Study: Schools’ social media posts may be compromising student privacy

US schools have shared an estimated 4.9 million Facebook posts with identifiable images of students

Peer-Reviewed Publication

AMERICAN EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH ASSOCIATION

Washington, November 2, 2022—U.S. schools and school districts have shared an estimated 4.9 million posts that include identifiable images of students on public Facebook pages, unintentionally putting student privacy at risk, according to a new study. Around 726,000 of these posts are thought to identify one or more students by their first and last names. The research was published today in Educational Researcher, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Educational Research Association.

The study examined publicly accessible posts on U.S. school and school district Facebook pages from 2005 to 2020. During that time, schools published about 18 million posts, with the annual frequency of posts, and the proportion of posts with photos, increasing each year. Public Facebook posts are accessible by all visitors to the platform, including those without a Facebook account.

Video: Coauthor Joshua M. Rosenberg discusses major findings and implications of the research

“While the percentage of Facebook posts that identified students was small, the sheer volume of posts meant that hundreds of thousands of students had personally identifiable information shared by their schools,” said coauthor Joshua M. Rosenberg, an assistant professor of STEM education at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. “These findings suggest that student privacy may inadvertently be threatened by the social media activity of schools and districts.”

While previous research has looked at how social media sharing by individual educators may place the privacy of students at risk, Rosenberg notes this study is the first to consider the privacy implications of social media activities undertaken by schools and districts.  

Rosenberg conducted the study with Conrad Borchers (Carnegie Mellon University), Macy A. Burchfield (University of Tennessee, Knoxville), Daniel Anderson (Abl Schools), Sondra M. Stegenga (University of Utah), and Christian Fischer (University of Tübingen).

Using CrowdTangle, Facebook’s tool for scholars and journalists that provides access to data on the platform’s public posts, the researchers accessed public Facebook posts from all public schools and school districts in the United States. They found the posts by searching for links to Facebook pages from school and district website homepages. Thus, only schools and districts that linked to their Facebook page from their homepage were included in the sample.

The researchers found that of the 18 million posts, approximately 13.9 million included images of individuals of any age. Extrapolating from an analysis of a randomly selected sample of posts, the researchers estimated that 4.9 million of the posts had identifiable images of students, and 726,000 of these identified students’ first and last names.

“The posts we studied may represent the largest existing collection of publicly accessible, identifiable images of minors,” said Rosenberg. “It is likely that the photos are being accessed by a range of actors, including government agencies, predictive policing companies, and those with nefarious intent.”

The study notes that government agencies in the U.S. and other countries regularly access public social media data for purposes ranging from monitoring immigration and predicting crime risks to documenting social connections. It also notes that the Australian government’s online safety agency has reported that tens of millions of harmless images of minors originally shared on social media have been downloaded and saved on child exploitation sites.

“The threat to privacy will continue to grow, perhaps quickly, due to expanding facial recognition technology,” said Rosenberg. He also explained that a simple reverse image search on Google could link a student to other sources of personally identifiable information online.

Rosenberg and his coauthors said there are practical steps that school leaders could take to mitigate risks. These include not including students’ full names in posts; asking parents to opt in to, rather than opt out of, the sharing of their children’s information on school social media; making it easy for parents to request that photos of their children be removed; and making school or district pages private.

Media companies, Rosenberg added, should consider changing the default settings for schools, automatically making pages private, which would drastically reduce the risk that student information is collected at a large scale for unintended secondary uses.

He also noted policymakers and government regulators could do more to reduce the risk that schools and other organizations that serve children will inadvertently compromise children’s privacy.

“As a nation, the U.S. needs to devote greater attention and resources to mitigating the potential downsides of the pervasive sharing of children’s information on social media, particularly when it is organizations such as schools and districts that are doing the sharing,” said Rosenberg.

The study’s authors acknowledged the importance of parent engagement efforts, including the use of social media by schools. However, they noted this must always be balanced with safety and privacy protections on multiple levels.

“While parents and schools can take steps to protect student privacy, it is also the responsibility of social media platforms and the wider society to ensure that policies and regulations keep pace with rapidly evolving technology, Rosenberg said.

Study Citation: Rosenberg, J. M., Borchers, C., Burchfield, M. A., Anderson, D., Stegenga, S. M., & Fischer, C. (2022). Posts about students on Facebook: A data ethics perspective. Educational Researcher. Prepublished November 2, 2022. https://www.doi.org/10.3102/0013189X221120538.

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About AERA
The American Educational Research Association (AERA) is the largest national interdisciplinary research association devoted to the scientific study of education and learning. Founded in 1916, AERA advances knowledge about education, encourages scholarly inquiry related to education, and promotes the use of research to improve education and serve the public good. Find AERA on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

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JOURNAL

Educational Researcher

DOI

10.3102/0013189X221120538 

ARTICLE TITLE

Posts About Students on Facebook: A Data Ethics Perspective

UiB and Wild Space Productions collaborate on new Netflix documentary

The University of Bergen, Norway, proudly announces a unique collaboration agreement with Wild Space Productions.

Business Announcement

THE UNIVERSITY OF BERGEN

 

IMAGE: IN NOVEMBER 2022, WILD SPACE PRODUCTIONS WILL PARTICIPATE IN FIELD WORK WITH THE RESEARCH VESSEL "KRONPRINS HAAKON" IN SVALBARD view more 

CREDIT: INSTITUTE OF MARINE RESEARCH

The University of Bergen proudly announces a unique collaboration agreement with Wild Space Productions.
The collaboration involves the University of Bergen, Norway, as scientific advisor for the episode that deals with the Arctic Ocean in the new five-part series “Our Oceans”, premiering globally on Netflix in 2024.

The University of Bergen has world-class academic environments in marine research, and therefore it is with pride that the university can present the collaboration with one of the world's largest platforms of film and television content.

“It is an amazing feat that the University of Bergen has pioneered this collaboration with one of the best nature documentary teams in the world. This project has proven to be an incredible way for Norwegian scientists to serve the public need for factual story-telling from the fragile and fascinating ecosystems of the Arctic to the living rooms of millions of people around the world”, says Rector at the University of Bergen, Margareth Hagen.

The production team at Wild Space Productions has collaborated with UiB researchers since spring 2021 and will continue while the filming of the new series is ongoing. UiB researchers contribute with their knowledge and expertise about the Arctic Ocean and arctic ecosystems.

Dorothy Dankel, adjunct associate professor at the Department of Biological Sciences at UiB, has hosted bi-weekly meetings with Wild Space Productions for over a year to examine new animal behavior observations from the field.

“It has been a wonderful experience to develop new, never-been-seen ocean stories with Wild Space Productions. This collaboration has brought out the best of our unique science observations from our marine networks in Bergen and our extended scientific family around the Arctic. Wild Space Productions has been a trusted partner through this whole journey; it has been a true pleasure to share and discuss marine science with their dedicated award-winning filmmakers”, Dankel says.

In early November 2022, Wild Space Productions will participate in field work with the University of Bergen on board the marine research vessel "Kronprins Haakon" in Svalbard.
“Our Oceans” is executive produced by EMMY Award-winning television producer James Honeyborne.

“Wild Space Productions is always keen to collaborate with leading scientists and institutions to better represent the natural world. The University of Bergen is on the front-line of scientific research on the Arctic Ocean, its ecosystems and its wildlife. We've been fortunate enough to partner with the University to better understand, film and pass-on meaningful stories from the wild that will help us all to better connect and care for this wondrous but fast-changing environment," says Honeyborne.

IPK researchers use Cas9 gene scissors to establish new resistances of winter barley to viruses

Peer-Reviewed Publication

LEIBNIZ INSTITUTE OF PLANT GENETICS AND CROP PLANT RESEARCH

 

IMAGE: TYPICAL YELLOW MOSAICS ON THE LEAVES OF A BARLEY PLANT INFECTED WITH THE BAMMV VIRUS IN THE GREENHOUSE (LEFT) IN DIRECT COMPARISON WITH A HEALTHY PLANT (RIGHT). view more 

CREDIT: IPK LEIBNIZ INSTITUTE

Besides fungi and insects, viruses are also serious pathogens of crops. In the case of cereals, viruses that are transmitted to the plants via microorganisms in the soil are becoming increasingly important. For barley, these are mainly the barley yellow mosaic virus (BaYMV) and the barley mild mosaic virus (BaMMV). Both are transmitted to young seedlings of winter barley in autumn and can cause yield losses of up to 50 percent.

Resistance breeding plays an essential role to cope with these pathogens. Although almost all current European winter barley varieties are resistant to these viruses, some virus strains have already overcome this widely used resistance through genetic adaptation, so that a broad breakthrough of the natural defences is only a matter of time. Given the tediousness of breeding measures, there is an urgent need to identify new sources of resistance and deploy them to breeding in an accelareted manner.

In search of such new resistances, a research team led by the IPK Leibniz Institute screened material from the Institute's gene bank. In 2014, they found what they were looking for in old landraces and wild relatives of cultivated barley. "These investigations have shown that the PDIL5-1 gene, which is involved in the formation of 3-dimensional protein structures, also plays a central role in the resistance of plants to viruses," explains Robert Hoffie from the "Plant Reproductive Biology" research group. This is a so-called susceptibility factor host-dependent viruses utilise to reproduce themselves in the plant tissue. "A decisive finding for us was that resistant gene bank material contained variants of the PDIL5-1 gene that had lost their function through mutation and hence can no longer be used by the virus " says the IPK scientist and first author of the study.

However, crossing such resistance-mediating gene variants into the existing breeding material of European winter barley is laborious and time-consuming. "Therefore, we used the Cas9 gene scissors to switch off the PDIL5-1 gene in two susceptible barley varieties by targeted mutagenesis, thus achieving success much faster and without any additional genetic changes in the barley varieties," says Robert Hoffie. The results were more than promising; "the targeted plants were resistant to barley mosaic virus (BaMMV) infection in the greenhouse trial and there were no negative effects on growth or yield."

"The study exemplifies how we can take advantage of our gene bank material for plant breeding today with extremely efficient and precise biotechnological tools such as the Cas9 gene scissors," comments Dr. Jochen Kumlehn, head of the study and head of the "Plant Reproductive Biology" research group. At the same time, the new findings also open up further perspectives of research. For example, we assume that the modification of PDIL genes may also lead to virus resistance in other plant species.

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JOURNAL

Plant Biotechnology Journal

DOI

10.1111/pbi.13948 

ARTICLE TITLE

Novel resistance to the Bymovirus BaMMV established by targeted mutagenesis of the PDIL5-1 susceptibility gene in barley

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

2-Nov-2022

Researcher raises awareness on the health of rivers and lakes — by swimming in them

Reports and Proceedings

AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY

By swimming the length of the Danube, chemist Andreas Fath hoped to bring attention to the condition of the rivers that affect communities, measuring pollution and performing outreach activities along the way. At the same time, other researchers are working to understand the impacts of this summer’s high temperatures and droughts on lakes and rivers. Read more in a cover story in Chemical & Engineering News, an independent news outlet of the American Chemical Society.

On April 22, Fath jumped into the Danube River in Ulm, Germany. He would spend the next eight weeks swimming over 1,600 miles along the river, writes Senior Editor Laura Howes. Passive sampling membranes stuck to the legs of his wetsuit absorbed persistent organic pollutants in the water, while scientists traveling with him took samples to measure the water’s chemistry and quality. One risk Fath particularly cares about is microplastics in the water. They can soak up pollutants and are then eaten by fish, concentrating the pollutants in their bodies. But that’s not the only risk to the wildlife in lakes and rivers. This past summer, a toxic algal bloom in the Oder River in Europe killed hundreds of thousands of fish. Other researchers have found that the river was susceptible to this ecological disaster because of warmer water temperatures, changes in the oxygenation levels of the water and lower water levels. As lakes and rivers globally suffer from the effects of climate change and pollution, there are also potential consequences for human health and the economy. Dust containing arsenic is being blown aloft as the Great Salt Lake shrinks, cargo transport on the Yangtze and Rhine Rivers has been disrupted, and low water levels limit the amount of power that can be generated by hydroelectric plants.

As he traveled the Danube River, Fath stopped at towns along the route to perform workshops on environmental risks — including Belgrade, Serbia, where Fath received significant attention from the media when he paused his swim because the water quality was so poor. In other countries, scientists are also raising a red flag regarding the health of rivers and lakes, with policymakers and the public beginning to take note. Fath has now swum the lengths of the Rhine, Tennessee and Danube Rivers, believing that public awareness will be key to inspiring people to protect these bodies of water.

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.

To automatically receive news releases from the American Chemical Society, contact newsroom@acs.org.

Follow us: Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn | Instagram

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JOURNAL

Chemical & Engineering News

ARTICLE TITLE

“What happens when the water in our rivers and lakes reaches record lows?”

Enhanced observations for better forecasting tropical cyclones over the South China sea

From the surface, through the sky, and into space

Peer-Reviewed Publication

INSTITUTE OF ATMOSPHERIC PHYSICS, CHINESE ACADEMY OF SCIENCE

 

IMAGE: THE SKY OF STORM CLOUDS BEFORE LANDFALL OF TROPICAL CYCLONE MULAN. view more 

CREDIT: SI GAO

The South China Sea is where most tropical cyclones (TCs) attack the Chinese mainland, but a lack of observational data has for decades hindered our ability to forecast them. In August 2022, a successful field campaign during TC Mulan boosted confidence in forecasting similar events in the future. The results of the campaign were recorded and published in Advances in Atmospheric Sciences.

 

The campaign, starting on 5 August, collected observations simultaneously using China's FengYun-4B geostationary satellite, aircraft equipped with dropsondes (weather devices designed to be dropped from aircraft at specified altitudes), and balloons equipped with radiosondes (a small instrument suspended below the balloon). The project was a collaboration between the China Meteorological Administration (CMA), Institute of Atmospheric Physics (Chinese Academy of Sciences), Fudan University, and the Hong Kong Observatory (HKO), the latter of whom has a six-year history in collecting meteorological data using aircraft.

 

“We at HKO were honoured to have the chance to collaborate with the CMA and other scientific institutes on the Chinese mainland for this project”, says Mr. Pak-Wai CHAN of HKO, who arranged the aircraft flight into the TC in collaboration with the Government Flying Service in Hong Kong. “This joint effort is a landmark in enhanced meteorological observations over the South China Sea.”

 

“We were excited to find that the enhanced observational data displayed positive impacts on both the track and intensity forecasts of TC Mulan”, explains Prof. Wei Han from the Earth System Modeling and Prediction Centre at the CMA, who arranged the satellite observations and the subsequent operational forecasts. “Moreover, rainfall forecasts along the South China coast were more accurate with these data”.

 

These results confirm the findings of the team's previous research in which dropsonde data were used to observe four TC cases in 2020.

 

“We hope to conduct more such field campaigns in the future to collect evermore useful observations of TCs. Not only operational forecasting but also basic scientific research will benefit greatly from these data”, concludes Dr Xiaohao Qin from the Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, who identified the optimal observation area for both the satellite and aircraft measurements in this campaign.

Overview of observations recorded on 9 August 2022: brightness temperature from the satellite instrument and wind vectors from the dropsondes (blue wind bars) and radiosondes (colored lines). Colored dots denote the differences between observations and simulations.

CREDIT

Xiaohao Qin

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JOURNAL

Advances in Atmospheric Sciences

DOI

10.1007/s00376-022-2267-z 

ARTICLE TITLE

Ground—Space—Sky Observing System Experiment during Tropical Cyclone Mulan in August 2022

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

1-Nov-2022

Researchers show how network pruning can skew deep learning models

Reports and Proceedings

NORTH CAROLINA STATE UNIVERSITY

Computer science researchers have demonstrated that a widely used technique called neural network pruning can adversely affect the performance of deep learning models, detailed what causes these performance problems, and demonstrated a technique for addressing the challenge.

Deep learning is a type of artificial intelligence that can be used to classify things, such as images, text or sound. For example, it can be used to identify individuals based on facial images. However, deep learning models often require a lot of computing resources to operate. This poses challenges when a deep learning model is put into practice for some applications.

To address these challenges, some systems engage in “neural network pruning.” This effectively makes the deep learning model more compact and, therefore, able to operate while using fewer computing resources.

“However, our research shows that this network pruning can impair the ability of deep learning models to identify some groups,” says Jung-Eun Kim, co-author of a paper on the work and an assistant professor of computer science at North Carolina State University.

“For example, if a security system uses deep learning to scan people’s faces in order to determine whether they have access to a building, the deep learning model would have to be made compact so that it can operate efficiently. This may work fine most of the time, but the network pruning could also affect the deep learning model’s ability to identify some faces.”

In their new paper, the researchers lay out why network pruning can adversely affect the performance of the model at identifying certain groups – which the literature calls “minority groups” – and demonstrate a new technique for addressing these challenges.

Two factors explain how network pruning can impair the performance of deep learning models.

In technical terms, these two factors are: disparity in gradient norms across groups; and disparity in Hessian norms associated with inaccuracies of a group’s data. In practical terms, this means that deep learning models can become less accurate in recognizing specific categories of images, sounds or text. Specifically, the network pruning can amplify accuracy deficiencies that already existed in the model.

For example, if a deep learning model is trained to recognize faces using a data set that includes the faces of 100 white people and 60 Asian people, it might be more accurate at recognizing white faces, but could still achieve adequate performance for recognizing Asian faces. After network pruning, the model is more likely to be unable to recognize some Asian faces.

“The deficiency may not have been noticeable in the original model, but because it’s amplified by the network pruning, the deficiency may become noticeable,” Kim says.

“To mitigate this problem, we’ve demonstrated an approach that uses mathematical techniques to equalize the groups that the deep learning model is using to categorize data samples,” Kim says. “In other words, we are using algorithms to address the gap in accuracy across groups.”

In testing, the researchers demonstrated that using their mitigation technique improved the fairness of a deep learning model that had undergone network pruning, essentially returning it to pre-pruning levels of accuracy.

“I think the most important aspect of this work is that we now have a more thorough understanding of exactly how network pruning can influence the performance of deep learning models to identify minority groups, both theoretically and empirically,” Kim says. “We’re also open to working with partners to identify unknown or overlooked impacts of model reduction techniques, particularly in real-world applications for deep learning models.”

The paper, “Pruning Has a Disparate Impact on Model Accuracy,” will be presented at the 36th Conference on Neural Information Processing Systems (NeurIPS 2022), being held Nov. 28-Dec. 9 in New Orleans. First author of the paper is Cuong Tran of Syracuse University. The paper was co-authored by Ferdinando Fioretto of Syracuse, and by Rakshit Naidu of Carnegie Mellon University.

The work was done with support from the National Science Foundation, under grants SaTC-1945541, SaTC-2133169 and CAREER-2143706; as well as a Google Research Scholar Award and an Amazon Research Award.

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METHOD OF RESEARCH

Computational simulation/modeling

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE TITLE

Pruning Has a Disparate Impact on Model Accuracy

Iodine accelerates formation of cloud condensation nuclei in the atmosphere

International research team reports effect of iodine-organic chemistry on the generation of new particles in the marine atmosphere and the recycling of iodine during particle growth

JOHANNES GUTENBERG UNIVERSITAET MAINZ


image: Clouds over the Atlantic view more


Credit: photo/©: Hoffmann group


The natural cycles of exchange of substances between the biosphere and the atmosphere are of major relevance to the Earth's climatic system. Perhaps the best-known example of this is the carbon cycle that involves the transfer of carbon between the atmosphere, the land biosphere, and the oceans. This cycle is responsible for ensuring that temperatures on our planet's surface are hospitable to life. However, there are also other important cycles of elements, such as that of sulfur. The emission of sulfur compounds from marine phytoplankton assumedly leads to the generation of water vapor-based condensation nuclei in the marine atmosphere, resulting in cloud formation. In other words, there is a natural feedback system that contributes to the stabilization of the Earth's surface temperatures. An international team of researchers has now identified a further element associated with marine algae that exhibits remarkably interlinked cyclical reactions in the marine atmosphere. This element is iodine. Their findings have been published recently in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

Iodine is a halogen and thus belongs to a group of elements present in larger concentrations in seawater. Although the levels of iodine are far lower than those of, for instance, chlorine in the form of sea salt, this iodine exhibits certain unusual chemical features. "Initially, the process is similar to that of the sulfur cycle," explained Professor Thorsten Hoffmann of Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU). Marine phytoplankton convert the iodate present in the oceans into iodide, presumably so that they can employ this iodide as a simple inorganic antioxidant to protect their own cell walls. Iodide present at the water surface then also reacts with atmospheric ozone, releasing molecular iodine. This molecular iodine, through a succession of rapid atmospheric reactions, is transformed into iodine oxide, a substance that is very prone to take the form of aerosol particles. "These particles can grow into larger particles that can serve as cloud condensation nuclei and thus influence cloud formation," added Hoffmann. "However, in the case of iodine, in contrast with sulfur, the corresponding process is by no means at an end at this point."

Does iodine catalyze new particle formation?

In their PNAS article, the authors describe how a notable fraction of the molecular iodine formed in the growing atmospheric particles of the already generated iodine oxides is recycled back into the gas phase. "As far as we are currently able to establish, iodine is the only element that does not leave the atmosphere after being released from the Earth's surface but can be returned to the gas phase through redox reactions while it is still in the particle phase," clarified Hoffmann, who is a professor at JGU's Department of Chemistry. This means that iodine may well act as a significant catalyst when it comes to cloud formation. A series of unresolved questions remains, however. Among other things, it is still unclear to what extent human activity, which intervenes in this process at various points, impacts on this unique iodine cycle.

Participating in the project were, in addition to researchers at Mainz University, their colleagues at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in Pasadena, and the University of Galway.

Related links:
https://www.blogs.uni-mainz.de/fb09-ac-hoffmann-eng/ – Research group of Professor Thorsten Hoffmann

Read more:
https://www.uni-mainz.de/presse/aktuell/11991_ENG_HTML.php – press release "Reversed ratio of chiral volatile organic compounds over the Amazon rainforest reveal insects as unexplored important source of forest emissions" (27 Aug. 2020) ;
https://www.uni-mainz.de/presse/aktuell/10593_ENG_HTML.php – press release "Scientists at Mainz University study ice cores as a climate archive" (20 Dec. 2019) ;
https://www.uni-mainz.de/presse/aktuell/9337_ENG_HTML.php – press release "Reinhart Koselleck Project funding for research into the growth of atmospheric nanoparticles" (1 Oct. 2019) ;
https://www.uni-mainz.de/presse/15768_ENG_HTML.php – press release "International research group shows that the aging of organic aerosols is caused by OH radicals" (5 Oct. 2012)

Teens with COVID-19 knowledge reported better well-being

Peer-Reviewed Publication

WASHINGTON STATE UNIVERSITY

PULLMAN, Wash. – A pandemic survey found that adolescents who answered more COVID-19 test questions correctly also reported lower stress, anxiety and depression as well as lower loneliness and fear of missing out, also known as FOMO.

For the study, published in the Journal of Child and Family Studies, Washington State University researchers surveyed 215 teens ages 14-17 across the U.S. in July 2020 during the early months of the pandemic.

“Knowledge was a good thing. The teens who did better on our quiz tended to report lower depression, anxiety and stress – just across the board,” said corresponding author Chris Barry, a WSU psychology professor. “This is a one-time snapshot, so we don't really know cause and effect, but one presumption is that having accurate information was connected to feeling a little bit more ease during that time.”

Barry and co-authors Zeinab Mousavi and Brianna Halter had participants first answer true or false questions about COVID-19, such as the ways that the virus spreads and its health risks. While there were some low scores on the test, the majority of the participants did well with an average score of 15 out of 18 correct, and 21.9% got all the answers correct. The participants then answered a range of questions about their well-being as well as their social media use.

While nearly all the teens, 98.1%, used social media in some form, those who had good COVID-19 knowledge and checked social media less frequently also reported the lowest levels of anxiety.

While it is difficult to know the reason behind this connection, the researchers said that one possibility was that teens with less accurate COVID-19 knowledge might have used social media more to find answers and in the process, absorbed more misinformation which contributed to their anxiety.

Social media likely has a mixed effect on teens’ well-being, said Mousavi, a research assistant in Barry’s lab and the first author on the study.

“There are so many factors with social media,” she said. “For instance, it's good that you are staying connected with your friends and getting some information, but maybe at a certain point it is making some things worse, giving you more anxiety, rather than helping you cope with the situation.”

The researchers also surveyed the teens’ parents to assess the level of lockdown measures the adolescents were under. They found that the more restrictive quarantine measures were associated with negative well-being for the teens, but that teens’ perceptions of the lockdown were particularly important for well-being. This indicates that perhaps the more that adolescents understood the reason for such measures, or perceived there to be some benefits, the more positive they felt in general, said Barry.

The findings underscore the need for parents and educators to give teens information especially in times of crisis, he added.

“In thinking about adolescent development in general, one of the things that we recommend from a developmental psychology perspective is open communication, so for the pandemic, that means honest, accurate information,” Barry said.

He also suggested that parents not only acknowledge the stress and feelings of isolation that may come with something like quarantine but also help teens make the most of the situation. For example, if their kids are missing out on events that were cancelled, parents could help them find other ways to socialize with friends or engage in recreational activities. They should also try to emphasize any potential positive sides of the experience.

“In an unusual situation like lockdowns, mindset matters,” he said.

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JOURNAL

Journal of Child and Family Studies

DOI

10.1007/s10826-022-02465-0 

ARTICLE TITLE

Relations of Adolescent Knowledge of COVID-19, Social Media Engagement, and Experiences During Quarantine/Lockdown with Well-Being

Now we know how plants steer clear of salt

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF COPENHAGEN - FACULTY OF SCIENCE

 

IMAGE: THE ROOT EPIDERMAL CELLS OF THE TWISTING ROOTS view more 

CREDIT: WENNA ZHENG

To avoid salt in soil, plants can change their root direction and grow away from saline areas. University of Copenhagen researchers helped find out what makes this possible. The discovery changes our understanding of how plants change their shape and direction of growth and may help alleviate the accelerating global problem of high soil salinity on farmland.

 

Whereas a bath in the ultra-salty Dead Sea may be a balm for human soul and body, the relationship between most plants and salt is quite the opposite. Plants desperately do whatever they can to steer clear of salinity – as salts can damage and even suffocate them.

Unfortunately, salt in agricultural land is an accelerating global problem, partly due to climate change, which increases the salinity of soil whenever floods sweep coastal zones. Typically, this lowers crop yields.

"The world needs crops that can better withstand salt. If we are to develop plants that are more salt-tolerant, it is important to first understand the mechanisms by which they react to salt," explains Professor Staffan Persson of the University of Copenhagen’s Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences. He continues:

“To avoid salt in soil, plants can make their roots grow away from saline areas. It is a vital mechanism. Until now, it is unclear how they do this."

Together with a group of foreign research colleagues, Persson discovered exactly what happens inside plants at a cellular and molecular level as their roots grow away from salt. The results have been published in the scientific journal Developmental Cell.

 

Stress hormone comes into play

The research group has discovered that when a plant senses local concentrations of salt, the stress hormone ABA (abscisic acid) is activated in the plant. This hormone then sets a response mechanism into motion.

"The plant has a stress hormone triggered by salt. This hormone causes a reorganization of the tiny protein-based tubes in the cell, called the cytoskeleton. The reorganization then causes the cellulose fibers surrounding the root cells to make a similar rearrangement, forcing the root to twist in such a way that it grows away from the salt," explains Professor Persson. 

 

Changes the understanding of how plants change shape

The leading role played by the stress hormone is what makes the discovery a surprise for the researchers. Until now, it was believed that the hormone auxin controlled a plant’s ability to change directions in response to various environmental influences (known as tropisms). 

"That the stress hormone ABA is crucial for plants being able to reorganize their cell walls and change shape and direction of growth is completely new. This could open new avenues in plant research, where there will be a greater focus on the significant role that the hormone seems to play in the ability of plants to cope with various conditions by changing movement," says Staffan Persson.

By mutating a single amino acid in a protein that drives the twisting of the root, the researchers were able to reverse the twist so that the plant could not grow away from the salt.

Persson believes that it will be some time before the new knowledge is applied in agriculture – not least because GMOs remain banned in the EU. However, the results may open the way for the development of more salt-tolerant crop varieties.

"Plants produce more of the stress hormone when they sense salt. It's not hard to imagine that if you can speed up a plant's stress response by changing other aspects of the cytoskeleton, you can probably make its root-twist happen faster. In this way, we can strengthen plants by reducing their exposure to salt," says Professor Persson.

 

FACTS: About the study

• The ability of plants to grow toward or away from certain environmental stimuli is called tropism. Halotropism is the ability to grow away from salt. Other tropisms include responses to light (phototropism) and gravity (gravitropism).
   
• The experiments in the study were conducted on Arabidopsis plants using biotechnology and microscopy.
   
• The scientific research article about the study "Root twisting drives halotropism via stress-induced microtubule reorientation" has been published in the scientific journal Developmental Cell.
   
• From the University of Copenhagen, Postdoc Wenna Zheng and Professor Staffan Persson have contributed to the study.

 

FACTS:

• High salt concentrations in farmland are caused by several things, including the flooding of coastal areas due to climate change, as well as irrigation, which often increases soil salinity.
   
• The annual cost of land degradation due to salt in irrigated areas is estimated to be roughly $30 billion USD (source: www.un.org/en/observances/world-soil-day).

 

Wild-type seedlings were transferred to a split-agar medium without or with 200 mM NaCl

 

Microscopic images of roots

CREDIT

Bo Yu

JOURNAL

Developmental Cell

DOI

10.1016/j.devcel.2022.09.012 

ARTICLE TITLE

Root twisting drives halotropism via stress-induced microtubule reorientation

New pathway for global carbon neutrality: Radiative cooling

Peer-Reviewed Publication

SCIENCE CHINA PRESS

 

IMAGE: (A) THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK TO DESIGN IR-TRANSPARENT FABRIC. (B) SCHEMATIC OF POLYDOPAMINE AND NANO-POROUS POLYETHYLENE (PDA-NANOPE-MESH) WITH PERFORMANCE COMPARABLE WITH THAT OF COTTON. (C) DIAGRAM OF FACE MASKS WITH ELECTROSPUN NYLON-6 NANOFIBERS ON NEEDLE-PUNCHED NANOPE SUBSTRATE. (D) SCHEMATIC OF NANOPE FABRIC WITH HIGH MID-IR TRANSPARENCY, VISIBLE OPACITY AND GOOD WEARABILITY. (E) ZNO NPS EMBEDDED NANO-POROUS PE FABRIC. (F) SCHEMATIC FOR THE COLORATION OF RADIATIVE COOLING TEXTILES, WHICH IS MADE BY MIXING IR-TRANSPARENT INORGANIC PIGMENT NANOPARTICLES WITH PE. (G) DIRECT RADIATIVE COOLING USING IR-SELECTIVE TRANSPARENT COVERS. (H) SCHEMATIC OF HIGHLY IR-TRANSPARENT PE BUBBLE WARP TO BLOCK AMBIENT CONVECTIVE HEAT TRANSFER AND ENSURE THE RADIATIVE HEAT TRANSPORT FROM OBJECTS TO OUTER SPACE. (I) THE SELECTION OF FUNCTIONAL GROUPS FOR HIGH EMITTANCE AND LOW SOLAR ABSORPTION. view more 

CREDIT: ©SCIENCE CHINA PRESS

Increasing global warming and extreme weather are common challenges for humankind, directly affecting individual health and even posing serious threats to lives. Thermal comfort, heating ventilation and air conditioning systems requiring energy supply are widely used in space cooling, resulting in excessive consumption of fossil fuels and significant greenhouse gas emissions such as CO2. Massive greenhouse gas emissions have induced the rise of global temperature and climatic anomalies, significantly threatening the existence of life on the Earth. Hence, new cooling strategy is urgently needed to save energy and reduce emission to protect our living environment and achieve carbon neutrality visions. However, some renewable energy sources are limited by complex systems, geographical, environmental and stability issues. Therefore, in response to global warming and global carbon neutrality, there is an immediate need for new cooling technologies in sustainable carbon-neutral models to confront the issue of superheating as an effective strategy against the energy challenge.

To cope with these challenges, recently, the research team led by Prof. Guangming Tao (Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics and Optics Valley Laboratory, Huazhong University of Science and Technology) and Prof. Cheng-Wei Qiu (Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, National University of Singapore) has proposed a potential radiative cooling paradigm based on structural and material design, and new opportunities for sustainable carbon neutrality as a zero-energy, ecologically friendly cooling strategy have also been presented. This technology uses broad-spectrum selective and precise regulation to meet the cooling needs of multiple scenes through targeted optimization of optical structures, ultimately achieving sustainable passive radiative cooling. Shortly after published, this article had already been cited in Wikipedia under the terms "Carbon neutrality" and "Passive daytime radiative cooling".

In order to achieve effective cooling, traditional indoor cooling methods consume large amounts of energy. Therefore, based on mid-infrared high-transmission radiation cooling, Chen, Cui and Lenert et al. designed wearable cooling devices to achieve passive and efficient indoor cooling by reflecting visible light as well as emitting heat radiation through the human body to the surrounding environment (Figure 1). However, passive cooling for hot outdoor environments is still a pressing issue.

In outdoor environments, strong solar radiation is another important factor that causes the temperature of object to rise in addition to thermal radiation. Therefore, Fan and Zhu et al. achieved passive cooling function by designing radiative cooling devices to precisely modulate solar radiation and mid-infrared radiation (Figure 2 c-e), but it is difficult to achieve low cost and mass fabrication. Yang, Zhu, and Tao et al. introduced randomly distributed micro and nanoscale scatterers for sustainable and efficient outdoor passive cooling when fabricated on a large scale (Figure 2 f-m). Scientists have developed thin film, coating, cooling wood, metafabric and other devices to achieve energy savings of 7% - 45% using stable and sustainable passive cooling recipes.

It has been established that peak CO2 emissions and subsequent carbon neutrality are predominant global challenges for future societal development. This review further discussed the future application scenarios of radiative cooling in the context of sustainable carbon neutrality strategies for passive and efficient space cooling needs and presents the development trends, technical challenges, and potential solutions for radiative cooling in the context of current research. The technology promises to be applied in all aspects of everyday life and extreme environments, which is a highly effective strategy for slowing global warming and reshaping the global energy landscape.

(a) Diagram of coating a metal surface with cheap plastic materials. (b) Enhanced convection of air beneath the black robes carries this heat away before it reaches the skin making it just as effective as the white robes. (c) Diagram of ultra-broadband metal-dielectric photonic structures. (d) Diagram of HfO2-SiO2 photonic film. (e) Diagram of visibly transparent silica photonic crystal. (f) Diagram of the scalable-manufactured glass-polymer hybrid metamaterial. (g) Diagram of hierarchically porous polymer coatings. (h) Diagram of the cooling wood structure. (i) A schematic diagram of the planar PDMS/metal thermal emitter. (j) Artificially fabricated radiative coolers based on the fluff structure of N. gigas. (k) Effective scattering diagram of micro- and nano-structures of the es-PEO film. (l) Hierarchical-morphology metafabric for scalable radiative cooling. (m) Diagram of the intrinsic molecular vibrations and porous structure of the cellulose acetate (CA) film.

Radiative cooling is applied in a series of everyday life and extreme scenarios.

©Science China Press

See the article:

Radiative cooling for passive thermal management towards sustainable carbon neutrality

https://doi.org/10.1093/nsr/nwac208

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JOURNAL

National Science Review

DOI

10.1093/nsr/nwac208