It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Thursday, April 04, 2024
PALEONTOLOGY
Early dinosaurs grew up fast, but they weren’t the only ones
High growth rates apparently a common feature among early Mesozoic animals
PLOS
IMAGE:
HERRERASAURUS ISCHIGUALASTENSIS IS AN EARLY SAURISCHIAN DINOSAUR. IT SHARED A BIPEDAL, RUNNING ANATOMY COMMON TO LARGE CARNIVOROUS DINOSAURS THAT WOULD EVOLVE IN THE FUTURE, BUT THIS DINOSAUR LIVED AT A TIME WHEN DINOSAURS WERE SMALL-BODIED AND RARE.
CREDIT: KRISTINA CURRY ROGERS (ILLUSTRATION BY JORDAN HARRIS, CC-BY 4.0 (HTTPS://CREATIVECOMMONS.ORG/LICENSES/BY/4.0/)
The earliest dinosaurs had rapid growth rates, but so did many of the other animals living alongside them, according to a study published April 3, 2024 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Kristina Curry Rogers of Macalester College, Minnesota and colleagues.
Dinosaurs grew up fast, a feature that likely set them apart from many other animals in their Mesozoic (252 to 66 million years ago) ecosystems. Some researchers have proposed that these elevated growth rates were key to the global success of dinosaurs, but little is known about the growth strategies of the earliest dinosaurs. In this study, Rogers and colleagues performed histological analysis, examining patterns of bone tissue growth in the fossilized leg bones of an array of animals in one of the earliest known Mesozoic ecosystems.
The studied fossils come from the Ischigualasto Formation of Argentina and date between 231-229 million years old. Sampled fossils include several of the earliest known dinosaurs as well as several non-dinosaur reptiles and one early relative of mammals.
The analysis found that most of the examined species had elevated growth rates, more similar to some modern-day mammals and birds than to living reptiles. The early dinosaurs all exhibited particularly fast growth, but they weren’t alone in this, as similar growth rates were seen in several of the non-dinosaur reptiles as well.
These results show that the earliest dinosaurs were already fast growers, supporting the idea that this feature was important to their later success. But apparently dinosaurs were only one of multiple lineages evolving with elevated growth rates during the Triassic (252-201 million years ago), suggesting that this feature is only part of the story of dinosaurs’ eventual global prosperity. The authors note that future studies could expand on these preliminary results by sampling a wider variety of ancient animals from additional early Mesozoic fossil sites.
The authors add: “Our sample comes from a time in which dinosaurs were the new kids on the block, restricted to relatively small, basic body plans, and evolving within a world rich with a diverse array of more specialized, non-dinosaur reptiles. We tackled the question of how all of these animals grew, and found that the earliest dinosaurs grew quickly, and that these rapid growth rates probably played a significant role in dinosaurs’ subsequent ascent within Mesozoic ecosystems; but dinosaurs weren’t unique – many of their non-dino sidekicks shared rapid growth 230 million years ago.”
Citation: Curry Rogers K, MartÃnez RN, Colombi C, Rogers RR, Alcober O (2024) Osteohistological insight into the growth dynamics of early dinosaurs and their contemporaries. PLoS ONE 19(4): e0298242. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0298242
Author Countries: USA, Argentina
Funding: This work was supported the National Science Foundation CAREER Grant – EAR-0955716 to KCR and by the Wallace Faculty Travel Grant from Macalester College to KCR. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.
Osteohistological insight into the growth dynamics of early dinosaurs and their contemporaries
ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE
3-Apr-2024
Jurassic shuotheriids reveal earliest dental diversification of mammaliaforms
MUSEUM VICTORIA
Palaeontologists have presented a new insight into the initial dental variations across mammaliaforms, providing a fresh perspective on the evolutionary past of these ancient beasts.
The discovery, involving a team of international researchers including Professor Patricia Vickers-Rich from the Monash University School of Earth, Atmosphere and Environment, is published today in the renowned journal Nature.
The research, conducted by a group of palaeontologists from prestigious institutions in New York, China and Australia, examines the tooth structure of the Jurassic shuotheriids to gain a better understanding of their phylogenetic relationships and evolutionary paths.
“Our study questions current theories and offers a new viewpoint on the evolutionary history of mammaliaforms,” said Professor Vickers-Rich.
“We provide vital insights into the phylogenetic relationships and evolutionary trajectories of shuotheriids, little known until recent discoveries in China, by explaining the intricate tooth shapes and occlusal patterns.” she said.
Shuotheriids, mammal-like animals from the Jurassic Period, have perplexed scientists because of their unique dental characteristics.
Shuotheriids had what are termed “pseudotribosphenic teeth”, with a “pseudotalonid” (a basin-like structure) located in front of the trigonid in the lower molars, unlike the tribosphenic pattern seen in current therian mammals where the taloned is located behind the trigonid.
“This unique tooth pattern has hindered our comprehension of shuotheriid relationships and the first steps in the evolution of mammaliaform species,” Professor Vickers-Rich said.
The research team used advanced techniques to discover new specimens, some with complete skeletons, of Jurassic shuotheriids, enabling a thorough examination of their “pseudotribosphenic” teeth. In their analysis of this new material, the researchers were able to more fully analyse the dental structures using a variety of analysis, which suggested that shuotheriid dental structures appear to be very similar to those of docodontans.
The study suggests that shuotheriids do not have a genuine trigonid in their bottom teeth, indicating a closer relationship to docodontans than previously thought.
This reassessment of tooth architecture not only resolves unresolved interpretations but also triggers a reconsideration of the evolutionary connections within mammaliaforms.
Co-author, Dr Thomas Rich of Museums Victoria Research Institute said, “In 1982, a single Jurassic small lower jaw with four teeth was placed at one point on the mammalian family tree by Minchen Chow and myself. Now two virtually complete specimens, analysed in a different way, places all of them in a quite different place on the mammalian family tree. Additional specimens and different methods suggest different interpretations. This is how science often works.”
Based on this new data, shuotheriids appear to be in a different clade named Docodontiformes, separate from ausktribosphenids, and thus grouped with docodontans. This discovery highlights the significance of pseudotribosphenic characteristics in elucidating the first diversification of mammaliaforms.
“The study emphasises the presence of a significant variety of tooth morphology in early mammaliaforms, indicating unique ecomorphological adaptations throughout the evolutionary development within mammals,” Professor Vickers-Rich said.
“The dental modifications such as transverse broadening of posterior teeth, cusp rearrangement and even rotation indicate the many ecological niches early mammaliaforms inhabited.”
- ENDS -
Full list of authors and their affiliations:
Jin Meng: American Museum of Natural History, Fangyuan Mao: Chinese Academy of Sciences, Zhiyu Li: Inner Mongolia Museum of Natural History, Zhili Wang: Inner Mongolia Museum of Natural History, Chi Zhang: Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Tom Rich: Museums Victoria, Melbourne, Patricia Vickers-Rich: Monash University
An international team of paleontologists led by the American Museum of Natural History and the Chinese Academy of Sciences has discovered new sets of fossils from the Jurassic period that provide fresh insights into the early evolution of mammals. The findings, detailed today in two back-to-back studies in the journal Nature, could change how scientists reconstruct the earliest branches in the mammalian tree of life.
The first paper focuses on shuotheriids, a family of mouse-sized mammals with molars that are different from those in any living mammal. The evolutionary position of these animals has been heavily debated, but they have been linked to the australosphenidans, the group that includes today’s monotremes—mammals that lay eggs, such as the platypus. Analyzing two newly discovered and well-preserved skeletal fossils of shuotheriids that lived between 168–164 million years ago in what is now Inner Mongolia, the researchers found that the molars of these animals were more like those of another extinct mammal group called the docodontans. They also determined that these two specimens belong to a new genus and species, which they named Feredocodon chowi.
“When you look at the fossil record, both for mammals and many other sorts of animals, teeth are the part of the body that you are most likely to recover,” said Jin Meng, curator in the American Museum of Natural History’s Division of Paleontology and a corresponding author on both Nature papers along with Fangyuan Mao from the Chinese Academy of Sciences. “Yet since the 1980s, the perplexing tooth shape seen in shuotheriids has been a barrier to our efforts to understand early mammal evolution. These new specimens have allowed us to solve this longstanding problem.”
The second study, also led by Meng and Mao, is based on the fossil skulls of Feredocodon chowi as well as a second new species, named Dianoconodon youngi, which lived between 201–184 million years ago. In this study, the researchers looked at structure of the middle ear, which gives modern mammals the sharpest hearing on Earth.
The modern mammalian middle ear, the area just inside the eardrum that turns vibrations in the air into ripples in the inner ear’s fluids, has three bones, or auditory ossicles—a feature that is unique to mammals. Reptiles and birds only have one middle-ear bone. Scientists know that during the early evolution of mammals from the group that includes lizards, crocodilians, and dinosaurs, bones formed the joints of the jaw were separated and became associated with hearing. The newly described specimens provide convincing fossil evidence of this transition in action.
The transition started from an ancestral animal that had a double jaw joint, a feature with the joint of a mammal on the outside and a reptilian joint on the inside. Analyses on the older fossil (Dianoconodon youngi) show that one of its two joints, the reptilian one, was starting to lose its ability to handle the forces created by chewing. The younger specimen (Feredocodon chowi) already had a middle ear of mammals formed and adapted exclusively for hearing.
“Scientists have been trying to understand how the mammalian middle ear evolved since Darwin’s time,” said Meng. “While paleontological discoveries have helped reveal the process during the last a few decades, these new fossils bring to light a critical missing link and enrich our understanding of the gradual evolution of the mammalian middle ear.”
Reconstruction of the newly described species Feredocodon chowi
Reconstruction of the newly described species Dianoconodon youngi
Mammaliaforms are extinct and extant organisms that are closely related to mammals. Studying mammaliaforms helps scientists understand the evolutionary processes that led to various mammalian features.
In two consecutive studies in Nature, Dr. MAO Fangyuan and Dr. ZHANG Chi from the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology (IVPP) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, together with colleagues from Australia and the United States, recently reported two Jurassic mammaliaforms from China, revealing the earliest dental diversification, mandibular middle ears, and articular-quadrate joint transformation of mammaliaforms.
The studies provide key information about the evolutionary shift from reptilian jaw bones to early mammalian middle ear ossicles, presenting new perspectives on the early diversity of mammaliaforms and reshaping the early mammalian phylogeny.
Shuotheriids were Jurassic mammaliaforms with pseudotribosphenic molars that featured a "pseudotalonid" (a basin-like structure) in front of the trigonid in the lower molars. In contrast, molars in living mammals feature a tribosphenic pattern where the talonid is located behind the trigonid and "receives," i.e., interlocks with, the protocone of the upper molar for food processing/mastication.
Traditionally, shuotheriids have been phylogenetically grouped with "australosphenidans" (including the living monotremes), but this relationship is controversial and leaves some puzzling morphological, paleogeographical, and functional issues unexplained in mammalian forms.
In the first paper, the researchers examined two specimens from the Middle Jurassic Daohugou locality in Inner Mongolia and established a new genus and species of shuotheriid, Feredocodon chowi.
Based on the evidence of the complete dentitions, occlusal relationships, and the serial homology of the teeth, the researchers proposed a new interpretation: The pseudotribosphenic molars are actually homologous to the molar pattern of docodontans.
The results of phylogenetic analyses reconstructed from the revised dental characters suggest that a Morganucodon-like ancestor independently gave rise to three major groups of mammaliaforms: Docodontiformes (Docodonta and Shuotheridia), Allotheria, and Holotheria (symmetrodontans, therians, and kin). The key feature of the tooth evolution in early mammaliaforms is that the molars, which arose from the ancestral triconodont pattern as in Morganucodon, became broader and more complex to accommodate more efficient food processing. However, the evolutionary processes of the three groups took place in different directions.
In the second paper, the researchers reported the mandibular middle ears (MdME) of two species—one being the shuotheriid Feredocodon described above and the other being a Morganucodon-like animal from the Early Jurassic Lufeng Biota, named Dianoconodon youngi.
The two species showed some new morphological features that support the evolutionary shift from jaw joint bones to middle ear ossicles in early mammals. The mandibular features suggest that one of the dual jaw joints in the ancestral Morganucodon, the articular-quadrate joint, lost its load-bearing function in Dianoconodon, while the mandibular middle ear was better adapted for hearing. The postdentary bones of the shuotheriid species are more advanced, showing characteristics suitable for a purely auditory function.
The new evidence provides insight into how the ossified Meckel's cartilage functioned as a stabilizing mechanism and reveals that the medial displacement of the quadrate relative to the articular bone played a critical role in the transformation from a load-bearing jaw joint to the middle ear structures.
This research strongly supports and enhances the view that the gradual evolution of the mammalian middle ear is a classic example of vertebrate evolution.
Feredocodon chowi and Dianoconodon youngi are named in honor of Professors Minchen CHOW (ZHOU Minchen) and Chung-Chien YOUNG (YANG Zhongjian), respectively. These studies were supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China and the Youth Innovation Promotion Association of CAS.
Primary tooth patterns of mammaliaforms within the phylogenetic frame
Mandibular middle ears and transformation of the articular-quadrate joints in mammaliaforms
BUFFALO, N.Y. – People with opioid use disorder who have hepatitis C virus (HCV) were twice as likely to be successfully treated and cured from HCV if they received facilitated telemedicine treatment at their opioid treatment program (OTPs) than if they were referred off-site to another provider. Those are the findings published today by a University at Buffalo team of researchers in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA).
The study is one of only a few randomized controlled trials that have been conducted to determine the effectiveness of using telemedicine to improve health care access for vulnerable populations.
“These groundbreaking results published in JAMA highlight the power of novel approaches in tackling chronic conditions in underserved populations,” says Allison Brashear, MD, vice president for health sciences and dean of the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at UB. “The findings pave the way for significant improvements in the lives of participants and offer hope for similar successes in addressing other diseases.”
Individuals with opioid use disorder are a particularly challenging underserved population to treat in conventional health care settings, and they are at highest risk for hepatitis C virus infection through needle sharing.
Led by Andrew H. Talal, MD, professor of medicine in the Jacobs School, this study explored the effectiveness of integrating telemedicine into OTPs for HCV management, thereby removing the need for off-site referrals.
It was funded by an $8.2 million award from the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) to compare OTP-integrated facilitated telemedicine to off-site referral to an HCV specialist, the usual care approach in treating HCV in these individuals.
In addition, the Troup Fund of the Kaleida Health Foundation provided more than $3 million to the research.
Ninety percent were cured
The study was conducted from 2017 to 2022 at 12 OTPs in New York State that dispense methadone. Researchers enrolled 602 participants with opioid use disorder who had been diagnosed with HCV. Participants received treatment with direct acting antiviral medications for HCV and were followed for two years after being cured to evaluate for reinfection.
The researchers found that 90.3% of those in the telemedicine arm at an OTP were cured of HCV infection compared to 39.4% of participants referred to an off-site specialist. Two-thirds of those in the referral arm never initiated HCV treatment at all.
During two years of follow-up, there were minimal HCV reinfections.
“Telemedicine leads to high patient retention in care and cure within this population,” says Talal.
The researchers also found that being cured of HCV resulted in subsequent health and well-being improvements for participants, including significant reductions in substance use.
After initiating treatment for opioid use disorder, combined with an HCV cure, many individuals were able to successfully seek employment, improve their education status and reduce their involvement with the criminal justice system.
A key advantage was the use of facilitated telemedicine, where telemedicine is integrated into settings where patients are already receiving treatment — in this case, methadone. Since the participants already had strong and established relationships with staff, it was relatively straightforward to provide HCV treatment at the same time.
It was a relatively complex study, where each arm of the study was implemented at each site but at different times. Talal held regular brown bag lunches with OTP staff and patients to directly answer questions and concerns, and to educate them about the infection.
It was a win-win for researchers, OTP staff and participants.
“Our findings show that this kind of research can be done in unconventional settings and that leveraging the trust that patients have in these treatment programs can be very helpful,” says Talal.
The findings also demonstrate a key benefit of telemedicine: It improves health care access for people with opioid use disorder who typically encounter shunning and stigma in conventional health care settings.
“Our study demonstrates how telemedicine successfully integrates medical and behavioral treatment,” he says.
The results demonstrate that telemedicine should be further investigated as an approach to increase health care access for underserved populations experiencing other health conditions.
In addition to his role in the Jacobs School, Talal is a physician with UBMD Internal Medicine. He conducts numerous clinical trials on new treatments for liver disease, including HCV. He also is a member of the task force that advises the state on its New York State HCV Elimination Plan, as well as chair of the New York State HCV Telemedicine workgroup.
Along with Talal, UB co-authors are Marianthi Markatou, PhD, SUNY Distinguished Professor in the Department of Medicine in the Jacobs School and the Department of Biostatistics in the School of Public Health and Health Professions; Anran Liu, doctoral student in the Department of Biostatistics; Lawrence Brown, MD, formerly of START Treatment & Recovery Centers; Ponni Perumalswami, MD, and Amreen Dinani, MD, both formerly of Ichan School of Medicine at Mt. Sinai; and Jonathan Tobin, PhD, of Clinical Directors Network and Rockefeller University.
Disclaimer: This work was supported by a Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) Award (IHS-1507-31640) and is partially supported by the Troup Fund of the Kaleida Health Foundation. The statements in this work are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of PCORI, its Board of Governors or Methodology Committee.
JOURNAL
JAMA
METHOD OF RESEARCH
Randomized controlled/clinical trial
SUBJECT OF RESEARCH
People
ARTICLE TITLE
twice as likely to be successfully treated and cured from HCV if they received facilitated telemedicine treatment at their opioid treatment program (OTPs) than if they were referred off-site
ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE
3-Apr-2024
Does methylene blue or mitoquinone improve skeletal aging?
Methylene blue (MB) is a well-established antioxidant that has been shown to improve mitochondrial function in both in vitro and in vivo settings. Mitoquinone (MitoQ) is a selective antioxidant that specifically targets mitochondria and effectively reduces the accumulation of reactive oxygen species. In this new study, researchers Sher Bahadur Poudel, Dorra Frikha-Benayed, Ryan R. Ruff, Gozde Yildirim, Manisha Dixit, Ron Korstanje, Laura Robinson, Richard A. Miller, David E. Harrison, John R. Strong, Mitchell B. Schaffler, and Shoshana Yakar from New York University College of Dentistry, City College of New York, The Jackson Laboratory, University of Michigan, South Texas Veterans Health Care System, and The University of Texas Health Science Center investigated the effect of long-term administration of MB or MitoQ on skeletal morphology during the aging process.
“[...] we administered MB to aged (18 months old) female C57BL/J6 mice, as well as to adult male and female mice with a genetically diverse background (UM-HET3). Additionally, we used MitoQ as an alternative approach to target mitochondrial oxidative stress during aging in adult female and male UM-HET3 mice.”
Although the researchers observed some beneficial effects of MB and MitoQ in vitro, the administration of these compounds in vivo did not alter the progression of age-induced bone loss. Specifically, treating 18-month-old female mice with MB for 6 or 12 months did not have an effect on age-related bone loss. Similarly, long-term treatment with MB from 7 to 22 months or with MitoQ from 4 to 22 months of age did not affect the morphology of cortical bone at the mid-diaphysis of the femur, trabecular bone at the distal-metaphysis of the femur, or trabecular bone at the lumbar vertebra-5 in UM-HET3 mice.
“Based on our findings, it appears that long-term treatment with MB or MitoQ alone, as a means to reduce skeletal oxidative stress, is insufficient to inhibit age-associated bone loss. This supports the notion that interventions solely with antioxidants may not provide adequate protection against skeletal aging.”
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About Aging:
Agingpublishes research papers in all fields of aging research including but not limited, aging from yeast to mammals, cellular senescence, age-related diseases such as cancer and Alzheimer’s diseases and their prevention and treatment, anti-aging strategies and drug development and especially the role of signal transduction pathways such as mTOR in aging and potential approaches to modulate these signaling pathways to extend lifespan. The journal aims to promote treatment of age-related diseases by slowing down aging, validation of anti-aging drugs by treating age-related diseases, prevention of cancer by inhibiting aging. Cancer and COVID-19 are age-related diseases.
Agingis indexed byPubMed/Medline (abbreviated as “Aging (Albany NY)”), PubMed Central, Web of Science: Science Citation Index Expanded (abbreviated as “Aging‐US” and listed in the Cell Biology and Geriatrics & Gerontology categories), Scopus (abbreviated as “Aging” and listed in the Cell Biology and Aging categories), Biological Abstracts, BIOSIS Previews, EMBASE, META (Chan Zuckerberg Initiative) (2018-2022), and Dimensions (Digital Science).
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Targeting mitochondrial dysfunction using methylene blue or mitoquinone to improve skeletal aging
Study: Vanishing photos make dating app matches multiply
Snapchat-like photo sharing can lead to better outcomes for those using dating apps
TULANE UNIVERSITY
Because of catfishing and other dating scams, privacy is essential on online dating sites, even more so than other places online. However, these privacy concerns can make people reticent to share the very personal information that could help them make a connection with someone.
A new Tulane University study finds that sharing ephemeral photos, which vanish after being seen, can increase the number of matches on a dating app. The study was published in Information Systems Research.
Popularized by the app Snapchat, ephemeral sharing is a type of digital design wherein the person receiving information, like a photo, can only view it for a limited amount of time after which it becomes invisible and non-retrievable. Because the information disappears, people tend to be more willing to share personal information because of the higher level of privacy it affords, said lead study author Yumei He, assistant professor of management science at Tulane’s A. B. Freeman School of Business.
“Usually people on dating platforms are strangers, and they have privacy concerns,” said He. Because of the proliferation of things like dating scams, she said “the privacy issue is more substantial on dating platforms. What if my information now gets abused, or I get identified by somebody else, my friends or acquaintances?”
The study, which was conducted using a popular dating app in China, found that enabling people to share in the moment helped them overcome the “communication cold-start problem,” which is a phenomenon where people are loath to share personal information with new people on dating apps. The issue makes it more difficult to have conversations that could lead to a deeper connection.
Because people were more likely to share photos when they were ephemeral, users ended up with more matches and had more conversations once they matched.
Before starting the study, He’s team wanted to check whether the ephemeral sharing would increase the amount of unwanted photos, like images with sexual or other inappropriate content. Her team found no significant difference in the ratio of toxic photos between ephemeral and normal sharing. “This is critical, because that means that feature is creating some benefit without compromising the courtesy for sending a photo,” said He.
This is likely due to an important difference between sharing ephemeral photos on social media, where users likely already know the people they are sharing information with, and on dating sites, where users are strangers. On dating apps, He said, “people still want to preserve a good self-image or present themselves in order to get a quality match.”
This means that, even with ephemeral sharing, people don’t tend to be as emotional or disinhibited on dating sites as they are amongst people they already know on social media.
“It is because people share more photos that are ephemeral, instead of a content change, that leads to more matches or the receiver’s conversation,” said He.
This research was done in conjunction with Xingchen Xu from the University of Washington, Ni Huang and Kevin Hong from the University of Miami, and De Liu from the University of Minnesota.
CREDIT: BINGHAMTON UNIVERSITY, STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK
BINGHAMTON, N.Y. -- A new $1 million in funding will help Binghamton University, State University of New York provide job training for more than 100 students a year in the growing advanced chip manufacturing industry.
The funding, announced today by U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, will help purchase equipment necessary to train students on the fundamentals of semiconductor and modern electronics manufacturing processes.
“With the semiconductor industry booming in Upstate NY, we need to start getting our students the hands-on training now to prepare them to fill these careers to ensure these projects will be a success,” said Schumer.
The Nanofabrication Lab (NLAB), located at the Innovative Technologies Complex, is a cleanroom used for advanced electronics packaging. The lab is part of S3IP, a New York State Center of Excellence that has over 120 companies performing research in electronics packaging and in areas relating to materials, failure analysis, and reliability testing. Additional equipment was needed to enhance the capabilities of the lab and get it up to today’s industry standards.
The $1 million in funding will purchase necessary equipment for the Nanofabrication Lab, pictured here.
The new equipment will allow the NLAB to serve as a teaching lab, where students will learn the protocols, techniques and skills necessary for working in a cleanroom environment, preparing them for job opportunities in the semiconductor and electronics manufacturing industry. The University expects to train at least 100 people each year, including graduate students, undergraduates, and local community members working in area industries or hoping to land jobs in those companies.
Binghamton University President Harvey Stenger said the project aligns perfectly with many of the campus’ key goals.
“As a premier public university, we focus on education as well as access,” he said. “We also recognize our role and responsibility when it comes to workforce development. Equipping our laboratories with the latest tools gives our students and our partners an important advantage. I’m grateful for Senator Schumer’s continued partnership, and I look forward to seeing our cleanroom serve as a learning space for our own undergraduates as well as high school and community college students from the region.”
A robust set of training opportunities will be made available through short courses and certificate/micro-credentialing programs. The facility will also support engagement activities with Historically Black Colleges and Universities through summer training programs and joint research projects. The first such HBCU joint program is expected to begin in June 2024.
Bahgat Sammakia, vice president for research and director of the S3IP Center of Excellence, said that efforts to reinvigorate the microelectronics industry in the United States rely on a skilled workforce.
“The workforce we need can only be a reality with improved opportunities for training,” he said. “Experience working with this state-of-the-art equipment in a cleanroom environment will give students a big boost when they enter the job market. And manufacturers in New York State and beyond will be able to recruit talented workers who have relevant expertise that can help their companies grow and thrive. Thank you, Senator Schumer, for this most recent support and for the CHIPS and Science Act, which is helping to fortify the entire semiconductor ecosystem.”
The Nanofabrication Lab (NLAB) at Binghamton University, State University of New York
CREDIT
Binghamton University, State University of New York
Hannover Messe: Virtual skin contact – Smart textiles are making remote hugs tangible
SAARLAND UNIVERSITY
IMAGE:
SMART TEXTILES ARE MAKING VIRTUAL REALITY MORE IMMERSIVE AND ENABLING WEARERS TO EXPERIENCE THE SENSATION OF PHYSICAL TOUCH. AN ULTRATHIN FILM THAT CAN TRANSMIT TOUCH SENSATIONS IS ABLE TO TURN TEXTILES INTO A VIRTUAL SECOND SKIN. AT THIS YEAR´S HANNOVER MESSE, THE RESEARCH TEAM LED BY PROFESSORS STEFAN SEELECKE AND PAUL MOTZKI FROM SAARLAND UNIVERSITY WILL BE DEMONSTRATING THEIR TECHNOLOGY WITH WATCHES THAT HAVE A SMART FILM APPLIED TO THEIR BACKS. PHD STUDENT SIPONTINA CROCE (LEFT) AND STUDENT LUKAS ROTH (RIGHT) ARE CONDUCTING RESEARCH INTO TEXTILES THAT INCORPORATE HIGH-TECH FILMS. IN RELATED PROJECTS, THE ENGINEERS HAVE USED THEIR TECHNOLOGY TO CREATE INTERACTIVE GLOVES FOR FUTURE INDUSTRIAL PRODUCTION PROCESSES.
Smart textiles are making virtual reality more immersive and enabling wearers to experience the sensation of physical touch. An ultrathin film that can transmit touch sensations is able to turn textiles into a virtual second skin. For seriously ill children in hospital isolation wards, this new technology offers them the chance to feel the physical closeness of their parents during computer-simulated visits and to experience again the feeling of being held, hugged or cuddled. The research team led by Professors Stefan Seelecke and Paul Motzki from Saarland University will be presenting the technology behind these smart textiles at Hannover Messe from 22 to 26 April (Hall 2, Stand B10).
A hand on a shoulder, the stroke of an arm or a simple hug. Human touch can bring calm, comfort and closeness, a sense of safety and of being protected. When the nerve cells in our skin are stimulated by touch, numerous parts of our brain are triggered, causing immediate changes in our body's biochemistry. Hormones and signalling molecules are released, including oxytocin, which creates a sense of well-being and bonding. Video calls, on the other hand, tend to leave us cold. We miss the closeness and emotional connection that in-person meetings produce. But what happens when physical closeness is essential, when children are seriously ill, but their parents are unable to visit? When physical contact is not possible due to a weakened immune system?
An interdisciplinary research team at Saarland University, htw saar University of Applied Sciences, the Centre for Mechatronics and Automation Technology (ZeMA) and the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI) is working on a technology that will enable children in hospital isolation wards to feel in a very natural way the close physical proximity of their parents during virtual visits. The 'Multi-Immerse' project is at the interface of engineering science, neurotechnology, medicine and computer science and the members of the research team are developing ways to realize multi-sensory virtual encounters between individuals. The aim is to create new technology that will allow young patients to see, hear and feel their parents and siblings in as realistic a manner as possible so that the children experience a strong sense of close physical interaction even though they are physically separated.
The research group led by Professors Stefan Seelecke and Paul Motzki at Saarland University and ZeMA in Saarbrücken is responsible for the tactile side of the project and for creating technical systems that deliver a realistic sense of touch. The Saarbrücken engineers are experts in using thin silicone films to impart novel capabilities to surfaces. They have developed films that are a mere 50 micrometres thick and that can be worn like a second skin. Just as our skin is our body's interface to the outside world, these ultrathin films are the body's interface to the virtual world. The goal is to create a lifelike sensation of touch from interactions between people in a virtual environment.
When incorporated into textiles, these high-tech films allow the child to experience being touched when the mother or father strokes a second smart textile elsewhere. 'The films, known as dielectric elastomers, act both as sensors – detecting the tactile input from mum or dad – and as actuators – that transmit these movements to the child,' explained Professor Seelecke, who heads the Intelligent Material Systems Lab at Saarland University. When functioning as a sensor, the film is able to recognize with very high precision how a hand or finger presses or stretches the film as it brushes over it. This physical deformation caused by the parent's hand is then reproduced exactly in a second textile that is in contact with the child's skin – giving the child the realistic impression of being stroked on the arm, for example.
‘A highly flexible electrically conducting layer is printed onto each side of the ultrathin film to create what is known as a dielectric elastomer. If we apply a voltage to the elastomer film, the electrodes attract each other, compressing the polymer and causing it to expand out sideways, thus increasing its surface area,' said Professor Paul Motzki, who holds a cross-institutional professorship in smart material systems for innovative production at Saarland University and at ZeMA. Even the slightest movement of the film alters its electrical capacitance, which is a physical quantity that can be precisely measured. When a finger runs over the film, the film deforms and an exact value of the electrical capacitance can be assigned to each individual position of the film. A sequence of these measured capacitance values represents the path taken by the finger as it moves. The film is therefore its own flexible sensor that can recognize how it is being deformed.
By knowing how capacitance values and film deformations correlate, the researchers can use the smart textile to transfer the stroking motion of a parent's hand to the child's arm. The research team is able to precisely control the motion of the elastomer film. By combining the capacitance data and intelligent algorithms, the team has developed a control unit that can predict and program motion sequences and thus precisely control how the elastomer film deforms. 'We can get the film to perform continuously controlled flexing motions so that it exerts increasing pressure on the skin, or we can get it to remain in a fixed position”, explained PhD student Sipontina Croce, who is carrying out doctoral research in the project. They can also create tapping movements at a specified frequency. The amplitude and frequency of the motion can be precisely regulated.
At this year's Hannover Messe, the team will be demonstrating their technology with a "watch" that has a smart film applied to its back. 'We can create chains of these smart components so that they can transmit long stroking motions. To do this, we interconnect the components so that they can communicate and cooperate collectively within a network,' explained Paul Motzki.
This smart-textile technology is inexpensive, lightweight, noiseless and energy-efficient. By providing a tactile element to computer gaming, the novel elastomer-film technology can also be used to make the gaming experience more realistic. In related projects, the engineers have used their technology to create interactive gloves for future industrial production processes, or to create the sensation of a tactile 'button' or 'slider' on flat glass display screens, which is literally bringing a new dimension to touchscreen interactions.
At this year's Hannover Messe, the experts for intelligent materials from Saarbrücken will be showcasing other developments that make use of dielectric elastomers, such as sensory shirts or shoe soles, or industrial components like pumps, vacuum pumps and high-performance actuators.
Background: The ERDF project 'Multi-Immerse', which is headed by Professor Martina Lehser (htw saar University of Applied Sciences / ZeMA), is a collaboration involving the Center for Digital Neurotechnologies Saar (CDNS), which is based at Saarland University's medical campus in Homburg, htw saar and the Center for Mechatronics and Automation Technology (ZeMA). In addition to Professor Martina Lehser and Professors Stefan Seelecke and Paul Motzki, research is also being conducted by Professor Daniel Strauss (Director of the Systems Neuroscience & Neurotechnology Unit), Professor Michael Zemlin (Director of the Saarland University Children's Hospital), Professor Eva Möhler (Director of the Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at Saarland University Medical Center) and computer scientists from Saarland University (Professor Jürgen Steimle) and the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI).
The dielectric elastomer technology continues to be developed by PhD students conducting research as part of their doctoral dissertation projects under the supervision of Professors Seelecke and Motzki. The results have been published as papers in a variety of scientific journals. The research work has also received support from numerous sources. Funding from the EU was provided through a Marie Curie research fellowship. The Saarland state government has provided financial support through the ERDF projects iSMAT and Multi-Immerse, and ME Saar (the Association of Metalworking and Electrical Industries in Saarland) has funded a doctoral research scheme. The team also wants to develop the results of its applied research for commercial and industrial applications, which is why the company ‘mateligent GmbH’ was spun off from Professor Seelecke's department.
New study shows LLMs respond differently based on user’s motivation
UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS SCHOOL OF INFORMATION SCIENCES
A new study recently published in the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association (JAMIA) reveals how large language models (LLMs) respond to different motivational states. In their evaluation of three LLM-based generative conversational agents (GAs)—ChatGPT, Google Bard, and Llama 2, PhD student Michelle Bak and Assistant Professor Jessie Chin of the School of Information Sciences at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign found that while GAs are able to identify users' motivation states and provide relevant information when individuals have established goals, they are less likely to provide guidance when the users are hesitant or ambivalent about changing their behavior.
Bak provides the example of an individual with diabetes who is resistant to changing their sedentary lifestyle.
"If they were advised by a doctor that exercising would be necessary to manage their diabetes, it would be important to provide information through GAs that helps them increase an awareness about healthy behaviors, become emotionally engaged with the changes, and realize how their unhealthy habits might affect people around them. This kind of information can help them take the next steps toward making positive changes," said Bak.
Current GAs lack specific information about these processes, which puts the individual at a health disadvantage. Conversely, for individuals who are committed to changing their physical activity levels (e.g., have joined personal fitness training to manage chronic depression), GAs are able to provide relevant information and support.
"This major gap of LLMs in responding to certain states of motivation suggests future directions of LLMs research for health promotion," said Chin.
Bak's research goal is to develop a digital health solution based on using natural language processing and psychological theories to promote preventive health behaviors. She earned her bachelor's degree in sociology from the University of California Los Angeles.
Chin’s research aims to translate social and behavioral sciences theories to design technologies and interactive experiences to promote health communication and behavior across the lifespan. She leads the Adaptive Cognition and Interaction Design (ACTION) Lab at the University of Illinois. Chin holds a BS in psychology from National Taiwan University, an MS in human factors, and a PhD in educational psychology with a focus on cognitive science in teaching and learning from the University of Illinois.
JOURNAL
Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association
