Russia pushes Arctic ambitions after Suez jam

Issued on: 26/03/2021 - 

Moscow has channeled large sums into a fleet of icebreakers 

and ice-class tankers linked to the development of the 

Northern Sea Route OLGA MALTSEVA AFP/File

Stuck: the container ship blocking the Suez canal

Moscow (AFP)

Russia has seized on the Suez Canal blockage to promote its northern shipping route as a reliable alternative, part of a broader push by Moscow to develop the Arctic and capitalise on climate change.

President Vladimir Putin has made Russia's Arctic region a strategic priority and ordered investment in military infrastructure and mineral extraction.

The development of the Northern Sea Route is closely linked to that push and Moscow has channelled large sums into a fleet of icebreakers and ice-class tankers.

Russia redoubled efforts to promote the Arctic route after a giant Japanese-owned tanker became wedged this week in the narrow Suez channel barring some 200 ships passage.

A senior Russian diplomat said Friday that the jam underscored the importance of developing the Arctic route.

"The appeal of the Northern Sea Route will grow both in the short- and long-term. It has no alternative," said Nikolai Korchunov,Moscow's point person for international Arctic cooperation.

"Obviously it's necessary to think about how to efficiently manage transportation risks and develop alternative routes to the Suez Canal, first and foremost the Northern Sea Route," Korchunov, Russia's ambassador-at-large, told the Interfax news agency.

The Northern Sea Route is one of several Arctic shipping channels and lies within Russia's exclusive economic zone.

Russia has invested heavily to develop the route, which allows ships to cut the journey to Asian ports by 15 days compared with using the Suez Canal.

Transit of the eastern Arctic usually ends in November but Russia hopes climate change means the commercial benefit of the route will increase.

Moscow is planning to use the route to export oil and gas to overseas markets while companies including Russia's biggest LNG producer Novatek already navigate the northern route.

In August 2017, the first vessel travelled along the Northern Sea Route without the use of ice breakers.

- 'Surprising? No' -

Russia's weather monitor said this week that the northern route was "in some years almost completely free of ice" towards the end of the summer and in 2020 reached a "record low level" of ice cover.

The Japanese-owned, Panama-flagged MV Ever Given became stuck in the Suez Canal during a sandstorm, blocking the waterway that connects the Mediterranean with the Red Sea and which handles more than 10 percent of global maritime trade.

Tugboats and dredgers scrambled Friday to free the giant container for a fourth day, forcing companies to re-route services from the vital shipping lane around Africa.

Russia's nuclear agency, which is the Arctic passage's official infrastructure operator, mockingly offered its northern route as an alternative Thursday, saying icebreakers would be sent to the rescue if vessels get stuck.

Nuclear agency Rosatom jokingly said the Arctic passage provides "more space to draw peculiar pictures using your giant ships," referring to shipping trackers which showed that the Ever Given traced the outline of a giant penis before getting stuck.

"#Russia will use the #EVERGIVEN case to attract shipowners to the Arctic," tweeted Arctic expert Mikaa Mered. "Is this surprising? No."

Putin on Friday praised Russian navy’s Arctic exercises that launched last week, saying the troops had proven their ability to operate even "in harsh northern environments".

As part of the drill, three nuclear-powered submarines broke the ice and surfaced simultaneously while a nuclear submarine also fired a torpedo from beneath the ice.

© 2021 AFP

Rally in rebel-held Sanaa marks six years of Yemen war

Issued on: 26/03/2021 - 

Supporters of Yemen's Huthi rebels attend a rally in the capital Sanaa to mark the sixth anniversary of the Saudi-led coalition's intervention in Yemen 

MOHAMMED HUWAIS / AFP

Sanaa (AFP)

Thousands of people marched through Yemen's capital Sanaa on Friday to mark the sixth anniversary of a Saudi-led military intervention against Huthi rebels, as the United Nations renewed calls for a ceasefire.

The Iran-backed Huthis overran Sanaa in September 2014 and went on to capture most of the country before a coalition led by Saudi Arabia intervened in March 2015 to bolster the government.

Since then, tens of thousands of people have been killed and millions displaced, according to international organisations, in what the UN calls the world's worst humanitarian crisis.

On Monday, Saudi Arabia offered the Huthis a "comprehensive" UN-supervised ceasefire to try and end the brutal conflict, but the rebels have dismissed the initiative as "nothing new".

"If they want peace, they must stop their aggression and end the blockade imposed on the Yemeni people," senior Huthi official Deif Allah al-Shami told AFP on the sidelines of Friday's rally.

"We don't need any initiative," he said, referring to the Saudi peace offer.

Around him, Huthi supporters held up pictures of rebel leader Abdul Malik al-Huthi, Yemeni flags and signs that read "death to America, death to Israel, curse upon the Jews, victory to Islam".

Huthi security forces, masked and in military garb, were deployed in Sanaa for the rally, where many protesters brandished weapons or raised clenched fists as they shouted slogans against Saudi Arabia.

- Ceasefire efforts -

Hours earlier, a projectile attack sparked a fire at an oil terminal in the southern Jizan province of Saudi Arabia, the country's energy minister announced, without saying who was behind the attack.

And on Thursday the Saudi-led coalition said it intercepted several explosives-laden drones fired towards the kingdom by the Huthis.

The rebels, who have recently escalated attacks on the oil-rich neighbouring kingdom, including on its energy facilities, claimed responsibility for the Jizan attack in a video.

Saudi Arabia's ceasefire offer was the second since last year.

The kingdom also proposed to re-open the international airport in Sanaa and restart political negotiations between the warring sides.

UN special envoy Martin Griffiths on Friday met Huthi official Mohammed Abdelsalam in neighbouring Oman to discuss ways of restoring peace in Yemen.

"They discussed the urgency to agree on opening Sanaa airport and... entering a nationwide ceasefire and resuming the political dialogue under a UN framework to pave the way for sustainable peace," Griffiths' office said in a tweet.

Talks also centred on "easing restrictions on Hodeida", the Red Sea port that is a lifeline gateway for food, fuel and humanitarian aid entering Yemen.

The Huthis have been demanding the lifting of a Saudi-led air and sea blockade that the coalition says it imposed to prevent the smuggling of weapons to the rebels from Iran -- allegations Tehran denies.

The Saudi ceasefire offer and UN efforts to find a solution come as the US administration of President Joe Biden is also pushing to try to end the conflict.

Washington's special envoy for Yemen, Tim Lenderking, visited the region last month and made contact with the Huthis in Oman as well, sources told AFP. He is set to return to press for a ceasefire.

On Friday, the US condemned the latest attack on Saudi oil infrastructure, saying the strikes "are a clear provocation meant to perpetuate the conflict".

"The Huthis' actions are... jeopardizing peace efforts at a critical moment when the international community is increasingly united behind a ceasefire and a resolution of the conflict," State Department spokesman Ned Price said in a statement.

Analysts have said that Riyadh's ceasefire offer is an attempt to portray the rebels as aggressors while the kingdom seeks an exit from the military quagmire.

- 'Yemen is desperate' -

With no quick solution in sight, the UN humanitarian agency OCHA on Friday lamented the consequences of six years of war in Yemen in a series of tweets.

"Six years of war mean six years of hunger, six years of displacement, six years of destruction, six years of misery and lives lost," it said.

"Yemen is desperate for peace and time is now for all to act," OCHA added, using the hashtag "#YemenCantWait".

Famine could become part of the country's "reality" in 2021, UN Development Programme chief Achim Steiner told AFP earlier this month after a donor conference raised $1.7 billion in aid for Yemen -- half its target.

More than 16 million Yemenis will face hunger this year, and nearly 50,000 are already starving in famine-like conditions, according to the latest UN figures.

Around two thirds of Yemen's 29 million people depend on some form of aid for survival.

"Six years of war have shown failure," the Huthi official Deif Allah al-Shami said Friday.

© 2021 AFP

US condemns Huthi 'provocation' after latest Saudi oil attack

Issued on: 26/03/2021 - 

Supporters of Yemen's Huthi rebels in the capital Sanaa attend a rally marking the sixth anniversary of the Saudi-led coalition's intervention in Yemen Mohammed HUWAIS AFP

Washington (AFP)

The United States on Friday accused Yemen's Huthi rebels of deliberate provocations to jeopardize peace efforts after a projectile sparked a fire at an oil terminal in Saudi Arabia.

"The actions by the Huthis are a clear provocation meant to perpetuate the conflict," State Department spokesman Ned Price said in a statement.

"The Huthis' actions are prolonging the suffering of the Yemeni people and jeopardizing peace efforts at a critical moment when the international community is increasingly united behind a ceasefire and a resolution of the conflict," Price said.

The strike on Thursday in Saudi Arabia's southern Jizan province came shortly after Saudi Arabia -- which has waged a devastating six-year campaign in Yemen -- proposed a ceasefire.

US President Joe Biden's administration has stepped up efforts to end the conflict and address what the United Nations considers the world's most dire humanitarian situation, with 80 percent of Yemen depending on assistance.

But the Iranian-backed rebels, who control the capital Sanaa, have been pressing their advantage and stepped up cross-border attacks.

The latest strike on oil giant Saudi Arabia came as the US special envoy on Yemen, Tim Lenderking, returns to the region to press for an end to the war.

© 2021 AFP

Louvre museum makes its entire collection available online

Issued on: 26/03/2021 - 

The Louvre Museum in Paris showing 'The Raft of the Medusa',

 painted by Theodore Gericault, with the museum closed amid

 the Covid-19 pandemic. January 8, 2021. © Martin Bureau, AFP

Text by: NEWS WIRES

The Louvre museum in Paris said Friday it has put nearly half a million items from its collection online for the public to visit free of charge.

As part of a major revamp of its online presence, the world's most-visited museum has created a new database of 482,000 items at collections.louvre.fr with more than three-quarters already labelled with information and pictures.

It comes after a year of pandemic-related shutdowns that has seen an explosion in visits to its main website, louvre.fr, which has also been given a major makeover.

"It's a step that has been in preparation for several years with the aim of serving the general public as well as researchers. Accessibility is at the heart of our mission," said president-director Jean-Luc Martinez.

The new database includes not only items on public display in the museum but also those in storage, including at its new state-of-the-art facility at Lievin in northern France.

The platform also includes the Delacroix museum, which is run by the Louvre, as well as sculptures from the neighbouring Tuileries gardens and works recovered from Germany since the end of the war in 1945 that are waiting to be restored to the families from which they were looted.

The museum announced earlier this month that it would intensify its efforts to restore items looted from Jewish families by the Nazi regime.

It is working to complete the verification of all 13,943 items acquired between 1933 and 1945, a process it hopes to complete within five years, to be followed by investigations on works acquired in later decades.

Martinez estimated that around one percent of portraits in the collections were looted.

"The Louvre has nothing to hide, and the reputational risk is enormous," he said. "When the next generations want to know where these collections came from, how do we react? By doing the historical work and establishing the facts."

(AFP)

Guatemala's Pacaya volcano continues erupting after 50 days


Issued on: 26/03/2021

Lava flowing out of the Pacaya volcano, 25km south of 

Guatemala City on March 25, 2021 Johan Ordóñez AFP

Guatemala City (AFP)

The Pacaya volcano close to Guatemala's capital is maintaining "high levels" of activity with strong eruptions, ash clouds and rivers of lava spewing out, officials said on Friday.

The 2,500-meter (8,200-foot) volcano that lies 25 kilometers to the south of Guatemala City has been erupting for 50 days, damaging plantations in the path of the lava.

Pacaya is expelling ash up to 500 meters from its crater, located 2.5 kilometers southwest of the cone, the vulcanology institute said in a statement.


Falling ash was registered in the El Rodeo and El Patrocinio communities, the institute said, adding that "the volcanic activity is considered at high levels."

The activity has produced a lava flow 2.2 kilometers long on the west flank of the volcano.

The national disaster coordination body said the lava had caused "fire and the destruction of coffee and avocado plantations."

Despite the spectacular eruptions, inhabitants of the surrounding villages have chosen to stay at home.

The civil protection body has asked authorities to prohibit people from approaching either the crater or the lava flows due to the risk of falling debris.

On Tuesday, a change in wind direction forced the closure of the country's only international airport for almost 24 hours due to ash.

Guatemala has 30 volcanos including two other active ones.

© 2021 AFP

New protein helps carnivorous plants sense and trap their prey

Research by Salk scientists helps explain how plants sense touch, and could have medical applications

SALK INSTITUTE

 

 VIDEO: RESEARCH BY SALK SCIENTISTS HELPS EXPLAIN HOW PLANTS SENSE TOUCH, AND COULD HAVE MEDICAL APPLICATIONS. view more 

CREDIT: SALK INSTITUTE

LA JOLLA--(March 25, 2021) The brush of an insect's wing is enough to trigger a Venus flytrap to snap shut, but the biology of how these plants sense and respond to touch is still poorly understood, especially at the molecular level. Now, a new study by Salk and Scripps Research scientists identifies what appears to be a key protein involved in touch sensitivity for flytraps and other carnivorous plants.

The findings, published March 16, 2021, in the journal eLife, help explain a critical process that has long puzzled botanists. This could help scientists better understand how plants of all kinds sense and respond to mechanical stimulation, and could also have a potential application in medical therapies that mechanically stimulate human cells such as neurons.

"We know that plants sense touch," says co-corresponding author Joanne Chory, director of Salk's Plant Molecular and Cellular Biology Laboratory and holder of the Howard H. and Maryam R. Newman Chair in Plant Biology. "The Venus flytrap, which has a very fast response to touch, provides an opportunity to study a sensory modality that historically has been poorly understood."

Scientists have long been fascinated by Venus flytraps and carnivorous plants; Charles Darwin devoted an entire book to them. But while previous studies have looked at the structural mechanism of their bizarre leaves, not much is known about how they work at the cellular level. That's partly because flytraps are challenging to study. They're extremely slow to grow, and the flytrap genome had not been sequenced until recently, opening the door for deeper genetic research.

"Because they're so unusual, people have been interested in these plants for hundreds of years, so there's quite a bit known about them at the gross, macroscopic level, but the molecular details have been hard to tease out," says Carl Procko, a staff scientist in Salk's Plant Molecular and Cellular Biology Laboratory.

In the new study, the authors grew cloned flytraps from cuttings to get plants that were genetically identical. Then they carefully cut thousands of microscopic, touch-sensitive trigger hairs from these plants and used sequencing technology to identify which proteins were most abundant in the hairs.

Based on previous research, they knew that the proteins involved in sensing touch were likely to have the capability of moving an electrical current across the cell. Sure enough, this type of protein was the second most common type found in the hairs. The scientists named the new protein FLYCATCHER1. To test the protein, colleagues at Scripps Research put it into mammalian cells. The cells responded by producing an electrical current when touched, proving that the protein is sensitive to mechanical stimuli.

The team found the same protein in the tentacles of the sundew, a carnivorous plant that's a close relative of the Venus flytrap. In the sundew, these sticky tentacles sense the movement of a struggling insect, stimulating the leaf to curl up and trap its prey.

"These findings are further evidence that the FLYCATCHER1 protein plays a critical role in the trigger hairs of the Venus flytrap and the mechanisms of the plant that sense and respond to touch," says Chory.

As a next step, the study authors want to do a "knockout" test and grow genetically modified flytraps with the protein missing. If these flytraps are unable to sense touch, it will prove conclusively that the FLYCATCHER1 protein is responsible.

###

Other authors on the study are Swetha E. Murthy, William T. Keenan, Seyed Ali Reza Mousavi, Adam Coombs, and Ardem Patapoutian of Scripps Research; Tsegaye Dabi of Salk; Erik Procko of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Chambaign; and Lisa Baird of the University of San Diego.

The research was supported by the National Institutes of Health and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Additional funding was provided by the George E. Hewitt Foundation for Medical Research and the University of San Diego

About the Salk Institute for Biological Studies:

Every cure has a starting point. The Salk Institute embodies Jonas Salk's mission to dare to make dreams into reality. Its internationally renowned and award-winning scientists explore the very foundations of life, seeking new understandings in neuroscience, genetics, immunology, plant biology and more. The Institute is an independent nonprofit organization and architectural landmark: small by choice, intimate by nature and fearless in the face of any challenge. Be it cancer or Alzheimer's, aging or diabetes, Salk is where cures begin. Learn more at: salk.edu.

 MY PILLOW

Warriors' down bedding could ease journey to realm of the dead

This may well be the most interesting story about pillows and bedding you will ever read

NORWEGIAN UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

Research News

 

VIDEO: VALSGÄRDE IN SWEDEN IS ESPECIALLY KNOWN FOR ITS SPECTACULAR BOAT GRAVES FROM THE 600S AND 700S CE, AN ERA JUST BEFORE THE VIKING AGE. TWO OF THESE SPECTACULAR BOAT GRAVES... view more 

CREDIT: NORWEGIAN UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY, NTNU UNIVERSITY MUSEUM

The burial field in Valsgärde outside Uppsala in central Sweden contains more than 90 graves from the Iron Age.

"On a light note, we could say that Valsgärde is Scandinavia's answer to Sutton Hoo in England as portrayed in the film The Dig on Netflix," says Birgitta Berglund, professor emeritus of archaeology at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology's NTNU University Museum.

Valsgärde is especially known for its spectacular boat graves from the 600s and 700s CE. This timeframe is in the middle of what Norway calls the Merovingian period, the era just before the Viking Age.

Two of these spectacular boat graves are at the centre of this story -- or more specifically, the story is really about the down bedding that was found in the graves.

When researchers from NTNU investigated which birds contributed their feathers to the bedding, they made a surprising discovery that provides new insight into Iron Age society.

The boats carrying the two dead men were about 10 metres long, with room for four to five pairs of oars. Both were outfitted for high-ranking warriors, with richly decorated helmets, shields and weapons. Provisions and tools for hunting and cooking were also included for their last voyage.

In one grave, an Eurasian eagle owl (Bubo bubo) had been laid, with its head cut off. We'll return to that. Horses and other animals were arranged close to the boats.

"The buried warriors appear to have been equipped to row to the underworld, but also to be able to get ashore with the help of the horses," says Berglund.

Beauty sleep was also taken care of in death.Two warriors lay atop several layers of down bedding. The contents of the bedding probably had a greater function than simply serving as filler.

You might have thought of down bedding as a modern concept, which admittedly only became available for common folk in recent times. The down bedding in the graves at Valsgärde is the oldest known from Scandinavia and indicate that the two buried men belonged to the top strata of society.

Wealthy Greeks and Romans used down for their bedding a few hundred years earlier, but down probably wasn't used more widely by wealthy people in Europe until the Middle Ages, Berglund says.

Berglund has been studying down harvesting in Helgeland coastal communities in southern Nordland county for many years, where people commercialized down production early on by building houses for the eider ducks that were the source of the down. The theory was that down from this location might have been exported south, so Berglund wanted to investigate whether the bedding at Valsgärde contained eider down.

"It turned out that a lot of kinds of feathers had been used in the bedding at Valsgärde. Only a few feathers from eider ducks were identified, so we have little reason to believe that they were a commodity from Helgeland or other northern areas," says Berglund.

However, she was not disappointed by this discovery. The great variety of species gave the researchers unique insight into the bird fauna in the immediate area in prehistoric times, along with people's relationship to it.

"The feathers provide a source for gaining new perspectives on the relationship between humans and birds in the past. Archaeological excavations rarely find traces of birds other than those that were used for food," the researcher says.

"We also think the choice of feathers in the bedding may hold a deeper, symbolic meaning. It's exciting."

Berglund explains that according to Nordic folklore, the type of feathers contained in the bedding of the dying person was important.

CAPTION

Together with curator Leena Aulikki Airola, the Norwegian University of Science and Technology's Birgitta Berglund was able to select and borrow feathers from Gustavianum, the Uppsala University Museum in Sweden.

CREDIT

Photo: NTNU University Museum

"For example, people believed that using feathers from domestic chickens, owls and other birds of prey, pigeons, crows and squirrels would prolong the death struggle. In some Scandinavian areas, goose feathers were considered best to enable the soul to be released from the body," she said.

These are well-known folk traditions that have been collected from the 18th century onwards. But they may have their roots in prehistoric times.

In the Icelandic Erik the Red saga, a pillow stuffed with feathers from domestic hens was placed on the throne at Heriólfsnes in Greenland, where a visiting female shaman was to sit. The saga is considered to have been written down in the 13th century, but addresses events around the year 1000, says Berglund.

The examples show that that feathers in the bedding from Valsgärde most likely also had a deeper meaning than just serving as a filler. It's also well known that birds could hold special importance for obtaining information in shamanism -- think of Odin's two ravens Hugin and Munin.

Exactly what ritual function the feathers at Valsgärde had is hard to say. But the bedding contained feathers from geese, ducks, grouse, crows, sparrows, waders and -- perhaps most surprisingly --- eagle owls.

Biologist Jørgen Rosvold, now employed at the Norwegian Institute for Natural History (NINA) identified the species from the feather material.

"It was a time consuming and challenging job for several reasons. The material is decomposed, tangled and dirty. This means that a lot of the special features that you can easily observe in fresh material has become indistinct, and you have to spend a lot more time looking for the distinctive features," Rosvold says.

CAPTION

Zooming in on individual areas of a feather help researchers determine which birds the feathers came from.

CREDIT

Photo: NTNU University Museum

"I'm still surprised at how well the feathers were preserved, despite the fact that they'd been lying in the ground for over 1000 years."

The feathers in the down bedding weren't the only interesting bird find in the graves. One of the graves also contained a headless owl.

From recent graves we know that people took measures to prevent the buried from returning from the dead, and it's easy to imagine that this was also done longer ago as well.

"We believe the beheading had a ritual significance in connection with the burial," says Berglund.

Swords found in tombs from Viking times were sometimes intentionally bent before being laid in the tomb. This was probably done to prevent the deceased from using the weapon if he returned.

"It's conceivable that the owl's head was cut off to prevent it from coming back. Maybe the owl feather in the bedding also had a similar function? In Salme in Estonia, boat graves from the same period have recently been found that are similar to those in Valsgärde. Two birds of prey with a severed head were found there," says Berglund.

###

Reference: Birgitta Berglund, Jørgen Rosvold. Microscopic identification of feathers from 7th century boat burials at Valsgärde in Central Sweden: Specialized long-distance feather trade or local bird use? Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, Volume 36, April 2021, 102828.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jasrep.2021.102828

Natural Sciences students' research published in prestigious journal

UNIVERSITY OF EXETER

Research News

 

A collaborative research project by team of undergraduate students from the University of Exeter's Natural Sciences department has been published in a prestigious academic journal.

Lewis Howell, Eleanor Osborne and Alice Franklin have had their second-year research published in The Journal of Physical Chemistry B.

Their paper, Pattern Recognition of Chemical Waves: Finding the Activation Energy of the Autocatalytic Step in the Belousov-Zhabotinsky Reaction, was a result of their extended experiment work in the Stage 2 module "Frontiers in Science 2".

Their project involved the Belousov-Zhabotinsky chemical reaction - an example of a chemical oscillator that is often used to illustrate a chaotic system.

These reactions are theoretically important because they show that chemical reactions do not have to be dominated by equilibrium thermodynamic behaviour.

For the research, the team used a Raspberry Pi camera to record images of the reaction over time, and repeated the experiment under a wide range of temperature conditions.

The group were the first to apply a filter-coupled circle finding algorithm and localised pattern analysis to the Belousov-Zhabotinsky reaction in order to extract features such as velocity of the waves.

They were soon able to get exceptionally good experimental results which, coupled with the application of novel image analysis techniques, allowed them to make unprecedented progress, unveiling some peculiar and previously undocumented features of this chemical oscillator.

Lewis said: "The experimental work went really well; we planned all the experiments ourselves and conducted them over five or six weeks of lab time. It's a really interesting chemical reaction, and we had a lot of fun doing it; we found that our data was really good, which gave us a good platform to work from.

"Together we were able to do a lot of cool analysis, using image processing techniques to extract properties such as the velocity of the chemical waves you see in the reaction."

Dr Eric Hébrard, who co-supervised the module alongside Dr. David Horsell, said: "Throughout all this journey, Lewis, Eleanor and Alice have been very comfortable working alongside academic staff as well as together and have displayed engaging and collaborative team-working skills."

Alice added that "Natural Sciences at Exeter is geared towards giving undergraduate students first-hand experience of research." Eleanor also added that "without the course being so interdisciplinary, we couldn't have achieved such a high quality of results that enabled us to publish this paper; it goes to show that collaboration between scientists from different disciplines is a really effective way to approach research."

###

Lewis is currently applying to PhDs and is particularly interested in the field of image analysis, a major component of the paper. Eleanor is also applying to PhDs in the field of photonic sensing. Alice graduated last year and is working at the University of Exeter, as a bioinformatician in a research group at the medical scho

STINKIEST FRUIT ON THE PLANET

NTU Singapore scientists develop antibacterial gel bandage using durian husk

Gel works even at freezing temperatures and contains natural antimicrobial compounds derived from yeast

NANYANG TECHNOLOGICAL UNIVERSITY

Research News

 

IMAGE: A LARGE HYDROGEL PATCH DERIVED FROM DISCARDED DURIAN HUSKS CAN HELP WOUNDS TO HEAL BETTER. IT CAN ALSO BE CUT INTO SMALL PIECES TO FIT PLASTERS OF VARYING SIZES. view more 

CREDIT: NTU SINGAPORE

Food scientists from Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore) have made an antibacterial gel bandage using the discarded husks of the popular tropical fruit, durian.

Known as the "King of Fruits" in Southeast Asia, the durian has a thick husk with spiky thorns which is discarded, while the sweet flesh surrounding the seeds on the inside is considered a delicacy.

By extracting high-quality cellulose from the durian husks and combining it with glycerol - a waste by-product from the biodiesel and soap industry - NTU scientists created a soft gel, similar to silicon sheets, which can be cut into bandages of various shapes and sizes.

They then added the organic molecules produced from baker's yeast known as natural yeast phenolics, making the bandage deadly to bacteria.

Developed by Professor William Chen, the Director of NTU's Food Science and Technology Programme, the innovation was published recently in ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Chemistry Society.

Conventional hydrogel patches are commonly available at pharmacies, usually used to cover wounds from surgery to minimise the formation of excessive scar tissue, resulting in a softer and flatter scar. The patch keeps the skin hydrated instead of drying up when conventional band-aid or gauze bandages are used.

Prof Chen said conventional hydrogel patches on the market are made from synthetic materials such as polymers like polymethacrylate and polyvinylpyrrolidine. Those with antimicrobial properties also use metallic compounds such as silver or copper ions. Such synthetic materials approved for use in biomedical applications are more costly as compared to the new hydrogel made from natural waste materials.

CAPTION

In lab experiments, yeast derived antibacterial compounds were proven to inhibit growth of common bacteria species and prevent formation of biofilms

CREDIT

NTU Singapore

"With the growing threat of antibiotic-resistant superbugs, the world will need multiple alternative ways to prevent infections. An effective way to protect open wounds is with antimicrobial bandages that are biocompatible and safe for prolonged use by humans. This is especially important for diabetic patients suffering from chronic wounds," explained Prof Chen, the Michael Fam Chair Professor in Food Science and Technology at the School of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering.

"By using waste products which are currently discarded in large quantities - durian husks and glycerol - we could turn waste into a valuable biomedical resource that can enhance the speedy recovery of wounds and to reduce chances of infections.

With the husk comprising 60 per cent of the durian it is usually discarded and incinerated, posing an environmental issue. In Singapore, it was reported by Straits Times that 14,300 tonnes[1] of durian (estimated 10 million durians) were imported and consumed in 2017.

Being non-toxic and biodegradable, the organic gel bandage is also expected to have a smaller environmental footprint than conventional synthetic bandages.

Giving an independent comment on this innovation, Associate Professor Andrew Tan, Vice Dean (Faculty) from NTU's Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine, who is an expert in metabolic disorders, said there are existing natural and synthetic hydrogels on the market now, where their usefulness in the healing of some types of wounds are well recognised.

"Hydrogel bandages are known for their non-toxicity, ability to rehydrate the wound bed, and can facilitate autolytic debridement (where the body enzymes and natural fluids act to soften bad tissue and remove it). The innovative and unique part of Prof Chen's current work is the upcycling of the durian rind to obtain cellulose. It's also quite unique given that the thorns of the durian can hurt, but the materials from the rind can heal," Assoc Prof Tan said.

CAPTION

NTU Prof William Chen (left) holding up a hydrogel bandage made from durian with PhD student Cui Xi, who is holding agar plates showing the antibacterial efficacy of the natural yeast phenolics.

CREDIT

NTU Singapore

Why antimicrobial wound dressings are needed

Wounds linked to chronic diseases are expected to become a more common health burden, where bacterial infection of skin wounds is a serious risk. The market for wound dressing is estimated to be worth $11.4 billion annually, according to a paper published in the European Polymer Journal (A. Gupta et al, 2019).

The clinical advantage of the new hydrogel bandage is that the natural yeast phenolics embedded will help to prevent the growth of bacteria such as Gram-negative E. coli and Gram-positive S. aureus. and the subsequent formation of biofilms (a layer of slime that can lead to antimicrobial resistance within a bacteria colony).

As a proof of concept, the antimicrobial hydrogels were tested as a wound dressing on animal skin and showed good antimicrobial effects for up to 48 hours.

The new proof-of-concept hydrogel bandage is applied by simply laying it across the wound, just as with existing commercially available silicone gel sheets for wound dressing, the current gold-standard used following cosmetic surgeries to reduce scarring.

Other applications of hydrogels

Organic hydrogels are also useful for wearable, flexible and stretchable electronics, which Prof Chen had demonstrated in a 2019 paper published in Scientific Reports.

Wearable electronics can consist of small sensors that can detect heart rate and physical activities, much like current smart bands. They could aid healthcare workers in monitoring the health of the elderly in remote communities.

To demonstrate the use of organic hydrogels in flexible electronics, a prototype hydrogel that could conduct electrical signals was made with cellulose obtained from Okara - the waste leftover from soybean pulp during the making of soy milk.

"As shown in many of our research papers, fundamental research in food science and technology carries far more interdisciplinary applications in other industries, such as healthcare, biomedical applications and speciality chemicals," Prof Chen added.

"Our innovation is in line with the NTU 2025 strategic plan, where research and innovation are key pillars of focus in tackling some of humanity's greatest challenges. By adopting a waste-to-resource approach and the use of green manufacturing techniques, we have shown that it is possible to reduce consumption of Earth's natural resources, reuse what was thought of as rubbish, and recycle them into valuable products that are useful for mankind."

The team of four NTU researchers took two years to research and publish their findings and is now looking for industry partners who may be keen to take their antibacterial gel bandage to market.

About Nanyang Technological University, Singapore

A research-intensive public university, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore) has 33,000 undergraduate and postgraduate students in the Engineering, Business, Science, Humanities, Arts, & Social Sciences, and Graduate colleges. It also has a medical school, the Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine, established jointly with Imperial College London.

NTU is also home to world-renowned autonomous institutes - the National Institute of Education, S Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Earth Observatory of Singapore, and Singapore Centre for Environmental Life Sciences Engineering - and various leading research centres such as the Nanyang Environment & Water Research Institute (NEWRI) and Energy Research Institute @ NTU (ERI@N).

Ranked amongst the world's top universities by QS, NTU has also been named the world's top young university for the last seven years. The University's main campus is frequently listed among the Top 15 most beautiful university campuses in the world and it has 57 Green Mark-certified (equivalent to LEED-certified) building projects, of which 95% are certified Green Mark Platinum.

Apart from its main campus, NTU also has a campus in Singapore's healthcare district.

Under the NTU Smart Campus vision, the University harnesses the power of digital technology and tech-enabled solutions to support better learning and living experiences, the discovery of new knowledge, and the sustainability of resources.

For more information, visit http://www.ntu.edu.sg

AVOID WIND TURBINES

How improving acoustic monitoring of bats could help protecting biodiversity

New research on how wind energy and species conservation can be brought together

LEIBNIZ INSTITUTE FOR ZOO AND WILDLIFE RESEARCH (IZW)

Research News

 

IMAGE: DEAD BAT BELOW A WIND TURBINE. view more 

CREDIT: PHOTO: LEIBNIZ-IZW/CHRISTIAN VOIGT

In order to assess the risk of bats dying at wind turbines, it is common practice to record the acoustic activity of bats within the operating range of the rotor blades. For this purpose, ultrasonic detectors are attached to the nacelles of the mast top. In a recent analysis, a team of scientists led by the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research (Leibniz-IZW) concludes that the effectiveness of this acoustic monitoring is insufficient to reliably predict mortality risk, especially for bats at large turbines. They therefore recommend installing supplementary ultrasonic detectors at other locations on the wind turbines and developing additional techniques such as radar and thermal imaging cameras for monitoring. The results of their analysis are published in the scientific journal Mammal Review.

Wind is a form of renewable energy source which is widely used for energy generation. One downside of wind energy is that many bats die when colliding with rotor blades of wind turbines. This is an urgent problem for conservation because all bat species are protected by law because of their rarity. To find out when the operation of wind turbines poses a threat to bats and when it does not, the temperature and wind conditions at which bats are particularly active at turbines are determined. For this purpose, the echolocation calls of bats are recorded when they fly into the risk zone near the rotor blades. From this, threshold values for wind speed and temperature can be derived for a bat-safe operation of wind turbines. Wind turbines then only produce electricity when none or only a few bats are active.

"This approach is a good starting point. Its methodological implementation is, however, often insufficient, especially for large wind turbines," summarises bat expert Dr Christian Voigt, Head of the Leibniz-IZW Department of Evolutionary Ecology, together with colleagues from the German Bat Association (Bundesverband für Fledermauskunde Deutschland), the University of Naples Federico II, the University of Bristol and the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology in a joint publication. Automated ultrasonic detectors on the nacelles of wind turbines are usually used for acoustic monitoring. These record the calls of passing bats. "Each bat species produces echolocation sounds at a pitch and volume typical for the species," explains Voigt. He and his colleagues simulated sound propagation using the example of the common noctule, with calls of a low frequency (about 20 kHz) but a high sound pressure level (110 dB), and Nathusius's pipistrelle, with calls at a higher frequency (about 40 kHz) and a lower sound pressure level (104 dB). "Our simulations show that, according to the laws of physics, the calls are attenuated with each metre of distance as they propagate through the air by 0.45 dB per metre for common noctules and by 1.13 dB per metre for Nathusius's pipistrelle" says Voigt. With the widely used detection threshold of 60 dB, ultrasonic detectors record calls of common noctules at a distance of calls up to 40 m away. For Nathusius's pipistrelle, the detection range is on average 17 m. Neither maximum distance is sufficient to completely cover the danger zone of large wind turbines. New turbines in particular have rotor blades of more than 60 m in length, which is well above the detection distance of bats by ultrasonic detectors.

The sonar beam of bats also means that echolocation calls do not spread evenly in all directions, but preferentially towards the front in the direction of flying. If bats do not fly directly towards the microphone, the calculated detection range decreases further. In addition, ultrasonic detectors are usually mounted on the underside of the nacelles and the microphone therefore points downwards. Bat calls above the nacelle are therefore not registered. The focus is on the lower half of the danger zone, although bats can also be found in the upper half.

"At a wind turbine with rotor blades of 60 m length, the detectors only cover a maximum of 23 % of the risk zone for the common noctule and only a maximum of 4 % of the risk zone for Nathusius's pipistrelle, two species with a high risk of colliding with turbines. With modern wind turbines, rotor blade lengths continue to increase, so the relative coverage will be even lower in the future," says Voigt, first author of the article. As a consequence, the existing acoustic monitoring measures do not adequately reflect the collision risk. Therefore, the conditions under which wind turbines are switched off for bat protection are insufficient and many animals therefore continue to die.

In order to improve the cover of the risk zone of the rotor blades, the scientists recommend additional detectors at other locations, e.g. above as well as on the lee side of the nacelle. In order to also detect bats circling up the mast of the turbine, it may also be advisable to install ultrasonic detectors directly on the mast. This would also register animals flying at lower levels above ground or collecting insects from the mast surface. Complementary sensor technology such as radar systems or thermal imaging cameras could provide additional information.

Based on the recordings, consultants and researchers can determine the bat species and assess under which conditions (temperature, time of day, wind strength) they are most active. With this information, conditions can be described that restrict the operation of wind turbines during times of particularly high bat activity, thus reducing the risk of killing. "Through suitable monitoring schemes, the operation of wind turbines can be effectively adjusted to ensure that wind energy production does not come at the expense of biodiversity," Voigt concludes.

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Publication

Voigt CC, Russo D, Runkel V, Goerlitz HR (2021): Limitations of acoustic monitoring at wind turbines to evaluate fatality risk of bats. Mammal Review. DOI: 10.1111/mam.12248