Tuesday, June 07, 2022

Citizen power mobilized to fight against mosquito borne diseases

Citizen scientists use phone apps to work in collaboration with researchers to collect huge amounts of data on disease carrying mosquitoes as part of a WHO-supported series on vector-borne diseases

Peer-Reviewed Publication

GIGASCIENCE

The yellow fever mosquito Aedes aegypti — IMAGE: YELLOW FEVER MOSQUITO HAVING A BLOOD-MEAL. view more
CREDIT: AUTHOR: JAMES GATHANY SOURCE CDC - PHIL

The latest from Mosquito Alert, a citizen science system for investigating and managing disease-carrying mosquitoes, has collected and released 13,700 new database records on the presence, location, and spread of these mosquitos. These data, hosted in the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), are part of an ongoing world-wide collaboration between citizen volunteers, who use a specifically designed app to photograph mosquitos and report bites and locations of potential breeding sites, and entomological experts, who validate the findings to determine if the collected information provides evidence of the presence of any of the mosquito species of top concern. This study is part of a WHO-sponsored series on vector borne human diseases, which collects and presents biodiversity data for a range of different disease vectors and promotes data sharing to increase the speed at which researchers can assess and address human health threats. In this particular study, an entire community of citizen scientists have been actively engaged in furthering the acquisition of information in a cost-effective, as well as publicly educational, manner. In addition to providing a large, widespread, valuable resource for studying and containing infectious diseases, this work serves as an excellent model for bringing together the mobilizing power of citizens and scientists to address important health issues. This study has been published in the open-access, open-data journal GigaByte.

Vector-borne diseases account for more than 17% of all human infectious diseases, with mosquito-borne diseases causing the greatest health burden on society based on case numbers, deaths, and resultant disabilities. While there has been significant progress in the fight against malaria, this progress is currently slowing. Whereas, progress on combating other mosquito-driven diseases, such as dengue, chikungunya, yellow fever, and Zika, are expanding, due to the increasing number of cases and fatalities for these diseases. To best combat these health risks, researchers must fill the large gaps in knowledge related to the presence, spread, and activity of mosquitos that spread these diseases, Data mobilization campaigns serve as one of the best means to improve geographical data coverage. Harnessing the collective power of citizen scientists across the globe has served the scientific community well with regard to being able to collect massive amounts of information across the globe, especially in the areas of biology, conservation, and ecology. It is currently a major weapon in the fight against mosquito-borne diseases.

The work presented in the article was carried out by Mosquito Alert, which provided the first detection of the Asian bush mosquito Aedes japonicus in Spain in 2018. This finding was a striking observation as it was an isolated population of mosquitos that were located 1,300 km from its previously nearest known location in Europe. Since this species was not expected to appear in this region, it had not been targeted by any local surveillance program. This served as clear indication of the danger of monitoring specific species in areas that were primarily in and close to regions they were known to exist. However, budget and manpower limitations, make it nearly impossible to collect data across expansive ranges. Mosquito Alert, by harnessing a largely free resource of manpower, were able to extend their work to identify and track other invasive mosquitoes across a much larger geographical range. They armed a cadre of citizen scientists with a phone app aimed at collecting usable types of data and developing a harmonized methodology for collecting and validating these data by experts. The information collected in the apps are updated on a daily basis, and thus, provide near real-time information on the status of deadly disease-carrying mosquitos.

This form of combined data collection strategies provides an incredible addition to governmental vector screening programs, which require huge resources to fill all geographical corners of their countries. Since citizens with mobile devices are everywhere, the potential to use this approach as an early warning system of invasive species of all types can move from city-scale to continental scale, and, with continued growth, global scale.

Of this huge potential, first author Dr Živko Južnič-Zonta says: “Because of its daily update, this dataset could help to optimize vector control, as citizen scientists provide information about nuisance and presence of mosquitoes at almost real time.”

The availability of such a large public collection of validated mosquito images not only allows researchers themselves to work directly with these data, this enormous dataset can also be used to train machine-learning models for vector detection and classification, further increasing the power of these data to serve as part of an arsenal to improve global human health.

The value of such data collected by an army of citizen scientists in concert with experts also shows the need for developing a new publication credit system to evaluate contributions from multiple and diverse collaborators, which, for this study, included university researchers, entomologists, and other non-academics such as independent researchers and citizen scientists. For this article, the authors carefully considered and designed such a credit system. As research that makes use of citizens as a major, and free, component of research programs continues to grow, the credit system used in this article sets forth a process to allow such large consortium to provide clear credit to the entire cadre of individuals involved in any study, which is long past due.

This work is part of a series of articles that assess the range and diversity of a wide variety of vector-borne diseases. GigaScience Press has partnered with GBIF, which has been supported by TDR, the Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases, hosted at the World Health Organization. Through this, GBIF are releasing the first 11 Data Release papers on vectors of human disease in a thematic series in the journal GigaByte. To better incentivize the sharing of these extremely important datasets, the article processing charges to authors have been waived for these easy-to-write descriptions that are associated with public domain datasets in the GBIF database to assist with the global call for novel data. This effort has led to the release of newly digitized location data for over 600,000 vector specimens observed across the Americas and Europe.

GigaByte’s novel, end-to-end XML publishing platform, means publication can be done in a quicker and more interactive manner than traditional scientific publications. Papers in this biodiversity series include interactive maps, embedded protocols, and multilingual options for several of these articles, allowing Portuguese and Spanish speakers to better comprehend the implications of important work relating to the public health of their communities.

JOURNAL

Gigabyte

DOI

10.46471/gigabyte.54

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Observational study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE TITLE

Mosqu

Tired mosquitoes would rather catch up on sleep than bite you

By understanding the mosquitoes’ circadian rhythms, researchers hope to find better ways to prevent infection.

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF CINCINNATI

Turns out you’re not the only one who needs a good night's rest to function well the next day.

Researchers with the University of Cincinnati found that mosquitoes whose slumber is disrupted are more interested in catching up on their sleep than looking for food the next day. The research demonstrates how vital this biological function is even among insects.

“It was a bit surprising. Sleep deprived or not, a blood meal should appeal to them,” UC doctoral student and study lead author Oluwaseun Ajayi said.

The study was published online on May 3 and in print on June 1 in the Journal of Experimental Biology.

The phenomenon of catching up on missed sleep, called sleep rebound, has been observed in other animals such as honeybees, fruit flies and people.

Biologists in UC’s College of Arts and Sciences and Virginia Tech’s Department of Biochemistry spent more than a year developing protocols to study mosquito sleep. While observations can affect the outcome of virtually any experiment — a phenomenon called the observer effect — UC biologist Joshua Benoit said this was especially true when studying mosquito sleep.

Mosquitoes are able to sense people through their body heat, odors, movement, vibrations and the carbon dioxide they exhale from their lungs and emit from their skin.

“It’s really hard to quantify sleep in mosquitoes when, as soon as you walk in the room, you’re considered their Thanksgiving dinner,” Benoit said.

So researchers set up the experiment in a quiet part of Crosley Tower on UC’s Uptown campus, where the mosquitoes were separated from passersby by multiple rooms within rooms. Researchers set up cameras and infrared sensors that could record when the mosquitoes were moving without disturbing them.

Mosquitoes in the lab sleep a lot — between 16 and 19 hours a day depending on the species and the stimulation around them.

Recognizing a sleeping mosquito takes some skill. When they’re not looking for food, mosquitoes perch for long periods of time to conserve energy. But researchers discovered a subtle telltale sign the mosquitoes were asleep.

“When mosquitoes enter a sleep-like state, their hind legs droop and their body comes closer to the surface,” Ajayi said.

Virginia Tech researcher and study co-author Clément Vinauger used video observations to document this behavior in several mosquito species.

The experiment examined three species of mosquitoes, each responsible for transmitting disease to people: Aedes aegypti, a “day biter,” Culex pipiens, which seeks a meal at dusk; and Anopheles stephensi, which is most active at night.

Researchers studied the mosquitoes’ sleep and feeding behavior for about a week after they were acclimatized to their new experimental habitat. In a second experiment, researchers subjected them to sleep deprivation during their normal bedtime by vibrating their enclosures at regular intervals during the day or night.

While more than 75% of mosquitoes that were not subjected to sleep deprivation sought a blood meal, less than one-quarter of them had any interest in food after a sleepless night. This represented a 54% decrease in the propensity to feed among sleep-deprived mosquitoes.

“What’s surprising to me is that as much as mosquitoes need blood to produce eggs, they will give it up to recover the sleep they lost,” Benoit said. “They might not be aroused as much because of the need to catch up on sleep.”

The overtired mosquitoes also were less likely to land on a host in both laboratory and field settings, suggesting that the same behaviors would occur in natural settings like your back yard.

Lucas Gleitz participated in the research project as a UC undergraduate biology student. After graduation this year, he plans to attend medical school.

The study’s findings were relatable given the sleepless nights most college students endure.

“As a college student, we joke that we eat sleep for dinner,” Gleitz said.

Sleep is tied to immune and restorative functions such as tissue repair and protein synthesis, Gleitz said. Research has also demonstrated how important sleep is to memory and brain function.

“We learned that sleep is a very crucial aspect of living organisms. Those internal clocks keep running, even for mosquitoes,” he said.

Mosquitoes cause more human suffering than any other animal, according to the World Health Organization. Malaria alone kills more than 400,000 people annually. And mosquitoes carry pathogens for other deadly diseases such as dengue and yellow fever.

By understanding the mosquitoes’ circadian rhythms, researchers hope to find better ways to prevent infection.

“It’s important to understand their sleep dynamics — when they feed and when they sleep,” Benoit said.

JOURNAL

Journal of Experimental Biology

DOI

10.1242/jeb.244032

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Experimental study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Animals

ARTICLE TITLE

Behavioral and postural analyses establish sleep-like states for mosquitoes that can impact host landing and blood feedingito alert: leveraging citizen science to create a GBIF mosquito occurrence dataset

Survey finds most men think they’re naturally healthier than others, a third don’t think they need annual health screenings

Doctors stress the importance of preventive care to keep minor issues from becoming life-threatening

Reports and Proceedings

ORLANDO HEALTH

News package — VIDEO: A NEW NATIONAL SURVEY BY ORLANDO HEALTH FINDS A THIRD OF MEN DON’T THINK THEY NEED ANNUAL HEALTH SCREENINGS. DOCTORS STRESS THAT IN ORDER TO TAKE CARE OF THOSE YOU CARE ABOUT, YOU MUST FIRST TAKE CARE OF YOURSELF, AND THAT INCLUDES AN ANNUAL CHECKUP WITH YOUR PRIMARY CARE PHYSICIAN. view more
CREDIT: ORLANDO HEALTH

Orlando, Fla — We all know we should eat well and exercise to stay healthy, but a new national survey conducted online by The Harris Poll on behalf of Orlando Health finds an alarming number of men might be skipping a simple yet critical step in a healthy lifestyle: an annual checkup with their doctor. The survey found a third of men (33%) don’t think they need annual health screenings and almost two-thirds (65%) believe they are naturally healthier than others in general.

“It is statistically impossible for the majority of men to be healthier than the majority of men,” said Thomas Kelley, MD, family medicine specialist at Orlando Health Physician Associates. “Even if you think you’re healthy and you’re not experiencing any symptoms, there can be developing issues that often go unnoticed and can also be life-threatening if left unchecked. Some of those include rising blood pressure that can be a ticking time bomb for a heart attack or stroke, as well as colon cancer, which is one of the most deadly yet preventable cancers that exist.”

As a primary care physician, Dr. Kelley has heard every excuse for men skipping their appointments, but he says the underlying reason for avoiding the doctor’s office is often fear.

“If you're a man and you haven't been to the doctor in a while, you don't really know what to expect.” Kelley said. “One of the big things that makes it less scary is having that great relationship with a primary care physician, and most men find the process to be easier than they thought. It takes about half an hour and by the end of the appointment you have the big picture about where you stand, what you’re at risk for and what you need to do for your health in the future.”

While that first appointment back can be nerve-racking, Kelley says building trust with your doctor can help make conversations more comfortable and is what keeps many patients coming back year after year.

But before doctors can build that relationship, they need to get patients in the door. The survey found that 38% of men often get medical advice from social media, which can be extremely problematic if they are not referencing reputable medical sources. Nearly two in five men (38%) also admit that they tend to focus on their pet’s health more than their own, something that is not surprising to Dr. Kelley.

“Men tend to put their health last after their family, and apparently even after their dog or their cat,” Kelley said. “But in order to take care of others in your life, you first have to take care of yourself, and that includes making that yearly appointment with your primary care doctor.”

It’s a message that Dexter Grant, 34, finally heard loud and clear after 15 years without a check-up with his doctor.

“I went all of my adult life up to this point without a check-up, something I certainly do not recommend to anyone,” Grant said. “In your 30s you start to worry that every ache and pain could be the thing that takes you out, but you can’t just avoid the issue out of fear of what your doctor is going to tell you.”

CAPTION

Dexter Grant finally made an appointment with his primary care doctor after 15 years without a checkup. Like many men, he assumed he was healthy. In fact, a new national survey finds two-thirds of men believe they are naturally healthier than others.

CREDIT

Orlando Health

With a clean bill of health, Grant is relieved to know that he is as healthy as he feels. He worked with his doctor on clear action steps for the future, which will always include an annual wellness exam.

“Just having the peace of mind that there aren’t any lingering issues that can cause serious problems in the next year makes me a lot more confident that I’m on the right path,” Grant said. “The process was surprisingly easy, and after a quick exam and some routine blood work, my first thought was that I should have done this a long time ago.”

It’s never too late to get caught up on routine appointments and screenings, but Kelley says the sooner you can take control of your health, the better. Combining annual exams with things like exercising regularly, keeping your diet in check, drinking plenty of water and finding ways to reduce stress can make a big difference in your overall health.

“It’s much easier to go to the doctor once a year for a wellness checkup and make certain that you’re not developing diabetes, high blood pressure or a heart problem, than to find yourself in an intensive care unit needing heart bypass surgery because you didn't look into those things,” Kelley said.

CAPTION

As a primary care physician, Thomas Kelley, MD, has heard a lot of excuses about why men skip their checkups. A new national survey by Orlando Health finds a third of men don’t think they need annual screenings, but Kelley says they are critical to identifying developing health issues.

CREDIT

Orlando Health

Survey Method:

This survey was conducted online within the United States by The Harris Poll on behalf of Orlando Health from May 9 - 11, 2022 among 893 U.S. adult men ages 18 and older. The sampling precision of Harris online polls is measured by using a Bayesian credible interval. For this study, the sample data is accurate to within + 2.8 percentage points using a 95% confidence level. For complete survey methodology, including weighting variables and subgroup sample sizes, please contact ben@mediasourcetv.com

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Survey

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

Eating problems are common among older home care clients

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF EASTERN FINLAND

Eating problems are common among older home care clients, a new study from the University of Eastern Finland shows. Nearly 30% of the 250 older care clients studied reported poor appetite, 20% had problems with chewing, 14% had problems with swallowing, and nearly 20% reported eating problems related to teeth or dentures.

The study constitutes part of the Nutrition, Oral Health and Medication (NutOrMed) study at the University of Eastern Finland, and the findings were reported in Clinical and Experimental Dental Research.

The study sample included 250 home care clients aged 75 and older, living in the eastern part of Finland. The participants were interviewed in their home by their own home care nurse as well as by a clinical nutritionist, a pharmacist, and a dental hygienist. The study examined the prevalence and determinants of eating problems when screened by a clinical nutritionist and a dental hygienist.

Eating problems are associated with decreased food intake and poorer nutritional status

Eating problems were divided into loss of appetite, problems with chewing, problems with swallowing, and oral health-related eating problems. The researchers found that all reported eating problems were associated with the participants’ poorer nutritional status and decreased food intake during the past 3 months.

They also found that participants who estimated their oral health to be poor were more likely to report problems with chewing and swallowing. Edentulousness, on the other hand, increased the likelihood of problems with chewing and oral health problems. A high number of drugs in regular use was associated with loss of appetite and oral health-related eating problems. Edentulous participants and those who had toothache or problems with dentures were more likely to report eating problems when interviewed by a dental hygienist. The feeling of dry mouth increased the likelihood of eating problems.

“It is important for older people to maintain good oral health because it affects eating,” says Dentist Annina Salmi, the first author of the article.

“In this study, loss of appetite was the most common finding, suggesting that eating problems are multifaceted. Another thing we observed was that clients talk about their eating-related problems differently with different health care professionals, which is why eating problems should be screened continuously and in different ways, in interprofessional collaboration.”

JOURNAL

Clinical and Experimental Dental Research

DOI

10.1002/cre2.585

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Survey

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

Eating problems among old home care clients

New study shows fewer suicide attempts in women using hormonal contraceptives

Findings go against previous fears about attempted suicide and contraception

Reports and Proceedings

EUROPEAN PSYCHIATRIC ASSOCIATION

Hormonal contraceptives, such as the birth control pill, are amongst the most widely used pharmaceutical products. Recent studies had suggested that hormonal contraceptives were associated with a higher risk of attempted suicides, prompting concerns about safety. Now a new in-depth study shows that rates of attempted suicides in women using hormonal contraception are actually lower than in women who do not use hormonal contraception.

Presenting the research at the European Congress of Psychiatry, Lead Researcher, Dr Elena Toffol (University of Helsinki) said:

“We set out to verify previous data, so this is not what we expected, and it’s good news for contraceptive users”.

She continued:

“Women, especially younger women, have higher rates of depression and attempted suicide than men of similar ages. Many women using hormonal contraceptives, especially contraceptive pills, report mood changes as a side effect. Initial reports from 2018 and 2020 had indicated that use of hormonal contraceptives was associated with a higher number / risk of suicides and suicide attempts. We set out to confirm this data”.

The researchers, from the University of Helsinki, used several Finnish national databases to compare attempted suicide rates of hormonal contraceptives users and non-users using data from the 2017-2019 period. They took results from 587,823 women, which represents around 50% of the total number of women in the 15-49 age group in Finland. Half of these women had used hormonal contraceptives, including pills, implants, patches, and rings.

The research team found that attempted suicide rates between hormonal contraceptive users and non-users were similarly high in women between 15-19 (in general, suicide rates are higher in younger women and decrease with age), but suicide rates dropped in older age groups, with a greater drop in hormonal contraceptive users relative to non-users in the 20-24 and 25-29 age groups. In total the researchers saw 474* cases of attempted suicide in women who didn’t use hormonal contraceptives, with only 344 attempts in women who used hormonal contraceptives. Women not using contraceptives had a 37% greater odds of attempting suicide in comparison with those using hormonal contraceptives.

Dr Toffol continued

“The strength of this study is the large size, and that we broke the data down according to suicide attempts, psychiatric history, age and contraceptive use. We included a wider age range than the other studies, and importantly, we used a ‘nested’ study design, where we were able to pair each attempted suicide to 4 control subjects, which allows us see if contraceptive use in the previous six months was a factor in the attempt. After doing this we found that women with no psychiatric history and using hormonal contraceptives, specifically those containing ethinylestradiol had a significantly reduced risk of attempting suicide than women not using any hormonal contraception.

The data indicates redeemed prescriptions, and of course it may be that some of these prescriptions were redeemed but not used. Overall though, we think we have been able to account for most confounding factors. Our next step is to use data from this same population to examine the risk of depression associated with hormonal contraception use”.

Commenting, Professor Andrea Fiorillo (University of Campania, Naples) said:

“This interesting study focused on the complex relationship between hormonal contraception exposure and suicidal behaviour. Previous studies found a relationship between hormonal contraceptives use and higher risk of attempted suicide. The study by Toffol disconfirms this finding, showing that the rates of suicide attempts are actually lower in women using hormonal contraception. Of course, this striking finding deserves a careful evaluation and needs to be replicated in different cohorts of women and controlled for the impact of several psychosocial stressors, such as economic upheavals, social insecurity and uncertainty due to the COVID pandemic. The clinical implications of the study are obvious and may help to destigmatize the use of hormonal contraceptives.”

This is an independent comment, Professor Fiorillo was not involved in this study. Professor Fiorillo is Treasurer of the European Psychiatric Association and Editor in Chief of the journal European Psychiatry.

*The researchers observed 474 cases of AS (IR 0.81 per 1000 person-years, 95% CI 0.74–0.88), while among HC users there were 344 AS cases (IR 0.59, 95% CI 0.53–0.65). The incidence rate ratio (IRR) of HC vs. no-HC users was 0.73 (0.63–0.83).

ENDS

Some patients with lung disease fare worse than others. Could sleep explain it?

Flare-ups in COPD linked to sleeplessness, UCSF-led study shows

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA - SAN FRANCISCO

A study led by UC San Francisco researchers shows that insufficient or interrupted sleep may have more of an impact than smoking history in patients with a progressive lung disease.

The researchers found that for patients with COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease), inadequate sleep may boost their risk of a flare-up by up to 95% compared to those with good sleep. Over time, these flare-ups, which manifest with worsening shortness of breath and cough, may cause irreversible lung damage, and accelerate disease progression and mortality.

The findings appear online in the journal SLEEP on June 6, 2022. They may partially explain why African American patients with COPD tend to fare worse than white patients, said first author Aaron Baugh, MD, a clinical fellow at the UCSF Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care, Allergy and Sleep Medicine, and the Cardiovascular Research Institute.

“African Americans are over-represented in low-income neighborhoods, where people are less likely to have good quality sleep. They may live in crowded spaces with multiple roommates, and have less comfortable sleeping conditions, such as a couch, and they may work in a job with a varying schedule that lends itself to sleep disruption,” said Baugh, noting that research shows sleep deprivation is associated with a drop in infection-fighting antibodies and protective cytokines.

The researchers followed 1,647 patients with confirmed COPD, who were enrolled in the national, multi-center SPIROMICS study, designed to monitor the progression of the disease and evaluate effectiveness of treatments. Over a three-year duration, the researchers recorded flare-ups, defined as short-term worsening of symptoms requiring treatment, and compared their incidence with self-reported data on sleep quality.

Poor Sleep Raises Risk of Flare-Ups From 25% to 95%

At the start of the study, the average age of the participants was 65 and the average stage of the disease was moderate. Over half of the participants (57%) were male; 80% were white and 14% were African American. All were current or former smokers, who underwent at least one sleep evaluation at enrollment. The researchers found that compared to participants with optimal sleep, those at the base level of poor sleep had a 25% increased chance of a flare-up within the next year, rising to almost 95% within the next year for those with the worst sleep.

This may amount to a more pronounced effect than the impact of smoking over a 40-year period, versus a 60-year period, said Baugh.

As expected, more African Americans reported poor sleep than did white participants: 63% versus 52%.

“While factors like health insurance coverage or respiratory hazards may play important roles in severity of the disease, poor sleep may gain even more significance when African Americans’ social status improves,” said Baugh. “This can lead to a kind of paradox; in reducing one risk factor, a new risk factor – poor sleep – may take its place.”

Yet-to-be published data will show that African Americans have worse sleep even when socio-economic factors and severity of COPD are accounted for, Baugh said.

Senior author and pulmonologist Neeta Thakur, MD, of the UCSF School of Medicine said that questions about sleep are often overlooked by physicians evaluating patients with COPD. “Sleep hygiene and sleep aids may significantly improve their health,” she said. “Sleep should be considered both in the clinic and at the wider community/neighborhood level, where the structural factors that contribute to worse sleep can be addressed.”

Co-Authors: Please refer to the paper.

Funding: SPIROMICS was supported by contracts from the NIH/NHLBI (HHSN268200900013C, HHSN268200900014C, HHSN268200900015C, HHSN268200900016C, HHSN268200900017C, HHSN268200900018C, HHSN268200900019C, HHSN268200900020C), and grants from the NIH/NHLBI (U01 HL137880 and U24 HL141762). Please refer to the paper for full disclosures.

About UCSF: The University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) is exclusively focused on the health sciences and is dedicated to promoting health worldwide through advanced biomedical research, graduate-level education in the life sciences and health professions, and excellence in patient care. UCSF Health, which serves as UCSF's primary academic medical center, includes top-ranked specialty hospitals and other clinical programs, and has affiliations throughout the Bay Area. UCSF School of Medicine also has a regional campus in Fresno. Learn more at https://www.ucsf.edu, or see our Fact Sheet.

###

Follow UCSF
ucsf.edu | Facebook.com/ucsf | YouTube.com/ucsf

JOURNAL

SLEEP

Man vs. machine: New Leicester research to compare human eye-tracking with AI in first study of its kind

The human brain’s ability to track and process hazards will be pitted against an innovative artificial intelligence (AI) tool in a new interdisciplinary research study at the University of Leicester

Business Announcement

UNIVERSITY OF LEICESTER

The human brain’s ability to track and process hazards will be pitted against an innovative artificial intelligence (AI) tool in a new interdisciplinary research study at the University of Leicester.

Researchers in the School of Computing and Mathematical Sciences have combined efforts with visual perception experts from Leicester’s Department of Neuroscience, Psychology and Behaviour to shape the study, which will track participants’ eye movements when faced with multiple fast-moving hazards simultaneously.

The research will be used to inform the next generation of a rail safety device being developed as part of an Innovate UK Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) between Leicester experts and systems engineering specialists Synoptix.

The OPTIMUS prototype – installed at a Network Rail-operated level crossing near Cheltenham earlier this year – uses machine learning and an AI-based object detection system, hosted locally on the small edge-based device, to identify and quantify different types of traffic.

Now, this new interdisciplinary aspect of the project will allow researchers to compare both the accuracy and speed of its detection capability to a human completing the same task. It is believed that the study is the first of its kind in comparing humans and AI for the task of ‘visual census’ in this way.

George Leete is KTP Research Associate within the Artificial Intelligence, Data Analytics, and Modelling (AIDAM) Centre at the University of Leicester, and leads development of the machine learning aspect of the project under the supervision of Professor Ivan Tyukin. He said:

“The question was asked on the project ‘How good is good?’, in relation to the performance of the OPTIMUS system at the crossing. I’m confident that the results of this study will lend us some valuable insight into this question, firstly how good humans are at the current task, and secondly whether our current system holds up to human standards. We believe this is the first time an AI-based system will be validated against a standard in this way, opening the door for other systems to be validated via a similar method.”

Dr David Souto, Dr Doug Barrett and Dr Claire Hutchinson make up the team of Leicester psychologists lending their expertise to the study.

Dr Claire Hutchinson, Associate Professor in Experimental Psychology at the University of Leicester said:

“We are really excited to be involved in this interdisciplinary work. Comparing AI and human performance in this way will help us understand how the human brain identifies and weights visual information so that we can safely navigate the world around us.”

Stephen Measures, Project Lead at Synoptix, added:

“Synoptix are delighted to have the opportunity to work with both Leicester’s School of Computing and Mathematical Sciences and the Department of Neuroscience, Psychology and Behaviour on this breakthrough study. The results of this will be crucial to help our project team validate the performance and effectiveness of the Optimus prototype system and its AI model, when compared to a human based approach to object census.”

Justin Mountjoy, Programmes Director at Synoptix, adds:

“We feel very privileged to be part of this Collegiate working group as we seek to push the boundaries of this project which has the potential to be a market leader in AI and Data Analytics; not only will it have a huge impact on Artificial Intelligence technologies, but it has real significance in being a fully interactive element to increase safety across Network Rail’s infrastructure.”

According to Network Rail, which is responsible for the country’s rail infrastructure, there are around 6,000 level crossings in the UK. Figures for 2019/20 show that there were 316 near misses with pedestrians on UK level crossings, and two pedestrian fatalities.

The OPTIMUS prototype was installed at a site on the Cross Country Route in January 2022 and has already identified hundreds of thousands of movements on the crossing, including pedestrians, cyclists and other road traffic. As the identification and categorisation of users occurs locally on the device – and the only data transmitted is of traffic numbers and types – the privacy of crossing users is protected in line with data protection guidelines.

Synoptix provides multi-disciplinary systems engineering support across various technical industries. The organisation is certified by the Railway Industry Supplier Qualification Scheme (RISQS) for the provision of Systems and Safety Engineering Consultancy to the Rail Industry. The KTP is funded by Innovate UK.

Scientists use multivalent cation additives to rid rechargeable batteries of a common pitfall

Peer-Reviewed Publication

TOHOKU UNIVERSITY

IMAGE: CAPTION: MULTIVALENT CATION ADDITIVES MODIFY THE SOLVATION STRUCTURE OF LITHIUM OR SODIUM CATIONS IN ELECTROLYTES AND CONTRIBUTE TO FLAT ELECTRODEPOSITION MORPHOLOGY. view more
CREDIT: HONGYI LI

Researchers at Tohoku University have unearthed a means to stabilize lithium or sodium depositions in rechargeable batteries, helping keep their metallic structure intact. The discovery prevents potential battery degradation and short circuiting, and paves the way for higher energy-density metal-anode batteries.

Scientists are ever-seeking to develop safer, higher-capacity, and faster charging rechargeable batteries to meet our energy needs sustainably. Metal anodes show the highest promise to achieve that goal. Yet the use of alkali metals poses several problems.

In a rechargeable battery, ions pass from the cathode to the anode when charging, and in the opposite direction when generating power. Repeated deposition and dissolution of metal deforms the structures of lithium and sodium. Additionally, fluctuations in diffusion and electric fields in the electrolytes close to the electrode surface leads to the formation of needle-like microstructures called dendrites. The dendrites are weakly bonded and peel away from the electrodes, resulting in short circuiting and decreases in cycle capacity.

To solve this problem, a research team led by Hongyi Li and Tetsu Ichitsubo from Tohoku University's Institute for Materials Research added multivalent cations, such as calcium ions, that altered and strengthened the solvation structure of lithium or sodium ions in the electrolyte.

"Our modified structure moderates the reduction of lithium or sodium ions on the electrode surface and enables a stable diffusion and electric field," said Dr Li. The stabilized ions, in turn, preserve the structure of the electrodeposited metals.

Details of their research were published in the journal Cell Reports Physical Science on May 20, 2022.

For their next steps, Li and Ichitsubo are hoping to improve the metal anodes' interfacial design to further enhance the cycle life and power density of the batteries.

JOURNAL

Cell Reports Physical Science

DOI

10.1016/j.xcrp.2022.100907

ARTICLE TITLE

Dendrite-free alkali metal electrodeposition from contact-ion-pair state induced by mixing alkaline earth cation

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment

Tuesday, June 07, 2022

JOURNAL

DOI

METHOD OF RESEARCH

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

ARTICLE TITLE

Tired mosquitoes would rather catch up on sleep than bite you

JOURNAL

DOI

METHOD OF RESEARCH

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

ARTICLE TITLE

CAPTION

CREDIT

CAPTION

CREDIT

METHOD OF RESEARCH

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

JOURNAL

DOI

METHOD OF RESEARCH

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

ARTICLE TITLE

JOURNAL

JOURNAL

DOI

ARTICLE TITLE

About Me