Gap is asking shoppers to help de-escalate abuse on retail staff, after a rise in acts of aggression against store workers of color during the pandemic

insider@insider.com (Mary Hanbury) 

© Provided by Business Insider Gap is calling on shoppers to help de-escalate aggressive in-store situations. AP Photo/Mark Lennihan

Gap said it has seen an increase in acts of aggression against its store workers of color.

It will join retailers on a campaign encouraging customers to help de-escalate abusive incidents.

Aggression against store workers became a complex issue over the course of the pandemic.


Gap says it is seeing a rise in acts of aggression against store workers of color and it is calling on shoppers to step up.

The retailer has teamed up with a group of competitors - including H&M, American Eagle, and Ralph Lauren - on a campaign to encourage customers to show support for store workers that face abuse. The campaign also calls on customers to help de-escalate these situations through various methods of distraction, such as pretending to know the worker that is being harassed.

Customers will be invited to sign a pledge to support workers in participating stores and receive more information about how to help. The campaign, which will appear online and on in-store signage, is spearheaded by nonprofits Open to All and Hollaback.

Chris Nelson, senior vice president of asset protection at Gap Inc., told the Associated Press that the chain had seen a rise in aggression against store workers of color during the pandemic.

"We spent a lot of time with COVID-19 responses, but there was another global pandemic - systemic racism," Nelson said. "It is not OK. That is not part of our values."

There has been a rise in acts of aggression against store workers and security guards who have been required to enforce safety measures, such as social distancing and mask-wearing in stores during the pandemic. Workers are often required to make sure new rules are being enforced despite receiving little or no guidance from management on how to handle a volatile person.

According to a statement from Open to All announcing the new campaign, hostility toward workers of color, along with women and LGBT workers, has been especially prevalent during this time.

"Given the rise in hate violence - which is at an all-time high - frontline workers are more vulnerable than ever," Emily May, co-founder and executive director of Hollaback, said in a statement.

Read more: Workers are 'rage quitting' their jobs as a tightening labor market forces employers to take note of unfavorable conditions and low pay

Some commentators have predicted that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's recent relaxing of rules around wearing masks is likely to make the situation worse for store workers this summer.

Larry Barton, a professor of crisis management and public safety at the University of Central Florida, said that conflicts are inevitable because of this.

Workers and business owners are "expected to be referee, pseudo police, and mask enforcer," Barton wrote in a recent email to Insider.

It puts both businesses and workers in a "horrible situation," he said, especially as the former is grappling with labor shortages and trying to attract new workers that have been put off by demanding customers and low pay.

Journalists who fled Myanmar find third-country refuge


Video: U.S. journalists held in a notoriously brutal Myanmar prison (CNN)
Duration 4:49

BANGKOK (AP) — Three journalists from military-ruled Myanmar who were convicted of illegal entry after they fled to Thailand have been sent to a third country where they are safe, their employer said Monday.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

The three staff members of the Democratic Voice of Burma, better known as DVB, were arrested on May 9 in the northern Thai province of Chiang Mai along with two other people from Myanmar described as activists. On May 28, they were each sentenced to a 4,000 baht ($128) fine and seven months’ imprisonment, suspended for a year.

Rights groups and journalists’ associations had urged Thai authorities not to send them back to Myanmar, where it was feared that their safety would be at risk from the authorities. Thailand’s government has relatively cordial relations with Myanmar's military regime.

Myanmar’s junta seized power in February by ousting the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi, and has attempted to crush widespread opposition to its takeover with a brutal crackdown that has left hundreds dead. It has tried to silence independent news media by withdrawing their licenses and by arresting journalists.

All five people convicted in Chiang Mai of illegal entry left Thailand recently for the third country, Aye Chan Naing, DVB’s executive director and chief editor, said in an emailed statement. He said, without elaborating, that he could not mention where they had been sent “as the entire case remains very sensitive.”

He expressed gratitude to “everyone in Thailand and around the world that helped to make their safe passage possible and for campaigning for a positive outcome,” and said the employees would resume their duties in the near future after “recovering from their ordeal."

At least two other DVB journalists have been sentenced to prison for their reporting. DVB, an independent broadcast and online news agency, was among five local media outlets that were banned in March from broadcasting or publishing after their licenses were canceled. Like other banned media outlets, it continued operating.

According to Myanmar’s Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, about 90 journalists have been arrested since the takeover, with more than half still in detention, and 33 in hiding. Those still being held include two U.S. citizens, Danny Fenster and Nathan Maung, who worked for Myanmar media.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the U.S. has had contact with Maung in detention but has not yet had consular access to Fenster. “We are pressing this in every way that we can,” Blinken said in congressional testimony Monday in Washington.

He reiterated the U.S. was working on trying to bring the detained journalists home.

Fenster, the managing editor of the news and business magazine Frontier Myanmar, was detained at the Yangon airport while trying to head to the Detroit area to see his family.

Maung is editor in chief of the Myanmar news website Kamayut Media. New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists, citing accounts in Myanmar media, said he was arrested in March.

The Associated Press

G7 countries devise way to catch Amazon in tax net - sources

PARIS (Reuters) - G7 states have found a way to include Amazon, one of the world's biggest companies, on a list of 100 set to face higher taxes in the countries where they do business by targeting its more profitable cloud computing unit, officials close to the talks said.

© Reuters/Pascal Rossignol FILE PHOTO: The logo of Amazon is seen at the company logistics center in Lauwin-Planque, northern France

Some European countries had concerns that Amazon may fall out of scope of the proposed new rules because its overall operating margin as a company is less than 10%, which is the threshold set as a criteria for companies on the list.


But because its Amazon Web Services (AWS) business has a margin of more than 30%, Amazon as a whole can be included, the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told Reuters.

International talks on a global minimum corporate tax which was agreed by the Group of Seven rich countries on June 5. are running in parallel to of talks on how to divide the rights to tax excess profits, those which can be considered routine, of the world's 100 biggest, most profitable companies.

G7 finance ministers agreed that governments should get the right to tax at least 20% of profit earned in their country by a multinational, when this profit was over a 10% margin.

"We now decided that if a corporation as a whole does not reach the profitability limit, but a large division of it exceeds the G7 thresholds, it must be included," a source close to the discussions said.

"With this, we're aiming exactly at Amazon," the source added.

Amazon did not immediately respond to requests to comment.

Without singling out Amazon, a British government source familiar with the negotiations said consideration was being given to how the rules would apply to companies that had different activities and business lines.

OECD head of tax Pascal Saint-Amans said that Amazon's AWS unit would be liable because it had revenues exceeding a threshold of 20 billion euros ($24.4 billion).

"The profits linked to the cloud (business) will thus be shared among countries," he told France Info television.

($1 = 0.8214 euros)

(Reporting by Leigh Thomas; Additional reporting by David Milliken in London; Editing by Alexander Smith)

German researcher may have found Canadian bomber crew missing for 7 decades

Video: Canadian mystery solved by recovery of WWII bomber in the Netherlands (Global News)


A German researcher believes a mislabelled grave may be the reason a Canadian Lancaster bomber crew has been missing for more than 75 years.

© Photo by S A Devon/ Imperial War Museums via Getty Images A Lancaster bomber, 1944

The tombstone in the German village of Auerstedt states, "an unknown American soldier killed in March 1945," but researcher René Schütz believes local villagers actually buried Canadian airmen, and he says he has the evidence to prove it.

Read more: Ontario airmen lost in Second World War bombing raid to be laid to rest

Schütz is with Vermisstensuche Thüringen, a group that searches for missing airmen from the Second World War. Its members have spent the last year looking at the story of the Auerstedt grave.

"It was clear from the beginning it wasn't an American," Schütz says.

The region around Auerstedt was an important target for allied Bomber Command during the war. Dozens of missions were sent out to hit oil refineries important to the Nazi war effort.

According to local legend, an allied bomber crashed outside the village in March 1945, but before it went down, one member of the crew jumped out. He died when his parachute didn't open. The rest of the crew was still in the plane when it hit the ground, and the bombs it was carrying exploded.

Schütz says he spoke to eyewitnesses who are still alive. They reported that local villagers buried the body of the crewman who jumped from the plane, but also buried the human remains they found at the crash site.

"They gathered all the remains from the debris field," Schütz says. "They buried those with the remains of the complete airman."

Schütz says there are remnants of the aircraft still at the crash site outside town that prove the aircraft was a Lancaster bomber — a plane the American military didn't fly.

After looking at the type of aircraft, the location of the crash, and the date it went down, Schütz believes the plane and the crew were, in fact, Canadian.

Schütz's group took their findings to local authorities and were given permission to exhume the grave on March 13. He says they found exactly what they expected.

"The complete remains of one dead man were found, along with a small coffin that contained the remains of an undetermined number of dead," Schütz says.

Those remains were handed over to the German War Graves Commission for analysis.

The Commonwealth Graves Commission confirms it's working with German officials and has notified Canada.

"The Canadian authorities are aware of the case, but it is far too early to speculate as to the nature or nationality of the recovered remains," the commission said in a statement to Global News.

A spokesperson with Canada's Department of National Defence says it's holding off until German officials officially link the remains to Canada. If that happens, the Canadian Armed Forces' Casualty Identification Program would review the case. The process could take several years.

One thing Schütz hopes can speed up the process is something recovered in the grave. Canadian soldiers wore identity discs during the two world wars — basically an early version of military dog tags.

When exhuming the grave, the team recovered what appears to be a fragment of a disc with three letters, CAN. Schütz says that was an abbreviation used for Canada, and proves his theory is correct.

"It was very emotional for our whole team," he says.

Schütz believes he knows which aircraft crew he's found. He's chosen not to make that public for now. But there is only one plane missing without a trace that was on a bombing mission in that region of Germany in mid-March 1945.

Canadian military historian David O'Keefe says it's still early in the process, but Schütz's discovery could be important.

"If all the evidence is there, and it does conclusively prove that this was the aircraft, this is huge," O'Keefe says. "Not just for Canada and Canadians, but also the families."

Representative for 17,000 Sears Canada retirees says insolvency laws are unjust


TORONTO — A court-appointed representative for Sears Canada retirees says Canada's bankruptcy laws should be changed to prevent financial hardship for members of other underfunded pension plans.

 Provided by The Canadian Press

Kenneth Eady says it is unfair that banks receive more protection than pensioners under Canadaian bankruptcy and insolvency legislation.

Eady says Parliament should pass a Bloc Québécois bill to amend the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act and the Companies' Creditors Arrangement Act.

He's one of several witnesses who have appeared before members of the four major parties studying a private member's bill from Bloc MP Marilène Gill.

Gill wants underfunded pension plans to receive similar priority as banks when bankruptcy courts determine how to divide a company's assets.

In the Sears Canada case, there wasn't enough money to fund pension shortfalls after debts to banks and were repaid ahead of other classes of creditors

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 8, 2021.

The Canadian Press

Most Americans are not getting enough fiber in our diets

Just 7% of adults meet fiber recommendations, raising risk of chronic diseases

AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR NUTRITION

Research News

 

IMAGE: AVERAGE DAILY FIBER INTAKE (IN GRAMS OF FIBER PER 1,000 CALORIES CONSUMED) AMONG U.S. ADULTS BY GENDER AND DIABETES STATUS. view more 

CREDIT: DEREK MIKETINAS, TEXAS WOMAN'S UNIVERSITY

Rockville, Maryland (June 7, 2021) -- Only 5% of men and 9% of women are getting the recommended daily amount of dietary fiber, according to a study being presented at NUTRITION 2021 LIVE ONLINE. Insufficient fiber intake is associated with a higher risk of heart disease and diabetes, two of the most common diseases in the U.S.

"These findings should remind people to choose fiber-rich foods like whole grains, fruits and vegetables to reduce their risk for heart disease," said Derek Miketinas, PhD, RD, an assistant professor at Texas Woman's University, the study's lead author. "Based on our findings, fewer than 1 in 10 U.S. adults meet their daily recommendations for fiber intake. For those with diabetes, it is especially important to eat enough fiber since they are at a greater risk for heart disease."

Fiber is a type of carbohydrate that passes through the body undigested. Though perhaps best known for its role in supporting regular bowel movements, fiber also carries important benefits for cardiovascular health. Studies suggest dietary fiber can help lower cholesterol, blood pressure and inflammation and help prevent diabetes. It can also improve blood sugar levels for people with diabetes.

The researchers analyzed data from more than 14,600 U.S. adults who participated in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) between 2013-2018. Fiber intake was assessed using dietary questionnaires; diabetes status was self-reported and also assessed with hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) levels. Researchers only analyzed fiber intake from dietary sources, excluding fiber supplements.

"Unlike other similar studies, our analysis estimated Americans' usual fiber intake using advanced statistical methods instead of calculating a simple average," said Miketinas. "This approach is a better indicator of what a person typically eats because it can account for other factors that may influence fiber intake."

Health guidelines recommend eating 14 grams of fiber for every 1,000 calories consumed (g/1,000 kcal) daily. On average, women in the study consumed 9.9 g/1,000 kcal and men consumed 8.7 g/1,000 kcal. Among those with diabetes, women consumed 10.3 g/1,000 kcal and men consumed 9.6 g/1,000 kcal, higher than average but still falling short of recommendations.

To get the right amount of fiber, the typical woman should aim for about 25 grams (for a 2,000 calorie diet), while men should aim for 38 grams (for a 2,500 calorie diet), with lower targets for those over age 50. This typically requires a good mix of fruits, vegetables and whole grains. For perspective, choosing a whole grain such as pearled barley will provide 6 grams of fiber per cup compared to less than 2 grams of fiber in white rice.

In addition to shedding light on Americans' eating habits, Miketinas said the new findings can help inform future research into chronic disease prevention.

"The results of this study can be used to identify relationships between dietary fiber intake and outcomes of interest like risk factors for heart disease," said Miketinas. "In fact, our preliminary analysis suggests that higher dietary fiber intake in adults with diabetes is strongly associated with reductions in markers for heart and kidney disease."

Miketinas will present this research in an on-demand poster session during NUTRITION 2021 LIVE ONLINE from noon on Monday, June 7 through 5:30 p.m. on Friday, June 10 (abstract; presentation details).

Images available.

Please note that abstracts presented at NUTRITION 2021 LIVE ONLINE were evaluated and selected by a committee of experts but have not generally undergone the same peer review process required for publication in a scientific journal. As such, the findings presented should be considered preliminary until a peer-reviewed publication is available.

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About NUTRITION 2021 LIVE ONLINE

NUTRITION 2021 LIVE ONLINE, held June 7-10, 2021 is a dynamic virtual event showcasing new research findings and timely discussions on food and nutrition. Scientific symposia explore hot topics including clinical and translational nutrition, food science and systems, global and public health, population science and cellular and physiological nutrition and metabolism. https://meeting.nutrition.org #NutritionLiveOnline

About the American Society for Nutrition (ASN)

ASN is the preeminent professional organization for nutrition research scientists and clinicians around the world. Founded in 1928, the society brings together the top nutrition researchers, medical practitioners, policy makers and industry leaders to advance our knowledge and application of nutrition. ASN publishes four peer-reviewed journals and provides education and professional development opportunities to advance nutrition research, practice and education. http://www.nutrition.org

Find more news briefs and tipsheets at: https://www.eurekalert.org/meetings/nutrition/2021/newsroom. Watch on-demand sessions, view posters and more by registering for a free pass to attend the virtual meeting.

CO2 sensors in two urban areas registered big drop in emissions during COVID-19 pandemic

Scientists show they can reliably track changes in urban emissions by directly measuring CO2 in the air above cities

NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF STANDARDS AND TECHNOLOGY (NIST)

VIDEO: THE NIST GREENHOUSE GAS (GHG) MEASUREMENTS PROGRAM DEVELOPS ADVANCED TOOLS AND STANDARDS FOR ACCURATELY MEASURING GHG EMISSIONS SO INDUSTRIES AND GOVERNMENTS WILL HAVE THE INFORMATION THEY NEED TO MANAGE EMISSIONS... view more 

CREDIT: NIST

Carbon dioxide emissions in Los Angeles fell 33% in April of 2020 compared with previous years, as roads emptied and economic activity slowed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a new study in Geophysical Research Letters. In the Washington, D.C./Baltimore region, emissions of carbon dioxide, or CO2, dropped by 34% during the same period.

The study was led by scientists at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the University of Notre Dame.

While the emissions reductions are significant, the method that scientists used to measure them may have the greater long-term impact.

In both locations, scientists had previously installed networks of sensors on rooftops and towers to monitor the concentration of CO2 in the air. They used the data from those sensor networks to estimate the drop in emissions.

This might seem an obvious way to estimate emissions, but this is not how it's usually done. Most cities estimate their emissions by tallying up the effects of activities that cause emissions, such as the number of vehicle miles traveled or the square footage of buildings heated and cooled. These are called "bottom up" methods because they are mostly based on activities on the ground.

This new study demonstrates that "top-down" methods, based on measuring the concentration of CO2 in the air, can produce reliable emissions estimates. Scientists were able to test those methods when emissions suddenly dropped due to COVID-19.

"This was a completely unanticipated experiment, and one we don't ever want to do again," said lead author and JPL data scientist Vineet Yadav. "But our results show that we were able to detect the onset of emissions reductions to within a few days."

Scientists have been developing top-down methods for measuring CO2 emissions for several years. "This study shows that the technology has matured enough to produce reliable results and can be put into operation," said NIST scientist and co-author Kimberly Mueller. That would give cities an important new tool in their efforts to reduce emissions.

Top-down estimates are difficult to achieve because most of the CO2 in the air above cities is not from local emissions. Most of it is there naturally, and some is emitted outside the city's borders and comes in on the wind. The trick is to figure out how much of the CO2 in the air above the city was generated locally.

"My Ph.D. adviser used to describe the atmosphere as a big cup of coffee," said Mueller. "You've added cream, and you're trying to unstir the coffee to see where and when you put the cream in."

To unstir the atmospheric coffee, scientists used data on wind speed, direction and other factors. This allowed them to estimate where within a city the emissions originated and how large they were.

Though difficult to achieve, top-down measurements have several advantages. First, they can provide relatively quick feedback on whether efforts to reduce emissions are working. If a city changes traffic patterns or increases public transit, for instance, top-down estimates can provide data on whether those efforts actually lead to reduced emissions.

CAPTION

The NIST Greenhouse Gas Measurements Program develops advanced tools and standards for accurately measuring GHG emissions.

CREDIT

N. Hanacek, J. Wang/NIST

In addition, a recent study, also co-authored by Mueller, indicated that U.S. cities often underestimate their emissions when using bottom-up methods alone. Another recent study showed that combining bottom-up with top-down methods increases accuracy. (Both studies were partly funded by NIST.)

"Accurate measurements are key to any strategy for managing greenhouse gas emissions," said James Whetstone, leader of NIST's greenhouse gas measurements group and a co-author of the study. "That's the only way to know if you are making progress toward your goals."

NIST, NASA and other research partners are using the sensor networks in Los Angeles and the Washington, D.C./Baltimore region to develop and test top-down methods as a way of achieving more accurate emissions estimates. This research project focuses on cities in part because cities account for a large and growing share of the world's CO2 emissions.

The 33% and 34% emissions drops in Los Angeles and the D.C./Baltimore region represent reductions relative to the average April emissions of the previous two years. The researchers used three different methods for detecting the change in emissions based on atmospheric measurements, all of which detected the drop occurring at the same time.

"These independent statistical tests on different pieces of the puzzle gave consistent results," said Notre Dame computational scientist and coauthor Subhomoy Ghosh. "This gives us confidence in the findings."

In addition, the methods appeared to work well in both locations, despite very different environmental conditions. In Los Angeles, relatively clean air comes in off the Pacific. D.C. and Baltimore, on the other hand, regularly receive emissions from cities and power plants to the west. Also in D.C. and Baltimore, emissions models have to account for the effects of spring, when plants turn green again and start pulling CO2 from the air. Los Angeles experiences less seasonal variation in uptake by plants.

"These methods were robust enough to work in very different settings," Mueller said. "The fact that these methods worked in both locations mean the results were not a fluke."

###

Paper: V. Yadav, S. Ghosh, K. Mueller, A. Karion, G. Roest, S.M. Gourdji, I. Lopez-Coto, K. R. Gurney, N. Parazoo, K.R. Verhulst, J. Kim, S. Prinzivalli, C. Fain, T. Nehrkorn, M. Mountain, R.F. Keeling, R.F. Weiss, R. Duren, C.E. Miller and J. Whetstone. The impact of COVID-19 on CO2 emissions in the Los Angeles and Washington DC/Baltimore metropolitan areas. Geophysical Research Letters. Published online June 7, 2021. DOI: 10.1029/2021GL092744

 

Gender bias is real for women in family-owned businesses

Study examining gender bias and family-owned businesses found daughters received much less support than sons

UNIVERSITY OF OTTAWA

Research News

IMAGE: PROFESSOR PETER JASKIEWICZ, FULL PROFESSOR UNIVERSITY RESEARCH CHAIR IN ENDURING ENTREPRENEURSHIP: "FAMILIES NEED TO UNDERSTAND THAT GENDER BIAS FAVOURS MEN WHILE DISCOURAGING WOMEN FROM BUILDING THEIR LEGACIES IN THE FAMILY... view more 

CREDIT: UNIVERSITY OF OTTAWA

A study examining gender bias and family-owned businesses found daughters were rarely encouraged nor received support to pursue entrepreneurship education while sons mostly did.

Professors James Combs, Peter Jaskiewicz, and Sabine Raul from the Telfer School of Management uncovered new insights about how gender bias - the preference of a gender over the other - affects the succession strategy in multi-generational family firms. Their findings are published in the Journal of Small Business Management.

When nurturing the next generation, entrepreneurial families often prepare their daughters and sons differently for their careers. The researchers noticed a common pattern in the stories shared by the next generation: Sons are often nurtured to become entrepreneurial, whether they are expected to take over the firm one day or to start a venture elsewhere. Daughters, however, receive little to no incentive to develop the leadership skills and entrepreneurial passion required to contribute to the family firm or start their own business.

In conversations with 26 children who were raised in 13 multi-generational family firms - some being centuries old - but not expected to work in the firm, the researchers found that:

• Seven of the nine sons (78%), pursued entrepreneurial careers;
• Only one among the 15 daughters (7%) gained an entrepreneurial education and engaged in entrepreneurship (7%);
• Women were not encouraged to pursue entrepreneurship education, gain business experience, start a new venture;
• Men rather than women received financial resources from the family to start their own business

"Even when these female non-successors have opportunities to acquire relevant knowledge and work to start a business, becoming entrepreneurial was still a challenging uphill battle," says Jaskiewicz, who believes the data reveals women do not pursue entrepreneurship outside of the family because they lacked sufficient emotional and financial support from the family.

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Visualizing cement hydration on a molecular level

Imaging technique could enable new pathways for reducing concrete's hefty carbon footprint, as well as for 3-D printing of concrete.

MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY

Research News

 

IMAGE: THE HIGH TEMPORAL AND SPATIAL RESOLUTION RAMAN IMAGING TECHNIQUE OPENS OPPORTUNITIES TO ANSWER MILLENNIA-OLD QUESTIONS REGARDING CEMENT CHEMISTRY. THIS HIGH-RESOLUTION RAMAN IMAGE SHOWS THE HYDRATION OF ALITE (WHITE) FORMING C-S-H... view more 

CREDIT: IMAGE COURTESY OF FRANZ-JOSEF ULM, ADMIR MASIC, HYUN-CHAE CHAD LOH, ET AL

The concrete world that surrounds us owes its shape and durability to chemical reactions that start when ordinary Portland cement is mixed with water. Now, MIT scientists have demonstrated a way to watch these reactions under real-world conditions, an advance that may help researchers find ways to make concrete more sustainable.

The study is a "Brothers Lumière moment for concrete science," says co-author Franz-Josef Ulm, professor of civil and environmental engineering and faculty director of the MIT Concrete Sustainability Hub, referring to the two brothers who ushered in the era of projected films. Likewise, Ulm says, the MIT team has provided a glimpse of early-stage cement hydration that is like cinema in Technicolor compared to the black and white photos of earlier research.

Cement in concrete contributes about 8 percent of the world's total carbon dioxide emissions, rivaling the emissions produced by most individual countries. With a better understanding of cement chemistry, scientists could potentially "alter production or change ingredients so that concrete has less of an impact on emissions, or add ingredients that are capable of actively absorbing carbon dioxide," says Admir Masic, associate professor of civil and environmental engineering.

Next-generation technologies like 3D printing of concrete could also benefit from the study's new imaging technique, which shows how cement hydrates and hardens in place, says Masic Lab graduate student Hyun-Chae Chad Loh, who also works as a materials scientist with the company Black Buffalo 3D Corporation. Loh is the first author of the study published in ACS Langmuir, joining Ulm, Masic, and postdoc Hee-Jeong Rachel Kim.

Cement from the start

Loh and colleagues used a technique called Raman microspectroscopy to get a closer look at the specific and dynamic chemical reactions taking place when water and cement mix. Raman spectroscopy creates images by shining a high-intensity laser light on material and measuring the intensities and wavelengths of the light as it is scattered by the molecules that make up the material.

Different molecules and molecular bonds have their own unique scattering "fingerprints," so the technique can be used to create chemical images of molecular structures and dynamic chemical reactions inside a material. Raman spectroscopy is often used to characterize biological and archaeological materials, as Masic has done in previous studies of nacre and other biomineralized materials and ancient Roman concretes.

Using Raman microspectroscopy, the MIT scientists observed a sample of ordinary Portland cement placed underwater without disturbing it or artificially stopping the hydration process, mimicking the real-world conditions of concrete use. In general, one of the hydration products, called portlandite, starts as a disordered phase, percolates throughout the material, and then crystallizes, the research team concluded.

Before this, "scientists could only study cement hydration with average bulk properties or with a snapshot of one point in time," says Loh, "but this allowed us to observe all the changes almost continuously and improved the resolution of our image in space and time."

For instance, calcium-silicate-hydrate, or C-S-H, is the main binding ingredient in cement that holds concrete together, "but it's very difficult to detect because of its amorphous nature," Loh explains. "Seeing its structure, distribution, and how it developed during the curing process was something that was amazing to watch."

Building better

Ulm says the work will guide researchers as they experiment with new additives and other methods to reduce concrete's greenhouse gas emissions: "Rather than 'fishing in the dark,'" we are now able to rationalize through this new approach how reactions occur or do not occur, and intervene chemically."

The team will use Raman spectroscopy as they spend the summer testing how well different cementitious materials capture carbon dioxide, Masic says. "Tracking this up to now has been almost impossible, but now we have the opportunity to follow carbonation in cementitious materials that helps us understand where the carbon dioxide goes, which phases are formed, and how to change them in order to potentially use concrete as a carbon sink."

The imaging is also critical for Loh's work with 3D concrete printing, which depends on extruding concrete layers in a precisely measured and coordinated process, during which the liquid slurry turns into solid concrete.

"Knowing when the concrete is going to set is the most critical question that everyone is trying to understand" in the industry, he says. "We do a lot of trial and error to optimize a design. But monitoring the underlying chemistry in space and time is critical, and this science-enabled innovation will impact the concrete printing capabilities of the construction industry."

This work was partially supported by the scholarship program of the Kwanjeong Educational Foundation.

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Written by Becky Ham, MIT News correspondent
Paper: "Time-space-resolved chemical deconvolution of cementitious colloidal systems using Raman spectroscopy"
https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.langmuir.1c00609

 

Infrared imaging leaves invasive pythons nowhere to hide

New method makes it easier to spot pythons without relying on thermal contrast

THE OPTICAL SOCIETY

VIDEO: THE RESEARCHERS FOUND THAT NEAR INFRARED IMAGING CAN BE USED DURING THE DAY AND AT NIGHT WITH ILLUMINATION TO IMPROVE DETECTION OF BURMESE PYTHONS. THE MOVIE SHOWS AN NIR VIDEO... view more 

CREDIT: JENNIFER HEWITT, UNIVERSITY OF CENTRAL FLORIDA COLLEGE OF OPTICS AND PHOTONICS

WASHINGTON -- For more than 25 years, Burmese pythons have been living and breeding in the Florida Everglades where they prey on native wildlife and disrupt the region's delicate ecosystems. A new study shows that infrared cameras could make it easier to spot these invasive snakes in the Florida foliage, providing a new tool in the effort to remove them.

In the Optical Society (OSA) journal Applied Optics, researchers led by Dr. Kyle Renshaw from the University of Central Florida College of Optics and Photonics report that a near infrared camera helped people detect Burmese pythons at distances up to 1.3 times farther away than was possible using a traditional visible-wavelength camera. Because infrared sensors are small and low cost, they could easily be incorporated into handheld or vehicle-mounted systems designed for seeking out pythons.

"The removal of Burmese Pythons is vital to preventing further damage to the Floridian ecosystem and preventing their spread to other regions," said Hewitt, a PhD student and lead author on the study. "Our study -- one of the first to examine the efficacy of near infrared sensing in locating these pythons -- can help inform methods used to remove them from the environment."

Making snakes stand out

Burmese pythons can be up to 20 feet long and weigh as much as 200 pounds. They arrived in the U.S. as exotic pets in the 1980s and the snakes proliferated in the Everglades after a breeding facility was destroyed during Hurricane Andrew in 1992. Their natural camouflage makes them blend in with grass and foliage, making them hard to see with the human eye or a traditional visible-light camera. In a previous study, the authors measured the reflectivity spectra of Burmese pythons in the visible and infrared wavelengths, finding that pythons are more visible against the background at infrared wavelengths longer than 750 nm.

"Based on these earlier findings, we hypothesized that using near infrared wavelengths for imaging could make the pythons easier to see because they would appear dark against bright foliage," said Hewitt. "Although we haven't acquired reflectivity measurements from other species of snakes, the pythons should be easy to distinguish since they are larger than any other native species of snake."

To test their hypothesis, the researchers took images of Burmese pythons in grass using visible and infrared cameras with similar fields of view and resolution. They then asked volunteers to examine these images and indicate whether they saw a python. Based on the responses of the volunteers, the researchers calculated the advantage of using near infrared images compared to visible.

"The method we used to evaluate each of the sensors was originally established for military sensing applications," Hewitt explained. "It accounts for the attributes of human vision and perception in addition to the characteristics of the system components to determine how effective a system is at allowing the observer to accomplish a task."

Spotting pythons day or night

Although other studies have explored using thermal infrared sensors to find Burmese pythons, the snakes had to have been basking in the sun during the day for them to be detected at night. The thermal contrast against their environment also diminished over time.

"In this work, we don't rely on thermal contrast," said Hewitt. "We found that near infrared imaging can be used both during the day as well as at night with illumination to improve detection, even if the pythons have not been basking."

The researchers have contracted with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) to work on a project that expands on these results. "We are evaluating whether or not this technology will be effective in the field, and, if so, how to make it field-ready in the challenging Florida everglades ecosystem," said McKayla Spencer, the FWC interagency python management coordinator. "We are just in the beginning stages of our project with the researchers."

CAPTION

A new study shows that infrared cameras could make it easier to spot invasive Burmese pythons in Florida. Compared to an RGB visible image (left), the near-infrared image (right) helps the snakes stand out in the grass.

CREDIT

Jennifer Hewitt, University of Central Florida College of Optics and Photonics

USAGE RESTRICTIONS

Paper: J. Hewitt, O. Furxhi, K. Renshaw, R. Driggers, "Detection of Burmese pythons in the near infrared vs. visible band," Applied Optics, 60, 17, 5066-5073 (2021).

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1364/AO.419320

About Applied Optics

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