ALL TEACHERS EVERYWHERE DO

Estonian teachers have a strong belief in students' creativity

ESTONIAN RESEARCH COUNCIL

Research News

 

IMAGE: STANISLAV NEMERZHITSKI. view more 

CREDIT: TLÜ

The doctoral thesis focused on creativity in the school environment and studied how students and teachers perceive and experience creativity. A broader framework for studying creativity in the school environment, including cultural factors in the manifestation of creativity, means that the potential for creativity and support in every school or classroom should be considered in a cultural context, which includes, in addition to the culture and climate of the school itself, the wider aspects of the society and cultural space, for example, a tendency towards individualism or collectivism. In addition to taking students' understandings of creativity and its expression into consideration, it is important to understand their motivation to create novelty. From the teachers' side, in addition to the more specific teaching methods which are directed at highlighting creativity, it is important to understand the level of teachers' creative self-efficacy and their understanding of creativity. In other words, by contrasting how teachers and students understand the concept of creativity, we can examine which specific activities and methods are effective for supporting creativity.

Research found that students perceive creativity through four categories: new ideas, uniqueness, self-expression and freedom/autonomy. The most important school climate factors that encourage creativity in students are teachers' support, relationships between students, an open school climate and the freedom to be themselves. All of these factors affect students' internal motivation or the desire to engage in something out of interest and curiosity. Furthermore, the main motivator for Estonian students is the difficulty of the assignment; for Russian students, the most important motivator is studying out of curiosity. There is also an external motivation for Estonian students, to some extent - having their achievements recognised by others makes them engage in more activities and in novel ways.

From the teachers' standpoint, it is important to see students' creative potential; Estonian teachers generally have a strong belief in their students' creative potential. Meanwhile, creative self-efficacy or belief in their own creative abilities among teachers still needs a great deal of strengthening and invigorating. "Many teachers don't believe that they can recognise and support creativity, so in all likelihood they probably won't. Another thing to bear in mind is that motivation is different for everybody. Researchers of creativity have reached the understanding that external motivation, for example, grades, awards, money, is generally inhibitory from the standpoint of creativity - to get a good grade, I will finish my assignment using the tried, true and therefore not novel method. However, this type of factor shouldn't be excluded entirely. First, external 'poking' makes some people act more creatively, and second, if the external motivation is connected to my interests, then that might actually increase the desire to generate new ideas. For example, the parent promises to buy the child a new microscope for good grades, which seems to be an external influencer, but it coincides with the child's interest in biology. In this case, the external motivator will make them make a bigger effort," adds Nemerzhitski.

A number of research findings are worth highlighting according to Stanislav Nemerzhitski. First, when studying students, he compared Estonian students, in schools that used both Estonian and Russian as a medium of instruction, and Russian students, which has not been done before. Second, the research contrasted students' and teachers' viewpoints and placed them in one system. Previous research has focused on the views of either one group or the other. Nemerzhitski's thesis, however, tries to place these two important groups into one research framework.

The research found the difference in defining creativity - for Estonian students, it is mainly related to an element of self-expression and freedom; for Russian students, to novel ideas and uniqueness. "Although very big conclusions can't be drawn from my research and the sample of Russian students, it gives a good idea as to what the thoughts were. Students' understandings and opinions on creativity in Estonian schools that use Russian as a medium of instruction are more similar to those of Russian students," the doctoral student adds. Another difference is, as mentioned previously, the motivation for creative activity - for Estonian students, it is the difficulty of the assignment or the challenge of solving an assignment; for Russian students, it is the curiosity the assignment creates. Somewhat expectedly, Estonian students are significantly more individualistic, valuing autonomy more highly than Russian students, for whom qualities such as national and familial collectivism are more important. These cultural differences help us understand how young people and teachers with different backgrounds approach encouraging and supporting creativity.

The supervisors of the doctoral thesis are Associate Professor Eda Heinla from Tallinn University and Associate Professor Eva Hoff from Lund University. The opponents are Professor Maciej Karwowski from the University of Wroclaw and Professor Erika Löfström from the University of Helsinki.

The doctoral thesis is available in the ETERA digital environment of the Tallinn University Academic Library.

https://www.etera.ee/zoom/138747/view?page=1&p=separate&search=Anna-Maria%20Rebane&tool=search&view=0,0,2067,2835

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View of Estonian artists on the Soviet political-aesthetic project was ironic and playful

ESTONIAN RESEARCH COUNCIL

Research News

 

IMAGE: PHOTO OF LIISA KALJULA BY TÕNU TUNNEL view more 

CREDIT: TÕNU TUNNEL

Estonian historians have generally viewed the Soviet Union as a regressive and anachronistic country. The picture of the Soviet project that emerges through the eyes of late Soviet Estonian artists is modern in its own terms. The Soviet Postcolonial studies, which is becoming more popular in Estonia, recognises that the Soviet state was modern by nature; in most cases, however, modernity brings about colonialism. In the doctoral thesis, this view is supported by the tension between societal Soviet modernity and cultural postmodernity in the late Soviet era.

In her monographic thesis, doctoral student Liisa Kaljula studied how the Soviet Union governed using visual culture, on the one hand, and on the other, how Estonian artists treated the Soviet political-aesthetic project in the late Soviet era. "Using contemporary vocabulary, it could also be said that I discovered the emergence of Soviet visual culture memes in late Soviet Estonian art, as Estonian artists' take on the Soviet political-aesthetic project were of course ironic and playful," adds Kaljula.

Research found that Estonian artists saw the Soviet political-aesthetic project as a grandiose visual-cultural spectacle, but it was increasingly difficult to take this spectacle seriously in the late Soviet era. "To the artist Andres Tolts," comments the doctoral student, "the Soviet Union seemed like an empire of kitsch; a society where the same visual-cultural clichés circulated for decades with the help of modern reproduction techniques. From the floral chintz working gowns, to which all Soviet women could inevitably relate to, to the mass-printed Socialist Realist reproductions."

While Estonian art historians have thus far described art that appropriates visual culture with the Anglo-American term of Pop Art, Kaljula describes it with the Eastern-European term of Sots Art. Sots Art is a regional term that is significantly less known globally, but Kaljula found that the term is more accurate for characterising works that appropriate Soviet visual culture. "By relinquishing the use of the dominant Western art term and using a regional term, we can describe Estonian art in the Soviet period in a significantly more accurate way."

The supervisors of the doctoral thesis are Senior Researcher Mari Laanemets from the Estonian Academy of Arts and Associate Professor Tiina Ann Kirss from the University of Tartu. The opponents are Linda Kaljundi, Professor at the Estonian Academy of Arts and Senior Researcher at Tallinn University, and Professor and Senior Researcher Andres Kurg from the Estonian Academy of Arts.

The doctoral thesis is available in the ETERA digital environment of the Tallinn University Academic Library. https://www.etera.ee/zoom/138746/view?page=1&p=separate

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The fracking boom helps to raise crime rates in rural American states

This is the conclusion reached by economists who analyzed data from 1999 to 2015

URAL FEDERAL UNIVERSITY

Research News 

The shale boom (mining of shale oil and gas) has contributed to an increase of crime rates in US states where 50-60% of the population lives in rural areas. That is West Virginia, North Dakota, and Arkansas. Especially the number of violent crimes has increased. This is the conclusion reached by economists from Ural Federal University (UrFU, Russia) and Shippensburg University of Pennsylvania (USA). The research results are published in The Extractive Industries and Society.

The researchers studied utilizes panel data from various sources and comprised all US states from 1999 to 2015. They compared the performance before and after 2007, when the shale boom occurred. Researchers made the dependent variable retrieved from the data of the Federal Bureau of Investigation's website, from the University of Kentucky Center for Poverty Research data, Annual State-Level Measures of Human Capital Attainment database, Measures of Income Inequality database, State-level employment database.

"The analysis showed that the fracking boom states have lower unemployment rates on average," says Kazi Sohag, research co-author, assistant professor at UrFU. "We suggest the consequence of this was a decrease in the number of crimes against families and children, as well as a decrease in the number of vagrants. However, these states are poorer, with fewer educated people, a smaller share of the private sector, and a high public sector share. Over the years of the shale boom, burglaries have increased there, and the rate of violent crime has increased by about 36%. Because of this, each state had to spend $ 15.67 million additional victimization cost per year."

The rate of violent crime could have risen for several reasons, the researchers presume. First, fracking involves the creation of low-skilled temporary jobs. Basically, such work involves men who come to earn money for some time. Inequality in the number of men and women can, on the one hand, provoke certain types of crimes against women, and on the other hand, it encourages the development of a business associated with bars, prostitution, and drugs, the authors of the article note.

"The shale boom is also associated with increased income inequality: local royalty income is concentrated among a small segment of the local population," said Kazi Sohag. "Other residents do not benefit or are economically worse off. Inequality provides a rational incentive to commit a crime."

Third, residents in fracking states are disproportionately affected by disamenities like pollution, noise, water quality, and heavy traffic. This leads to tensions between local residents and temporary workers and, as a result, causes an increase in violent crime. All this is an additional burden on local authorities and law enforcement agencies.

To solve the problem, researchers advise several tools: to make the shale industry more technological and reduce human capital in it, to strengthen the work of law enforcement officials.

"Since local royalty income is concentrated among a small segment, the distribution of income and wealth should be improved. It will help improve the well-being of residents through optimal tax policies," said Kazi Sohag. "In addition, the damage that shale mining does to the environment should be reduced. This will reduce the number of negative factors affecting the lives of state residents."

The authors caution that it is premature to generalize the results of the study to other countries. Consideration should be given to the political, cultural, and other characteristics of each country.

"Our future studies can focus on more countries like Saudi Arabia, Russia, and Norway. It will help to generalize the findings considering the spillover or spatial dependency of crimes," said Kazi Sohag.

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How robots and brain-computer interfaces could transform stroke patients' recovery

KEAI COMMUNICATIONS CO., LTD.

Research News

IMAGE: STROKE REHABILITATION ROBOT BASED ON BRAIN-COMPUTER INTERFACE TECHNOLOGY AND BRAIN-INSPIRED INTELLIGENT ROBOT TECHNOLOGY. view more 

CREDIT: BRAINCO, LTD.

Strokes, which occur when the blood supply to part of our brain is interrupted or reduced, are the leading cause of death and disability in the adult population. Among the patients who survive, 75% will experience difficulties carrying out daily activities independently and need long-term functional exercises and rehabilitation. But the outcomes using traditional rehabilitation equipment are poor. In addition, the motivation of patients to train is often low.

The Department of Neurology in Tongji Hospital, which is affiliated to Tongji Medical College at the Huazhong University of Science and Technology, is recognised in China for the quality of its scientific research and clinical strength. Similarly, Zhejiang BrainCo, Ltd., incubated by the Harvard Innovation Lab, is a market leader in terms of brain-computer interfaces; considered by many the next generation of artificial intelligence technology.

In the NCyborg Project, the two organisations will draw on their expertise in brain-computer interface technology and brain-inspired intelligent robot technology to establish a stroke rehabilitation process driven by patient initiative. In a paper published in the KeAi journal Brain Hemorrhages, they outline the project's three focus areas:

1.An algorithm for analysing the movement intention of stroke patients based on brain-computer interface technology.
2. A motion control strategy for a rehabilitation robot based on brain-inspired motion perception.
3.The mechanism of stroke rehabilitation using brain-inspired intelligent robots.

They will begin by training the robot to support rehabilitation of the hand - a body part often left with limited movement following a stroke. The team aims to achieve recognition of no less than eight hand movement intentions with an accuracy rate of ?90% and a response time of ?300 ms.

Co-corresponding author, Jonh H. Zhang, explains: "The project's goal is to develop an easy-to-use, reliable and affordable stroke rehabilitation robot that will improve the rehabilitation effect for stroke survivors, speed up the rehabilitation process, and reduce the costs involved."

His co-corresponding author, Bicheng Han, adds: "Our hope is that, within five years, millions of stroke patients will be using this product and see their lives improve."

According to co-corresponding author Zhouping Tang, the 'N' in the NCyborg Project name stands for 'neural', while in fictional stories 'cyborg' is often "an icon that is enhanced mentally and/or physically over and above the 'norm' with technology. In the real word, we believe that NCyborg Project will set up a brand-new stroke rehabilitation pattern which could qualitatively improve the treatment effect for stroke survivors."

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Contact the corresponding authors: Jonh H. Zhang johnzhang3910@yahoo.com, Bicheng Han bicheng.han@brainco.tech, Zhouping Tang ddjtzp@163.com

The publisher KeAi was established by Elsevier and China Science Publishing & Media Ltd to unfold quality research globally. In 2013, our focus shifted to open access publishing. We now proudly publish more than 100 world-class, open access, English language journals, spanning all scientific disciplines. Many of these are titles we publish in partnership with prestigious societies and academic institutions, such as the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC).

 

The giant panda's mystery revealed

The evolution of the temporomandibular joint and premolar teeth enabled adaptation to bamboo diet

UNIVERSITY OF TURKU

Research News

 

IMAGE: THE GIANT PANDA'S STOMATOGNATHIC SYSTEM HAS ADAPTED TO ALLOW THE USE OF BAMBOO AS NUTRITION. view more 

CREDIT: PEKKA VALLITTU

Although the giant panda is in practice a herbivore, its masticatory system functions differently from the other herbivores. Through the processes of natural selection, the giant panda's dietary preference has strongly impacted the evolution of its teeth and jaws. Researchers from the Institute of Dentistry at the University of Turku and the Biodiversity unit of the University of Turku together with researchers from the China Conservation and Research Center for Giant Panda (CCRCGP) have been the first in the world to solve the mystery of how the giant panda's special stomatognathic system functions.

The bamboo diet of the giant panda (Ailuropoda melanoleuca) has long been a mystery for researchers. The panda is in practice a herbivore, and its diet only consists of few dozen species of bamboo. Related to the consumption of bamboo, the giant panda has a special characteristic of peeling the green outer skin of all bamboo shoots, rich in abrasive and toxic compounds, by the highly adapted premolars.

Herbivores have usually evolved to have ridged molars that help them grind the plant material and jaws capable of moving sideways which is essential for grinding their food. Although the teeth of giant pandas have been studied extensively, until now, researchers have not paid attention to why the large canines of their upper jaw do not prevent the sideways movement of the lower jaw typical for herbivores - and also humans. The key to this has been the evolution of the temporomandibular joint and the premolar teeth.

Evolution of the Temporomandibular Joint Allows Sideways Movement

Using modern 3D scanning methods, the research group studied the movement of the giant panda's jaw and the structure of its teeth and found the answer to the question that had puzzled researchers for over a century: how are giant pandas able to use bamboo as their diet. The solution was that the panda's temporomandibular joint has evolved to differ from that of e.g. brown bear and polar bear. In addition to the open-closed movement reminding that of a hinge, the joint also allows the jaw to be moved sideways, which is required to peel the bamboo. Interestingly, this movement isn't prevented by the large canines the male pandas need to fight.

- The necessity to ensure adequate nutrition has helped evolve the temporomandibular joint and the shape of the teeth to allow efficient peeling of the bamboo without without exposing the premolars to the attritive or other damaging effect of bamboo diet, explains Professor Pekka Vallittu from the Institute of Dentistry.

CAPTION

The panda's temporomandibular joint and premolars enable them to peel the bamboo.

CREDIT

Pekka Vallittu

The evolution of the giant panda's masticatory system, as demonstrated in the study, allowed them to be the only large mammals to access an endless source of nutrition in the form of bamboo in the early Pleistocene.

- The premolars giant pandas use for peeling bamboo are unique among the family of bears and allow the removal of the poisonous green skin of the bamboo which also includes mineral crystals which would wear their teeth, says Professor Juha Varrela from the Institute of Dentistry.

The study of how the giant panda's masticatory system functions also helps to understand human's occlusion and its characteristics better.

- Whether giant pandas grind their teeth still remains to be seen, ruminates Vallittu.

- This newly published study is of great scientific significance because it solves the long-prevailing mystery of the ecological interrelationship between the pandas and the bamboo plants, says Professor Jukka Salo from the Biodiversity Unit of the University of Turku.

CAPTION

Modern 3D scanning methods developed by Planmeca Corp. allow the researchers to closely investigate the movement of the panda's jaw and the structure of its teeth.

CREDIT

Pekka Vallittu

Salo has been an active participant in the panda project of the Finnish Ähtäri Zoo and the study of the panda habitat in the Qionglai Mountains in the Sichuan province of China. Professor of Environmental Sciences and Biodiversity Pekka Niemelä from the University of Turku has also studied pandas in the area for a long time. The University of Turku has lead four conservation projects in the panda habitat of Sichuan together with the State Forestry and Grassland Administration (SFGA) of China and the CCRCGP in 1998-2008. Two pandas were able to be transferred to Finland as the outcome of this collaboration, and the CCRCGP also participated in this project and will be participating in up-coming projects, too.

The research article was published in the international journal Scientific Reports: http://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-021-93808-2

 

Evolution in real time

UNIVERSITY OF KONSTANZ

Research News

 

How does unicellular life transition to multicellular life? The research team of Professor Lutz Becks at the Limnological Institute of the University of Konstanz has taken a major step forward in explaining this very complex process. They were able to demonstrate - in collaboration with a colleague from the Alfred Wegner Institute (AWI) - that the unicellular green algae Chlamydomonas reinhardtii, over only 500 generations, develops mutations that provide the first step towards multicellular life. This experimentally confirmed a theory on the origin of multicellular life, which says that the evolution of cell groups and the subsequent steps towards multicellularity can only take place when cell groups are both better at reproduction and more likely to survive than single cells. These findings have been published in the current edition of Nature Communications from 9 July 2021.

Read the full article including two video clips in the university's online magazine campus.kn: https://www.campus.uni-konstanz.de/en/science/evolution-in-real-time

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How sweet it is: Study finds songbirds CAN taste sugar

Having a sweet tooth may be a good thing--if you're a songbird

CORNELL UNIVERSITY

 VIDEO: FOOTAGE OF A NEW HOLLAND HONEYEATER (PHYLIDONYRIS NOVAEHOLLANDIAE) DRINKING NECTAR FROM FLOWERS OUTSIDE DEAKIN UNIVERSITY, AUSTRALIA (SLOWED FOR VIEWING). view more 

CREDIT: ALEJANDRO RICO-GUEVARA

Contrary to conventional thought, songbirds can taste sugar--even though songbirds are the descendants of meat-eating dinosaurs and are missing a key protein that allows humans and many other animals to taste sweetness. An international team investigated how many bird species can taste sweet and how far back that ability evolved. Their work was published today in the journal Science.

The researchers offered two species of songbirds a choice between sugar water and plain water--nectar-taking honeyeaters, as well as canaries, a grain-eating bird not known for consuming sweet foods. They also examined taste receptor responses sampled from a variety of other species. Regardless of whether their main diet consisted of seeds, grains, or insects, songbird taste receptors responded to sugars.

"This was a clear hint that we should concentrate on a range of songbirds, not only the nectar-specialized ones, when searching for the origins of avian sweet taste," explains senior author Maude Baldwin at the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology in Germany. Baldwin led this study with Yasuka Toda from Meiji University in Japan.

Sugar is a vital carbohydrate providing lots of energy and may have had far-reaching effects on songbird evolution. Though it is thought that most bird lineages can't taste sweetness at all, the scientists now believe that songbirds, which account for more than 40% of the world's bird species, can actually taste sweet, and that sugary food sources may have contributed to their success.

CAPTION

A New Holland Honeyeater(Phylidonyris novaehollandiae) perched on a banksia in Western Australia. Photograph by Gerald Allen, Macaulay Libraryat the Cornell Lab of Ornithology

CREDIT

Gerald Allen, Macaulay Library at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology

Baldwin and Toda dug down to the molecular level to understand the modifications to the "umami" taste receptor that enabled sweet perception among songbirds.

"Because sugar detection is complex, we needed to analyze more than one hundred receptor variants to reveal the molecular mechanisms underlying the sugar responses," says Toda. These exact changes coincide only slightly with those seen in the distantly-related hummingbirds, even though similar areas of the receptor are modified.

Though songbirds evolved similar workarounds to taste sweetness, they did so at different times, in different places, and in slightly different ways--an example of "convergent evolution." Some songbirds, such as honeyeaters, sunbirds, honeycreepers, and flowerpiercers are now just as dependent on nectar as the hummingbirds.

"This study fundamentally changes the way we think about the sensory perceptions of nearly half the world's birds," says study co-author Eliot Miller at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. "It demonstrates that most songbirds definitely can taste sweet and got there by following nearly the same evolutionary path that hummingbirds did--it's a neat story about how convergence happens."

Exploring the songbird family tree, the researchers conclude that songbirds evolved to sense sweetness approximately 30 million years ago, before the early ancestors of songbirds left Australia, where all songbirds originated. Even after songbirds radiated across the world, they kept their ability to taste sugar.

Researchers in Japan, Germany, the United States, Hong Kong, and Australia participated in this study. Future studies will explore how sweet perception has coevolved with other physiological traits, such as changes in digestion and metabolism, across bird evolution.

CAPTION

Atlantic Canary (Serinus canaria), a granivorous songbird (also called Island Canary).

CREDIT

Martin Flack, Macaulay Library at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.

NIST uses method to understand the molecular underpinnings of a disease affecting corals

NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF STANDARDS AND TECHNOLOGY (NIST)

Research News

 

IMAGE: A CORAL DISEASE CALLED GROWTH ANOMALIES (GAS) IS DEPICTED HERE IN THE CORAL SPECIES PORITES COMPRESSA, A REEF BUILDING SPECIES FOUND OFF THE COAST OF HAWAII. GAS ARE A TUMOR-LIKE... view more 

CREDIT: E. ANDERSSON/NIST

Coral reefs are a favorite spot for scuba divers and are among the world's most diverse ecosystems. For example, the Hawaiian coral reefs, known as the "rainforests of the sea," host over 7,000 species of marine animals, fishes, birds and plants. But coral reefs are facing serious threats, including a number of diseases that have been linked to human activity.

To understand the connection between human activity and a type of tumorlike disease called growth anomalies (GAs), researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have collaborated with the U.S Geological Survey (USGS) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to use an emerging molecular profiling method to identify 18 small molecules that promise to help them better understand the series of molecular reactions that lead to the disease.

GAs affect both the coral skeleton and its soft tissues. Scientists don't know the cause of the disease or how it spreads but have hypothesized that there is a strong correlation between GA prevalence in coral colonies and human population density nearby.

Almost all types of corals are made of hundreds to millions of individual soft-bodied animals called polyps. The polyps secrete calcium carbonate to form a hard skeleton that lays the foundation for the coral colony. GAs affect corals through irregular and accelerated growth of their skeleton, causing it to be less dense and filled with holes. This results in a tumorlike mass in the skeleton of a coral colony with fewer polyps and a diminished ability to reproduce.

Shallow water corals receive food like carbohydrates and oxygen as a byproduct of photosynthesis from the symbiotic relationship they have with zooxanthellae, photosynthetic algae that live inside coral tissues. GAs can lead to fewer symbiotic zooxanthellae and therefore less energy being absorbed from photosynthesis.

Even though GAs do not typically directly lead to coral death, they do affect the overall health of coral colonies and can pose an ecological threat to coral populations. To analyze the disease, NIST researchers chose the coral species Porites compressa as their target sample.

This coral species is known as the "finger" or "hump" coral and is part of the stony coral family, which is "one of the important reef-building species in Hawaii," said NIST chemist Tracey Schock. "They lay the foundation for the coral reef."

P. compressa is found in shallow lagoons off the Hawaiian Islands, and the researchers obtained their coral samples from Kaneohe Bay, Oahu. The bay has been studied widely as a site affected by human activity such as sewage discharge and metal pollution. GAs have previously been observed in the coral species there.

In order to analyze and study GAs in P. compressa, researchers turned to the field of metabolomics, which is the study of small molecules, such as those making up living organisms found in tissues, blood or urine. These small molecules, known as metabolites, are the intermediate and end products in a linked series of biochemical reactions known as molecular pathways in an organism.

Some examples of such small molecules include sugars like glucose, amino acids, lipids and fatty acids. Their production can be influenced by genetic and environmental factors and can help researchers better understand the biochemical activity of tissue or cells. In this case, chemical analysis of metabolites provides significant information that helps researchers understand the physiology of the disease.

For their study, researchers sampled a coral colony that had both healthy and diseased tissue. They split up their samples so they could assess the healthy coral and diseased coral separately. They also had a separate adjacent sample that was free of diseased tissue.

The samples were frozen in liquid nitrogen, and then freeze-dried for practical sample processing while maintaining metabolic integrity. The researchers then separated the diseased parts from the healthy colony using a hammer and stainless-steel chisel and collected the tissue from the skeleton with a brush. In one of the final stages of the sample preparation, they chemically extracted the metabolites from the coral tissue using a combination of methanol, water and chloroform.

"The method is novel for coral studies," said Schock. "With metabolomics, it is critical to preserve the state of all metabolites in a sample at the time of collection. This requires halting all biochemical activity using liquid nitrogen and maintaining this state until chemical extraction of the metabolome. The complexity of a coral structure necessitates stringent collection and processing protocols."

The researchers then produced a metabolomic analysis of the coral samples by using a reproducible profiling technique known as proton nuclear magnetic resonance (1H NMR).

The 1H NMR technique exposes the coral extract to electromagnetic fields and measures the radio frequency signals released by the hydrogens in the sample. The various kinds of metabolites are revealed by their unique signals which inform of their chemical environment. NMR detects all signals from the magnetic nuclei within a sample, making it an unbiased "all-in-one" technique. Two-dimensional NMR experiments that can identify both hydrogens (1H) and their directly bound carbon (13C) atoms provide more chemical information, giving confidence in the accuracy of the identities of the various metabolites within a sample.

The study identified 18 different metabolites and a new GA morphological form in P. compressa. The researchers found that GA tumors have distinct metabolite profiles compared with healthy areas of the same coral colony and detected specific metabolites and metabolic pathways that may be important for these profile differences. They also discovered that the loss of internal pH regulation is seemingly responsible for the hollow skeletons that are a characteristic of GAs.

"We have not only characterized new aspects of GA physiology, but have also discovered candidate pathways that provide a clear path forward for future research efforts aiming to further understand GA formation and coral metabolism, in general," said Schock.

As studies of this type accumulate, the researchers envision a database that could pull together coral metabolite information from multiple coral species into an accessible location for all scientists.

Collaborating with other researchers in different fields could increase understanding of the biological impacts of this disease on coral colonies. "We are going to learn which species are tolerant and which species are sensitive to stresses, and the physiological adaptations or mechanisms of both types will be important to conservation efforts," said Schock.

For now, the researchers hope these findings will be helpful for other scientists analyzing coral species and ultimately be beneficial for the coral reefs themselves, potentially aiding efforts to better preserve them.

CAPTION

Two different field images depicting the coral species Porites compressa, a reef building coral off of the coast of Hawaii. The corals are affected by growth anomalies (GAs), a disease that can cause tumor-like protrusions that affect both the coral skeleton and its soft tissue. The GAs are the "larger protrusions" on the corals.

CREDIT

R. Day/NIST

 

Major revamp of SNAP could eliminate food insecurity in the US

UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURAL, CONSUMER AND ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES

Research News

IMAGE: MILLIONS OF AMERICANS LACK ADEQUATE ACCESS TO HEALTHY FOOD. EXPANDING SNAP BENEFITS AND ELIGIBILITY COULD ELIMINATE FOOD INSECURITY IN THE UNITED STATES, SUGGESTS UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS PROFESSOR CRAIG GUNDERSEN. view more 

CREDIT: COLLEGE OF ACES, UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS.

URBANA, Ill. - Food insecurity is a major problem in the U.S., and it worsened during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) provides some relief, but millions of Americans still lack adequate access to healthy food. A new study from the University of Illinois proposes a potential solution.

"Restructuring SNAP as a Universal Basic Income (UBI) program or modified UBI is a straightforward way to eliminate food insecurity in United States. It's expensive but it is not difficult," says Craig Gundersen, distinguished professor in the Department of Agricultural and Consumer Economics at U of I. Gundersen authored the study, published in Food Policy.

While the existing SNAP program effectively reduces food insecurity, it has some limitations. For some SNAP recipients, the amount of aid they receive is insufficient. Some people who are food insecure and eligible for SNAP do not participate. And finally, more than half of those who are food insecure are not eligible for SNAP, Gundersen explains.

Using data from the 2019 Current Population Survey, Gundersen estimates the effects of expanding SNAP to become a UBI program under three different scenarios.

"The first scenario is a standard UBI program, where everybody in the United States gets SNAP at the maximum level," Gundersen explains. "Under the current program, your SNAP benefits go down if your income increases. Under this proposal, the amount would remain the same. If people wanted to work more and earn more money, they wouldn't lose their SNAP benefits."

Under this scenario, food insecurity could decline by 88.8 %, assuming the $730 billion cost would be funded through higher taxes for top-earning households.

"With the current distribution of taxes in the United States, the top 10% of incomes pay 70% of the taxes, and the top 50% pay 97%. Even if you were to raise taxes on the higher-income brackets to implement this program, it is unlikely to influence the probability of these households becoming food insecure," he states.

The second scenario in Gundersen's study would be a modified UBI program where households with incomes up to four times the poverty line; that is, approximately $100,000 for a family of four, would receive SNAP benefits.

Compared to the first scenario, the decline in food insecurity would be almost the same - 88.5% ¬ - but at a much lower cost of $408.5 billion.

Gundersen's third scenario addresses the issue that current SNAP benefits are not enough for some recipients to become food secure.

"Under this scenario, I consider what would happen if we increase the maximum SNAP benefit by 25% and give it to all households with incomes up to about $100,000 a year. In that case, there would be a 98.2% decline in food insecurity, and the cost would be $564.5 billion," he notes.

"I believe the third scenario is the best one," Gundersen says. "While the second one is also good, it would not be adequate for some of the most vulnerable groups; that is, SNAP recipients who need more assistance than they currently receive. The third scenario would ensure that they get what they need to become food secure."

Gundersen acknowledges that his proposals are costly, but so are other government programs.

"Essentially, I propose a way of eliminating food insecurity in United States, and the cost of this would be about a half trillion dollars per year. That seems like a lot, but to put it in context, the cost of the COVID-19 pandemic stimulus packages from the Trump administration and the Biden administration were roughly $6 trillion. It's a lot of money. But if we want to be serious about alleviating food insecurity, this is a simple, straightforward way to do it," he concludes.

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The Department of Agricultural and Consumer Economics is in the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences, University of Illinois.

Gundersen's paper, "Viewpoint: A proposal to reconstruct the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) into a universal basic income program for food," is published in Food Policy. [https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodpol.2021.102096].

 

Huge volcanic eruption disrupted climate but not human evolution

RUTGERS UNIVERSITY

Research News

 

IMAGE: THE RUTGERS-LED RESEARCHERS EXAMINED EXPLOSIVE ASH DEPOSITS THAT ARE TENS OF METERS THICK ABOUT 35 KM NORTH OF THE TOBA CALDERA IN INDONESIA. view more 

CREDIT: STEVE SELF, UC BERKELEY

New Brunswick, N.J. (July 9, 2021) -- A massive volcanic eruption in Indonesia about 74,000 years ago likely caused severe climate disruption in many areas of the globe, but early human populations were sheltered from the worst effects, according to a Rutgers-led study.

The findings appear in the journal PNAS.

The eruption of the Toba volcano was the largest volcanic eruption in the past two million years, but its impacts on climate and human evolution have been unclear. Resolving this debate is important for understanding environmental changes during a key interval in human evolution.

"We were able to use a large number of climate model simulations to resolve what seemed like a paradox," said lead author Benjamin Black, an assistant professor in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Rutgers University-New Brunswick. "We know this eruption happened and that past climate modeling has suggested the climate consequences could have been severe, but archaeological and paleoclimate records from Africa don't show such a dramatic response.

"Our results suggest that we might not have been looking in the right place to see the climate response. Africa and India are relatively sheltered, whereas North America, Europe and Asia bear the brunt of the cooling," Black said. "One intriguing aspect of this is that Neanderthals and Denisovans were living in Europe and Asia at this time, so our paper suggests evaluating the effects of the Toba eruption on those populations could merit future investigation."

The researchers analyzed 42 global climate model simulations in which they varied magnitude of sulfur emissions, time of year of the eruption, background climate state and sulfur injection altitude to make a probabilistic assessment of the range of climate disruptions the Toba eruption may have caused. This approach let the team account for some of the unknowns related to the eruption.

"By using a probabilistic approach, we aim at understanding the likelihood that some regions were less impacted by Toba, considering the wide range of estimates of its size and timing, in addition to our lack of knowledge of the underlying climate state," said Black.

The results suggest there was likely significant regional variation in climate impacts. The simulations predict cooling in the Northern Hemisphere of at least 4°C, with regional cooling as high as 10°C depending on the model parameters. In contrast, even under the most severe eruption conditions, cooling in the Southern Hemisphere -- including regions populated by early humans -- was unlikely to exceed 4°C, although regions in southern Africa and India may have seen decreases in precipitation at the highest sulfur emission level.

The results explain independent archaeological evidence suggesting the Toba eruption had modest effects on the development of hominid species in Africa. According to the authors, their ensemble simulation approach could be used to better understand other past and future explosive eruptions.

"Our results reconcile the simulated distribution of climate impacts from the eruption with paleoclimate and archaeological records," according to the study. "This probabilistic view of climate disruption from Earth's most recent super-eruption underscores the uneven expected distribution of societal and environmental impacts from future very large explosive eruptions."

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The study included researchers from the National Center for Atmospheric Research, University of Leeds and University of Cambridge, and was supported by the National Center for Atmospheric Research and the National Science Foundation.

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