The quail could be the unknown reservoir of Tuscany and Sicilian viruses

Viruses in migratory birds

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF BARCELONA

 

IMAGE: THE EXPERT JORDI SERRA-COBO, PROFESSOR AT THE FACULTY OF BIOLOGY AND THE BIODIVERSITY RESEARCH INSTITUTE (IRBIO) OF THE UNIVERSITY OF BARCELONA. view more 

CREDIT: UNIVERSITY OF BARCELONA

The quail could be the unknown reservoir of the Toscana virus (TOSV) and the Sandfly Fever Sicilian virus (SFSV), mosquito-borne pathogens that can infect domestic animals and also cause disease in humans. This conclusion is drawn from a study published in the journal Frontiers in Microbiology, and which is led by Jordi Serra-Cobo, professor at the Faculty of Biology and the Biodiversity Research Institute (IRBio) of the University of Barcelona, and Remi Charrel, from the Aix-Marseille University (France).

 

This is the first time that researchers find neutralising antibodies to TOSV and SFSV in wild birds. "To date, the reservoir for these two viruses was unknown, although they have been sought for years. Dogs and bats had been proposed as reservoirs, but the results showed that neither of them were", says Jordi Serra-Cobo, an expert in epidemiological studies with bats as natural reservoirs of infectious agents such as coronaviruses.

The study, whose first author is Nazli Ayhan, from Aix-Marseille University, includes the participation of José Domingo Rodríguez Teijeiro, Marc López-Roig, Dolors Vinyoles and Abir Monastiri (UB Faculty of Biology and IRBio) and Josep Anton Ferreres (UB Faculty of Biology).

Emerging viruses in the Mediterranean basin

TOSV and SFSV belong to the Phlebovirus genus and are considered emerging pathogens. They are spherical, single-stranded RNA viruses with a high mutation rate and are transmitted by mosquito bites (Phlebotomus genus), insects found mainly in the warmer, drier areas of the Iberian Peninsula. These viruses are distributed in most Mediterranean countries in Western Europe, as well as Cyprus and Turkey. With no actual vaccine against infection, epidemiological surveillance, control, and prevention measures to avoid phlebotomine sandfly bites are crucial to avoid viral infections.

"Both TOSV and SFSV have been detected in a variety of domestic animals (dogs, cats, goats, horses, pigs, cows), but they can also infect humans and cause diseases", says the researcher, a member of the UB Department of Evolutionary Biology, Ecology and Environmental Sciences.

In humans, feblovirus infections are usually symptomless and often result in a three-day fever —pappatasis feve— which is very similar to influenza. "SFSV can cause a period of short-length high fever, accompanied by headache, rash, photophobia, eye pain, myalgia and general weakness. TOSV can cause the same manifestations as SFSV, but it can also be responsible for various central or peripheral neurological signs, such as meningitis and encephalitis. In fact, part of the encephalitis that occurs in summer is caused by TOSV", Serra-Cobo notes.

Viruses in migratory birds

The results of the new study suggest that birds could be the reservoir or amplifying agents of these viruses. From infected birds, mosquitoes can become infected and then bite animals or humans. In particular, the study highlights the important role of quails (Coturnix coturnix) in the infection dynamics of phleboviruses.

"Migratory birds play an important role in disease transmission due to their high mobility from one area to another, which makes them potential vectors of diseases that can affect domestic animals and human health", Serra-Cobo stresses.

"The quail is a migratory and also a hunter species, which enhances the potential transmission of diseases by direct contact through the food chain. In this context, regular pathogen detection is of great importance to predict future disease risks for both wildlife and humans", concludes the researcher.

 

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JOURNAL

Frontiers in Microbiology

DOI

10.3389/fmicb.2022.1091908 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Experimental study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Animals

ARTICLE TITLE

«High rates of antibodies against Toscana and Sicilian phleboviruses in common quail Coturnix coturnix birds

To know where the birds are going, researchers turn to citizen science and machine learning

Scientists at UMass Amherst and the Cornell Lab of Ornithology unveil BirdFlow, a new predictive model that anticipates migratory patterns

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS AMHERST

 

IMAGE: THE AMERICAN WOODCOCK, ONE OF THE SPECIES MODELED BY THE BIRDFLOW TEAM. view more 

CREDIT: GUIZMO_68, CC BY 2.0

AMHERST, Mass. – Computer scientists at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, in collaboration with biologists at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, recently announced in the journal Methods in Ecology and Evolution a new, predictive model that is capable of accurately forecasting where a migratory bird will go next—one of the most difficult tasks in biology. The model is called BirdFlow, and while it is still being perfected, it should be available to scientists within the year and will eventually make its way to the general public.

“Humans have been trying to figure out bird migration for a really long time,” says Dan Sheldon, professor of information and computer sciences at UMass Amherst, the paper’s senior author and a passionate amateur birder. “But,” adds Miguel Fuentes, the paper’s lead author and graduate student in computer science at UMass Amherst, “it’s incredibly difficult to get precise, real-time information on which birds are where, let alone where, exactly, they are going.”

There have been many efforts, both previous and ongoing, to tag and track individual birds, which have yielded invaluable insights. But it’s difficult to physically tag birds in large enough numbers—not to mention the expense of such an undertaking—to form a complete enough picture to predict bird movements. “It’s really hard to understand how an entire species moves across the continent with tracking approaches,” says Sheldon, “because they tell you the routes that some birds caught in specific locations followed, but not how birds in completely different locations might move.”

In recent years, there’s been an explosion in the number of citizen scientists who monitor and report sightings of migratory birds. Birders around the world contribute more than 200 million annual bird sightings through eBird, a project managed by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and international partners. It’s one of the largest biodiversity-related science projects in existence and has hundreds of thousands of users, facilitating state-of-the-art species distribution modeling through the Lab’s eBird Status & Trends project. “eBird data is amazing because it shows where birds of a given species are every week across their entire range,” says Sheldon, “but it doesn’t track individuals, so we need to infer what routes individual birds follow to best explain the species-level patterns.”

BirdFlow draws on eBird’s Status & Trends database and its estimates of relative bird abundance and then runs that information through a probabilistic machine-learning model. This model is tuned with real-time GPS and satellite tracking data so that it can “learn” to predict where individual birds will move next as they migrate.

The researchers tested BirdFlow on 11 species of North American birds—including the American Woodcock, Wood Thrush and Swainson’s Hawk—and found that not only did BirdFlow outperform other models for tracking bird migration, it can accurately predict migration flows without the real-time GPS and satellite tracking data, which makes BirdFlow a valuable tool for tracking species that may literally fly under the radar.

“Birds today are experiencing rapid environmental change, and many species are declining,” says Benjamin Van Doren, a postdoctoral fellow at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and a co-author of the study. “Using BirdFlow, we can unite different data sources and paint a more complete picture of bird movements,” Van Doren adds, “with exciting applications for guiding conservation action.”

With an $827,000 grant from the National Science Foundation, Sheldon and his colleagues are improving BirdFlow and plan to release a software package for ecologists to use later this year, with future development aimed at visualization products geared towards the general public.

(a) Simulated spring migration trajectories. (b) Timing of spring migration departure and (c) arrival derived from simulated trajectories. (d) Migratory connectivity: square cells show breeding origins of individuals in the northwest (orange) and northeast (blue) parts of the breeding range. Filled density contours show the predicted wintering distributions of individuals breeding in those respective regions.

Observed movements of GPS-tracked woodcocks (single thick path) and simulated trajectories (thin paths) for 2500 simulated birds originating at the same starting location as observed birds

Each heatmap shows the predicted movement distribution of a GPS-tracked individual originating within the circle at the base of the arrow. Darker colors indicate a higher predicted likelihood of movement to that area. The point of the arrow shows the observed ending location. Shown are examples of 3-week (h), 6-week (i), and 12-week (j) conditional forecasts.

CREDIT

Fuentes et al., 10.1111/2041-210X.14052

JOURNAL

Methods in Ecology and Evolution

DOI

10.1111/2041-210X.14052 

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

1-Feb-2023

Method extracts antioxidant nutrients from corn processing waste

Peer-Reviewed Publication

KTH, ROYAL INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY

 

IMAGE: OF THE MORE THAN 120 MILLION METRIC TONS OF CORN STARCH PRODUCED EACH YEAR, NEARLY 15 PERCENT IS DISCARDED OR FED TO CHICKENS AND OTHER ANIMALS. FRANCISCO VILAPLANA HAS DEVELOPED A METHOD TO GENERATE NUTRITIONAL VALUE FROM WHAT HE DESCRIBES AS "A HUGE SIDESTREAM." view more 

CREDIT: DAVID CALLAHAN

A process for extracting nutritious antioxidant dietary fibers from corn starch production waste could turn tons of nearly-worthless bran into a valuable, circular resource.

Corn bran is rich in the potent antioxidant, ferulic acid. Unfortunately this anti-inflammatory is trapped in an insoluble material matrix that humans can’t digest. That is until now.

Researchers at KTH Royal Institute of Technology have reported a way to unlock soluble ferulic acid-rich dietary fibers from this insoluble matrix, and they developed a hydrogel that delivers it to the intestines where it can prevent cell oxidation and improve gut health.

Due to its insolubility, corn bran is a low-value sidestream from cornstarch production, which is otherwise discarded or sold off for animal feed. But instead of letting it go to waste, the researchers used a method called subcritical water extraction to isolate the soluble fiber part of the bran that contains ferulic acid.

Francisco Vilaplana, Associate Professor in the Division of Glycoscience at KTH Royal Institute of Technology, says the next step is to create a hydrogel by crosslinking this soluble ferulic acid-rich dietary fiber part using natural enzymes (laccase and peroxidase). The hydrogel can be digested as a prebiotic for gut health, or even used as a treatment for wounds, since it counteracts oxidative stress and contributes to healing.

The method was published in the scientific journal, Green Chemistry.

The global market for cornstarch is estimated at more than 120 million metric tons, and is expected to increase to 160 million metric tons by 2026. In cornstarch processing, as much as 15 percent of the kernel is discarded as fiber, or corn bran, Vilaplana says. “That’s a huge industrial sidestream.”

He says the new technique addresses the worldwide concern about food waste, in terms of sustainability and greenhouse gas emissions.

“We showed that we can upgrade a food side stream into a valuable material for both food and biomedical applications that could mitigate inflammatory processes.”

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JOURNAL

Green Chemistry

DOI

10.1039/D2GC03331C 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Observational study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE TITLE

Hydrogels with protective effects against cellular oxidative stress via enzymatic crosslinking of feruloylated arabinoxylan from corn fibre

Climate change may cut US forest inventory by a fifth this century

Peer-Reviewed Publication

NORTH CAROLINA STATE UNIVERSITY

A study led by a North Carolina State University researcher found that under more severe climate warming scenarios, the inventory of trees used for timber in the continental United States could decline by as much as 23% by 2100. The largest inventory losses would occur in two of the leading timber regions in the U.S., which are both in the South.

Researchers say their findings show modest impacts on forest product prices through the end of the century, but suggest bigger impacts in terms of storing carbon in U.S. forests. Two-thirds of U.S. forests are classified as timberlands.

“We already see some inventory decline at baseline in our analysis, but relative to that, you could lose, additionally, as much as 23% of the U.S. forest inventory,” said the study’s lead author Justin Baker, associate professor of forestry and environmental resources at North Carolina State University. “That’s a pretty dramatic change in standing forests.”

In the study, which is published in Forest Policy and Economics, researchers used computer modeling to project how 94 individual tree species in the continental United States will grow under six climate warming scenarios through 2100. They also considered the impact of two different economic scenarios on demand growth for forestry products. The researchers compared their outcomes for forest inventory, harvest, prices and carbon sequestration to scenarios with no climate change. Researchers said their methods could provide a more nuanced picture of the future forest sector under high-impact climate change scenarios compared to other models.

“Many past studies show a pretty optimistic picture for forests under climate change because they see a big boost in forest growth from additional carbon dioxide in the atmosphere,” Baker said. “The effect that carbon dioxide has on photosynthesis in some of those models tends to outweigh the losses you see from precipitation and temperature induced changes in forest productivity and tree mortality. We have a model that is specific to individual tree species, and that allows us to better understand how climate factors influence growth rates and mortality.” 

Researchers found that in certain regions trees would grow more slowly in higher temperatures, and die faster. Combined with increasing harvest levels and greater development pressures, that led to declines in the total tree inventory. They projected the largest losses would be in the Southeast and South-Central regions, which are two of the three most productive timber supply regions in the U.S. Those regions could see tree inventories shrink by as much as 40% by 2095 compared to one of their baseline scenarios. Due to declines in pine products, the researchers projected softwood lumber prices could increase as much as 32% by 2050.

“We found pretty high levels of sensitivity to warming and precipitation changes for productive pine species in the South, especially when climate change is combined with high forest product demand growth,” Baker said.

However, the researchers projected gains in tree supplies in the Rocky Mountain and Pacific Southwest regions, driven by higher rates of death of certain trees that lead to larger harvests initially, followed by the growth of more heat-tolerant species.

“These are regions losing a lot of inventory right now due to pests and fire disturbance,” Baker said. “What you’re seeing is a higher level of replacement with climate adaptive species like juniper, which are more tolerant to future growing conditions.”

Combining the effects from all the regions, researchers projected total losses of U.S. tree inventory of 3 to 23% compared to baseline. They projected losses in carbon sequestration in most scenarios, and estimated the value of lost carbon stored in U.S. forests up to $5.5 billion per year.

They found the economic impact of climate change on the overall U.S. forest products industry value could range from a loss of as much as $2.6 billion per year – representing 2.5% of the value of the industry – or a gain in value of more than $200 million per year.

“We saw that the markets could be more resilient than the forests themselves,” Baker said.  “Your market effects may seem modest in terms of the effect it has on the consumers and producers, but those impacts are small compared to the carbon sequestration value that forests provide on an annual basis.”

Researchers say more studies are needed to bring the future of U.S. forestry into sharper focus.

“We don’t know a lot about how disturbance-related mortality or loss in tree productivity is going to bear out across the landscape as temperatures get warmer,” Baker said. “We did our best to address a couple pieces of the puzzle with temperature and precipitation changes, and interactions between climate and market demand, but a lot more work needs to be done to get a good handle on climate change and forestry.”

The study, “Projecting U.S. Forest Management, Market, and Carbon Sequestration Responses to a High-Impact Climate Scenario,” was published online in Forest Policy and Economics. Co-authors included George Van Houtven, Jennifer Phelan, Gregory Latta, Christopher M. Clark, Kemen Austin, Olakunle Sodiya, Sara B. Ohrel, John Buckley, Lauren E. Gentile and Jeremy Martinich. The study was funded by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency under contract No. 68HERH19D0030. The views and opinions expressed in this paper are those of the authors alone and do not necessarily state or reflect those of the EPA, and no official endorsement should be inferred.

-oleniacz-

Note to Editors: The study abstract follows.

 

Projecting U.S. Forest Management, Market, and Carbon Sequestration Responses to a High-Impact Climate Scenario

 

Authors: Justin S. Baker, George Van Houtven, Jennifer Phelan, Gregory Latta, Christopher M. Clark, Kemen Austin, Olakunle Sodiya, Sara B. Ohrel, John Buckley, Lauren E. Gentile and Jeremy Martinich.

 

Published: Dec. 28, 2022, Forest Policy and Economics

 

DOI: 10.1016/j.forpol.2022.102898

Abstract: The impact of climate change on forest ecosystems remains uncertain, with wide variation in potential climate impacts across different radiative forcing scenarios and global circulation models, as well as potential variation in forest productivity impacts across species and regions. This study uses an empirical forest composition model to estimate the impact of climate factors (temperature and precipitation) and other environmental parameters on forest productivity for 94 forest species across the conterminous United States. The composition model is linked to a dynamic optimization model of the U.S. forestry sector to quantify economic impacts of a high warming scenario (Representative Concentration Pathway 8.5) under six alternative climate projections and two socioeconomic scenarios. Results suggest that forest market impacts and consumer impacts could range from relatively large losses (−$2.6 billion) to moderate gain ($0.2 billion) per year across climate scenarios. Temperature-induced higher mortality and lower productivity for some forest types and scenarios, coupled with increasing economic demands for forest products, result in forest inventory losses by end of century relative to the current climate baseline (3%–23%). Lower inventories and reduced carbon sequestration capacity result in additional economic losses of up to approximately $4.1 billion per year. However, our results also highlight important adaptation mechanisms, such forest type changes and shifts in regional mill capacity that could reduce the impact of high impact climate scenarios.

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JOURNAL

Forest Policy and Economics

DOI

10.1016/j.forpol.2022.102898 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Computational simulation/modeling

ARTICLE TITLE

Projecting U.S. forest management, market, and carbon sequestration responses to a high-impact climate scenario

Communities that suffered rapid manufacturing job losses fare worse on sustainability

Peer-Reviewed Publication

NORTH CAROLINA STATE UNIVERSITY

A new study finds communities that have experienced significant job losses in manufacturing over the past 50 years are also less likely to engage in sustainability planning, less likely to develop sustainability-related capabilities, and have made less progress towards meeting sustainability-related goals – such as energy and water conservation.

“Sustainability is important for addressing large-scale social problems, such as global climate change,” says Christopher Galik, co-author of the study and a professor of public administration at North Carolina State University.

“But it’s also important to remember that sustainability can help make communities more competitive in the long term. It can drive down energy and water costs for residents and local government; it can help communities attract state and federal funding for infrastructure projects. Essentially, sustainability makes communities more resilient, both economically and environmentally.”

“Given the importance of sustainability, we wanted to see if historical factors played a role in local communities’ sustainability commitments and decisions,” says Yuhao Ba, first author of the paper and a former graduate student at NC State who is now an assistant professor of public policy at the National University of Singapore.

The researchers found that a key variable was sudden shifts in industrial employment. Communities that had smaller swings in employment, even if they lost jobs in the long run, were associated with greater sustainability planning, capabilities and performance. Communities that experienced significant job losses in a short period of time, however, had a more difficult time transitioning.

“Because of deep-rooted connections between industry and community identity, we thought we might observe some differences between community capabilities and performance depending on their unique industrial histories,” Galik says. “The data bear that out.”

For the study, researchers looked at publicly available sustainability data on 320 counties from across the U.S. as of 2015. This allowed them to measure how well each municipality was doing in three areas: sustainability planning, sustainability capability and sustainability performance. The researchers also collected employment data from all 320 counties, dating from 1969 to 2016. Drawing on this data, the researchers used a statistical tool called path analysis to identify complex structural relationships.

“Basically, that means we can get a better sense of the relationships between a number of variables and observed outcomes, both direct and indirect,” Galik says. “In this case, the outcome we were interested in is sustainability performance.”

Their findings were straightforward: communities that suffered sudden and significant job losses in manufacturing were substantially less likely to have robust sustainability plans and capability, and less likely to be making significant process on sustainability goals.

“Particularly given the attention – and funding – at the federal level for infrastructure, clean energy technology manufacturing, and climate adaptation, our study emphasizes the need to consider community history, context, and conditions as programs are designed and rolled out,” Galik says.

The paper, “Historical industrial transitions influence local sustainability planning, capability, and performance,” is published in the journal Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions.

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JOURNAL

Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions

DOI

10.1016/j.eist.2022.100690 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Data/statistical analysis

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE TITLE

Historical industrial transitions influence local sustainability planning, capability, and performance

Development of 100% biodegradable paper straws that do not become soggy

Korea Research Institute of Chemical Technology (KRICT) developed 100% biodegradable, eco-friendly paper straws that do not become soggy, Paper published on『Advanced Science (IF:17.52)』

Peer-Reviewed Publication

NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL OF SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

 

IMAGE: WHEN USED TO STIR A BEVERAGE IN A CUP, A PAPER STRAW IS FREQUENTLY BENT SLIGHTLY OR DELAMINATED. DUE TO ITS HIGH MECHANICAL RIGIDITY IN WATER, ECO-FRIENDLY PAPER STRAW WAS OBSERVED TO WITHSTAND A RELATIVELY HEAVY WEIGHT FOR 60 SECONDS UNDER WET CONDITION. view more 

CREDIT: KOREA RESEARCH INSTITUTE OF CHEMICAL TECHNOLOGY (KRICT)

Eco-friendly paper straws that do not easily become soggy and are 100% biodegradable in the ocean and soil have been developed. The straws are easy to mass-produce and thus are expected to be implemented in response to the regulations on plastic straws in restaurants and cafés.

 

The paper straws that are currently available are not entirely made of paper alone. Straws made with 100% paper become too soggy when they come in contact with liquids and cannot function as straws. Accordingly, their surface should be coated. The most commonly used coating materials for paper straws are polyethylene (PE) or acrylic resin—the same materials used for making plastic bags and adhesives. Paper cups are also coated with the same materials as paper straws. A large number of previous studies have reported that polyethylene coating on discarded paper cups can disintegrate into small particles without being fully decomposed and become microplastics. Moreover, these paper products are made with paper and plastics (two very different materials) and thus it is difficult to recycle them.

 

Conventional paper straws are inconvenient to use. Upon prolonged contact with a liquid, they become soggy. Also, when these straws are used to drink carbonated beverages, many bubbles may form owing to their surface properties. Currently, polylactic acid (PLA) straws and rice straws are available in the market as alternatives to paper straws. However, PLA straws—also known as corn plastic straws—do not decompose well in the ocean. While rice straws decompose well in the environment, they have disadvantages, including higher prices, due to difficulties in their mass-production and their sharp cross-sections.

 

The joint research team of Dr. Oh Dongyeop and Dr. Kwak Hojung of KRICT and Professor Park Jeyoung of Sogang University have developed eco-friendly paper straws that are 100% biodegradable, perform better than conventional paper straws, and can be easily mass-produced.

 

Using their technology, the research team synthesized a well-known biodegradable plastic, polybutylene succinate (PBS)*, by adding a small amount of cellulose nanocrystals to create a coating material. The added cellulose nanocrystals are the same material as the main component of paper, and this allows the biodegradable plastic to firmly attach to the paper surface during the coating process.

* PBS (polybutylene succinate): Polyester-based biodegradable bioplastic with similar properties to those of petroleum-based polypropylene.

 

Conventional paper straws do not incorporate a material that will strongly attach the plastic coating to the surface of the straws. The surface of the straws thus is not uniformly coated with plastic, impeding their use. The most significant limitations this creates are that the straws become soggy when a liquid touches the uncoated part and bubbles extensively form when paper straws are left in carbonated beverages. This is because the uncoated part easily combines with water, whereas the coated plastic part has the property of repelling water, causing the carbonated drink to contact the uneven surface of the paper straws.

 

These limitations are overcome by the new paper straws developed by our research team; they do not become soggy easily or cause bubble formation in carbonated drinks because the coating material uniformly and strongly covers the surface of the straws. Also, the coating material is made of paper and biodegradable plastic and therefore will decompose and degrade completely.

 

The research team found that these eco-friendly paper straws maintain their physical integrity in not only cold drinks but also hot drinks. The team also found that the straws did not become soggy when used to stir various beverages such as water, tea, carbonated drinks, milk, and other drinks containing lipids, or upon prolonged contact with liquids. The degree of sogginess of the as-prepared paper straws and conventional paper straws was compared. The conventional paper straw was severely bent when a weight of approximately 25g was suspended after the straw was dipped in cold water at 5°C for 1 min. In contrast, the as-prepared paper straw did not bend as much even when the weight was more than 50g under the same conditions.

 

The newly developed straws decompose well, even in the ocean. In general, paper or plastic decomposes much more slowly in the ocean than in soil because of the ocean’s low temperature and high salinity, which impede growth of microbes. The research team performed a decomposition test in a marine environment by immersing the straw samples at a depth of 1.5–2 m on the coast near Pohang, South Korea.

 

Regular plastic straws and corn plastic straws did not decompose after 120 days. Conventional paper straws preserved their shape and lost only 5% of their total weight. In contrast, the straws developed by the research team lost more than 50% of their weight after 60 days and decomposed completely after 120 days.

 

“This technology is but a small step toward the direction we need to take in this era of plastic. Turning a plastic straw we often use into a paper straw will not immediately impact our environment, but the difference will be profound over time. If we gradually change from using convenient disposable plastic products to various eco-friendly products, our future environment will be much safer than what we now worry about,” said the head researcher, Dr. Oh Dongyeop.

Degree of decomposition of the straw samples after being immersed in the ocean for 120 days. 

Conventional plastic straws and corn plastic straws did not decompose after 120 days under marine conditions. They have preserved their shape and lost only 5% of their total weight. In the meantime, eco-friendly straws developed by the research team lost more than 50% of their weight after 60 days and decomposed completely after 120 days.

CREDIT

Korea Research Institute of Chemical Technology (KRICT

Interview Q&A session with the [VIDEO] | 

###

KRICT was established as a government-funded research institute in 1976. KRICT has played a leading role in the development of the national chemical industry as it developed technologies for chemical and related fields of convergence, transferred chemical technologies to industries, produced professionals in the chemical field, and provided tremendous support for a variety of chemical infrastructures. Now we promise to reach new heights in chemistry and chemical engineering and continue our role in facilitating increased use of the knowledge from research. For more information, please visit KRICT’s website at https://www.krict.re.kr/eng/

 

This achievement was supported by the Nano·Material Technology Development Program through the Ministry of Science and ICT, the Basic Science Research Program through KRICT, and the Biodegradable Bioplastics Commercialization and Demonstration Project through the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy.

The research results were published in the international academic journal Advanced Science (IF:17.52) under the title ‘Biodegradable, Water-resistant, Anti-fizzing, Polyester Nanocellulose Composite Paper Straws’ on November 21, 2022, and are accessible to the public.

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JOURNAL

Advanced Science

DOI

10.1002/advs.202205554 

ARTICLE TITLE

Biodegradable, Water-resistant, Anti-fizzing, Polyester Nanocellulose Composite Paper Straws

Passive radiative cooling can now be controlled electrically

Peer-Reviewed Publication

LINKÖPING UNIVERSITY

 

IMAGE: MINGNA LIAO PHOTOGRAPHED THROUGH THE SKY SIMULATOR BUILT BY THE RESEARCHERS. view more 

CREDIT: THOR BALKHED

Energy-efficient ways of cooling buildings and vehicles will be required in a changing climate. Researchers at Linköping University have now shown that electrical tuning of passive radiative cooling can be used to control temperatures of a material at ambient temperatures and air pressure. The results have been published in Cell Reports Physical Science.

"To cool buildings, for example, traditional air conditioning is mainly used today, which requires large amounts of energy and uses environmentally hazardous refrigerants. With the help of passive radiative cooling, the cold of outer space could be used to complement normal ACs and reduce energy consumption," says Magnus Jonsson, professor and leader of the Organic Photonics and Nano-Optics group at Linköping University.

Passive radiative cooling utilizes that thermal energy can leave an object in the form of infrared radiation. All objects emit heat as infrared light – trees, buildings, water and even humans. 

Different types of materials emit different amounts of infrared heat. This depends on the ability of the material to absorb infrared radiation – the better it is at absorbing infrared heat, the better the material is at emitting the heat. For example, ordinary white writing paper is good at absorbing infrared heat and, consequently, at emitting it. By contrast, metals are rather bad at it, as most of the heat is reflected.

Due to the atmosphere's ability to transmit light in the infrared wavelength range, coldness in outer space, where the temperature is about –270 degrees Celsius, can be used to remove heat from objects on earth. As a result of the temperature difference, there can be a net transport out. An object can therefore get a lower temperature than the ambient temperature with the help of passive radiative cooling.

This effect has been used far back in history, such as to make ice in warmer climates. However, in recent years, materials science research has taken an increasing interest in the phenomenon, and has developed new materials with a high capacity to emit infrared heat while not being warmed up by the rays of the sun. 

Researchers at Linköping University have now shown that the temperature of a device can be regulated by electrically tuning the extent to which it emits heat through passive radiative cooling. The concept uses a conducting polymer to electrochemically tune the emissivity of the device. 
The results have been published in the journal Cell Reports Physical Science.

"You can liken it to a thermostat. Currently, we can adjust the temperature by 0.25 degrees Celsius. It may not sound like much, but the point is that we have shown that it is possible to carry out this tuning at room temperature and normal pressure," says Debashree Banerjee, principal research engineer at Linköping University and principal author of the study.

The researchers believe that, now that they have shown that it is possible, there is potential to further develop both materials and devices. In the long term, it is possible to envisage systems that can be laid on a roof, much like a solar cell, thus controlling the infrared thermal radiation from the house and cooling when needed. The method requires extremely little energy consumption and causes minimal pollution. Other areas of application can also include tunable clothing and wallpaper to thermal flows and improve thermal comfort indoors at lowered energy consumption. 

In another study published in Advanced Science, the same research group has developed a thermoelectric device that is powered by the same principle of radiative cooling, also complemented by solar heating. It is based on generating a temperature difference between two cellulose materials, one of which contains carbon black to also absorb the heat of the sun. The materials are connected to a material that converts the temperature difference into an electrical potential. Exposing the device to the sky induced an electrical voltage of 60 mV already at moderate solar radiation, but the concept even works at night since the two wood-based materials are designed to have different abilities to radiate heat. 

"We use not only the sun, but also outer space as an energy source," says Mingna Liao, PhD doctoral student in the group and principal author of the article in Advanced Science.

In order to perform controlled measurements for both studies, the researchers built a sky simulator. In this way, the measurements were not affected by changes in the environment in the same way as they would be outdoors. The sky simulator consists of a tube with aluminium-coated sides that reflect the radiation. A receptacle placed at the bottom contains a material that absorbs the heat radiation and is cooled with liquid nitrogen to simulate the coldness of outer space. 

The research has been funded by the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation, the Wallenberg Wood Science Center, the Swedish Defence Research Agency (FOI), the Swedish Research Council, and the strategic research area for Advanced Functional Materials (AFM) at Linköping University.

Debashree Banerjee (left) prepares a device with passive radiative cooling that can be controlled electrically. Magnus Jonsson in the middle and Mingna Liao in the background.

An electrically controllable passive radiant cooling device. It is based on a controllable conductive polymer on top of a porous paper with an electrolyte.

CREDIT

Thor Balkhed

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JOURNAL

Cell Reports Physical Science

DOI

10.1016/j.xcrp.2023.101274 

ARTICLE TITLE

Electrical Tuning of Radiative Cooling at Ambient Conditions

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

1-Feb-2023