A robot with expandable appendages could explore Martian caves and cliffs

by Andy Tomaswick, Universe Today

Credit: Universe Today

Plenty of areas in the solar system are interesting for scientific purposes but hard to access by traditional rovers. Some of the most prominent are the caves and cliffs of Mars—where exposed strata could hold clues to whether life ever existed on the Red Planet. So far, none of the missions sent there has been able to explore those difficult-to-reach places. But a mission concept from a team at Stanford hopes to change that.

The concept, known as ReachBot, is a robot that can support itself using multiple articulated appendages to navigate terrain that would be difficult to reach using other navigational techniques. In addition to being able to traverse complex ground patterns, it could also, in theory, at least scale sheer cliff faces.

It was initially pitched as a NASA Institute for Advanced Concepts project, where it was awarded a Phase I grant back in 2021. The authors describe the idea as a fusion of two separate technologies developed for different purposes: mobile manipulation robots and deployable space structures.

Mobile manipulation robots are relatively common in space exploration. Platforms like Robonaut and LEMUR utilize robotics technology to perform tasks like maintaining the ISS and inspecting other space habitats—however, much of their mobility is limited. Efforts like Lemur pride themselves on being able to navigate tricky terrain, but even it would have difficulty scaling a cliff face.

Deployable structures, on the other hand, are more commonly used in satellites. They decrease the space necessary to pack things like solar panels and antennas into a rocket fairing, and they do so by only deploying once they reach space. Typically they use some kind of thermal or electrical smart material, but there is a lot of ongoing research in this area.

Video showing some of the ReachBot’s capabilities. Credit: NASA Space Tech YouTube Channel

ReachBot takes the best of both worlds by using the deployable structure as manipulated appendages. This allows it to extend one of its appendages to a new position, secure it in place using an end-effector that can adhere to the surface, and reposition itself by rotating its joints.

If you've ever gone rock climbing, you've heard the adage of "three points of contact." ReachBot uses a similar technique—by only moving one appendage at a time, it can maintain its position while setting itself up to move, albeit slowly, toward its intended target.

That intended target could be in the middle of a cliff or the middle of a cave, both of which are exciting areas for sample collection. If ReachBot has to ascend a cliff, it simply extends one of its appendages past the others, secures it, and then pulls itself up. Alternatively, in a cave with a rough floor, it can suspend itself off of different features, including the ceiling.

Fraser explains how we could explore lava tubes on the moon and Mars.

In addition, ReachBot can use its other appendages to secure itself and apply force to the surface. That surface pressure is critical for operations like drilling and is made much more difficult if the system can't cross-brace itself.

The detailed report laid out by the Stanford team showed progress in several areas, including coming up with a controller, researching different end-effector solutions, and coming up with a mission architecture. They also had plenty of plans for future efforts, including testing a prototype in a real-world environment similar to one the robot might encounter on Mars.

For now, the lab is continuing development on it after the completion of the Phase I project. It seems well placed for a Phase II, but nothing has come of it so far. ReachBots also have plenty of use cases for terrestrial applications, so somebody will undoubtedly come along and keep the technology moving along its development path.

More information: ReachBot: a Small Robot for Large Mobile Manipulation Tasks in Martian Cave Environments: www.nasa.gov/sites/default/fil … _reachbot_tagged.pdf

Provided by Universe Today Cylindrical autonomous drilling bot could reach buried Martian water

Study finds talented scientists and engineers join technology startups for love of the job and not the pay

by Jennifer Reo, European School of Management and Technology

Credit: CC0 Public Domain

New research from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and ESMT Berlin uncovers the factors influencing the job choices of talented STEM Ph.D.s, showing how and why startups can hire high ability scientists and engineers.

Technology startups are often encouraged to hire the best scientists and engineers to help them succeed in commercializing cutting-edge technologies. But why would talented workers turn down jobs in big companies like Amazon and Google to instead work in riskier startups for lower pay?

Indeed, a growing body of entrepreneurship research shows that startup employees earn much less than their peers in large established firms, a fact that has been interpreted as evidence that startups are unable to hire high-ability workers.

However, in a forthcoming study in Management Science, Michael Roach, associate professor at the Gies College of Business, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and Henry Sauermann, professor of strategy and academic director of the Vali Entrepreneurship Hub at ESMT Berlin, show that some high-ability workers prefer to join startups for non-monetary benefits despite earning lower pay.

"A key insight from our research is that many high-ability scientists and engineers choose jobs in early-stage startups over large tech companies due to specific career preferences that align better with the unique work setting offered in startups," says Michael Roach. "Many of these individuals are interested in being startup employees rather than founders, which differs from the popular notion that it is primarily aspiring entrepreneurs who choose to work in startups."

At the same time, Roach notes that aspiring founders are also more likely to work in startups, often to gain experience that will help them to become better entrepreneurs in the future.

Using survey data that followed a cohort of more than 2,000 science and engineering Ph.D.s for nearly a decade, the researchers measured respondents' career preferences while in graduate school and related them to the Ph.D. graduates' first-time industry jobs in startups or established firms. This comprehensive approach allowed the researchers to capture a nuanced picture of the factors influencing job choice among high-ability scientists and engineers.

"High-ability graduates in startups earn roughly 20% lower pay than their peers in established firms," adds Henry Sauermann. "This suggests that for these individuals, the non-financial benefits of startup employment outweigh the lower levels of pay and resources compared to established firm employment."

More detailed data on the underlying reasons suggests that startup joiners highly value factors such as autonomy and opportunities to work on cutting-edge technologies. By analyzing both job applications and job offers, the researchers also found that a large pool of individuals attracted to working at startups enables startups to "cherry-pick" the most talented applicants. As a result, startup employees are on average of higher ability than established firm employees, as measured using the Ph.D. program ranking.

Roach and Sauermann's research provides valuable insights for founders, managers, and policymakers. It suggests that early-stage technology startups can overcome the challenges of attracting and retaining human capital by appealing to individuals who have a strong preference for working in an entrepreneurial environment.

"Although these individuals appear willing to 'pay' to work in startups, this does not necessarily come 'free' to their employers. Rather, some of the features that attract workers to startups—such as autonomy—may need to be managed carefully and may involve costs of their own," the authors caution.

For Ph.D. scientists considering their career paths, the study offers a fresh perspective. It suggests that those who are attracted to the dynamic and innovative environment of startups may have to accept lower pay and higher risks but may end up having a more satisfying job.

Still, the authors advise job seekers to consider carefully what each type of job entails, rather than relying on assumptions and stereotypes. They recommend not only using comparison data on things such as pay, but also qualitative insights from current employees and those who left the company to go elsewhere.

The study also has implications for the broader technology sector and the economy. By demonstrating that startups can attract high-ability human capital, it underscores the potential of startups to drive innovation and economic growth. The findings also highlight the benefits of fostering an entrepreneurial culture and environment in established firms to attract and retain top talent.

More information: Michael Roach et al, Can Technology Startups Hire Talented Early Employees? Ability, Preferences, and Employee First Job Choice, Management Science (2023). DOI: 10.1287/mnsc.2023.4868

Journal information: Management Science 

Provided by European School of Management and TechnologyVisa concerns deter foreign-born PhDs from working in startups

 

One team member's effort can jumpstart the whole team's efforts, new analysis of soccer teams reveals

by Ben-Gurion University of the Negev

Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain

What if you could measure effort and not just performance? What if you could determine if one person's effort in a workplace improved everyone's effort? What if you could determine if team efforts improved individual effort? While most research uses performance as a proxy for effort, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev researchers looked at a unique dataset to measure effort—in depth data from the Israeli Professional Football Leagues.

The soccer league tracks myriad statistics regarding play and Dr. Naomi Gershoni, Prof. Danny Cohen Zada, and former master's student Itai Dayag utilized these data for the 2017/2018 season to directly measure how teammates' efforts affect each other for the first time.

Their findings were published recently in Management Science in an article entitled "Effort Peer Effects in Team Production: Evidence from Professional Football."

Among the aspects the league tracks are players' running distance, number of sprints and player substitutions in five-minute increments throughout every game. By measuring how each player's running distance in a specific five-minute section of the game changes when he plays with peers/teammates that typically run more/exert more effort, they were able to show that peer effort positively affects individual effort.

To crosscheck their findings, the three researchers also looked at player substitutions. They analyzed the sections before and after a substitution to see how individual fatigue affects the team. They compared the outgoing player's final five-minute section with the incoming player's first five-minute section and found a significant difference in overall team effort catalyzed by the fresh player's energy.

The researchers believe the findings could be generalized to other types of work teams such as R&D units, court litigation teams, political lobbying groups and marketing divisions because, similarly to a soccer team, these work groups are characterized by high levels of collaborative, professional effort in a competitive environment (usually competing against rival teams). Moreover, in all these settings, performance measures are not observed very frequently (innovations, winning a legal case) and hard to measure at an individual level.

Cohen Zada, Dayag and Gershoni found that group efforts impact individual efforts and individual efforts impact group efforts.

"A potential implication of the strong peer effects that we found is that managers should determine workers' compensation not only by their direct contribution to output but also according to their effort. This may be even more efficient in environments where effort is strongly related to group performance and when individual performance is rarely observed, difficult to quantify, or when common individual performance measures are irrelevant for large parts of the team," they wrote.

"Finally, our results suggest that teammate social connections and obligations to each other may contribute to positive peer effects in effort and indicates why it can be beneficial for organizations to encourage social interaction among coworkers and to invest in activities that help forge team spirit," they added.

More information: Danny Cohen-Zada et al, Effort Peer Effects in Team Production: Evidence from Professional Football, Management Science (2023). DOI: 10.1287/mnsc.2023.4811

Journal information: Management Science 

Provided by Ben-Gurion University of the Negev Google Trends data can improve predictions of soccer players' market value

A Nigerian forest and its animals are under threat. Poachers have become rangers to protect both

by Taiwo Adebayo

Sunday Abiodun, 40, second from left, a former poacher turned forest ranger, sets out on patrol with other rangers inside the Omo Forest Reserve in Nigeria, on Monday, July. 31, 2023. The reserve faces threats from excessive logging, uncontrolled farming, and poaching. 

Credit: AP Photo/Sunday Alamba

Sunday Abiodun, carrying a sword in one hand and balancing a musket over his other shoulder, cleared weeds on a footpath leading to a cluster of new trees.

Until recently, it had been a spot to grow cocoa, one of several plots that Abiodun and his fellow forest rangers destroyed after farmers cut down trees to make way for the crop used to make chocolate—driving away birds in the process.

"When we see such a farm during patrol, we destroy it and plant trees instead," Abiodun said.

It could take more than 10 years for the trees to mature, he said, with the hope they ease biodiversity loss and restore habitat for birds.

He was not always enthusiastic about conservation. Before becoming a ranger, Abiodun, 40, killed animals for a living, including endangered species like pangolin. He is now part of a team working to protect Nigeria's Omo Forest Reserve, which is facing expanding deforestation from excessive logging, uncontrolled farming and poaching.

The tropical rainforest, 135 kilometers (84 miles) northeast of Lagos in Nigeria's southwest, is home to threatened species including African elephants, pangolins, white-throated monkeys, yellow-casqued hornbills, long-crested eagles and chimpanzees, according to UNESCO.

Sunday Abiodun, 40, a former poacher turned forest ranger, patrols on a motorcycle inside the Omo Forest Reserve in Nigeria on Monday, July 31, 2023. Before becoming a ranger, Abiodun killed animals for a living, including endangered species. He is now part of a team working to protect Nigeria's Omo Forest Reserve, which is facing expanding deforestation from excessive logging, uncontrolled farming and poaching. 

To protect animals and their habitat, 550 square kilometers—more than 40% of the forest—is designated as a conservation zone, said Emmanuel Olabode, project manager for the nonprofit Nigerian Conservation Foundation, which hires the rangers and acts as the government's conservation partner.

The rangers are focused on nearly 6.5 square kilometers of strictly protected land where elephants are thought to live and is a UNESCO-designated Biosphere Reserve, where communities work toward sustainable development.

"The rangers' work is crucial to conservation because this is one of the last viable habitats where we have forest elephants in Nigeria, and if the entire area is degraded, we will not have elephants again," Olabode said.

For decades, the conservation foundation has assisted in forest management, but hiring former hunters has proven to be a game changer, particularly in the fight against poaching.

Forest rangers line up as they look for poachers inside the Omo Forest Reserve in Nigeria on Wednesday, Aug. 2, 2023. Omo Forest Reserve, a tropical rainforest, faces threats from excessive logging, uncontrolled farming, and poaching. 

"The strategy is to win the ring leaders from the anti-conservation side over for conservation purposes, with a better understanding and life that discourages them from their destructive acts against the forest resources and have them bring others to the conservation side," said Memudu Adebayo, the foundation's technical director.

For poacher-turned-ranger Abiodun, it offered a new life. He started helping the foundation protect the forest in 2017 as a volunteer but realized he needed to fully commit to the solution.

"Back then, I used to see students on excursions, researchers and tourists visit the forest to learn about the trees and animals I was killing as a hunter," he said. "So, I said to myself, 'If I continue to kill these animals for money to eat now, my own children will not see them if they also want to learn about them in the future.'"

Sunday Abiodun, 40, right, a former poacher turned forest ranger, patrols the Omos Forest Reserve in Nigeria on Monday, July. 31, 2023. Omo Forest Reserve, a rainforest in Nigeria's southwest, faces threats from excessive logging, uncontrolled farming, and poaching. 

He said he now sees "animals that I would have killed to sell in the past, but I cannot because I know better and would rather protect them."

Abiodun's team consists of 10 rangers, which they say is too few for the size of the forest. They established Elephants' Camp, named for rangers' top priority, deep within the protected part of the forest, where they take turns staying each week and organize patrols.

The camp has a small solar power system and a round room where the rangers can rest amid the sounds of birds and insects chirping and wind blowing through the trees. Outside, the rangers plan their work at a large wooden table beneath a perforated zinc roof.

The roughly hourlong journey from their administrative office to the camp is difficult, with a road that is impassable for vehicles and even motorcycles when it rains. But once there, ecologist Babajide Agboola, who mentors the rangers and helps document new species, declared, "This is peace."

Sunday Abiodun, 40, a former poacher turned forest ranger, armed with a cutlass, looks for poachers inside the Omo Forest Reserve in Nigeria on Monday, July. 31, 2023. Before becoming a ranger, Abiodun killed animals for a living, including endangered species. He is now part of a team working to protect the Omo Forest Reserve, which is facing expanding deforestation from excessive logging, uncontrolled farming and poaching. 

Despite the physically taxing work, Adebayo of the Nigerian Conservation Foundation said the rangers have a better life than as poachers, where they could spend 10 days hunting with no guarantee of success.

"Now, they have a salary and other benefits, in addition to doing something good for the environment and humanity, and they can put food on the table more comfortably," Adebayo said.

The rangers have installed motion-detecting cameras on trees in the most protected part of the forest to capture footage of animals and poachers. In a 24-second video recorded in May, one elephant picks up food with its trunk near a tree at night. Other images from 2021 and 2023 also show elephants.

Poaching has not been eradicated in the forest, but rangers said they have made significant progress. They say the main challenges are now illegal settlements of cocoa farmers and loggers that are growing in the conservation areas, where it is not permitted.

A ranger shows trees recently planted at a site that was once a cocoa cultivation plot in the Omo Forest Reserve in Nigeria on Monday, July. 31, 2023. Omo Forest Reserve, a tropical rainforest in Nigeria's southwest, faces threats from excessive logging, uncontrolled farming, and poaching. 

Sunday Abiodun, left, a former poacher turned forest ranger, argues with an illegal logger during a patrol inside the Omo Forest Reserve Nigeria on Monday, July. 31, 2023. Before becoming a ranger, Abiodun killed animals for a living, including endangered species. He is now part of a team working to protect Nigeria's Omo Forest Reserve, which is facing expanding deforestation from excessive logging, uncontrolled farming and poaching.

Sunday Abiodun, right, a former poacher turned forest ranger, shows trees recently planted at a site once used for cocoa cultivation, in the Omo Forest Reserve in Nigeria on Monday, July. 31, 2023. Omo Forest Reserve, a tropical rainforest in Nigeria's southwest, faces threats from excessive logging, uncontrolled farming, and poaching.  

Forest rangers, some of them former poachers, salute during a parade in the Omo Forest Reserve in Nigeria on Monday, July. 31, 2023. Omo Forest Reserve, a tropical rainforest in Nigeria's southwest, faces threats from excessive logging, uncontrolled farming and poaching. 

Credit: AP Photos/Sunday Alamba

"We want the government to support our conservation effort to preserve what remains of the forest," said another poacher-turned-ranger, Johnson Adejayin. "We see people we arrested and handed over to the government return to the forest to continue illegal logging and farming. They'd just move to another part."

One official from the government's forestry department said they were not authorized to comment and another did not reply to calls and messages seeking comment.

Rangers implore communities in the forest, particularly farmers, to avoid clearing land and plant new trees. However, they called the government's enforcement of environmental regulations critical to success.

"We are losing Omo Forest at a very alarming rate," said Agboola, the ecologist, who has been visiting for eight years. "When the forest is destroyed, biodiversity and ecosystem services are lost. When you cut down trees, you cut down a climate change mitigation solution, which fuels carbon accumulation in the atmosphere."

© 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.


Explore furtherResearchers examine the complex interactions between timber, logging, and forest elephants

New leaf-tailed gecko from Madagascar is a master of disguise

by University of Copenhagen

The holotype (representative specimen) of Uroplatus garamaso shows off the striking tail and body coloration of the new species. Credit: Dr. Mark D. Scherz, Natural History Museum of Denmark

Leaf-tailed geckos are masters of camouflage. Some species have skin flaps around the whole body and head, as well as flattened tails. During the day, they rest head-down on tree trunks with these skin flaps spread out, and blend seamlessly into their surroundings, making them nearly impossible to spot. At night, they awaken to prowl the fine branches of the understory looking for invertebrate prey.

"When we first discovered this species in 2000, we already suspected it might be new to science," says Dr. Frank Glaw, curator of herpetology at the Bavarian State Collection of Zoology, lead author on the study. "But it has taken us many years to amass enough information to confidently describe it as a new species."

The team collected data on the genetics, morphology, and the distribution of the species. Several expeditions to northern Madagascar were undertaken that expanded knowledge of this new species. The discovery was announced on August 15 in Salamandra.

The unusual eyes of Uroplatus garamaso help to distinguish it from closely related species of leaf-tailed geckos. Credit: Dr. Jörn Köhler, Hessisches Landesmuseum Darmstadt, Germany

Leaf-tailed geckos are good jumpers, and often bring their hands and feet together before leaping. Credit: Dr. Jörn Köhler, Hessisches Landesmuseum Darmstadt, Germany
The unusual eyes of Uroplatus garamaso help to distinguish it from closely related species of leaf-tailed geckos. Credit: Dr. Jörn Köhler, Hessisches Landesmuseum Darmstadt, Germany

One challenge was that Uroplatus garamaso is remarkably similar to another species, Uroplatus henkeli, and has been confused with it in the past. "This is quite common for reptiles from Madagascar," explains Dr. Jörn Köhler of the Hessisches Landesmuseum Darmstadt. "There are a lot of these so-called 'cryptic species,' which are waiting for taxonomic treatment."

By careful analysis, the authors were able to find some features that differentiate the two species. "The real key was the discovery that the tip of the tongue is blackish in U. henkeli, whereas it is pink in U. garamaso," says Dr. Philip-Sebastian Gehring of the University of Bielefeld, Germany. At 20 cm long, the new species is also a little smaller than U. henkeli, and has a narrower tail.

"The new species is the latest in a series of new Uroplatus geckos described from Madagascar over the last few years," says Dr. Fanomezana Ratsoavina of the University of Antananarivo, Madagascar, who did her Ph.D. on leaf-tailed geckos.

During the day, Uroplatus garamaso rest hidden, head-down on tree trunks, with their hindlimbs outstretched and fringes pressed against the bark, making them almost impossible to spot. Here, the gecko is viewed straight on, as one might (not) find them in the forest. Credit: Dr. Mark D. Scherz, Natural History Museum of Denmark

Leaf-tailed geckos are masters of disguise, and Uroplatus garamaso is one of the best. Here, the gecko is hiding on the right hand side of the tree trunk. Credit: Dr. Mark D. Scherz, Natural History Museum of Denmark

Leaf-tailed geckos are masters of disguise, and Uroplatus garamaso is one of the best. Here, we reveal the gecko in its hidden position. Credit: Dr. Mark D. Scherz, Natural History Museum of Denmark

"We are close to completing the taxonomic inventory of the genus, but this is just the start of our understanding of their evolution and ecology," says Dr. Mark Scherz, curator of herpetology at the Natural History Museum of Denmark.

"The mouth color, which has been so useful to identify different species, has a totally unknown function. There is a lot we still do not know about these geckos, from their broader evolutionary relationships to their behavior."


More information: Frank Glaw et al, A new large-sized species of leaf-tailed gecko (Uroplatus) from northern Madagascar, Salamandra (2023).


Provided by University of Copenhagen


Explore furtherEight new species of tiny geckos come tumbling out of Madagascar's rainforests

 

New species of snake found in Peru named after Harrison Ford

A specimen of a previously unknown species of snake that has been named after the actor

 Harrison Ford.

Scientists working in Peru have named a new species of snake after Harrison Ford in honor of the "Indiana Jones" actor's support for conservation work

The 40 cm (16 inch) reptile was first discovered in May 2022 in the jungle mountains of Otishi National Park, San Marcos National University said Wednesday.

But it was not until now that researchers concluded it was indeed a previously unknown species.

This creature is a yellowish-brown color, with black spots, a black belly and copper eyes.

It has been given the scientific name Tachymenoides harrisonfordi.

The snake was first found by a team led by Edgar Lehr, a US-German biologist.

It is now named after Ford because he is active in environmental issues, Lehr told AFP from the state of Illinois.

"I found out that Harrison Ford agreed to have his name used via a consultation that Conservation International made", he added, referring to an NGO.

He said the snake was discovered in an area that is only accessible by helicopter.

"It took us seven days to find it," said Lehr.

The snake is harmless to adult humans but it is good at hunting toads and lizards, he added.

Lehr led a team of researchers from San Marcos National University, Florida International University and Illinois Wesleyan University.

Salamandra, the German Journal of Herpetology, published on Tuesday a study on the discovery of the snake.

More information: www.salamandra-journal.com/ind … era-a-catenazzi/file

Journal information: Journal of Herpetology

© 2023 AFP

Speedy new species of snake uncovered in Australia

 

Six strategies could boost NY City housing by 300,000 units over decade

Increase could make housing more affordable

Reports and Proceedings

RAND CORPORATION

Six policies aimed boosting residential housing construction in New York City could spark the production of roughly 300,000 additional new housing units over a decade, according to a new RAND Corporation report.

 

The additional housing units would represent more than a 160% increase over recent annual housing production levels in the city, according to the report.

 

Researchers say the surge in housing supply likely would lead to increased affordability through greater competition among landlords for tenants in the short term and an increase in naturally occurring affordable housing over the longer term.

 

“Recent housing policy in New York City primarily has focused on price controls and direct public financing of affordable housing production,” said Jason Ward, lead author of the study and an economist at RAND, a nonprofit research organization. “But without significant increases in housing production, these approaches are unlikely to lead to broad increases in affordability in the city.”

 

The key contribution of the RAND report is that it provides estimates of the potential level of additional housing production that could result from adoption of the most-promising proposals the researchers identified from a large set of policy options that have been proposed by local policymakers and experts in recent years.

 

The policies include increasing allowable building density in strategic areas,

streamlining building approval processes, reforming liability rules for construction sites, and incentives to encourage conversion of office buildings to residential uses.

 

Researchers also emphasize that the estimated housing gains from these policies hinge critically on the creation of a replacement for the now-expired 421-a tax relief program for multifamily housing construction.

 

The biggest gains among the strategies analyzed would be to relax density restrictions in areas within walking distance of subway and rail stops. Such a move would generate an additional 122,000 housing units in New York over a decade, according to the analysis.

 

New York City’s persistent crisis of housing affordability has reached unprecedented levels. As of 2021, a majority of renters in New York City spend more than 30% of their incomes on housing and the overall ratio of median rent to median household income in the city is the second-highest among the nation’s largest cities.

 

Housing production in New York has not kept pace with the growing demand to live in the city. From 2010 to 2020, the city’s population increased by about 630,000 residents, while its housing stock increased by 200,000 units. Over the same period, New York City gained nearly 1 million new jobs, far outpacing population and housing growth within the city.

 

“While increased housing production alone may not be sufficient to reach affordability goals, it is clear that the failure to achieve a significant, sustained increase in housing production will limit any path toward meaningful housing affordability in New York,” Ward said.

 

RAND researchers identified the most promising strategies to boost multifamily housing construction from among a large set of proposals put forth by government and nongovernmental organizations. They also had discussions with local affordable housing developers, city and state government officials, academic researchers, practitioners in land use and property tax law, and regional and state planning organizations.

 

In some cases, the policies highlighted in the report were taken verbatim from preexisting proposals such as the city’s recently released Building and Land Use Task Force (BLAST) report. In other cases, a broader policy idea was adapted into a more specific proposal.

 

“The central point we hope that policymakers and the public will take away from the report is that housing production is a critical part of any solution to housing affordability -- in New York and elsewhere -- and that there are many ways to increase housing production,” Ward said.

 

Support for the research was provided by the Robin Hood Foundation, a charitable organization that fights poverty in New York City.

 

Other authors of the report are George Zuo and Yael Katz.

  

The RAND Social and Economic Well-Being division seeks to actively improve the health, and social and economic well-being of populations and communities throughout the world.

 

####

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DOI

10.7249/RRA2775-1 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Computational simulation/modeling

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE TITLE

Supporting Housing Affordability in New York City Through Increased Housing Production A Policy Brief

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

16-Aug-2023

 

Nurses’ intentions to quit increased during the pandemic despite their high resilience

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF EASTERN FINLAND

Nurses’ intentions to leave nursing increased during the COVID-19 pandemic, a recent study from the University of Eastern Finland shows. Yet, nurses estimated their resilience to be high.

The COVID-19 pandemic caused stress everywhere in the world, and especially for healthcare professionals. Coping with a pandemic calls for an ability to respond to challenging and difficult situations. It also requires crisis management, good leadership and faith in the future, all of which are linked to experienced resilience.

“Resilience refers to a person recognising and being able to utilise their individual resources and, when necessary, turning to support available from, e.g., family and friends, colleagues, managers and other professionals, in a way that helps them to cope with a challenging situation,” Doctoral Researcher Saija Sihvola of the University of Eastern Finland says.

Nurses’ work demands, including staffing levels and appropriate compensation, have sparked discussion everywhere in the world, Finland included. According to previous studies, work demands, such as excessive workloads, and weaker resilience, may affect nurses’ intentions to leave nursing. Previous studies have also shown that resilience is associated with job satisfaction, professional commitment and quality of life, and it protects against anxiety and burnout.

The survey was conducted in Finland in spring 2021, i.e., during the third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, and it examined nurses’ assessments of their resilience, job satisfaction, quality of care and intentions to leave, and structural equation modelling was used to explore the relationships between these. A total of 437 Finnish registered nurses responded to an electronic survey. Their age ranged between 21 and 69 years, and 87% respondents were female.

The findings indicate that nurses had good resilience, but a significant proportion considered their work demands to be high, and their job satisfaction to be relatively low (5.8 out of 10). The quality of care in their own working unit as regarded as moderate (7.46 out of 10). During the pandemic, 16% of nurses had considered leaving nursing, compared to only 2% before the pandemic.

The results showed that nurses working in outpatient clinics and other units had higher resilience than nurses working in urgent care, acute wards, intensive care, or anaesthesia and operative units. Older nurses estimated their job satisfaction to be better and had fewer intentions to leave both during and after the pandemic than younger nurses. Besides job satisfaction, intentions to leave nursing were also influenced by work demands, with lower demands associated with fewer intentions to leave. For instance, 72% of nurses estimated that their salary in relation to the demands of their work was not appropriate, and 28% felt that their work unit was generally understaffed.

The findings indicate that high resilience among nurses was associated with better quality of care, and contributed to job satisfaction. Better job satisfaction, on the other hand, reduced intentions to leave nursing. However, no direct association was found between the level of resilience and intentions to leave.

According to the researchers, the results highlight the importance of nurses’ high resilience during a pandemic, when work demands may increase and job satisfaction may decrease.

“A number of nurses participating in our study had considered leaving nursing, which highlights a clear need to develop effective strategies to maintain quality healthcare while also supporting nurses’ resilience and professional commitment in times of crisis,” Saija Sihvola concludes.

The study was published in the esteemed BMC Health Services Research journal.

---

JOURNAL

BMC Health Services Research

DOI

10.1186/s12913-023-09648-5 

ARTICLE TITLE

Resilience, job satisfaction, intentions to leave nursing and quality of care among nurses during the COVID-19 pandemic – a questionnaire study.

 

Tough memory device aims for space missions

Peer-Reviewed Publication

KING ABDULLAH UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY (KAUST)

 

IMAGE: GALLIUM OXIDE-BASED DEVICES CAN OPERATE IN EXTREME ENVIRONMENTS, SUCH AS OUTER SPACE, WHERE IT CAN WITHSTAND HIGH TEMPERATURES AND RADIATION WITHOUT SERIOUS DEGRADATION. view more 

CREDIT: © 2023 KAUST; ELIZA MKHITARYAN.

Among the many hazards encountered by space probes, exposure to radiation and huge temperature swings pose particular challenges for their electronic circuits. Now KAUST researchers have invented the first ever flash memory device made from gallium oxide, a material that can withstand these harsh conditions far better than conventional electronics[1].

Gallium oxide is a semiconductor — although it is usually a poor conductor of electricity, incorporating certain impurities can enable it to carry an electrical current. It offers many advantages over silicon, the semiconductor used in most computer chips. For example, gallium oxide can support high currents and voltages with low energy losses, and it is easy to grow into high-quality films using low-cost techniques.

Above all, though, it is tough. “Gallium oxide-based devices have become a prominent choice to operate in adverse environments, especially in space exploration, because it can withstand high temperatures and radiation without serious degradation,” says Ph.D. candidate Vishal Khandelwal, one member of the team behind the work.

Transistors and diodes can already be built from gallium oxide. But for gallium oxide electronics to flourish, researchers needed to prove that the material could also be used in memory devices.

The team’s device is a type of transistor containing a layer known as a floating gate, which captures electrons to store data. This basic design is already used in conventional flash memory devices. Instead of using silicon, though, the new device contains a layer of gallium oxide just 50 nanometers thick. Above the gallium oxide is a minuscule fragment of titanium nitride, encased in a very thin layer of insulating material, which serves as the floating gate.

To program data into the floating gate, the researchers apply a positive voltage pulse that sends electrons from the gallium oxide through the insulator and into the floating gate, where they are trapped. A negative voltage can erase the data by sending the electrons back into the gallium oxide. The location of these electrons affects how well the gallium oxide conducts electricity, which can be used to read the state of the memory device.

Gallium oxide has an unusually wide band gap — a measure of the energy needed to free its electrons — which means that there is a large difference between the device’s programmed and erased states, even at a high operating temperature. This property helps to make the memory very stable, and the prototype device could retain its data for more than 80 minutes.

For now, programming and erasing the device requires relatively long voltage pulses of about 100 milliseconds, which the team hopes to shorten. “Further development in gallium oxide material quality and device design will give better memory properties for practical extreme-environment applications,” says Xiaohang Li, who leads the team.

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JOURNAL

Japanese Journal of Applied Physics

DOI

10.35848/1347-4065/acdbf3 

ARTICLE TITLE

Demonstration of β-Ga2O3 nonvolatile flash memory for oxide electronics

 

Racism, poverty, and illiteracy increase the risk of contracting and succumbing to AIDS in Brazil

A retrospective study of 28.3 million people has assessed the effects of social determinants of health on HIV/AIDS incidence and mortality in Brazil

Peer-Reviewed Publication

BARCELONA INSTITUTE FOR GLOBAL HEALTH (ISGLOBAL)

Social determinants of health —the social conditions in which people grow up, live and work— can influence the risk of contracting AIDS and the mortality associated with the disease. This is the main conclusion of a new study carried out by the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal), a centre supported by the "la Caixa" Foundation, and published in The Lancet Regional Health.

The research team evaluated a cohort of 28.3 million people, representative of the low-income Brazilian population, based on data collected between 2007 and 2015. This is the largest evaluation of social determinants of health and AIDS in Brazil to date. The researchers concluded that social determinants related to poverty and social vulnerability are strongly associated with a higher burden of AIDS. Specifically, individuals who are black, economically disadvantaged, and lack access to education, are disproportionately affected by the burden of the disease.

"The results of the study show that social determinants of health play an important role in the burden of HIV/AIDS in a highly unequal country like Brazil. The whole chain of events related to the disease, whether it is the risk of becoming infected, developing advanced disease or dying from it, is influenced by these factors," says Davide Rasella, ISGlobal researcher and lead author of the study.

Despite Brazil's pioneering response to the HIV/AIDS epidemic, being the first middle-income country to offer free antiretroviral treatment to all people living with the disease and widespread free HIV testing, the mortality rate from the disease in Brazil in 2020 was 6 per 100,000 inhabitants. Of the new infections registered in Latin America in 2020, almost half (48%) were recorded in Brazil.

The lower the wealth, the higher the AIDS incidence and mortality

According to the results of the study, lower wealth was strongly associated with higher AIDS incidence and mortality. Specifically, people with lower wealth were 55% more likely to become infected and 99% more likely to die. "Lower wealth may be closely related to social exclusion and food insecurity, which are potential barriers to early diagnosis and to starting or adhering to HIV/AIDS treatment," says Rasella.

Lower levels of education were also associated with higher AIDS incidence and mortality. Illiterate people were 46% more likely to become ill and 176% more likely to die than those with higher education. This can be explained by factors such as lack of access to health information, risky sexual behaviour and difficulty in accessing health care. Previous studies have shown that people with lower levels of education are more likely to engage in risky sexual behaviour, to be diagnosed with HIV/AIDS late, and to have poorer access to and adherence to treatment.

In addition, black people had a 53% higher risk of AIDS and a 69% higher risk of death than those who identified as white or Asian. This increased risk could be a consequence of structural racism, including racial health inequalities in access to and quality of health services. "Structural racism in Brazil, as in many other parts of the world, also manifests itself in poorer living conditions, which expose people to worse HIV/AIDS outcomes," notes Rasella.

The effects of cash transfer programmes

Of the total participants in the evaluated cohort, 64.75% were beneficiaries of the Bolsa Família cash transfer programme. Individuals who received the Bolsa Família cash transfer for less than two years had a higher risk of developing HIV/AIDS than those who did not meet the eligibility criteria for the programme. A protective effect was also observed for long-term receipt, with those who received the benefit between 5 and 10 years or for more than 10 years having a lower risk of becoming ill and dying from the disease.

"This may be due to the poverty-reducing effect of the programme's subsidies and the requirements for receiving these benefits, such as visiting health services and attending school for children and adolescents. This brings families closer to the services that provide diagnosis and health education," argues Rasella.

Implications for prevention programmes

The results of the study highlight the need to invest in public health policies to expand access and ensure equity in health care, prioritising people with greater social vulnerability. "Our study has important implications for HIV/AIDS prevention and control programmes in other low- and middle-income countries. The results provide further evidence of the need to reduce social inequalities by focusing on key health determinants that affect HIV/AIDS," says the ISGlobal researcher.

"Without the implementation of meaningful interventions to reduce inequalities, there is a risk that the current increase in poverty rates and social vulnerability will reverse the progress made in the fight against HIV/AIDS in recent decades and hinder the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals related to this disease," concludes Rasella.

Reference

Lua I, F. Silva A, S. Guimarães N, et al., Rasella D. The effects of social determinants of health on acquired immune deficiency syndrome in a low-income population of Brazil: a retrospective cohort study of 28.3 million individuals. The Lancet Regional Health. Volume 24, 100554, August 2023. 10.1016/j.lana.2023.100554

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JOURNAL

The Lancet Regional Health - Americas

DOI

10.1016/j.lana.2023.100554 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Data/statistical analysis

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

The effects of social determinants of health on acquired immune deficiency syndrome in a low-income population of Brazil: a retrospective cohort study of 28.3 million individuals