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Frontiers news

26 Feb 2019

Winner of Joseph M Sussman Best Paper Prize awarded to article proposing use of overhead line equipment in earthquake detection

In collaboration with the journal’s Field Chief Editor, Izuru Takewaki, Frontiers in Built Environment is delighted to announce that the winner Chayut Ngamkhanong, PhD student at the University of Birmingham, has won the first ever Joseph M. Sussman prize for the best article published in Frontiers in Built Environment — Transportation and Transit Systems in 2018. In 2018, Frontiers in Built Environment — Transportation and Transit Systems introduced a new prize to commemorate the legacy of late Specialty Chief Editor of the section, Massachusetts Institute of Technology JR East Professor Joseph M Sussman. Ngamkhanong explains: “This study is the world’s first to investigate the effect of harsh environment on overhead line equipment (OHLE) — the component which supplies the electric power to a train, yet is one of the most vulnerable components of the rail infrastructure. I am very pleased that this research has been recognized through this award.”  This paper contributes significantly to our understanding of the responses of OHLE to earthquakes, allowing engineers to create a more resilient design for this vital part of our infrastructure. Importantly, it presents a possible use of OHLE for earthquake detection, potentially increasing societies’ resilience to such natural disasters.  Far-Field Earthquake Responses […]

Frontiers news

14 Feb 2019

Specialty on Pests, Pathogens and Invasions to explore solutions to forest ecosystem threats

By Tim Gardner Frontiers in Forests and Global Change has launched its newest specialty on Pests, Pathogens and Invasions, led by Enrico Bonello of the Ohio State University and Kimberly Wallin of the University of Vermont and USDA Forest Service. With an increasingly interconnected modern world, the threat of pests, pathogens and invasions to forest ecosystems is growing due to international travel, economic globalization and the effects of climate change. The introduction and spread of invasive species into environments where there are few natural checks and balances can have severe detrimental outcomes for forest ecosystems, ecosystem services and productivity, and the human communities that depend on them. If the future health of the world’s forests is to be assured, now is a critical time to understand the characteristics of these threats and to develop management strategies and solutions to prevent or mitigate ecosystem, economic and societal damage. The objective of Pests, Pathogens and Invasions‘ is to publish high-quality, hypothesis-driven, fundamental and translational research related to forest pathogens (including fungi, oomycetes, bacteria, phytoplasmas, viruses, nematodes, and parasitic plants) and insect pests, with a special interest in research aimed at providing short-, mid-, and long-term solutions to the ecological and social costs associated […]