Protecting the cultural heritage of ancient bone artifacts is now possible. Near-infrared hyperspectral imaging and radiocarbon dating together to make the invisible visible

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITÀ DI BOLOGNA

 

IMAGE: CRISTINA MALEGORI AND SAHRA TALAMO AT THE RADIOCARBON DATING LAB BRAVHO AT THE UNIVERSITY OF BOLOGNA view more 

CREDIT: UNIVERSITY OF BOLOGNA

An innovative method developed by an Italian team is emerging that will revolutionize the field of archaeology and radiocarbon dating and protect our cultural heritage. The researchers have used it with surprising results on archaeological bones, making the ‘invisible’ visible.

This important achievement-published in the journal Communications Chemistry of the Nature group-is the result of extensive research work coordinated by Professor Sahra Talamo, in which experts in the field of analytical chemistry from the University of Bologna and the University of Genoa collaborated.

The group has developed a new technique for analyzing archaeological bones that, for the first time, makes it possible to quantify and map at high resolution the presence of collagen, the invisible protein that is essential for making radiocarbon dates and thus obtaining new information on human evolution.

“Our results will offer significant advances for the study of human evolution,” says Talamo coauthor of the study and director of the Radiocarbon dating lab BRAVHO at the University of Bologna. “as we will be able to minimise the destruction of valuable bone material, which is under the protection and enhancement of European cultural heritage and thus allow us to contextualise the valuable object by providing an accurate calendar age.”

Many of the rarest prehistoric bones found by archaeologists are enormously precious and are considered to be part of our cultural and historical patrimony. Bones can provide a great deal of information about ancient populations’ lives: what they ate, their reproductive habits, their diseases and the migrations they undertook. However, bones cannot give us all the information we so covet. Their potential to convey information is limited by how much collagen is preserved in them.

In order to combine the need to preserve the integrity of the artifacts as much as possible with the need to carry out radiocarbon analyses, the researchers therefore developed an innovative method that, thanks to a camera coupled with near-infrared, allows them to detect the average collagen content in the observed samples.

“We used imaging technology to quantify the presence of collagen in bone samples in a non-destructive way to select the most suitable samples (or sample regions) to be submitted to radiocarbon dating analysis,” says Cristina Malegori, first author of the article and researcher at Genoa University Department of Pharmacy. “Near-infrared hyperspectral imaging (HSI) was used along with a chemometric model to create chemical images of the distribution of collagen in ancient bones. This model quantifies the collagen at every pixel and thus provides a chemical mapping of collagen content.”

It is extremely difficult, costly, and time-consuming to analyze all the bones present at one archaeological site for collagen preservation, most importantly, it would result in the destruction of valuable material. In fact, human fossils and/or bone artifacts are increasingly rarer and more precious over time. Because of the diagenetic alteration of collagen over time, large starting weights of Palaeolithic bones (≥ 500 mg bone material) are necessary to extract sufficient collagen for accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) 14C dating (minimum 1% yield). Moreover, many of the most precious archaeological bones are too small (< 200 mg of bone material) and/or too beautiful for sampling. Therefore, obtaining preliminary, non-destructive information about the distribution of collagen on a bone sample is crucial.

It is in this context that the technique described in this study really shines because it allows obtaining information both on the location and on the content of the collagen still present in a bone sample.

“The near-infrared hyperspectral imaging camera (NIR-HSI) used in the present study is a line-scan (push-broom) system that acquires chemical images in which, for every pixel, a full spectrum in the 1,000–2,500 nm spectral range (near infrared) is recorded,” says Giorgia Sciutto, co-author of the article and professor of environmental and cultural heritage chemistry at the University of Bologna. “NIR-HSI analysis is completely non-destructive. The time required for the analysis of a single bone sample is of few minutes and, therefore, the system can examine many samples in a single day to find those suitable for analysis, saving time and money and the unnecessary waste of valuable material, greatly reducing time, costs and destruction of valuable samples.”

This technique is expected to support the selection of samples to be submitted to radiocarbon analysis at many sites where previous attempts have not been possible because of poor preservation.

“This new technique allows not only selecting the best specimens but also choosing the sampling point in the selected ones based on the amount of collagen predicted,” says Paolo Oliveri co-author of the paper and professor at the Genoa University Department of Pharmacy. “This method helps to drastically reduce the number of samples destroyed for 14C analysis, and within the bone, it helps to avoid the selection of areas that may present a quantity of collagen not sufficient for the dating. This increases the preservation of precious archaeological materials.”

“The potential of the method proposed in the present study lies in the type and amount of information that the predictive model provides, addressing two fundamental and complementary questions for the characterization of collagen in bones: how much and where,” says Cristina Malegori, first author of the article.

Thus, this experimental approach can provide quantitative information related to the average collagen content present in the whole sample submitted for investigation. The examination can be performed not only in small and localized areas (as in single-point analysis), but it can also consider the entire surface of the sample, thus producing a higher and much more significant amount of data. In addition, combining the HSI system with PLS regression allowed, for the first time, on samples of ancient bones, not only to determine the overall collagen content but also to localize it at a high spatial resolution (about 30 um), obtaining quantitative chemical maps.

“As far as radiocarbon is concerned, we could strategically sample bones of high patrimonial value. For example, knowing the precise amount of collagen concentrated in a precise area of the bone allows us to cut only this portion,” says Talamo. “Moreover when the prediction of collagen shows that the bone was poorly preserved, we can decide to perform a soft 14C pretreatment to minimize collagen loss during the extraction”.

Overall, this innovative and incisive combination of NIR-HSI spectroscopy prescreening and the radiocarbon method provides, for the first time, detailed information about the presence of collagen on archaeological bones, reducing laboratory costs by dating only materials suitable for 14C and increasing the number of archaeological bones that can be preserved, and, therefore, available for future research.

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JOURNAL

Communications Chemistry

ARTICLE TITLE

Near-infrared hyperspectral imaging to map collagen content in prehistoric bones for radiocarbon dating

Lessons learned from COVID: The role of social media

Researchers found that social media played a critical role in decreasing COVID positivity rates at educational institutions

Peer-Reviewed Publication

RENSSELAER POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE

 

IMAGE: SEBASTIAN SOUYRIS, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR AND DEAN R. WELLINGTON ’83 (JUNIOR) CHAIR AT RENSSELAER POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE’S LALLY SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT, AND ANTON IVANOV, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR IN THE GIES COLLEGE OF BUSINESS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS URBANA-CHAMPAIGN. view more 

CREDIT: RENSSELAER POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE

Now that we’ve arguably rounded the corner from the pandemic, researchers are dissecting our response and how we can improve it in the future.

Sebastian Souyris, assistant professor and Dean R. Wellington ’83 (Junior) Chair at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute’s Lally School of Management, contributed to research led by Anton Ivanov, assistant professor in the Gies College of Business at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. This recently published research examined social media’s impact on health outcomes and dove into the power of visual nudges.

The research team discovered that employing social media posts as a means of visual nudging to encourage safe behaviors significantly impacts COVID-19 positivity rates. Images that communicated the value of wearing masks made a real difference. This effect remains evident even after accounting for various organizational characteristics and disease dynamics at multiple levels.

“Our findings are significant to public health institutions and experts,” Souyris said. “Visual nudges are non-invasive, cost-effective methods to shape attitudes and behavior.”

The team found that visual nudges by institutional actors, such as a university, result in decreased COVID-19 positivity rates of up to 25%. Further, the value of these visual nudges is highest three to five weeks in advance.

“Our empirical results show that four to five weeks of accumulation usually create the momentum required for people to bring that topic to the top of their agenda,” Ivanov said.

High levels of uncertainty added to the public health challenge of COVID-19. After public places shut down, there was a lack of consensus on what they should do to reopen safely. Previous research found that in such a climate, mandates are not enough to ensure maximum compliance and that social media is a critical outreach tool.

The team, which included Dr. Souyris, built upon existing research and the relatively new concept of nudge theory. Nudge theory focuses on using indirect suggestions and positive reinforcement to influence behavior, especially when applied visually. Prior to this study, visual nudges specific to social media had not been explored extensively.

The team analyzed data from 117 universities nationwide. They examined COVID-19 testing data; Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter images from official university accounts; university policies; and university and local characteristics. They found that so-called “soft” visual nudges were most effective, in that they did not have a direct message to wear a mask but simply depicted people wearing masks.

“Although we certainly hope that a crisis such as the COVID-19 pandemic will not happen again, it behooves us to learn from our experience to enable a more effective response in the future,” said Chanaka Edirisinghe, acting dean of Rensselaer’s Lally School of Management. “Dr. Souyris’ research profiles the benefits of using the simple, inexpensive tool of social media to deliver vital public health information.”

About Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute:

Founded in 1824, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute is America’s first technological research university. Rensselaer encompasses five schools, over 30 research centers, more than 140 academic programs including 25 new programs, and a dynamic community made up of over 6,800 students and 104,000 living alumni. Rensselaer faculty and alumni include upwards of 155 National Academy members, six members of the National Inventors Hall of Fame, six National Medal of Technology winners, five National Medal of Science winners, and a Nobel Prize winner in Physics. With nearly 200 years of experience advancing scientific and technological knowledge, Rensselaer remains focused on addressing global challenges with a spirit of ingenuity and collaboration. To learn more, please visit www.rpi.edu.

Visit the Rensselaer research and discovery blog: https://everydaymatters.rpi.edu/

Follow us on Twitter: @RPINews

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JOURNAL

Production and Operations Management

DOI

10.1111/poms.13982 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Computational simulation/modeling

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE TITLE

Informational value of visual nudges during crises: Improving public health outcomes through social media engagement amid covid-19

Timely pandemic countermeasures

reduce both health damage and

economic loss

Peer-Reviewed Publication

TOHOKU UNIVERSITY

 

IMAGE: COSTS OF PATH A ARE COMPARED WITH THOSE OF PATH B. BOTH THE ECONOMIC AND MEDICAL COSTS OF PATH A ARE HIGHER THAN THOSE OF PATH B, REGARDLESS OF THE DETAILS OF THE PATHS view more 

CREDIT: TSUYOSHI HONDOU

The COVID-19 pandemic has had, and continues to have, profound impacts on the world. In the early stages of the pandemic, many countries adopted stringent countermeasures to limit the spread of the disease. These included extended lockdowns, particularly when medical care systems were pushed to the brink.

But these measures also had a significant socioeconomic impact, with many losing their jobs and/or reporting an uptick in depression and other negative impacts on their mental health. As such, economists have begun to examine numerically the cost-benefit of such measures. Yet, numbers can only get us so far. Tsuyoshi Hondou, an associate professor at Tohoku University's Graduate School of Science, has turned to an alternative source for answers: physics.

Hondou's physics-based analysis determined that embracing early, less severe preventative measures helped slow the spread of disease and lessened economic damage. "We formulated a theoretical framework using methodologies from physics, to gain results unattainable by conventional methods of economics," said Hondou. "We analytically demonstrated that adopting timely and moderate measurers reconciled the medical effectiveness and economic impact."

Physics often employs simple models, where a few elements essential to a system are examined. Despite the simplicity, this form of analysis still provides deep insights and high predictability.

Likewise, Hondou's framework assumed minimal and common factors pertaining to pandemic regulation and economics. From there, it derived analytical inequalities - mathematical expressions that establish a relationship between two or more variables where one is greater than or less than another - for the medical and economic costs of different countermeasures.

These inequalities showed that small but steady countermeasures slowed the infection rate and limited the economic fallout better than strict countermeasures implemented just before a crisis.

"Our general but robust findings indicate that delaying countermeasures leads to cost increases, and once the infected population climbs more than the population under timely and moderate measurers, the system becomes economically irreversible as additional expenditures begin to snowball," adds Hondou.

Hondou, however, cautions that the findings are based only on the most essential properties of a pandemic. "Still, our results can serve as a useful basis for considering more realistic situations."

Details of his findings were published in the Journal of the Physical Society of Japan on March 29, 2023.

Example of delay effects in countermeasures in path A of Fig. 1. No measure is assumed in the 1st segment between t=0 and t=T1. As path B is a reference and independent of the delay, the ratio of the cost of path A to that of path B shows how the delay affects costs. The greater the period T1, the larger the delay in countermeasures. Medical cost is assumed to be proportional to the infected population, for simplicity. (a) Medical cost, (b) Intervention cost.

CREDIT

Tsuyoshi Hondou

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JOURNAL

Journal of the Physical Society of Japan

DOI

10.7566/JPSJ.92.043801 

ARTICLE TITLE

Timely Pandemic Countermeasures Reduce both Health Damage and Economic Loss: Generality of the Exact Solution

Worldwide, those with ‘traditional’ values adhered more strictly to COVID precautions

UCLA-led study could help officials tailor health and safety policies to appeal to populations with a variety of social views

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA - LOS ANGELES

Given the battles over COVID-19 rules and recommendations in the United States over the past three years, the findings of a new UCLA-led study may come as a bit of a shock: Globally, those who professed to hold traditional values tended to adhere more closely to coronavirus-prevention measures than those who considered themselves more liberal.

“Across a wide range of countries, people who endorsed traditional cultural values — a position that often underlies socially conservative political philosophies — were more likely to report taking strict COVID-19 precautions, despite the opposite pattern being observed in the U.S.,” said study author Theodore Samore, a UCLA doctoral student in anthropology.

The findings, published today in the peer-reviewed, open-access journal Scientific Reports, have important implications for understanding how people around the world may respond to future disease outbreaks and measures designed to protect them from pandemics and other global threats. The results, the authors say, can help public health officials better craft policies that account for differences in values across populations.

Previous research on the intersection of politics and psychology has shown that social conservatives are more strongly attuned to threats and dangers than social liberals, who tend to view the world as a generally safe place. Conservatives and traditionalists, therefore, display a stronger inclination to embrace protective behaviors. Although the specific issues on which conservatives and liberals differ can vary from country to country, all societies have some values that considered traditional.

The COVID-19 pandemic allowed social scientists to examine this relationship between traditionalism and threat response on a global scale. To counter the threat of the virus in its early days, before vaccines were widely available, public health officials around the world recommended similar precautionary measures, including hand-washing, mask-wearing and physical distancing.

An international team of 44 scholars led by Samore and anthropology professor Daniel Fessler surveyed nearly 8,000 people in 27 countries across North America, South America, Europe, Asia and Africa. The researchers asked participants to respond to a series of questions and statements — for example, “Traditions are the foundation of a healthy society and should be respected” — to determine if they considered themselves to be “traditional.” They followed up with queries about which precautionary measures people took in their efforts to avoid becoming infected with COVID-19.

In 21 of the 27 countries, the investigators found a strong link between traditional values and strict adherence to precautionary behaviors. In some societies, the effect was small but significant; in others, it was more substantial.

Digging deeper, they found that individuals balanced the relative benefits of taking precautions to mitigate the risk of a hazardous disease against the social costs and missed opportunities entailed by being cautious — and that a person’s values influenced how much weight they place on the latter.

The results did not seem to differ any way based on where the country was located or how economically developed it was.

Why the difference with American conservatives?

In the U.S. — which has been shown to be something of a global outlier in this regard — the investigators found that factors like a distrust of science, concerns about the effects disease precautions may have on the economy and the desire to preserve personal liberties suppressed the predicted cautionary decision-making of social conservatives, even though that group is more likely to self-describe as “traditional.”

“In countries where the discourse around science and trust was less polarized, traditionalists were more willing to embrace precautions than their more socially liberal counterparts,” Fessler said. “The U.S., where these topics were highly politicized, suffered more COVID-19 deaths per capita than any other highly developed nation.”

American social conservatives, for example, were more likely to attend a group religious observance at a church or temple even though public health officials had recommended avoiding large gatherings. However, after the investigators took into account that these social conservatives trusted science less and were more concerned about the economy than their socially liberal counterparts, the expected relationship between traditionalism and heightened precautions appeared in the U.S. too.

The researchers said that designing health policies that resonate with less traditional people, as well as with social conservatives in the U.S. and other countries who bucked against COVID-19 precautions, will be crucial to saving lives in the future.

“Marshalling broad support for policies intended to protect the public,” Samore said, “will hinge on rebuilding widespread trust in science and crafting policies in ways that take differences in concerns and priorities seriously — and on encouraging influential information sources to provide accurate accounts of the pros and cons of those policies.”

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JOURNAL

Scientific Reports

Disclaimer: AAAS and E

Study finds disparate gender differences in victims of child sex trafficking

Study first to test for gender differences in risk factors, experiences of youth incarcerated for childhood prostitution

Peer-Reviewed Publication

FLORIDA ATLANTIC UNIVERSITY

 

IMAGE: THE STUDY, BY FAU'S COLLEGE OF SOCIAL WORK AND CRIMINAL JUSTICE, EXAMINED A NATIONALLY REPRESENTATIVE SAMPLE OF INCARCERATED YOUTH INVOLVED IN PROSTITUTION, WHICH WAS DEFINED AS “BEING PAID FOR HAVING SEXUAL RELATIONS WITH SOMEONE.” view more 

CREDIT: FLORIDA ATLANTIC UNIVERSITY

In the United States, federal laws were created to effectively decriminalize prostitution in minors under the age of 18. However, state and local justice systems continue to arrest and incarcerate minors for prostitution, despite widespread agreement that youth involved in commercial sexual exploitation are victims, not offenders. 

Most youth tend to fall victim to child prostitution and sex trafficking between the ages of 12 and 14. Victims of child prostitution have especially high rates of prior physical, sexual and emotional abuse as well as neglect. 

Calli M. Cain, Ph.D., an assistant professor at Florida Atlantic University’s College of Social Work and Criminal Justice, examined the characteristics and risk factors such as victimization histories, living situations and drug/alcohol use, of incarcerated youth charged with prostitution in the U.S. Given that males and females have different pathways to crime/arrest, she also tested for gender differences in these risk factors. 

The study, published in the journal Victims & Offenders, is the first to look at gender differences in a nationally representative sample of detained youth. Results show that this population of incarcerated youth has several risk factors, including extensive victimization experiences during childhood, and that these experiences vary by gender.

The sample included 2,643 incarcerated youth involved in prostitution, which was defined as “being paid for having sexual relations with someone.”

Among the key findings of the study:

• Seventy-five percent were males and 25 percent were females. The most commonly incarcerated youth were white males (29.4 percent), about 16 years old, followed by black (26.8 percent) and Hispanic (24.7 percent) males.
• About 30 percent of the female sample were white, followed by two or more races/other (24.6 percent), black (23.7 percent) and lastly Hispanic (21.6 percent).
• Nearly 43 percent indicated they had been molested as a child and more than 35 percent had experienced forced sex growing up.
• Nearly half (45.9 percent) indicated they had experienced emotional abuse; the majority (85.3 percent) also indicated they had witnessed serious violence.

“Most youth charged with prostitution have an extensive history of victimization experiences and detaining them often exacerbates their problems, delays appropriate care, interrupts their education, exposes them to youth who commit more serious offenses, and increases justice system costs,” said Cain.

The study showed that female youth charged with prostitution had significantly higher prevalence rates of every form of victimization except witnessing serious violence. Nearly four out of five females reported experiencing physical abuse as a child compared to just over half of males.

• Almost two-thirds of the girls were molested as a child, half were raped, and three-fourths were emotionally abused as a child, compared to 36 percent of males who were molested, 31 percent who were raped, and 37 percent who were emotionally abused.
• Significantly more females (84 percent) reported using substances every day or several times a week in the months before custody compared to 75 percent of males.
• Females had far higher rates of polyvictimization; 80 percent reported three or more victimization types compared to males (49 percent), and 31 percent of females experienced all five types of prior victimization (e.g., physical and emotional abuse, molestation, forced sex growing up) compared to 11 percent of males.

In relation to living circumstances, males were significantly more likely to have lived with their parent(s) growing up compared to females. Alternatively, females were more likely to be living in foster care/group homes, with friends, on their own, or were homeless before their arrest, compared to males.

“Education and training are crucial for professionals to correctly identify sex trafficking victimization and reduce misidentification, especially since most victims of sex trafficking do not identify themselves as victims,” said Cain.

With April being “National Child Abuse Prevention Month,” gaining a better understanding of risk factors associated with commercial sexual exploitation among this group of youth is imperative. Cain says such endeavors could improve early intervention efforts, a coordinated and collaborative criminal justice response, and responsive public policy to reduce harm and improve outcomes for affected youth.

“Providing this population of youth with treatment and perhaps residential care in a safe environment could help them exit ‘the life’ and prevent them from being re-trafficked, which is a common occurrence when they are treated punitively by the Juvenile Justice System,” said Cain.

This study utilized secondary data from the Survey of Youth in Residential Placement, sponsored by the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. This is the only nationally representative, anonymous, self-report survey that collects detailed information directly from justice-involved youth about their prior victimization experiences.

For more information about child sex trafficking training provided by Calli Cain, contact cainc@fau.edu.

- FAU -

About Florida Atlantic University:
Florida Atlantic University, established in 1961, officially opened its doors in 1964 as the fifth public university in Florida. Today, the University serves more than 30,000 undergraduate and graduate students across six campuses located along the southeast Florida coast. In recent years, the University has doubled its research expenditures and outpaced its peers in student achievement rates. Through the coexistence of access and excellence, FAU embodies an innovative model where traditional achievement gaps vanish. FAU is designated a Hispanic-serving institution, ranked as a top public university by U.S. News & World Report and a High Research Activity institution by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. For more information, visit www.fau.edu.

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JOURNAL

Victims & Offenders

DOI

10.1080/15564886.2022.2151538 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Meta-analysis

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

Commercial Sexual Exploitation Victims Treated as Offenders: Examining the Gendered Risk Factors of Incarcerated Youth Charged with Prostitution

Pilot study finds metabolic alterations related to sexual and physical abuse

– Further research into oxidative stress and transsulfuration in the context of trauma is needed

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF EASTERN FINLAND

A pilot study conducted at the University of Eastern Finland found metabolites related to oxidative stress and the transsulfuration pathway of one-carbon metabolism to be associated with a history of sexual or physical abuse in depressed adolescent outpatients. Oxidative stress and transsulfuration are closely connected and regulate each other’s functions, and they play a role in inflammation, which is also recognized as a possible mechanism of trauma. The results were published in a peer-reviewed scientific journal, the European Journal of Psychotraumatology, in a special issue entitled “Biological mechanisms underlying adverse mental health outcomes after trauma.”

“Although the results are clearly preliminary and require further confirmation, the extent of similar findings in the literature related to the biological effects of trauma is convincing. Oxidative stress and the inflammatory system have often been associated with post-traumatic stress. Oxidative stress refers to an excess of unstable oxygen-containing molecules, which damage cells and have numerous consequences, whereas the end product of transsulfuration is an antioxidant compensating for this damage,” says Doctoral Researcher Karoliina Kurkinen from the University of Eastern Finland.

The study included 76 depressed adolescent outpatients, whose blood samples were analysed with mass spectrometry to determine the concentrations of specific metabolites. In addition to metabolites taking part in oxidative stress and transsulfuration, metabolites related to the methionine cycle of one-carbon metabolism, mitochondrial dysfunction and inflammation were also found to be associated with a history of abuse in these patients. These associations became smaller after taking into account depression and lifestyle-related background variables. This exploratory pilot study should be replicated with a larger data set comprising post-traumatic stress disorder patients and healthy controls. In addition, future research could examine the levels of hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal axis hormones and interleukins to take stress and inflammation better into consideration.

“Depression is a very common symptom in traumatized patients, but so are fight and flight-related symptoms, which relate to stress and activation of the sympathetic nervous system. It would be interesting to further investigate the biological mechanisms behind these two different symptom clusters, how they overlap and affect each other, and which pathways would be most helpful to intervene in for a traumatized patient,” Kurkinen says.

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JOURNAL

European Journal of Psychotraumatology

DOI

10.1080/20008066.2023.2191396 

ARTICLE TITLE

The associations between metabolic profiles and sexual and physical abuse in depressed adolescent psychiatric outpatients: An exploratory pilot study

Cities will need more resilient electricity networks to cope with extreme weather

Peer-Reviewed Publication

LUND UNIVERSITY

Dense urban areas amplify the effects of higher temperatures, due to the phenomenon of heat islands in cities. This makes cities more vulnerable to extreme climate events. Large investments in the electricity network will be necessary to cool us down during heatwaves and keep us warm during cold snaps, according to a new study led by Lund University in Sweden.

“Unless we account for extreme climate events and continued urbanisation, the reliability of electricity supply will fall by up to 30%. An additional outlay of 20-60 per cent will be required during the energy transition in order to guarantee that cities can cope with different kinds of climate,” says Vahid Nik, Professor of Building Physics at Lund University and one of the authors of the article in Nature Energy.

The study presents a modelling platform that ties together climate, building and energy system models in order to facilitate simulation and evaluation of cities’ energy transition. The aim is to secure the cities’ resilience against future climate changes at the same time as densification of urban areas is taking place. In particular, researchers have looked closely at extreme weather events (e.g. heatwaves and cold snaps) by producing simulations of urban microclimates. 

“Our results show that high density areas give rise to a phenomenon called urban heat islands, which make cities more vulnerable to the effects of extreme climate events, particularly in southern Europe. For example, the outdoor temperature can rise by 17% while the wind speed falls by 61%. Urban densification – a recommended development strategy in order to reach the UN’s energy and climate goals – could make the electricity network more vulnerable. This must be taken into consideration when designing urban energy systems, says Kavan Javanroodi, Assistant Professor in Building and Urban Physics.

“The framework we have developed connects future climate models to buildings and energy systems at city level, taking the urban microclimate into account. For the first time, we are getting to grips with several challenges around the issues of future climate uncertainty and extreme weather situations, focussing in particular on what are known as ‘HILP’ or High Impact Low Probability events”, says Vahid Nik.

There is still a large gap between future climate modelling and building and energy analyses and their links to one another. According to Vahid Nik, the model now being developed makes a great contribution to closing that gap. 

“Our results answer questions like ‘how big an effect will extreme weather events have in the future, given the predicted pace of urbanisation and several different future climate scenarios?’, ‘how do we take them and the connections between them into account?’ and ‘how does the nature of urban development contribute to exacerbating or mitigating the effects of extreme events at regional and municipal level?’ “

The results show that the peaks in demand in the energy system increase more than previously thought when extreme microclimates are taken into account, for example with an increase in cooling demand for 68% in Stockholm and 43% in Madrid on the hottest day of the year. Not considering this can lead to incorrect estimates of cities’ energy requirements, which can turn into power shortage and even blackouts. 

“There is a marked deviation between the heat and cooling requirements shown in today’s urban climate models, compared to the outcomes of our calculations when urban morphology, the physical design of the city, is more complex. For example, if we fail to take into account the urban climate in Madrid, we could underestimate the need for cooling by around 28%,” says Kavan Javanroodi.

Vahid Nik explains that an increasing number of countries have become interested in extreme weather events, energy issues and the impact on public health. At the same time, there are no methods of quantifying the effects of climate change and planning for adapting to them, especially when it comes to extreme weather events and climate variations across space and time. 

“Our efforts can contribute to making societies more prepared for climate change. Future research should aim to examine the relationship between urban density and climate change in energy forecasts. Furthermore, we ought to develop more innovative methods of increasing energy flexibility and climate resilience in cities, which is a major focus of research for our team at the moment,” says Vahid Nik.

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JOURNAL

Nature Energy

DOI

10.1038/s41560-023-01232-9 

ARTICLE TITLE

Challenges resulting from urban density and climate change for the EU energy transition

Your baby’s gut is crawling with unknown viruses

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF COPENHAGEN - FACULTY OF SCIENCE

 

IMAGE: PROFESSOR DENNIS SANDRIS NIELSEN, UNIVERSITY OF COPENHAGEN view more 

CREDIT: EMILIE THEJLL-MADSEN / UNIVERSITY OF COPENHAGEN

Viruses are usually associated with illness. But our bodies are full of both bacteria and viruses that constantly proliferate and interact with each other in our gastrointestinal tract. While we have known for decades that gut bacteria in young children are vital to protect them from chronic diseases later on in life, our knowledge about the many viruses found there is minimal.

A few years back, this gave University of Copenhagen professor Dennis Sandris Nielsen the idea to delve more deeply into this question. As a result, a team of researchers from COPSAC (Copenhagen Prospective Studies on Asthma in Childhood) and the Department of Food Science at UCPH, among others, spent five years studying and mapping the diaper contents of 647 healthy Danish one-year-olds.

"We found an exceptional number of unknown viruses in the faeces of these babies. Not just thousands of new virus species – but to our surprise, the viruses represented more than 200 families of yet to be described viruses. This means that, from early on in life, healthy children are tumbling about with an extreme diversity of gut viruses, which probably have a major impact on whether they develop various diseases later on in life," says Professor Dennis Sandris Nielsen of the Department of Food Science, senior author of the research paper about the study, now published in Nature Microbiology.

The researchers found and mapped a total of 10,000 viral species in the children's faeces – a number ten times larger than the number of bacterial species in the same children. These viral species are distributed across 248 different viral families, of which only 16 were previously known. The researchers named the remaining 232 unknown viral families after the children whose diapers made the study possible. As a result, new viral families include names like Sylvesterviridae, Rigmorviridae and Tristanviridae.

Bacterial viruses are our allies

"This is the first time that such a systematic an overview of gut viral diversity has been compiled. It provides an entirely new basis for discovering the importance of viruses for our microbiome and immune system development. Our hypothesis is that, because the immune system has not yet learned to separate the wheat from the chaff at the age of one, an extraordinarily high species richness of gut viruses emerges, and is likely needed to protect against chronic diseases like asthma and diabetes later on in life," states Shiraz Shah, first author and a senior researcher at COPSAC.

Ninety percent of the viruses found by the researchers are bacterial viruses – known as bacteriophages. These viruses have bacteria as their hosts and do not attack the children's own cells, meaning that they do not cause disease. The hypothesis is that bacteriophages primarily serve as allies:

"We work from the assumption that bacteriophages are largely responsible for shaping bacterial communities and their function in our intestinal system. Some bacteriophages can provide their host bacterium with properties that make it more competitive by integrating its own genome into the genome of the bacterium. When this occurs, a bacteriophage can then increase a bacterium's ability to absorb e.g. various carbohydrates, thereby allowing the bacterium to metabolise more things," explains Dennis Sandris Nielsen, who continues:

"It also seems like bacteriophages help keep the gut microbiome balanced by keeping individual bacterial populations in check, which ensures that there are not too many of a single bacterial species in the ecosystem. It's a bit like lion and gazelle populations on the savannah."

Shiraz Shah adds:

"Previously, the research community mostly focused on the role of bacteria in relation to health and disease. But viruses are the third leg of the stool and we need to learn more about them. Viruses, bacteria and the immune system most likely interact and affect each other in some type of balance. Any imbalance in this relationship most likely increases the risk of chronic disease."

The remaining ten percent of viruses found in the children are eukaryotic – that is, they use human cells as hosts. These can be both friends and foes for us:

"It is thought-provoking that all children run around with 10-20 of these virus types that infect human cells. So, there is a constant viral infection taking place, which apparently doesn’t make them sick. We just know very little about what’s really at play. My guess is that they’re important for training our immune system to recognise infections later. But it may also be that they are a risk factor for diseases that we have yet to discover," says Dennis Sandris Nielsen.

Could play an important role in inflammatory diseases

The researchers have yet to discover where the many viruses in the one-year-olds come from. Their best answer thus far is the environment:

"Our gut is sterile until we are born. During birth, we are exposed to bacteria from the mother and environment. It is likely that some of the first viruses come along with these initial bacteria, while many others are introduced later via dirty fingers, pets, dirt that kids put in their mouths and other things in the environment," says Dennis Sandris Nielsen.

As Shiraz Shah points out, the entire field of research speaks to a huge global health problem:

"A lot of research suggests that the majority of chronic diseases that we’re familiar with – from arthritis to depression – have an inflammatory component. That is, the immune system is not working as it ought to – which might be because it wasn’t trained properly. So, if we learn more about the role that bacteria and viruses play in a well-trained immune system, it can hopefully lead us to being able to avoid many of the chronic diseases that afflict so many people today."

The research groups have begun investigating the role of gut viruses in relation to a number of different diseases that occur in childhood, such as asthma and ADHD.

 

FACT BOX: ABOUT BACTERIOPHAGES

• There are generally two types of bacteriophages. Virulent bacteriophages take over the bacterium and produce 30-100 new virus particles inside it. After this, the bacterial cell explodes from the inside and the new virus particles escape into the environment. Virulent bacteriophages help to keep the intestinal ecosystem in balance.
   
• So-called temperate bacteriophages can reproduce by integrating their genetic material into the genome of the host bacterial cell. When the cell divides, so does the bacteriophage.  Temperate bacteriophages help transfer new genes to the bacteria so it becomes more competitive. However, there are also studies suggesting that an imbalance in the temperate bacteriophage population is associated with various diseases, e.g., inflammatory bowel disease.

 

FACT BOX: ABOUT VIRUSES

• A virus is a microorganism consisting of a genome – either DNA or RNA – encapsulated in a protein membrane. Viruses cannot multiply. Instead, a virus attacks a host cell, which it uses to make copies of itself.
   
• Viruses are classified into viral families, which are then divided into a larger number of viral genera and viral species. A more well-known example of a viral family is coronavirus, to which the viruses Covid-19, MERS, SARS and several common cold viruses belong.

 

FACT BOX: ABOUT THE STUDY

• The research team mapped the gut "viromes" from the guts of 647 healthy Danish one-year-old children. "Virome" is an umbrella term for all viruses found in a given environment. This includes both viruses that attack bacteria (bacteriophages), as well as those that go after human cells (eukaryotic virus).
   
• The 647 infants are all part of the mother-child cohort Copenhagen Prospective Studies on Asthma in Childhood (COPSAC2010), that has been followed very closely clinically throughout childhood at COPSAC. The children are now 13 years old.
   
• This interactive atlas allows you to see the diversity of viruses in the children and download information about the individual viral families.
   
• The results have been published in the renowned scientific journal Nature Microbiology.
   
• The researchers behind the study come from COPSAC, University of Copenhagen; Department of Food Science, University of Copenhagen; Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Basic Metabolic Research, University of Copenhagen; Department of Health Technology, DTU; Université Laval, Canada; Université Paris-Saclay, France; Université Clermont, France and the University of Copenhagen’s Department of Biology.

 

 

 

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JOURNAL

Nature Microbiology

DOI

10.1038/s41564-023-01345-7 

ARTICLE TITLE

Hundreds of viral families in the healthy infant gut

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

10-Apr-2023