Urgent need to address ‘regulatory void’ for online gambling across sub-Saharan Africa – new study

University of Bath Press Release

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF BATH

Governments across sub-Saharan Africa are struggling to keep pace with the mass expansion of gambling, brought about through online technologies and smartphone apps, say the authors of a new study funded by the British Academy and Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF).

An international team, coordinated by the universities of Ghana, Bath, and Glasgow, in partnership with the Malawi Epidemiology and Intervention Research Unit (MEIRU), comprehensively reviewed existing policies in place to regulate the gambling industry across 49 countries.

They found that in 41 countries where gambling was legal (of 49 in total), only two published annual reports about its impacts. In 36, no public reporting was accessible.

This lack of transparency and general lack of coherence about gambling regulation suggests that as the industry grows, governments are increasingly unaware of the scale of the problem; namely, the negative effects gambling is having on users’ finances and their mental health.

With the advent of digital technologies fuelling the expansion of the industry, the researchers argue that regulation is outdated and ill-equipped for a digital age. At present, many territories lack explicit regulation for online gambling, or protections against the deluge of advertising that has become commonplace in more established gambling markets, like the UK.

What’s more, smartphones are allowing more and more users to access sports gambling 24/7 via a range of apps for both domestic and international fixtures. Whilst there is growing concern about the industry’s expansion in the Global North, little attention has so far been paid to gambling growth across Africa.

There, the review argues gambling has fast become ubiquitous across daily life from billboard to TV advertising. Young people are particularly exposed to this. Two separate recent studies found that up to 10% of urban Ethiopian teenagers were compulsive gamblers; in Uganda, over 90% of urban young people had at least one gambling problem.

Overall, limited information was available from governments about the size of the gambling market, participation, harms, and prevention. Only in Malawi and South Africa was market size reported. Botswana’s regulatory authority was the only one to offer participation statistics. Rates of harmful gambling were only reported in Botswana and South Africa.

First author on the paper, Junious Sichali of the Malawi Epidemiology and Intervention Unit (MEIRU), explained: “We’re witnessing an exponential growth of gambling across Africa. In Malawi alone, exposure to gambling, either via street vendors and betting shops, or the deluge of adverts across billboards, TV, live sport and social media, is everywhere.

“What is most concerning is that weak regulation means that many people don’t understand the risks of harm; some even see gambling as a way to earn a living in hard times. Urgent action cannot come soon enough.”

Co-Investigator from the University of Ghana, Dr Joana Salifu Yendork added: “The findings will come as no surprise to many in Ghana, where existing regulation has not been effective in either curbing the rapid growth of gambling or protecting against its potentially harmful effects.

“What is most concerning is that for unemployed youth in particular, gambling is not just a leisure form but a potential source of income and wealth. Robust policymaking is essential to prevent further harms.”

Principal Investigator on the project, Dr Darragh McGee at the University of Bath said: “The findings point to a lack of regulation, transparency, and protection from gambling harms across Sub-Saharan Africa, despite evidence that the industry is rapidly expanding. The need to address this regulatory void and prioritise a public health approach is urgent.

“Decisive action by policymakers across Africa can safeguard against the kind of runaway excess and harms that have been an avoidable by-product of gambling in markets such as the UK.”

Professor Gerda Reith, Professor of Social Sciences at the University of Glasgow, added: “The rapid expansion of the gambling industry into Sub Saharan Africa is especially worrying when the regulatory frameworks that might control them are often weak or poorly enforced, as this research has found.

“This trend raises serious concerns about the potential impacts of harm on the health and wellbeing of vulnerable populations, many of whom live in conditions of poverty and unemployment. Urgent, joined up action by national and international policymakers is badly needed in response.”

To access the latest paper ‘Regulating of gambling in Sub-Saharan Africa: findings from a comparative policy analysis is accessible via the Journal of Public Health https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0033350622002281 .

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JOURNAL

Public Health

DOI

10.1016/j.puhe.2022.07.018 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Content analysis

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

Regulation of gambling in Sub-Saharan Africa: findings from a comparative policy analysis

MSU expert: An ‘extreme lack of consistency’ hampers the potential of nanosized medicines

Peer-Reviewed Publication

MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY

 

IMAGE: MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY ASSISTANT PROFESSOR MORTEZA MAHMOUDI STUDIES THE FACTORS LIMITING THE DEVELOPMENT OF NANOMEDICINES view more 

CREDIT: MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY

EAST LANSING, Mich. – Michigan State University researcher Morteza Mahmoudi studies factors impeding the development of very promising and extremely tiny diagnostics and therapeutics known as nanomedicines.

One of those factors is a lack of standards when it comes to how these medicines are analyzed and characterized in the laboratory. Mahmoudi was part of a team that recently revealed a shocking level of disagreement between lab results that researchers rely on as they create and test new nanomedicines. That team included Ali Ashkarran at MSU and collaborators at the University of California, Berkeley and the Karolinska Institute in Sweden.

Mahmoudi, an assistant professor in MSU’s Department of Radiology, explains why addressing such disagreements with stronger standards will help ensure future nanomedicines are safe, effective and successful.

The following answers are excerpts and adaptations from an article originally published in The Conversation.

What are nanomedicines?

Nanomedicines took the spotlight during the COVID-19 pandemic. Researchers are using these very small and intricate materials to develop diagnostic tests and treatments. Nanomedicines are already used for various diseases, such as the COVID-19 vaccines and therapies for cardiovascular disease. The “nano” refers to the use of particles that are only a few hundred nanometers in size, which is significantly smaller than the width of a human hair.

If we’re already using nanomedicines, why is there a need to develop and implement new standards for how we study them?

Although there are success stories in the field, many scientists — including myself — believe there aren’t enough, especially considering the amount of effort and taxpayer money we’ve invested in nanomedicine development. 

To that end, researchers have been working to improve the safety and efficacy of nanomedicine through various approaches. These include modifying study protocols, methodologies and analytical techniques to standardize the field and improve the reliability of nanomedicine data.

Aligned with these efforts, my team and I have identified several critical but often overlooked factors that can influence the performance of a nanomedicine, such as a person’s sex, prior medical conditions and disease type.

Taking these factors into account when designing studies and interpreting results could enable researchers to produce more reliable and accurate data and lead to better nanomedicine treatments.

Can you give an example of how?

Nanomedicines, just like all medications, are surrounded by proteins from the body once they come into contact with the bloodstream. This protein coating, known as a protein corona, gives nanoparticles a biological identity. This biological identity determines how the body will recognize and interact with the particles, like how the immune system has specific reactions against certain pathogens and allergens.

Knowing the precise type, amount and configuration of the proteins and other biomolecules attached to the surface of nanomedicines is critical to determine safe and effective dosages for treatments.

However, one of the few available approaches to analyze the composition of protein coronas requires instruments that many nanomedicine laboratories lack. So these labs typically send their samples to separate proteomics facilities to do the analysis for them. Unfortunately, many facilities use different sample preparation methods and instruments, which can lead to differences in results.

Those are the types of differences you investigated in your team’s new study. What did you find?

We wanted to test how consistently these proteomics facilities analyzed protein corona samples. To do this, my colleagues and I sent biologically identical protein coronas to 17 different labs in the U.S. for analysis.

We had striking results: Less than 2% of the proteins the labs identified were the same.

Our results reveal an extreme lack of consistency in the analyses researchers use to understand how nanomedicines work in the body. This may pose a significant challenge not only to ensuring the accuracy of diagnostics, but also the effectiveness and safety of treatments based on nanomedicines.

Read on MSUToday.

Nanoparticles, the white disks, can be used to deliver treatment to cells, shown in blue.

CREDIT

Brenda Melendez and Rita Serda/National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, CC BY-NC

Michigan State University has been advancing the common good with uncommon will for more than 165 years. One of the world's leading research universities, MSU pushes the boundaries of discovery to make a better, safer, healthier world for all while providing life-changing opportunities to a diverse and inclusive academic community through more than 200 programs of study in 17 degree-granting colleges.

For MSU news on the Web, go to MSUToday. Follow MSU News on Twitter at twitter.com/MSUnews.

 

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JOURNAL

Nature Communications

Nanoparticles and nanocarriers based pharmaceutical formulations

Book Announcement

BENTHAM SCIENCE PUBLISHERS

Nanomedicine consist of wide varieties of nanocarriers which has generated great opportunities to address and treat challenging diseases.Nanocarriers, through active manipulation in size, material used, method of development can be transformed into smart systems, encasing therapeutic and imaging agents as well as bearing stealth property.

As numerous nanocarriers have been developed over the past decade, “Nanoparticles and nanocarriers based pharmaceutical formulations”  is not only limited to nanoparticles, but also covers all other nanocarriers used in pharmaceutical formulations composed of organic and inorganic materials as well as proves their clinical benefit in the drug delivery. The chapters are designed to be authoritative sources of foundational knowledge. Since the subject matter is interdisciplinary, it will attract student, teachers and researchers of various disciplines, such as from pharmaceutical sciences, nanotechnology, material technology, biomedical fields or material sciences. Apart from this, we hope that persons working in academic, industrial, and scientific fields concerned in pharmaceutical medication delivery would find the book useful.

 

About the editors:

Dr. Akhlesh K. Jain is currently working as an Assistant Professor of Pharmaceutics at School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Guru Ghasidas Central University, Bilaspur, India and having 20 years of teaching and research experience.  Dr. Jain has authored more than 45 scientific publications in peer reviewed journals with total citations of more than 1600 and h-index 13. He has also authored five book chapters at international level and a text book.  He has successfully investigated two research project and guided two PhD. Students.  He is an inventor of one international Patent and three Indian patents. His research focused on nanoparticles, nanocarriers based delivery systems, mucosal vaccination, non-invasive protein delivery and ligand conjugated colloidal carriers for cancer therapy.

Keerti Mishra is a visiting Assistant Professor in Shambhunath Institute of Pharmacy, Prayagraj, India. She has completed her M. Pharm from School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Guru Ghasidas Central University, Bilaspur, India. She has written two books on NDDS and Biopharmaceutics, and has published 5 research and 3 review articles in reputed international journals. She twice cleared GPAT with high ranks before her B. Pharm degree. Mainly her research is focused on the nanocarriers based drug delivery system for the cancer treatment.

 

Keywords:

Drug delivery, Herbal nanoformulation, Nanotechnology, Nanomedicine, Drug targeting, Cancer therapy, Gastro-retentive drug delivery system, Green synthesis, Nanoemulsion , Targeted therapy, Liposomes, Functionalized Nanocarriers, Niosomes, Controlled drug delivery system, Resealed erythrocytes, Multifunctional nanoparticles, Gene therapy, Nanomaterial, Dendrimers, Nanostructured devices

 

Please visit the link for more information: http://bit.ly/3Xawp8r

Quantum sensors see Weyl photocurrents flow

Boston College-led team develops new quantum sensor technique to image and understand the origin of photocurrent flow in Weyl semimetals

Peer-Reviewed Publication

BOSTON COLLE

 

IMAGE: A TEAM OF BOSTON COLLEGE RESEARCHERS DISCOVERED THAT THE PHOTOCURRENT FLOWS IN (ILLUSTRATED IN BLUE) ALONG ONE CRYSTAL AXIS OF THE WEYL SEMIMETAL AND FLOWS OUT (ILLUSTRATED IN YELLOW/ORANGE) ALONG THE PERPENDICULAR AXIS, REPRESENTED HERE AS A RESULT OF A NEW TECHNIQUE THE TEAM DEVELOPED USING QUANTUM MAGNETIC FIELD SENSORS TO VISUALIZE THE FLOW OF ELECTRICITY. view more 

CREDIT: ZHOU LAB, BOSTON COLLEGE

Chestnut Hill, Mass (1/26/2023) – Quantum sensors can be used to reveal a surprising new mechanism for converting light into electricity in Weyl semimetals, Boston College Assistant Professor of Physics Brian Zhou and colleagues report in the journal Nature Physics.

A number of modern technologies, such as cameras, fiber optic networks, and solar cells rely on the conversion of light into electrical signals. But with most materials, shining a light onto their surface will not generate any electricity because there is no preferred direction for the electricity to flow. The unique properties of electrons in Weyl semimetals have made them a focus of researchers trying to overcome those limits and develop novel optoelectronic devices.

“Most photoelectrical devices require two different materials to create an asymmetry in space,” said Zhou, who worked with eight BC colleagues and two researchers from the Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. “Here, we showed that the spatial asymmetry within a single material – in particular the asymmetry in its thermoelectric transport properties – can give rise to spontaneous photocurrents.”

The team studied the materials tungsten ditelluride and tantalum iridium tetratelluride, which both belong to the class of Weyl semimetals. Researchers have suspected that these materials would be good candidates for photocurrent generation because their crystal structure is inherently inversion asymmetric; that is to say, the crystal does not map onto itself by reversing directions about a point.

Zhou’s research group set out to understand why Weyl semimetals are efficient at converting light into electricity. Previous measurements could only determine the amount of electricity coming out of a device, like measuring how much water flows from a sink into a drainpipe. To better understand the origin of the photocurrents, Zhou’s team sought to visualize the flow of electricity within the device – similar to making a map of the swirling water currents in the sink.

“As part of the project, we developed a new technique using quantum magnetic field sensors called nitrogen-vacancy centers in diamond to image the local magnetic field produced by the photocurrents and reconstruct the full streamlines of the photocurrent flow,” graduate student Yu-Xuan Wang, lead author on the manuscript, said.

The team found the electrical current flowed in a four-fold vortex pattern around where the light shined on the material. The team further visualized how the circulating flow pattern is modified by the edges of the material and revealed that the precise angle of the edge determines whether the total photocurrent flowing out of the device is positive, negative, or zero.

“These never-before-seen flow images allowed us to explain that the photocurrent generation mechanism is surprisingly due to an anisotropic photothermoelectric effect – that is to say, differences in how heat is converted to current along the different in-plane directions of the Weyl semimetal,” Zhou said.

Surprisingly, the appearance of anisotropic thermopower is not necessarily related to the inversion asymmetry displayed by Weyl semimetals, and hence, may be present in other classes of materials.

“Our findings open a new direction for searching for other highly photoresponsive materials,” Zhou said. “It showcases the disruptive impact of quantum-enabled sensors on open questions in materials science.”

Zhou said future projects will use the unique photocurrent flow microscope to understand the origins of photocurrents in other exotic materials and to push the limits in detection sensitivity and spatial resolution.

In addition to Zhou and Wang, co-authors of the report “Visualization of bulk and edge photocurrent flow in anisotropic Weyl semimetals” include Boston College Associate Professor of Physics Ying Ran, Professor of Physics David Broido, and Assistant Professor of Physics Fazel Tafti; graduate students Xin-Yue Zhang, Thomas Graham, and Xiaohan Yao; and post-doctoral researcher Chunhua Li; as well as Nanyang Technological University Professor Zheng Liu and post-doctoral researcher Ruihuan Duan.

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JOURNAL

Nature Physics

DOI

10.1038/s41567-022-01898-0 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Experimental study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE TITLE

Visualization of bulk and edge photocurrent flow in anisotropic Weyl semimetals

UK STUDY

Sugary drinks tax may have prevented over 5,000 cases of obesity a year in year six girls alone

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE

The introduction of the soft drinks industry levy – the ‘sugary drinks tax’ – in England was followed by a drop in the number of cases of obesity among older primary school children, according to Cambridge researchers. Taking into account current trends in obesity, their estimates suggest that around 5,000 cases of obesity per year may have been prevented in year six girls alone.

The study, published today in PLOS Medicine, looked at the impact of the levy on reception age children and those in year six, but found no significant association between the levy and obesity levels in year six boys or younger children from reception class.

Obesity has become a global public health problem. In England, one in ten reception age children (four to five years old) is living with obesity and this figure doubles to one in five children in year six (10 to 11 years). Children who are obese are more likely to suffer from serious health problems including high blood pressure, type II diabetes and depression in childhood and in later life.

In the UK, young people consume significantly more added sugars than is recommended – by late adolescence, they typically consume 70g of added sugar per day, more than double the recommended amount (30g). A large source of this is sugar-sweetened drinks. Children from deprived households are more likely to be at risk of obesity and to be heavy consumers of sugar-sweetened drinks.

In April 2018, to protect children from excessive sugar consumption and tackle childhood obesity, the UK governments introduced a two-tier sugar tax on soft drinks – the soft drinks industry levy. The tax was targeted at manufacturers of the drinks to incentivise them to reduce the sugar content of soft drinks.

Researchers from the Medical Research Council (MRC) Epidemiology Unit at the University of Cambridge tracked changes in the levels of obesity in children in England in reception year and year six between 2014 and 2020. Taking account of previous trends in obesity levels, they compared changes in levels of obesity 19 months after the sugar tax came into effect.

The team found that the introduction of the sugar tax was associated with an 8% relative reduction* in obesity levels in year six girls, equivalent to preventing 5,234 cases of obesity per year in this group alone. Reductions were greatest in girls whose schools were in deprived areas, where children are known to consume the largest amount of sugary drinks – those living in the most deprived areas saw a 9% reduction.

However, the team found no associations between the sugar tax coming into effect and changes in obesity levels in children from reception class. In year 6 boys, there was no overall change in obesity prevalence.

Dr Nina Rogers from the MRC Epidemiology Unit at Cambridge, the study’s first author, said: “We urgently need to find ways to tackle the increasing numbers of children living with obesity, otherwise we risk our children growing up to face significant health problems. That was one reason why the UK’s soft drinks industry levy was introduced, and the evidence so far is promising. We’ve shown for the first time that it is likely to have helped prevent thousands of children each year becoming obese.

“It isn’t a straightforward picture, though, as it was mainly older girls who benefited. But the fact that we saw the biggest difference among girls from areas of high deprivation is important and is a step towards reducing the health inequalities they face.”

Although the researchers found an association rather than a causal link, this study adds to previous findings that the levy was associated with a substantial reduction in the amount of sugar in soft drinks.

Senior author Professor Jean Adams from the MRC Epidemiology Unit said: “We know that consuming too many sugary drinks contributes to obesity and that the UK soft drinks levy led to a drop in the amount of sugar in soft drinks available in the UK, so it makes sense that we also see a drop in cases of obesity, although we only found this in girls. Children from more deprived backgrounds tend to consume the largest amount of sugary drinks, and it was among girls in this group that we saw the biggest change.”

There are several reasons why the sugar tax did not lead to changes in levels of obesity among the younger children, they say. Very young children consume fewer sugar-sweetened drinks than older children, so the soft drinks levy would have had a smaller effect. Similarly, fruit juices are not included in the levy, but contribute similar amounts of sugar in young children’s diets as sugar-sweetened beverages.

It’s unclear why the sugar tax might affect obesity prevalence in girls and boys differently, however, especially since boys are higher consumers of sugar-sweetened beverages. One explanation the researchers put forward is the possible impact of advertising – numerous studies have found that boys are often exposed to more food advertising content than girls, both through higher levels of TV viewing and in how adverts are framed. Physical activity is often used to promote junk food and boys, compared to girls, have been shown to be more likely to believe that energy dense junk foods depicted in adverts will boost physical performance and so are more likely to choose energy-dense, nutrient-poor products following celebrity endorsements.

The study was a collaboration involving researchers from the University of Cambridge, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, University of Oxford, Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health and University of Bath. It was supported by the National Institute of Health and Care Research, and the Medical Research Council.

*A relative reduction is the difference between the expected incidence of obesity had the sugar tax not been introduced and the actual incidence.

Reference
Rogers, NT et al. Associations between trajectories of obesity prevalence in English primary school children and the UK soft drink industry levy: an interrupted time series analysis of surveillance data. PLOS Med; 26 Jan 2023; DOI: 10.1371/journal.pmed.1004160

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JOURNAL

PLoS Medicine

DOI

10.1371/journal.pmed.1004160 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Data/statistical analysis

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

Associations between trajectories of obesity prevalence in English primary school children and the UK soft drink industry levy: an interrupted time series analysis of surveillance data

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

26-Jan-2023

CRISPR ALCHEMY

Secret recipe for limonoids opens door for bee-friendly crop protection

Peer-Reviewed Publication

JOHN INNES CENTRE

 

IMAGE: THE JOHN INNES CENTRE RESEARCH TEAM USED GENOMIC TOOLS TO MAP THE GENOME OF CHINABERRY (MELIA AZEDARACH), A MAHOGANY SPECIES view more 

CREDIT: JOHN INNES CENTRE

Innovative research has uncovered the secret of how plants make limonoids, a family of valuable organic chemicals which include bee-friendly insecticides and have potential as anti-cancer drugs.

The research team, a collaboration between the John Innes Centre and Stanford University, used ground-breaking methods to reveal the biosynthetic pathway of these useful molecules, which are made by certain plant families, including mahogany and citrus.

In the study which appears in Science, the John Innes Centre research team used genomic tools to map the genome of Chinaberry (Melia azedarach), a mahogany species, and combined this with molecular analysis to reveal the enzymes in the biosynthetic pathway.

“By finding the enzymes required to make limonoids, we have opened the door to an alternate production source of these valuable chemicals,” explained Dr Hannah Hodgson, co-first author of the paper and a postdoctoral scientist at the John Innes Centre.

Until now limonoids, a type of triterpene, could only be produced by extraction from plant material.

Dr Hodgson explains, “Their structures are too complicated to efficiently make by chemical synthesis. With the knowledge of the biosynthetic pathway, it is now possible to use a host organism to produce these compounds.” she added.

Armed with the complete biosynthetic pathway researchers can now produce the chemicals in commonly used host plants such as Nicotiana benthamiana. This method can produce larger quantities of limonoids in a more sustainable way.

Increasing the supply of limonoids could enable the more widespread use of azadirachtin, the anti-insect limonoid obtained from the neem tree and used in commercial and traditional crop protection. Azadirachtin is an effective, fast degrading, bee-friendly option for crop protection but is not widely used due to limited supply.

The team made two relatively simple limonoids, azadirone from Chinaberry and kihadalactone A from citrus, and believe that the methods used here can now be applied as a template for making more complicated triterpenes.

Professor Anne Osbourn, group leader at the John Innes Centre and co-corresponding author of the study said: “Plants make a wide variety of specialised metabolites that can be useful to humans. We are only just starting to understand how plants make complex chemicals like limonoids. Prior to this project, their biosynthesis and the enzymes involved were completely unknown, now the door is open for future research to build on this knowledge, which could benefit people in many ways.”

Another example of a high value limonoid which the team hopes to produce is the anti-cancer drug candidate nimbolide, this work could enable easier access to limonoids like nimbolide to enable further study. As well as producing known products like nimbolide, the research team say the door may open to understanding new activities for limonoids that have not yet been investigated.

The team at the John Innes Centre were funded by Syngenta and BBSRC via an industrial partnership award.

Complex scaffold remodeling in plant triterpene biosynthesis appears in Science. DOI: 10.1126/science.adf1017

Research Method in More Detail

The team at John Innes used genomic tools to assemble a chromosome level genome for Chinaberry (Melia azedarach), within which they found the genes encoding 10 additional enzymes required to produce the azadirachtin precursor, azadirone. In parallel, the team working at Stanford were able to find the 12 additional enzymes required to make khidalactone A.

Expressing these enzymes in N. benthamiana enabled their characterisation, with the help of both Liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry (LC-MS) and Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) Spectroscopy, technologies that allow molecular level analysis of samples.

 

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JOURNAL

Science

DOI

10.1126/science.adf1017 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Experimental study

ARTICLE TITLE

Complex scaffold remodeling in plant triterpene biosynthesis

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

27-Jan-2023

TEMPERATURE-SENSING BUILDING

MATERIAL CHANGES COLOR TO SAVE

ENERGY

Researchers at the University of Chicago’s Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering (PME) have designed a chameleon-like building material that changes its infrared color—and how much heat it absorbs or emits—based on the outside temperature. On hot days, the material can emit up to 92 percent of the infrared heat it contains, helping cool the inside of a building. On colder days, however, the material emits just 7 percent of its infrared, helping keep a building warm.

“We’ve essentially figured out a low-energy way to treat a building like a person; you add a layer when you’re cold and take off a layer when you’re hot,” said Asst. Prof. Po-Chun Hsu, who led the research published in Nature Sustainability. “This kind of smart material lets us maintain the temperature in a building without huge amounts of energy.”

 

IMAGE: THE MATERIAL CONTAINS A LAYER THAT CAN TAKE ON TWO CONFORMATIONS: SOLID COPPER THAT RETAINS MOST INFRARED HEAT, WHICH HELPS KEEP THE BUILDING WARM; OR A WATERY SOLUTION THAT EMITS INFRARED, WHICH CAN HELP COOL THE BUILDING. view more 

CREDIT: UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PME - IMAGE COURTESY OF HSU GR

Driven by climate change
According to some estimates, buildings account for 30 percent of global energy consumption and emit 10 percent of all global greenhouse gas. About half of this energy footprint is attributed to the heating and cooling of interior spaces.

“For a long time, most of us have taken our indoor temperature control for granted, without thinking about how much energy it requires,” said Hsu. “If we want a carbon-negative future, I think we have to consider diverse ways to control building temperature in a more energy-efficient way.”

Researchers have previously developed radiative cooling materials that help keep buildings cool by boosting their ability to emit infrared, the invisible heat that radiates from people and objects. Materials also exist that prevent the emission of infrared in cold climates.

“A simple way to think about it is that if you have a completely black building facing the sun, it’s going to heat up more easily than other buildings,” said PME graduate student Chenxi Sui, the first author of the new manuscript.

That kind of passive heating might be a good thing in the winter, but not in the summer.

As global warming causes increasingly frequent extreme weather events and variable weather, there is a need for buildings to be able to adapt; few climates require year-round heating or year-round air conditioning.

From metal to liquid and back
Hsu and colleagues designed a non-flammable “electrochromic” building material that contains a layer that can take on two conformations: solid copper that retains most infrared heat, or a watery solution that emits infrared. At any chosen trigger temperature, the device can use a tiny amount of electricity to induce the chemical shift between the states by either depositing copper into a thin film, or stripping that copper off.

In the new paper, the researchers detailed how the device can switch rapidly and reversibly between the metal and liquid states. They showed that the ability to switch between the two conformations remained efficient even after 1,800 cycles.

Then, the team created models of how their material could cut energy costs in typical buildings in 15 different U.S. cities. In an average commercial building, they reported, the electricity used to induce electrochromic changes in the material would be less than 0.2% of the total electricity usage of the building, but could save 8.4% of the building’s annual HVAC energy consumption.

“Once you switch between states, you don’t need to apply any more energy to stay in either state,” said Hsu. “So for buildings where you don’t need to switch between these states very frequently, it’s really using a very negligible amount of electricity.”

Hsu Group created models of how their material could cut energy costs in typical buildings in 15 different U.S. cities, finding that, on average, the material would use less than 0.2% of the building’s total electricity, but could save 8.4% of the building’s annual HVAC energy consumption.

CREDIT

University of Chicago PME - Image courtesy of Hsu Grou

Scaling up
So far, Hsu’s group has only created pieces of the material that measure about six centimeters across. However, they imagine that many such patches of the material could be assembled like shingles into larger sheets. They say the material could also be tweaked to use different, custom colors—the watery phase is transparent and nearly any color can be put behind it without impacting its ability to absorb infrared.

The researchers are now investigating different ways of fabricating the material. They also plan to probe how intermediate states of the material could be useful.

“We demonstrated that radiative control can play a role in controlling a wide range of building temperatures throughout different seasons,” said Hsu. “We’re continuing to work with engineers and the building sector to look into how this can contribute to a more sustainable future.”

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JOURNAL

Nature Sustainability

DOI

10.1038/s41893-022-01023-2 

ARTICLE TITLE

Dynamic electrochromism for all-season radiative thermoregulation

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

26-Jan-2023

A transnational collaboration leads to the characterization of an emergent plant virus

Peer-Reviewed Publication

AMERICAN PHYTOPATHOLOGICAL SOCIETY

 

IMAGE: FIGURE 1 OF THE STUDY, SHOWING PICTURES OF NATURAL PHYSOSTEGIA CHLOROTIC MOTTLE VIRUS (PHCMOV)-INFECTED PLANTS. view more 

CREDIT: THE AUTHORS

In the 21st century, “collaboration” has become a popular buzzword, but effectively working together across disciplines and countries is easier said than done. However, authentic collaboration is critical to the fight against plant pathogens; sharing information on plant diseases facilitates early detection, efficient and rapid characterization, and subsequent management. Physostegia chlorotic mottle virus (PhCMoV), a plant disease first identified in Austria in 2018, initially received inadequate characterization. This then sparked studies across Europe as new symptoms emerged on economically important crops. These independent studies converged into one study, newly published in Plant Disease, demonstrating the power of collaboration beyond a mere buzzword.

In the coalescent study, Coline Temple and colleagues from eight laboratories across five European countries utilized prepublication sharing of high throughput sequencing (HTS) data to improve knowledge on PhCMoV biology, epidemiology, and genetic diversity.

The researchers identified PhCMoV in eight European countries, in addition to Austria, and confirmed its presence in samples collected in 2002. Mechanically inoculating PhCMoV to healthy host plants in control conditions enabled the authors to validate the association of the virus with symptoms. Their results show that PhCMoV can infect at least nine plant species and cause severe fruit symptoms on economically important crops such as tomato, eggplant, and cucumber. Additionally, sequencing 21 different infected host plants from various origins allowed for comparison of genomes, which showed that the genomes of two isolates from the same site barely evolved over 17 years. This suggests that the same isolate of the microorganism can survive without adaptation in a specific ecosystem.

In addition to characterizing an emergent plant disease, this study illustrates how solidarity and trust between scientists can accelerate a common goal. Corresponding Author Sébastien Massart reminisces on the process, commenting, “The most exciting moment of this research was when we progressively realized that we were not alone, that different research groups had suddenly and independently detected this virus in different symptomatic host plants and countries all over Europe.”

Uniting against this virus by sharing HTS data prepublication created a collaborative space free from competition, which shows how “trusting colleagues and sharing information on the most recent results between groups can facilitate synergy, accelerate virus characterization, and gather the most information in a single publication,” Massart says.

This research will ultimately benefit all plant health stakeholders and offer a solid foundation of knowledge for further studies on plant rhabdoviruses.

 

For additional details, read Biological and Genetic Characterization of Physostegia Chlorotic Mottle Virus in Europe Based on Host Range, Location, and Time published in Vol. 106, No. 11 November 2022 of Plant Disease.
 

Follow the authors and their affiliations on Twitter

@ColineTemple, @Be_Phytopath, @KrisDeJonghe2, @HeikoZiebell, @ViromeHunter, @DenisKutnjak, @AnaVucurovic, @AgroBioTech, @UniversiteLiege, @_NVWA, @Anses_fr, @INRAE_Intl, @NIB_FITO_SI

 

Follow us on Twitter @PlantDiseaseJ and visit https://apsjournals.apsnet.org/journal/pdis to learn more.

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JOURNAL

Plant Disease

DOI

10.1094/PDIS-12-21-2800-RE 

ARTICLE TITLE

Biological and genetic characterization of physostegia chlorotic mottle virus in Europe based on host range, location, and time