UC Davis C-STEM Center receives $2.4M grant to introduce African American girls to engineering and robotics

Grant and Award Announcement

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA - DAVIS

 

IMAGE: GIRLS TAKING PART IN THE 2019 ROBOPLAY COMPETITION ORGANIZED BY THE UC DAVIS C-STEM CENTER. WITH A GRANT FROM NSF, THE CENTER IS LAUNCHING A NEW SUMMER PROGRAM TO ENGAGE BLACK GIRLS IN ENGINEERING AND ROBOTICS. view more 

CREDIT: HARRY CHENG/C-STEM CENTER

With a $2.4 million grant from the National Science Foundation, the UC Davis Center for Integrated Computing and STEM Education, or C-STEM, will establish a new initiative to introduce Black/African American girls to engineering and robotics and provide them with resources to lead in science, technology, engineering and mathematics, or STEM, in their schools, communities and careers.

The Ujima Girls in Robotics Leadership Project is a free, hands-on engineering and robotics program that teaches girls in middle and high school engineering and leadership in a culturally relevant environment. The project is led by C-STEM Director and Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Harry Cheng, Faheemah Mustafaa, assistant professor in the UC Davis School of Education, and Teresa Aldredge, former board president of the Umoja Community Education Foundation and a senior advisor to the C-STEM Center. 

“This is an exciting opportunity to further encourage the creativity, leadership and scientific genius of Black girls and young women in ways that many don’t have access to in their day-to-day schooling,” Mustafaa said. “I am hopeful about the mutually empowering benefit of this project for the participants, our research team, and everyone else involved.”

Introducing girls to STEM applications and leadership in middle school and nurturing that interest through high school increases the likelihood that they will stay in the field. Supporting Black girls’ STEM skills in identity-affirming, fun and supportive environments lowers access barriers and further increases their odds of pursuing STEM careers.

“This grant will illuminate the talent that our Black girls already have inside them and provide a safe and nurturing environment for growth and development,” said Aldredge. “I’m honored to be a part of this important endeavor for our community.”

Building a community

The Ujima GIRL Camp takes the C-STEM Center’s already successful GIRL/GIRL+ camps — which have been serving middle and high school girls respectively across California since 2013 and 2018 — and adds the cultural piece for African American students. The “Ujima” name is a Swahili word for “collective work and responsibility,” an important principle in many Black/African American spaces. It also symbolizes the program’s emphasis on community.

Together with California Community Colleges and the Umoja Community Education Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to enhancing the educational experience of African American students, the team will recruit African American college students to lead each Ujima GIRL or GIRL+ Camp, develop curriculum and serve as mentors.

Cheng’s vision is to build a “mentoring pipeline” that keeps participants involved from their first Ujima GIRL Camp through college. Ujima GIRL Camp alumni can return as assistant coaches when they reach high school and also participate in the GIRL+ Camp. GIRL/GIRL+ alumni in college can return as coaches. In addition, Cheng also wants to encourage participants to create their own Ujima GIRL clubs at their local schools, where they can share their experiences with other girls. 

“We want to give students a life-changing experience and inspire them to go into college, post-secondary studies and careers in STEM,” said Cheng. “This program will help them make a real-world connection with math, because we want to give them the tools to be successful in their academic programs and learn in the years ahead.”

In the first three years, the program will host 48 Ujima GIRL and 48 GIRL+ camps statewide and nurture about 2,000 students. If successful, the team hopes to increase that number and expand the program nationwide.

“I hope that we can increase the number of partners and sponsors so we can effectively expand and inspire more girls with the resources they need,” said Cheng. “There are so many who want to contribute to the cause, and we stand ready to provide the opportunity to join forces and work together.”

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UC Davis C-STEM Center is currently recruiting a program manager for the project. The organizers hope to hold the first camps in summer 2022.

Media Resources

More about the project and how to participate

UC Davis C-STEM Center

Study proposes new ways to estimate climate change impacts on agriculture

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURAL, CONSUMER AND ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES

 

IMAGE: UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS RESEARCHERS SANDY DALL’ERBA AND CHANG CAI LOOKED AT HOW STUDIES ESTIMATE CLIMATE CHANGE EFFECTS ON AGRICULTURE, AND SUGGEST A NEW APPROACH TO OBTAIN MORE ACCURATE AND LOCATION-SPECIFIC RESULTS. view more 

CREDIT: UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS

URBANA, Ill. ­– Most scientists agree climate change has a profound impact on U.S. agricultural production. But estimates vary widely, making it hard to develop mitigation strategies. Two agricultural economists at the University of Illinois take a closer look at how choice of statistical methodology influences climate study results. They also propose a more accurate and place-specific approach to data analysis.

“If you pay attention to forecasts of how the climate will affect U.S. agriculture, the results are completely different. Some scientists predict it's going to have a positive impact for the nation in the long run, some report it's going to have a negative impact,” says study co-author Sandy Dall’Erba, professor in the Department of Agricultural and Consumer Economics (ACE) and director of the Center for Climate, Regional, Environmental and Trade Economics (CREATE) at U of I.

Dall’Erba and Chang Cai, doctoral student in ACE and the paper’s lead author, take stock of all the academic literature that estimates the impact of climate change on U.S. farmland values and revenues, focusing on every U.S. county. The county-level scale is not only more accurate, the researchers say, but also important for regional policy makers, because they can make county-specific decisions in areas where climate change is anticipated to pose a serious challenge.

“There is not a single commodity that is produced all over the U.S. The only way we can really understand the relationship between climate and agriculture is that rather than focusing on a particular crop or livestock, we look at economic impacts,” Dall’Erba notes. “Looking at aggregated agricultural outcomes allows us to compare the situation across every county in the U.S.”

The researchers look at how studies group locations for analysis, and how such groupings affect the results.

“Early studies would assume one additional degree of Celsius or Fahrenheit in Arizona will have the exact same marginal effect on agriculture as one additional degree in Illinois, which makes very little sense because you're looking on the one hand at a place that is quite used to high temperature and low precipitation, versus a place which is used to moderate temperature and much more precipitation,” Dall’Erba says.

Recently, studies have tried to differentiate results and estimate effects based on local conditions. A popular approach is to divide the U.S. into irrigated versus rainfed areas, roughly across a west/east partition along the 100th meridian. While Illinois and Arizona would thus belong to different groups, Arizona and Montana would still be expected to experience similar marginal effects of weather.

Another method, which Dall’Erba has used in his own research, compares low- versus high-elevation areas, while a third approach is to group locations along state lines. Dall’Erba says researchers use the latter approach because it is straightforward to estimate and relevant for policy measures, but it does not produce very accurate results, since state lines rarely conform to atmospheric characteristics.

While all these approaches have some merit, they also have shortcomings.

“We discovered that results really do differ in terms of what the future impact of climate change will be if you choose one grouping versus another, especially in primary agricultural areas,” Cai explains. “We also found out that none of those groupings is better than any other in predicting what the future outcome will be.”

Cai and Dall’Erba recommend using one of three new statistical approaches that offer county-specific climate-impact estimates. All of these methods are driven by data and start without any assumptions on what the groups will look like. Instead, these methods analyze data to determine both the number of groups and who belongs to what group. These scientific techniques, called C-Lasso, causal forest algorithm, and geographically weighted regressions, have been used for analysis in other fields, such as the labor market and energy conservation, but they have not been used in climate change research before. 

“You really let the data speak for themselves; you do not impose anything on your model. As soon as you start making choices on how one should group the observations, you've already guided your results in one direction. And then you’ll want to defend your choice. We’re hoping future researchers will be more cautious about a priori choices,” Dall’Erba explains.

Dall’Erba and Cai are already working on applying these new approaches to a comprehensive analysis of climate change and U.S. agricultural production. They expect to present their results in a forthcoming paper, and to guide the implementation of place-tailored climate change adaptation strategies.

###

The Department of Agricultural and Consumer Economics  and the Center for Climate, Regional, Environmental and Trade Economics (CREATE) are in the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences, University of Illinois.

The paper, “On the Evaluation of Heterogenous Climate Change Impacts on U.S. Agriculture: Does Group Membership Matter?” is published in Climatic Change. [https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-021-03154-5]. Authors are Chang Cai and Sandy Dall’Erba.

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JOURNAL

Climatic Change

DOI

10.1007/s10584-021-03154-5 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Data/statistical analysis

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE TITLE

On the Evaluation of Heterogenous Climate Change Impacts on U.S. Agriculture: Does Group Membership Matter?

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

20-Jul-2021

 

Cross-pollinating physicists use novel technique to improve the design of facilities that aim to harvest fusion energy

Peer-Reviewed Publication

DOE/PRINCETON PLASMA PHYSICS LABORATORY

 

IMAGE: PHYSICIST NIK LOGAN NEXT TO COMPUTER-GENERATED IMAGES OF FUSION PLASMA view more 

CREDIT: ELLE STARKMAN / PPPL OFFICE OF COMMUNICATIONS

Physicists are like bees — they can cross-pollinate, taking ideas from one area and using them to develop breakthroughs in other areas. Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) have transferred a technique from one realm of plasma physics to another to enable the more efficient design of powerful magnets for doughnut-shaped fusion facilities known as tokamaks. Such magnets confine and control plasma, the fourth state of matter that makes up 99 percent of the visible universe and fuels fusion reactions.

Designing these magnets is not simple, especially when they must be precisely shaped to create complex, three-dimensional magnetic fields to control plasma instabilities. So it is appropriate that the new technique comes from scientists who design stellarators, cruller-shaped fusion devices that require such carefully constructed magnets. In other words, the PPPL scientists are using a stellarator computer code to envision the shape and strength of twisted tokamak magnets that can stabilize tokamak plasmas and survive the extreme conditions expected in a fusion reactor.

This insight could ease the construction of tokamak fusion facilities that bring the power of the sun and stars to Earth. “In the past, it was a journey of discovery,” said Nik Logan, a physicist at the DOE’s Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory who led the research while at PPPL. “You had to build something, test it , and use the data to learn how to design the next experiment. Now we can use these new computational tools to design these magnets more easily, using principles gleaned from years of scientific research.” The results have been reported in a paper published in Nuclear Fusion.

Fusion, the power that drives the sun and stars, combines light elements in the form of plasma — the hot, charged state of matter composed of free electrons and atomic nuclei — that generates massive amounts of energy. Scientists are seeking to replicate fusion on Earth for a virtually inexhaustible supply of power to generate electricity.

The findings could aid the construction of tokamaks by compensating for imprecision that occurs when a machine is translated from a theoretical design to a real-life object, or by applying precisely controlled 3D magnetic fields to suppress plasma instabilities. “The reality of building anything is that it isn’t perfect,” Logan said. “It has small irregularities. The magnets we are designing using this stellarator technique can both correct some of the irregularities that occur in the magnetic fields and control instabilities.” Doing so helps the magnetic field stabilize the plasma so potentially damaging bursts of heat and particles do not occur.

Logan and colleagues also learned that these magnets could act on the plasma even when placed at a relatively large distance of up to several meters from the tokamak’s walls. “That’s good news because the closer the magnets are to the plasma, the more difficult it is to design them to meet the harsh conditions near fusion reactors,” Logan said. “The more equipment we can place at a distance from the tokamak, the better.”

The technique relies on FOCUS, a computer code created mainly by PPPL physicist Caoxiang Zhu, a stellarator optimization scientist, to design complicated magnets for stellarator facilities. “When I was first building FOCUS as a postdoctoral fellow at PPPL, Nik Logan stopped by my poster presentation at an American Physical Society conference,” Zhu said. “Later we had a conversation and realized that there was an opportunity to apply the FOCUS code to tokamak projects.”

The collaboration between different subfields is exciting. “I’m happy to see that my code can be extended to a broader range of experiments,” Zhu noted. “I think this is a beautiful connection between the tokamak and stellarator worlds.”

Though long the number-two fusion facility behind tokamaks, stellarators are now becoming more widely used because they tend to create stable plasmas. Tokamaks are currently the first choice for a fusion reactor design, but their plasmas can develop instabilities that could damage a reactor’s internal components.

Presently, PPPL researchers are using this new technique to design and update magnets for several tokamaks around the world. The roster includes COMPASS-U, a tokamak operated by the Czech Academy of Sciences; and the Korea Superconducting Tokamak Advanced Research (KSTAR) facility.

“It’s a very practical paper that has practical applications, and sure enough we have some takers,” Logan said. “I think the results will be helpful for the future of tokamak design.”

###

This research was supported by the DOE (Fusion Energy Sciences).

PPPL, on Princeton University's Forrestal Campus in Plainsboro, N.J., is devoted to creating new knowledge about the physics of plasmas — ultra-hot, charged gases — and to developing practical solutions for the creation of fusion energy. The Laboratory is managed by the University for the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science, which is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, visit https://energy.gov/science

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JOURNAL

Nuclear Fusion

DOI

10.1088/1741-4326/abff05 

Rare Cambrian fossils from Utah reveal unexpected anatomical complexity in early comb jellies

International team of researchers describe two rare Cambrian ctenophore fossils found in the house range of Utah

Peer-Reviewed Publication

HARVARD UNIVERSITY, DEPARTMENT OF ORGANISMIC AND EVOLUTIONARY BIOLOGY

 

IMAGE: ARTISTIC RECONSTRUCTION OF CTENORHABDOTUS CAMPANELLIFORMIS (TOP) AND THALASSOSTAPHYLOS ELEGANS (BOTTOM) view more 

CREDIT: ILLUSTRATED BY HOLLY SULLIVAN

Ctenophores, also known as comb jellies, are a group of over 200 living species of invertebrate animals with a transparent gelatinous body superficially resembling that of a jellyfish. There is much interest in ctenophore evolution in recent years as their controversial phylogenetic position in the animal tree of life has prompted conflicting hypotheses. While some studies suggest they might represent the earliest branching animals, others suggest a more traditional position as close relatives of jellyfish.

These hypotheses carry different and important implications for understanding the origin of animals themselves because, depending on the position of comb jellies in the tree of life, it’s possible that muscles and the nervous system might have had multiple origins, a rather big deal as these are some of the most distinguishing features of animals today. 

In a study published in iScience an international team of researchers describe two new species of fossil ctenophores from the mid-Cambrian of Western USA, one of which has a preserved nervous system, which illuminates the early evolution of nervous and sensory features in ctenophores.

Despite their importance for understanding animal evolution, most information about ctenophores comes from living species alone as fossil comb jellies are extremely rare due to their gelatinous bodies. However, some fossil ctenophores have been discovered in early and middle Cambrian sites (about 520-500 million years ago) with exceptional preservation. These fossilized specimens, found around the world in sites including Burgess Shale in Canada and Chengjiang in South China, show that Cambrian ctenophores are a bit different from living representatives. The fossils include features such as a skeleton that supported the ctenes, or comb rows, as well as up to 24 comb rows – many more than the eight comb rows possessed by living species.

In this study, researchers describe the first ctenophore fossils ever discovered in the United States and in doing so, add two new species to the scant fossil record of the group. These 500 million-years-old fossils were found in the Marjum Formation in the House Range of Utah. These exceptional marine deposits are known for preservation of delicate organisms that normally would not be represented in the shelly fossil record. More importantly, the fossils are preserved flattened as films of organic carbon, which aids the preservation of internal organs. Using electronic microscopy, the researchers were able to detect carbon film signals that allowed them to identify parts of the original internal anatomy.

CAPTION

Fossil specimen of Ctenorhabdotus campanelliformis from the mid-Cambrian Marjum Formation in Utah. Light photograph (left), elemental map showing nervous system as carbon films (center), and interpretative drawing (right).

CREDIT

Luke Parry, Rudy Lerosey-Aubril, and James Weaver

The first species, Ctenorhabdotus campanelliformis, has a small bell-shaped body with up to 24 comb rows and a wavy mouth opening. Intriguingly, this species shows two important features. First, there is a rigid capsule that protects the sensory apical organ, which represents the remains of the skeleton found in older ctenophores from the early Cambrian. Secondly, this species also shows a preserved nervous system. The nerves are long, and connect with a ring around the mouth. “This was quite an unexpected finding, as only one species (Euplokamis) of comb jellies today has comparable long nerves. Most modern comb jellies have a diffuse nervous net, and not well-defined long nerves,” said senior author Professor Javier Ortega-Hernández, the Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University.

The second species, Thalassostaphylos elegans, has a rounder appearance, approximately 16 comb rows, and a wavy mouth opening. Although this species does not show fossilized nerves, it has an important feature known as the “polar fields”, which can be seen as two small dots on top of the apical organ. “These are also important for sensing the environment in living comb jellies, and finding evidence for them in the Cambrian is significant for understanding their evolution,” said Ortega-Hernández. “Interestingly, Thalassostaphylos elegans does not have a rigid capsule, indicating that the skeleton found in early Cambrian ctenophores was already lost in some representatives by the mid-Cambrian.”

Ultimately, the two new species from Utah illuminate the evolution of the nervous system, sensory structures, and diversity of Cambrian ctenophores. The researchers conclude that Cambrian ctenophores had more complex nervous systems compared to those observed today. Living species of comb jellies have a diffuse nervous system similar to the structure of chicken wire, but very thin and transparent. Cambrian ctenophores’ nervous systems were condensed with specific nerve tracks that basically ran along the length of the body and then as a ring around the mouth. This complex system is only seen in one living species, the Euplokamis, which is regarded as potentially being an early branching ctenophore living today. However, while Euplokamis has this elongated nerve structure that runs the length of the body, it does not have the ring around the mouth, so it too is simpler compared to Cambrian ctenophores.

CAPTION

Holotype fossil specimen of Thalassostaphylos elegans from the mid-Cambrian Marjum Formation in Utah. Light photograph (left), interpretative drawing (center), and magnification of polar fields (right).

CREDIT

Luke Parry and Rudy Lerosey-Aubril.

To better understand the evolution of this group, the team performed phylogenetic analysis which suggests the condensed nervous system is actually the ancestral condition and that only modern ctenophores have lost this complex nervous system and instead favored a more diffuse nerve net.

“This discovery means that there has a been a secondary simplification of comb jellies during their evolution, first losing the rigid skeleton, and then the discrete nerves observed in the fossils,” said Dr. Luke A. Parry, Department of Earth Sciences, University of Oxford, UK. “These are insights that would be impossible to obtain from only studying living comb jellies, so the fossil record is providing a valuable glimpse into the evolution of these enigmatic animals.”

Ortega-Hernández agreed, “In this context, Euplokamis would be showing a sort of vestigial organization of the nervous system, which are not seen in other living ctenophores. Ctenophores have a more complex evolutionary history than what can be reconstructed from their living representatives alone. Fossils allow us to understand the morphology that developed first and how it has changed through time.”

The studied fossil material consists of specimens from the Bureau of Land Management, and are permanently curated at the Natural History Museum of Utah in Salt Lake City. “The Bureau of Land Management is proud to preserve and protect paleontological resources on public lands, including in the Marjum Formation located in the House Range of west central Utah,” said Philip Gensler, acting BLM regional   paleontologist. “This site contains more than 100 species of Cambrian-age invertebrate fossils and provides opportunities to learn more about the evolution of marine species and the environment 500 million years ago. The BLM supports research and discovery on public lands and applauds the Natural History Museum of Utah and Harvard University for the outstanding preservation of these specimens, scientific research, and revelation about the evolution of comb jellies.”

The Museum curatorial staff contacted co-author Dr. Rudy Lerosey-Aubril, project coordinator and Research Associate, Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, and Ortega-Hernández in 2019 to aid in examining and cataloging the vast collection of Cambrian fossils from the House Range of Utah. “The Cambrian deposits of western Utah are key to our understanding of the Cambrian Explosion. Our collaboration with the Natural History Museum of Utah has boosted our research on these remarkable fossil assemblages, leading to exciting discoveries that we are eager to report” said Lerosey-Aubril.

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JOURNAL

iScience

DOI

10.1016/j.isci.2021.102943 

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

20-Aug-2021

Disclaimer: AAAS and 

Under the northern lights: Mesospheric ozone layer depletion explained

Peer-Reviewed Publication

NAGOYA UNIVERSITY

 

IMAGE: IN GEOSPACE, THE ARASE SATELLITE OBSERVES CHORUS WAVES AND ENERGETIC ELECTRONS, WHILE ON THE GROUND, EISCAT AND OPTICAL INSTRUMENTS OBSERVE PULSATING AURORAE AND ELECTRON PRECIPITATION IN THE MESOSPHERE. view more 

CREDIT: THE ERG SCIENCE TEAM

The same phenomenon that causes aurorae — the magical curtains of green light often visible from the polar regions of the Earth — causes mesospheric ozone layer depletion. This depletion could have significance for global climate change and therefore, understanding this phenomenon is important.

Now, a group of scientists led by Prof. Yoshizumi Miyoshi from Nagoya University, Japan, has observed, analyzed, and provided greater insight into this phenomenon. The findings are published in Nature’s Scientific Reports.

In the Earth’s magnetosphere — the region of magnetic field around the Earth — electrons from the sun remain trapped. Interactions between electrons and plasma waves can cause the trapped electrons to escape and enter the Earth’s upper atmosphere (thermosphere). This phenomenon, called electron precipitation, is responsible for aurorae. But, recent studies show that this is also responsible for local ozone layer depletions in the mesosphere (lower than thermosphere) and may have a certain impact on our climate.

What’s more, this ozone depletion at the mesosphere could be occurring specifically during aurorae. And while scientists have studied electron precipitation in relation to aurorae, none have been able to sufficiently elucidate how it causes mesospheric ozone depletion.

Prof. Miyoshi and team took the opportunity to change this narrative during a moderate geomagnetic storm over the Scandinavian Peninsula in 2017. They aimed their observations at “pulsating aurorae” (PsA), a type of faint aurora. Their observations were possible through coordinated experiments with the European Incoherent Scatter (EISCAT) radar (at an altitude between 60 and 120 km where the PsA occurs), the Japanese spacecraft Arase, and the all-sky camera network.

Arase data showed that the trapped electrons in the Earth’s magnetosphere have a wide energy range. It also indicated the presence of chorus waves, a type of electromagnetic plasma wave, in that region of space. Computer simulations then showed that Arase had observed plasma waves causing precipitations of these electrons across the wide energy range, which is consistent with EISCAT observations down in the Earth’s thermosphere.

Analysis of EISCAT data showed that electrons of a wide energy range, from a few keV (kilo electron volts) to MeV (mega electron volts), precipitate to cause PsA. These electrons carry enough energy to penetrate our atmosphere to lower than 100 km, up to an ~60 km altitude, where mesospheric ozone lies. In fact, computer simulations using EISCAT data showed that these electrons immediately deplete the local ozone in the mesosphere (by more than 10%) upon hitting it.

Prof. Miyoshi explains, “PsAs occur almost daily, are spread over large areas, and last for hours. Therefore, the ozone depletion from these events could be significant.” Speaking of the greater significance of these findings, Prof. Miyoshi continues: “This is only a case study. Further statistical studies are needed to confirm how much ozone destruction occurs in the middle atmosphere because of electron precipitation. After all, the impact of this phenomenon on the climate could potentially impact modern life.”

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JOURNAL

Scientific Reports

DOI

10.1038/s41598-021-92611-3 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Observational study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE TITLE

Penetration of MeV electrons into the mesosphere accompanying pulsating aurorae

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

12-Jul-2021

Nutrient-rich human waste poised to sustain agriculture, improve economies

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT URBANA-CHAMPAIGN, NEWS BUREAU

 

IMAGE: A NEW STUDY FROM THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS URBANA-CHAMPAIGN HELPS DEFINE THE GLOBAL RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE AND SANITATION TECHNOLOGY. view more 

CREDIT: PHOTO BY L. BRIAN STAUFFER

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — The future connection between human waste, sanitation technology and sustainable agriculture is becoming more evident. According to research directed by University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign civil and environmental engineering professor Jeremy Guest, countries could be moving closer to using human waste as fertilizer, closing the loop to more circular, sustainable economies.

A new study characterizes the spatial distribution of human urine-derived nutrients – nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium – and agricultural fertilizer demand to define supply-demand location typologies, their prevalence across the globe and the implications for resource recovery. The findings are published in the journal Environmental Science and Technology.

“The total amount of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium largely remains constant in our bodies, once we stop growing,” said Guest, who also serves as the acting associate director for research at the Institute for Sustainability, Energy, and Environment at the U. of I. “Whatever comes in through food and drink must come out in our urine, feces and sweat. Knowing that, we can estimate how much of each of these nutrients is in a population’s bodily waste if we know their diet.”

Previous studies by Guest and others have assessed the potential for recovering the nutrients from human waste across the globe and identified locations with a surplus of human waste-derived nutrients relative to the local demand for agricultural fertilizers.

“The new study is the first to describe human waste-derived nutrient supply-demand location relationships using a single mathematical equation,” Guest said. “The quality of sanitation infrastructure varies greatly across the globe, as do people’s diets and the availability of land suitable for agriculture. Having the means to characterize and quantitatively compare a location’s nutrient-recovery potential can go a long way to better inform decision-makers when it comes to future sanitation and agriculture policy.”

The team performed extensive numerical and geographic analyses of dietary, population, sanitation and agricultural data from 107 countries to accomplish this quantitative characterization at the global scale. The investigation revealed three distinct supply-demand typologies: countries with a co-located supply-demand; countries with a dislocated supply-demand; and countries with diverse supply-demand proximities.

The United States and Australia, for example, fall under the dislocated supply-demand typology. They have intensive agriculture in areas far from large cities, thus the human waste-derived nutrient supply is far away from where it is needed, Guest said. Even with advanced sanitation infrastructure in place, this means that nutrients would need to be transported over large distances, either as heavy fluids or converted into concentrated crystalline products. Economically speaking, Guest said, it would make sense to work with a concentrated product to implement a human waste-derived fertilizer in these countries.

The study reports that in countries with co-located supply-demand typologies like India, Nigeria and Uganda, human populations are more substantively in the proximity of agricultural areas, making local reuse possible. In many communities with co-located supply-demand, however, there is a need for improved sanitation infrastructure. Guest said implementing a human waste-derived fertilizer program could be highly beneficial to sanitation and agriculture in these places.

Countries like Brazil, Mexico, China and Russia exhibit a continuum

of co-location to dislocation of nutrient supply and demand. The study reports that policymakers would need to approach human waste-derived nutrient use with more regionalized strategies and a range of local reuse and transport approaches. “Higher income countries in this group may have the infrastructure and economic support for various technologies, but those with limited financial resources would require prioritization of resource-recovery technology in some areas,” Guest said.

The team was surprised to find the typologies corresponded closely to the United Nations Human Development Index.

“Higher HDI-scoring countries like the U.S., Western Europe and Australia tend to fall in the dislocated supply-demand typology and lower HDI-scoring countries tend to fit the co-located supply-demand typology. Of course, there are exceptions, but we did not expect to find such a strong correlation,” Guest said.

The team hopes this research will help clarify the salient economic, sanitation and agricultural characteristics of countries across the globe so that decision-makers can prioritize investment, policies and technologies that will advance goals for a circular economy and the provision of sanitation to all, Guest said.

###

Desarae Echevarria, a former Illinois civil and environmental engineering graduate student, is the lead author of the study.

The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Graduate College Fellowship, the SURGE Fellowship from the Grainger College of Engineering, and the Civil and Environmental Engineering Distinguished Graduate Fellowship supported this study.

Editor’s notes:

To reach Jeremy Guest, call 217-244-9247; jsguest@illinois.edu.

The paper “Defining nutrient co-location typologies for human-derived supply and crop demand to advance resource recovery” is available online and from the U. of I. News Bureau. DOI: 10.1021/acs.est.1c01389.

More information about sanitation technology research is available from the Institute for Sustainability, Energy, and Environment at the U. of I.

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JOURNAL

Environmental Science & Technology

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Data/statistical analysis

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE TITLE

Defining nutrient co-location typologies for human-derived supply and crop demand to advance resource recovery

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

14-Jul-2021

Superhero battles Covid lies in California theater production

Issued on: 20/08/2021 

Veronica Flores (L) and Leonor Garcia (R) wear coronavirus masks ahead of a superhero-themed Covid-19 play at the El Sol Neighborhood Educational Center in San Bernardino, California 

Frederic J. BROWN AFP

San Bernardino (United States) (AFP)

Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it's Captain Empathy, a superhero ready to vanquish misinformation about vaccines in a Hollywood-style twist on the fight against Covid-19.

Wearing a yellow cape, the warrior battles the evil Coronavirus with medical science as his superpower in a piece of educational theater in San Bernardino, near Los Angeles, California. The hero disarms his nemesis by convincing two young people to get immunized.

"We thought of this play as a way to educate people about the importance of vaccines, especially young people," says director Valentina Sanabria.

Captain Empathy, played by Nathaniel Chavez, is attacked by the Covid-19 virus, played by Kenneth Artry

 Frederic J. BROWN AFP

"There are many people who are resisting the vaccine... because of rumors that it contains a microchip, or because... not enough time has passed to take a good look and educate themselves," she says.

Vaccines in the United States are free and widely available for anyone over the age of 12 who wants them, but just 51 percent of the population is fully immunized against Covid-19.

The low vaccination rate has doctors worried. They say that a recent surge in cases -- driven by the infectious Delta variant -- is largely affecting the unvaccinated, particularly in conservative southern states, among ethnic minorities and in poorer communities.

Artry, who plays the Covid-19 virus, jumps off stage during rehearsals of a superhero-themed Covid-19 play at the El Sol Neighborhood Educational Center 

Frederic J. BROWN AFP

"Captain Empathy vs. Covid-19" is a community-based effort to counter the skepticism about vaccines, with the spikey-shelled villain seen spreading lies about the effects of the jab.

"We are doing this to fight back against the misinformation," says Natanael Chavez, who plays the hero. "Not being vaccinated puts the whole family at risk."

With great power comes great responsibility, but, it appears, Captain Empathy is equal to the task, and has already won over at least one cast member.

Captain Empathy, Chavez (R), fights the Covid-19 virus during the closing scene of a superhero-themed Covid-19 play on August 19 

Frederic J. BROWN AFP

"I thought that since I already had Covid, I already had antibodies and I didn't need to get vaccinated," says Julia Perez, 26, who plays one of the girls initially refusing the jab.

"Here they let me know that it's important," said Perez, who, like her character, is now ready to book her shot.

© 2021 AFP

Nigerian oil hub hails coronation of new king

Issued on: 21/08/2021 -

The king or Olu of Warri is one of the most important traditional rulers in Nigeria reigning over a kingdom dating back to the 15th century

 PIUS UTOMI EKPEI AFP
2 min
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ODE-ITSEKIRI (Nigeria) (AFP)

Thousands of people in traditional red and white attire thronged to the riverine community of Ode-Itsekiri in southern Nigeria's oil hub Warri on Saturday to witness the ascension of their new king.

The king or Olu of Warri is one of the most important traditional rulers in Nigeria, reigning over a kingdom dating back to the 15th century with a trading hub and seaport once used by Portuguese and Dutch slave merchants.

Nigeria's kings and emirs hold no official political powers, but they wield enormous influence as custodians of spiritual and cultural heritage in Africa's most populous nation which has more than 300 ethnicities.

The new King, Omo Oba Utienyinoritsetsola Emiko, 37, ascended the throne as the 21st Olu of Warri at the ceremony in Ode-Itsekiri, his people's ancestral home.

The US-educated prince was crowned by traditional chiefs of the ancient town in the presence of ministers, governors, senators, religious leaders and diplomats.

After the crown was placed on his head, the kingmakers bowed to pay hommage to the new king to applause from the ecstatic crowd of onlookers.

The new king, now officially known as Ogiame Atuwatshe III of Warri kingdom, urged Itsekiri to support him, as guests were given displays of music, dancing, acrobatics and a boat regatta.

"We strongly believe the reign of King Emiko will usher in peace, progress and development in Warri kingdom," retired civil servant Felix Agbeyegbe, told AFP, wearing a black hat with white and red clothing.

The 77-year-old, who has witnessed the ascension of three Olu of Warri, described the new king as "a child of destiny who should be supported to succeed".

Emiko rose to the throne after the death of the former king, his uncle, but his ascension was not without controversy. Some traditional leaders disagreed because his mother is not from Itsekiri.

Rumours of a cancellation of his coronation also emerged after local media reports his traditional crown, the symbol of authority, was missing.

Two sons of the late king were reportedly invited for questioning by the police over the matter.

"The dispute has been resolved as the crown has been found," a palace source told AFP. "Prince Emiko will receive his crown."

In a message, Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari urged the new king to put the controversy surrounding his emergence behind him and to work for his people.

Streets and corners in Warri and its environs were adorned with festive banners and buildings, offices and markets were decorated with white and red, the symbol of the Itsekiri.

Security was heavy and police helicopters hovered over the town.

Warri businessman Jolomi Otiri, 32, hoped the king "with his pedigree, will attract more development to the town".

But he urged the king "to unite all the sons and daughters of Warri irrespective of their religious and political affiliations and beliefs."

© 2021 AFP

Singh says NDP will crack down on 'renovictions', provide up to $5K in rent help

TORONTO — Federal NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh pledged to offer relief from soaring housing prices on Saturday, promising thousands of dollars in subsidies for those struggling to keep pace with payments on rising rental costs.


Singh's pledge of $5,000 in annual rent subsidies came in downtown Toronto, a riding-rich district where the New Democrats are hoping to win seats away from the Liberals and where the NDP leader says average rents have skyrocketed by more than $4,000 in the past six years.

Singh also said his party would impose strict rules on Canadian Housing and Mortgage Corporation loans in an effort to stop so-called "renovictions." For-profit companies, he said, have been taking advantage of loans from the federal housing agency to purchase buildings, renovate them and then jack up the rent, forcing those who can't afford the new rates to find somewhere else to live.

"Buying is out of the question for so many people, even renting has become so difficult," Singh said at the downtown campaign stop. "Over the past couple of years, (it) has become more and more unaffordable."

"Justin Trudeau's allowed this to happen, allow this crisis to get worse, it's gotten worse while he's been in power and the CMHC is being used to 'renovict' people."

When asked where the funding for an annual supplement of up to $5,000 a year would come from, he pointed to his party's previous promise to introduce new taxes on the rich.

Video: Singh says NDP will crack down on 'renovictions', provide up to $5K in rent help (The Canadian Press)

A real estate economist said transferring cash to those with low-income is better than just building affordable housing, noting a subsidy can be allocated for other basic expenses.

"It's not a crazy idea but $5,000 is probably too much," said Tom Davidoff, an associate professor at the University of British Columbia, noting that such subsidies would likely benefit renters more than supply-side aid such as the rental investment incentives proposed by the Conservatives.

Singh accused the Liberal leader of allowing rents to rise and housing prices to balloon by protecting investors over families.

The Liberal government kicked off a 10-year, multibillion-dollar national housing strategy in 2018-19. The parliamentary budget officer recently found program delays at CMHC, expired community housing deals with the provinces and a shift toward more expensive affordable homes have limited the impact of the strategy.

The NDP leader proposed only allowing CMHC loans to be used on affordable housing rather than renoviction projects, adding Canadians shouldn't have to compete with foreign investors when buying homes.

"I don't want them to come to Canada. I don't want them here," said Singh, reiterating his pledge of a 20 per cent foreign buyers' tax on the sale of homes to individuals who are not Canadian citizens or permanent residents.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 21, 2021.

Denise Paglinawan, The Canadian Press