Award Announcement

UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH

Intuiting Robot — VIDEO:
DEMO OF BURSTING CENTRAL PATTERN GENERATORS NETWORK FOR ROBOT LOCOMOTION SHOWING FIVE DIFFERENT MODES: WALK, JUMP, TROT, CRAWL AND GALLOP.
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CREDIT: RAJKUMAR KUBENDRAN, ENIGMA LAB/UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH

When navigating a busy sidewalk, most people can avoid puddles, other pedestrians, and cracks in the pavement. It may seem intuitive – because it is.

There’s a biological component that allows humans and other mammals to navigate our complex environments. Central Pattern Generators (CPG) are neural networks that produce rhythmic patterns of control signals for limbs using simple environmental cues. When we quickly step away to avoid something blocking our path, that’s our CPGs doing their job.

Rajkumar Kubendran, principal investigator and assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering of the University of Pittsburgh, received a two-year, $1,606,454 award from the National Science Foundation to to engineer synthetic bversions of these neural networks in robots. Feng Xiong, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering at Pitt, and M.P. Anantram, at the University of Washington, will serve as co-principal investigators.

“While these networks are natural for us, there is currently no efficient way to replicate them using electronic devices and computers,” Kubendran said. “Agile robots that can explore unknown and treacherous terrains have the potential to enable autonomous navigation for commercial transport, enhance disaster response during floods and earthquakes or to remote and unsafe areas like malfunctioning nuclear plants or space exploration.”

Using AI to develop hydrogen fuel cell catalysts more efficiently and economically

Development of a new ternary alloy (Cu-Au-Pt) catalyst that is cheaper and more efficient than traditional platinum (Pt) catalysts

Peer-Reviewed Publication

NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL OF SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

IMAGE:
GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT OF MACHINE LEARNING-DRIVEN HYDROGEN FUEL CELL CATALYST DESIGN
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CREDIT: KOREA INSTITUTE OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

Proton exchange membrane hydrogen fuel cells (PEMFCs) used in hydrogen vehicles use expensive platinum catalysts to facilitate the oxygen reduction reaction at the anode. There are a vast number of elemental combinations and compositions that need to be explored to develop more efficient and cost-effective catalyst materials than platinum, and researchers are still doing a lot of trial and error in the lab.

The Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST, President Seok Jin Yoon) announced that Dr. Donghun Kim and Dr. Sang Soo Han of the Computational Science Research Center, Dr. Jong Min Kim of the Materials Architecturing Research Center, and Prof. Hyuck Mo Lee of the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST, President Kwang Hyung Lee) have presented a new artificial intelligence-based catalyst screening methodology and succeeded in developing a new catalytic material based on a ternary element-based alloy (Cu-Au-Pt) that is cheaper and performs more than twice as well as pure platinum catalysts.

The team developed Slab Graph Convolutional Neural Network (SGCNN) artificial intelligence model to accurately predict the binding energy of adsorbates on the catalyst surface. This is not the first application of AI to materials discovery. The SGCNN model was developed by evolving the CGCNN model, which is specialized in predicting bulk properties of solid materials, to predict surface properties of catalytic materials.

However, there is a big difference between predicting bulk properties and surface properties. When you can quickly and accurately predict the surface properties of a catalyst, you can more efficiently screen for catalysts that meet the triple bottom line of material stability, performance, and cost. In fact, when developing fuel cell anode reaction catalysts using this methodology, we were able to explore the potential of nearly 3,200 ternary candidate materials in just one day, a scale that would have taken years using the density functional theory (DFT) adsorption energy simulation calculations traditionally used to predict catalyst properties.

The researchers developed a novel ternary (Cu-Au-Pt) alloy catalyst through experimental validation of 10 catalysts with the potential to outperform platinum catalysts out of approximately 3,200 candidate materials. The catalyst uses only 37% of the element platinum compared to pure platinum catalysts, but the kinetic current density is more than twice as high as that of pure platinum catalysts. The catalyst also exhibits excellent durability, with little degradation after 5,000 stability tests.

"In the future, we plan to continue to build high-quality adsorption energy data and perform more sophisticated AI modeling, which will further improve the success rate of catalytic material development," said Dr. Kim of KIST. The new methodology has the advantage of being immediately applicable not only to catalysts for hydrogen fuel cells, but also to various catalytic reactions such as water electrolysis-based hydrogen production, which is essential for the realization of the hydrogen economy. The team plans to further reduce the unit cost and improve the performance of the developed catalysts through material and system optimization.

Machine learning-driven material screening workflow for each anode and cathode of fuel cell

CREDIT

Korea Institute of Science and Technology

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KIST was established in 1966 as the first government-funded research institute in Korea. KIST now strives to solve national and social challenges and secure growth engines through leading and innovative research. For more information, please visit KIST’s website at https://eng.kist.re.kr/

The research was supported by the Samsung Future Technology Fostering Project (SRFC-MA1801-03) of Samsung Electronics (CEO Kye-hyun Kyung) and the Materials Research Data Platform Project of the Ministry of Science and ICT (Minister Jong-ho Lee), and was published in the international journal Applied Catalysis B: Environmental.

JOURNAL

Applied Catalysis

DOI

10.1016/j.apcatb.2023.123128

ARTICLE TITLE

Machine learning filters out efficient electrocatalysts in the massive ternary alloy space for fuel cells