Science opportunities with solar sailing smallsats

Recently, we witnessed how the synergy of small satellite technology and solar sailing propulsion enables new missions. Together, small satellites with lightweight instruments and solar sails offer affordable access to deep regions of the solar system, also making it possible to realize hard-to-reach trajectories that are not constrained to the ecliptic plane. Combining these two technologies can drastically reduce travel times within the solar system, while delivering robust science. With solar sailing propulsion capable of reaching the velocities of ~5-10 AU/yr, missions using a rideshare launch may reach the Jovian system in two years, Saturn in three. The same technologies could allow reaching solar polar orbits in less than two years. Fast, cost-effective, and maneuverable sailcraft that may travel outside the ecliptic plane open new opportunities for affordable solar system exploration, with great promise for heliophysics, planetary science, and astrophysics. Such missions could be modularized to reach different destinations with different sets of instruments. Benefiting from this progress, we present the "Sundiver" concept, offering novel possibilities for the science community. We discuss some of the key technologies, the current design of the Sundiver sailcraft vehicle and innovative instruments, along with unique science opportunities that these technologies enable, especially as this exploration paradigm evolves. We formulate policy recommendations to allow national space agencies, industry, and other stakeholders to establish a strong scientific, programmatic, and commercial focus, enrich and deepen the space enterprise and broaden its advocacy base by including the Sundiver paradigm as a part of broader space exploration efforts.Comment: 34 pages, 12 figures, 2 table

Habitat and forage associations of a naturally colonising insect pollinator, the Tree Bumblebee Bombus hypnorum

Bumblebees (Bombus species) are major pollinators of commercial crops and wildflowers but factors affecting their abundance, including causes of recent population declines, remain unclear. Investigating the ecology of species with expanding ranges provides a potentially powerful means of elucidating these factors. Such species may also bring novel pollination services to their new ranges. We therefore investigated landscape-scale habitat use and foraging preferences of the Tree Bumblebee, B. hypnorum, a recent natural colonist that has rapidly expanded its range in the UK over the past decade. Counts of B. hypnorum and six other Bombus species were made in March-June 2012 within a mixed landscape in south-eastern Norfolk, UK. The extent of different landscape elements around each transect was quantified at three scales (250 m, 500 m and 1500 m). We then identified the landscape elements that best predicted the density of B. hypnorum and other Bombus species. At the best fitting scale (250 m), B. hypnorum density was significantly positively associated with extent of both urban and woodland cover and significantly negatively associated with extent of oilseed rape cover. This combination of landscape predictors was unique to B. hypnorum. Urban and woodland cover were associated with B. hypnorum density at three and two, respectively, of the three scales studied. Relative to other Bombus species, B. hypnorum exhibited a significantly higher foraging preference for two flowering trees, Crataegus monogyna and Prunus spinosa, and significantly lower preferences for Brassica napus, Glechoma hederacea and Lamium album. Our study provides novel, quantitative support for an association of B. hypnorum with urban and woodland landscape elements. Range expansion in B. hypnorum appears to depend, on exploitation of widespread habitats underutilised by native Bombus species, suggesting B. hypnorum will readily co-exist with these species. These findings suggest that management could target bumblebee species with distinctive habitat requirements to help maintain pollination service

A united statement of the global chiropractic research community against the pseudoscientific claim that chiropractic care boosts immunity.

BACKGROUND: In the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, the International Chiropractors Association (ICA) posted reports claiming that chiropractic care can impact the immune system. These claims clash with recommendations from the World Health Organization and World Federation of Chiropractic. We discuss the scientific validity of the claims made in these ICA reports. MAIN BODY: We reviewed the two reports posted by the ICA on their website on March 20 and March 28, 2020. We explored the method used to develop the claim that chiropractic adjustments impact the immune system and discuss the scientific merit of that claim. We provide a response to the ICA reports and explain why this claim lacks scientific credibility and is dangerous to the public. More than 150 researchers from 11 countries reviewed and endorsed our response. CONCLUSION: In their reports, the ICA provided no valid clinical scientific evidence that chiropractic care can impact the immune system. We call on regulatory authorities and professional leaders to take robust political and regulatory action against those claiming that chiropractic adjustments have a clinical impact on the immune system

Guest editorial for the IJCARS special issue on MICCAI 2017

International audienc

Phenologies of <i>Bombus</i> spp. across the 42 study sites (in south-eastern Norfolk, UK).

<p>Abundances shown as total counts on the transects per given two-week period (hence each period reflects approximately equal sampling effort; see ‘Materials and methods’). Dates are expressed as dd/mm in the study year, 2012. Dark grey bars, queens; pale grey bars, workers; intermediate grey bars, males.</p

Foraging preference indices for all <i>Bombus</i> species excluding <i>B. hypnorum</i>, short-tongued <i>Bombus</i> species excluding <i>B. hypnorum</i> and <i>B. hypnorum</i>, for all plant taxa that co-occured with <i>B. hypnorum</i> on five or more transect visits.

<p>A foraging preference index >1 indicates a preference for visiting a given plant taxon (see ‘Materials and methods’). Results of Mann-Whitney U-tests between median foraging preference indices of <i>Bombus</i> species groups and <i>B. hypnorum</i>: * <i>P</i><0.05; ns, no significant difference. Error bar is ±1 S.E. Sample sizes (number of transect-visits at which plant taxon was present and focal bee species/group was foraging) in parentheses.</p

Summary of landscape metrics for 42 <i>Bombus</i> transect sites in Norfolk, UK (means with range in parentheses).

<p>Scale refers to distance from the centre of the transect for which metrics were computed. Percentage cover is ranked in order of decreasing cover at the 250 m scale.</p><p>Summary of landscape metrics for 42 <i>Bombus</i> transect sites in Norfolk, UK (means with range in parentheses).</p

Summary of final models of landscape predictors of <i>Bombus</i> density.

<p>All models are fitted to data from 338 visits to 42 transect sites. Optimum scale: landscape scale at which landscape metrics were calculated. Fixed effects: Date, date of transect-visit; F_L, visit-specific forage quality index for long-tongued <i>Bombus</i> species; F_S, visit-specific forage quality index for short-tongued <i>Bombus</i> species; OSR, % oilseed rape cover; SNA, % semi-natural cover; TE, total length of field edges; URB, % urban cover; WOO, % woodland cover. Random effects: Site, identity of site. Dispersion estimate: residual sum of squares divided by residual degrees of freedom. AIC: Akaike’s Information Criterion. ΔAIC: comparison to final model at alternative landscape scales. d.f: degrees of freedom, calculated as: n -1 - number of parameters.</p><p>Summary of final models of landscape predictors of <i>Bombus</i> density.</p

Summary of likelihood ratios for landscape metrics at the three different scales retained as fixed effects in models predicting <i>Bombus</i> densities (data from 338 visits at 42 transect-sites).

<p>OSR, % oilseed rape cover; SNA, % semi-natural cover; TE, total length of field edges; URB, % urban cover; WOO, % woodland cover. ** model at landscape scale with lowest AIC; * model at landscape scale with intermediate AIC (<a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0107568#pone-0107568-t002" target="_blank">Table 2</a>); dash (–), fixed effect was not retained in the final model.</p><p>Summary of likelihood ratios for landscape metrics at the three different scales retained as fixed effects in models predicting <i>Bombus</i> densities (data from 338 visits at 42 transect-sites).</p

Summary of final GLMM model of landscape predictors of <i>B. hypnorum</i> density at the optimal 250 m scale.

<p>The model is fitted to data from 338 visits to 42 transect sites. Date, date of transect-visit; OSR, % oilseed rape cover; URB,% urban cover; WOO, % woodland cover.</p><p>Summary of final GLMM model of landscape predictors of <i>B. hypnorum</i> density at the optimal 250 m scale.</p