VegSense makes sense for forest studies

Rice bioscientists use mixed-reality headset, custom software to measure vegetation in the field

Peer-Reviewed Publication

RICE UNIVERSITY

 

IMAGE: RICE UNIVERSITY GRADUATE STUDENT DANIEL GORCZYNSKI CREATED AN OPEN-SOURCE APP CALLED VEGSENSE TO GATHER FIELD DATA ABOUT UNDERSTORY VEGETATION USING MICROSOFT’S HOLOLENS HEADSET. THE APP ALLOWS FIELD RESEARCHERS TO GATHER DATA AS THEY WALK AND LOOK AT VEGETATION. SPATIAL DATA IS DISPLAYED ON THE HOLOLENS SCREEN IN REAL TIME AND CAN BE STORED FOR LATER ANALYSIS. view more 

CREDIT: JEFF FITLOW/RICE UNIVERSITY

HOUSTON – (Aug. 1, 2022) – Ecologists won’t always need expensive and bulky equipment to measure vegetation in the wild. Rice University scientists have discovered a modern heads-up display works pretty well.

Rice researchers set up a Microsoft HoloLens as a mixed-reality sensor to feed VegSense, their application to measure understory vegetation, plant life that grows between the forest canopy and floor.

A proof-of-concept study by graduate student Daniel Gorczynski and bioscientist Lydia Beaudrot shows VegSense could be a suitable alternative to traditional classical field measurements at a low cost.

Their study in Methods in Ecology and Evolution shows the hardware-software combination excels at quantifying relatively mature trees in the wild, which is one measure of a forest’s overall health.

Gorczynski came up with the idea to try HoloLens, commonly marketed as a productivity tool for manufacturing, health care and education. He developed the open-source software for the device and noted that while the combination is less effective at picking up saplings and small branches, there’s ample room for improvement.

Gorczynski said he was introduced to mixed-reality sensing while an undergraduate at Vanderbilt University and recognized its potential for biological studies. “It seemed sort of like a natural fit,” he said. Gorczynski brought the idea to Beaudrot in 2019 shortly after his arrival at Rice.

The combination of stock hardware and custom software cost far less than systems based on lidar (for “light detection and ranging”) most often used in three-dimensional field studies, said Gorczynski, who developed VegSense on a platform geared more toward 3D games and interactive experiences than hard science.

Field tests at Houston’s Memorial Park showed that at least for mature trees, the smaller solution is just as good. In their case study, VegSense easily detected 48 of 50 such trees in the target area, a circle about 30 feet in diameter that Gorczynski walked, looking up, down and around to build the 3D database. (“Imagine an asterisk with a circle around it,” he said, describing the data-capture pattern.)

“For this study, we wanted to be really deliberate in trying to replicate more traditional understory vegetation structure measurements,” Gorczynski said. “We tried to get that level of detail.”

What he sees as he scans the environment is a holograph-like grid pattern that tracks the surfaces of vegetation. “What’s really cool about that is you can see what the scanner is picking up, but also the spots you missed,” Gorczynski said. “The idea is to get the mesh to cover as much of the vegetation as possible because that’s what gets you the best scan.”

“The results were so nice that Dan quickly wrote it up for publication,” Beaudrot said, noting that Gorczynski expanded his validation of the gear during a subsequent field trip to Tanzania, the focus of one of 15 tropical forests in a recent rainforest study by the Rice group.

“This device can facilitate a lot of great ecological research, particularly because it’s so cost-effective,” she said. “Collecting vegetation information on the forest floor right now is really hard to do without a lot of manual labor, or a really expensive lidar system.”

“So this is a groundbreaking, cost-effective device,” Beaudrot said. “It’s not going to give you the same resolution data that lidar will, but this is just the first application. We hope making VegSense open-source to the ecological research community will spur all the potential ways it can be developed.”

Northrop Grumman, Conservation International and Rice supported the research.

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Peer-reviewed paper:

“Measuring understorey vegetation structure using a novel mixed-reality device” | Methods in Ecology and Evolution | DOI: 10.1111/2041-210X.13927

Daniel Gorczynski and Lydia Beaudrot

https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/2041-210X.13927

Links:

VegSense software repository: https://zenodo.org/record/6624972#.YufyZi-B2L0

Beaudrot Lab: lydiabeaudrot.weebly.com

Department of BioSciences: biosciences.rice.edu

Wiess School of Natural Sciences: naturalsciences.rice.edu

Video:

https://youtu.be/dBHfxvhMChU
A Rice University lab that specializes in applying data science to the study of conservation biology has created an open-source app to harvest field data from Microsoft’s HoloLens mixed-reality headset. Daniel Gorczynski, a graduate student in the lab of Rice data scientist and conservation biologist Lydia Beaudrot, created the software package called VegSense. It works with the Microsoft headset to gather field data about understory vegetation in specific locations. The app allows researchers to gather data as they walk and look at vegetation. Spatial data is displayed on the HoloLens screen in real time and can be stored for later analysis. (Video by Brandon Martin/Rice University)

CAPTION

Rice University’s open-source VegSense app for the Microsoft HoloLens headset allows researchers to record data about vegetation they see as they walk through a field site and create downloadable files for later analysis.

CREDIT

Brandon Martin/Rice University

Image downloads:

https://news-network.rice.edu/news/files/2022/07/0727_HOLO-reach980-lg.jpg
CAPTION: Rice University graduate student Daniel Gorczynski created an open-source app called VegSense to gather field data about understory vegetation using Microsoft’s HoloLens headset. The app allows field researchers to gather data as they walk and look at vegetation. Spatial data is displayed on the HoloLens screen in real time and can be stored for later analysis. (Photo by Jeff Fitlow/Rice University)

https://news-network.rice.edu/news/files/2022/07/0727_HOLO-HLsplt-lg.jpg
CAPTION: Rice University’s open-source VegSense app allows researchers to gather field data about understory vegetation as they walk and look at vegetation using Microsoft’s HoloLens headset. This split-screen image shows what VegSense creator Daniel Gorczynski sees through the headset (top) while he walks and looks at vegetation beneath trees on Rice’s campus (bottom). (Photo by Brandon Martin/Rice University)

https://news-network.rice.edu/news/files/2022/07/0727_HOLO-HLhnd-lg.jpg
CAPTION: Rice University’s open-source VegSense app for the Microsoft HoloLens headset allows researchers to record data about vegetation they see as they walk through a field site and create downloadable files for later analysis. (Photo by Brandon Martin/Rice University)

https://news-network.rice.edu/news/files/2022/07/0727_HOLO-hdsup832s-lg.jpg
CAPTION: Rice Ph.D. student Daniel Gorczynski wearing a Microsoft HoloLens headset. Gorczynski, a data scientist and conservation biologist, wrote an open-source app for the headset to streamline the collection of field data about understory vegetation. (Photo by Jeff Fitlow/Rice University)

https://news-network.rice.edu/news/files/2022/07/0727_HOLO-lb160-lg.jpg
CAPTION: Data scientist and conservation biologist Lydia Beaudrot is an assistant professor of biosciences at Rice University. (Photo by Jeff Fitlow/Rice University)

CAPTION

Rice Ph.D. student Daniel Gorczynski wearing a Microsoft HoloLens headset. Gorczynski, a data scientist and conservation biologist, wrote an open-source app for the headset to streamline the collection of field data about understory vegetation.

CREDIT

Jeff Fitlow/Rice University

Related stories:

Camera traps reveal newly discovered biodiversity relationship - March 3, 2021
news.rice.edu/news/2021/camera-traps-reveal-newly-discovered-biodiversity-relationship

National parks preserve more than species – Sept. 9, 2020
news.rice.edu/news/2020/national-parks-preserve-more-species

Where lions operate, grazers congregate … provided food is great – Aug. 17, 2020
news.rice.edu/news/2020/where-lions-operate-grazers-congregate-provided-food-grea

This release can be found online at news.rice.edu.

Follow Rice News and Media Relations via Twitter @RiceUNews.

Located on a 300-acre forested campus in Houston, Rice University is consistently ranked among the nation’s top 20 universities by U.S. News & World Report. Rice has highly respected schools of Architecture, Business, Continuing Studies, Engineering, Humanities, Music, Natural Sciences and Social Sciences and is home to the Baker Institute for Public Policy. With 4,240 undergraduates and 3,972 graduate students, Rice’s undergraduate student-to-faculty ratio is just under 6-to-1. Its residential college system builds close-knit communities and lifelong friendships, just one reason why Rice is ranked No. 1 for lots of race/class interaction and No. 1 for quality of life by the Princeton Review. Rice is also rated as a best value among private universities by Kiplinger’s Personal Finance.

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JOURNAL

Methods in Ecology and Evolution

DOI

10.1111/2041-210X.13927 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Experimental study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE TITLE

Measuring understorey vegetation structure using a novel mixed-reality device

Scientists found a new way to protect crops

They discovered how to modify crop genes

URAL FEDERAL UNIVERSITY

Alexander Ermoshin is a member of the research group that deals with plant genetics. 

view more
Credit: UrFU / Gleb Eremenko.


A gene that enhances plant protection against fungi, bacteria, and adverse environmental factors was identified by scientists from the Ural Federal University (UrFU) and the Pushchino Scientific Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Modifying plants with this gene will help protect crops from common diseases. Experiment results are published in the journal Plants.

Stilbene Synthase is the gene responsible for the synthesis of resveratrol in plants. This compound is highly biologically active, helping plants protect themselves from drought, frost, salinity and other negative environmental factors. Scientists extracted the Stilbene Synthase Gene from grape leaves and used it to create modified plants that are resistant to a number of common bacterial and fungal pathogens.

“We have demonstrated that adding Stilbene Synthase to the genome of plants increases their resistance not only to physical and chemical factors, but also to infections. In the future, our results can be used to protect plants from diseases,” said Alexander Ermoshin, Associate Professor at the Department of Experimental Biology and Biotechnologies, UrFU.

Stilbene Synthase-modified plants showed high resistance to pathogens dangerous to agroindustry, including Erwinia, Fusarium, Botrytis gray and other fungi and bacteria. These pathogens cause disease in a large number of crops, and infection with them can lead to the loss of a large part of the crop.

One of the tobacco species served as a model plant for the scientists of UrFU and the Branch of the Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Special agrobacterium "loaded" with this gene was used to add Stilbene Synthase to the genome. According to the scientists, this is a completely natural process, repeating one of the mechanisms of natural plant mutation.

“An important part of the study was to analyze the effect of Stilbene Synthase on other characteristics of the modified plants. The tests showed that our transgenic tobacco does not differ from the usual tobacco, except for increased resistance to pathogens,” said Alexander Ermoshin.

It should be noted that specialists from Voronezh State University of Forestry and Technologies and the Federal Budget Institution of Science "State Research Center for Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology" also participated in the study. In the future, the research team intends to investigate the beneficial effects of plant modification with other genes.

Research Brief: The role of behavioral medicine in addressing climate-change related health inequities

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA MEDICAL SCHOOL

An article published in Translational Behavioral Medicine explores the role of behavioral medicine in addressing climate change-related health inequities.

“Structural racism has led to longstanding health inequities for communities that have been subjected to marginalization. Climate change is exacerbating these longstanding health inequities for frontline communities – which are those communities that are hit first and worst by climate change,” said Kristi White, PHD, LP, ABPP, an assistant professor and clinical health psychologist at the University of Minnesota Medical School. “We as behavioral medicine professionals have an important role to play in addressing climate-related health inequities in our research, clinical and other professional practices.”

The article highlights six strategies with the greatest potential for addressing climate-related health inequities: 

• Adopt standards for the measurement and reporting of race as a sociopolitical construct in all behavioral medicine research and practices, including those directed at addressing climate change.

• Operationalize the concept of structural racism in all behavioral medicine research and practices, including those directed at addressing climate change.

• Incorporate environmental justice efforts into behavioral medicine research and practices.

• Center the voices of communities targeted for marginalization in all behavioral medicine research and practices, including those that address climate and environmental justice.

• Prioritize policy action on climate change and health equity.

• Identify effective communication strategies to foster action on climate change and health equity issues.

Researchers say future studies should be aimed at dismantling structural racism, incorporating environmental justice efforts, and identifying effective communication strategies that promote action on climate change and health equity.

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About the University of Minnesota Medical School
The University of Minnesota Medical School is at the forefront of learning and discovery, transforming medical care and educating the next generation of physicians. Our graduates and faculty produce high-impact biomedical research and advance the practice of medicine. We acknowledge that the U of M Medical School, both the Twin Cities campus and Duluth campus, is located on traditional, ancestral and contemporary lands of the Dakota and the Ojibwe, and scores of other Indigenous people, and we affirm our commitment to tribal communities and their sovereignty as we seek to improve and strengthen our relations with tribal nations. For more information about the U of M Medical School, please visit med.umn.edu.

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JOURNAL

Translational Behavioral Medicine

DOI

10.1093/tbm/ibac005 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Systematic review

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

The Role of Behavioral Medicine in Addressing Climate Change-Related Health Inequities

Study finds cable news networks have grown more polarized

An analysis of 10 years of cable TV news reveals a growing partisan gap as networks like Fox and MSNBC have shifted to the right or the left of the political spectrum, especially in their primetime programming.

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA

Even though it seems that Americans are constantly on their phones, studies have shown that the majority of Americans still get their news from television. At the beginning of 2020, the average American adult consumed around nine-and-a-half hours of television news per week, according to Nielsen.

Cable news channels like CNN, Fox, and MSNBC are widely understood to have political leanings, but a new study published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences surveyed a decade of cable news to measure that bias on a granular scale—by the day, the week, and even the hour. It found that all three networks became more polarized over the period studied, particularly following the 2016 election, becoming more out of sync, with Fox moving to the right in response to events that caused MSNBC and CNN to move to the left. 

“There has always been this assumption that media bias is fairly fixed,” says Yphtach Lelkes, co-author on the study and an associate professor at the University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg School for Communication, “just ‘Fox News is the right. And MSNBC is the left.’ But what we see is that it moves, and pretty quickly.”

Lelkes and his colleagues focused on one form of media bias for their study: visibility bias. For example, if the majority of guests on a news channel are considered liberal, then the channel itself would be seen as liberal. They analyzed thousands of hours of CNN, Fox, and MSNBC to figure out who appeared on screen during news shows on these channels for at least 10 hours total between January 2010 and August 2020.

Each one of these guests was assigned a media bias score based on their financial contributions to political candidates and organizations, as found in Stanford University’s Database on Ideology, Money in Politics, and Elections (DIME).

“If a person donates to Ted Cruz and Donald Trump, they're assigned a media bias score based on their financial contributions to political candidates and organizations considered more conservative,” Lelkes says. “And if they donate to Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, they’re more liberal. So when we identify people on screen, we can also identify their ideology.” 

Using these scores as evidence, the team confirmed that during the past decade Fox has moved further to the right while both CNN and MSNBC have moved further to the left. More specifically, they pinpointed when the ideological gap between the channels became extreme: after the 2016 Presidential election. 

“For many years, Fox News was to the right of MSNBC and CNN,” Lelkes says, “but they used to track each other. When Fox moved to the right, so did MSNBC and CNN. They all flowed together. After Trump came into office, they responded to events in the news by leaning away from each other and more strongly toward their respective ideologies.” 

Interestingly, this gap between channels is more pronounced when it comes to primetime programming. Compared to other shows on their respective networks, primetime shows like “Anderson Cooper 360” on CNN and “The Rachel Maddow Show” on MSNBC skew more sharply to the left, while “Tucker Carlson Tonight” on Fox skews far more to the right. 

“We don't really see that dramatic polarization for the morning and afternoon shows,” Lelkes says, “which are more hard news, more fact-based shows.” 

Another recent study in the journal Science Advances, authored by University of Pennsylvania Stevens University Professor Duncan Watts and colleagues, also studied the partisanship of TV news by focusing on the audience partisanship. It found that Americans who get their news from TV, as opposed to reading it online, are far more likely to watch channels that reflect their ideology, and are less likely to stray outside their partisan bubble. 

Taken together, the two studies paint a concerning picture that partisan audiences on cable news are growing while the outlets themselves become more extreme.

Lelkes’s findings have raised a number of additional questions for the researchers: Do good ratings on a particular show encourage an entire network to move to the right or the left? Do viewer boycotts affect the ideology of a news channel? Will the ideological gap between channels ever get smaller or will it just keep growing?

For now, the team is working on opening up its data to the public.  

“Soon we will have a platform where people can play with the data—where they can go down to the show level and see what the bias scores are for any one show,” Lelkes says.

In addition to Lelkes, “Measuring Dynamic Media Bias” is co-authored by Columbia University Assistant Professor of Political Science and Annenberg Alum Eunji Kim and University of Utah Assistant Professor of Political Science Josh McCrain.

 

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JOURNAL

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

DOI

10.1073/pnas.2202197119 

ARTICLE TITLE

Measuring dynamic media bias

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

1-Aug-2022

A flexible device that harvests thermal energy to power wearable electronics

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON

 

IMAGE: UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON RESEARCHERS HAVE CREATED THE FIRST-OF-ITS KIND FLEXIBLE, WEARABLE THERMOELECTRIC DEVICE THAT CONVERTS BODY HEAT TO ELECTRICITY. THIS DEVICE IS SOFT AND STRETCHABLE, YET STURDY AND EFFICIENT — PROPERTIES THAT CAN BE CHALLENGING TO COMBINE. view more 

CREDIT: HAN ET AL./ADVANCED ENERGY MATERIALS

Wearable electronics, from health and fitness trackers to virtual reality headsets, are part of our everyday lives. But finding ways to continuously power these devices is a challenge.

University of Washington researchers have developed an innovative solution: the first-of-its kind flexible, wearable thermoelectric device that converts body heat to electricity. This device is soft and stretchable, yet sturdy and efficient — properties that can be challenging to combine.

The team published these findings July 24 in Advanced Energy Materials. 

"It’s a 100% gain if we harvest thermal energy that would otherwise be wasted to the surroundings. Because we want to use that energy for self-powered electronics, a higher power density is needed," said Mohammad Malakooti, a UW assistant professor of mechanical engineering. "We leverage additive manufacturing to fabricate stretchable electronics, increase their efficiency and enable their seamless integration into wearables while answering fundamental research questions."

Even after more than 15,000 stretching cycles at 30% strain, the researchers' prototype device remains fully functional, a highly desirable feature for wearable electronics and soft robotics. The device also shows a 6.5 times increase in power density compared to previous stretchable thermoelectric generators.

To create these flexible devices, the researchers 3D printed composites with engineered functional and structural properties at each layer. The filler material contained liquid metal alloys, which provide high electrical and thermal conductivity. These alloys address limitations in previous devices, including an inability to stretch, inefficient heat transfer and a complex fabrication process.

The team also embedded hollow microspheres to direct the heat to the semiconductors at the core layer and reduce the weight of the device.

The researchers showed that they could print these devices on stretchable textile fabrics and curved surfaces, which suggests that future devices could be applied to clothing and other objects. The team is excited about the future possibilities and real-life applications of wearable electronics.

"One unique aspect of our research is that it covers the whole spectrum, all the way from material synthesis to device fabrication and characterization," said Malakooti, who is also a researcher in the UW's Institute for Nano-Engineered Systems. "This gives us the freedom to design new materials, engineer every step in the process and be creative."

Youngshang Han, UW master's student in mechanical engineering, was lead author on the paper. Leif-Erik Simonsen is an additional co-author. This research was funded by the National Science Foundation.

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JOURNAL

Advanced Energy Materials

DOI

10.1002/aenm.202201413 

ARTICLE TITLE

Printing liquid metal elastomer composites for high-performance stretchable thermoelectric generators

How benign water transforms into harsh hydrogen peroxide

Peer-Reviewed Publication

STANFORD UNIVERSITY

A new study has put a remarkable and unexpected chemical genesis on more solid footing.

Back in 2019, Stanford University researchers and colleagues revealed the surprising discovery that hydrogen peroxide – a caustic substance used for disinfecting surfaces and bleaching hair – spontaneously forms in microscopic droplets of ordinary, benign water. Researchers have since aimed to flesh out how the newfound reaction occurs, as well as exploring potential applications, such as eco-friendlier cleaning methods.

The latest study has revealed that when sprayed microdroplets of water strike a solid surface, a phenomenon known as contact electrification happens. Electric charge jumps between the two materials, liquid and solid, producing unstable molecular fragments called reactive oxygen species. Pairs of these species known as hydroxyl radicals, and which have the chemical formula OH, can then combine to form hydrogen peroxide, H2O2, in minuscule but detectable quantities.

The new study further demonstrated that this process occurs in humid environments when water touches particles of soil as well as fine particles in the atmosphere. Those additional findings suggest that water can transform into small amounts of reactive oxygen species, such as hydrogen peroxide, wherever microdroplets naturally form, including in fogs, mists, and raindrops, bolstering results from a related 2020 study.

“We have a real understanding now that we didn’t have before about what is causing this hydrogen peroxide formation to happen,” said study senior author Richard Zare, the Marguerite Blake Wilbur Professor in Natural Science and a professor of chemistry in the Stanford School of Humanities and Sciences. “Furthermore, it appears that contact electrification yielding hydrogen peroxide is a universal phenomenon at water-solid interfaces.”

Zare led this work, collaborating with researchers from two universities in China, Jianghan University and Wuhan University, as well as the Chinese Academy of Sciences. The study was published Aug. 1 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

On the origins of the hydrogen peroxide

For the study, the researchers built a glass apparatus with microscopic channels in it where water could be forcibly injected. The channels formed an airtight water-solid boundary. The researchers perfused the water with a fluorescent dye that glows in the presence of hydrogen peroxide. An experiment showed the presence of the harsh chemical in the glass microfluidic channel, but not in a bulk sample of water also containing the dye. Additional experiments elaborated that the hydrogen peroxide formed quickly, within a matter of seconds, at the boundary between the water and the solid.

To gauge if the extra oxygen atom in the hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) came from a reaction with the glass or within the water (H2O) itself, the researchers treated the glass lining of some microfluidic channels. These treated channels contained a heavier isotope or version of oxygen, dubbed oxygen-18 or 18O. Comparing the post-reaction mix of water and hydrogen peroxide fluid from the treated and untreated channels showed the signal of 18O in the former, implicating the solid as the source of the oxygen in the hydroxyl radicals and ultimately in hydrogen peroxide.

The new findings could help settle some of the debate that has ensued in the scientific community since the Stanford researchers initially announced their novel detection of hydrogen peroxide in water microdroplets three years ago. Other studies have emphasized the major contributions of hydrogen peroxide production via chemical interactions with the gas ozone, O3, and a process called cavitation, when vapor bubbles arise in low-pressure areas within accelerated liquids. Zare pointed out that both of those processes also clearly yield hydrogen peroxide, and in comparatively greater amounts.

“All of these processes contribute to hydrogen peroxide production, but the present work confirms that this production is also intrinsic to the way microdroplets are made and interact with solid surfaces through contact electrification,” said Zare.

Turning the tables on seasonal respiratory viruses

Nailing down how and in what situations water can transform into reactive oxygen species, such as hydrogen peroxide, has a host of real-world insights and applications, Zare explained. Among the most compelling is understanding the formation of hydroxyl radicals and hydrogen peroxide as an overlooked contributor to the well-known seasonality of many viral respiratory diseases, including colds, flus, and likely COVID-19 once the disease eventually becomes fully endemic.

Viral respiratory infections are transmitted in the air as aqueous droplets when people who are sick cough, sneeze, sing, or even just talk. These infections tend to spike in winter and ebb in summer, a trend chalked up in part to people spending more time indoors and in close, transmissible proximity during the cold weather season. However, between work, school, and sleeping at night, people actually end up spending about the same amount of time indoors during the hot weather months as well. Zare said the new study’s findings offer a possible explanation for why winter is correlated with more flu cases: The key variable at work is humidity, the amount of water in the air. In the summer, the higher relative levels of indoor humidity – tied to higher humidity in the warm air outside – likely facilitate reactive oxygen species in droplets having enough time to kill viruses. Contrastingly, in winter – when the air inside buildings is heated and its humidity lowered – the droplets evaporate before the reactive oxygen species can act as a disinfectant.

“Contact electrification provides a chemical basis for partly explaining why there is seasonality to viral respiratory diseases,” said Zare. Accordingly, Zare added, future research should investigate any links between indoor humidity levels in buildings and the presence and spread of contagions. If links are further borne out, simply adding humidifiers to heating, ventilation, and cooling systems could lessen disease transmission.

“Taking a fresh approach to disinfecting surfaces is just one of the great practical consequences of this work involving the fundamental chemistry of water in the environment,” said Zare. “It just goes to show that we think we know so much about water, one of the most commonly encountered substances, but then we’re humbled.”

Zare is also a member of Stanford Bio-X, the Cardiovascular Institute, the Stanford Cancer Institute, Stanford ChEM-H, the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment, and the Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute.

The research was funded in part by grants from the Strategic Priority Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the National Natural Science Foundation of China, the National Key Research and Development Program of China, the Youth Talent Support Program of Jianghan University, and the U.S. Air Force Office of Scientific Research.

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JOURNAL

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

DOI

10.1073/pnas.2209056119 

ARTICLE TITLE

Water–solid contact electrification causes hydrogen peroxide production from hydroxyl radical recombination in sprayed microdroplets

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

1-Aug-2022

UK 

Junk food advertising restrictions prevent almost 100,000 obesity cases and is expected to save the NHS £200m

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF SHEFFIELD

• A restriction on junk food advertising across the Transport for London (TfL) network in 2019, has resulted in 94,867 fewer cases of obesity, 2,857 cases of diabetes prevented or delayed, and 1,915 fewer cases of cardiovascular disease

• The new research from the University of Sheffield and the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) has found the policy is expected to save the NHS £218 million over the lifetime of the current population

• Reductions in obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular disease could be higher than reported, as the study does not take into account any decreases in childhood obesity which are expected to have occured

• Currently, one quarter of children in the UK are obese by the time they leave primary school

• Researchers are now investigating the impact of rolling the policy out nationwide 

Junk food advertising restrictions on Transport for London (TfL) networks have prevented almost 100,000 obesity cases and is expected to save the NHS over £200 million, according to new research.

The new study, from the University of Sheffield and the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM), revealed the TfL advertising policy restricting the advertisement of foods high in calories from sugar and fat or high in salt, has led to consumers cutting down on less healthy products.

Researchers estimate the policy, which has been in place since 2019, has directly led to 94,867 fewer cases of obesity than expected (a 4.8 per cent decrease), 2,857 fewer cases of diabetes, and 1,915 fewer cases of cardiovascular disease.

In addition to health benefits for individuals, the analysis found the current advertising policy would save the NHS £218 million over the lifetime of the current population.  

The study is published in the journal International Journal of Behavioural Nutrition and Physical Activity, and led by the University of Sheffield in collaboration with researchers from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM), who previously found the advertising policy has contributed to a 1,000 calorie decrease in energy from unhealthy purchases in consumers' weekly shopping. 

By seeing what consumers are purchasing in their weekly food shops via surveys, and comparing trends in London to a control group of households outside of London where there were no restrictions on advertising in place, academics were able to assess the effect the policy is having on people’s health and the health service.

Dr Chloe Thomas, First Author of the study from the University of Sheffield’s School of Health and Related Research (ScHARR), said: “We all know how persuasive and powerful advertising can be in influencing what we buy - especially the food we eat. Our study has shown what an important tool advertising restrictions can be in order to help people lead healthier lives without costing them more money.

“We hope that demonstrating the policy's significant benefits in preventing obesity and the diseases exacerbated by obesity, will lead to it being rolled out on a national scale, something that could save lives and NHS money."

The findings reveal the policy has had the biggest health impacts on people from deprived areas in terms of preventing health conditions, therefore reducing the level of health inequality in London. Despite people on middle incomes cutting more calories, the policy has had a bigger impact on the most deprived areas as people from those areas tend to be less healthy overall.

Professor Steve Cummins, from LSHTM, said: “This work shows the potential health impacts and cost savings of the Mayor of London’s ‘Junk Food Ad Restriction’ based on our evaluation earlier this year, published in PLoS Medicine, which found that the policy reduced average household purchases of energy by 1000 calories per week. 

“With more than 80 local authorities across the UK now considering the implementation of similar policies, this study provides further evidence of the effectiveness of advertising restrictions to help support decision-makers. In light of the government’s current delay in implementing obesity prevention policies outlined in the recent 2022 Health & Care Act, this is a policy that local authorities can deliver now without the need for national regulation in an effort to tackle obesity on a national scale.”

The findings come at a time when food and diet is firmly on the minds of many families in Britain - the government recently announced its Food Strategy, which has come under heavy scrutiny for not going far enough to address concerns over food security in the UK.

The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, said: “Advertising undoubtedly plays a significant role in promoting and encouraging the consumption of less healthy foods. With child obesity putting the lives of young Londoners at risk it simply isn’t right that children and families across the capital are regularly inundated with adverts for foods that do not support their health – that’s why I was clear that tough action was needed.

“This study, which builds on research from earlier this year, demonstrates yet again that the ground-breaking restrictions we introduced could not only influence behaviour and ultimately save lives but could directly save our NHS hundreds of millions of pounds.

“I am determined to continue this work to improve the health of Londoners, alleviating some of the burden on our overstretched health service and building a better London for everyone.”

Dr Penny Breeze, Lead Investigator of the study from the University of Sheffield’s School of Health and Related Research (ScHARR), added: “There have been very few studies that have looked at the health and economic impact of out of home advertising restrictions. We are delighted to show that there are many benefits to the policy, and hope that the policy continues to be rolled out outside of London.”

The paper can be viewed in full here.

Ends

Notes to editors

Media contacts: For an interview with Dr Chloe Thomas please contact: Amy Huxtable, Media Relations Manager, University of Sheffield, 0114 222 9859

This work was funded by the NIHR. The NIHR School for Public Health Research aims to increase the evidence base for cost-effective public health practice. The School is a partnership between nine leading academic centres with excellence in applied public health research in England. 

National Institute for Health and Care Research

The mission of the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) is to improve the health and wealth of the nation through research. We do this by:

• Funding high quality, timely research that benefits the NHS, public health and social care;

• Investing in world-class expertise, facilities and a skilled delivery workforce to translate discoveries into improved treatments and services;

• Partnering with patients, service users, carers and communities, improving the relevance, quality and impact of our research;

• Attracting, training and supporting the best researchers to tackle complex health and social care challenges;

• Collaborating with other public funders, charities and industry to help shape a cohesive and globally competitive research system;

• Funding applied global health research and training to meet the needs of the poorest people in low and middle income countries.

NIHR is funded by the Department of Health and Social Care. Its work in low and middle income countries is principally funded through UK Aid from the UK government.

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 and develop solutions to society’s biggest challenges.

Sheffield researchers use their expertise to tackle some of the biggest issues of our time together with partners ranging from SMEs to some of the world’s biggest companies, from across the South Yorkshire region, the UK and beyond.

The University of Sheffield provides an outstanding student experience for its students, with the number one Students’ Union in the UK and both undergraduate and postgraduate degrees that help its students stand out in the jobs market and develop successful careers after graduation, wherever they choose to live and work.

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.

London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM)
The London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) is a world-leading centre for research, postgraduate studies and continuing education in public and global health. LSHTM has a strong international presence with over 3,500 staff and 4,000 students working in the UK and around the world, and an annual research income of £180 million.

LSHTM is one of the highest rated research institutions in the UK, and is partnered with two MRC Units in The Gambia and Uganda. We received a Queen’s Anniversary Prize for Higher and Further Education in 2017 in recognition of our work on Ebola, and in 2022 for our response to COVID-19. Our mission is to improve health and health equity in the UK and worldwide; working in partnership to achieve excellence in public and global health research, education and translation of knowledge into policy and practice. We are committed to delivering world class research and education in a sustainable way and are working to achieve net zero by 2030.

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JOURNAL

International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity

DOI

10.1186/s12966-022-01331-y 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Observational study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

The health, cost and equity impacts of restrictions on the advertisement of high fat, salt and sugar products across the transport for London network: a health economic modelling study

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

1-Aug-2022

Newts unleashed: Limb muscle regeneration needs metamorphosis and body growth

Researchers from the University of Tsukuba find that changes in the extracellular environment provided by metamorphosis and body growth enable newt muscle fibers to dedifferentiate and contribute to limb regeneration

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF TSUKUBA

 

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CREDIT: UNIVERSITY OF TSUKUBA

Researchers from the University of Tsukuba find that changes in the extracellular environment provided by metamorphosis and body growth enable newt muscle fibers to dedifferentiate and contribute to limb regeneration

Tsukuba, Japan—Unknown to passersby, a modest little creature with amazing abilities lives and breeds in the forests and paddy fields of Japan. Now, researchers from Japan have discovered how these amphibians' superpowers are unleashed.

In a study published this month in Scientific Reports, researchers from the University of Tsukuba have revealed that during limb regeneration in newts, two developmental processes—metamorphosis and body growth—are needed to provide the right conditions for muscle cells to be redeployed within the limb stump.

Newts, which are a semiaquatic type of salamander, are like most other amphibians in that they undergo metamorphosis. But unlike their relatives, newts are capable of repeated limb regeneration—even in the adult stage after they have undergone metamorphosis. In some newt species, individuals that have already metamorphosed regenerate muscle via dedifferentiation or reprogramming of muscle fibers in the limb stump, and mobilization of these fibers, to create muscle in the regenerating limb.

"Unlike cell differentiation, where cells become more specialized, cell dedifferentiation is a process via which they become less specialized," says senior author of the study, Professor Chikafumi Chiba. "Prior to our study, it was unknown whether metamorphosis or body growth was the key developmental process for muscle dedifferentiation."

The researchers investigated muscle cell dedifferentiation in the Japanese Fire-bellied Newt, Cynops pyrrhogaster, by tracking muscle fibers during limb regeneration while body growth and metamorphosis were experimentally delayed or advanced. The results suggest that metamorphosis and body growth are both needed for muscle differentiation.

Conversely, when larval newt muscles were cultured with a physiologically active thyroid hormone, tracking of the muscle fibers showed that these fibers can dedifferentiate independently of body growth and metamorphosis. These results indicate that newt muscle fibers have an inherent capacity to dedifferentiate, but that both body growth and metamorphosis are required for the fibers to activate this secret ability.

"We suggest that the developmental changes in the extracellular environment, or niche, inhibit the activity of myogenic stem cells—cells that can differentiate into muscle fibers—and promote the latent ability of muscle fibers to dedifferentiate. This way, the stem cells are compensated for by dedifferentiation, allowing newts to regenerate limb muscles throughout their life cycle," says Professor Chiba.

The results of this study provide an important foundation for future research on extracellular environments as well as the molecular mechanisms of dedifferentiation, such as the gene regulation that underpins this phenomenon. This research will also contribute to a deeper understanding of regeneration, and possible even to potential future medical treatments such as new therapies for diseases and muscle damage.

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This work was supported by grants from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology in Japan (221S0002) and the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (80272152; 18H04061) to C. C.

Original Paper

The article, "The latent dedifferentiation capacity of newt limb muscles is unleashed by a combination of metamorphosis and body growth," was published in Scientific Reports at DOI: 10.1038/s41598-022-15879-z

Correspondence

Professor CHIBA Chikafumi
Faculty of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Tsukuba

Related Link

Faculty of Life and Environmental Sciences

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JOURNAL

Scientific Reports

DOI

10.1038/s41598-022-15879-z 

ARTICLE TITLE

The latent dedifferentiation capacity of newt limb muscles is unleashed by a combination of metamorphosis and body growth

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

1-Aug-2022