New modeling technique shows greater likelihood, frequency of urban extreme heat events

UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS GRAINGER COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING

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IMAGE: LEI ZHAO, UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS URBANA-CHAMPAIGN. view more 

CREDIT: UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS URBANA-CHAMPAIGN

Extreme heat waves in urban areas are much more likely than previously thought, according to a new modeling approach designed by researchers including University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE) assistant professor Lei Zhao and alumnus Zhonghua Zheng (MS 16, PhD 20). Their paper with co-author Keith W. Oleson of the National Center for Atmospheric Research, "Large model structural uncertainty in global projections of urban heat waves," is published in the journal Nature Communications.

Urban heat waves (UHWs) can be devastating; a 1995 heat wave in Chicago caused more than 1,000 deaths. Last year's heat wave on the west coast caused wildfires. Global warming is expected to increase the incidence and severity of UHWs, but if cities fully understand their risk, they can prepare better with forecasts and warnings, safety guidance and improving access to health facilities like cooling centers and hospitals. Longer-term strategies include adaptation practices, which help cities adapt to the warmer temperatures induced by climate change - such as highly reflective roofs and pavements and green infrastructure - and mitigation practices, which help reduce the carbon emission - like renewable energy.

In recent years, though, an increase in record-breaking UHWs has caused concerns that the computer models used to predict them are flawed, leading to a systematic underestimation of their frequency and severity. Without accurate models, cities may dramatically misjudge their risk and fail to prepare accordingly, putting their citizens at greater risk as the world heats up.

Zhao's team has developed a model that closes two major gaps in urban climate modeling. First, most traditional climate models effectively ignore cities entirely. Urban areas make up only 2-3 percent of the earth's land, so their effect on global models is negligible, but more than half of the world's population lives in urban areas, so their impact is significant. The team's new modeling approach addresses that by providing urban-specific climate signals.

Second, because of this lack of urban representation in state-of-the-art climate models, there were no global-scale, multi-model projections for urban climates. The multi-model projections are critical to characterize the robustness and uncertainty of the projections, which is very important for estimating the climate-driven risks, for example, the likelihood of climate extremes. The new model provides global multi-model projections of local urban climates.

The paper also highlights four high-stakes regions - the Great Lakes region, southern Europe, central India and north China - and finds that cities in those areas had dramatically lower probabilities of risk with a single-model approach than with the researchers' multi-model approach. For example, the researchers found that using only traditional models, the Great Lakes region was expected to experience an extreme heat event only once in 10,000 years; with the researchers' new modeling technique, such events could be expected once every four years.

"This work highlights the critical importance of having multi-model projections to accurately estimate the likelihood of extreme events that will occur in the future under climate change," Zhao said.

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Funding for this work was provided by a start-up grant from CEE at Illinois. High-performance computing support was provided by the National Center for Atmospheric Research, funded by the National Science Foundation.

 

Novel smart cement can be used to build more durable roads and cities

Incorporating nanomaterials into traditional cement improves water and fracture resistance

NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY

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IMAGE: PROFESSOR ANGE-THERESE AKONO HOLDS A SAMPLE OF HER SMART CEMENT. view more 

CREDIT: NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY

Forces of nature have been outsmarting the materials we use to build our infrastructure since we started producing them. Ice and snow turn major roads into rubble every year; foundations of houses crack and crumble, in spite of sturdy construction. In addition to the tons of waste produced by broken bits of concrete, each lane-mile of road costs the U.S. approximately $24,000 per year to keep it in good repair.

Engineers tackling this issue with smart materials typically enhance the function of materials by increasing the amount of carbon, but doing so makes materials lose some mechanical performance. By introducing nanoparticles into ordinary cement, Northwestern University researchers have formed a smarter, more durable and highly functional cement.

The research was published today (June 21) in the journal Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A.

With cement being the most widely consumed material globally and the cement industry accounting for 8% of human-caused greenhouse gas emissions, civil and environmental engineering professor Ange-Therese Akono turned to nanoreinforced cement to look for a solution. Akono, the lead author on the study and an assistant professor in the McCormick School of Engineering, said nanomaterials reduce the carbon footprint of cement composites, but until now, little was known about its impact on fracture behavior.

"The role of nanoparticles in this application has not been understood before now, so this is a major breakthrough," Akono said. "As a fracture mechanics expert by training, I wanted to understand how to change cement production to enhance the fracture response."

Traditional fracture testing, in which a series of light beams is cast onto a large block of material, involves lots of time and materials and seldom leads to the discovery of new materials.

By using an innovative method called scratch testing, Akono's lab efficiently formed predictions on the material's properties in a fraction of the time. The method tests fracture response by applying a conical probe with increasing vertical force against the surface of microscopic bits of cement. Akono, who developed the novel method during her Ph.D. work, said it requires less material and accelerates the discovery of new ones.

"I was able to look at many different materials at the same time," Akono said. "My method is applied directly at the micrometer and nanometer scales, which saves a considerable amount of time. And then based on this, we can understand how materials behave, how they crack and ultimately predict their resistance to fracture."

Predictions formed through scratch tests also allow engineers to make changes to materials that enhance their performance at the larger scale. In the paper, graphene nanoplatelets, a material rapidly gaining popularity in forming smart materials, were used to improve the resistance to fracture of ordinary cement. Incorporating a small amount of the nanomaterial also was shown to improve water transport properties including pore structure and water penetration resistance, with reported relative decreases of 76% and 78%, respectively.

Implications of the study span many fields, including building construction, road maintenance, sensor and generator optimization and structural health monitoring.

By 2050, the United Nations predicts two-thirds of the world population will be concentrated in cities. Given the trend toward urbanization, cement production is expected to skyrocket.

Introducing green concrete that employs lighter, higher-performing cement will reduce its overall carbon footprint by extending maintenance schedules and reducing waste.

Alternately, smart materials allow cities to meet the needs of growing populations in terms of connectivity, energy and multifunctionality. Carbon-based nanomaterials including graphene nanoplatelets are already being considered in the design of smart cement-based sensors for structural health monitoring.

Akono said she's excited for both follow-ups to the paper in her own lab and the ways her research will influence others. She's already working on proposals that look into using construction waste to form new concrete and is considering "taking the paper further" by increasing the fraction of nanomaterial that cement contains.

"I want to look at other properties like understanding the long-term performance," Akono said. "For instance, if you have a building made of carbon-based nanomaterials, how can you predict the resistance in 10, 20 even 40 years?"

The study, "Fracture toughness of one- and two-dimensional nanoreinforced cement via scratch testing," was supported by the National Science Foundation Division of Civil, Mechanical and Manufacturing Innovation (award number 18929101).

Akono will give a talk on the paper at The Royal Society's October meeting, "A Cracking Approach to Inventing Tough New Materials: Fracture Stranger Than Friction," which will highlight major advances in fracture mechanics from the past century.

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The Science of tsunamis

Mechanical engineer Alban Sauret and colleagues develop a model to better understand the forces that generate these devastating waves

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA - SANTA BARBARA

Research News

 

The word "tsunami" brings immediately to mind the havoc that can be wrought by these uniquely powerful waves. The tsunamis we hear about most often are caused by undersea earthquakes, and the waves they generate can travel at speeds of up to 250 miles per hour and reach tens of meters high when they make landfall and break. They can cause massive flooding and rapid widespread devastation in coastal areas, as happened in Southeast Asia in 2004 and in Japan in 2011.

But significant tsunamis can be caused by other events as well. The partial collapse of the volcano Anak Krakatau in Indonesia in 2018 caused a tsunami that killed more than 400 people. Large landslides, which send immense amounts of debris into the sea, also can cause tsunamis. Scientists naturally would like to know how and to what extent they might be able to predict the features of tsunamis under various circumstances.

Most models of tsunamis generated by landslides are based on the idea that the size and power of a tsunami is determined by the thickness, or depth, of the landslide and the speed of the "front" as it meets the water. In a paper titled "Nonlinear regimes of tsunami waves generated by a granular collapse," published online in the Journal of Fluid Mechanics, UC Santa Barbara mechanical engineer Alban Sauret and his colleagues, Wladimir Sarlin, Cyprien Morize and Philippe Gondret at the Fluids, Automation and Thermal Systems (FAST) Laboratory at the University of Paris-Saclay and the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), shed more light on the subject. (The article also will appear in the journal's July 25 print edition.)

This is the latest in a series of papers the team has published on environmental flows, and on tsunami waves generated by landslides in particular. Earlier this year, they showed that the velocity of a collapse -- i.e., the rate at which the landslide is traveling when it enters the water -- controls the amplitude, or vertical size, of the wave.

In their most recent experiments, the researchers carefully measured the volume of the granular material, which they then released, causing it to collapse as a cliff would, into a long, narrow channel filled with water. They found that while the density and diameter of the grains within a landslide had little effect on the amplitude of the wave, the total volume of the grains and the depth of the liquid played much more crucial roles.

"As the grains enter the water, they act as a piston, the horizontal force of which governs the formation of the wave, including its amplitude relative to the depth of the water," said Sauret. (A remaining challenge is to understand what governs the speed of the piston.) "The experiments also showed that if we know the geometry of the initial column [the material that flows into the water] before it collapses and the depth of the water where it lands, we can predict the amplitude of the wave."

The team can now add this element to the evolving model they have developed to couple the dynamics of the landslide and the generation of the tsunami. A particular challenge is to describe the transition from an initial dry landslide, when the particles are separated by air, to an underwater granular flow, when the water has an important impact on particle motion. As that occurs, the forces acting on the grains change drastically, affecting the velocity at which the front of grains that make up the landslide enters the water.

Currently, there is a large gap in the predictions of tsunamis based on simplified models that consider the field complexity (i.e., the geophysics) but do not capture the physics of the landslide as it enters the water. The researchers are now comparing the data from their model with data collected from real-life case studies to see if they correlate well and if any field elements might influence the results.

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12,000 scientific articles a year -- can they all be wrong?

The same chemical state of carbon gives rise to two peaks in X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy

LINKÖPING UNIVERSITY

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IMAGE: GRZEGORZ GRECZYNSKI, SENIOR LECTURER IN THE DEPARTMENT OF PHYSICS, CHEMISTRY AND BIOLOGY AT LINKÖPING UNIVERSITY. view more 

CREDIT: THOR BALKHED

X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) is often used to determine the chemical composition of materials. It was developed in the 1960s and is accepted as a standard method in materials science. Researchers at Linköping University, Sweden, however, have shown that the method is often used erroneously.

"It is, of course, an ideal in research that the methods used are critically examined, but it seems that a couple of generations of researchers have failed to take seriously early signals that the calibration method was deficient. This was the case also for a long time in our own research group. Now, however, we hope that XPS will be used with greater care", says Grzegorz Greczynski, senior lecturer in the Department of Physics, Chemistry and Biology at Linköping University.

Grzegorz Greczynski and his colleague in the department, Professor Lars Hultman, have shown that XPS can give misleading analysis results due to an erroneous assumption during calibration. The results have been published in Scientific Reports.

XPS is used to determine the chemical composition of materials. It is a standard method in materials science, and more than 12,000 scientific articles with results obtained by XPS are published each year. The technique was developed during the 1960s by Professor Kai Siegbahn at Uppsala University to become a useful and powerful method for chemical analysis, and the work led to him being awarded the Nobel Prize in physics in 1981.

"The pioneering work that led to the Nobel Prize is not in question here. When the technique was developed initially, the error was comparatively small, due to the low calibration precision of the spectrometers used at the time. However, as spectroscopy developed rapidly and spread to other scientific fields, the instruments have been improved to such a degree that the underlying error has grown into a significant obstacle to future development", says Lars Hultman.

What the researchers have discovered is that the original method is being used wrongly, through an erroneous assumption used in the calibration process. When calibrating the experiment, the signal from elemental carbon accumulating on the sample surface is often used.

It turns out that the carbon-based compounds that are formed naturally by condensation onto most samples give rise to signals that depend on the surroundings and the substrate onto which they are attached, in other words, the sample itself. This means that a unique signal is not produced, and large errors arise when a more or less arbitrary value is used as reference to calibrate the measuring instrument.

Criticism against the method was raised as early as the 1970s and a bit into the 1980s. After that, however, knowledge about the error fell into oblivion. Lars Hultman suggests that several factors have interacted to allow the error to pass unnoticed for nearly 40 years. He believes that the dramatic increase in the number of journals that digital publishing has made possible is one such factor, while deficient reviewing procedures are another.

"Not only has a rapidly growing number of scientists failed to be critical, it seems that there is a form of carelessness among editors and reviewers for the scientific journals. This has led to the publishing of interpretations of data that are clearly in conflict with basic physics. You could call it a perfect storm. It's likely that the same type of problem with deficient critical assessment of methods is present in several scientific disciplines, and in the long term this risks damaging research credibility", says Lars Hultman.

Grzegorz Greczynski hopes that their discovery can not only continue to improve the XPS technique, but also contribute to a more critical approach within the research community.

"Our experiments show that the most popular calibration method leads to nonsense results and the use of it should therefore be terminated. There exist alternatives that can give more reliable calibration, but these are more demanding of the user and some need refinement. However, it is just as important to encourage people to be critical of established methods in lab discussions, in the development department, and in seminars", Grzegorz Greczynski concludes.

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The research has been financed by the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation, the Swedish Research Council, the Swedish Energy Agency, Vinnova, the Carl Trygger Foundation, and the strategic research area Advanced Functional Materials at Linköping University.

The article: The same chemical state of carbon gives rise to two peaks in X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy Grzegorz Greczynski and Lars Hultman Scientific Reports 2021 10.1038/s41598-021-90780-9

Brief facts: XPS technique involves irradiating a material with X-rays and using the photoelectric effect. When the radiation interacts with the electrons in the material, the latter are excited and emitted from the sample as photoelectrons. Detecting the number of photoelectrons of a given energy that are recorded in the measuring instrument makes it possible to identify the elements present in the material. It also makes it possible to determine the chemical bonding between atoms, and their proportional abundances.

 

UBC Sauder study shows cigarette tax hikes can help boost bigger brands, hurt consumers

UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA

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For decades, governments and health authorities have tried to steer people away from "vice" products such as tobacco, soda and alcohol through counter-marketing measures -- things like tax increases, usage restrictions and ad campaigns.

But which ones are the most effective? And what do they mean for big brands such as Marlboro, Coca-Cola, McDonald's and Budweiser?

According to a new study from the UBC Sauder School of Business, they can all help people quit -- but how much they help, and who pays the price, varies significantly.

The researchers also found that tax hikes can disproportionately favour bigger brands, while tightened restrictions can hurt them.

For the study, titled Investigating the Effects of Excise Taxes, Public Usage Restrictions, and Antismoking Ads Across Cigarette Brands, researchers examined U.S. cigarette sales data from 2005 to 2010 and retail scanner data from 2006 to 2010. They also analyzed a comprehensive data set that comprised state-level cigarette taxes, state-level smoking restrictions and national anti-smoking advertising campaigns.

The team modeled each smoker's brand and purchase quantity, then looked at how the taxes, restrictions and ad campaigns influenced their decisions across different brands and price tiers.

What they found was that when taxes go up, big brands such as Marlboro may see an overall reduction in sales -- but they get a boost in market share over smaller players.

"Market leaders such as Marlboro were able to absorb more taxes and pass less cost down to their consumers," says UBC Sauder Assistant Professor Yanwen Wang (she, her, hers), who co-authored the study with Emory University Professor of Marketing Michael Lewis and New York University Professor of Marketing Vishal Singh. "So, when consumers look at the prices, it seems like Marlboro has raised prices less when compared to smaller brands."

Conversely, smoking restrictions seem to hit bigger brands harder -- likely because they take away smoking's brand-driven "cool" factor.

"Years ago, the Marlboro Man and Camel campaigns were really successful at creating that cool image -- so when you took a cigarette from the package, you created a social image," explains Professor Wang. "But if you're not allowed to smoke in public areas, it's taking away the channel for you to signal who you are through smoking -- and that reduces people's interest in smoking those higher equity brands."

The researchers also looked at the effect of anti-tobacco ads on large brands, but found their effect was neutral -- likely because most of the big campaigns and lawsuits happened years earlier, in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

The study also shows that while the taxes may help governments boost their bottom lines, ultimately smokers pay a heavier price. In fact, the researchers found that a 100 percent tax hike leads to a 30 percent increase in the rate of smokers quitting, but it puts the cost on consumers -- and only lifts overall tobacco tax revenue by roughly 28 percent because of declining sales.

"We don't speculate on whether it's right or not for consumers to bear the cost; that's a different debate," says Professor Wang. "But we want to highlight that tax increases bring disproportionate revenue to governments while putting an extra tax burden on smokers."

In contrast, strong smoking restrictions boost quit rates by nine percent and reduce tax revenues by six percent -- so while consumers may experience some inconvenience in terms of where they can smoke, they don't shoulder the economic costs.

Professor Wang says the findings could be helpful as governments and health authorities try to ween the public off other unhealthy products, including sugary sodas, fast food and alcohol. Earlier this year, B.C. announced a new tax that would affect vice products such as soft drinks and vape products; in May, Newfoundland and Labrador also announced tax hikes on sugary beverages and cigarettes.

The so-called sugar taxes will likely help curb consumption, says Professor Wang, but they will favour larger brands like Coca-Cola and Pepsi while hitting consumers in the pocketbook -- and governments may not get all the revenue they expect.

"Governments aren't going to get all of that extra money, and they need to understand it will impose a disproportionate economic burden on the consumers of soda drinks," says Professor Wang, who adds that because sugary drinks are so widely consumed, the taxes could disproportionately affect families, people with low incomes and people with disabilities.

"It's even harder to justify whether it's fair for everybody to bear the economic cost."

Worrying insights into the chemicals in plastics


ETH ZURICH

NEWS RELEASE 22-JUN-2021


Plastic is practical, cheap and incredibly popular. Every year, more than 350 million tonnes are produced worldwide. These plastics contain a huge variety of chemicals that may be released during their lifecycles - including substances that pose a significant risk to people and the environment. However, only a small proportion of the chemicals contained in plastic are publicly known or have been extensively studied.

A team of researchers led by Stefanie Hellweg, ETH Professor of Ecological Systems Design, has for a first time compiled a comprehensive database of plastic monomers, additives and processing aids for use in the production and processing of plastics on the world market, and systematically categorized them on the basis of usage patterns and hazard potential. The study, just published in the scientific journal Environmental Science & Technology, provides an enlightening but worrying insight into the world of chemicals that are intentionally added to plastics.

A high level of chemical diversity

The team identified around 10,500 chemicals in plastic. Many are used in packaging (2,489), textiles (2,429) and food-contact applications (2,109); some are for toys (522) and medical devices, including masks (247). Of the 10,500 substances identified, the researchers categorized 2,480 substances (24 percent) as substances of potential concern.

"This means that almost a quarter of all the chemicals used in plastic are either highly stable, accumulate in organisms or are toxic. These substances are often toxic to aquatic life, cause cancer or damage specific organs," explains Helene Wiesinger, doctoral student at the Chair of Ecological Systems Design and lead author of the study. About half are chemicals with high production volumes in the EU or the US.

"It is particularly striking that many of the questionable substances are barely regulated or are ambiguously described," continues Wiesinger.

In fact, 53 percent of all the substances of potential concern are not regulated in the US, the EU or Japan. More surprisingly, 901 hazardous substances are approved for use in food contact plastics in these regions. Finally, scientific studies are lacking for about 10 percent of the identified substances of potential concern.

Plastic monomers, additives and processing aids

Plastics are made of organic polymers built up from repeating monomer units. A wide variety of additives, such as antioxidants, plasticisers and flame retardants, give the polymer matrix the desired properties. Catalysts, solvents and other chemicals are also used as processing aids in production.

"Until now, research, industry and regulators have mainly concentrated on a limited number of dangerous chemicals known to be present in plastics," says Wiesinger. Today, plastic packaging is seen as a main source of organic contamination in food, while phthalate plasticisers and brominated flame retardants are detectable in house dust and indoor air. Earlier studies have already indicated that significantly more plastic chemicals used worldwide are potentially hazardous.

Nevertheless, the results of the inventory came as an unpleasant surprise to the researchers. "The unexpectedly high number of substances of potential concern is worrying," says Zhanyun Wang, senior scientist in Hellweg's group. Exposure to such substances can have a negative impact on the health of consumers and workers and on polluted ecosystems. Problematic chemicals can also affect recycling processes and the safety and quality of recycled plastics.

Wang stresses that even more chemicals in plastics could be problematic. "Recorded hazard data are often limited and scattered. For 4,100 or 39 percent of all the substances we identified, we were not able to categorize them due to a lack of hazard classifications" he says.

A lack of data and transparency

The two researchers identified the lack of transparency in chemicals in plastics and dispersed data silos as a main problem. In over two and a half years of detective work, they combed through more than 190 publicly accessible data sources from research, industry and authorities and identified 60 sources with sufficient information about intentionally added substances in plastics. "We found multiple critical knowledge and data gaps, in particular for the substances and their actual uses. This ultimately hinders consumers' choice of safe plastic products", they say.

Wiesinger and Wang are pursuing the goal of a sustainable circular plastic economy. They see an acute need for effective global chemicals management; such a system would have to be transparent and independent, and oversee all hazardous substances in full. The two researchers say that open and easy access to reliable information is crucial.

 

Butterflies cross the Sahara in longest-known insect migration

Weather conditions shown to have big influence on migration numbers

UNIVERSITY OF READING

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IMAGE: A PAINTED LADY BUTTERFLY IN MOROCCO view more 

CREDIT: ORIO MASSANA

A species of butterfly found in Sub-Saharan Africa is able to migrate thousands of miles to Europe, crossing the Saharan Desert, in years when weather conditions are favourable, scientists have found.

The striking Painted Lady (Vanessa cardui) butterfly has been shown for the first time to be capable of making the 12,000-14,000km round trip - the longest insect migration known so far - in greater numbers, when wetter conditions in the desert help the plants on which it lays eggs.

The international research team's findings increase understanding of how insects, including pollinators, pests and the diseases they carry could spread between continents in future as climate change alters seasonal conditions.

Professor Tom Oliver, an ecologist at the University of Reading and co-author of the study, said: "We know that the number of Painted Lady butterflies in Europe varies wildly, sometimes with 100 times more from one year to the next. However, the conditions that caused this were unknown, and the suggestion the butterflies could cross the Sahara desert and oceans to reach Europe was not proven.

"This research shows this unlikely journey is possible, and that certain climate conditions leading up to migration season have a big influence on the numbers that make it. It demonstrates how the wildlife we see in the UK can transcend national boundaries, and protecting such species requires strong international cooperation".

As well as answering long-asked questions about butterfly migrations, the findings could help predictions of the movements of other insects that affect people, such as the locusts currently plaguing East Africa, or by malaria-carrying mosquitoes.

Professor Oliver said: "We enjoy seeing the beautiful Painted Lady butterflies in our gardens in Europe, but climate change will also lead to shifts in invasive species that are crop pests or those that spread diseases. Food shortages in East Africa are a reminder that the impacts of climate change can be much more dramatic than a few degrees of warming might first seem."

The Painted Lady migrates during the spring, following a winter breeding season. Researchers used long-term monitoring data from thousands of trained volunteer recorders, along with climate and atmospheric data in regions of Sub-Saharan Africa and Europe to learn about their movement.

The study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences journal, found that increased vegetation in the African Savanna during the winter and in North Africa in the spring, combined with favourable tail winds, are the three most important factors in the number that migrate to Europe.

Painted Lady caterpillars feed on the leaves of plants that thrive in wetter winter conditions in the Savannah and Sahel regions of sub-Saharan Africa, causing population numbers to explode. They migrate across the Sahara, and when there are also wet and green spring conditions in North Africa these allow further breeding and swell the numbers that cross the Mediterranean Sea to reach Europe.

Simulations by the scientists also showed that there are regularly favourable tailwinds between Africa and Western Europe, offering insects opportunities for transcontinental travel.

The team calculated that the butterflies must fly non-stop during the day and rest during night to cross the Sahara, making stops to feed on nectar. This is similar to the pattern in which night-flying songbirds migrate.

They concluded the butterflies must fly up to 1-3km above sea level to take advantage of favourable tailwinds, as their maximum self-powered flying speed of around 6 metres per second would make a Sahara crossing extremely difficult.

The researchers used observations of similar butterfly species to calculate that Painted Ladies have enough body fat after metamorphosis to sustain 40 hours of non-stop flying, and keep this topped up by feeding on nectar whenever possible in order to cross the Sahara.

The findings may help improve predictions of which insect species might be found in different regions in future due to climate change, and the numbers they could arrive in.

CAPTION

Map showing the vast area Painted Lady butterflies were found to travel during their annual spring migration

CREDIT

Gao Hu et al

Modeling a circular economy for electronic waste

Pitt engineers propose solutions for e-waste recycling fraud

UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH

Research News

 

Think about how many different pieces of technology the average household has purchased in the last decade. Phones, TVs, computers, tablets, and game consoles don't last forever, and repairing them is difficult and often as expensive as simply buying a replacement.

Electronics are integral to modern society, but electronic waste (e-waste) presents a complex and growing challenge in the path toward a circular economy--a more sustainable economic system that focuses on recycling materials and minimizing waste. Adding to the global waste challenge is the prevalence of dishonest recycling practices by companies who claim to be recycling electronics but actually dispose of them by other means, such as in landfills or shipping the waste to other countries.

New research from the Hypothetical Materials Lab at the University of Pittsburgh Swanson School of Engineering develops a framework to understand the choices a recycler has to make and the role that digital fraud prevention could have in preventing dishonest recycling practices.

"Electronics have huge environmental impacts across their life cycle, from mining rare raw materials to the energy-intensive manufacturing, all the way to the complicated e-waste stream," said Christopher Wilmer, the William Kepler Whiteford Faculty Fellow and associate professor of chemical and petroleum engineering, who leads the Hypothetical Materials Lab. "A circular economy model is well-suited to mitigating each of these impacts, but less than 40 percent of e-waste is currently estimated to be reused or recycled. If our technology is going to be sustainable, it's important that we understand the barriers to e-waste recycling."

Some U.S. firms that have touted safe, ethical and green recycling practices never actually recycle much of what they receive; instead, their e-waste was illegally stockpiled, abandoned or exported. Between 2014 and 2016, the Basel Action Network used GPS trackers in electronics delivered to U.S. recyclers, showing that 30 percent of the products ended up overseas.

The researchers developed a model framework that analyzes dishonest end-of-life electronics management and what leads recyclers to pursue fraudulent activities. They find that the primary way to ensure an e-waste recycler will engage in honest practices with minimum supervision is to make it the more profitable option, either by decreasing the costs of recycling or increasing the penalties for fraudulent practices.

"The main barrier to honest recycling is its cost," said lead author Daniel Salmon, a graduate student in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. "One of our main findings is that if we find a way to make it more profitable for companies to recycle, we will have less dishonest recycling. Targeted subsidies, higher penalties for fraud and manufacturers ensuring their electronics are more easily recyclable are all things that could potentially solve this problem."

The researchers also suggest the use of the blockchain as neutral, third-party supervision to avoid fraudulent recycling practices.

"Our model mentions the influence of monitoring and supervision, but self-reporting by companies enables dishonesty. On the other hand, something like the blockchain does not," said Wilmer, who founded Ledger, the first peer-reviewed scholarly journal dedicated to blockchain and cryptocurrency. "Relying on an immutable record may be one solution to prevent fraud and align behaviors across recyclers toward a circular economy."

The work is part of a larger NSF-funded convergence research project on the circular economy, which is led by Melissa Bilec, deputy director of the Mascaro Center, associate professor of civil and environmental engineering, and Roberta A. Luxbacher Faculty Fellow at Pitt.

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The paper, "A Framework for Modeling Fraud in E-Waste Management," (DOI: 10.1016/j.resconrec.2021.105613) was published in Resources, Conservation and Recycling and coauthored by Daniel Salmon and Christopher E. Wilmer at Pitt, and Callie W. Babbitt and Gregory A. Babbitt at Rochester Institute of Technology.

NOT JUST CHINA

Risk of forced labour in clothing industry rises due to pandemic and industry response

UNIVERSITY OF SHEFFIELD

Research News

 

• First and only report to interview large sample of workers in garment supply chain (1200 workers across 302 factories and four countries) found an increase in risk of forced labour during pandemic
• This risk has been exacerbated by the response of retail companies, and there is little evidence most have acted in line with their social responsibilities to support their supply chain workers, despite many accessing pandemic recovery funds
• A new comprehensive system was used during the study to look for the indicators that someone is vulnerable to forced labour
• The recovery from the pandemic should include support for supply chain workers to mitigate the deterioration of their living and working conditions

Deteriorating living and working conditions for workers in garment supply chains during the Covid-19 pandemic have increased the risk of forced labour, according to a new report from the University of Sheffield.

'The Unequal Impacts of Covid-19 on Global Garment Supply Chains' has found that workers in Ethiopia, Honduras, India, and Myanmar who produce many of the clothes we buy from our favourite brands in the UK and Europe were severely affected by the pandemic.

Both those that were fortunate enough to remain employed, and those that lost their jobs during the past year and found new work, reported a sharp decline in their earnings and working conditions; and both groups experienced being at increased risk of forced labour during this time.

The study is the largest to directly involve the voices of those employed to make the clothes we buy in the UK during the pandemic alongside interviews with retailers and analysis of company documentation. Previous ones have focused solely on the impact for the multinational corporations (MNCs) which own major fashion brands and retailers. It uses a comprehensive new system to look for the indicators that someone is vulnerable to forced labour.

Professor Genevieve LeBaron, from the Department of Politics and International Relations at the University of Sheffield, said: "There is no commonly held definition of what constitutes forced labour, and unlike the public perceptions of modern slavery, people may not be held against their will or trafficked unknowingly into their situation.

"They may end up in a job that they are unable to leave due to a number of reasons; false promises and deception to keep a person working in increasing worsening conditions, threat of penalties against the worker or their family if they left, or sometimes bonding a person into debt to the manufacturer through poor pay, leaving them struggling to cover their basic needs for housing and food."

The study found that both groups of workers experienced indicators of forced labour, with the situation clearly deteriorating during the pandemic. It highlighted that many companies fell far short of their commitments to good practice; including sourcing sustainable goods from manufacturers with fair working conditions, pay and no use of exploitation.

The commercial actions of companies during the pandemic has brought to light how many business models within the garment industry are fundamentally at odds with these commitments, and that current government regulation does not go far enough to protect the workers.

Although the study found there were examples of some companies acting in ways that honoured their social commitments, this was mainly from companies that had direct ownership of factories, or long-standing partnerships with manufacturers that were crucial to protect. In these cases, workers were more likely to retain a job through the pandemic.

Professor LeBaron said: "It appears many companies in the garment industry accessed emergency funding during the pandemic, but also provided little to no evidence that they honoured the social responsibilities most brands we recognise have to the workers in their supply chains at the same time.

"At the beginning of the pandemic, millions of pounds worth of cancelled orders forced many manufacturers in places like Ethiopia to lay off staff, who then became vulnerable to exploitation during the desperate search to find a new job.

Those lucky enough to retain their job reported experiencing worsening working conditions and pay, exacerbating the already troubling inequalities between the countries who benefit from their labour and the workers themselves."

Already some manufacturers are pursuing legal action against companies which cancelled orders worth millions of pounds during the pandemic, and there is increasing discussion about whether the conduct of clothing brands during the pandemic was legal.

The report calls for governments to increase the governance of supply chains and for retailers to address the damage done during the pandemic.

Professor LeBaron added: "Our report shows that retail companies tried to offset the potential damage of the pandemic by shifting losses onto their suppliers and workers who would least afford it. Most of these companies have very deep pockets and need to act immediately to address the social challenges their pandemic responses have created.

"Banning the sale of below-cost price and forced labour made goods, ensuring companies relieve the supply chain pressures that cause suppliers to use unfair labour practices, and requiring brands to report on public bail out funds received and how these have been used, would be a good start to force retailers to be more transparent about how they work; helping tackle the increasing inequality experienced by supply chain workers that satisfy our demand for high-end, and fast fashions and helping consumers make more sustainable and ethical choices when shopping."

Jakub Sobik, Communications Director at the Modern Slavery and Human Rights Policy and Evidence Centre (the Modern Slavery PEC), which funded the research under its call on the impact of Covid-19 on modern slavery across the world, said:

"This report highlights the unequal impact of Covid-19 across complex business supply chains and the need to do more to protect workers producing garments sold across the world from exploitation.

"Businesses should consider how their actions can rectify the situation and develop different responses for the future, while working with governments to ensure a level playing field for all businesses, incentivising those which apply good practice already."

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On 30 June 2021, a virtual roundtable event will be held to discuss the findings in 'The Pandemic's Unequal Impacts on Global Garment Supply Chains' you can sign up and join the team here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-pandemics-unequal-impacts-on-global-garment-supply-chains-tickets-158701637871

Media contact: Rebecca Ferguson, Media Relations Officer, 0114 222 3670, r.l.ferguson@sheffield.ac.uk

Notes to editors

'The Pandemic's Unequal Impacts on Global Garment Supply Chains' is a collaboration between the University of Sheffield, The Modern Slavery and Human Rights Policy and Evidence Centre, Worker Rights Consortium and UBC's Global Reporting Center.

To see an embargoed copy of the report before publication, please contact the Media Relations Officer.

Headline statistics from the report:

Of the 1019 respondents within our survey who are currently still working:

• 35 per cent reported verbal abuse
• 34 per cent reported threats and/or intimidation
• 22 reported unfair wage deductions or withholdings
• 19 reported access to things such as water and the toilet as being restricted
• 39 per cent reported being forced to work in an environment with a lack of PPE and Covid-19 precautions such as social distancing

Of those that had their contracts terminated during the pandemic:

• Nearly 80 per cent did not receive their part or all of their severance
• Over a third found themselves having to accept new work for lower pay, less job security and more danger
• 68 per cent of the workers had no contract with their new job

The University of Sheffield

With almost 29,000 of the brightest students from over 140 countries, learning alongside over 1,200 of the best academics from across the globe, the University of Sheffield is one of the world's leading universities.

A member of the UK's prestigious Russell Group of leading research-led institutions, Sheffield offers world-class teaching and research excellence across a wide range of disciplines.

Unified by the power of discovery and understanding, staff and students at the university are committed to finding new ways to transform the world we live in.

Sheffield is the only university to feature in The Sunday Times 100 Best Not-For-Profit Organisations to Work For 2018 and for the last eight years has been ranked in the top five UK universities for Student Satisfaction by Times Higher Education.

Sheffield has six Nobel Prize winners among former staff and students and its alumni go on to hold positions of great responsibility and influence all over the world, making significant contributions in their chosen fields.

Global research partners and clients include Boeing, Rolls-Royce, Unilever, AstraZeneca, GlaxoSmithKline, Siemens and Airbus, as well as many UK and overseas government agencies and charitable foundations.

The Modern Slavery and Human Rights Policy and Evidence Centre

The Modern Slavery and Human Rights Policy and Evidence Centre (Modern Slavery PEC) was created by the investment of public funding to enhance understanding of modern slavery and transform the effectiveness of law and policies designed to prevent it. With high-quality research it commissions at its heart, the Centre brings together academics, policymakers, businesses, civil society, survivors and the public on a scale not seen before in the UK to collaborate on solving this global challenge.

The Centre is a consortium of six academic organisations led by the Bingham Centre for the Rule of Law and is funded by the Art and Humanities Research Council on behalf of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI). Read more about the Modern Slavery PEC at http://www.modernslaverypec.org.

WRC

Worker Rights Consortium (WRC) is an independent labour rights monitoring organisation based in Washington DC. The WRC conducts worker-centred investigations to assess labour conditions in apparel and textile factories around the globe.

http://www.workersrights.org