https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1119624

INTRO: Throughout winter, bumble bee queens lie buried underground in diapause, in a hibernation-like state, in a form of overwintering. But as snow melts and heavy rains soak the ground each spring those underground chambers fill with water, it was assumed that the bees who hadn’t yet awoken from their slumber, drowned. Now new research from the University of Ottawa shows that these queens can survive being submerged for over a week, thanks to a mix of physiological mechanisms.

The study, led by Professor Charles-Antoine Darveau, full professor in Comparative Physiology in the Department of Biology at uOttawa, reveals how these vital pollinators’ remarkable flooding-tolerance strategy may be crucial as extreme weather events become more frequent.

[...] What they discovered was striking. Even underwater, the queens continued exchanging gases. In effect, breathing while maintaining an exceptionally low metabolic rate.

“The first key is metabolic depression,” explains Professor Darveau. “Their metabolism is already extremely low during diapause. That low energy demand makes survival possible.”

But that wasn’t the whole story. The team also detected significant accumulation of lactic acid in the bees’ bodies, evidence that they were producing energy without oxygen through anaerobic metabolism.

“They’re not relying on just one strategy,” Darveau says. “They combine underwater gas exchange with anaerobic metabolism. That flexibility is what allows them to survive these extreme conditions.” (MORE - missing details, no ads)

https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1119620

INTRO: From flavored yogurts to frozen pizzas, breakfast cereals and instant oats, ultra-processed foods are convenient, often cheaper items designed for a quick bite. In recent years, excess consumption of these foods has also been linked to health risks such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease and some types of cancer.

According to a new study from Tulane University, eating more ultra-processed foods may also be bad for your bones. The study, published in The British Journal of Nutrition, found that those who ate more ultra-processed foods (UPFs) had lower bone mineral density and a higher risk of hip fractures.

People consumed, on average, about 8 servings of ultra-processed foods per day, according to the study, which involved more than 160,000 participants from the UK Biobank database. For every 3.7 extra servings eaten per day, the risk of hip fracture increased by 10.5%. While servings differ among food types, that amounts to a frozen dinner entree, a cookie and a soda.

“Our study cohort was followed for over 12 years, and we found that high intakes of ultra-processed foods were linked to a reduction in bone mineral density at several sites including key areas of the upper femur and the lumbar spine region,” said co-corresponding author Lu Qi, HCA Regents Distinguished Chair and professor at the Celia Scott Weatherhead School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine at Tulane University. “While recent studies have shown that ultra-processed food consumption can affect bone health, this is the first time this relationship has been examined directly in humans.”

Ultra-processed foods are industrially manufactured products made with high amounts of salt, sweeteners and unhealthy fats. They tend to be energy dense and contain little to no whole foods, which are foods free from additives that remain close to their original state... (MORE - details, no ads)

https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1119638

INTRO: A number of autonomous ferries will be deployed on Norwegian routes, the first as early as this autumn. They are intended to be operated with minimal human intervention. At the same time, captains and mates on Norwegian ships are concerned about the technical safety of autonomous ships.

"Seafarers feel strongly that people should continue to work on board, maintaining oversight and control so that unforeseen events can be managed properly,” said PhD research fellow Asbjørn Lein Aalberg.

He is conducting research on seafarers' trust in autonomous vessels at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU's) Department of Industrial Economics and Technology Management. In a new study, he and Professor Trond Kongsvik identified 12 topics, or challenges, related to the safety of autonomous ships.

The study is based on open-ended responses from a total of 1,009 captains and mates on Norwegian ships. This makes it the largest of its kind in the world. The answers they received concerned everything from how to handle emergencies to concern for seafarers' competence and awareness:

"In waves of over 4 metres, I do not want to encounter an autonomous ship that does not use the 'bad weather route' like we do," says one. "Crews are becoming lazy because they expect an alarm on absolutely everything," says another.

If their concerns are taken seriously, it may be safer to let computers take over more tasks on board, the researchers believe. The table below lists their concerns and needs - and what the seafarers themselves say about them.

[...] A large proportion of the responses relate to concerns about the technology. However, the researcher was surprised that many seafarers are most concerned about losing their own skills – that they might become mentally ‘lazy’ from ‘just sitting there’ and become overly reliant on the technology.

Aalberg likens it to how we have become accustomed to driving a car with GPS and automatic gears. That means it won't be easy to suddenly have to navigate with a map and shift gears manually. If a ferry is to operate autonomously all the time, the captain loses his or her intuition. Everything from mastering critical events to manoeuvering in bad weather.

[...] Aalberg says it now appears that parts of the industry are pushing hard for technology to fix everything. The Norwegian Public Roads Administration, for example, has stipulated that new autonomous ferries set to operate on the Lavik–Oppedal crossing from autumn 2026 be run with minimal human intervention.

The fact that seafarers' expertise doesn't carry the same amount of weight may possibly explain some of their scepticism, he believes....(MORE - missing details, no ads)

Probably much ado about nothing. Not clear that's what they were really doing, or any explicit aggression caught on camera.

Europe Says: A video recording of Muslim horsemen chasing people down the streets of Manchester, United Kingdom, has been generating massive attention on several social media platforms, including X. The footage also shows police officers stopping them, exchanging a few words, and then letting them go to continue intimidating others, sparking massive outrage online.

According to available information, the incident happened during rival protests organized by pro-Khamenei and anti-Iranian regime demonstrators on Thursday, 5 March. The two men on horseback are reportedly supporters of the late Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, who died on 28 February during the initial strikes of the US–Israeli military operation launched against Iran.

Police officer: "What do you want me to do, pull him off a horse?"

Guy filming with smartphone: "If they had a Union Jack on, you would."

Anti-Khamenei protesters chased by Muslim horsemen in Manchester? ... https://youtu.be/Mus9pWgr9JA

https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1119507

INTRO: As artificial intelligence (AI) rapidly integrates into clinical settings—from predicting patient outcomes to deploying humanoid "robotic nurses"—an article published in the Hastings Center Report warns that the core of nursing, its moral agency, must remain a human-driven responsibility.

The article, What Does Moral Agency Mean for Nurses in the Era of Artificial Intelligence?, explores the growing tension between advanced algorithmic capabilities and the ethical obligations of the world’s most trusted profession.

While AI systems can now simulate empathy and generate context-aware responses, Penn Nursing’s Connie M. Ulrich, PhD, RN, FAAN, the Lillian S. Brunner Chair in Medical and Surgical Nursing, Professor of Nursing, and Professor of Medical Ethics and Health Policy, and her co-authors argue that AI lacks sentience, intentionality, and accountability. The authors define a moral agent as a person capable of discerning right from wrong and being held accountable for their actions.

Key findings from the article include:

• AI as "Moral Zombies": The authors note that algorithms lack the sentience required for true moral accountability.
  
• The Relational Value: Nursing is characterized by a "therapeutic presence" and an intuitive exchange of shared humanity that algorithms cannot replicate, particularly in sensitive areas like end-of-life care.
  
• A Growing Industry: The global robotic nurse industry is projected to reach over $2.7 billion by 2031, underscoring the urgency of establishing ethical guardrails.

Poultry processing robotics advances with ChicGrasp
https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1119477

INTRO: What started out as a response to labor shortages in poultry processing plants during the COVID-19 pandemic has turned into a robotics system that can learn by imitating human movements to handle chickens.

Using an advanced imitation learning algorithm and camera perceptions, researchers with the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station have developed ChicGrasp, a dual-jaw robotic gripper with pinchers that can grasp a chicken carcass by the legs, lift and hang it on a shackle conveyor to be moved on for further processing.

“Embodied AI is used to create intelligent, agent-like robotics to interact with a real-world environment,” said Dongyi Wang, leader of the project and an assistant professor in the departments of biological and agricultural engineering and food science.

“It’s a physical art that has just developed in the past couple of years, which you see in things like full self-driving cars,” he said. “We are trying to do similar things using that imitation learning idea, but in chicken processing.”

The work has been supported by a $1 million grant from a joint program between the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture and the National Science Foundation. Wang is a faculty member in the College of Engineering and the Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences at the University of Arkansas. The experiment station is the research arm of the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture.

Results of the study behind the development of ChicGrasp were published in Advanced Robotics Research. All computer-aided design files, code and datasets from the project were released as open source, providing what the team describes as a reproducible benchmark for agricultural robotics and robot learning... (MORE - details, no ads)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IURYkUaIiIM

https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1119482

INTRO: Six out of 10 older people in England view climate change as a serious risk, with only one in 17 (5.8%) dismissive of climate change concerns, according to a new study led by UCL (University College London) researchers.

The study, published in The Journals of Gerontology, Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, looked at survey responses from 6,572 people in England aged 50 and over who were asked to rate their agreement or disagreement with statements about climate change.

Analysing these responses, the research team classed most respondents as highly engaged (30%) or engaged (31%) with climate change risk. Just over a quarter of respondents were ambivalent or uncertain (22%), while smaller percentages of older people identified as risk-aware but fatalistic (11%) and dismissive (5.8%).

Those in their 50s were more likely to be highly engaged, while those in their 70s, 80s and older were more likely to be risk-aware but fatalistic – that is, aware of the adverse consequences of climate change but believing it is too late to do anything about it.

Lead author Dr Giorgio Di Gessa (UCL Institute of Epidemiology & Health Care) said: “It is often assumed that older generations do not care about climate change – but our study shows this is not the case. Most older adults are concerned about the climate. They believe climate change is happening and has not been exaggerated and view it as severe enough to warrant action. Only a small minority are dismissive of the issue.

“Older adults in the UK are also a diverse group. For people seeking to increase engagement on climate change, a one-size-fits-all message won’t work. For instance, those who are uncertain may need clearer, more relatable information, while those who are fatalistic may need practical examples of what still can be done.” (MORE - details, no ads)

https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1119519

INTRO: Texas busing programs that transported newly-arrived immigrants to Democratic-led cities boosted President Donald Trump’s vote share in affected counties during the 2024 election, according to a new study from the USC Price School of Public Policy and the University of North Texas.

Published in Sociological Science, the study quantifies the political impact of a policy that brought a unique migration shock to places far from the U.S.-Mexico border. The findings also highlight the growing role of state- and city-led immigration policies, as well as the enduring power of perceived threats from racial minorities, researchers said. The findings come as immigration enforcement is expected to be a top issue heading into the 2026 midterm elections.

From 2022 to 2024, Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott transported more than 100,000 migrants to six cities that were led by Democratic mayors and had enacted "sanctuary" policies that protected undocumented immigrants by restricting cooperation with federal immigration officials. The cities were Chicago, Denver, Los Angeles, New York, Philadelphia, and Washington, D.C.

To examine the electoral impact of the widely publicized busing program, researchers analyzed county-level election data and Associated Press VoteCast exit polls, comparing election results from 2016, 2020 and 2024. Study authors contrasted electoral results from counties that received migrant buses against those that did not, isolating how much affected counties distinctively changed in 2024 versus 2016 and 2020.

The study found... (MORE - details, no ads)