Understanding the health and environmental risks of microplastics

Reports and Proceedings

AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY

Studies have shown that tiny plastic pieces are nearly everywhere — in the air, water, food and even inside the human body — but it’s unclear what risks nano- and microplastics pose to the environment or to human health. According to a cover story in Chemical & Engineering News, an independent news outlet of the American Chemical Society, researchers are beginning to investigate the risks of microplastics, using lessons learned from nanotoxicology.

Microplastics (plastic pieces less than 5 mm in diameter) and nanoplastics (pieces less than 1 µm in diameter) can be different sizes and shapes and can be made of various materials, writes Senior Correspondent Britt E. Erickson. Because not all microplastics are created equally, they can have different effects on human health and the environment, and therefore studying them is complicated. Most researchers so far have used polystyrene beads in their experiments because they are easily accessible, but these beads are not representative of microplastics found in the environment. Most microplastics found in the air and water are fragments, not spheres. Polystyrene is not the only polymer found in the environment; polyethylene, polypropylene and polyamide are also common. And once in the environment, ultraviolet light and contaminants can change the particles’ properties.

Because there are limited exposure data on microplastics, making regulatory decisions is a challenge. The toxicology community has had similar issues with nanoparticles in the past decade, and so scientists hope that lessons from nanotoxicology can be applied to microplastics. Researchers are beginning to standardize the various micro- and nanoplastics used in studies, so that results can be reproduced and better replicate real-world situations. Scientists are using systems in the lab that simulate bodily functions to figure out how ingested and inhaled particles could affect human gut and lung cells. Although scientists are unsure whether the influx of funding toward toxicology research will lead to meaningful regulatory changes, there is hope that more information about the health risks of these materials is on the horizon.

The article is freely available at cenm.ag/microplastics-risks. 

The American Chemical Society (ACS) is a nonprofit organization chartered by the U.S. Congress. ACS’ mission is to advance the broader chemistry enterprise and its practitioners for the benefit of Earth and all its people. The Society is a global leader in promoting excellence in science education and providing access to chemistry-related information and research through its multiple research solutions, peer-reviewed journals, scientific conferences, eBooks and weekly news periodical Chemical & Engineering News. ACS journals are among the most cited, most trusted and most read within the scientific literature; however, ACS itself does not conduct chemical research. As a leader in scientific information solutions, its CAS division partners with global innovators to accelerate breakthroughs by curating, connecting and analyzing the world’s scientific knowledge. ACS’ main offices are in Washington, D.C., and Columbus, Ohio.

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JOURNAL

Chemical & Engineering News

ARTICLE TITLE

Getting a grip on microplastics’ risks

Metal mayhem: New research finds toxic metals absorbed by Great Salt Lake plants and insects

Peer-Reviewed Publication

S.J. & JESSIE E. QUINNEY COLLEGE OF NATURAL RESOURCES, UTAH STATE UNIVERSITY

 

IMAGE: PLANTS IN GREAT SALT LAKE WETLAND ECOSYSTEMS ARE ABLE TO PULL HAZARDOUS METAL POLLUTION FROM THE LAKE AND SOMETIMES PASS IT UP THE FOOD CHAIN, ACCORDING TO NEW RESEARCH FROM UTAH STATE UNIVERSITY. view more 

CREDIT: USFWS MOUNTAIN-PRAIRIE

Plants in Great Salt Lake wetland ecosystems are able to pull hazardous metal pollution from the lake and sometimes pass it up the food chain, according to work by a team of researchers from the Department of Watershed Sciences led by Edd Hammill. The study, coauthored by former master’s student Maya Pendleton and current faculty Janice Brahney, Karin Kettenring, and Trisha Atwood, sampled three types of native plants (threesquare, hardstem, and alkali bulrush) and invasive phragmites to monitor concentrations of metals and see where in the plants they accumulated.

Toxic metals reach the Great Salt Lake predominantly by way of runoff and atmospheric pollution from human industry, such as mines and refineries. Wetland plants absorb metals from the soil and store them belowground (in roots, bulbs, and rhizomes) or aboveground (in shoots, leaves, and seeds). Where in the plant these metals end up residing has implications for environmental health, according to the research.

“All the plants sampled were adept at storing selenium and arsenic belowground,” said Hammill. “However, the phragmites had the highest concentrations of lead and mercury in their seeds, and all the plants had significant concentrations of other metals in their aboveground tissues.”

Toxic metals in aboveground plant tissues are a cause for concern for the insects that eat them and the terrestrial food web as whole, the researchers said.

“The metals are fat soluble,” said Hammill, “so every bit consumed by herbivorous insects is stored in the insect tissues and gets passed on to predatory insects like spiders, damselflies, and dragon flies. Larger predators consume the predatory insects and the toxic metals move right up the food chain in larger concentrations.”

The research found copper and cadmium levels ten times higher in predatory insects than in wetland plants, a hazard to resident waterfowl and the large numbers of migratory birds who flock to Great Salt Lake wetlands and feed on insects before passing on to other far-off habitats. In future studies, the team hopes to take a closer look at toxic metal concentrations in Great Salt Lake waterfowl, which are under consumption advisories.

The propensity for wetland plants to absorb hazardous metals could be useful as a way to clean up lake pollution, said Hammill. To remove or decrease toxic metal pollution should be the ultimate goal, but considering this study, leaving wetland root systems intact while cutting the aboveground foliage and burying it in low-impact locations would be a practice worthy of consideration by management agencies, he said.

The negative impact of metals in plants and animals ties into the broader conversation about conservation of the Great Salt Lake, particularly when it comes to lake water levels which have declined to record lows.

“Keeping the Great Salt Lake watered is critical to making sure the metals stay where they are now,” said Hammill. “If the lakebed gets exposed, dust and metals become airborne, which has a considerable human impact and makes the whole problem worse.”

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JOURNAL

Ecotoxicology

DOI

10.1007/s10646-022-02550-6 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Experimental study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE TITLE

Metal concentrations in wetland plant tissues influences transfer to terrestrial food webs

Could time limits on opioid prescriptions reduce misuse?

Hundreds of thousands of surgical and dental opioid prescriptions are filled a month or more after writing, but one state’s law helped reduce this “delayed dispensing”

Peer-Reviewed Publication

MICHIGAN MEDICINE - UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN

Most people who get a prescription for opioid painkillers to ease the pain of an operation or dental procedure fill it right away. But a new study shows that some fill these prescriptions more than a month later – long after the acute pain from their care should have subsided.

In 2019, 1% of opioid prescriptions from dentists and surgeons were filled more than 30 days after writing, according to the new study in JAMA Network Open by a team from the University of Michigan. While low, that percentage would translate to more than 260,000 opioid prescriptions per year if it generalized to all surgical and opioid prescriptions in the U.S. 

“Our findings suggest that some patients use opioids from surgeons and dentists for a reason or during a time frame other than intended by the prescriber,” says lead author Kao-Ping Chua, M.D., Ph.D, a U-M pediatrician and member of the Susan B. Meister Child Health Evaluation and Research (CHEAR) Center and the U-M Institute for Healthcare Policy and Innovation. “These are both forms of prescription opioid misuse, which in turn is a strong risk factor for opioid overdose.”

The study authors note that state and federal laws regulating the expiration periods for controlled substance prescriptions may be partly to blame.

In 2019, 18 states allowed prescriptions for Schedule II opioids and other controlled substances – those with the highest risk of being diverted for misuse – to be filled up to 6 months after writing. Another eight states allowed these drugs to be dispensed up to 1 year after the prescription.

“It’s perplexing that states would allow controlled substance prescriptions to be filled so long after they are written,” says Chua. He notes that tightening state laws could be a straightforward way to prevent or reduce misuse associated with delayed dispensing of opioids.

As evidence, the study examined the effects of a law in Minnesota, which in July 2019 prohibited opioid dispensing more than 30 days after writing. After implementation, delayed dispensing dropped rapidly compared to other states.  

The authors note that an across-the-board rule limiting the time window for filling opioid prescriptions might inadvertently harm patients who take the drugs for chronic pain. Instead, they say, policymakers could implement laws that limit this time window only when opioids are written for acute pain.

The authors also note that prescribers can reduce delayed dispensing by including instructions on the prescription not to dispense opioids after a certain time frame.

In addition to Chua, the study’s authors include Romesh Nalliah from the U-M School of Dentistry, Michael Smith from the U-M School of Pharmacy, research assistant Shreya Bahl, and Jennifer Waljee and Chad Brummett, both of whom are co-directors of the Michigan Opioid Prescribing and Engagement Network.

OPEN, as it’s known, offers evidence-based opioid prescribing guidelines and educational materials for opioids for acute pain, and works to increase safe disposal options.

Citation: Estimation of the Prevalence of Delayed Dispensing Among Opioid Prescriptions From US Surgeons and Dentists, JAMA Netw Open. 2022;5(5):e2214311. doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2022.14311

https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2792751

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JOURNAL

JAMA Network Open

DOI

10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2022.14311 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Data/statistical analysis

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

Estimation of the prevalence of delayed dispensing among opioid prescriptions from US surgeons and dentists

Aromatherapy can reduce post-surgical opioid use by half, preliminary US study finds

Reports and Proceedings

THE EUROPEAN SOCIETY OF ANAESTHESIOLOGY AND INTENSIVE CARE (ESAIC)

Aromatherapy reduces post-surgical opioid use by half in hip replacement patients anxious before their operation, according to a new preliminary study being presented at the annual meeting of the European Society of Anaesthesiology and Intensive Care (ESAIC) in Milan, Italy (4-6 June).

Previous research has shown that anxiety, depression and catastrophising (patients who believe they are going to die during surgery) increase post-operative pain and opioid use by up to 50%.

Aromatherapy, the use of essential oils to enhance wellbeing, has been used for thousands of years and a number of recent studies have found that lavender and peppermint aromatherapy, in particular, can reduce anxiety.1  

However, most of these studies have looked at series of patients, rather than having a more rigorous randomised, placebo-controlled design, which has made it difficult to draw firm conclusions from the results.

This study, from Professor Jacques Chelly and colleagues at the Department of Anaesthesiology, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, USA, is one of the first to employ a randomised, placebo-controlled design to look at whether aromatherapy reduces anxiety.

Since January 2020, patients undergoing primary total hip replacements at UPMC Presbyterian-Shadyside Hospital, Pittsburgh, and who consent to taking part in the study, have filled in a survey that screens them for anxiety (PROMIS Emotional Distress – Anxiety – Short Form 8a).

To date more than 350 patients have been screened in this way.

Those scoring as having a moderate level of anxiety or above are enrolled in the study, which is ongoing and aims to enrol 60 patients.

Participants are randomised to an active treatment (aromatherapy) or placebo group. Those in the active treatment group are given a lavender and peppermint “aromatab”, an adhesive patch that slowly releases essential oils when stuck onto clothes, skin or a hospital gown, to wear from at least an hour before their operation.

The patches are changed every 12 hours and are worn for 72 hours after surgery.

Those in the placebo group wear a patch which emits sweet almond oil – an oil not credited with anxiety-lowering qualities.

Levels of anxiety, depression, catastrophising, pain and opioid consumption are recorded over the course of the study.

Preliminary data on the first 25 participants (average age 60.6 years, 13 males and 12 females) is presented here.  The primary outcome is the effect of aromatherapy on anxiety 48 hours after surgery.

The baseline (pre-operative) anxiety score was similar in both groups (23.5 in aromatherapy group vs. 22.9 in placebo group).

48 hours post-operation, the anxiety score had fallen in both groups but the drop was greater in the aromatherapy group (anxiety score of 13.5 in aromatherapy group vs. 16.2 in placebo group).

Total opioid use in the first 48 hours after surgery was 50% lower in the aromatherapy group (12 OME) than in the placebo group (24.75 OME).  (OME, oral morphine equivalent, is a measure that allows comparison between different drugs and methods of administration).

The data on levels of pain, depression and catastrophising has yet to be analysed.

The researchers concluded: “Our results suggest that, by controlling anxiety, aromatherapy can help control pain and reduce opioid consumption. This is important, given the established role of the use of opioids in surgical patients in the overall opioid crisis in the US.”

Opioids have sedative and analgesic effects and are widely prescribed to after surgery to control pain. They are also addictive.

Drug overdose deaths involving opioids (prescription and non-prescription, such as heroin) have increased more than six-fold since 1999 in the US and nearly 600,000 people in the US and Canada have died from opioid overdoses over the past two decades.2

Professor Chelly says: “The pandemic has made the situation even worse, with over 100,000 drug overdose deaths reported in 2021.”

It has recently been estimated that, without urgent intervention, including public health policy reform and stricter corporate regulations, there will be an additional 1.2 million opioid deaths in North America by 2029.2

Although North America is at the centre of the opioid crisis, opioid misuse is an increasing public health concern in the UK.

Professor Chelly says: “Evidence supports the concept that routine operations can be a gateway to long-term opioid use and addiction (opioid use disorder) and it is therefore important to consider techniques that may reduce the perioperative use of opioids and therefore the development of opioid-use disorders following surgery.

"Aromatherapy is a simple and cost-effective technique which can minimise the impact of anxiety on post-operative pain and opioid consumption.

“We hope that providing objective evidence about the benefits of aromatherapy will help address the concerns of those who are sceptical about its value.

“At UPMC Presbyterian-Shadyside Hospital, we are routinely using lavender-peppermint aromatherapy in patients who indicate they are anxious before surgery.”

One possible mechanism of action of aromatherapy is through the limbic system, a brain structure known to regulate pain, emotion and anxiety. Professor Chelly and colleagues plan to study the effect of aromatherapy on the brain next, using MRI.

To arrange an interview, please email the study’s author: Professor Jacques Chelly, Department of Anaesthesiology, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, USA. E) ChelJE@anes.upmc.edu or contact the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) public relations office T) +1 412 647 3555 E) mediarelations@upmc.edu 

Alternative contact: Tony Kirby in the Euroanaesthesia Media Centre. T) +44 7834 385827 E) tony@tonykirby.com

Notes to editors:

References:

1. Jones T et al. Lavender Aromatherapy to Reduce Anxiety During Intrauterine Insemination: A Randomized Controlled Trial. Glob Adv Health Med. 2021 Nov 17

2. https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanpub/article/PIIS2468-2667(22)00043-3/fulltext

 

The aromatabs were supplied by Beekley Medical. The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

This press release is based on abstract 08AP02-05 at Euroanaesthesia, the annual meeting of the European Society of Anaesthesiology and Intensive Care (ESAIC). The material has been peer reviewed by the congress selection committee. There is no full paper at this stage.

Note, since submitting their work, the authors have updated it and these changes are included in the poster. No abstract is supplied for this reason. 

For press release in Spanish, click here

 For press release in Portuguese, click here

 

Young adults turn crushes into love, UC Davis study suggests

First study to look at early relationships and how they do and do not develop

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA - DAVIS

The image of young adults living in a hookup culture with emotionally meaningless relationships might be a common theme in movies and daytime talk shows. But it does not seem to be the norm in real college life, suggests a new study from University of California, Davis, researchers.

The study, published May 28, is the first of its kind to look at early relationship development — the time period in which people experience rising and falling romantic interest for partners who could, but often do not, become committed partners; in other words, “crushes.” Previous studies have examined committed relationships on one extreme, and first impressions on the opposite extreme.

To obtain their data, researchers surveyed 208 heterosexual college students at a Midwestern university about their dating habits, their various likes and dislikes, and attraction to potential partners over a seven-month period. Participants described an average of five crushes during this stretch of time and reported about 15% of them turning into dating relationships at some point. They collected a total of over 7,000 reports on these potential partners.

What predicted whether or not these attractions ultimately fizzled?

“What took us by surprise is that many of the important factors were the same things you would have seen in a committed relationship,” noted Paul Eastwick, UC Davis professor in the Department of Psychology and lead author of the study. “This supposed hookup melee actually looks a lot like people taking relationships for a test run.”

The authors used machine-learning approaches to identify the strongest predictors of romantic interest in each crush. Machine learning, or the use of algorithms and statistical models to analyze and draw inferences from patterns in data, is especially useful at identifying predictors that are likely to be robust and replicable, the authors said.

Over the course of the study, some of the best predictors of sustained interest in a partner turned out to be markers of attachment, such as seeking out someone’s presence as much as possible, feeling distressed when separated from them, and wanting to tell them about successes. These features are traditionally considered markers of pair-bonded relationships.

“When feelings of attachment and emotional connection start to kick in, young adults seem to take it as a sign that this is a crush worth pursuing,” said study co-author Samantha Joel, an assistant professor of psychology at Western University. “Sexual and emotional attraction seem to go hand-in-hand, even before a committed relationship materializes.”

Other factors that were known to be critical in initial impression contexts had no effect at all in the current study. Specifically, physical attractiveness — the most commonly studied variable in the whole initial attraction literature — was surprisingly weak.

Participants also uploaded photographs of their crushes, and the researchers used a team of coders, who didn’t know the subjects of the photographs or anything about them, to rate how physically attractive the crushes were on a 1-10 scale. This variable turned out to be completely irrelevant to whether participants were romantically interested in the crushes.

“If we had been looking at a bar, or speed-dating — a setting where you have to compete to be noticed — these coder ratings of physical attractiveness should have been exceptionally good at predicting which partners were highly desired and which ones were not,” Eastwick explained. “But that isn’t what the data revealed at all.”

According to Eastwick, these findings imply that early relationship development is a mating context in which people search for evidence of compatibility. “It isn’t about fighting to get the ‘most valuable’ partner you can,” he said. “It’s about trying to find someone who inspires both a sexual and emotional connection. That’s how young people initiate relationships.”   

The study, “Predicting Romantic Interest During Early Relationship Development: A Preregistered Investigation Using Machine Learning,” was published in The European Journal of Personality. Co-authors were Joel; Kathleen Carswell, assistant professor, Durham University; Daniel C. Molden and Eli J. Finkel, professors, Northwestern University; and Shelley A. Blozis, professor of psychology, UC Davis. This study was designed by Molden and Finkel.

 

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JOURNAL

European Journal of Personality

DOI

10.1177/08902070221085877 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Survey

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

Predicting romantic interest during early relationship development: A preregistered investigation using machine learning

Novel air-conditioning technology: Artificial muscles deliver sustainable cooling

Reports and Proceedings

SAARLAND UNIVERSITY

 

IMAGE: THE FIRST EVER MACHINE THAT COOLS AIR USING ‘MUSCLES’ MADE OF NICKEL-TITANIUM. FELIX WELSCH AND SUSANNE MARIE KIRSCH HELPED TO DEVELOP THE COOLING SYSTEM AS PART OF THEIR DOCTORAL RESEARCH PROJECTS. THE NEW TYPE OF ENERGY EFFICIENT, ECOLOGICALLY SUSTAINABLE COOLING TECHNOLOGY THAT DOES NOT REQUIRE THE USE OF CLIMATE-DAMAGING REFRIGERANTS IS CURRENTLY BEING DEVELOPED BY PROFESSOR STEFAN SEELECKE AND HIS TEAM AT SAARLAND UNIVERSITY. view more 

CREDIT: CREDIT: OLIVER DIETZE

A new type of energy efficient, ecologically sustainable cooling technology that does not require the use of climate-damaging refrigerants is currently being developed by Professor Stefan Seelecke and his team at Saarland University. The new technology makes use of shape-memory materials that are also known as ‘artificial muscles’. These materials are able to transport heat by loading and unloading nickel-titanium wires. Seelecke’s team is currently developing the technology for use in cooling systems for electric vehicles. The researchers have been presenting their technology at the Hannover Messe, showcasing the world’s first machine that can cool air by flexing artificial muscles.

From the humble fridge and air conditioner to complex cooling systems for use in industrial processes – keeping cool is a significant part of today’s society. Global warming and a growing world population mean that the need for energy-efficient cooling systems will only get larger. But low temperatures typically signify high electricity consumption, which in turn usually means a high carbon footprint and the risk of emissions of refrigerant gases that often have a high global warming potential. A research team of academic and industrial partners led by Professor Stefan Seelecke of Saarland University and the Center for Mechatronics and Automation Technology (ZeMA) is currently developing an environmentally friendly cooling system.

‘Our process is energy efficient and doesn’t require the use of refrigerants that are harmful to the climate. In fact, our technology is up to 15 times more efficient than systems based on conventional refrigerants,’ explained Stefan Seelecke. The EU Commission and the United States Department of Energy have both evaluated the new process and consider it to be the most promising alternative to the vapour-compression refrigeration technology in use today.

Seelecke’s team has developed the world’s first continuously operating prototype that cools air using this new process. The cooling technology that the team is showcasing at this year's Hannover Messe uses artificial muscle fibres composed of bundles of ultrafine shape-memory wires made from the nickel-titanium alloy ‘nitinol’. These wires have the special property that they return to their earlier shape after being stretched or otherwise deformed. They are thus able to tense and relax like human muscles.

The reason for this behaviour is to be found within the structure of the metal alloy. The atoms in the alloy are arranged in a crystal lattice structure. If the nickel-titanium wire is deformed or pulled in tension, the layers of atoms in the lattice crystal move relative to one another creating strain within the material. This strain is released when the wire returns to its original shape. These changes in the material’s crystal structure are known as phase transitions and they cause the wires to absorb or release heat. It is this effect that Seelecke and his team are exploiting in their novel cooling system. ‘The shape-memory material releases heat to its surroundings when it is mechanically loaded in its superelastic state and absorbs heat from its surroundings when it is unloaded. And this effect is particular pronounced in the case of nitinol. When pre-stressed nitinol wires are unloaded at room temperature, they cool down by as much as 20 degrees,’ explained Stefan Seelecke, who holds the Chair of Intelligent Material Systems at Saarland University.

‘We exploit this property to dissipate heat,’ said Susanne-Marie Kirsch, who helped to develop the cooling system as part of her doctoral research project. ‘The basic idea is to allow pre-stressed, superelastic shape-memory wires to relax and thus cool the space by removing heat from it,’ explained Kirsch. The heat taken up by the shape-memory wires is then released externally when the wires are re-stressed in the surroundings.

However, the Saarbrücken cooling system is significantly more complex. The team has designed and developed a cooling circuit in which a patent-pending cam drive rotates in such a way that bundles of 200 micron-thick nitinol wires are alternately stretched and relaxed so that heat is transferred as efficiently as possible. Air is blown through the wire bundles in two separate chambers: in one chamber the air is heated, in the other it is cooled. As a result, the machine can cool and can heat. ‘When the wires are mechanically loaded they heat up by about 20 degrees, so that the process can also be used as a heat pump,’ explained Felix Welsch who also worked on the prototype system as part of his doctorate. Depending on the alloy used, the heating or cooling power of this new technology is up to thirty times greater than the mechanical power required to load and unload the alloy wire bundles. That makes the new system significantly better than currently available heat pumps and conventional refrigerators.

The cooling system is the result of many years of research in different projects, numerous award-winning doctoral thesis and close collaboration with the group led by Professor Andreas Schütze of Saarland University. Funding was provided in part by the German Research Foundation (DFG) through its priority programme ‘Ferroic Cooling’. Through a combination of experimental studies and numerical modelling, the researchers were able to optimize the underlying mechanisms and were able to determine how many nitinol wires need to be included in a bundle or what wire loading level was needed to achieve a specific degree of cooling. Building on these results, the research team is now able to customize the system. They have  developed a software package that allows them to simulate, plan and fine tune cooling systems for specific applications.

The Saarbrücken team is currently working on multiple projects aimed at further optimizing the heat transfer process and thus boosting the efficiency of the new technology even further. The objective is to get to a stage where practically all of the energy from the phase transition is being used for heating or cooling.

The researchers in Seelecke’s team are currently working on developing their elastocaloric technology for use as a cooling system in electric vehicles. Since January 2022 the team has been working with academic and industrial partners in the government-financed collaborative project NEKKA that aims to develop a novel elastomeric cooling system. The project will receive a total of €6 million in funding, of which around €1 million will be provided to the Saarbrücken team for their electric car cooling project. ‘Our aim is to develop, mathematically model and validate an alternative air-con system that can be used in all vehicle classes. The system will be able to provide vehicle heating and cooling while also being more efficient, more environmentally friendly and more sustainable than other previously available systems. Our technology will also be compacter, lighter and more cost-effective,’ explained Paul Motzki, a research engineer and managing director in Seelecke’s team.

To develop this and other smart material systems for commercial and industrial applications, researchers at the Intelligent Material Systems Lab have founded the spin-off company ‘mateligent GmbH’.

Hannover Messe, 30 May to 2 June, Hall 2, Stand B28
Video on the elastocaloric cooling system: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_hg--OkUsDs
Intelligent Material Systems Lab: https://imsl.de

The mindful way to manage stress among elite athletes

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH AUSTRALIA

 

IMAGE: NORWOOD FOOTBALL PLAYERS ON THE FIELD view more 

CREDIT: HEATHERW

Just like the saying, ‘when the going gets tough, the tough get going’, elite athletes are known for their stamina and determination. But nearly a third of professional athletes struggle with mental health.

Now, a new study from the University of South Australia is exploring the realities of elite sports and stress, finding that dispositional mindfulness – a keen awareness and attention to thoughts and feelings in the present moment – can significantly reduce and protect athletes from stress.

Working with a group of high-performing football athletes, researchers investigated relationships between mindfulness, executive functioning, and psychological distress, finding that athletes who demonstrated greater mindfulness had lower levels of stress.

This relationship was observed at two timepoints: immediately after the initial COVID-19-related shutdown of sport in South Australia and approximately six months later, at the end of the athletes' competitive season.

As the study was conducted during COVID-19, it provided unique insight about the mental skills and resources that shape how athletes respond to significant stress.

Lead researcher and UniSA PhD candidate Ed O’Connor says the findings could help to develop targeted health interventions to combat stress.

“When you’re an elite athlete, staying top of your game also means keeping your stress levels in check, but time and time again we hear about athletes struggling with psychological stress,” O’Connor says.

“Athletes have concerning rates of mental health issues - including depression and anxiety - with the pandemic only adding to their mental health burden.

“Our research explored this with elite footballers, finding that athletes who were able to stay present and calm in the moment reported far lower levels of stress.

“If mindfulness can equip athletes to better cope with unexpected change and uncertainty it could be a very beneficial intervention to minimise potential stress.”

Many high-profile sportspeople have struggled with poor mental health. In the 2022 Olympics, seven-time Olympic champion Simone Biles pulled out of the gymnastics finals due to stress; AFL footballer, Adam Treloar has fought anxiety for many years, saying that he nearly left the game in 2018; and just recently, tennis superstar Nick Kyrgios revealed his battle with depression.

In addition, one in five Australian Institute of Sport athletes have reportedly sought treatment for a mental health condition.

O’Connor says it’s time we look for alternative treatments to manage stress and mental health among sportspeople.

“In recent years we’ve seen Olympians, professional sportspeople, and the next generation of elite athletes succumb to poor mental health,” O’Connor says.

“It’s no surprise that elite athletes deal with a lot of stress. But at the heart of it, we must remember that athletes are people too, and can struggle with the same human conditions as everyone else.

“Right now, we’re only at the start of understanding how stress can manifest and affect athletes. More research is needed, but as this study identified that mindfulness may protect athletes from stress, cognitive training interventions may equip athletes with greater mindfulness and stronger mental resilience, then this is a path absolutely worth investigating.”

 

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

 

Contact for interview: Ed O’Connor E: Ed.OConnor@unisa.edu.au 
Media contact: Annabel Mansfield M: +61 417 717 504 E: Annabel.Mansfield@unisa.edu.au

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JOURNAL

Perceptual and Motor Skills

DOI

10.1177/00315125221087523 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Experimental study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

Dispositional mindfulness may have protected athletes from psychological distress during COVID-19 in Australia

Major climate benefits when ships “fly” over the surface

Peer-Reviewed Publication

CHALMERS UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY

 

IMAGE: RESEARCHERS AT CHALMERS UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY AND SSPA IN SWEDEN PRESENT A UNIQUE MEASUREMENT TECHNIQUE, TESTED ON HYDROFOIL SAILING BOATS, TO ADAPT HYDROFOILS TO LARGER PASSENGER FERRIES, LEADING TO MAJOR CLIMATE BENEFITS. view more 

CREDIT: LLOYD IMAGES

Soon, electric passenger ferries skimming above the surface across the seas may become a reality. At Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden, a research team has created a unique method for further developing hydrofoils that can significantly increase the range of electric vessels and reduce the fuel consumption of fossil-powered ships by 80 per cent.  

While the electrification of cars is well advanced, the world's passenger ferries are still powered almost exclusively by fossil fuels. The limiting factor is battery capacity, which is not enough to power ships and ferries across longer distances. But now researchers at Chalmers and the marine research facility SSPA have succeeded in developing a method that can make the shipping industry significantly greener in the future. The focus is on hydrofoils that, like wings, lift the boat’s hull above the surface of the water and allow the boat to travel with considerably less water resistance. A technology that in recent years has revolutionised sailing, by which hydrofoils make elite sailors' boats fly over the surface of the water at a very high speed.
The researchers at Chalmers and SSPA now want to enable the sailboats' hydrofoil principle to be used on larger passenger ferries as well, resulting in major benefits for the climate.

"The electrification of ferries cannot be done without drastically reducing their water resistance. This method will allow the development of new foil designs that can reduce resistance by up to 80 per cent, which in turn would significantly increase the range of a battery powered ship. In this way, we could also use electric ferries on longer distances in the future," says research leader Arash Eslamdoost, Associate Professor in Applied Hydrodynamics at Chalmers and author of the study Fluid-Structure Interaction of a Foiling Craft published in the Journal of Marine Science and Engineering.

Even for ships that today run on fossil fuels the climate benefit could be  significant, as similar hydrofoil technology could reduce fuel consumption by no less than 80 per cent.

Unique measurement method arouses broad interest
At the centre of the research project is a unique measurement technique that the researchers have put together in order to understand in detail how hydrofoils behave in the water when, for example, the load or speed increases or the positioning of the hydrofoil changes. Using the data collected from the experiments, the team has developed and validated a method to simulate and predict with great precision how the hydrofoil would behave under a variety of conditions. The method is unique of its kind and can now be used to develop the design of hydrofoils for electric powered hydrofoil ferries.

The study was conducted in collaboration with the research facility SSPA – one of only a few of its kind in the world – where Laura Marimon Giovannetti works as a researcher and project manager. She is the lead author of the study and has herself competed at the elite level for both the British and Italian national sailing teams. Today she is a research and development adviser to Sweden's Olympic committee and the Swedish national team with her sights set on helping the team win more medals at the Olympics in 2024. Marimon Giovannetti sees many possibilities for the unique measurement method developed by the team:

"At the Americas Cup in San Francisco Bay in 2013, it was the first time we saw a 72-foot sailing boat learning how to “fly” using hydrofoils during the competition. And since then, we've seen a huge increase in sailing boats with hydrofoils. With this new method and knowledge we are able to bring together a range of different branches of engineering – naval architecture, advanced materials and aeronautics as well as renewable energy."

Paving the way for hydrofoils on electric ferries
Hydrofoil technology is not in itself a novelty, but was developed as early as the 60s and 70s. Back then the focus was on getting boats to travel at as fast as possible and the hydrofoils were made of steel, a heavy material with higher maintenance costs. Today's modern hydrofoils are made of carbon fibre, a much lighter and stiffer material that can maintain its rigidity even under high loads – and can be tailored to the expected loads. Part of the research project was therefore to fully understand how a carbon fibre structure behaves underwater during different operational conditions. The research team's method developed in association with modern technology is now paving the way for the use of carbon fibre hydrofoils on larger passenger ships that can travel in a safe, controlled and climate-friendly way even at low speeds.

"You want the foil to be as efficient as possible, which means carrying as much weight as possible at as low a speed as possible with the least resistance. Our next goal is to use this method when designing more efficient hydrofoils for ferries in the future," says Eslamdoost.

More about the scientific article

• The study "Fluid-Structure Interaction of a Foiling Craft" has been published in the Journal of Marine Science and Engineering. The authors are Laura Marimon Giovannetti, Ali Farousi, Fabian Ebbesson, Alois Thollot, Alex Shiri and Arash Eslamdoost. The researchers are active at SSPA (part of RISE Research Institutes of Sweden), Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden and INP-ENSEEITH in France.
• Hugo Hammar’s funding from SSPA and Rolf Sörman’s funding from Chalmers University of Technology provided the financial support to run the experimental tests at SSPA. This study also received funding from the Chalmers University of Technology Foundation for the strategic research project Hydro- and Aerodynamics.

For more information, please contact:

Arash Eslamdoost, Associate Professor in Applied Hydrodynamics at the Department of Mechanics and Maritime Sciences, Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden
 +46 31 772 36 84  arash.eslamdoost@chalmers.se

Laura Marimon Giovannetti, Senior Researcher and Project Manager, SSPA, Sweden
+46 73 072 91 82, laura.marimongiovannetti@sspa.se

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JOURNAL

Journal of Marine Science and Engineering

DOI

10.3390/jmse10030372 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Computational simulation/modeling

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE TITLE

Fluid-Structure Interaction of a Foiling Craft

The possibility of carbon emissions peak in China by 2030 depends on the GDP growth rate

Peer-Reviewed Publication

SCIENCE CHINA PRESS

This research is done by Professor Weidong Liu, Associate Professors Zhipeng Tang and Mengyao Han, and Dr. Wanbei Jiang from the Institute of Geographical Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Extant studies have noticed that China’s ability to peak carbon emissions by 2030 (the Peak hereafter) has something to do with the economic growth rate and suggested a slowdown in economic growth in China to help peak carbon emissions. However, none of them gives a quantitative account for such a relationship.

In a paper published in Science China Earth Sciences, Professor Liu’s team translates the question as to “when China’s carbon emissions peak will occur” into “how can one control the rate of decrease of carbon intensity at a given GDP growth rate”. They use a random forest algorithm method to identify and project the key drivers of changes of carbon intensity in China, and then develop a mathematical model to simulate different scenarios relating to the decreases of carbon intensity. By comparing the decrease rate of carbon intensity and the GDP growth rate, one can easily find a date at which China will peak its carbon emissions.

The research finds that if the GDP growth rate were 5.0% in 2026-2030, and if the share of non-fossil energy in total energy consumption were 23.0% or above, the Peak will occur before 2030. However, if the share of non-fossil fuels were 20.0% or less, there would be uncertainty of realizing the Peak target, which means an acceleration in the pace of restructuring towards non-fossil energy would be required. The projected peak emissions scenarios suggest that the Peak will occur in 2025-2029, with average peak emissions of 11.2 billion tons and a distribution ranging from a minimum of 10.5 billion and a maximum of 11.9 billion tons. If the GDP growth rate were 4.5%, 5.5% or 6.0% in 2026-2030, the share of non-fossil energy must reach 23.0%, 25.0% or 27.0%, respectively, to ensure that the Peak occur by 2030.

The research also shows that unlike the major developed countries where carbon emissions peak was achieved by offshoring of manufacturing and energy restructuring, China must take developing non-fossil energy as the major pathway to achieve its own carbon emission peak as a result of its pursuit of being a “world factory”.

See the article:

Liu W, Jiang W, Tang Z, Han M. 2022. Pathways to peak carbon emissions in China by 2030: An analysis in relation to the economic growth rate. Science China Earth Sciences, https://doi.org/10.1007/s11430-021-9901-y

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JOURNAL

Science China Earth Sciences

DOI

10.1007/s11430-021-9901-y