Two motivational artificial beings are better than one for enhancing learning

Researchers from the University of Tsukuba find that praise delivered by robots and virtual agents improves offline learning

UNIVERSITY OF TSUKUBA

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IMAGE: A PARTICIPANT TRAINING IN FINGER-TAPPING TASK AND AN AGENT (IN THIS FIGURE, A ROBOT) WATCHING THE TRAINING. view more 

CREDIT: UNIVERSITY OF TSUKUBA

Tsukuba, Japan - Social rewards such as praise are known to enhance various stages of the learning process. Now, researchers from Japan have found that praise delivered by artificial beings such as robots and virtual graphics-based agents can have effects similar to praise delivered by humans, with important practical applications as social services such as education increasingly move to virtual and online platforms.

In a study published this month in PLOS ONE, researchers from the University of Tsukuba have shown that motor task performance in participants was significantly enhanced by praise from either one or two robots or virtual agents.

Although praise from robots and virtual agents has been found to enhance human motivation and performance during a task, whether these interactions have similar effects on offline skill consolidation, which is an essential component of the learning process, has not been investigated. Further, the various conditions associated with the delivery of praise by robot and virtual agents have not been thoroughly explored previously. The researchers at the University of Tsukuba aimed to address these questions in the present study.

"Previous studies have shown that praise from others can positively affect offline improvements in human motor skills," says first author Masahiro Shiomi. "However, whether praise from artificial beings can have similar effects on offline improvements has not been explored previously."

To examine these questions, the researchers asked participants to learn a finger-tapping task under several different conditions, which varied in terms of the timing and frequency of praise, the number of agents, and whether the agents were physically present or presented on a screen. The participants were then asked to repeat the task on the following day, and task performance was compared between the two days.

"We found that praise led to a measurable increase in task performance, indicating increased offline consolidation of the task," explains Professor Takamasa Iio. "Further, two agents led to significantly greater participant performance than one agent, even when the amount of praise was identical."

However, whether the praise was delivered by physical robots or by virtual agents did not influence the effects.

"Our study showed that praise from artificial beings improved skill consolidation in a manner that resembled praise delivered by humans," says first author Masahiro Shiomi. "Such findings may be useful for facilitating learning in children, for instance, or for exercise and rehabilitation applications."

Future work could consider the effects of praise delivered in different environments, for instance, in a VR environment, as well as the effects of greater numbers of agents. A greater understanding of the factors that influence the social effects of robot behavior is essential for improving the quality of human-robot interactions, which are increasingly an important element of education, services, and entertainment applications.

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The article, "Two is Better than One: Social Rewards from Two Agents Enhance Offline Improvements in Motor Skills More than Single Agent" was published in PLOS ONE DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0240622

 

Shining a light on the issue of wine fraud

UNIVERSITY OF ADELAIDE

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IMAGE: PHD STUDENT RUCHIRA RANAWEERA LOADS A WINE SAMPLE INTO THE AQUALOG SPECTROFLUOROMETER, WITH ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR DAVID JEFFERY. view more 

CREDIT: COURTESY OF UNIVERSITY OF ADELAIDE.

University of Adelaide wine researchers are developing a fast and simple method of authenticating wine - a potential solution against the estimated billions of dollars' worth of wine fraud globally, but also offering a possible means of building regional branding.

The team of scientists were able to identify the geographical origins of wines originating from three wine regions of Australia and from Bordeaux in France with 100% accuracy with a novel technique of molecular fingerprinting using 'fluorescence spectroscopy', a technology that analyses fluorescence of molecules.

"Wine fraud is a significant problem for the global wine industry, given a yearly economic impact within Australia alone estimated at several hundred million dollars, and globally thought to be in the billions of dollars," says Ruchira Ranaweera, PhD student in the University's Waite Research Institute, who conducted the research.

"Wine authentication can help to avoid any uncertainty around wine labeling according to origin, variety, or vintage. The application of a relatively simple technique like this could be adapted for use in the supply chain as a robust method for authentication or detection of adulterated wines."

The researchers looked at Cabernet Sauvignon ¬- a globally important grape variety and the second most planted in Australia - from three different wine regions of Australia and Bordeaux in France, the birthplace of Cabernet Sauvignon.

The research has been published in the journal Food Chemistry and was supported by Wine Australia and the Australian Government, the Waite Research Institute and industry partners through the ARC Training Centre for Innovative Wine Production.

The researchers compared an existing approach for authentication, which involves measuring elements in wine samples using 'inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry' (ICP-MS), with the more simple, rapid and cost-effective fluorescence spectroscopy technique.

"This method provides a 'fingerprint' of the samples according to the presence of fluorophoric or light-emitting compounds," says Ms Ranaweera. "When used in combination with a robust data analysis using a particular machine learning algorithm, it is proving to be a powerful technique for authentication."

In every wine they tested using the novel combination of fluorescence spectroscopy with machine learning-driven data analysis, they were able to correctly allocate the wine to region with the fluorescence data but not with elements determined by ICP-MS.

There are other useful applications of this technology for the wine industry that are available now or in the pipeline, such as phenolic and wine colour analysis, and smoke taint detection.

Project leader Associate Professor David Jeffery, from the Waite Research Institute and the ARC Training Centre for Innovative Wine Production, says they hope ultimately to identify specific chemical markers that help discriminate between wine regions.

"Other than coming up with a robust method for authenticity testing, we are hoping to use the chemical information obtained from fluorescence data to identify the molecules that are differentiating the wines from the different regions," Associate Professor Jeffery says.

"This may help with regional branding, by understanding how their wines' characteristics are influenced by the region and how they differ from other regions."

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Scientists define binary tropical cyclones

INSTITUTE OF ATMOSPHERIC PHYSICS, CHINESE ACADEMY OF SCIENCES

Research News

 

IMAGE: A BINARY TROPICAL CYCLONE (BTC) CASE IN THE NORTHWEST PACIFIC view more 

CREDIT: CHINA METEOROLOGICAL ADMINISTRATION

In the Northwest Pacific, most tropical cyclones occur alone during their lifetime. However, sometimes two or several tropical cyclones exist simultaneously. Generally, two tropical cyclones occurring simultaneously are referred to as binary tropical cyclones (BTCs), and they concurrently perform a mutual counterclockwise spin and move closer to each other when at a relatively close range. This phenomenon was first noted by Fujihara in 1921.

There are three existing BTC definitions with different criteria based on the separation distance, TC intensity and the coexistence time, which seem to be objective factors. However, as there is so explanation or reason in existence regarding the origins of these definitions, in truth they are mainly subjective.

To address this problem, Prof. Fumin Ren and his research team, from the viewpoints of two important parameters of BTCs--namely, the two TCs moving closer to each other and performing a mutual counterclockwise spin--carried out a study that analyzed two best-track datasets, provided by the China Meteorological Administration (CMA) and the Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC). They established an objective standard, which includes a main standard for defining BTCs and a secondary standard for identifying typical/atypical BTCs, based on the high level of consistency between the two datasets.

"The main standard has two requirements: two coexisting TCs are a pair of BTCs if the separation distance is less than 1800 km, and if this separation maintains for at least 12 hours," says Ren, with Chinese Academy of Meteorological Sciences.

The above research has been accepted and published by Advances in Atmospheric Sciences (https://doi.org/10.1007/s00376-020-9287-3).

BTCs often bring extreme precipitation when they make landfall, and cause serious disasters. For example, the strong typhoon "Morak" in 2009 caused about 700 deaths or disappearances over the southern Taiwan Island.

"We still do not have a clear picture of the characteristics of BTC interactions in China's offshore area, and this is what we are going to investigate next," concludes Ren.

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Tokyo's voluntary standstill may have stopped COVID-19 in its tracks

INSTITUTE OF INDUSTRIAL SCIENCE, THE UNIVERSITY OF TOKYO

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IMAGE: STUDY FROM THE UNIVERSITY OF TOKYO INSTITUTE OF INDUSTRIAL SCIENCE USES MOBILE PHONE LOCATION DATA TO SHOW JAPAN'S NONCOMPULSORY LOCKDOWN DURING FIRST WAVE OF COVID-19 EFFECTIVELY REDUCED TOKYO'S HUMAN MOVEMENT,... view more 

CREDIT: INSTITUTE OF INDUSTRIAL SCIENCE, THE UNIVERSITY OF TOKYO

Tokyo - Why did Japan largely contain COVID-19 despite famously jam-packed Tokyo and despite the country's proximity to China? With no penalties and only requests for cooperation, Japan's state of emergency somehow averted the large-scale outbreaks seen elsewhere. At least one viable answer has now emerged.

A new comparative analysis of people's mobility during the virus' first wave illustrates how drastically the Tokyo masses slowed. That slowdown may have throttled the spread of infections.

In a study from The University of Tokyo Institute of Industrial Science, researchers examined location data from more than 200,000 mobile phone users. Using these data, the researchers calculated the human movement in Tokyo before and during the state of emergency. The striking findings were published in Scientific Reports.

"Using anonymized data that represented about 2% of the population, we could compute human movement and contact rates at a 100-meter grid-cell scale," study first author Takahiro Yabe says. "We found that 1 week into the state of emergency, human mobility reduced by 50%, which led to a 70% drop in social contacts."

Less contact implies less disease spread.

Japan declared its state of emergency on April 7, followed by a gradual series of requests to close businesses and work from home, along with aggressive travel entry restrictions. However, under Japanese law, a mandatory lockdown could not be implemented or enforced.

The data spanned from January to April. A look at the major hub train stations around central Tokyo, including Shinjuku Station, the world's busiest, finds April 14 in Tokyo had 76%-87% fewer visits compared with pre-crisis January.

The researchers also analyzed how much and how far people in greater Tokyo traveled, with both showing around a 50% reduction. In other words, people moved less and stayed nearer to home. Social contact could also be computed based on people's spatial proximity. That, too, was substantially reduced, nearly to the 80% reduction level the government had targeted. The decline trends generally corresponded with governmental requests for people to do remote work, for school closures, and the actual state of emergency.

Going a step further, the study paired socioeconomic data with the mobility results. This showed those with higher income were more capable of reducing social contact and, consequently, lower the chance of COVID-19 transmission. Finally, the study put the mobility data against the estimated effective reproduction number, a key statistic estimating how many cases one infection can cause. This validated how the reduced contact also was likely to reduce infections.

"With a noncompulsory and nonpharmaceutical intervention, Tokyo had to rely on citizens' cooperation. Our study shows they cooperated by limiting their movement and contact, subsequently limiting infections," study co-author Yoshihide Sekimoto explains. "These findings offer insights that policymakers can apply when estimating necessary movement restrictions."

Amid the complex human and environmental dynamics behind fighting the spread of COVID-19, there is now stronger evidence that staying home and maintaining distance really work.

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The article, "Non?compulsory measures sufficiently reduced human mobility in Tokyo during the COVID?19 epidemic," was published in Scientific Reports at https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-75033-5

 

Conflicts in kindergarten can reduce children's interest in reading and math

UNIVERSITY OF EASTERN FINLAND

Research News

 

Teacher-perceived conflict predicts lower interest and pre-academic skills in math and literacy among kindergarteners, a new study from Finland shows.

Kindergarten represents a crucial context in which children develop school-related skills and patterns of engagement that form the basis for the development of later competencies important for academic success. Kindergarten achievement has been found to be highly predictive of later academic skills.

Given the long-lasting effects that kindergarten experiences have on later schooling, it is important to understand the factors associated with children's learning and motivation during this time. The quality of teacher-student interaction has been found to be important in terms of many different academic and socio-emotional outcomes. However, much of the previous work in the field has focused on children in later grades in elementary school and has been conducted in the United States. Fewer studies have been conducted in other educational contexts and in kindergarten specifically.

Researchers from the University of Jyväskylä, the University of Eastern Finland and New York University of Abu Dhabi investigated bidirectional links between the quality of teacher-child relationships and children's interest and pre-academic skills in literacy and math in Finland. Participants were 461 Finnish kindergarteners (6-year-olds) and their teachers (48). The study is part of the Teacher Stress Study, led by Professor Marja-Kristiina Lerkkanen and Associate Professor Eija Pakarinen at the University of Jyväskylä.

The results indicated that teacher-perceived conflict predicted lower interest and pre-academic skills in both literacy and math. It is possible that when children experience conflict with teachers, the negative emotions attached to these conflicts are harmful for children's engagement in learning and diminish their interest in academic tasks. It is also possible that children experiencing conflicts are missing out on time on learning literacy and math, either because they are disengaged from instructional activities or because teachers have to spend more instructional time on behavioural management.

The findings highlight the importance of kindergarten teachers being aware of how their relationships with children can in?uence children's later schooling. It would be important to develop pre-service and in-service programmes and interventions to assist teachers in building supportive, low conflict relationships with children. Teacher education programmes may also benefit from educating teachers not only about academic content and pedagogical practices but also in strategies that build supportive relationships with children.

"Compared to daycare, kindergarten introduces children to a more structured learning environment. The experiences children gain in this environment may have long-term consequences on the development of their academic motivation and competencies. Therefore, it is essential that our teachers are aware of the power their interaction with children may have, and that they are supported in finding optimal ways to interact with each child, while taking individual strengths and needs into consideration," Professor Jaana Viljaranta from the University of Eastern Finland says.

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For further information, please contact:

Associate Professor Eija Pakarinen, University of Jyväskylä, eija.k.pakarinen@jyu.fi, tel. +358408053520

Professor Jaana Viljaranta, University of Eastern Finland, jaana.viljaranta@uef.fi, tel. +358503256093

Research article:

Investigating Bidirectional Links Between the Quality of Teacher-Child Relationships and Children's Interest and Pre-Academic Skills in Literacy and Math Eija Pakarinen, Marja-Kristiina Lerkkanen, Jaana Viljaranta, Antje von Suchodoletz. Child Development. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.13431

 

Metal pollution in British waters may be threatening scallops, study reveals

Metal pollution from historic mining appears to be weakening scallop shells and threatening marine ecosystems in an area off the coast of the Isle of Man, a major new study suggests.

UNIVERSITY OF YORK

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IMAGE: A DAMAGED SCALLOP view more 

CREDIT: DR BRYCE STEWART, UNIVERSITY OF YORK.

Metal pollution from historic mining appears to be weakening scallop shells and threatening marine ecosystems in an area off the coast of the Isle of Man, a major new study suggests.

The research, led by an interdisciplinary team at the University of York, suggests that the contamination of seabed sediments with zinc, lead and copper from the mining of these metals, which peaked on the island in the late 19th century, is causing the shells of king scallops to become significantly more brittle.

The thinning and weakening of shells threatens the species by leaving them more exposed to the crushing claws of crabs and lobsters, and, in turn, threatens the marine ecosystem because of the important functions, such as water filtration, that molluscs like scallops carry out.

Given that metal contamination is common in many coastal areas around the world, the researchers are concerned that other species of marine mollusc like mussels, oysters and clams, which together provide more than a quarter of the world's seafood, may be similarly affected.

The current consensus on acceptable levels of metal pollution should be revised, the researchers say, as evidence of damage to scallop shells was present even in areas with metal contamination levels currently not thought to cause significant damage to the marine environment.

Lead author of the study, Dr Bryce Stewart from the Department of Environment and Geography at the University of York, said: "The fact that comparably low levels of heavy metal contaminations appear to affect shell structure and strength in such a potent way represents a challenge to marine species management and conservation strategies. This is particularly true given that the effects we observed are likely to be amplified in the future by ongoing human activities and climate change.

"The potential long-term impact of anthropogenic metal pollution on marine organisms, as shown in our work, is remarkable since the last major mine on the Isle of Man closed in 1908."

Over a period of over 13 years, the researchers compared scallops collected from six areas of the Irish Sea around the Isle of Man. Most scallops exhibited perfectly normal shell growth and strength. However, in one area off Laxey - known to be contaminated with metal pollution, the shells were significantly weaker.

Structural analysis of shells by physicists at the University of York revealed that Laxey scallops had significantly weaker shells and a disrupted shell structure. Lethal damage rates in scallop catches from Laxey were twice as high as those at uncontaminated areas.

Joint corresponding author Professor Roland Kröger, from the Department of Physics at the University of York, said: "We analysed the shell structure of the scallops with cutting-edge microscopy techniques and discovered that shells from Laxey were thinner and exhibited a pronounced mineralisation disruption parallel to the shell surface within the central region of both the top and bottom valves.

"Our data suggest that these disruptions caused reduced fracture strength and therefore could increase mortality.

"It is not clear exactly how metal bearing sediments may be affecting the shell formation process. Metals could be incorporated into shells replacing calcium during the biomineralization process or they may modify the activity of proteins during the crystallisation process and disrupt shell growth."

The researchers looked at a wide range of alternative explanations for the impact on scallop shells but found no other environmental factors that could explain their results.

Dr Stewart added: "While the scallops are still perfectly safe to eat, we believe our results provide a compelling case that metal contamination is playing an important role in the development of thinner and weaker shells at Laxey, and therefore the observed high damage rates.

"The shell characteristics of bivalve molluscs such as clams, oysters, mussels and scallops could potentially function as a good bellwether for the scientific community in assessments of how pollutants are affecting biological organisms."

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Metal pollution as a potential threat to shell strength and survival in marine bivalves is published in the journal Science of the Total Environment.

The research was carried out in collaboration with: Bangor University, the Department of Environment, Food and Agriculture, Isle of Man and the University of Liverpool. The project was funded by the European Union, the Isle of Man Government, a Nuffield Vacation Research Bursary and the UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC).

 

How parental involvement affects children's performance in school

For scholastic success, support is better than control

NATIONAL RESEARCH UNIVERSITY HIGHER SCHOOL OF ECONOMICS

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IMAGE: THE INFLUENCE OF FORMAL AND INFORMAL EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS AND THEIR CONNECTING LINK - PI - IS SHOWN SCHEMATICALLY. view more 

CREDIT: ILYAPRAKHOV ET. AL.

Family Success

Using data from the HSE University longitudinal study Trajectories in Education and Careers (TrEC), Ilya Prakhov https://www.hse.ru/en/staff/prakhov, Olga Kotomina and Alexandra Sazhina determined which forms of family engagement in the school are useful and which are harmful to the student.

This study makes it possible to monitor students' entire educational path (for example, their complete secondary education plus university, or their first nine grades plus a college or technical school). The students surveyed for this study were in the ninth grade in 2012 and by 2015 were in universities and colleges or on the labour market. The TrEC contains data on the students' academic performance and their parents' SES (with cultural capital traditionally measured by the number of books in the family's home library).

In this study, the dependent variables were students' educational achievements, measured primarily as scores on the BSE and U.S.E., and their educational trajectories, while the constants were the different forms of parental engagement in their children's education (controlling for students' gender and the characteristics of their family and school).

The researchers identified four main factors that describe patterns of parental engagement. The first is parental control, such as checking that homework is completed and calling teachers about grades. The second factor is total engagement (the full spectrum of parental activity, from ensuring that homework is completed and hiring tutors to participating in school board meetings). The third factor is when parents are reasonably engaged by, for example, giving their children additional literature and attending parent-teacher meetings. The fourth factor is organizational: family members join the parents' committee and organize extracurricular events.

It turned out that when parents take an active part in school meetings, hire tutors and provide auxiliary literature to their children, the students score higher on the BSE and U.S.E. These forms of assistance increase the likelihood that children will finish out their high school education and go on to university. Membership in the parents' committee, however, has no effect.

As Ilya Prakhov explains, participation in such activities as school meetings lowers the risk of receiving inaccurate information. 'Being properly informed is an important element in choosing an educational trajectory and succeeding in it,' the researcher said. 'At parent-teacher meetings for upperclassmen, parents can receive information on the correct approach for taking the U.S.E., whether additional exam prep classes are available, possible cooperation between the school and universities, and Academic Olympics competitions.'

However, recruiting tutors and supplying additional literature does not help in every school subject. It has a positive correlation with U.S.E. results in Russian, but the connection for math is not as clear. Here, the type of school plays a significant role, with formal education trumping the role of tutoring.

Excessive Control

The new study shows that a family can also be overly engaged. The child needs 'a certain degree of independence in decision-making. This will favourably affect the incentives to study at school and choose a future path,' Mr Prakhov said.

A measured amount of family engagement -- as well as helping with, but not strictly controlling homework -- also has a positive correlation to students' educational success and whether they go on to study at university. On the other hand, the habit that, 'helicopter parents' have of 'hovering' over their children to check on homework and grades is definitely harmful and leads to lower U.S.E. scores. Excessive parental control has a particularly harmful influence on exam scores for ninth graders.

'Here, we are probably seeing the opposite effect: the child is studying poorly and so the parents are forced to take matters in hand,' the researcher said. 'However, exercising total control over a high school student's homework can cause them to protest or rebel, decreasing the motivation to improve academic performance. This can adversely affect U.S.E. results and, as a result, limit the choice of universities that will admit the student.'

Meanwhile, parental engagement depends on the type of family -- its educational level, income and cultural interests. As mentioned above, in families with a high SES, parents devote greater attention to their child's studies, but their engagement is more likely to be reasonable and measured. The type of high school also has a bearing on U.S.E. results, with those offering advanced courses and schools of higher status being the most effective.

Delayed Effect

The study also found that girls score higher on the BSE than boys do and family characteristics have a positive correlation to ninth-graders' final grades. At the same time, the type of school has little influence at this stage. In other words, the family -- in terms of both its characteristics and its level of engagement in the child's studies -- plays the greatest role in middle schoolers' academic performance.

It was also found that attending parent-teacher meetings, hiring tutors and supplying additional literature helps students entering high school grades 10 and 11. However, researchers also noted that a stable progression from the ninth to the eleventh grades was the most important factor behind the strong Russian and math scores on the U.S.E. that are so crucial to university admissions.

Thus, family support at the earlier stages of education can influence academic success in the final year of study, even if the nature of this influence has changed. In other words, a family's investment of time, effort and money in the child's education has a long-term positive effect.

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New technology allows cameras to capture colors invisible to the human eye

Tel Aviv University breakthrough has applications in cancer detection, security and even gaming

AMERICAN FRIENDS OF TEL AVIV UNIVERSITY

Research News

 

New research from Tel Aviv University will allow cameras to recognize colors that the human eye and even ordinary cameras are unable to perceive.

The technology makes it possible to image gases and substances such as hydrogen, carbon and sodium, each of which has a unique color in the infrared spectrum, as well as biological compounds that are found in nature but are "invisible" to the naked eye or ordinary cameras. It has groundbreaking applications in a variety of fields from computer gaming and photography as well as the disciplines of security, medicine and astronomy.

The research was conducted by Dr. Michael Mrejen, Yoni Erlich, Dr. Assaf Levanon and Prof. Haim Suchowski of TAU's Department of Physics of Condensed Material. The results of the study were published in the October 2020 issue of Laser & Photonics Reviews.

"The human eye picks up photons at wavelengths between 400 nanometers and 700 nanometers -- between the wavelengths of blue and red," explains Dr. Mrejen. "But that's only a tiny part of the electromagnetic spectrum, which also includes radio waves, microwaves, X-rays and more. Below 400 nanometers there is ultraviolet or UV radiation, and above 700 nanometers there is infrared radiation, which itself is divided into near-, mid- and far-infrared.

"In each of these parts of the electromagnetic spectrum, there is a great deal of information on materials encoded as 'colors' that has until now been hidden from view."

The researchers explain that colors in these parts of the spectrum are of great importance, since many materials have a unique signature expressed as a color, especially in the mid-infrared range. For example, cancer cells could be easily detected as they have a higher concentration of molecules of a certain type.

Existing infrared detection technologies are expensive and mostly unable to render those "colors." In medical imaging, experiments have been performed in which infrared images are converted into visible light to identify the cancer cells by the molecules. To date, this conversion required very sophisticated and expensive cameras, which were not necessarily accessible for general use.

But in their study, TAU researchers were able to develop cheap and efficient technology that could mount on a standard camera and allows, for the first time, the conversion of photons of light from the entire mid-infrared region to the visible region, at frequencies that the human eye and the standard camera can pick up.

"We humans can see between red and blue. If we could see in the infrared realm, we would see that elements like hydrogen, carbon and sodium have a unique color," explains Prof. Suchowski. "So an environmental monitoring satellite could 'see' a pollutant being emitted from a plant, or a spy satellite would see where explosives or uranium are being hidden. In addition, since every object emits heat in the infrared, all this information could be seen even at night."

After registering a patent for their invention, the researchers are developing the technology through a grant from the Innovation Authority's KAMIN project, and they have already met with a number of both Israel-based and international companies.

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Species more likely to die out with rapid climate changes

Species are resilient -- to a point. But when things change too quickly things can go badly

NORWEGIAN UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

Research News

 

The climate seems to be getting warmer. This could be bad news for species that depend on stable and abundant access to food at certain times of the year.

"If the changes happen too fast, species can become extinct," says Emily Simmonds, an associate professor at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology's (NTNU) Department of Biology.

She is the first author of an article in Ecology Letters that addresses how great tits can be affected if the supply of larvae changes in the spring.

Several bird species depend on the abundance of larvae while their young are small. If the larvae supply peaks earlier in the spring than normal, there may simply be too little food for the hatchlings.

The warming climate can bring about changes like this. An earlier spring causes trees to leaf out earlier, which in turn causes the larvae that feed on the plants to hatch out earlier.

"When the climate changes, the interactions between different species changes too," Simmonds says.

She and a team of researchers at the University of Oxford used population models to calculate the consequences of different climate scenarios. They wanted to see at what point the changes would happen too fast for the great tit to modify its behaviour quickly enough to keep up with the larvae.

Great tits have genetic variations and varying abilities to adapt to different conditions. This means that they can evolve in tandem with their prey up to a point.

An earlier larvae hatch can be advantageous for the great tits that also hatch their young earlier in the spring. This advantage can be transferred to the next generation of birds, which can in turn become early birds. And so on.

For this advantage to last, the great tits have to evolve fast enough and be flexible enough to keep up with the genetic variation in their prey.

"Given conditions with big greenhouse gas emissions, the great tits won't always be able to keep up with the changes in the larvae supply," says Simmonds.

In the worst case scenario, whole populations of great tits will simply disappear by the year 2100 because they aren't able to procure enough food for their young.

"This could happen even if the great tits are also modifying their behaviour faster in a rapidly changing environment. The larvae might be changing even faster than the great tits," Simmonds says.

The researchers found that populations of great tits would be guaranteed to become extinct by the year 2100 if the larvae appeared about 24 days earlier than the current norm in 2020. This also applies to populations that appear to be completely stable now.

"It could be that the apparent stability today is hiding a future collapse," says Simmonds.

The reason is that we might reach a kind of threshold where the great tits aren't keeping up. The rubber band gets stretched too far, you could say.

"The good news is that the populations will be able to survive scenarios with lower or medium warming trends," Simmonds says.

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Simmonds collaborated with Dr. Ella Cole, Professor Ben Sheldon and Professor Tim Coulson at the University of Oxford on the project, which was part of Simmonds' doctoral dissertation at the British university.

Source: Ecology Letters. Phenological asynchrony: a ticking time-bomb for seemingly stable populations?

 

How does the brain process fear?

COLD SPRING HARBOR LABORATORY

Research News

 

IMAGE: SCIENTISTS KNOW THAT FEAR MEMORIES FOR MICE ARE MADE IN THE AMYGDALA, AN ALMOND-SHAPED STRUCTURE DEEP IN THE BRAIN. NEW RESEARCH SHOWS THAT THE FEAR CIRCUIT EXTENDS FAR BEYOND THE... view more 

CREDIT: LI LAB/CSHL, 2020

When a frightful creature startles you, your brain may activate its fear-processing circuitry, sending your heart racing to help you escape the threat. It's also the job of the brain's fear-processing circuits to help you learn from experience to recognize which situations are truly dangerous and to respond appropriately--so if the scare comes from a costumed goblin, you'll probably recover quickly.

In more dire circumstances, however, the brain's fear response can be critical for survival. "Being able to fear is the ability to sense the danger and is the driving force to figure out a way to escape or fight back," said Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Professor Bo Li.

[VIDEO: Watching a mouse think about fear and pleasure - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B7MujP-Z0ds]

Li's team is probing the brain circuits that underlie fear, using sophisticated neuroscience tools to map their connections and tease out how specific components contribute to learning fear. A deeper understanding of these circuits could lead to better ways to control the overactive or inappropriate fear responses experienced by people with anxiety disorders.

Many of their studies begin with the amygdala, an almond-shaped structure that is considered the hub for fear processing in the brain. While the amygdala was once thought to be devoted exclusively to processing fear, researchers are now broadening their understanding of its role. Li's team has found that the amygdala is also important for reward-based learning, and as they trace its connections to other parts of the brain, they are uncovering additional complexity. Li said:

"It is important for formation of fearful memory, but it's also important for interacting with other brain systems in a different behavior context. We think that this circuit that we discovered that plays a role in regulating fearful memory is only a tip of the iceberg. It is indeed important for regulating fearful memory, but probably is also involved in more complex behavior."

Li and his colleagues were surprised recently to find that the amygdala communicates with a part of the brain best known for its role in controlling movement. The structure, called the globus pallidus, was not known to be involved in fear processing or memory formation. But when the researchers interfered with signaling between the amygdala and the globus pallidus in the brains of mice, they found that the animals failed to learn that a particular sound cue signaled an unpleasant sensation. Based on their experiments, this component of the fear-processing circuitry might be important for alerting the brain "which situations are worth learning from," Li said.

Li's team and collaborators at Stanford University reported recent findings in the Journal of Neuroscience. For more of Li's research on how fear is processed in the brain, check out this video of his talk at "Life Science Across the Globe".

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