PolyU researchers compile world’s first “atlas” of airborne microbes that provides an important new perspective for public health research

Peer-Reviewed Publication

THE HONG KONG POLYTECHNIC UNIVERSITY

 

IMAGE: THE RESEARCH TEAM ANALYSED THE BACTERIAL COMMUNITIES OF 370 INDIVIDUAL AIR PARTICULATE SAMPLES COLLECTED FROM 63 SITES AROUND THE WORLD, FROM GROUND LEVEL TO MOUNTAINTOPS, AS WELL AS FROM DENSELY POPULATED URBAN CENTRES TO THE ARCTIC CIRCLE. view more 

CREDIT: RESEARCH AND INNOVATION OFFICE, THE HONG KONG POLYTECHNIC UNIVERSITY

Bacteria are truly abundant across the Earth’s surface, from the soil to the oceans. The microbial population of the air that surrounds us is comparatively unknown, but a research expedition led by PolyU scientists is about to change that. After nearly a decade of effort, they have compiled a comprehensive map of the world’s airborne microbes, providing fresh insights into how these species interact with the surface environment – as well as their likely future changes.

A cubic metre of “empty” air contains 10,000 bacteria or more, and interest in the role of air as a habitat – not merely a conduit – for microbes has grown enormously since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. In collaboration with researchers on the mainland and the US, the PolyU-led team spent around a year sampling airborne microbes across the world, from ground level to mountaintops. Combining their own results with the most accurate global data collected in past studies, they and their research partners compiled the first ever atlas of the global airborne microbiome.

The atlas provides a wealth of insights into the microbial communities floating above the ground. There is no doubt that the air is a unique harbour of bacterial life. Genetic analysis by the team showed that the core communities – the handful of species that form an outsized proportion of the microbe population – were not the same in the air as those in marine or soil ecosystems. In fact, even though the air is a free-flowing medium with seemingly no internal boundaries, these core bacterial communities are distinctly localised and stable.

The research team analysed the bacterial communities of 370 individual air particulate samples collected from 63 sites around the world, ranging from those at ground level (1.5 – 2 m high) to rooftops (5 – 25 m high) and high mountains (5,238 m asl), as well as from densely populated urban centres to the Arctic Circle, for a more diverse coverage in terms of altitudes and geographic regions.

Prof. Xiang-dong LI, Chair Professor of Environmental Science and Technology and Dean of Faculty of Construction and Environment of PolyU who led the research team, said, “We have verified that human activities have certainly changed the structure of microbiomes in the natural ambient air, particularly with a higher abundance of pathogenic bacteria in urban air. Having experienced the pandemic for three years, people now pay more attention to this invisible but influential microbial community. The research outcomes could be served as a critical reference for predicting planetary microbiome responses and the health impacts of inhalable microbiomes with future environmental changes.”

The researchers estimate that the total number of microbes occupying the sea or soil is thousands of times larger than those in the air. Nonetheless, the aerial diversity of microbes – known as “richness” – is just as high. This suggests that surface habitats directly contribute microbes to the air. Overturning previous assumptions, vegetation is not the main terrestrial source of airborne bacteria, and the Earth’s vast tracts of soil provide very small fraction. The crashing of waves, the shaking of leaves, and even frequent activities and constant respiration of animals and humans are bigger drivers of bacterial exchange between the surface and the air.

Macroscopic life, notably animals and plants, is most diverse in equatorial regions (consider, for example, warm and wet rainforests), and its diversity decreases closer to the poles. For microbes, the picture is more interesting – moving from the equator, diversity maximises at mid-latitudes before falling away again. This pattern was well established for terrestrial and aquatic microorganisms, but the new atlas confirms that it applies to the airborne microbiome, too. The authors surmise that the “bump” in diversity at mid-latitudes is caused by stronger sources of microbial input to those regions.

Overall, the researchers estimate that half of airborne bacteria originate from ground sources. Urban air has especially high rates of human-associated bacteria – some harmless, others pathogenic. Direct transfer of germs from people to air is not our only effect on the airborne microbial world. Broad-scale activities such as industrialisation disrupt natural environments and impact air quality. This weakens the environment’s “filter” effect on microbial structure, making the composition of airborne bacteria more affected by random processes – although weather still plays an important role too.

The close relationship between modern human activities and the microbes around us underscores the need to predict future changes accurately. The inhalable infectious bacteria that proliferate in cities are particularly of concern considering rapid urbanisation and our growing understanding of airborne contagion, spurred by COVID-19 research. Climate change is another impetus, given the marked effect of temperature on microbial richness, as revealed by the atlas. Hence, the study provides an invaluable resource and an important new perspective for future public health research.

The PolyU team collaborated with Prof. James M. TIEDJE, University Distinguished Professor at Michigan State University and scientists from mainland China in the study. The findings were published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (https://www.pnas.org/doi/full/10.1073/pnas.2204465119), a peer-reviewed journal of the USA National Academy of Sciences.

  

The structure of globally distributed airborne bacterial communities. (A) Locations where air samples and environmental data were collected across the globe. (B) The number, proportion, and relative abundance of the global core OTUs compared with those of the remaining bacterial OTUs. (C) The taxonomic composition of the global core bacteria at the phylum and class level. (D) The global airborne bacterial community co-occurrence network. The connections (edges) stand for a strong (Spearman’s ρ > 0.6) and significant (p < 0.01) correlation. The nodes represent the combined OTUs with unique annotations for genus level in the datasets. The size of each node was proportional to the mean relative abundance across 370 samples. Nodes were colored by the phyla of the bacteria. (E) “Small-network” identification based on a “smallworldness” index and the average shortest path length of the global bacterial community network in air, marine, and soil environments. (F) Degree—the betweenness centrality plot of each node in the co-occurrence network. The nodes in red are viewed as keystone species. The size of the nodes shows the relative proportions of the OTUs in the total microbiome.

CREDIT

PNAS

JOURNAL

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

DOI

10.1073/pnas.2204465119 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Experimental study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

Global airborne bacterial community—interactions with Earth’s microbiomes and anthropogenic activities

Scientists develop low-cost system to measure space weather without leaving the ground

Peer-Reviewed Publication

NAGOYA UNIVERSITY

 

IMAGE: AN ELECTRIC CIRCUIT BOARD OF THE MI SENSOR view more 

CREDIT: MASAHITO NOSÉ

A research team from the Institute of Space-Earth Environmental Research (ISEE) at Nagoya University in Japan used a sensor manufactured by Aichi Steel Corporation to build a magneto-impedance sensor magnetometer (MIM) that measures variations in the Earth’s geomagnetic field. Since geomagnetic fluctuations are closely related to phenomena taking place in outer space, researchers in upper atmospheric physics and space physics can use the MIM to determine the status of space weather from the ground without the use of satellites. They reported the results in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics.  

“In recent years, space travel by private citizens has become more common. In addition, the Japan-US-EU joint Gateway Projects to build a space station in lunar orbit have been launched,” explains lead author Masahito Nosé. “Therefore, we need more real-time space weather information to know what is happening in space to the safety and maintenance of spacecraft.”  

Although people often imagine space to be a vacuum, it is filled with space plasma, consisting of charged particles held in a hot gas. When these particles interact with the Earth's magnetic field, they cause ‘space weather’ effects, such as geomagnetic storms or space auroras, that can affect satellites, space stations, and astronauts. Despite the importance of monitoring space weather, it is difficult for a device to remain in space and continually monitor the space environment. On the other hand, environmental changes that occur in space can be observed from the ground because they are transmitted as electromagnetic waves along the Earth's magnetic field. Unfortunately, standard approaches to making such observations have struggled because it is necessary to capture weak magnetic field fluctuations, often a fraction of the size of the Earth's magnetic field.  

Associate Professor Nosé of ISEE, in collaboration with Aichi Steel Corporation, has developed a low-cost system to measure the Earth's magnetic field using the magneto-impedance (MI) effect, which was discovered in 1993 at Nagoya University. Although the Aichi Steel Corporation sensor originally measured only the AC components of the geomagnetic field, the researchers implemented a magnetic-flux locked loop circuit in the MI sensor to extend the measurement range.  

The newly developed MIM is suitable for observations of phenomena such as storms generated by an enhancement of the solar wind dynamic pressure and long-period geomagnetic pulsations. It is also lightweight, power efficient, and comparatively inexpensive. This should make it easier to construct a multi-point observation network, which could speed up space environment monitoring and space weather research.  

Nosé installed the MIM for a month of continuous observation at the Mineyama observatory for experimental field observations near Kyoto, Japan. Although weak geomagnetic fluctuations are difficult to capture, he identified those approximately 1/100,000th the size of the earth's magnetic field.  

“Various phenomena that occur in space are transmitted as electromagnetic waves in a plasma along the magnetic field of the Earth, causing weak geomagnetic fluctuations on the ground. Therefore, using the magnetic sensor developed in this research, it is possible to investigate phenomena occurring in space without leaving the ground,” explains Nosé. “These geomagnetic fluctuations reflect the electromagnetic energy in space that is related to phenomena such as the generation of auroras and the weight and density of plasma in space. We expect that detailed analysis will lead to the development of real-time monitoring of the space environment and the advancement of space weather research.” 

Funding: This study was supported by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS), Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B) (21H01147), Challenging Research (Pioneering) (Grant 17K18804), and Grant-in-Aid for Specially Promoted Research (Grant 16H06286) as well as Ito Kagaku Shinkou Kai and Yamada Science Foundation. 

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JOURNAL

Journal of Geophysical Research Space Physics

DOI

10.1029/2022JA030809 

ARTICLE TITLE

Application of Magneto-Impedance (MI) Sensor to Geomagnetic Field Measurements

What pretend play tells us about social cognition

Philosophy

Peer-Reviewed Publication

RUHR-UNIVERSITY BOCHUM

Why did Sarah go to the kitchen?

Every day we adopt the perspective of other people in order to understand their behaviour: Let’s say Sarah went to the kitchen. I recognise that she did so because she wanted to get coffee and believes that there’s coffee in the kitchen. “The important thing is that this also applies when I myself don’t want coffee, or when I know that in fact the coffee has run out and therefore it won’t be possible to get any in the kitchen,” explains Julia Wolf. “In other words, in order to understand others, it’s important to be able to adopt their perspective, even if it differs from your own.” The ability to do this is a key milestone in the development of social cognition. Evidence suggests that this ability usually develops around the age of four.

Children as young as two pretend to drink tea

But even earlier than that, children have the ability to pretend play. They pretend the sofa cushion is a cat and a toy brick is a train. When they engage in this make-believe, children usually don’t mistake it for reality, but understand perfectly well what is real and what is not. So it looks like even two-year-olds show highly developed cognitive skills in pretend play, such as the ability to distinguish between pretence and reality, and thus to adopt different perspectives about a situation. Plus, pretend play is a social phenomenon: children also pretend play with others. If someone pretends to pour tea into a child’s empty cup, the child may follow suit and pretend to drink from that cup. “This indicates that children are not only able to take alternative perspectives, but also to deduce another person’s perspective from their behaviour and respond appropriately,” elaborates Julia Wolf.

But does that mean that children can attribute a mental state to others at such an early age? “In my opinion, it doesn’t,” concludes Julia Wolf. While pretend play requires children to share a common pretend perspective, it doesn’t require them to distinguish between their own perspective and that of another person. “If a child is pretending to be at a tea party with their father, they don’t need to distinguish between their own pretend perspective and their father’s,” points out the researcher. “Rather, the pretend perspective is shared. Thus, there’s no need to attribute mental states to another person.”

It’s the context that counts

"Still, pretend play remains crucially important for theories on the development of social cognition,” says Wolf. It not only indicates that it is possible to take on another perspective in some contexts, but also that children are able to adopt a perspective that contradicts reality – contrary to what some other theories claim. Moreover, the fact that they are aware that what is pretended is not real indicates that they are also able to coordinate these different perspectives to a certain extent. “This suggests that much of the ability to adopt perspectives, which is necessary for social cognition and the attribution of mental states, is already present at an early childhood stage,” says Julia Wolf. “What we need to take into account, then, is: in what kind of context are the children embedded in, and to what extent can this context support the adoption of other perspectives?”

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JOURNAL

Synthese

DOI

10.1007/s11229-022-03984-5 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Observational study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

Implications of pretend play for Theory of Mind research

When flight leads to trauma

Research project offers psychotherapeutic help to traumatized refugees of war and violence

Business Announcement

GOETHE UNIVERSITY FRANKFURT

FRANKFURT. People who have fled to Germany to escape war and violence often suffered traumatic experiences. Torture, rape or attacks can lead to post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD): Those affected suffer from symptoms such as nightmares, vivid memories of the trauma, sleep disorders, concentration problems, anxiety and other distressing negative feelings. That is why many refugees urgently need psychotherapeutic help.

The research project Brief Imagery Rescripting for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder in Refugees (ReScript) at Goethe University’s Department of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy helps to improve the care of adult refugees suffering from PTSD. The project, led by Prof. Regina Steil (Frankfurt), Prof. Thomas Ehring (Munich) and Prof. Nexhmedin Morina (Münster), investigates the effectiveness of an innovative treatment for traumatized refugees. Affected people aged 18 and above are offered psychological diagnostics and therapy; if needed, an interpreter can support. The flight may have taken place in recent years, for example due to the war in Ukraine, but may also have happened decades ago; refugees affected by the war in the former Yugoslavia or Russia can also come forward.

The treatment consists of ten double sessions, held over a 12-week period, with a comparison group receiving the same treatment after a waiting period. The therapy’s success is recorded diagnostically in both groups before and after treatment, as well as three and 12 months later.

Goethe University currently has several free treatment places. The project is funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research.

COP15

Fostering policy dialogue and knowledge exchange of pollinator protection: new Safeguard policy brief

The EU project Safeguard released its first policy brief with study-based policy recommendations as part of the 15th Conference of the Parties to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity.

Meeting Announcement

PENSOFT PUBLISHERS

 

IMAGE: CIRCULAR BAR PLOT DEPICTING SDGS WEIGHTED ACCORDING TO MEDIAN RELEVANCE TO SOCIETY SCORES. view more 

CREDIT: DINKUM | COMMONS.WIKIMEDIA.ORG

Safeguard’s policy brief was distributed at a side event of the 15th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (COP15) and was showcased at the EU commission's stand. The side event – titled “Pollinator protection: strengthening policies, knowledge exchange and engagement” – took place on 10 December, Saturday, and provided an overview of pollinator-related projects and initiatives that support the implementation of the International Pollinator Initiative

Globally, pollinators play a key role in human survival. 75% of crops are dependent on animal pollination (Klein et al. 2001), including many nutrient-rich food crops (Chaplin-Kramer et al. 2019). But beyond just the immediate threat to food security and health, pollinators play an essential role in helping to achieve global policy targets such as the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the Post-2020 biodiversity targets, and those outlined in the International Pollinators Initiative. 

In this complex context, the EU-funded research project Safeguard (Grant agreement No. 101003476) is dedicated to expanding current assessments of the status and trends of European wild pollinators and contributing to Europe’s capacity to reverse the losses of wild pollinators. As part of this effort, the project issued its first policy brief providing policymakers with concrete research-based recommendations on the consideration of pollinators. Created under the leadership of project partner University of Reading (UREAD) with the valuable support of external Safeguard advisory board members, the policy brief provides a short introduction to a study the UREAD partners did to map the importance of pollinators to the SDGs and vice versa. The policy brief presents some preliminary results from an expert elicitation exercise that involved 17 pollinator experts from around the world and identifies five recommendations policymakers should consider to support pollinators and help achieve the SDGs. For example, to help restore the terrestrial ecosystems, related policies should support concrete actions to protect and enhance diverse pollinator assemblages.

The brief also gives insights on the direct relationship between pollinators and a few of the indicated in the study SDGs - Zero Hunger (2), Life on Land (15), Clean Water and Sanitation (6), No Poverty (1) and Responsible Consumption and Responsible Production (12). Furthermore, the policy brief highlights the most relevant targets linked to those SDGs.

 

Read the full policy brief here.

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References:

Klein et al. 2001
Klein Alexandra-Maria, Vaissière Bernard E, Cane James H, Steffan-Dewenter Ingolf, Cunningham Saul A, Kremen Claire and Tscharntke Teja 
Importance of pollinators in changing landscapes for world crops
Proc. R. Soc. B.274303–313

Chaplin-Kramer et al. 2019
Chaplin-Kramer Rebecca, Dombeck Emily, Gerber James, Knuth Katherine A., Mueller Nathaniel D., Mueller Megan, Ziv Guy and Klein Alexandra-Maria 
Global malnutrition overlaps with pollinator-dependent micronutrient production
Proc. R. Soc. B.28120141799-20141799

#################################

This project receives funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 101003476.

Views and opinions expressed are those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Commission. Neither the EU nor the EC can be held responsible for them.

MARM, the new three-leg robot to transport weights and manipulate components in Space

Researchers at Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia has recently realized a new prototype robotic platform for space applications

Business Announcement

ISTITUTO ITALIANO DI TECNOLOGIA - IIT

Genoa (Italy), 16th December 2022 –  

MARM, the new three-leg robot to transport weights and manipulate components in Space (VIDEO)

Researchers at Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (IIT – Italian Institute of Technology) has recently realized a new prototype robotic platform for space applications. The new robot, called MARM, has three limbs that can be used to walk, move, grasp and transport payload modules while self-relocating itself on the space infrastructure under microgravity environment. The robot is meant to assist astronauts in assembling and maintaining infrastructures while they are in space or, in the future, on other planets. The MARM prototype will be tested in a physical simulator arrangement prior to the development of the space-qualified version. The robot was designed and manufactured by IIT, in collaboration with Leonardo S.p.A and GMV.

Robotic applications in the field of space exploration present unique environments, conditions and opportunities for the development of new platforms. In fact, while the technologies required for robotic control, locomotion and manipulation on Earth are quite advanced, the conditions of the orbital environment, such as the microgravity are posing new challenges to the robotics research community.

Developing tools to assist astronauts in installing, inspecting, maintaining and repairing space infrastructures  is the goal of the MIRROR (Multi-arm Installation Robot for Readying ORUs and Reflectors) project, funded by the European Space Agency (ESA), where the new robot has been born. Therefore, in the framework of the MIRROR project, IIT researchers realized the MARM (Multi-Arm Relocatable Manipulator) platform, which is a prototype robotic system capable of performing grasping, transportation and assembling modules, while moving itself on the space infrastructure.

The robot was designed and manufactured by IIT's Human and Humanoid Centered Mechatronics Lab, coordinated by Nikolaos Tsagarakis, in collaboration with Leonardo S.p.A and GMV. The MARM robot represents the last generation of robot realized by Nikolaos Tsagarakis’ team, therefore his research group at IIT designed and produced also the humanoid robot WALK-MAN and the Centaur-like robot CENTAURO, and is working on the modular configurable collaborative robot CONCERT funded by the EU. 

The MARM robotic platform consists of a central body, three limbs and a docking device (useful for both powering and sending/receiving data). It was built following a computational design approach, which considered and optimized the robot performance   related to mobility and flexibility. In fact, the kinematics and transport/operational capacity were tested, in both the presence and absence of gravity, considering different kinematic models, which differed in the length and conformation of limbs, links and joints.

The MARM platform can thus use its three limbs to move around, grasping the standard interconnections on the station's surfaces and crawling over them, and also to assemble and position components (in particular modular hexagon tiles, 1.2 m wide and 0.2 m thick, weighing about 12 kg) and to manipulate the so-called Orbital Replacement Units (ORUs).

MARM's three limbs, which are connected to the central pelvis base, represent the main difference of this robot compared to previously developed technologies: the three limbs endow the robot with greater locomotion and manipulation flexibility and, at the same time, a wider manipulation range, allowing it to transport large payloads and assemble and install them, even in bi-manual mode.

In addition, thanks to the three limbs arrangement, the robot is capable of performing full body motions while once in position, the limbs used for anchoring can facilitate the assembly operation by adjusting the MARM central pelvis base, reducing the forces transferred to the station truss. This is one of the main advantages of having multiple limbs instead of using the same limb for crawling and assembly.

According to the envisioned scenario, the MARM platform will be able, through its electromechanical  and control components and thanks to a perception system and the  continuous exchange of inputs/outputs, to pick up a payload  from a store, relocate itself while  carrying it, and assemble it at the desired location.

The MARM platform prototype will be used to evaluate the above scenario in a physical simulator arrangement in order to assess the feasibility of such solution prior to the development of the space-qualified version.

Research into the chemistry of environmentally friendly power generation at the ELTE Eötvös Loránd University

Accurate knowledge of the ignition of methane-air mixtures will help to increase the efficiency and reduce the environmental impact of heating and power generation

Peer-Reviewed Publication

EÖTVÖS LORÁND UNIVERSITY (ELTE), FACULTY OF SCIENCE

 

IMAGE: RESEARCHERS OF THE FACULTY OF SCIENCE AT THE ELTE EÖTVÖS LORÁND UNIVERSITY INVESTIGATE THE PROPERTIES OF METHANE, THE MOST IMPORTANT COMPONENT OF NATURAL GAS. ACCURATE KNOWLEDGE OF THE IGNITION OF METHANEAIR MIXTURES WILL HELP TO INCREASE THE EFFICIENCY AND REDUCE THE ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT OF HEATING AND POWER GENERATION, AND COULD ALSO LEAD TO FURTHER DEVELOPMENTS IN INDUSTRIAL SAFETY, CHEMICAL AND ENERGY ENGINEERING. view more 

CREDIT: PHOTO: ELTE EÖTVÖS LORÁND UNIVERSITY

 

Researchers of the Faculty of Science at the ELTE Eötvös Loránd University investigate the properties of methane, the most important component of natural gas. Accurate knowledge of the ignition of methane-air mixtures will help to increase the efficiency and reduce the environmental impact of heating and power generation, and could also lead to further developments in industrial safety, chemical and energy engineering.

In Hungary, the majority of households use natural gas for heating:

it is one of the most environmentally friendly ways of keeping our homes warm.

However, natural gas also plays an important role in electricity generation. Solar and wind power generations have high fluctuations, and an effective way to compensate for this is to use gas turbines and gas engines based on natural gas combustion, which can quickly make up for the missing electricity.

A significant proportion of natural gas is methane to varying degrees depending on the area; in Hungary natural gas contains nearly ninety-seven per cent methane. In order utilize this colourless, odourless, flammable substance more efficiently in environmentally friendly power generation, it is important to study the explosion of methane-air mixtures, the spread of flame in gas engines, and the formation of harmful pollutants during the combustion of natural gas.

The Chemical Kinetics Laboratory of the Institute of Chemistry and the Department of Applied Analysis and Computational Mathematics of the Institute of Mathematics at ELTE - Éva Valkó, Máté Papp, Peng Zhang and Tamás Turányi - investigated the ignition of methane-air mixtures based on a detailed reaction kinetics model. The sensitivity vector of the ignition time was calculated by varying the initial temperature (T), pressure (p) and methane-to-air equivalence ratio (ϕ) over a wide range. A cluster analysis of the resulting more than 14 thousand sensitivity vectors showed that five domains can be identified in the (T, p, ϕ) space, and that in each domain a different set of chemical reactions leads to methane ignition. The results were published in the Proceedings of the Combustion Institute.

For a visual summary of the research results please look at Youtube video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CGliv6JbzWc

"Operation of gas engines include compressing a mixture of natural gas and air rapidly to reach a given temperature and pressure. The time to explosion for this high-pressure, hot gas mixture is critical.

If a reliable computer model based on a detailed reaction mechanism is available, it can be used to determine whether or not an explosion will occur,"

says Prof. Tamás Turányi, the head of the research.

For years, Tamás Turányi's research group has also been investigating the so-called e-fuels, which can overcome the above mentioned limitation of renewable energy production, namely the large fluctuations in the amount of electricity produced. In e-fuels, the energy content of excess electricity can be stored and then converted back into electricity. One such fuel is ammonia, which has the advantage of being produced using mature technology and is easy to transport and store.

More details on this research can be found in the group's website: https://chemkinlab.elte.hu/.

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JOURNAL

Proceedings of the Combustion Institute

DOI

10.1016/j.proci.2022.07.186 

ARTICLE TITLE

Identification of homogeneous chemical kinetic regimes of methane-air ignition

USE VALUE VS EXCHANGE VALUE

Illegal TV streaming sites cost European economies over three billion Euros

Reports and Proceedings

BOURNEMOUTH UNIVERSITY

A new study by Bournemouth University estimates that TV companies in Europe lost €3.21 billion in 2021 because of people using illegal streaming sites to watch TV. The researchers also estimate that the illegal providers made €1.06 billion from Europe in the same year – almost a fifth of which came from the UK.

The study was commissioned by the Audiovisual Anti-Piracy Alliance (AAPA) trade body which represents providers of internet protocol television (IPTV). The figures relate to the 27 EU countries and the UK. 

Any lost revenues by legitimate TV providers have the potential to affect their customers in the form of higher subscription prices, or through lower investment in new content and services. Countries’ economies can also be affected by lost tax income.

Professor Dinusha Mendis, Director of Bournemouth University’s Centre for Intellectual Property Policy and Management, who led the project said:

“This report directly sheds light on the level of financial loss that is incurred at all levels, as a result of criminal networks facilitating access to unauthorized content, signalling that more needs to be done to tackle illegal IPTV in Europe and UK.

“It raises awareness of this issue, and we hope that it will lead to policy makers, law enforcement and industry taking action to tackle piracy going forward.”

The report estimates that over seventeen million people in the 28 countries accessed pirate streaming sites in 2021, around 4.5% of the countries’ populations. Nearly a third of those were aged sixteen to twenty-four. The UK and Ireland were amongst the countries with the highest percentage of their populations watching TV illegally – with 6.6% and 7.2% respectively. The Netherlands had the highest percentage.

The UK generated the most revenue for the illegal industry with €194.6 million – nearly a fifth of the total estimated revenue across all countries.

In 2019, Professor Mendis was part of the team that carried out a study on behalf of the EU Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) into the scale of the illegal market; this new research goes further by exploring the cost to the legal industry and the number of young people who watch pirate content.

Economist Dr. Antanina Garanasvili of Gobelin House, who worked on the Report said:

“As an economist it is important to bring this problem to the forefront as much as possible. By introducing the additional metric, it was possible to quantify the number of young users who access illicit IPTV, thereby demonstrating the size of this problem at the moment”.

The new report notes that piracy can be driven by overall perception and a 2020 report by the EUIPO found that more than a quarter of Europeans thought it was acceptable to watch pirated online content - young people were particularly more likely to have a tolerant attitude.

Sheila Cassells, Executive Vice-President of AAPA, wrote in the report: “Illicit IPTV is a relatively recent phenomenon in the realm of digital piracy. Several factors contribute to its proliferation, including the low entry barriers for pirate services and the high rewards with limited risk of enforcement. Technical and legislative challenges make fighting this form of piracy difficult."

The researchers also noted that their study only looked at one method of accessing pirated content. Social media platforms and apps also provide access to content so the overall figures are likely to be higher.

The share of population using illicit IPTV is estimated based on the population watching Internet streamed television provided by Eurostat (dataset on internet activities). The potential losses in revenue incurred by legitimate AV service providers are estimated based on the number of households that use illicit IPTV services. These numbers were estimated by identifying the share of users who are willing to pay for IPTV subscriptions (based on data supplied by AAPA members) and also by estimating the number of legal Pay-TV providers (based on data obtained from European Audiovisual Observatory).

The full report is available on the AAPA website.

The Dutch cycle twice as much as Germans in Winter

It’s the mobility culture, stupid! Winter conditions strongly reduce bicycle usage in German cities, but not in Dutch ones

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF COLOGNE

 

IMAGE: WHY MISS THE FUN OF CYCLING IN WINTER? A NEW BICYCLE CULTURE WOULD CONTRIBUTE TO MORE SUSTAINABLE MOBILITY IN GERMANY. view more 

CREDIT: NICLAS CARL

The Dutch use their bicycles around twice as often as their German neighbours in the winter months. Generally, bicycles are used more often in the Netherlands than in Germany. In the summer (June to August) the Dutch use their bicycles for 23.0 percent of their journeys – in Germany only 16.7 percent. The Dutch also use their bicycles in the winter (December to February) for 20.5 percent of their journeys. On the other hand, the Germans only use their bicycles for 10.3 percent of their journeys.

Therefore, the seasonal differences in bicycle usage in the Netherlands are much less than those in Germany. This is shown by a study carried out by the sociologist Dr Ansgar Hudde from the Institute of Sociology and Social Psychology of the University of Cologne. Hudde explains the differences in cycling are due to different mobility cultures in both countries. The study was published under the title ‘It’s the mobility culture, stupid! Winter conditions strongly reduce bicycle usage in German cities, but not in Dutch ones’ in the Journal of Transport Geography.

Since the climate conditions for cycling in the Netherlands and Germany are similar, this does not explain the differences in bicycle usage. “The joint analysis of behavioural and climate data shows: We in Germany are more sensitive to cold and darkness. The fact that the Dutch tend to cycle all year round and Germans only do so in the summer has little to do with the different climate, but rather with the different mobility cultures”, Dr Hudde explains. There is a cycling culture in Germany that reflects and encourages such seasonal patterns. This is also illustrated for example by the German term ‘Fahrradsaison’, which translates to ‘cycling season’ and indicates that there is a season in which one rides their bicycle, but which also means that there is a season where one does not cycle. “Even biking events like ‘cycling in the city’ or ‘cycling to work’ only take place in the summer”, Hudde continues. “They send out a signal that cycling is for the summer and not for the winter”.

In his study, Ansgar Hudde evaluated representative statistical data on mobility in Germany and in the Netherlands. Data from 335,000 trips made by 98,000 people from 263 medium and large towns were evaluated. The mobility data were linked to city-specific climate data and analysed jointly. Due to the large discrepancies between bicycle usage in towns and in the countryside, the statistical evaluation was confined to medium and large towns (more than 50,000 inhabitants).

The results of the study are important for the discussion about sustainable mobility policies. If more people were to cycle in the autumn and winter, emissions of CO2 and fine particles would be reduced and traffic jams or congestion caused by public transport could also be avoided. “Imagine you were stuck in a traffic jam in your car in the winter, and saw relatively empty cycle paths. You would most likely be twice as annoyed about car lanes being turned into cycle paths”, Hudde asserts. If the cycle paths are well used throughout the year, then this will lead to greater support for pro-cycling policies. Better bicycle usage in the winter can be achieved, for example, by improving the infrastructure and path lighting. In addition, bicycle events that occur in the winter could also contribute to cycling becoming more popular in the colder months in Germany. Hudde sums up: “The Netherlands shows that when it comes to the topic of year-round cycling, there is huge potential for a better traffic situation and more sustainability.”

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JOURNAL

Journal of Transport Geography

DOI

10.1016/j.jtrangeo.2022.103503 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Meta-analysis

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE TITLE

It’s the mobility culture, stupid! Winter conditions strongly reduce bicycle usage in German cities, but not in Dutch ones

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

15-Dec-2022

World cardiology leaders call for global action to reinvent randomized clinical trials

Peer-Reviewed Publication

EUROPEAN SOCIETY OF CARDIOLOGY

Sophia Antipolis, 16 December 2022:  The current model for randomised clinical trials must be redesigned for the 21st century, according to the European Society of Cardiology (ESC), American Heart Association (AHA), World Heart Federation (WHF) and American College of Cardiology (ACC).

 

The joint statement is published simultaneously in the flagship journals of all four organisations: European Heart Journal,1 Circulation, Global Heart and Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

 

ESC President Professor Franz Weidinger said: “Randomised trials are the gold standard method for evaluating new therapies and improving patient care. However, the cost and complexity of trials are becoming prohibitive and the current model is unsustainable. Cardiology provided the foundation for an era of highly successful clinical trials and is well placed to lead the way on modernisation.”

 

“Without sustained efforts to increase the application of streamlined approaches, and a more supportive regulatory environment for those who do choose to generate randomised evidence (instead of the adversarial approach that is often taken in regulatory audits), patients will suffer from important clinical questions not being addressed reliably, either because trials are too small or, due to excessive financial or bureaucratic obstacles, are never done at all,” states the paper.

 

The COVID-19 pandemic necessitated highly streamlined trials that were easy to administer in busy hospitals. Only essential data were collected and much of the follow-up information was obtained from national electronic health records (EHRs) when possible. In addition, digital advances have allowed app-based data collection, remote monitoring and virtual trial visits which can enhance efficiency while maintaining safety.

 

WHF President Professor Fausto Pinto said: “The pandemic reinforced the value of digital technology in healthcare and demonstrated the power of partnerships in global health. It also showed the importance of using digital tools to improve the organisation, development, and implementation of clinical trials, essential to drive innovation in care and meet unexpected challenges such as a pandemic. The future of clinical investigation needs to be carefully tailored to address the several challenges it faces, and digital technology will certainly play a major role.”

 

EHRs have huge potential for trial recruitment and follow-up but remain an underused resource. This is due to restricted access to records and reticence among regulatory authorities to accept EHR-based outcome data. On the other hand, inappropriate emphasis is often placed on observational analyses of routine healthcare data to bypass the challenges of randomised trials.

 

AHA President Dr. Michelle A. Albert said: “With this document, our societies wish to engage in the development of guidance that allows broader use of real-world data, housed in routine EHRs, to conduct the trials that are needed to improve patient care along with addressing unmet medical needs. Pragmatic clinical trials that allow flexibility while promoting innovation are required to address health care needs for different racial, ethnic and socioeconomic groups. This guidance is also an opportunity to have a close look at the real-world implementation of care practices designed to improve health equity."

 

During the past 25 years there has been an enormous increase in the rules and related bureaucracy governing clinical trials. The International Council for Harmonisation (ICH) guideline for Good Clinical Practice (GCP) aims to ensure the safety and rights of trial participants and safeguard patients impacted by the results. However, the guideline is often over-interpreted thereby prohibiting the conduct of affordable clinical trials.

 

ACC President Dr. Edward T. A. Fry said: “Clinical trials like the Apple Heart Study, along with many conducted throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, have shown it is possible to conduct high quality trials safely, efficiently and effectively. Importantly they have also highlighted new opportunities to reach patient populations spanning race and gender, socioeconomic status and geography. As such, the ACC, ESC, AHA and WHF fully support adoption of the revised guidelines put forth by the Good Clinical Trials Collaborative (GCTC) that keep the best parts of existing clinical trial guidelines, while also acknowledging new innovations and technologies available to clinical trial researchers both now and looking to the future. In a rapidly changing and increasingly global world, there is no excuse for clinical trials not to keep pace with recent advances and the proposed GCTC guidelines are an important step forward in ensuring we are able to optimise our efforts to provide the best possible patient care and outcomes when it comes to new and emerging medical therapies, devices or treatment strategies.”

 

#RedesignRCTs

 

ENDS

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JOURNAL

European Heart Journal

DOI

10.1093/eurheartj/ehac633 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Randomized controlled/clinical trial

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

Randomized Trials Fit for the 21st Century. A Joint Opinion from the European Society of Cardiology, American Heart Association, American College of Cardiology, and the World Heart Federation.

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

16-Dec-2022