ETRI achieves feat of having its technology adopted as Brazil’s broadcasting standard

National Research Council of Science & Technology

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Brazil’s Broadcasting Standard_1

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Credit: Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute(ETRI)

A terrestrial broadcasting transmission technology developed by Korean researchers has been adopted as the next-generation broadcasting standard in Brazil, following its adoption as a North American standard.

Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI) announced on August 29 that the physical layer transmission method for Brazil’s next-generation broadcast standard (DTV+) has been finally selected by Brazilian Presidential Decree. It is a transmission technology that combines ATSC 3.0-based multiple input and multiple output (MIMO) and layered division multiplexing (LDM), and was officially adopted as the ATSC 3.0 physical layer international standard in September 2024.

Under the TV 3.0 project to introduce next-generation broadcasting services, Brazil released a Request for Proposals in 2020 for technologies in the physical layer, transport layer, and video/audio, and invited candidate technologies.

ETRI has developed a new transmission technology combining MIMO and LDM based on ATSC 3.0 for the first time in the world, and has jointly proposed it as a candidate technology for the physical layer of the next-generation broadcasting standard in Brazil together with ATSC, a North American broadcasting standardization organization. In addition, global broadcast organizations in Japan, China, and Europe each proposed candidate technologies.

The Brazilian SBTVD Forum, which is implementing the TV 3.0 project, selected Korea and USA’s ATSC 3.0 and Japan’s Advanced ISDB-T technologies as the final candidates after rigorous laboratory technology verification of the four proposed candidate technologies.

ETRI developed a prototype with CLEVERLOGIC, a Korean broadcasting and telecommunications equipment company, and actively participated in real-world testing, the final selection process. In the process, it further developed MIMO transmitter identification technology and LDM-based local broadcast insertion technology to meet Brazil’s additional requirements.

Brazil’s SBTVD Forum has selected the ETRI/ATSC proposal as its next-generation terrestrial broadcast physical layer transmission method after careful consideration of the technology’s maturity, performance and commercialization potential, and economic impact. The Brazilian government officially approved this with a presidential decree.

TV Globo, Brazil’s largest broadcaster, used the combined MIMO and LDM technology developed by the researchers to broadcast the Paris 2024 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.

ETRI proactively developed the combined MIMO and LDM technology, leading to the adoption of ATSC 3.0 technology as Brazil’s next-generation broadcasting standard. In June of last year, Dr. Park Sung Ik, ETRI’s Principal Researcher, was awarded the 2024 ATSC Richer Industry Medal by ATSC for his standardization activities in Brazil and India.

ATSC 3.0 is a technology that was developed with the active participation of domestic companies such as Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics, as well as ETRI, and is the first technology introduced by Korea in the world. It was an opportunity for domestic companies to actively enter the overseas broadcasting equipment market.

The introduction of ATSC 3.0 technology in Brazil raises the possibility that ATSC 3.0 broadcasting technology will spread throughout South America and provides an opportunity for domestic companies to take the lead in entering the South American market.

Brazil’s adoption of ATSC 3.0 signals the need for continued technical cooperation between Brazil and other South American countries and Korea, and marks an important turning point in the development of the broadcasting industry in both countries.

Bang Seung Chan, ETRI’s President, said, “The adoption of this technology as the broadcasting standard is a great achievement, a result of ETRI leading the development of original technologies and global technology competition since it was adopted as a North American standard in 2020. It will be a model case of international cooperation that has resulted in securing international technological influence.”

 

1) Next generation broadcast standard (DTV+): DTV+ is the brand name for Brazil’s next-generation broadcasting standard, while current digital broadcasting in Brazil uses Japan’s Integrated Services Digital Broadcasting - Terrestrial (ISDB-T) transmission standard.

2) Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC): The standardization organization for terrestrial digital broadcasting in North America

3) Multi-Input Multi-Output (MIMO) antennas: A wireless transmission technology that applies two or more transmitting and receiving antennas to increase data rates

4) Layered Division Multiplexing (LDM): A wireless transmission technology that divides transmission power to send multiple services on a single frequency

5) Broadcast technology in Japan, China, and Europe: Advanced ISDB-T (DiBEG in Japan), DTMB-A (DTNEL in China), 3GPP 5G Broadcast/EnTV (Qualcomm)

 

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The research related to this technology was conducted under the projects ‘Development of Ultra High Quality UHD (UHQ) Transmission Technology’, ‘Development of Terrestrial 8K Media Broadcast Transmission and Reception Technology’, and ‘Development of ATSC 3.0 Mobile Broadcast Reception Chip’ supported by the Ministry of Science and ICT and the Institute of Information & Communications Technology Planning & Evaluation (IITP).

 

About Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI)

ETRI is a non-profit government-funded research institute. Since its foundation in 1976, ETRI, a global ICT research institute, has been making its immense effort to provide Korea a remarkable growth in the field of ICT industry. ETRI delivers Korea as one of the top ICT nations in the World, by unceasingly developing world’s first and best technologies.

Sustainable Manure Management Boosts Soil Health And Slashes Greenhouse Gas Emissions



November 2, 2025 
By Eurasia Review


A new long-term field study demonstrates that combining organic manure with synthetic fertilizer can enhance soil quality, maintain high crop yields, and dramatically reduce harmful nitrous oxide emissions—one of the most potent greenhouse gases contributing to climate change.

Researchers at Hainan University, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and their partners have revealed how different soil management strategies impact the soil microbiome and the ecological processes that control the nitrogen cycle. Their findings show that when manure is integrated with synthetic nitrogen fertilizer, both soil organic carbon and total nitrogen are significantly increased. This synergy leads to better soil fertility and improved crop performance without the environmental burden commonly associated with traditional fertilizers.

The experiment, conducted in the North China Plain, compared four fertilizer treatments: no fertilizer, conventional synthetic fertilization, an optimal synthetic fertilizer rate, and a balanced combination of manure and synthetic fertilizer. Plots treated with the manure-plus-synthetic blend registered the highest soil quality scores and maintained yields comparable to those managed with high synthetic input alone.

Crucially, the integrated manure approach produced much lower nitrous oxide emissions than conventional synthetic fertilization. Nitrous oxide, also known as N2O, is roughly 300 times more potent than carbon dioxide as a greenhouse gas. The key to this reduction lies in the soil microbes responsible for nitrogen cycling. Manure-amended plots had a much larger population of microbes carrying the nosZ gene, which enables the final step of denitrification—the conversion of N2O to benign nitrogen gas.

By using advanced molecular approaches, such as high-throughput gene sequencing and new ecological modeling, the researchers traced how fertilizer strategies select for different groups of nitrogen-cycling microbes. Conventional fertilization was shown to favor microbes that produce more N2O, whereas integrated manure management stimulates those that can break N2O down.

The study also highlights the roles of both deterministic and random (stochastic) forces in shaping microbial communities under various fertilizer treatments. Notably, key microbes for nitrification and denitrification are largely steered by environmental selection, which means that fertilizer choices can predictably drive soil microbiome function toward either higher or lower emissions.

The authors point out that their results offer a practical roadmap for sustainable agriculture: farmers can maintain, or even increase, yields while helping to meet climate targets by fine-tuning fertilizer applications. The team believes that such ecological engineering of soil microbiomes may be the next frontier for reducing greenhouse gases from agriculture.

Future research should investigate how these findings apply to different agroecosystems and explore the economic and logistical factors needed for wide-scale adoption of integrated manure management.

Agricultural practices play a decisive role in the preservation or degradation of protected areas

Tour du Valat

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Cattle grazing in a protected area in Camargue © J.Jalbert-TourduValat

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Credit: © J.Jalbert-TourduValat

New research shows that modern agriculture is impacting biodiversity inside protected areas in Europe, while some traditional agricultural practices may help preserve it. The Natura 2000 is the largest network of protected areas in the world, established to conserve the most valuables habitats and species in the European Union (EU). Researchers conducted a large-scale survey among Natura 2000 protected area managers across all Europe focusing on management practices, funding and threats to biodiversity facing the Natura 2000 network.

 

The findings are quite clear: "The main threat to biodiversity conservation inside protected areas in Europe comes from the intensification of agricultural practices, like the use of pesticides, overgrazing and hedgerow removal. It was alarming to learn how managers of protected areas feel that biodiversity is not safe from these harmful practices,” says doctoral researcher Giorgio Zavattoni from the University of Turku, Finland.

Indeed, 80% of habitats of community interest in the European Union are in an unfavorable state of conservation, with national reports suggesting that the main driver for habitat degradation is intensive agriculture, a process characterized by increased use of inorganic fertilizers, pesticides, and new crop types including winter crops. The findings of this study reveal that these agricultural pressures pose in fact significant challenges for protected area managers, who often cannot address them fully. This highlights how the simple designation of a protected area does not itself ensure the effective conservation of its habitats and species, because stakeholder involvement and active management is often essential.

Are protected area managers against agriculture inside protected areas? The answer is no. In fact, some of the most common measures implemented by Natura 2000 managers to improve the state of biodiversity coincide with some traditional low-intensity farming methods. Practices such as sustainable grazing and mowing play a key role in preserving important habitats vital for many endangered species.

“Grasslands and marshes are among the most biodiversity-rich ecosystems in Europe, and protected area managers may use extensive grazing to ensure the conservation of these habitats” explains Elie Gaget, researcher at the Tour du Valat, research institute for the conservation of Mediterranean wetlands (France), and co-author of the study. Unfortunately, with the intensification of agriculture, these traditional practices are disappearing in the European Union.

Funding available to manage Natura 2000 protected areas often relies on the European Union’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), which Member States apply through their own national programme. The same instrument also provides subsidies, among other things, to intensive agricultural practices even inside protected areas.

Professor Jon Brommer, co-author of the study based at the University of Turku (Finland), explains: “The Natura 2000 network aims at protecting biodiversity without excluding human activities. However, it is confusing to use public money to support two very different approaches, with mixed effects on biodiversity.”

Overall, the study highlights the urgent need to strengthen agricultural regulations inside protected areas if the European Union is to achieve its biodiversity conservation goals. Many of the biodiversity-friendly measures that were included in the initial proposals of the European Green Deal were removed after spring 2024.

The study highlights how low-intensity agricultural practices, both within and around natural sites, are necessary for the conservation of European biodiversity.

Reference:

Giorgio Zavattoni, Elie Gaget, Ineta Kačergytė, Tomas Pärt, Thomas Sattler, Tyler Hallman, Diego Pavón-Jordán & Jon E. Brommer. Threats and management of Natura 2000 protected areas in relation to current agricultural practices. Conservation Biology. 2025. DOI: 10.1111/cobi.70172

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Journal

Conservation Biology

DOI

10.1111/cobi.70172 

Method of Research

Data/statistical analysis

Subject of Research

Not applicable

Article Title

Threats and management of Natura 2000 protected areas in relation to current agricultural practices

Article Publication Date

3-Nov-2025

 

Caution advised with corporate virtual care partnerships

Canadian Medical Association Journal

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Provincial governments that partner with for-profit virtual health care companies need to be cautious to protect public trust in the health care system, according to an analysis article in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal) https://www.cmaj.ca/lookup/doi/10.1503/cmaj.250639.

At least 4 provinces in Canada have partnered with corporate virtual care organizations as part of efforts to deal with challenges in primary care access, offering medical care via video, phone and text messaging.

“There are risks associated with direct-to-consumer virtual ‘walk in’ style care related to access, quality of care and data privacy,” writes Dr. Lauren Lapointe-Shaw, a clinician-scientist and associate professor, Temerty Faculty of Medicine and the Institute for Health Policy, Management and Evaluation, University of Toronto, and ICES Central, Toronto, Ontario, with coauthors. “These risks require careful consideration, particularly as formal partnerships could further entrench corporate virtual care within Canadian health care systems.”

The authors describe the variation in provincial partnerships with corporate-provided virtual care programs, as well as their benefits, risks, and the responsibilities of governments when adopting such partnerships. Of paramount concern is the need to ensure health care quality standards are met, to protect data privacy, and enable transparency around contracts, funding and profits.

“There is a need for caution before greenlighting corporations in the public health care sector, as once these programs are introduced, it may be difficult to modify what has been established. By leaving companies to self-regulate, change is unlikely to occur,” they conclude.

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Journal

Canadian Medical Association Journal

DOI

10.1503/cmaj.250639 

Method of Research

Literature review

Subject of Research

People

Article Title

Government partnerships with corporate virtual primary care

Article Publication Date

3-Nov-2025

 

Study shows how kids learn when to use capital letters - it’s not just about rules

Society for Research in Child Development

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More than one-third of the world’s population uses a writing system that includes both uppercase and lowercase letter forms. In these writing systems, capitalization is the use of an uppercase form for the first letter of a word. Learning to capitalize in English requires a speller to identify two clues: a word’s type (capitalize if it’s a proper noun, i.e., a specific person, place or thing), and its sentence position (capitalize if it’s at the start of a sentence). Capitalization rules in English appear to be simple, which means that they are taught early, and are not usually revisited in the later school years. However, little is known about how well English-speaking children understand capitalization rules, how these skills progress with age, or how accurately adults maintain their skills. 

Across two studies, researchers from the University of Tasmania in Australia wanted to understand how capitalization skills change with age and whether certain writing patterns make it easier or harder for students to use capitalization correctly.  Specifically, the researchers looked at whether people are more likely to capitalize words with two “clues” for using a capital letter (proper nouns at the start of a sentence) than words with just one clue (e.g., proper nouns in the middle of a sentence, or common nouns (i.e., a type of person, place or thing) at the start of a sentence), and less likely again for words with no capitalization clues at all (common nouns in the middle of a sentence, which should not be capitalized). In Australia, where this research was conducted, children are taught to capitalize proper nouns in Grade 2, having learned in the previous two grades that personal names and sentence-initial words should be capitalized. 

Participants were 236 English-speaking students from southeastern Australia, in Grades 3–6, 7–12, and at the post-secondary level. They were mostly female, and 95% white. Participants were given pre-written sentences with some words missing: either with one word missing at a time, or with several missing words in a row. Researchers spoke the sentences aloud, and the participants wrote the missing words they heard. For example, participants heard the sentence “Tom likes to play tennis” and filled in the words “Tom” and “tennis”, or “Tom likes” and “play tennis.”

The responses conveyed that adolescents and adults were for the most part skilled capitalizers, even with only one clue to capitalization (such as “Tennis” at the start of a sentence, or proper noun “Tom” in the middle). However, they still capitalized some words when it wasn’t necessary (such as “Tennis” mid-sentence). Students in Grades 3–6 made more capitalization errors than the older students did, but they benefited more from two clues than one. Students in Grades 3–6 also tended to capitalize better when they had to focus more on the sentence (by writing several words in a row) than on the individual words (by writing one word at a time). 

The findings suggest that spelling exercises that draw students’ attention to a word’s role in a sentence are especially helpful for encouraging children to use capital letters. Teachers can help students by encouraging them to think about both the meaning and position of words in a sentence, not just how a word is spelled. 

This research was featured in a new Child Development article, “Capital Gains: Effects of Word Class and Sentence Position on Capitalization Use Across Age” by authors Ms. Emilia Hawkey, Dr. Matthew A. Palmer and Dr. Nenagh Kemp from the University of Tasmania in Australia. The Society for Research in Child Development (SRCD) had the opportunity to speak with the author team to learn more about the research. 

SRCD: Did anything in the results surprise you? 

Author team: The capitalization rules in English seem very simple: we capitalize the first word of a sentence, and proper nouns. We may expect that children and adults alike should be able to use these rules very well after being taught them in the first few years of school. However, our study is the first to suggest that students in Grades 3–6 do not seem to use capitalization according to the rules they are taught. If they did, we would expect to see few errors, and that they would do just as well with one-capitalization-clue words as with two-clue words. Instead, young spellers appear to pick up capitalization clues gradually over time, from exposure to reading. This gradual learning is surprising because it demonstrates that spellers seem to be consolidating their knowledge of spelling patterns by reading, not just applying the clear and simple spelling rules once they’re taught.

SRCD: Can you please explain how this research might be helpful for parents, teachers, and school administrators?

Author team: The rules for capitalization in English are consistent: every proper noun, and the first word of every sentence, needs to be capitalized. However, this requires a student to be confident in knowing what a proper noun really is, and to be aware of sentence structure. The simplicity of these rules may cause us to underestimate just how difficult it can be for young spellers to use them consistently. Our study shows that young spellers apply capitalization rules best when they are encouraged to pay attention to the broader sentence structure as well as to the words themselves. The most efficient way to help students do this would be to have brief but intentional reminders about these capitalization clues each school year. To facilitate this, school administrators could build upon aspects of the curriculum in Grades 3-6 to include opportunities for capitalization rule-revision.

Parents and caregivers can also support their children’s capitalization development by pointing out the start-of-sentence and proper-noun clues in everyday activities. For example, a parent could draw their child’s attention to the start of each sentence as they read a book together. Similarly, they could ask why a city or street name needs a capital as they pass a road sign. This way, parents can help their children build confidence in understanding and identifying these clues.

SRCD: Can you please address some of the research limitations? 

Author team: We gave our participants only 40 test words to write, so that the youngest students did not lose focus. These test words were carefully chosen, but the relatively small number means that we need to be careful about generalizing our findings to how people use capitalization more broadly. We also cannot be certain how well the results would transfer to naturalistic writing, where children are choosing which words to write. They might do better, because they will be using words they are familiar with, or they might do more poorly, because they must decide what they want to write.

Most proper nouns don’t exist as common nouns and so should always be capitalized (e.g., “Australia”, “Fiona”). This means that spellers may capitalize a proper noun like “Australia” simply because they have always seen it written with a capital letter. Future research should consider how people spell words that can exist in both forms (e.g., "Daisy” the name, vs. “daisy” the flower), to provide a stricter test of their ability to use capitalization rules rather than relying on spelling memory. 

SRCD: What’s next in this field of research?

Author team: We are currently working on a short capitalization intervention study with students in Grades 3–6. The purpose of this is to see whether students in these grades can benefit from a brief, targeted reminder about the capitalization clues. This will further our knowledge of how well children understand the capitalization rules, provide guidance to teachers on how much extra teaching capitalization might need, and serve as a window into spelling decision-making processes more broadly.

This research was funded by the Australian Government Research Training Program.

Summarized from an article in Child Development, “Capital Gains: Effects of Word Class and Sentence Position on Capitalization Use Across Age,” by Hawkey, E., Palmer, M. A., and Kemp, N. (University of Tasmania, Australia). Copyright 2025 The Society for Research in Child Development. All rights reserved.

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Journal

Child Development

DOI

10.1111/cdev.70035 

Method of Research

Experimental study

Subject of Research

People

Article Title

Capital Gains: Effects of Word Class and Sentence Position on Capitalization Use Across Age

Article Publication Date

3-Nov-2025