It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Wednesday, January 10, 2024
PNNL kicks off multi-year energy storage, scientific discovery collaboration with Microsoft
The imperative to move faster from research to application of energy solutions gets a boost with AI trained to dramatically accelerate scientific discovery
CREDIT: CORTLAND JOHNSON | PACIFIC NORTHWEST NATIONAL LABORATORY
The urgent need to meet global clean energy goals has world leaders searching for faster solutions. To meet that call, the Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory has teamed with Microsoft to use high-performance computing in the cloud and advanced artificial intelligence to accelerate scientific discovery on a scale not previously demonstrated. The initial focus of the partnership is chemistry and materials science—two scientific fields that underpin solutions to global energy challenges.
“The intersection of AI, cloud and high-performance computing, along with human scientists, we believe is key to accelerating the path to meaningful scientific results,” said PNNL’s Deputy Director for Science and Technology Tony Peurrung. “Our collaboration with Microsoft is about making AI accessible to scientists. We see the potential for AI to surface a material or an approach that is unexpected or unconventional, yet worth investigating. This is a first step in what promises to be an interesting journey to accelerate the pace of scientific discovery.”
How is this AI development different?
The two organizations are laser-focused on leveraging what AI does best—synthesizing billions of information bits—more than any human could possibly absorb—and quickly presenting conclusions based on its analysis. Microsoft’s Azure Quantum Elements platform uses advanced AI models purpose-built to aid scientific discovery. PNNL researchers are now testing its ability to identify promising new materials for energy applications. The two organizations have committed to leveraging advanced AI models to find viable new materials and the chemistries needed to provide energy-on-demand while preserving the Earth’s resources for future generations.
“We are at the dawn of a new era of scientific discovery that can transform our world for the better. With novel AI and hyperscale capabilities, we can speed up research and unlock the discovery of new molecules that can address some of the most pressing issues of our time, from clean energy to eliminating toxic chemicals and beyond. We are honored to work with world-class scientific institutions like Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. Our breakthrough in using AQE to find new battery materials is just one of the many examples of how our innovative approach to materials research can improve our daily lives,” said Jason Zander, Executive Vice President of Strategic Missions and Technologies at Microsoft.
Materials scientist Vijay Murugesan and his team are studying new battery electrolyte materials identified through a collaboration with Microsoft.
CREDIT
Andrea Starr | Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Energy storage as a test case
The newly executed agreement between the two organizations formalizes the next phase of PNNL’s ongoing relationship with Microsoft. Over the next several years, the Microsoft-PNNL partnership envisions a transformative journey toward pioneering breakthroughs in scientific discovery and sustainable energy—leveraging cutting-edge computing and artificial intelligence technologies to address some of the world's most pressing challenges. The partnership will have an initial emphasis in computational chemistry and material science.
Read more about how PNNL created these new energy storage materials in PNNL’s Energy Sciences Center. There, materials scientists Vijay Murugesan, Shannon Lee, Dan Thien Nguyen and Ajay Karakoti synthesized and tested the new compound. The entire process, from receiving the simulated candidates through producing a functioning battery, took less than nine months, a blink of an eye compared with traditional methods. To make the compound competitive with published benchmarks, additional optimization is required and initial investigations suggest new pathways to further explore the functional properties of the new material.
“The new battery results are just one example—a proof point if you will,” said PNNL’s Chief Digital Officer Brian Abrahamson. “We recognized early on that the magic here is in the speed of AI assisting in the identification of promising materials, and our ability to immediately put those ideas into action in the laboratory. We are excited to take this to the next level in the partnership between Microsoft and PNNL. We plan to push the boundaries of what's possible through the fusion of cutting-edge technology and scientific expertise.”
Hospitalizations for scooter injuries nearly tripled in the US between 2016 and 2020, UCLA-led research finds
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA - LOS ANGELES HEALTH SCIENCES
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SCOOTER INJURIES NEARLY TRIPLED ACROSS THE U.S. FROM 2016 TO 2020, WITH A CONCURRENT INCREASE IN SEVERE INJURIES REQUIRING ORTHOPEDIC AND PLASTIC SURGERY OVER THE SAME PERIOD.
UCLA-led research finds that scooter injuries nearly tripled across the U.S. from 2016 to 2020, with a concurrent increase in severe injuries requiring orthopedic and plastic surgery over the same period.
The study, which compared national trends in scooter and bicycle injuries during the period, also found that costs to treat those injuries rose five-fold, highlighting the financial strain these injuries pose to the healthcare system – a finding that “underscores a critical juncture for discerning the underlying causes of injuries and informing policies for injury prevention,” the researchers note.
The study will be published January 9 in the peer-reviewed Journal of the American College of Surgeons.
“Considering the rise in the number of hospitalizations and major operations for scooter-related injuries, it's crucial to elevate safety standards for riders,” said lead author Nam Yong Cho, a third-year medical student at UCLA and a research associate at the UCLA Cardiovascular Outcomes Research Laboratories. “Advocating for improved infrastructure, including enforced speed limits and dedicated lanes, is also vital to minimize risks for vehicles, scooter riders, and pedestrians alike.”
The researchers used the 2016-2020 National Inpatient Sample, a database maintained by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, to compare trends and outcomes for scooter-related and bicycle-related injuries. The database does not, however, differentiate between electric and non-electric scooters. Of nearly 93,000 patients who were hospitalized for injuries, about 6,100 (6.6%) resulted from scooter injuries.
Overall, about 27% of people in the scooter cohort were under age 18 compared with 16% for the bicycle group. In addition, injuries were most frequent in the winter months (24% vs 20%), patients were insured by Medicaid (27% vs 24%); and scooter injuries led to more major operative interventions (56% vs 48%), which mainly included orthopedic and plastic surgery (89% vs 85%) and operations to the head (5% vs 4%).
Scooter riders also had higher odds of experiencing long bone fractures and paralysis than their bicycle riding counterparts, though both groups were similarly likely to suffer traumatic brain injuries.
Finally, the annual healthcare burden of treating scooter-related injuries jumped from about $6.6 million in 2016 to $35.5 million in 2020. For bicycle injuries, the price tag increased from $307 million to $434 million.
The study has some limitations. They include a limited amount of granular data such as helmet use, presence of multiple riders on the vehicles, and use of intoxicants; and an inability to account for objects and other vehicles that might have been involved in the injury incidents, or to determine the kind of terrain where they happened, and speed, time of day and total distance traveled when they occurred. The researchers also could not ascertain the type of scooter or bicycle models involved in the injuries.
Still, the findings indicate a worrisome increase in patient injury, hospitalization and financial burden, the researchers note.
“The progressive exacerbation of injury severity in scooter-related incidents manifested in a substantial proportion of patients necessitating surgical intervention and potentially having long-term morbidity,” the researchers write. “Our findings are a call to action for healthcare leaders to empower themselves in promoting scooter-related injury prevention and greater safety in the community.”
Study co-authors are Shineui Kim, Dr. Zachary Tran, Dr. Joseph Hadaya; Konmal Ali, Elsa Kronen and Dr. Peyman Benharash of UCLA, and Dr. Sigrid Burruss of Loma Linda University Health. Tran is also affiliated with Loma Linda University Health.
SCOOTER-RELATED INJURIES ARE ON THE RISE AND CAN HAVE SEVERE CONSEQUENCES, ACCORDING TO NEW RESEARCH PUBLISHED IN THE JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN COLLEGE OF SURGEONS.
The prevalence and severity of scooter-related injuries, as well as associated health care costs, have significantly increased in the U.S.
Compared to bicycle-related injuries, scooter-related injuries more often require surgical management and are associated with greater risks of long bone fractures and paralysis.
Scooter riders can protect themselves by wearing protective gear, such as helmets and knee pads, and by obeying traffic laws.
“As surgeons who work in an urban trauma center, we’ve seen an increase in scooter-related injuries in the emergency room and around the university campus,” said Peyman Benharash, MD, FACS, senior author of the study and an associate professor of surgery at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) Health. “The question is: How do we manage them and why is there such a surge?”
Injuries involving e-scooters—many of them classified as moderate or severe—have doubled in recent years, coinciding with the boom of shared e-scooter programs in urban areas and college campuses.1,2 Considering the exponential rise of scooter programs and scooter-related injuries, researchers at UCLA and Loma Linda University sought to delve into the nuances of these injuries and associated health care costs.
“This study is important because it describes both an increasing frequency of hospital admissions for scooter crash-related injuries, and it also demonstrates that the severity of these injuries is increasing over time,” said Brendan T. Campbell, MD, MPH, FACS, chair of the Injury Prevention and Control Committee of the American College of Surgeons Committee on Trauma, which develops and implements programs that support injury prevention.
Dr. Campbell, a pediatric surgeon at Connecticut Children’s Medical Center in Hartford, Connecticut, was not involved with the JACS research study.
He added: “Future studies of scooter crashes should look for ways to lower injury risk, specifically what factors decrease crash risk and what incentivizes scooter riders to wear helmets.”
Study details
The team reviewed data on scooter-related injuries from 2016-2020 using the National Inpatient Sample (NIS), an administrative database maintained by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. The team identified 92,815 patients who were admitted to hospitals on a non-elective basis with bicycle (86,690 patients) and scooter (6,125 patients) injuries using International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revisions (ICD-10) codes. Before 2021, ICD-10 codes did not differentiate between electric and non-electric scooters, so the study focused on injuries related to all types of scooters.
Researchers reviewed several characteristics of the patients, including age, type of orthopedic injury, injury severity, length of stay in the hospital, and hospitalization costs.
Key study findings
Hospitalizations for scooter-related injuries increased by nearly three-fold from 2016 to 2020, and more than half of those injured patients underwent major operations.
Compared to bicycle injuries, patients who sustained injuries related to scooters were more likely to be under the age of 18 (26.7% vs. 16.4%), more frequently injured in winter months (24.2% vs. 20%), and more often insured by Medicaid (26.7% vs. 23.9%).
Patients hospitalized with scooter-related injuries more often underwent major surgeries (55.8 vs 48.1%), in particular orthoplastic procedures and operations on the head.
Scooter riders were more likely to sustain long bone fractures or paralysis compared to bicycle riders; risks associated with traumatic brain injury were similar among the two groups.
During the study period (2016-2020), total annual costs of hospitalizations in patients with bicycle and scooter-related injuries increased by nearly 5-fold, from $6.6 million in 2016 to $35.5 million in 2020.
“I think it’s important for the public to recognize the significance of scooter-related injuries and the financial outcomes associated with them,” said first author Nam Yong Cho, a third-year medical student at UCLA and a research associate at the UCLA Cardiovascular Outcomes Research Laboratories. “The public should also know that while caution must be taken among scooter riders, vehicle riders should also be cautious where shared scooter systems are prevalent.”
Injury patterns related to scooter injuries are also unique, sometimes impacting the chest wall or cardiothoracic area more frequently than bicycle injuries, which may warrant further investigation, the authors added.
Recognizing these concerning patterns, the authors are calling for health care leaders to promote scooter-related injury prevention efforts and greater safety in the community.
“Considering the increasing popularity of scooters and the rise of associated injuries, it is crucial to elevate safety standards for riders and advocate for improved infrastructure,” Cho said. “Things such as enforced speed limits and dedicated lanes for scooters are vital to minimize the risk of injuries to vehicles, scooter riders, and pedestrians alike. We believe our findings should urge health care leaders to take a stand and empower themselves in championing prevention strategies for scooter-related injuries and promoting a safer community.”
The study is limited by the use of the NIS, an administrative database that may not reflect granular data on injuries. The authors noted they could not account for helmet use, the presence of multiple riders, and the use of intoxicants during the time of the incident, among other factors. Objects or vehicles involved in collisions, as well as the details of terrain and speed of the scooter riders, could also not be delineated.
The study is published as an article in press on the JACS website.
Author Disclosures: Outside the scope of this research, Dr. Benharash received proctor fees from Atricure as a surgical proctor.
For journalists: Please contact pressinquiry@facs.org to access b-roll footage of the authors speaking about the study.
Farley KX, Aizpuru M, Wilson JM, et al. Estimated incidence of electric scooter injuries in the US from 2014 to 2019. JAMA network open. 2020 Aug 3;3(8):e2014500.
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About the American College of Surgeons
The American College of Surgeons is a scientific and educational organization of surgeons that was founded in 1913 to raise the standards of surgical practice and improve the quality of care for all surgical patients. The College is dedicated to the ethical and competent practice of surgery. Its achievements have significantly influenced the course of scientific surgery in America and have established it as an important advocate for all surgical patients. The College has approximately 90,000 members and is the largest organization of surgeons in the world. “FACS” designates that a surgeon is a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons.
People who own electric vehicles (EVs) are more likely to go a step further and add solar panels to their home, according to an analysis of a behavioral study by researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). Conversely, the impact of owning solar panels also has a bearing on whether a homeowner buys an electric vehicle but not as strongly.
The study relied on a survey of 869 households in the San Francisco Bay Area.
NREL’s Shivam Sharda, lead author of the newly published research paper that analyzes the survey results, said the owners of EVs may be more inclined to invest in photovoltaics (PVs) because the addition of solar panels might offset the residential portion of the energy bill needed to charge them at home.
“Both EVs and PVs have a complementary nature, which might play a pivotal role in energy systems resiliency, addressing concerns regarding grid stability and power management strategies,” said Sharda, a computational research scientist in NREL’s Center for Integrated Mobility Sciences.
The paper, “The Electric Vehicles-Solar Photovoltaics Nexus: Driving Cross-Sectoral Adoption of Sustainable Technologies,” appears in the journal Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews. The study is co-authored by an interdisciplinary team of researchers including Venu M. Garikapati, Janet L. Reyna, and Bingrong Sun, all from NREL, and researchers from the University of California Santa Barbara and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
The survey was conducted in 2018 as part of the WholeTraveler Transportation Behavior Study. The researchers noted a lot might have transpired from the year when the survey was conducted. They revisited the topic with the newly released 2022 Residential Energy Consumption survey and observed that EV-PV relationship might still hold true. In the 2018 survey, more of the participants owned or previously owned rooftop solar panels than an electric vehicle (9.1% vs. 6.5%). The researchers noted PV technology has been around longer compared to EVs, and the cost of having solar panels is less than that of most EVs.
They found a correlation between the two technologies. Of EV owners, 25% also owned a PV system, while only 8% of the non-EV owners owned PVs. The behavioral survey highlighted two areas that might have prompted someone to adopt one or both technologies: being cognizant of them and being social enough to ask about them.
“If you have a friend or a family member who owns a rooftop solar panel or an EV, you become more educated about the technology, so you know the pros and cons by talking to them,” Sharda said. “That has a significant influence on your owning EVs or PVs.”
While governments offer incentives to adopt both EVs and PVs, the researchers suggested considering policies that jointly accelerate the acceptance of the two technologies. Because EV owners are inclined to use PV anyway, such incentives might provide a push for EV owners to adopt solar technology much earlier than what is currently observed. How soon a household adopts cross-sectoral sustainable technologies will play an important role in achieving decarbonization goals.
The researchers said while the survey provided valuable insights on EV-PV interconnection, more holistic surveys are needed to unpack the evolving transportation and residential energy use nexus to identify pathways to decarbonize energy use across sectors.
The Department of Energy’s Vehicle Technologies Office funded the research.
NREL is the U.S. Department of Energy's primary national laboratory for renewable energy and energy efficiency research and development. NREL is operated for DOE by the Alliance for Sustainable Energy LLC.
The electric vehicles-solar photovoltaics Nexus: Driving cross-sectoral adoption of sustainable technologies
Status report on emerging photovoltaic technology published by SPIE Journal of Photonics for Energy
Authored by a community of 41 researchers from across the globe, the open access “Status report on emerging photovoltaics” offers snapshots of a range of emerging PV technologies
SPIE--INTERNATIONAL SOCIETY FOR OPTICS AND PHOTONICS
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AUTHORED BY A COMMUNITY OF 41 RESEARCHERS FROM ACROSS THE GLOBE, THE OPEN ACCESS “STATUS REPORT ON EMERGING PHOTOVOLTAICS” OFFERS SNAPSHOTS OF A RANGE OF EMERGING PV TECHNOLOGIES.
Photovoltaic (PV) solar energy is emerging as a significant contributor to global sustainable energy production. Inspired by the continued technological progress of PV, and motivated by the challenges ahead, Journal of Photonics for Energy (JPE) recently published a status report on emerging photovoltaics written by a community of 41 experts from across the globe.
The report contains snapshots of a range of emerging PV technologies, highlighting key applications and pathways to commercialization. The report focuses on new materials and device concepts, light management designs, and strategies for exceeding current limits to solar PV energy conversion. Each section provides a brief overview, a technology status update, and a discussion of challenges facing efforts to commercialize and scale up solar PV globally, including developing appropriate manufacturing tools and processes, as well as enhancing PV efficiency and sustainability.
JPE Editor-in-Chief Sean Shaheen, professor at University of Colorado Boulder and coauthor of the report, remarks, “The report is intended to be a convenient resource for people within and outside the field, including new researchers, students, technology managers, and program managers, who can play a role in accelerating the global effort.” He notes, “The diverse contributions to this report demonstrate the remarkable range of emerging PV technologies as well as developments in their applications. They also describe some of the challenges to widespread deployment.”
Concluding with a survey of contributing authors regarding the needs and future evolution of PV, the report presents a variety of perspectives on priorities and challenges involved. In general, the report suggests broadening the performance metrics by which technological approaches are assessed, for instance to include life-cycle analysis to ensure that solar cells generate energy at minimum equivalent to that required for their manufacture.
Despite a variety of perspectives, the report communicates a shared spirit of optimism regarding the future of PV technology.
The Journal of Photonics for Energy is published by SPIE, the international society for optics and photonics, and available via the SPIE Digital Library. The journal covers fundamental and applied research areas focused on the applications of photonics for renewable energy harvesting, conversion, storage, distribution, monitoring, consumption, and efficient usage.
Photonic devices, crucial in modern technology, manipulate light through films and structures, enhancing functionalities via principles such as interference and resonance. Micro/nanofabrication advances have led to sophisticated designs like photonic crystals and metasurfaces, enabling precise light control. However, these devices frequently lack adaptability after fabrication. Hydrogels, known for their responsive and tunable nature, present a promising solution by merging dynamic optical properties with biocompatibility, addressing the need for post-fabrication adaptability in photonic devices.
In a review published on 01 January 2024, in the journal Microsystems & Nanoengineering, the discussion centers around hydrogels in photonics, highlighting their potential to revolutionize the field. The review emphasizes how these hydrogels enable devices to adapt and respond to their environment, promising significant advances in technology and biomedicine.
The review concentrates on harnessing the distinctive properties of hydrogels to develop dynamic photonic devices. Renowned for their deformable nature, hydrogels interact with water molecules through various forces, enabling them to expand and swell. This behavior allows them to modify their optical properties in response to external stimuli, like temperature and pH changes. The research delves into several fabrication techniques, such as photopolymerization and electron beam lithography, to construct hydrogel structures at the nanoscale. Photopolymerization lets hydrogels form films and structures under UV light, while electron beam lithography facilitates the creation of intricate nanostructures by breaking molecular bonds within the hydrogel. These techniques pave the way for hydrogel-based photonic devices capable of substantial, tunable optical alterations. Crafted devices can serve as dynamic optical cavities or nanocavities, reacting to external stimuli and offering enhanced optical responses. This innovative approach marks a new era in photonics, promising devices with unprecedented adaptability and responsiveness.
Professor Junsuk Rho, a leading researcher in the study, states, "The integration of hydrogels into photonics marks a paradigm shift. We're not just tweaking existing technologies; we're reimagining them to be more adaptable, responsive, and integrated with our environment."
This research ushers in a new era in photonics, where devices are not merely passive conduits of light but active participants in their environment. It has unveiled the potential of hydrogels in reshaping the realm of active photonics. This breakthrough is set to revolutionize our interaction with photonic devices, affecting everything from everyday technologies to specialized scientific equipment.
The Samsung Research Funding & Incubation Center for Future Technology grants (SRFC-IT1901-52) funded by Samsung Electronics; The POSCO-POSTECH-RIST Convergence Research Center program funded by POSCO; The National Research Foundation (NRF) grant (NRF-2022M3C1A3081312) funded by the Ministry of Science and ICT of the Korean government. The NRF Ph.D. fellowship (NRF-2022R1A6A3A13066244) funded by the Ministry of Education of the Korean government.
Microsystems & Nanoengineering is an online-only, open access international journal devoted to publishing original research results and reviews on all aspects of Micro and Nano Electro Mechanical Systems from fundamental to applied research. The journal is published by Springer Nature in partnership with the Aerospace Information Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences, supported by the State Key Laboratory of Transducer Technology.
Transatlantic project works to fortify coastal resilience against rising seas
Sherif Abdelaziz is part of a PIONEER project that will do laboratory tests in collaboration with researchers in Scotland to keep coastal areas safe from flooding
With climate change-driven increases in sea levels, coastal flooding events are predicted to rise in frequency and severity. In the United States, coastal sea levels are expected to rise by 0.25 to 0.30 meters by 2050. This is the same amount that was measured between 1920 and 2020.
Approximately 148 million people worldwide are currently exposed to coastal flooding events, which underscores the urgency to bolster coastal defenses. According to Abdelaziz, about 40 percent of the population in the United States lives in counties on the coast. Coastal cities are being forced to invest significant funds to protect their residents. For example, Staten Island, New York, is investing $165 million to build a seawall for resilience against sea level rise. This will help protect New York City from financial and social damages similar to those experienced after Hurricane Sandy in 2012.
The collaboration was triggered by the ongoing research of Abdelaziz’s group, utilizing Virginia Tech’s retaining wall research facility at the Prices Fork Geotechnical Research Laboratory to assess the impact of temperature on earth retaining structures, which are engineered structures that are built to prevent erosion of the shoreline. This project will complement the current research by adding another level of complexity by measuring how much water fills in the soil.
Melis Sutman, assistant professor in geotechnical engineering at Heriot-Watt’s School of Energy, Geoscience, Infrastructure and Society earned her master’s degree and Ph.D from Virginia Tech in geotechnical engineering in 2015. Because she is familiar with the ongoing research at Virginia Tech, the collaboration between the two universities was a seamless next step in the research.
“This is an interesting study because it combines, probably for the first time, the interactions for the effect of the water flooding on soils and, subsequently, on shoreline protective structures,” Abdelaziz said. “We will be able to assess how all these factors interact together so we can better design our shoreline protective structures to sustain the increasing intensity of waves and floods.”
The United States and the United Kingdom both face significant challenges, such as the loss of land near the shoreline, threatened coastal communities, and inadequate stability of near-shore infrastructures, including ports and roadways, due to potential sea level rises. This research will focus on understanding how the soil behind seawalls is affected by repeated wetting and drying cycles caused by waves overtopping the walls. By pinpointing vulnerable areas, researchers aim to enhance the design and resilience of sea walls.
The PIONEER project involves laboratory testing using innovative devices, such as a thermos-hydro-mechanical direct shear interface device at Heriot-Watt, to simulate various climate change and emission scenarios efficiently. Then Virginia Tech will complement those lab-scale tests with experiments on a full-sized, 4-meter-high retaining wall to investigate the effects of temperature, water pressure, and other parameters.
“Each of our universities has equipment that is highly valuable to this research. This allows us to collaborate to develop innovative solutions to problems that are affecting countries worldwide. Research like this has no geographic boundaries,” said Abdelaziz of the international collaboration.
As sea walls continue to play a pivotal role in safeguarding communities, this research initiative marks a crucial step forward in building resilience for a sustainable future.
“Investing our efforts into sea wall research is not just safeguarding coastal communities, but it is building resilience that ensures the stability and prosperity of those communities for years to come,” noted Abdelaziz.
