A First-of-Its-Kind 'Pinpoint' Moon Landing Could Happen This Week

George Dvorsky
Wed, January 17, 2024 

Depiction of SLIM performing its lunar landing.

We’re still reeling from last week’s Astrobotic failure, in which a catastrophic propellant leak rendered the Peregrine lunar lander incapable of completing its Moon landing mission. It’s not the outcome we were hoping for, but the global space community doesn’t have to wait long for another opportunity at lunar exploration success: Japan’s SLIM is slated to attempt an innovative lunar landing this Friday morning.


Scheduled to land on January 19 at 10:20 a.m. EST (Saturday, January 20 at 12:20 a.m. JST), the SLIM, or Smart Lander for Investigating Moon, mission marks a significant milestone for the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency. In addition to it being JAXA’s inaugural lunar landing attempt, it’s also serving as a pioneering testbed for cutting-edge precision landing technologies.


Depiction of SLIM on the Moon.

JAXA began the SLIM project back in 2013, with the aim of kickstarting Japan’s lunar exploration capabilities. The Planetary Society says it cost about $120 million to develop SLIM. It weighs about 440 pounds (​​200 kilograms) when dry and approximately 1,540 pounds (700 kg) when fueled for launch.

The space agency is seeking to place the lander, built by Mitsubishi Electric, in the Shioli Crater, a 984-foot-wide (300-meter) impact basin. The 20-minute autonomous descent will begin at an altitude of 9.3 miles (15 kilometers), with SLIM traveling at a speed of 3,800 miles per hour (1,700 meters per second). The spacecraft is scheduled to land within a designated area measuring approximately 328 feet by 328 feet, or 100 meters by 100 meters.

According to reporter Jatan Mehta, China’s 2013 Chang’e 3 mission holds the current record for the most accurate Moon landing, whether robotic or human. Its landing ellipse size was 3.73 by 3.73 miles (6 by 6 kilometers), and it impressively landed just 292 feet (89 meters) from its target point. By comparison, India’s 2023 Chandrayaan 3 mission had a landing ellipse that spanned 2.49 by 1.55 miles (4 by 2.5 kilometers). It successfully touched down approximately 1,148 feet (350 meters) away from the designated target spot.

JAXA’s objectives for the SLIM mission include developing a lightweight spacecraft system, testing vision-based navigation essential for high-precision landings, and conducting lunar surface operations to gather knowledge for future exploration.

SLIM encompasses a suite of advanced technologies crucial for a pinpoint lunar landing. These include an advanced guidance and navigation system to ensure trajectory accuracy (including pre-loaded maps, radar, and image processing algorithms) and a high-performance propulsion system for the fine-tuning of approach vectors (i.e., adjusting the spacecraft’s direction and speed) as it approaches the lunar surface. Its hazard detection and avoidance technology will be key to ensuring a safe touchdown.

SLIM is also equipped with tools for studying the lunar surface, including two tiny rovers: Lunar Excursion Vehicle (LEV) 1 and 2. LEV-1 has a camera and is designed to hop on the lunar surface, while Lev-2, also known as SORA-Q, is a tiny transformable robot developed by JAXA, Tomy (the company behind the earliest Transformers toys), Sony Group, and Doshisha University. SLIM is not expected to survive beyond a single lunar day, the equivalent of approximately 14 Earth days, as it wasn’t designed to endure the harsh conditions of a lunar night.

JAXA began landing preparations on January 10, with a successful orbital adjustment on January 14. SLIM is now in a stable 373-mile (600-kilometer) orbit around the Moon, with all systems performing as expected. The upcoming landing is a critical next step for this mission, with JAXA’s control team ready to make real-time adjustments if necessary.

SLIM, should it be successful, will mark an important milestone in space exploration. By enabling high-precision landings, it will enhance our ability to study and understand celestial bodies with unparalleled accuracy. This achievement not only promises more effective research, it also lays the groundwork for future missions that can delve even deeper into the mysteries of the cosmos.

Gizmodo

Japanese scientists capture plants communicating with each other on video

Bryan Ke
Tue, January 16, 2024 



[Source]

A group of Japanese scientists has successfully filmed plants communicating and warning others about potential dangers in real-time, making a breakthrough in an observation first documented in the early 1980s.

What they observed: Published in the journal Nature Communications in October 2023, the research team, led by molecular biologist Masatsugu Toyota from Japan's Saitama University, successfully captured undamaged plants sending defense responses to nearby plants after sensing volatile organic compounds (VOCs), which are produced by other plants in response to mechanical damages or insect attacks.

How the study was conducted: The team, which included Yuri Aratani, a Ph.D. student at the university, and Takuya Uemura, a postdoctoral researcher, attached an air pump to a container filled with leaves and caterpillars and to another chamber containing Arabidopsis thaliana, a common weed from the mustard family. The Arabidopsis was genetically modified to make their cells fluoresce green after detecting calcium ions, which serve as stress messengers. The team then used a fluorescence microscope to monitor the signals the undamaged plants released after receiving VOCs from the damaged leaves.

Trending on NextShark: Celebrities speak out in defense of Jo Koy amid Golden Globes hosting criticism

Why it matters: Plant communication was first observed in a study in 1983, igniting discussions in the scientific community since.

“We have finally unveiled the intricate story of when, where and how plants respond to airborne 'warning messages' from their threatened neighbors,” Toyota said of their recent study. “This ethereal communication network, hidden from our view, plays a pivotal role in safeguarding neighboring plants from imminent threats in a timely manner.”

BLASPHEMY & IRONY

Gaza's oldest mosque, destroyed in an airstrike, was once a temple to Philistine and Roman gods, a Byzantine and Catholic church, and had engravings of Jewish ritual objects

Stephennie Mulder, The University of Texas at Austin
Wed, January 17, 2024 

THE CONVERSATION

The Omari Mosque of Gaza. Mohammed Alafrangi, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

The Omari Mosque in Gaza was largely destroyed by Israeli bombardment on Dec. 8, 2023. It was one of the most ancient mosques in the region and a beloved Gazan landmark.

The mosque was first built in the early seventh century and named after Islam’s second caliph, Umar ibn al-Khattab, a successor to the Prophet Muhammad and leader of the early Islamic community. It was a graceful white stone structure, with repeating vistas of pointed arches and a tall octagonal minaret encircled by a carved wooden balcony and crowned with a crescent.

The lower half of the minaret and a few exterior walls are reported to be the only parts of the mosque still standing.

Gaza is rich in cultural treasures, with some 325 formally registered heritage sites within just 141 square miles, including three designated for UNESCO’s World Heritage tentative list. The Omari Mosque is one of over 200 ancient sites damaged or destroyed in Israeli raids since the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack.

As a scholar of Islamic architecture and archaeology, I know the Omari Mosque as a building that embodies the history of Gaza itself – as a site of frequent destruction, but also of resilience and renewal. While narratives about Gaza often center on war and conflict, Gaza’s rich history and pluralistic identity as expressed through its cultural heritage equally deserve to be known.

Layered histories

The sun-soaked coastal enclave of Gaza, with the tidy stone buildings of its old city and its verdant olive and orange groves, has been a trade hub that connected the Mediterranean with Africa, Asia and Europe for millennia. It was famed in particular as a transit point for incense, one of the ancient world’s most precious commodities. Given its abundant agricultural and maritime riches, Gaza has known conquest by nearly every powerful empire, including the ancient Egyptians, the Romans, the early Islamic caliphs, the Crusaders and the Mongols.

Gaza’s history of repeated conquest meant that buildings were often destroyed, reimagined and rededicated to accommodate changing political and religious practices. New sacred structures were continually built over old ones, and they frequently incorporated “spolia,” or stones reused from prior buildings. The Omari Mosque, too, was such an architectural palimpsest: a building embodying the layered, living material history of the city.

In the second millennium B.C., the site of the mosque is believed to have been a temple for Dagon, the Philistine god of the land and good fortune. The temple is mentioned in the Hebrew Bible as the one whose walls were felled by the warrior Samson, who is locally believed to be buried in its foundations.

In 323 B.C., Gaza fiercely resisted the conquest of Alexander the Great, and the city endured devastating destruction when it was finally subdued. Yet after Gaza was conquered by the Romans in 50 B.C. it entered a period of renewed wealth and prosperity. A concentric domed temple was built for Marnas, a god of storms and the protector of the city, on the site of the future mosque. He was venerated there until just before 400 A.D., when the Byzantine Empress Eudoxia imposed the new faith of Christianity and ordered the destruction of the temple.

The priests of the temple barricaded themselves inside and hid the statues and ritual objects in an underground room. But the temple was destroyed and a Greek Orthodox church rose in its place. The stones, however, preserved the tale: in 1879 a monumental, 10-foot-high statue of Marnas, portrayed in the guise of Zeus, was excavated and its discovery made international media headlines. The statue is now in the Istanbul Archaeological Museums.

The Byzantine church, too, was destined to be transformed. In the early seventh century, the Muslim general Amr ibn al-As conquered Gaza, and the church was converted into the Omari Mosque. Yet the continued presence of Gazan churches and synagogues attested to pluralistic norms that characterized the region under various Islamic dynasties until the modern era.

Gaza under Islamic rule

Gaza thrived under Islamic rule: Medieval travelers described it as a remarkably fertile, creative and beautiful city, with prominent Muslim, Christian and Jewish communities. It was still a flourishing urban center when the European Crusaders arrived. When the city fell to the Crusader King of Jerusalem, Baldwin III, in 1100, the Omari Mosque was converted once again – this time into a Catholic cathedral dedicated to St. John the Baptist.

The Muslim general Saladin defeated the Crusaders in 1187, and Gaza returned to Islamic rule. The church was transformed back into a mosque, and in the 13th century its elegant octagonal minaret was raised. Yet the reconversion into a mosque preserved much of the Crusader church, and the majority of the nave and the western portal were still visible in modern times.

It was in this period that the mosque became famed for its extraordinary library containing thousands of books, the earliest dating to the 13th century. After the library of the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, the Omari Mosque’s collection was one of the richest in Palestine.

In the 13th century, the mosque endured destruction by the Mongols as well as major earthquakes that would repeatedly topple the minaret. Its rebuilding after each of these disasters speaks to the ongoing centrality of the mosque in the communal life of the people of Gaza.

The stones tell the tale

Later, Gaza continued to flourish as a coastal port city, where Muslims, Christians, Jews and others lived in the vast, cosmopolitan Ottoman Empire.

In the late 19th century, as scholars explored Gaza’s heritage, an eloquent reminder of the building’s layered history emerged: a relief on a mosque pillar depicting a seven-branched menorah and Jewish ritual objects, including a shofar, or horn, surrounded by a wreath. The name Hanania, son of Jacob, was engraved in Hebrew and Greek.

Its date is uncertain, but it seems likely to have been a column from a synagogue reused during the building of the Byzantine church, which was used again in the building of the mosque: yet another layer in the architectural palimpsest that was the Omari Mosque.

A few decades later, during World War I, the mosque was severely damaged when a nearby Ottoman arms depot was targeted by British artillery fire. In the 1920s, the stones were once again gathered and the mosque was rebuilt.

After the 1948 creation of the state of Israel, Gaza became the sanctuary of tens of thousands of Palestinian refugees. The area was primarily administered by Egypt until it was captured by Israel in 1967.

It was at some point after the 1967 war, when Jewish symbols had come to be associated with the state of Israel and its occupation of Gaza, that the menorah relief was effaced from the column in the mosque.

A future for the Omari Mosque

On Dec. 8, 2023, Israel became the most recent military force to target the mosque. The library, too, may have been ruined, a treasure house of knowledge that will not so easily be rebuilt. A digitization project completed in 2022 preserves an imprint of the library’s riches. Still, digital files can’t replace the material significance of the original manuscripts.

The hundreds of other heritage sites damaged or destroyed include Gaza’s ancient harbor and the fifth century Greek Orthodox Church of Saint Porphyrius, one of the oldest churches in the world.

From today’s vantage point, it seems extraordinary that the menorah relief had endured for over 1,000 years: a Jewish symbol unremarkably cohabiting inside a Muslim prayer hall. In truth, both the relief and its removal embody the story of Gaza itself, a fitting reminder of the many centuries of destruction, coexistence and resilience embodied in the mosque’s very stones.

And if the Omari Mosque’s richly layered history is any indication, the people of Gaza will raise those stones again.

This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit, independent news organization bringing you facts and analysis to help you make sense of our complex world.

It was written by: Stephennie Mulder, The University of Texas at Austin.

Read more:

• New Zealand can learn from South Africa, The Gambia and others when it comes to international accountability

• Palestinian Christians and Muslims have lived together in the region for centuries − and several were killed recently while sheltering in the historic Church of Saint Porphyrius

Stephennie Mulder does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

After days of confusion, Trudeau government says it will abide by ICJ on genocide case against Israel

Prime minister, foreign affairs minister issued a statement that left many observers baffled

CBC
Updated Tue, January 16, 2024

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau speaks at a housing announcement in Guelph, Ontario on Friday January 12, 2024.THE CANADIAN PRESS/Frank Gunn

Canada will abide by all rulings arising from South Africa's genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), officials at Global Affairs Canada have told CBC News.

The clarification, issued Monday, comes after days of confusion following verbal and written statements issued Friday by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly in response to South Africa's claim that Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza in its war against Hamas.

Trudeau's and Joly's statements were widely misreported in mainstream media and on social media as dismissing the South African case and taking the side of Israel. In fact, their statements carefully avoided either rejecting or endorsing South Africa's case against Israel.


The confusion affected one of the government's own ministers and some of its MPs, as well as the Consulate-General of Israel in Toronto.

Pro-Israeli and pro-Palestinian organizations were united in describing the rollout of the government's position as mismanaged.

WATCH: Prime Minister Justin Trudeau weighs in on South Africa's genocide claim against Israel


"It's beyond confusion. I think it's a total failure of communication," said Michael Bueckert of Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East (CJPME), which has called on Canada to declare its support for South Africa's case against Israel.

"When we all listened to Trudeau's words, not just us but everyone on all sides of the debate, it was quite clear, or it seemed beyond obvious to everyone, that this was a rejection of South Africa's claims.

"It didn't sound neutral. It sounded like Canada had taken a clear position. And again, that wasn't just us. That was the pro-Israel groups."

Richard Marceau, vice-president of the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA), said he wanted to see Canada support Israel in the case.

"I certainly had a problem understanding [the federal government's] position, and I know I'm not the only one," he said.

CIJA put out a statement Friday thanking the government for its position.
The meaning of 'does not mean'

The ultimate source of the confusion seems to be the use of the phrase "does not mean" by both Trudeau and Joly. Variations of the phrase appeared once in Joly's written statement and twice in Trudeau's spoken remarks at a news conference in Guelph, Ont. on Friday.

"Canada's unwavering support for international law and the ICJ does not mean we accept the premise of the case brought by South Africa," wrote Joly. "We will follow the proceedings of South Africa's case at the International Court of Justice very closely."

Trudeau used the same construction when asked about the case in Guelph.

"Support for the process and the institution does not mean, per se, that we support the premise of the issue brought forward by South Africa," he told reporters.

Federal government sources have told CBC News that the wording was crafted to indicate that no one should assume the government supports the allegation merely because it supports the ICJ hearing the claim. The sources said the government also didn't want to signal that it was rejecting the genocide claim outright.

But the government's message was quickly abbreviated on social media — and in some news reporting — without the "does not mean" qualifier. That led many to conclude that the Trudeau government had said it didn't support the premise of the South African case — even that it had rejected it completely.
'Quite disrespectful'

Marceau said he doesn't understand why the federal government took so long to state its position, and why it issued it on a Friday afternoon, when it knew the ICJ hearing was coming well in advance.

"As a guy who turns off for the Jewish Sabbath, to have that thing come out literally 20 minutes before I had to turn off for the Sabbath, I thought it was quite disrespectful," he said. "Because we tried to give an answer because we had some of your colleagues that were calling us. So we need more than 20 minutes.

"So to do it so close to the Jewish Sabbath, it was — to me — very disrespectful to the Jewish community."

Advocacy groups weren't the only ones confused. Canada's assumed support for Israel in the ICJ case was widely reported in Canadian mainstream media.

The misinterpretation also was repeated in the Washington Post, where columnist Max Boot reported that "the charge of genocide has been rejected not only by the United States but also by Canada, Britain and Germany."

A widely-followed tracker board maintained by a war studies professor at Kings College London moved Canada from the "neutral" column to the "critical" column with the U.S., the U.K. and Germany — all governments that have rejected the genocide claim.

Even senior figures in the Trudeau government appeared to have missed the message. Health Minister Ya'ara Saks tweeted that "as the Prime Minister said, we do not support the premise of the question."

Liberal MP Anthony Housefather, one of the most vocal supporters of Israel on the government side, tweeted that he was "very pleased that Prime Minister Trudeau has made clear that Canada does not support the premise of South Africa's claim at the ICJ. As Marco Mendicino and I have stated, the claim that Israel is committing genocide is baseless and unconscionable."

The confusion also appeared to extend to the Israeli government.

Israeli Ambassador to Canada Iddo Moed simply sent out a short tweet that accurately repeated the phrasing used by Trudeau and Joly.

Israel's Consul-General in Toronto Idit Shamir, meanwhile, issued a statement online claiming that the Trudeau government had taken Israel's side in the case.

"Canada is siding with Israel in its defence against allegations of genocide, with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau breaking the silence over the case heard this week at the United Nations' court ICJ," she tweeted. "Canada now joins U.S., Germany, U.K. and Austria in opposing South Africa's claim."

Sources in Global Affairs Canada say the department will now reach out to some of the diaspora and advocacy groups that misinterpreted the government's statement.

Bueckert said the language the federal government chose is "so vague that anyone can project onto it what they want to think."

"Certainly, the public effect of Canada's announcements is that the world believes that Canada has joined Germany and the U.S. in opposing South Africa's case," he added. "And if that's not true, I think Canada needs to issue a statement of clarification, put it on the record and put in plain language what Canada's position actually is.

"It's obviously a really important matter. It's has to do with international law and claims of genocide. I think Canadians shouldn't have to try to read between the lines to try to decode and guess what Canada's position actually is."


While Bueckert's group was relieved to learn that Canada is not taking Israel's side in the case, Marceau's CIJA was disappointed.

"I would have hoped that that the government, as a self-declared friend and ally of Israel, would have clearly come out like Germany and the U.K. did, against the politicization of the ICJ by South Africa," he said.

Marceau said he doesn't know whether the government was trying to be clear or to straddle the fence.

"I can't speak as to the intent," he said. "I can speak to the result when people who are experts in this file don't understand what the position clearly is. And that's not only us. Many other people have commented, saying 'What does the government mean?'"

The court's final ruling on the question of genocide is not expected for at least a year. South Africa has also asked the court to consider a provisional measure that would act as an injunction to prevent a genocide from occurring.

Such an injunction could order Israel to cease military operations or alter its approach in some way. Since the ICJ has no mechanism to enforce its rulings, Israel might choose not to comply.

Such a ruling would, however, put pressure on Israel's allies, including the U.S., which could in turn be expected to pressure the government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to wind up combat operations or take more precautions to avoid civilian deaths.

If the court were to make a determination that genocide has been committed, it could have a severe impact on relations between Canada and Israel.

At a minimum, it would greatly complicate the sale of Canadian arms or dual-use technologies to Israeli buyers. Countries like Canada that have signed the international Genocide Convention treaty are expected to take proactive measures to prevent and suppress acts of genocide.

The court could also conclude that the Israeli government is not guilty of genocide but has not done enough to prevent one, or that individual Israeli officials are guilty of inciting genocide.

Global Affairs Canada told CBC News it would provide a written statement on its position, but did not produce a statement in time for publication.




Namibia slams Germany for backing Israel in ICJ genocide case

Mathias Hammer
Tue, January 16, 2024 


Semafor Signals

Insights from Der Spiegel, Die Zeit, and Frankfurter Allgemeine
The News

Namibia condemned Germany’s decision to support Israel in South Africa’s genocide case at the International Court of Justice (ICJ). Germany announced Friday that it plans to intervene at the ICJ on Israel’s behalf, and said South Africa’s case had “no basis whatsoever.”

In response, Namibian President Hage Geingob said that Berlin was ignoring “the deaths of 23,000 Palestinians in Gaza” and had failed to learn the lessons of its own colonial rule in Namibia, where the first genocide of the 20th century took place.

Namibia’s criticism came after the first days of the hearing last week, where South Africa accused Israel of seeking to bring about the “destruction of the population” of Gaza. Israel has vehemently denied South Africa’s genocide accusations, saying their military operation is aimed at Hamas soldiers and arguing that Israel has taken concrete steps such as delivering food, water, and medical supplies to Gaza to mitigate civilian harm. Israel’s foreign ministry called the case “one of the greatest shows of hypocrisy in history.”
SIGNALSSemafor Signals: Global insights on today's biggest stories.
The ICJ’s final ruling may be years down the roadSources: Just Security, Financial Times

Although reaching a final decision in the case will take years, the ICJ is expected to present a ruling before Feb. 5 on South Africa’s request for “provisional measures,” which include the court asking Israel to stop its operations in Gaza. If the court were to grant South Africa’s petition, “the direct impact would probably be limited given that the ICJ lacks any sort of enforcement power,” David Simon, director of the Genocide Studies Program at Yale, wrote. An earlier ICJ ruling ordering the removal of the Israeli barrier in the West Bank has been defied for almost 20 years, he noted.

The ICJ has never found a country to be responsible for genocide before, but in 2007 it ruled that Serbia had failed to prevent the 1995 genocide at Srebrenica in Bosnia and Herzegovina, where more than 8,000 men and boys were killed. The case, which took 14 years to conclude, did not lead to any significant repercussions for Serbia.
Germany’s ardent pro-Israel stance ignites cultural debateSources: Der Spiegel, New Yorker, Die Zeit, Frankfurter Allgemeine

Namibia’s criticism comes amid staunch German support for Israel, which has shaped its domestic politics and cultural life in the wake of Hamas’ Oct. 7 attacks. Germany banned most public gatherings in support of Palestinians, with the Vice Chancellor and president calling on Muslims in Germany to distance themselves publicly from Hamas. Cultural life has been especially impacted by the tension between Germany’s desire to show public support for Israel and the country’s commitment to freedom of expression. Several artists and writers have had shows and events cancelled for expressing support for a boycott of Israel, Masha Gessen wrote for the New Yorker. Shortly after penning her essay, in which she also compared Gaza to Jewish ghettos in Nazi Germany, the prestigious Hannah Arendt prize cancelled its award to Gessen. More than 500 cultural figures, including Nobel prize winner Annie Ernaux and Turner Prize winner Tai Shani, signed a petition calling for a boycott of German cultural institutions for adopting “McCarthyist policies that suppress freedom of expression, specifically expressions of solidarity with Palestine.”

Forest Service pulls right-of-way permit that would have allowed construction of Utah oil railroad

Associated Press
Wed, January 17, 2024 at 7:08 PM MST·2 min read

 A pumpjack dips its head to extract oil in a basin north of Helper, Utah, July 13, 2023. The U.S. Forest Service on Wednesday, Jan. 17, 2024, withdrew its approval of a right-of-way permit that would have allowed the construction of a railroad project through about 12 miles (19 kilometers) of roadless, protected forest in northeastern Utah. 

(AP Photo/Rick Bowmer, File)

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — The U.S. Forest Service on Wednesday withdrew its approval of a right-of-way permit that would have allowed the construction of a railroad project through about 12 miles (19 kilometers) of roadless, protected forest in northeastern Utah.

The decision affecting the Ashley National Forest follows a U.S. appeals court ruling in August that struck down a critical approval involving the Uinta Basin Railway, a proposed 88-mile (142-kilometer) railroad line that would connect oil and gas producers in rural Utah to the broader rail network. It would allow them to access larger markets and ultimately sell to refineries near the Gulf of Mexico.

“It’s a victory for the Colorado River and nearby communities that would be threatened by oil train accidents and spills, and for residents of the Gulf Coast, where billions of gallons of oil would be refined," said Ted Zukoski, an attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity, one of several groups that has sued over the project.

He vowed to fight any attempt to build the railroad. An attempt to reach the Seven County Infrastructure Coalition, which is spearheading the project, was unsuccessful Wednesday evening.

In the August ruling, the Washington, D.C.-based appeals court decided that a 2021 environmental impact statement and opinion from the federal Surface Transportation Board were rushed and violated federal laws. It sided with environmental groups and Colorado’s Eagle County, which had sued to challenge the approval.

The court said the board had engaged in only a “paltry discussion” of the environmental impact the project could have on the communities and species who would live along the line — as well as the “downline” communities who live along railroads where oil trains would travel.

“The limited weighing of the other environmental policies the board did undertake fails to demonstrate any serious grappling with the significant potential for environmental harm stemming from the project,” the ruling stated.

The Forest Service's decision Wednesday to withdraw its approval was based on the appeals court ruling, but Ashley National Forest Supervisor Susan Eickhoff said the agency could issue a new decision if deficiencies in the environmental impact statement are addressed.

If approved, the railroad would let producers, currently limited to tanker trucks, ship an additional 350,000 barrels of crude oil daily on trains extending for up to 2 miles (3.2 kilometers).

 

Dancing is an effective way for overweight and obese people to lose weight and fat, per meta-analysis

Peer-Reviewed Publication

PLOS

 

IMAGE: 

DANCING IS AN EFFECTIVE WAY FOR OVERWEIGHT AND OBESE PEOPLE TO LOSE WEIGHT AND FAT.

view more 

CREDIT: EOMMINA, PIXABAY, CC0 (HTTPS://CREATIVECOMMONS.ORG/PUBLICDOMAIN/ZERO/1.0/)

Dancing is an effective way for overweight and obese people to lose weight and fat, per meta-analysis

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Article URL:  https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0296089

Article Title: Is dancing an effective intervention for fat loss? A systematic review and meta-analysis of dance interventions on body composition

Author Countries: China

Funding: We are sure that our funder is the Hunan Provincial Social Science Achievements Evaluation Committee project, the award number is XSP21YBZ163, and the Grant recipient is Longjun Jin. The funder had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

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JOURNAL

PLoS ONE

DOI

10.1371/journal.pone.0296089 

ARTICLE TITLE

Is dancing an effective intervention for fat loss? A systematic review and meta-analysis of dance interventions on body composition

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

17-Jan-2024

 

Certain personality traits linked to college students’ sense of belonging

Linkages between personality and belonging vary between big and small colleges, per new study

Peer-Reviewed Publication

PLOS

 

IMAGE: 

STUDENTS AT A UNIVERSITY.

view more 

CREDIT: KEIRA BURTON, PEXELS, CC0 (HTTPS://CREATIVECOMMONS.ORG/PUBLICDOMAIN/ZERO/1.0/)

In a study of nearly 5,000 North American first-year college students, those who were more extraverted, more agreeable, or less neurotic were more likely to feel a greater sense of belonging at school. Alexandria Stubblebine, an independent researcher in Ocala, Florida, USA, and colleagues present these findings in the open-access journal PLOS ONE on January 17, 2024.

Prior research has suggested that one’s personality traits are associated with one’s general sense of belonging. Within a college-specific context, other research has linked a secure sense of belonging to many positives, such as better academic performance and better mental health. Some studies have investigated relationships between students’ sense of belonging at school and their demographic traits, such as gender and race. However, very few studies have explored links between students’ personalities and sense of belonging at school.

To address that gap, Stubblebine and colleagues analyzed survey data from 4,753 first-year college students attending 12 different colleges and universities in the USA and Canada. The surveys evaluated each student’s sense of belonging at school and their levels of extraversion, agreeableness, openness, conscientiousness, and neuroticism—a collection of widely studied personality traits called “the Big Five.”

Statistical analysis of the survey responses showed that students with higher levels of extraversion or agreeableness tended to feel a greater sense of belonging after their first year at school. Those with greater neuroticism tended to feel a lower sense of belonging.

Additionally, students who were less neurotic, less open, and more extraverted had a higher likelihood of being enrolled in a large college. For students at large colleges, the statistical link between extraversion and belonging was stronger than for students at small schools.

These findings provide new insights into the links between personality and belonging at school, while also highlighting a potentially key role for school size. The authors call for more research to further deepen understanding, such as investigation of the potential influence of students’ race and ethnicity on these relationships, or the influence of other school characteristics beyond size. Such work could inform schools’ efforts to help students with different personalities and backgrounds build their sense of belonging and thrive at college.

The authors add: “Students who were more agreeable and more extraverted tended to have higher belonging in college, especially in big schools, and students who were more neurotic (that is, nervous and/or handle stress poorly) tended to have lower belonging in college. Additionally, and contrary to what many people might think, openness to new ideas and conscientiousness were unrelated to students' feelings of belonging.”

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In your coverage please use this URL to provide access to the freely available article in PLOS ONE: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0295436

Citation: Stubblebine AM, Gopalan M, Brady ST (2024) Who feels like they belong? Personality and belonging in college. PLoS ONE 19(1): e0295436. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0295436

Author Countries: USA

Funding: The authors received no specific funding for this work.

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JOURNAL

PLoS ONE

DOI

10.1371/journal.pone.0295436 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Survey

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

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ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

17-Jan-2024

 

AA-miR164a-NAC100L1 mediates symbiotic incompatibility of cucumber/pumpkin grafted seedlings through regulating callose deposition

Peer-Reviewed Publication

PLANT PHENOMICS

 

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MOLECULAR REGULATORY PATHWAYS OF SYMBIOTIC INCOMPATIBILITY OF GRAFTED SEEDLINGS REGULATED BY IAA

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CREDIT: HORTICULTURE RESEARCH

Grafting is one of the key technologies to overcome the obstacles of continuous cropping, and improve crop yield and quality. However, the symbiotic incompatibility between rootstock and scion affects the normal growth and development of grafted seedlings after survival. The specific molecular regulation mechanism of graft incompatibility is still largely unclear. In this study, we found that IAA-miR164a-NAC100L1 module induced callose deposition to mediate the symbiotic incompatibility of cucumber/pumpkin grafted seedlings. The incompatible combination (IG) grafting interface accumulated more callose, and the activity of callose synthase (CmCalS1) and IAA content were significantly higher than those in compatible combination (CG). Treatment with IAA polar transport inhibitor in the root of the IG plants decreased CmCalS activity and callose content. Furthermore, IAA negatively regulated the expression of Cm-miR164a, which directly targeted cleavage of CmNAC100L1. Interestingly, CmNAC100L1 interacted with CmCalS1 to regulate its activity. Further analysis showed that the interaction between CmNAC100L1 and CmCalS1 in the IG plants enhanced, but decreased the activity of CmCalS1 in the CG plants. Point mutation analysis revealed that threonine at the 57th position of CmCalS1 protein played a critical role to maintain its enzyme activity in the incompatible rootstock. Thus, IAA inhibited the expression of Cm-miR164a to elevate the expression of CmNAC100L1, which promoted CmNAC100L1 interaction with CmCalS1 to enhance CmCalS1 activity, resulting callose deposition and symbiotic incompatibility of cucumber/pumpkin grafted seedlings (Figure 1).

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References

Authors

Mingzhu Yuan, Tong Jin, Jianqiang Wu, Lan Li, Guangling Chen, Jiaqi Chen, Yu Wang, Jin Sun

Affiliations

College of Horticulture, Nanjing Agricultural University

About Jin Sun & Yu Wang

Jin Sun, jinsun@njau.edu.cn

Yu Wang, ywang@njau.edu.cn

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JOURNAL

Horticulture Research

DOI

10.1093/hr/uhad287 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Experimental study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE TITLE

IAA-miR164a-NAC100L1 module mediates symbiotic incompatibility of cucumber/pumpkin grafted seedlings through regulating callose deposition