It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Accusations that India is behind the homicide of Surrey Gurdwara president Hardeep Singh Nijjar are reverberating across the continent, prompting Sikh leaders to meet in Surrey on Saturday.
Sikh leaders from both Canada and the United States gathered at the Surrey Guru Nanak Gurdwara, the same Gurdwara where Nijjar was shot and killed at on June 18.
“(People have come from) Washington state, Toronto and New York. Everyone is kind of converging here,” B.C. Gurdwaras Council’s Moninder Singh said.
About 250 people attended the meeting on Saturday.
“This is unprecedented in terms of what we’re responding to today,” said Brabjot Singh, an Edmonton Sikh leader.
They have gathered to discuss next moves and to demand action regarding the killing of Nijjar.
“People need to understand what we should do next (and) where we should go from here,” said Jatinder Singh Grewal, a Sikhs for Justice member from New York.
Community leaders have created a list of four demands they’ll send to the federal government.
“One of the demands is putting forward an immediate freeze or elimination of the intelligence-sharing agreements between Canada and India,” Singh said.
Nijjar was a vocal supporter of the independent Sikh state of Khalistan. The Indian government considered him a terrorist and put a bounty on his head.
Earlier this month, bombshell allegations from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and the federal government said that his death is potentially linked to agents of the Indian government.
Another one of the demands from the Sikh leaders is to ensure the killers are caught.
“We know there was a warning given to Hardeep Singh and a number of activists more than a year ago, yet this assassination was carried out,” Brabjot Singh said.
“Where does the fault and responsibility lie with Canadian agencies and policymakers?”
Karmji Singh, from Seattle, said there is fear more attacks will take place if something doesn't change soon.
“We have so many relatives here, and we also worried about their safety and security,” he said.
The vocal Sikh leaders said the community as a whole will be pushing for federal government action.
What's driving robberies at Buddhist places of worship across the GTA?
Story by Julia Knope • CBC
Welcoming strangers into places of worship has always been a core value of Toronto's Buddhist community, says Chemi Lhamo. Now, it's not so simple.
"The very places that are meant to be open are now having to take precautions," Lhamo, an organizer with the Tibetan Canadian Cultural Centre and a spokesperson for Gajang Buddhist Center, told CBC Toronto.
A recent string of crimes at places of worship across the Greater Toronto Area has meant Gajang Buddhist Center, and others like it, have had to beef up security. That includes screening new visitors.
"It's really sad because in the given world that we live in, there's not a lot of safe spaces, even just free spaces, to access," Lhamo said.
Between July 21 and Sept. 9, police in Peel and York regions have reported seven break-ins and thefts at Buddhist temples, monasteries and meditation centres. No arrests have been made. The places of worship declined to comment, citing concerns they might become repeat victims.
Peel police say in one incident, suspects stole money and caused damage to the property. In another instance, suspects asked for a blessing, before stealing a safe and fleeing.
Buddhist temples and monasteries aren't the only places of worship being targeted. There have been 29 break-ins at religious centres across Peel Region since the beginning of the year, according to police data.
Police say the recent incidents appear to be motivated by financial gain and are not being investigated as hate crimes. Investigators are searching for suspects, but have not yet made any arrests.
Toronto police said officers are in contact with other police services, and are conducting general patrols, particularly in off-hours, in areas where places of worship are located.
"Generally these are the places that are very welcoming and open," Lhamo said. "To see … such break-ins or threats, thefts, has been quite disheartening." Buddhists in the GTA
Buddhism in Canada stretches back centuries, according to Antoine Panaioti, an expert in Buddhist philosophy at Toronto Metropolitan University.
He says it can be traced back to the construction of the railroad in the 1880s.
Nearly 150 years later, members of the Buddhist community in Toronto make up two per cent of the city's population, according to Statistics Canada data from 2021.
There's a wide variety of Buddhist places of worship — each of which practice slightly different versions of the religion.
However, Panaioti says they all rely on cash donations, which could make them targets. Buddhist temples are vulnerable, experts say
It's not just the assumption that there's cash onsite that makes these places of worship "easy targets" for crime, said Timothy Bryan, assistant sociology professor at the University of Toronto, who researches the policing of hate crimes.
He says the religion's core values — open and welcoming, with "a desire to address the needs of people" — also have an impact.
"You can have a phenomenon where communities are targeted because there's a perception that they are easy victims," Bryan said.
Though police don't consider the incidents hate crimes, Bryan says they still have "significant effects" on the community.
These types of crimes aren't an entirely new phenomenon.
Pamela Yoshida remembers multiple break-ins and other incidents at the Toronto Buddhist Church, where she's been going since she was in diapers and where she is now an administrative assistant.
In 2005, when the church moved from Bathurst Street to a new North York location, she says those break-ins stopped. Though she says the recent incidents have had some community members questioning whether more precautions are needed, such as a sign advertising: "We keep no cash inside the building."
"We should be open and we should welcome everybody," she said. "If someone wants to, you know, break in here, that's their conscience." What happens now?
Police say their investigations will continue, but Bryan says the onus is unfortunately on places of worship to defend themselves.
"It's often difficult to do prevention strictly through policing," he said.
"If the community wants to have effective ways of preventing these kinds of things from occurring, they have to incur the cost of perhaps installing fencing or gates or cameras."
Back at Gajang Buddhist Center, Lhamo says it's also important for the community to do what it does best: love.
"[These incidents] encourage us to spread the values of our Buddhist tradition, which is rooted in wisdom and compassion," she said.
"Keep spreading the messages of love and compassion for everybody so that such incidents happen less."
UK Immigration Minister refuses meeting with border inspector over antisemitism
TRUTH IS NOT ANTI SEMITIC
"Israeli authorities used "administrative 'ethnic cleansing'" to strip Arabs in Jerusalem of both identification and residency rights."
CRITICISM OF THE STATE OF ISRAEL IS NOT ANTISEMITISM
Story by By JOANIE MARGULIES
UK Immigration Minister Robert Jenrick declined a meeting with the national chief inspector of borders following concerns about a drafted report that made claims of Israel "ethnically cleansing" their Palestinian population, according to reports by UK media sources.
An academic paper written by David Neal, the independent chief inspector of borders and immigration, was flagged due to a reference that the UK Home Office officials flagged for fears of antisemitism.
UK media reported that Neal claimed he was not an author of that specific section and had agreed to remove it following a meeting with government officials last month. Neal, who is a former military police officer who received his appointment in March 2021 is responsible for monitoring the UK’s immigration, asylum, nationality, and customs needs and actions. Not only has he continually clashed with the Home Office since his appointment, but he has reportedly not met with Jenrick since his initial appointment two years ago.
Immigration minister Jenrick has allegedly refused to meet with him due to disputes over Israel-related language in an official draft submitted by Neal, UK media reported. The report remains unpublished and covers the topic of stateless people, including parts of an article on displaced Palestinians.
In addition to Palestinians, displaced people from Kuwait, Syria, and Myanmar were part of the selected text.
Neal claimed that the paper had already been accepted by the Home Office before the backlash started. He told UK media that he has not broken rules as a public appointee and has taken feedback from the Home Office "with care, diligence, and expedition." However, Jenrick reportedly will not meet with Neal until he has confirmation that the extract has indeed been removed.
What was the concerning text?
The extract regarding Palestinian refugees included claims from the 1970s that Israeli authorities used "administrative 'ethnic cleansing'" to strip Arabs in Jerusalem of both identification and residency rights.
The references were noticed by Home Secretary Suella Braverman’s private office, who immediately flagged the report for inappropriate content and as antisemitism.
The Anti-Defamation League (ADL), based in the United States, has repeatedly referred to the continued claims of Israel ethnically cleansing the area as a "fundamentally inaccurate accusation" with intentions to demonize the nation.
Climate change and carnivores: shifts in the distribution and effectiveness of protected areas in the Amazon
A new article published in PeerJ Life & Environment, authored by Camila Ferreira Leão at Universidade Federal do Pará sheds light on the effects of climate change on carnivorous mammals in the Amazon and their representation within Protected Areas (PAs). "Climate change and carnivores: shifts in the distribution and effectiveness of protected areas in the Amazon," reveals alarming findings about the vulnerable status of these animals and the effectiveness of conservation measures.
Carnivorous mammals, integral to the Amazon's ecosystem maintenance and functioning, are increasingly at risk due to human interference, especially climate change and deforestation. As these impacts escalate, it becomes crucial to understand how carnivore distribution and persistence are affected, particularly in the tropical region of the Amazon.
The research underscores the urgent need for robust conservation strategies to mitigate the potential loss of carnivore species in the Amazon. The study provides critical insights for policymakers and conservationists, emphasizing the necessity to adapt conservation measures to address the specific challenges posed by climate change on carnivores.
The study employed Species Distribution Models (SDMs) to evaluate the geographic distribution of 16 carnivore species in the Amazon, projecting into the future under two climate scenarios for the year 2070. By incorporating bioclimatic and vegetation cover variables, the research team assessed the potential area loss and climate suitability for these species, as well as the efficacy of existing Protected Areas in safeguarding their future.
Key findings of the study are:
1. Negative Impact of Climate Change: The SDMs projected a reduction in the potential distribution of carnivore species under both future climate scenarios. In the first scenario, five species are predicted to be negatively affected by climate change, increasing to eight species in the second scenario. This highlights the urgent need for targeted conservation efforts to protect these vulnerable animals.
2. Loss of Climatic Suitability: All species analyzed demonstrated a loss of climatic suitability, with some facing an almost complete loss of suitable habitat under the second scenario. This indicates the severity of climate change's impact on carnivores' ability to thrive in their current environments.
3. Protected Areas' Limited Effectiveness: Despite the presence of Protected Areas, the study found that they may not be as effective in safeguarding carnivore species as anticipated. The Gap analysis revealed that the PAs failed to demonstrate significant protection in terms of species richness, and their ability to retain species richness was not substantially different from chance expectations.
As we grapple with the global climate crisis, this research serves as a wakeup call to act swiftly and decisively to protect the Amazon's biodiversity and the carnivorous mammals that play a vital role in its preservation.
About The Study: In this 50-state survey study of 13,438 adults who reported probable or definite COVID-19 infection, endorsement of misinformation about the COVID-19 pandemic, lack of trust in physicians or scientists, conspiracy-mindedness, and the nature of news sources were associated with receiving non–evidence-based treatment for COVID-19. These results suggest that the potential harms of misinformation may extend to the use of ineffective and potentially toxic treatments in addition to avoidance of health-promoting behaviors.
Authors: Roy H. Perlis, M.D., M.Sc., of Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, is the corresponding author.
Editor’s Note: Please see the article for additional information, including other authors, author contributions and affiliations, conflict of interest and financial disclosures, and funding and support.
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(Santa Barbara, Calif.) — Sometimes simple solutions are better. It all depends on the nature of the problem. For humpback whales, the problem is the rope connecting a crab trap on the seafloor to the buoy on the surface. And for fishermen, it’s fishery closures caused by whale entanglements.
Managing this issue is currently a major item on California’s agenda, and it appears less fishing gear may be the optimal solution. So says a team of researchers led by Christopher Free, at UC Santa Barbara, after modeling the benefits and impacts that several management strategies would have on whales and fishermen. Their results, published in the journalBiological Conservation, find that simply reducing the amount of gear in the water is more effective than dynamic approaches involving real-time monitoring of whale populations. There may even be solutions on the horizon that provide these benefits with fewer drawbacks.
“We were trying to figure out what types of management strategies would work best at reducing whale entanglements in the Dungeness crab fishery while also minimizing impacts to fishing,” said first author Free, a researcher at the university’s Marine Science Institute. “And what we found is that some of the simpler strategies, such as just reducing the amount of gear allocated to the fishermen, outperformed a lot of the more complex management strategies.”
Management falls into two basic categories. Static strategies remain the same regardless of conditions. These include gear reductions, season delays and early closures. Meanwhile, dynamic strategies adapt based on incoming information. These come in proactive and reactive flavors, depending on whether the change is based on surveys determining where whales are abundant or observed entanglements indicating where risk might be high.
Free and his colleagues created a computer model to investigate different management actions based on crab abundance, fisherman behavior and whale behavior. The model predicts how a given approach will affect total catch as well as the frequency with which whales encounter traps. Strategies included gear reductions and closures triggered by surveys, entanglements or time of year. The authors judged each action based on how well it reduced entanglement risk, while minimizing disruptions to the fishing season and total landings.
“No strategy was a panacea,” Free said. “But when we weighed these different methods holistically, gear reductions really stuck out as being the most efficient way of protecting whales with the least impacts to fishing.” A 30% reduction emerged as the optimal course of action.
Free has several explanations for these findings. First and foremost, reducing the amount of gear directly addresses the problem: the number of lines in the water for whales to get entangled in. Dynamic closures merely move these lines around. Static strategies also don’t rely on surveys or monitoring efforts which can be inconsistent, irregular and expensive.
The logistics involved in dynamic approaches also hamper their effectiveness. Unlike many types of fishing gear, crab traps are unsupervised, often for days at a time. What’s more, dynamic actions have a two-week implementation period. “That two-week delay really undermines the effectiveness of this type of dynamic management,” Free said.
Given this caveat, a regional closure might end up moving traps into an area that’s actually more risky for whales. There can also be a long delay between when a whale gets entangled and when it’s spotted. The animal could have dragged the gear for several weeks and hundreds of miles, meaning nobody can be sure where and when the whale got ensnared.
In contrast, static strategies are cheap and predictable. They require no costly equipment, and don’t introduce any uncertainty into the fishing season or fishing grounds. The Dungeness crab fishery is a derby fishery, characterized by intense fishing effort early on. The abundance of crabs means that fishermen can still make good catches in those early weeks even with fewer traps. Indeed, most of the catch is landed early in the season.
According to Free, the fishery regularly catches 90% of male crabs in a season, yet simple management measures have maintained a sustainable and profitable fishery. Fishermen can only keep males above a certain size during a certain season. This ensures that young crabs can grow up, females can lay eggs, and the studs can fertilize the next generation. Turns out that the crab population is not limited for want of males.
But what was once the easiest fishery to manage is now among the hardest. Climate change has shifted whale foraging ground inshore — intensifying the overlap with fishing — and made toxic algae blooms more common — which can delay the opening of the season due to health risks. For instance, a severe algae bloom in 2015 delayed the opening until April, precisely when humpbacks are headed north to their summer feeding grounds. This caused a huge spike in entanglements, and the Center for Biological Diversity sued California for failing to comply with the Endangered Species Act and Marine Mammal Protection Act. The state settled, and there’s since been a rush to overhaul the fishery’s management plan.
To that end, the researchers developed a tool that enables policy-makers and regulators to test any management strategy they can think of, including ones the authors didn’t consider. Models such as this one are crucial for these sorts of questions, where it’s impractical, unethical or impossible to run an experiment.
One shortcoming of this model is that it aggregates all fishermen together, despite significant differences between them. For instance, some fishermen switch to different species after the initial boom, while others continue to focus on crabs. Vessel size, geography and license type all matter as well. It will take more research to understand how regulatory impacts distribute among different fishermen.
Free plans to investigate how to minimize the impact of toxic algae blooms on the fishery. Dynamic strategies actually show much more promise for tackling this issue. He’d like to design a more precise algae monitoring system so that closures are limited to just what is essential for protecting public health. Clearly, there’s still much to learn about what makes an issue more amenable to static or adaptive management strategies.
Some people are searching for an option that could avoid entanglements altogether. “Ropeless gear would be the silver bullet solution to this problem,” Free said. If there are no ropes, then whales can’t get tangled.
This technology does exist, but it presents challenges. A submerged buoy that can be released by an acoustic signal lets fishermen recover their traps without leaving lines to entangle whales in the water. But these high-tech traps are far more expensive than a simple crab pot on a line. Tthe highest cost would likely come from the additional time required to locate and recover such traps. A few extra minutes can compound over hundreds of traps. Surface buoys also signal to other fishermen that a spot is claimed, and enable officials to locate and check traps. Clearly the concept still has some bugs to work out.
There is another viable alternative though: stringing multiple traps along a single line. With this strategy, fishermen could deploy the same number of traps while reducing the number of lines in the water, which are the real threat to whales. “It would be better than gear reductions,” Free said. However, it is currently illegal in California to string multiple traps together. The technique is widespread in the Atlantic lobster fishery, so may work for crabs as well. Regulations could simply be changed to require a certain percentage of traps be trawled together.
“I really believe in this result,” Free said, “that gear reductions offer the most promise for saving whales while maintaining a profitable fishery.”
A KILLER WHALE IN THE SALISH SEA IS OBSERVED HARASSING A PORPOISE, A BEHAVIOR THAT HAS LONG PERPLEXED SCIENTISTS. A STUDY FROM WILD ORCA AND UC DAVIS' SEADOC SOCIETY INVESTIGATE WHAT MAY BE BEHIND IT.
For decades, fish-eating killer whales in the Pacific Northwest have been observed harassing and even killing porpoises without consuming them—a perplexing behavior that has long intrigued scientists.
A study published today in Marine Mammal Science, co-led by Deborah Giles of Wild Orca and Sarah Teman of the SeaDoc Society, a program of the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine, looked at more than 60 years of recorded interactions between Southern Resident killer whales and porpoises in the Salish Sea to better understand why they exhibit this behavior.
Southern Resident killer whales are an endangered population, numbering only 75 individuals. Their survival is intimately tied to the fortunes of Chinook salmon — also an endangered species. Without enough Chinook salmon, these whales are in danger of extinction.
“I am frequently asked, why don’t the Southern Residents just eat seals or porpoises instead?” said Giles. “It's because fish-eating killer whales have a completely different ecology and culture from orcas that eat marine mammals — even though the two populations live in the same waters. So we must conclude that their interactions with porpoises serve a different purpose, but this purpose has only been speculation until now.”
Three plausible explanations
While scientists have recorded instances of Southern Resident killer whales engaging in porpoise harassment as early as 1962, reasons for this behavior have long remained a mystery. Giles, Teman, and a team of collaborators analyzed 78 documented incidents of porpoise harassment from 1962 to 2020. The study suggests three plausible explanations:
Social play: Porpoise harassment may be a form of social play for killer whales. Like many intelligent species, these whales sometimes engage in playful activities to bond, communicate, or simply enjoy themselves. This behavior might benefit group coordination and teamwork.
Hunting practice: Another hypothesis suggests that porpoise harassment might hone their salmon-hunting skills. Southern Resident killer whales could view porpoises as moving targets to practice their hunting techniques, even if they do not intend to consume them.
Mismothering behavior: This theory suggests that the whales may be attempting to provide care for porpoises they perceive as weaker or ill–a manifestation of their natural inclination to assist others in their group. Females have been witnessed carrying their deceased calves and have been seen similarly carrying porpoises.
“Mismothering behavior — also known as ‘displaced epimeletic behavior’ to scientists— might be due to their limited opportunities to care for young,” Giles explained. “Our research has shown that due to malnutrition, nearly 70% of Southern Resident killer whale pregnancies have resulted in miscarriages or calves that died right away after birth.”
Salmon specialists
Despite these intriguing insights, Giles, Teman, and their collaborators acknowledge that the exact reason behind porpoise harassment may never be fully understood. What is clear, however, is that porpoises are not a part of the Southern Resident killer whale diet. Southern Resident killer whale diets are highly specialized for salmon, making the idea of eating porpoises highly unlikely.
“Killer whales are incredibly complex and intelligent animals. We found that porpoise-harassing behavior has been passed on through generations and across social groupings. It’s an amazing example of killer whale culture,” Teman says. “Still, we don’t expect the Southern Resident killer whales to start eating porpoises. The culture of eating salmon is deeply ingrained in Southern Resident society. These whales need healthy salmon populations to survive.”
This research underscores the importance of conserving salmon populations in the Salish Sea and throughout the whales’ entire range. Maintaining an adequate supply of salmon is vital for the survival and well-being of Southern Resident killer whales and the overall health of the Salish Sea ecosystem.
Affinity for play
This study comes at a time when a separate population of killer whales on the Iberian Peninsula has drawn international headlines for interacting with, and on three occasions, sinking boats off the coast of Portugal and Spain. Ultimately, the Southern Resident killer whales and the Iberian Peninsula orcas are two different populations with distinct cultures. One thing the two might have in common is their affinity for play behavior.
The study was funded by Wild Orca and SeaDoc Society. Additional partners include the University of Exeter, Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Orca Behavior Institute, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Cascadia Research, The Whale Museum, Center for Whale Research, Ocean Research College Academy (ORCA) at Everett Community College, Bay Cetology, North Gulf Oceanic Society, George Mason University, and Marine-Med.
IMAGE: THE AUTHORS RESEARCHING THE MECHANOCHEMICAL BARBIER REACTION (J. V. NALLAPARAJU, T. NIKONOVICH, T. JARG, D. MERZHYIEVSKYI, R. AAV, D. G. KANANOVICH) AND A KEY DEVICE USED IN THEIR STUDY – A SHAKER MILL (VERTICAL)view more
CREDIT: AUTHOR: TALTECH (TALLINN UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY) HTTPS://TALTECH.EE/
Organic synthesis is the art of creating molecules, used for creating essential items like pharmaceuticals, agrochemicals, and materials for high-tech gadgets such as smartphones. Think of it as playing with LEGO at a microscopic level – chemists connect simple building blocks to create complex molecules, just like snapping together LEGO bricks to make intricate structures. One crucial step in this puzzle is creating a bond between two carbon atoms. Like LEGO bricks with their studs and anti-studs, carbon atoms must fit together to combine easily. However, there is a catch: the most reactive carbon atoms in organic compounds usually carry a positive charge, which makes them incompatible with each other. Imagine trying to connect two LEGO pieces with studs – they just will not stick together.
The supervisor of a researcher was overlooked even though he showed the way
In the early days of organic chemistry, back in the nineteenth century, researchers discovered a clever workaround to this issue by using so-called organometallic compounds. By bonding carbon to metals like zinc or magnesium, they could switch the charge of the carbon atom from positive to negative. This ‘polarity switch’ enabled the creation of suitable combinations with other organic molecules, opening up a vast playground for chemical creativity. One of the most impactful discoveries was made by the French chemist Victor Grignard, who discovered a method for creating organic derivatives of readily available magnesium. This technique was so significant that it earned him a Nobel Prize in 1912. The Grignard method revolutionised the field, but it has its downsides. The highly reactive metal-containing molecules are unstable and can easily break down when exposed to moisture or air, making industrial-scale applications difficult. A solution to this problem lies in the generation of organometallic compounds only as short-lived intermediates that keep reacting in the same environment and create stable compounds. Grignard’s scientific teacher, Philip Barbier, initially attempted to join carbon atoms this way, but only achieved unsatisfactory results – the yields of the desired products were low. Here is where the story takes an ironic twist: he tasked Grignard with perfecting his method, leading to the Nobel-winning discovery. Philip Barbier himself, however, despite being a pioneer of organometallic chemistry, never received the same acclaim.
The chemists of TalTech’s School of Science turned the old into something new
More than a century later, a group of chemists of the supramolecular chemistry research group of TalTech, led by Prof. Riina Aav and senior researcher Dr Dzmitry Kananovich, has breathed new life into the abandoned Barbier method. Instead of mixing chemicals with magnesium metal in organic solvents, as traditionally done by chemists for many years, they found that milling them together without a solvent in a device called a shaker mill results in extraordinary improvement, both in terms of efficiency and environmental friendliness. This exciting development brings the Barbier method back into the spotlight, making it as effective as the famous Grignard method. The results have been recently published in Angewandte Chemie International Edition (https://doi.org/10.1002/anie.202305775), one of the leading scientific journals in the field of chemistry. The technique used by the researchers is called mechanochemistry, which, despite being known since ancient times, had long been abandoned by the scientific community of organic synthesis in favour of the more traditional solution-based chemistry. Picture grinding coffee beans in a grinder. That is what many mechanochemical devices are like in both appearance and function. They allow chemical reactions to take place through quick blending, milling, and grinding of solid substances, rather than by mixing solutions.
An environmentally friendly solution from a century ago
Why is this old technique gaining traction again? The answer lies in its benefits for the environment and safety standards. Mechanochemistry avoids the use of dangerous organic solvents, which pose serious threats to both people and the planet. One particularly exciting area of focus in chemistry is the preparation of organometallic compounds, and many esteemed research groups are exploring this direction. In their research, the team from TalTech revisited the original idea of Barbier, making the use of organometallic compounds even more straightforward and convenient. An exciting aspect of this new method is its resistance to air and even certain weak acids, which do not play well with traditional approaches like the Grignard technique. As the organometallic compounds only exist briefly as intermediates and can keep reacting and create end products, this discovery holds great promise for revolutionising the production of numerous valuable substances. Think about how this might change the way we manufacture things. It could lead to simpler, safer, and more environmentally friendly processes, especially in industries that produce substances with significant impact, such as the pharmaceutical industry. The team of TalTech is now looking to take this innovation further, aiming to transform the pharmaceutical sector through mechanochemical production methods. Working with researchers from eleven other European countries, they are collaborating on the IMPACTIVE project, focused on making these benefits a reality. This rediscovery and advancement of mechanochemistry could be the key to unlocking new opportunities in the chemical industry, making it safer and more sustainable for generations to come. It is a blend of the old and the new, with the promise of a brighter future.
Reference: Jagadeesh Varma Nallaparaju, Tatsiana Nikonovich, Tatsiana Jarg, Danylo Merzhyievskyi, Riina Aav, Dzmitry G. Kananovich, Mechanochemistry-Amended Barbier Reaction as an Expedient Alternative to Grignard Synthesis, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2023,62, e202305775
Links to photos of the authors, pictured: the authors researching the mechanochemical Barbier reaction (J. V. Nallaparaju, T. Nikonovich, T. Jarg, D. Merzhyievskyi, R. Aav, D. G. Kananovich) and a key device used in their study – a shaker mill.
PULLMAN, Wash. – Elk treponeme-associated hoof disease, previously thought to be limited to deformations in elks’ hooves, appears to create molecular changes throughout the animal’s system, according to epigenetic research from Washington State University.
The findings, published in the journal Scientific Reports, also suggest those changes may be heritable. It remains to be seen though whether this means subsequent generations of elk may be more, or less, prone to catching the devastating disease that severely impairs the elk’s ability to find food and escape predators.
“It’s not just the absence or presence of the infection. It’s affecting the animal’s entire physiology, all the cells,” said senior author Michael Skinner, a WSU biologist. “It shows that there's a molecular impact by the presence of the disease organisms.”
Epigenetics are stable molecular processes that can influence how genes behave independent of the DNA sequence itself. Changes in an organism’s epigenetics can be caused by nutrition or environmental factors – and as this study shows, by an infectious disease.
Working with WSU wildlife veterinarian Margaret Wild, Skinner examined cells from leg tendons of 55 infected and uninfected Roosevelt and Rocky Mountain elk. The legs were donated by hunters and collected by wildlife agencies in Washington, Oregon, California, Idaho and South Dakota.
The researchers found epigenetic alterations that appeared associated with the disease only in the infected elk. Since the tendon cells were away from the infection in the elks’ hooves, the researchers said it was likely that the changes from the treponeme-associated hoof disease were found systemwide.
“We’re building foundational knowledge to understand this disease,” said Wild. “By doing this epigenetic study, we can see apparent systemic impacts from the infection, even though we don't see those pathological changes when we look at the elk.”
This study is part of ongoing efforts by WSU researchers led by Wild to better understand elk treponeme-associated hoof disease. While the infectious disease is named after the treponeme bacteria, the researchers now believe it is likely caused by multiple bacteria. Wild’s team is conducting studies in captive elk to see if they can pinpoint how it is transmitted. Then, they can start looking at factors such as diet that might change the animals’ susceptibility to the disease.
So far, the disease has not been detected in any wild species except for elk, although the WSU researchers are investigating whether there is a connection to bovine digital dermatitis which is commonly found in cattle. They are also using computer modeling to look at environmental factors such as soil type, moisture and geography to see if they can identify physical locations where elk are more likely to have the disease.
“This is a brand-new emerging disease that hardly anything is known about,” Wild said. “We are taking a multi-pronged approach and conducting a broad range of exploratory studies. Our goal is to do as much research as we can to learn about all the impacts this disease is having on individuals and elk populations to help wildlife managers address the disease.”
