Culture

A radio telescope in the Western Australian outback has captured a spectacular new view of the centre of the galaxy in which we live, the Milky Way.

The image from the Murchison Widefield Array (MWA) telescope shows what our galaxy would look like if human eyes could see radio waves.

Astrophysicist Dr Natasha Hurley-Walker, from the Curtin University node of the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR), created the images using the Pawsey Supercomputing Centre in Perth.

"This new view captures low-frequency radio emission from our galaxy, looking both in fine detail and at larger structures," she said.

"Our images are looking directly at the middle of the Milky Way, towards a region astronomers call the Galactic Centre."

The data for the research comes from the GaLactic and Extragalactic All-sky MWA survey, or 'GLEAM' for short.

The survey has a resolution of two arcminutes (about the same as the human eye) and maps the sky using radio waves at frequencies between 72 and 231 MHz (FM radio is near 100 MHz).

"It's the power of this wide frequency range that makes it possible for us to disentangle different overlapping objects as we look toward the complexity of the Galactic Centre," Dr Hurley-Walker said.

"Essentially, different objects have different 'radio colours', so we can use them to work out what kind of physics is at play."

Using the images, Dr Hurley-Walker and her colleagues discovered the remnants of 27 massive stars that exploded in supernovae at the end of their lives.

These stars would have been eight or more times more massive than our Sun before their dramatic destruction thousands of years ago.

Younger and closer supernova remnants, or those in very dense environments, are easy to spot, and 295 are already known.

Unlike other instruments, the MWA can find those which are older, further away, or in very empty environments.

Dr Hurley-Walker said one of the newly-discovered supernova remnants lies in such an empty region of space, far out of the plane of our galaxy, and so despite being quite young, is also very faint.

"It's the remains of a star that died less than 9,000 years ago, meaning the explosion could have been visible to Indigenous people across Australia at that time," she said.

An expert in cultural astronomy, Associate Professor Duane Hamacher from the University of Melbourne, said some Aboriginal traditions do describe bright new stars appearing in the sky, but we don't know of any definitive traditions that describe this particular event.

"However, now that we know when and where this supernova appeared in the sky, we can collaborate with Indigenous elders to see if any of their traditions describe this cosmic event. If any exist, it would be extremely exciting," he said.

Dr Hurley-Walker said two of the supernova remnants discovered are quite unusual "orphans", found in a region of sky where there are no massive stars, which means future searches across other such regions might be more successful than astronomers expected.

Other supernova remnants discovered in the research are very old, she said.

"This is really exciting for us, because it's hard to find supernova remnants in this phase of life--they allow us to look further back in time in the Milky Way."

The MWA telescope is a precursor to the world's largest radio telescope, the Square Kilometre Array, which is due to be built in Australia and South Africa from 2021.

"The MWA is perfect for finding these objects, but it is limited in its sensitivity and resolution," Dr Hurley-Walker said.

"The low-frequency part of the SKA, which will be built at the same site as the MWA, will be thousands of times more sensitive and have much better resolution, so should find the thousands of supernova remnants that formed in the last 100,000 years, even on the other side of the Milky Way."

Scientists using the MeerKAT radio telescope have discovered a unique and previously-unseen flare of radio emission from a binary star in our galaxy.

The MeerKAT radio telescope in the Northern Cape of South Africa has discovered an object which rapidly brightened by more than a factor of three over a period of three weeks. This is the first new transient source discovered with MeerKAT and scientists hope it is the tip of an iceberg of transient events to be discovered with the telescope.

Astronomers call an astronomical event "transient" when it appears or disappears, or becomes fainter or brighter over seconds, days, or even years. These events are important as they provide a glimpse of how stars live, evolve, and die. Using an assortment of telescopes around the globe, the researchers determined that the source of the flare is a binary system, where two objects orbit each other approximately every 22 days.

While the cause of the flaring and the exact nature of the stars that make up the system is still uncertain, it is thought to be associated with an active corona - the hot outermost part of the brighter star.

The source of the observed activity is located in the Southern constellation of Ara and was found to be coincident with a giant star about two times as massive as the Sun. The orbital period was determined using optical observations with the Southern African Large Telescope (SALT). Fortuitously, the star is sufficiently bright to have also been monitored by optical telescopes for the last 18 years and is seen to vary in brightness every three weeks, matching the orbital period.

"This source was discovered just a couple of weeks after I joined the team, it was amazing that the first MeerKAT images I worked on had such an interesting source in them. Once we found out that the radio flares coincided with a star, we discovered that the star emits across almost the entire electromagnetic spectrum from X-ray to UV to radio wavelengths." said Laura Driessen, a PhD student at The University of Manchester who led this work.

Patrick Woudt, Professor and Head of the Astronomy Department at The University of Cape Town said: "Since the inauguration in July 2018 of the South African MeerKAT radio telescope, the ThunderKAT project on MeerKAT has been monitoring parts of the southern skies to study the variable radio emission from known compact binary stars, such as accreting black holes.

"The excellent sensitivity and the wide field of view of the MeerKAT telescope, combined with the repeat ThunderKAT observations of various parts of the southern skies, allows us to search the skies for new celestial phenomena that exhibit variable or short-lived radio emission."

Professor Ben Stappers from The University of Manchester said: "The properties of this system don't easily fit into our current knowledge of binary or flaring stars and so may represent an entirely new source class."

The MeerKAT telescope is sweeping the sky for sources that vary on timescales from milliseconds to years, and will significantly improve human understanding of the variable radio sky. The discovery of this new transient with MeerKAT demonstrates how powerful this telescope will be in the search for further new transient events.

Rob Adam, Director of the South African Radio Astronomy Observatory (SARAO) said: "Once again we see the potential of the MeerKAT telescope in finding interesting and possibly new astrophysical phenomena, as well as the power of the multi-wavelength approach to the analysis of observations."

Dr. David Buckley from the South African Astronomical Observatory, who leads the SALT (Southern African Large Telescope) transient follow-up programme, commented: "This is a perfect example of where coordinated observations across different wavelengths were combined to give a holistic view of a newly discovered object.

"This study was one of the first to involve coordination between two of South Africa's major astronomy facilities and shows the way for future such work."

Childhood obesity affects about 13.7 million children and adolescents in the United States and has been increasing for more than four decades. It is a serious problem that puts children at risk for poor health and chronic disease. Unlike foods served in public schools, which must typically adhere to U.S. Department of Agriculture food guidelines to enable meal reimbursement, most faith-based and private schools and associated afterschool programs operate independently without dietary requirements.

A pilot study by researchers at Florida Atlantic University's Christine E. Lynn College of Nursing is the first to examine foods served within faith community settings related to child health. Prior studies examining away-from-home meals have typically focused on those from restaurants, especially fast food establishments. Food is served at faith communities in association with religious activities; in preschool, school, afterschool programs; and sports programs.

Researchers studied 32 child-focused activities and used direct observation methodology and analyzed for contribution to food groups and per serving energy, fat, saturated fat, sugar, and sodium contents. Middle- and high school aged children (ages 10 to 18 years) attended the events and were from diverse ethnicities.

Results of the study, published in the journal Public Health Nursing, found that main dishes were mostly (71 percent) convenience/casserole-type foods, specifically pizza and pasta-based casseroles. These meals averaged 962 milligrams of sodium and 436 calories, with 36 percent of energy from fat and 14 percent as saturated fat. Cheese was the main source of dairy products. Grain-based side dishes, provided at 29 percent of meals, included white rice, pasta and bread. Non-starchy vegetables were provided at three (29 percent) meals. Fruits were served at six events. Desserts, which were served at 75 percent of the events, contained 41 percent of energy from fat, with 17 percent as saturated fat, and 22 grams of added sugar. Snack chips were provided at 31 percent of events and contributed 165 calories mostly from fat and 243 milligrams of sodium. Sugar-sweetened beverages, served at 71 percent of events, contributed 28 grams of added sugar.

"Eating out and snacking are among the many factors contributing to higher sugar, fat and calorie intakes. For children, consuming sugary beverages and fast foods is associated with obesity and weight gain risks factors for chronic diseases," said Andra S. Opalinski, Ph.D., lead author and an assistant professor in FAU's Christine E. Lynn College of Nursing who co-authored the study with Sareen S. Gropper, Ph.D., a professor and registered dietitian in FAU's Christine E. Lynn College of Nursing; and Andrea V. Parra, an undergraduate student from FAU's Charles E. Schmidt College of Science. "Given the lack of food guidelines, the common practice of providing food, and the potential impact to the health of children, faith communities also represent sites where children consume away-from-home foods and therefore need to be considered as public health efforts expand to improve child nutrition."

The researchers found that the decisions on what foods were served were made primarily by staff and volunteers. Faith community staff considered the "preparation time" and "taste preference of the children" as key factors in determining what foods are served. Given the identification of cost as a key factor in decisions on foods served at faith communities, the limited provisions of fruits and vegetables, which are among the most expensive items in the grocery store, was not surprising to the researchers. No whole-grain foods were served with the reasons most likely related to perceived taste preferences of children by the faith community staff.

"Our study aligns with expanding public health efforts to identify and improve child nutrition in settings beyond schools and childcare facilities and into other sites where children are in attendance," said Opalinski. "Such changes are particularly important given the associations between poor diet and chronic disease risk and the influences that faith communities have on their congregation and child health."

For the study, which took place within a large three-county region in South Florida, all documented foods and beverages, categorized by food group, were entered into a nutrition analysis software program and analyzed for mean energy, fat, saturated fat, sugar and sodium contents. The nutrition analysis software program, widely used for research studies, has an extensive food and nutrient database of more than 100,000 foods.

"Although this study is not specifically about faith and health, it contributes to the growing body of research on the importance of faith communities and religious institutions and practices in health behaviors and outcomes. This study is particularly unique because it examines the intersectionality of nutrition and sociocultural influences -- including typical food preferences offered at faith community gatherings -- on physical health outcomes," said Safiya George, Ph.D., dean of FAU's Christine E. Lynn College of Nursing. "My public health colleagues, Drs. Ken Resnicow and Colleen DiIorio, conducted a church-based study, Healthy Body Healthy Spirit, many years ago to improve fruit and vegetable intake and physical activity in adults. The current study by our FAU College of Nursing faculty is particularly important since childhood obesity remains a huge issue and a national priority and is largely understudied."

Osaka, Japan - How our eyes detect and respond to changes in light intensity is determined by specialized cells in the eye called photoreceptors. In addition to converting light into electrical signals, effectively allowing us to see, rod-shaped photoreceptors adapt to changes in light intensity to protect the eye from damage caused by excessive light exposure. However, in conditions such as retinitis pigmentosa, these cells do not work properly, leading to progressive vision loss. Now, researchers from Japan's Osaka University have identified the protein responsible for the "switch" between light and dark adaptation.

In the study published this month in The EMBO Journal, the researchers describe how the enzymatic activity of the newly identified protein, Cul3-Klhl18 ubiquitin ligase, helps control the response of rod photoreceptors to changes in light intensity.

Rod photoreceptor cells contain a protein called transducin, which is part of the phototransduction cascade. "Under dark-adapted conditions, transducin is concentrated near the outer part of the cells," explains lead author of the study Taro Chaya. "When light is detected, the transducin proteins move down into the inner section of the rod photoreceptor cells, modulating photosensitivity. However, previously no one has determined how this process is regulated."

To identify genes involved in regulating photosensitivity, the researchers compared gene expression in healthy mice and those with defective photoreceptor cells. One gene, Klhl18, stood out because it was predominantly expressed in the retina, specifically in the outer layer where photoreceptor cells are located. More importantly, the in vivo function of the gene product, Cul3-Klhl18 ubiquitin ligase, had been unclear.

To confirm the importance of Klhl18, the researchers generated a Klhl18-deficient mouse line and examined how the mice responded to changes in light intensity. Sure enough, the mice missing Cul3-Klhl18 ubiquitin ligase showed reduced responsiveness to light, and transducin remained in the inner section of rod photoreceptor cells. Importantly though, the Klhl18-deficient mice were less susceptible to light-induced photoreceptor damage compared with their normal counterparts.

"We then wanted to know how Cul3-Klhl18 ubiquitin ligase interacts with transducin in the cells," says senior author Takahisa Furukawa. "Transducin is moved around the cell by a protein called Unc119. When we studied the system more closely, we found that in the dark, Unc119 is tagged with something called ubiquitin and then degraded by the Cul3-Klhl18 ligase, allowing translocation of transducing to the outer part of photoreceptor cells. Upon light exposure, Unc119 is phosphorylated, preventing degradation and transducin migration." These results suggest that therapies aimed at inhibiting Cul3-Klhl18 ubiquitin ligase may help treat degenerative retinal diseases such as age-related macular degeneration and retinitis pigmentosa.

In a recent study published in PLOS One researchers from Hiroshima University and Nagoya Institute of Technology found that if you hold your car steering wheel at certain angles (1, 4, or 5 on the clock) then it's likely you're over or underestimating how much force you need to use to steer the car.

There are many factors that go into how we perceive an object's weight. Gravity, fatigue and sensory information such as color and texture are relayed to our brains and form our ideas of how heavy or large something is. Using this information, we calculate how much effort we need to pick something up or move it around. This is called force perception. Professor Yuichi Kurita and Mr. Yusuke Kishishita from the Biological System Engineering Lab, Graduate School of Engineering, Hiroshima University and Associate Professor Yoshihiro Tanaka from Nagoya Institute of Technology were interested in how sense of effort influenced force perceptual bias.

"Force perceptual bias is the mis-prediction of actual events. Almost all of the illusion is based on the gap between the prediction and the reality. For example, an object's color can make it look bigger or smaller, so we predict that it is light or heavy before touching it," explains Yusuke Kishishita, lead author of the paper. "Black makes objects look smaller while light colors make them look bigger,". Darker colors make objects appear small, so they are heavier than expected and vice versa for light objects.

Most of our daily activities require us to have correct force perception including picking up a cup of tea, closing a door or driving. Incorrectly assuming how much force is needed to accelerate a little faster can lead to an accident. Force perception also affects how we steer the car. Arm position changes the way we use our muscles to perform tasks. An uncomfortable or strange position can make our sense of effort feel higher or lower, thus the object feels lighter or heavier than it actually is.

"When we drive, we don't see the steering angle but we have to make a decision on how much force to use... if the bias affects the force perception that could cause us to badly control the steering wheel," says Kishishita.

This study used a weighted steering wheel where participants performed actions with it using one hand. The position of the arm was changed to see if the subjects perceived the resistance as greater or lesser when compared to a neutral posture (0°). The modified positions were at 30°, 60°, -60° and -30° (similar to hands pointing to 1, 2, 4 and 5 on the clock). The participants were asked to perform a task using the steering wheel and differing weights. The research team used 3D motion capture to look at the posture and used algorithms to model the data. Using this method, the researchers could look at the whole arm and torso posture. Participants were also asked about how heavy the steering wheel was when compared to the neutral position. They reported a large change in the amount of force used at 30°, -60° and -30° i.e. these angles were the most biased.

"If we consider this bias, we can make cars safer to drive also give us a good feeling while driving," says Kishishita.

Research in this area can also be useful for safety, like designing machines that account for this bias to reduce the number of human errors as well as for entertainment such as improving virtual reality environments.

Scientists from Peter the Great St.Petersburg Polytechnic University (SPbPU) are developing a technology for printing the electrodes for miniature li-ion batteries by an inkjet printer. The ongoing research may help to create power supplies for biosensors, wearable electronics, and other miniature devices. The results of the study are published in one of the leading scientific journals Energy Technology. The research was carried out with the financial support of the National Technological Initiative center of SPbPU and two Russian science foundation grants.

Li-ion batteries produced by a conventional technology, have a high energy density, meaning they can store a large amount of it in a small volume. Due to this property, they are often used for miniature devices, such as smartwatches, stylus pens and so on. Nowadays, the advancement in that field reached its technological limit, and a further reduction in size is challenging. Therefore, technology growth requires new approaches for manufacturing of batteries. Among other possible solutions are the methods used in the production of integrated circuits, as well as various printing methods that have an advantage in their high performance.

To print electrodes with the given characteristics, one needs to select the synthesis conditions, composition and viscosity of the printing solution, and the printing parameters (for example, the distance between the drops and the number of layers applied). It is a challenging task for specialists from different fields of science. Electrodes manufactured by inkjet printing, cannot provide a sufficiently high energy density compared to electrodes produced by traditional technology. The observed difference is due to the use of various materials, as well as the parameters of the manufactured electrodes - active layer density, the proportion of active material etc.

"To reduce the difference in energy density, we propose to use promising compounds based on lithium and manganese-enriched cathode material with an increased capacity," said Maxim Maximov, the leading researcher of the "Synthesis of new materials and structures laboratory" of the Advanced Manufacturing Technologies Center of the National Technology Initiative (NTI) of Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University."We demonstrated the possibility of electrodes manufacturing with this material by inkjet printing. We have also found that the energy intensity of the material in the printed electrode and the electrode made by traditional technology are close".

Using the synthesized active cathode material, the scientists prepared a stable colloidal solution and optimized its rheological parameters for inkjet printing. They selected the conditions for printing electrodes, conducted a study of the electrochemical properties of printed electrodes, confirming the prospects of using the proposed technological approach and the chosen composition of the cathode material. Soon, scientists plan to conduct research, that will provide a further increase in the energy intensity of the printed electrodes and the prototype of the li-ion battery.

Researchers from KU Leuven have found that the presence of yeasts can alter the chemical composition and thus the nutritional value of nectar for pollinators such as bees. Moreover, the study found that yeasts can even boost bee health and colony fitness. "Research into the role of microbes in our ecosystem is of vital importance to safeguard bees."

Artificial flowers

It is not widely known that pollen and floral nectar contain yeasts. Even on one flower, the types and amount of yeasts that occur can widely vary. These variations lead to vast differences in the nutritional value of the nectar of each flower, specifically when it comes to the sugars and amino acids present. Yeasts eat the sugars in the nectar that is supposed to supply nutrients to the bees.

To find out whether the presence of yeasts impacts bees, a team led by María I. Pozo from the KU Leuven Biology Department added five different yeast species to nectar. They then investigated how the yeast affected the chemical composition of the nectar and how, in turn, this has an impact on the bees. The researchers used colonies of the buff-tailed bumblebee or Bombus Terrestris. They investigated the development of the colonies and various other indicators of well-being, such as the bees' size and weight, their mortality rate, weight loss during hibernation, their mating success, and resistance to infections.

In addition, the attractiveness of nectar with yeasts was investigated by using an artificial flower field. Half of the flowers contained a different type of sugary solution with yeasts, while the other half contained only the sugar water. The researchers computed how often the bees visited each flower type and how much time the bees spent with the flowers.

The results show that even though yeasts significantly alter the composition of nectar, this does not have an impact on the foraging behaviour of the bees, nor on how much of the nectar they consumed. "We had expected the opposite, so this was quite surprising," says María I. Pozo. "The bees seem to be able to digest the yeast cells, which contain more concentrated nutrients than the nectar itself."

Some yeasts even had a positive effect on the growth of the bee colonies, as fewer bee larvae died in the colonies that received the yeast supplement. These colonies also produced a larger amount of worker bees, which result in more vigorous colonies.

Fungicides

"Nectar is the perfect food for bees, and nectar containing yeasts can stimulate bee populations. However, the presence of yeasts and other microbes can be drastically disrupted by human activities, like the use of fungicides," Pozo continues. "Since bees are globally in decline, it is important to know if and how yeasts influence their wellbeing as a species. In general, more research is needed into the role of microbes as hidden players in our ecosystem. The disruption of microbial diversity is a serious threat to wildlife populations across the world."

Now, Pozo and her colleagues are investigating how bees and other pollinators use antimicrobial chemicals present in plants as self-medication to battle infections. Infections form one of the major threats for bees, next to insecticides, destruction of their habitat and nesting sites, and low-quality diets due to reduced floral diversity.

Tsukuba, Japan - Throughout history, humans have been obsessed with finding a way to prevent aging and prolong life. Although the mechanisms have long eluded us, modern science is revealing more and more about the aging process. Now, researchers from Japan have uncovered new information about the genetic processes that may trigger age-related disorders, including low energy production and low cellular growth.

In a study published this month in Scientific Reports, researchers from the University of Tsukuba examined the potential mechanisms by which disruption of the gene serine hydroxymethyltransferase 2 (SHMT2) affects cellular processes such as mitochondrial respiration, which is the process by which mitochondria, a.k.a., the powerhouses of a cell, release energy to fuel cellular activity. They found that impaired SHMT2 expression led to decreased activity in metabolic pathways that are directly associated with impaired mitochondrial respiration and cellular growth. The discovery that the SHMT2 gene may play a role in the action of metabolic pathways is important for understanding the mechanisms that underlie aging and diseases that are associated with increased age.

"In a previous study, we proposed that the age-associated downregulation, or decrease in expression, of nuclear-encoded genes including SHMT2 impacts mitochondrial respiration" says lead author of the study Haruna Tani. "However, the mechanisms underlying this process were not clear. To address this in the present study, we tested the effects of impaired SHMT2 expression on a variety of cellular functions".

To do this, the researchers used mouse embryos that had been genetically modified to lack the SHMT2 gene. This strain of mice, termed Shmt2-knockout mice, had impaired mitochondrial respiration and growth retardation in the liver but not the brain. The liver was found to exhibit downregulation in the metabolic pathways that generate taurine, which is necessary for mitochondrial respiration, as well as nucleotides, which are molecules that are implicated in cell division. These insufficiencies were also linked to anemia in the Shmt2-knockout E13.5 embryos.

"Although some researchers have proposed that human aging and age-related defects in mitochondrial respiration are caused by the accumulation of mutations in mitochondrial DNA", study senior author Jun-Ichi Hayashi says, "our data support an alternative explanation: age-related defects in mitochondrial respiration may be triggered by changes in the activity of metabolic pathways that are caused by epigenetic downregulation, but not by mutations, of specific genes associated with mitochondrial function."

Understanding the mechanisms by which epigenetic processes impact cellular activity could provide insight regarding the processes associated with aging and illness. This could then lead to new treatments for conditions caused by genetic abnormalities, or even a way to extend life itself.

Building materials that clean themselves could save immense time and labor in homes and businesses, as well as reduce disease risk in settings such as hospitals. Now, researchers reporting in ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces have made a new type of concrete that is strong, heat-insulating and soundproof -- and best of all, liquids like milk and coffee bounce right off of it, taking dust particles with them. Watch a video of the self-cleaning concrete here.

Nature boasts many examples of self-cleaning surfaces, from lotus leaves to geckos' feet. Water droplets striking these superhydrophobic -- or extreme water-hating -- surfaces ball up into droplets if the surface is level, or completely roll off if it's tilted, at the same time removing dust particles and contaminants. Scientists have tried to introduce these self-cleaning properties to concrete by adding hydrophobic materials. However, surface coatings can scratch or wear off over time, and hydrophobic materials added to the bulk concrete before drying often weaken it. Xin Xu and colleagues wanted to develop a simple method to make porous concrete with robust mechanical and self-cleaning properties.

The researchers added an oil, an emulsifier and a hydrophobic silicon polymer called polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) to wet concrete. With the help of the emulsifier, the oil formed many tiny droplets that contained PDMS. The team then dried and heated the concrete, evaporating the oil so that PDMS-coated pores were left behind. The resulting porous concrete was lightweight, yet mechanically strong. It repelled dust particles and liquids, including milk, beer, soy sauce, coffee and dyed water, and could be immersed in the liquids and removed without leaving any stains behind. Even with mechanical grinding, heat treatment and chemical exposure, the material remained superhydrophobic. The porous concrete also absorbed sounds and insulated against heat loss, two other attractive properties for building materials.    

How do we perceive our environment? What is the influence of sensory stimuli on the peripheral nervous system and what on the brain? Science has an interest in this question for many reasons. In the long term, insights from this research could contribute to a better understanding of diseases such as ADHD and Parkinson's disease.

Perception and the underlying neuronal activities are usually measured while subjects are sitting or lying, for example while doing magnetic resonance imaging. As a rule, the head is fixed and people are encouraged not to blink. The measurements therefore take place under well-controlled but rather unnatural conditions.

Shift of visual preference

When processing visual stimuli, however, it makes a difference whether the person is sitting or moving: When walking around, the peripheral part of the visual field shows enhanced processing compared to the central part. This can be proven both by the behaviorally measured perception of the test persons and by their brain response.

This shift in visual preference makes sense. "It is above all the peripheral visual input that provides information about the direction and speed of our movement and thus plays an important role for navigation," says Dr. Barbara Händel. The neuroscientist from Julius-Maximilians-Universität (JMU) Würzburg in Bavaria, Germany, and her colleague Dr. Liyu Cao have published their findings in PLOS Biology.

"It was known from animals that increased body movements lead to an increased firing rate in visual areas of the brain," says Dr. Händel. So far, there are only a few behavioural experiments available for humans that investigate the influence of movement on sensory brain areas. However, there is evidence that cognitive processes are linked to the behavioural state. "For example, some studies show that people learn better when they move," says the JMU researcher. However, the underlying neuronal mechanisms have not yet been tested in detail.

Mobile EEG, sensors and video glasses

It is precisely such gaps in knowledge that Barbara Händel wants to close with her work. In order to explore the link between movement and perception, sophisticated technical equipment is necessary. While the test subjects walk around, they wear electrode caps and a small amplifier that records their brain waves. The EEG data are sent wirelessly to a laptop, which the subjects carry in a backpack. Motion sensors, video glasses, and a mobile device for recording eye movements complete the setting.

Quite an effort. "But we have to take this step if we want to understand human perceptual strategies during natural behavior," says Dr. Händel. Research into perception during movement is still in its infancy. It is now up to science to ask clever questions and find out which of them can be answered with mobile technical equipment.

Many exciting research questions

Next, the JMU scientist wants to further investigate the effect of altered perception during movement. Does it only occur for visual input or possibly also in other sensory areas? Does it, in addition to navigation, perhaps also play a role in other cognitive processes such as memory and creativity?

All this is possible: experiments with rats have shown that these animals learn better, when they are in motion. And the idea that walking increases creativity has existed since ancient times. "For example, the Peripatetics, a philosophical school around Aristotle, usually were discussing while walking, from which their name derives," says Barbara Händel.

There is also a connection between creativity and eye movements: "It is known that people blink more often the more creatively they solve a task. And we found that people also blink more often when they walk around compared to being at rest." Obviously, there are many connections between the movements of the body, the eyes and the mental performance. Their research could reveal many more interesting aspects.

Ninety-nine percent of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) jobs in the U.S. require some form of postsecondary education. Yet, degree holders in science and engineering fields remain predominantly White and male. This results in the exclusion of a large portion of the U.S. workforce which consists of 29% underrepresented minorities, 46.9% women and 16.9% immigrants?from participating in these high-paying, high-growth fields.

According to German A. Cadenas, an assistant professor of Counseling Psychology at Lehigh University's College of Education, systemic obstacles exist for women, minorities and immigrants in STEM, as evidenced by low representation and education attainment gaps. There have been many efforts to close the STEM education gap in K-12, at universities and at the graduate level. However, much is still unknown about how to reach students attending community colleges. Community colleges enroll about one third of all postsecondary students and very significant portions of all underrepresented groups.

That is why Cadenas and his colleagues at Arizona State University created Poder, a five-week social entrepreneurship program with a focus on technology, and implemented it through one of the largest community college systems in the U.S. Poder, which means "to be able" in Spanish, aims to instill entrepreneurial and technology skills in underrepresented groups: women, minorities and immigrants. Key to the curriculum is engaging marginalized students in critical consciousness?an awareness of the impact of social and political forces?to address systemic oppression as they pursue educational and vocational pathways in entrepreneurial and STEM disciplines.

After a rigorous analysis of the data - the results of several years of the program operating at five community college campuses in the Southwestern region - the team found that Poder students experienced large increases in their confidence as entrepreneurs and in their readiness to use technology. The results, based on data from 106 student participants, are described in a paper, "A programmatic intervention to promote entrepreneurial self-efficacy, critical behavior, and technology readiness among underrepresented college students," published in the Journal of Vocational Behavior. Additional authors include Elizabeth Angelica Cantu; of Arizona State University, Scottsdale; Tameka Spence and Alissa Ruth, both of Arizona State University, Tempe; and, Nathalie Lynn, a graduate student in Lehigh's Counseling Psychology program.

Poder is supported by grant funding from the Cisco corporate advised fund at Silicon Valley Community Foundation. At the end of each free, five-week Poder program, students are eligible to apply to compete in a live pitch event competition for an opportunity to win seed funding for their business venture. The Cisco-sponsored competition aims to help reduce the barrier of limited funding opportunities for entrepreneurs who are women and/or people of color.

Although each college has some flexibility in setting up the logistics of their program, Poder consists of at least 30 hours of education, where 15 hours consist of attending in-person facilitated training sessions and 15 hours focus on completing self-paced online modules, customer discovery interviews and attending meetings with a mentor. Using an introductory lesson adapted from Cisco's Networking Academy curriculum, students learned about the Internet of Things (IoT). This type of technology was presented to students as a tool to maximize their social venture's impact.

The authors write: "Students in the program are prompted to reflect on systemic issues impacting their communities, and facilitators lead dialogues that promote collective critical reflection about these issues, and their intersection with students' cultural identities. Students then apply what they are learning in the program to design a social venture that addresses a community issue, thus having the opportunity to move from critical reflection to critical behavior and civic participation..."

"Our study supports the idea that culturally-responsive teaching that focuses on critical consciousness is an effective way of engaging communities that face marginalization in education related to STEM entrepreneurship," says Cadenas. "Using this type of culturally-responsive education more broadly, and paired with other systemic interventions, could play a major role in helping close achievement and skills gaps in STEM and entrepreneurial fields."

"It's quite encouraging to see the students' gains from a relatively short program," says Alissa Ruth, co-author of the study and Director of Strategic Initiatives School of Human Evolution and Social Change. "Our research shows that the thoughtfully designed curriculum, backed by scientific evidence, along with a support system of educators, mentors and program staff have direct impacts to students' lives. We hope that our research encourages others to implement similar programs in order to help address inequities faced by historically underrepresented students in these fields."

The team also found that the students' skills increases were not limited to a particular race/ethnicity, gender, or immigration status, as students benefited equally from the Poder curriculum.

"High expectations for entrepreneurship careers that leverage technology"

In a companion study, described in an article "Integrating critical consciousness and technology in entrepreneurship career development with diverse community college students" and published in the Journal of Career Development last year, the authors analyzed information gleaned from in-person interviews of 36 student participants. Seventy-seven of the participants were students of color. Women comprised 44% of the sample. The researchers found similar results with students displaying, "...high expectations for entrepreneurship careers that leveraged technology to promote social change, as well as high expectations to persist through graduation and/or transfer to a 4-year university."

The authors also report that after participating in Poder, 97% of the students interviewed expressed commitment to persisting through graduation at the community college, and 64% had goals of continuing their education at a 4-year university to gain skills and advance their entrepreneurial projects.

The majority of students they interviewed displayed an increased awareness of privileges and barriers related to aspects of their identities as well as how these may play a role in their career development.

As an example, the paper includes a quote from Everette, a 20-year old biracial female whose entrepreneurial project was "an inclusive, multipurpose lemonade shop": "I've had a lot of experience with basically hitting glass ceilings. I've always been right below an owner and at this point in my life, I think that I have enough experience to be one...so I might as well work for myself because I've worked really hard for a lot of other people."

Cadenas and his colleagues report that the interviews revealed that Poder helped students feel more prepared to be entrepreneurs and provided them with a general sense of "entrepreneurial self-efficacy." They also note that some students described experiencing an "evolution: from having no real experience with entrepreneurship to ending the program with a developed project.

The authors write that most of the students they interviewed did not start the program with ideas for social ventures that would integrate technology. But by the end, many were motivated to make technology an integral part of their venture to facilitate its growth and potential. They include a student quote exemplifying this theme:

"In the beginning, when I had told our instructor in the class my idea, they didn't have too much technology involved. It was more my initial venture was to let people get away from technology and just be a part of nature. When they told me that (how IoT technology works) I was like oh, okay, I need to reevaluate this."

Another example came from Jake, a 22-year-old Native American male whose venture was a tourism agency, who said: "How can I have technology involved in my company to better not only the company but the customers, pretty much everything else. Definitely helps in the end."

"I think that communities who face social oppression every day, who have less access to quality education, who do not have as many opportunities to tap into their creativity and develop entrepreneurial skills with support and guidance, I think these are the communities that can benefit the most from these types of educational programs," says Cadenas. "Education leaders at community colleges, universities, schools, and industry could also benefit from adopting culturally-responsive programs such as ours in order to support students' learning in a way that is meaningful to them and their communities."

A new IZA World of Labor report publishing today finds energy booms create a broad set of benefits for local workers in the short term including lower unemployment and higher wages. But there are externalities to consider and the long term picture is less clear.

Technological progress in recent years has enabled the extraction of unconventional energy sources, such as shale gas and oil, spurring rapid development in many areas. But energy booms in particular can be a difficult type of economic shock for communities to manage because they are often short-lived and followed by "bust" periods, which can impose transitional hardships on local residents. Furthermore, there are externalities to consider such as significant environmental degradation.

According to economist Grant D. Jacobsen of the University of Oregon, it is crucial to discuss the empirical evidence on the effect of "energy booms" on local workers. In his report he cites a number of recent studies finding a positive short term effect. For example national studies of the most recent US energy boom suggest that it led to 220,000 additional jobs in booming counties and 640,000 additional jobs when considering spill-over effects to neighboring counties. Interestingly, these employment increases were not confined to the mining and extraction sector but also positively affected the accommodation, construction, retail, and transportation sectors.

These studies find substantial short-term benefits to local workers in the form of increased employment, wages, and incomes. According to Jacobsen these benefits accrue across industries, occupations, and segments of the wage rate distribution, suggesting that most workers are able to benefit from the effects of booms on local labor markets. However, in policy debates related to placing restrictions or bans on energy development, benefits would have to be considered relative to negative factors. These include environmental externalities as well as opportunity costs: Pursuing the opportunities offered by the booming sectors may come at the expense of pursuing other opportunities related to career development. Jacobsen shows that energy booms are associated with reduced educational attainment in local areas. This might leave workers less equipped for the workplace once the boom has ended than they would have otherwise been.

Literature on the long-term effects of energy booms is much smaller, partly because the recent fracking boom is not yet mature enough to evaluate its long-term implications. However, the available evidence seems to suggest that long-term effects are generally neutral or negative. While energy booms have had substantial short-term benefits on local labor markets, they seem not to have an obvious impact on long-term economic prosperity. According to Jacobsen "policymakers should thus consider enacting policies that increase the probability of boom-related long-term benefits and reduce the overall volatility of the boom-and-bust cycle."

Government leaders must set a good example to the business community if they want to eliminate corporate corruption, a new study reveals.

Financial incentives and criminal punishment will not root out corrupt business practices, but a government culture of honesty, integrity and strong leadership could help to cure corruption.

University of Birmingham researchers discovered that corporate governance choices made by business leaders are directly related to government integrity. Dishonest practices are more likely in states where the government operates in a way that is dishonest or unethical.

Professors Amon Chizema and Ganna Pogrebna, from Birmingham Business School, examined World Economic Forum data from 2011 to 2018 on small, medium and large companies in agriculture, manufacturing and non-manufacturing industries - such as mining and quarrying, utilities and construction - as well as services with headquarters in 93 countries.

The researchers published their findings in the Leadership Quarterly, also demonstrating experimentally that leaders were more likely to make honest decisions and abstain from bribery and tax evasion when asked what a good leader would do in a particular business situation.

Professor Pogrebna commented: "This simple solution of asking 'what would a good leader do' had a much higher positive effect on leadership integrity than changing financial incentives or increasing the propensity of being caught and punished by the law.

"The world craves credible and sincere leadership. Our policies need to shift from financial and legal solutions of the corruption problem to influencing leadership values and culture at all levels of the society."

When listing most important values in the desirable leadership culture, experimental participants named "credibility" as the most important characteristic of a good leader. Experimental study results demonstrate that Chief Executive Officers (CEO) are more likely to cheat in a corrupt environment than in a transparent one.

Beyond the question of corporate governance, the researchers have unveiled weaknesses in current anti-corruption practices within the business environment.

Where government integrity is low, the corruption problem arises from a gap between what is right and what is mandated by law. This gap may be bridged by instilling acceptable social norms in corporate leaders.

Professor Chizema said: "Humanity has grappled with corruption for decades with many solutions proposed, yet the most widely-used toolkit involves regulation, law enforcement and economic measures, which have failed to eradicate dishonest business practices."

"Governments need to get it right first before expecting corporate citizenry to do the right thing. Norms often precede legislation but are supported, maintained and extended by laws. If those with power to change societal norms do not have the interest or motive to do so, corporate leaders may continue to make bad corporate governance choices and decisions."

The researchers argue that the effect of government integrity must be taken into account - alongside company and CEO characteristics, plus corporate governance mechanisms - when analysing corporate leadership performance.

Their study also has implications for investors - for example, using knowledge of a country's level of government integrity, minority investors may be able to work out how likely they are to suffer from exploitation by majority shareholders or self-interested executives.

Where government integrity is low, minority investors may have to consider mechanisms that allow their voices to be heard - either by pooling resources, engaging more with legal advisors or making use of proxy voting.

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- College life can be rigorous and exhausting, but new research suggests that just one extra hour of sleep a night is not only possible, but can also have significant health benefits for college students.

In a study led by Penn State, researchers found that when asked to extend their sleep, college students were able to get an additional 43 minutes of sleep per night on average. They also experienced less sleepiness during the day and had lower blood pressure.

Anne-Marie Chang, assistant professor of biobehavioral health and nursing, said the findings -- recently published in the journal Sleep Health -- suggest that getting more sleep is a feasible and attainable goal for most college students.

"A relatively minor commitment to get a little more sleep can make a real impact on improving your health," Chang said. "Our participants were young and healthy and still saw significant, clinically relevant improvements. That, to me, really highlighted the fact that longer sleep, especially if you're not getting enough, can lead to physiological changes."

According to the researchers, getting enough sleep is an issue for people of all ages. While experts recommend seven to nine hours of sleep per night for young adults, previous research has found that 36% of young adults are getting less than seven hours per night and 14% are averaging less than six hours per night.

Chang said not getting enough sleep could lead to a range of issues in college students, including impaired mood and cognitive performance.

"Mood is something that's of concern in this group with anxiety being so prevalent," Chang said. "Not getting the right quantity or quality of sleep affects cognitive performance, as well. Studies have shown sleep loss is related to poor grades, poor performance, and lack of effort and motivation. Also, other health behaviors like risky behavior, diet and eating behaviors, and sedentary behavior are all tied to lack of sleep or poor sleep."

The researchers followed 53 healthy undergraduate students for the study. At the beginning of the study, all participants visited the lab to have their height, weight, blood pressure and heart rate measured. They also received accelerometers that, when worn on their wrist, recorded their movement and sleep. The researchers instructed the students to sleep according to their usual schedule for the first week.

One week later, the participants visited the lab again. The researchers once again measured blood pressure and heart rate, downloaded data from the accelerometers, and informed the participants of their average sleep per night. Then, they instructed the participants to extend their sleep by at least one hour per night for the following week. The researchers measured blood pressure and heart rate at the participants' final visits after week two.

The researchers found that 77% of participants increased their nighttime sleep by more than 15 minutes per night, and 66% increased their sleep by more than 30 minutes per night. Even though researchers instructed participants not to nap, 54.7% of participants still took naps at some point during the week.

Additionally, participants reported less sleepiness during the day. While 40% reported excessive sleepiness during the first week, more than half of those participants reported lower sleepiness scores, in the non-excessive range, after increasing their sleep. The researchers also found that participants' systolic blood pressure was significantly reduced by seven points.

"We were really blown away by the blood pressure results," Chang said. "Not only were the results statistically significant but they were also clinically relevant. Seven points is a large change in systolic blood pressure."

Chang added that while this study focused on one aspect of sleep -- sleep duration -- she believes it is an important one.

"Not getting enough sleep is a real problem for students," Chang said, "and I think we've shown that given the opportunity, education and encouragement, college students can change the way they prioritize sleep. I think this can have a wider scope beyond the people who participated in the study. Hopefully other people will see that sleep can have a real effect on their health, it's something they can do."

Stretchable skin-like robots that can be rolled up and put in your pocket have been developed by a University of Bristol team using a new way of embedding artificial muscles and electrical adhesion into soft materials.

This new advance, published in Soft Robotics, could create new thin and light robots for environmental monitoring and deployment in hazardous environments, robot grippers for delicate objects and new wearable technologies.

Traditional robots are rigid and incompliant, whereas soft robots are compliant and can stretch and twist to adapt to their environments. Until now, soft robots have separated their movement abilities from their capabilities to grip the surface they move on. Taking inspiration from biological skins and soft organisms like snails and slugs, researchers from Bristol's Faculty of Engineering, led by Professor of Robotics Jonathan Rossiter, have successfully demonstrated a new robotic skin that crawls across a surface by alternately contracting embedded artificial muscles and gripping the surface using electrical charges.

In the paper, the team describe how a robot made from the skin, called ElectroSkin, can be scrunched up, put in one's pocket and then later pulled out and thrown on a surface where it moves. ElectroSkin is a new fundamental building block for a range of soft next generation robots.

In the future, ElectroSkin robots could crawl up walls and across ceiling to clean them, explore difficult to reach environments including collapsed buildings, and be used in a range wearable second-skin devices.

Professor Rossiter said: "ElectroSkin is an important step toward soft robots that can be easily transported, deployed and even worn. The combination of electrical artificial muscles and electrical gripping replicated the movements of animals like slugs and snails, and where they can go, so could our robots!"