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)
Friday, September 20, 2024
Health warnings on Instagram advertisements for synthetic nicotine e-cigarettes and engagement
JAMA Network
About The Study: In this cross-sectional study of synthetic nicotine brand Instagram accounts, 87% of sampled posts did not adhere to FDA health warning requirements in tobacco promotions. Enforcement of FDA compliant health warnings on social media may reduce youth engagement with tobacco marketing.
Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Traci Hong, PhD, email tjhong@bu.edu.
Editor’s Note: Please see the article for additional information, including other authors, author contributions and affiliations, conflict of interest and financial disclosures, and funding and support.
About JAMA Network Open: JAMA Network Open is an online-only open access general medical journal from the JAMA Network. On weekdays, the journal publishes peer-reviewed clinical research and commentary in more than 40 medical and health subject areas. Every article is free online from the day of publication.
Journal
JAMA Network Open
E-cigarette brands are skirting the rules about health warning labels on Instagram
Using AI, BU researchers found that the vast majority of social media posts didn’t include health labels warning of the harms of flavored nicotine
Boston University
Island breeze, blue lagoon, dew drop—these aren’t the names of scented candles on display at your local home goods store. They’re flavors of synthetic nicotine used in e-cigarettes, often advertised with neon-electric colors and bright lettering to make them look like boxes of candy or fruit juice. But underneath all the flair, a specific label written clearly in black text on a white background is required by law to be there: a warning that says the product contains nicotine and that nicotine is an addictive substance.
Even though health warnings need to be written on physical products sold in stores and included in traditional advertisements, a new research study led by Boston University found that the majority of ads posted on social media by synthetic nicotine brands left the warnings off.
Synthetic nicotine is a substance created in a laboratory that has the same, or very similar, chemical structure to the nicotine derived from tobacco leaves. Despite marketing that labels it as “tobacco-free nicotine,” it still has the same addictive properties and additives that can cause lung damage, cancer, and other health issues. Plus, since it’s commonly paired with appealing flavors—made from chemicals that are known to be unsafe to inhale—it can be even harder to quit.
“When synthetic nicotine started appearing in products, we really wanted to know how it was being received and how it was being promoted,” says Traci Hong, a BU College of Communication professor of media studies.
When she first started in her career as a health communication researcher, she says, it was a different era: social media was not widely used, cigarette use was declining, and electronic cigarettes and vapes were in their infancy. But when vapes containing synthetic nicotine started getting more and more popular, she turned her attention to social media to find out how the advertising of these products was being regulated—and what could be done to make them less appealing to kids and young adults.
In their new paper, Hong and her collaborators found that in over 2,000 Instagram posts from 25 different synthetic nicotine brands, the vast majority did not include warning labels informing users about the health risks. The findings have been published in JAMA Network Open.
“These are brands that I think have a legitimate responsibility to inform their potential consumers that there are health risks and you need to be aware of them,” Hong says. Especially considering that Instagram is one of the most popular social media platforms in the US for young adults.
The FDA passed a requirement in 2022 that says health warnings need to take up 20 percent of the advertising and appear in the upper portion of the advertisement for e-cigarettes that contain synthetic nicotine. Hong, who is a research fellow at BU’s Rafik B. Hariri Institute for Computing and Computational Science & Engineering, and her colleagues identified whether an image posted on Instagram included the required health warning and, if it did, whether it took up the right amount of space. The study involved interdisciplinary collaboration across the University, including experts from BU’s School of Public Health, Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine, and College of Arts & Sciences.
The Instagram posts were analyzed using a custom-built AI algorithm, called Warning Label Multi-Layer Image Identification (WaLi), which uses computer vision to detect if health warnings follow the FDA rules. The team found that only 13 percent of the analyzed posts complied with FDA health warning requirements. They also discovered that the posts with health warnings received fewer likes and comments than posts without the warnings. According to the paper, the larger the warning label, the less comments the posts received. This means that having health warning labels could reduce how many social media users, especially young adults, are seeing and engaging with this content.
“We need federal government policies to combat the appeal of e-cigarette advertising on social media and to prevent kids from using tobacco products,” says Jessica Fetterman, a Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine assistant professor of medicine and coauthor on the study. The FDA recently estimated that the number of middle and high school students using e-cigarettes in 2024 is about 1.63 million, down from 2.13 million in 2023, with the vast majority using flavored nicotine. Enforcing and requiring health warning labels on social media content is one way to make products less visible and appealing, Fetterman says.
“Our study indicates that e-cigarette brands are creating Instagram posts advertising their products with seemingly no enforcement by the social media platform or government,” Fetterman says. Instagram lists tobacco products, electronic cigarettes, “and any other products that simulate smoking” on their list of prohibited branded content. But, Fetterman says, synthetic nicotine products are flouting that rule.
“All our work is really trying to find evidence-based research to help people make informed decisions about their health,” Hong says. With synthetic nicotine and e-cigarette companies continuing to use flavors as a way to appeal to youth, she says, her team plans to monitor social media posts with WaLi to ensure brands are using the correct language to dissuade people from getting hooked.
This research was supported by the National Institutes of Health and the American Heart Association.
Republishers are kindly reminded to uphold journalistic integrity by providing proper crediting, including a direct link back to the original source URL.
Kim Brown (left), University of Tennessee Extension specialist with the UT Department of Plant Sciences, was named a Fellow by the American Association of Pesticide Safety Educators (AAPSE). The award was presented to her by Amanda Bachmann (right), the 2023-2024 AAPSE president.
Kim Brown, Extension specialist with the University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture (UTIA), has been named a Fellow by the American Association of Pesticide Safety Educators (AAPSE). She was recognized for the honor during the 2024 national meeting of AAPSE in Laramie, Wyoming in July.
“I want to thank everyone for their support over the years, this Fellowship would not be possible without the many talented teams I have the privilege of working alongside. It takes the collaboration of Extension specialists, county agents, researchers and so many others to develop and share pesticide guidelines with applicators across the country,” says Brown.
Fellows are active members of AAPSE who make significant contributions to pesticide education and to the Association itself. For over 14 years, Brown has hosted hundreds of trainings and consultations for producers, applicators, homeowners, educators, industry representatives and more across the Mid-South to improve awareness of pesticide regulations and safe application practices. She has also served in multiple leadership positions within AAPSE as president, committee chair and member of various boards and workgroups.
Brown says that proper pesticide education is essential for protecting local communities and ecosystems. “Pesticides are an important resource that we rely on every day, oftentimes without even realizing it. As this industry continues to evolve, specialists work year-round to ensure we are maximizing the benefits of these products while preventing unintentional harm to this world we call home.”
In 2023, Brown hosted the national State FIFRA Issues Research and Evaluation Group conference, sharing UTIA’s work on pesticide safety with organizations from across the United States. She is also the recipient of numerous awards including the Friend of Ag award from the Louisiana Agricultural Aviation Association.
In 2010, she received her bachelor’s degree in agronomy and soils from Auburn University before attaining her master’s degree in plant, soils and environmental science in 2015 from Louisiana State University. She held pesticide education appointments at both institutions before attaining her current Extension specialist position within the UT Department of Plant Sciences.
The University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture is comprised of the Herbert College of Agriculture, UT College of Veterinary Medicine, UT AgResearch and UT Extension. Through its land-grant mission of teaching, research and outreach, the Institute touches lives and provides Real. Life. Solutions. to Tennesseans and beyond. utia.tennessee.edu.
We've been quiet recently, and this project is the reason why. Written between 1953 and 1957, Magic Art was the last great project by André Breton, the founder and principal theorist of Surrealism. Lost for many years, the text has never been translated into English... until now.
In celebration of the centenary of Surrealism on October 15th, we are delighted to announce André Breton's Magic Art is now available to pre-order. We are releasing the standard hardback and special edition first, with early birds receiving discounts and bonus items. The pre-order for the deluxe signed by André Breton's daughter will open on October 15th.
In response to customer requests, we have introduced Klarna as a payment option to help spread the cost. Just click the Klarna option in the checkout.
Shipping dates Standard Hardback Edition: 04 November 2024 Special limited 'Jappard' Edition: 02 December 2024 Deluxe signed 'Enigma' Edition: mid-January 2025
Warburg Institute, London, Saturday November 2nd, 2024
In collaboration with the Warburg Institute, Fulgur Press is pleased to host a special one-day symposium to celebrate the first English publication of André Breton’s L’Art magique. Tickets are £15.00 (£10.00 with concessions) and available via the Warburg Institute website.
The event will take place in the newly refurbished premises, and will include a talk exploring the genesis of L’Art magique (Robert Shehu-Ansell) presentations from artists whose work is infused with magic (Jesse Bransford, Elijah Burgher, Judith Noble and Nooka Shepherd) followed by a round table discussion, and a talk from surrealism scholar Will Atkin (Courtauld Institute) exploring the relevance of magic art today.
Refreshments and an evening wine reception are included.
Giving batteries a longer life with the Advanced Photon Source
New research uncovers a hydrogen-centered mechanism that triggers degradation in the lithium-ion batteries that power electric vehicles
DOE/Argonne National Laboratory
image:
From left: Physicist and Group Leader Shelly Kelly describes the unique monochromator in the recently upgraded 25-ID beamline at the APS to Senior Chemist Zonghai Chen, Postdoc Jiyu Cai and Physicist Zhan Zhang.
Credit: (Image by Argonne National Laboratory/Mark Lopez.)
While the lithium-ion battery could help save the planet, it is in some ways like any other battery: it degrades with time and operation, taking a toll on its lifespan.
Along with enabling much of our digital and mobile lifestyle, lithium-ion batteries power most electric vehicles (EVs). For that reason, extending the battery’s lifetime is critical to widespread adoption of EVs in the transition away from fossil fuel-burning cars. Scientists are working to find the causes of battery degradation with the goal of extending battery lifespan.
Specifically, scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory are collaborating with other U.S. laboratories and academic institutions to study a phenomenon called self-discharge. This is a series of chemical reactions in the battery that causes performance loss over time, shortening the battery’s lifespan.
“By mitigating self-discharge, we can design a smaller, lighter and cheaper battery without sacrificing end-of-life battery performance.” — Argonne Senior Chemist Zonghai Chen
During self-discharge, the charged lithium-ion battery loses stored energy even when not in use. For example, an EV that sits for a month or more may not run due to low battery voltage and charge.
“Self-discharge is a phenomenon experienced by all rechargeable electrochemical devices,” said Zonghai Chen, an Argonne senior chemist. “The process slowly consumes precious functional battery materials and deposits undesired side products on the surface of the battery components. This leads to continuous degradation of battery performance.”
To find the cause of self-discharge, scientists need to identify the complex chemical mechanisms that trigger the degradation process in the battery. Lithium-ion batteries are rechargeable and use lithium ions to store energy. The cathode and the electrolyte are two key components in lithium-ion batteries. The battery’s longevity can be influenced by the degradation of cathodes.
While scientists are making significant progress in understanding lithium-ion batteries, there is an ongoing debate on what causes the self-discharge phenomenon.
The prevailing wisdom on cathode degradation centers on two areas: a loss of lithium or oxygen release from cathodes. Meanwhile, theoretical studies have predicted that electrolytes tend to decompose on cathode surfaces. This has created a critical knowledge gap between the decomposition of the electrolyte and the degradation of the cathode within lithium-ion batteries.
Recently, a research team across several academic universities and national laboratories including Argonne, DOE’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and the DEVCOM U.S. Army Research Laboratory (ARL) published a new paper in Science bridging this knowledge gap. This research validates a cathode hydrogenation mechanism as a pathway to the self-discharge that leads to battery degradation. The research was funded by DOE’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, Vehicle Technologies Office.
Scientists say they could not have validated their findings without access to the Advanced Photon Source (APS) at Argonne, one of the world’s premier storage-ring-based high-energy X-ray light source facilities. The APS is a DOE Office of Science user facility. The light sources use electrons circling in a storage ring at near the speed of light to produce X-ray beams that allow scientists to unveil the battery’s inner workings at an atomic level.
“We are deeply grateful to the state-of-art X-ray facilities and support available at the Advanced Photon Source. It is the ideal pairing of the X-ray studies and electrochemistry that enables our discoveries on how cathode hydrogenation occurs in lithium-ion batteries and impacts self-discharge,” said study lead Gang Wan, a physical science research scientist at Stanford University.
A new pathway to self-discharge leading to battery degradation
While the inner workings are more complicated, batteries basically convert electrochemical energy directly to electrical energy. Batteries consist of an anode, electrolyte, separator and cathode.
The electrolyte transfers ions, or charge-carrying particles, between the cathode and anode that store the lithium. Self-discharge occurs in both the cathode and anode. The cathode material is critical, since it determines how much energy the battery can store. In their new research, the team used layered lithium transition metal oxides, a prototype cathode material.
“Finding the right chemistry for these cathode materials is necessary to improve the battery’s chemical stability and reduce the rate of self-discharge,” said co-author Michael F. Toney, professor of chemical engineering and materials science and a fellow in the Renewable and Sustainable Energy Institute at the University of Colorado Boulder. “Degradation of the cathode reduces the battery’s lifetime.”
In their research, this team discovered experimental and computational proof of a mechanism that triggers self-discharge: cathode hydrogenation, or the process of dynamically transferring the protons and electrons from the electrolyte solvent into highly charged layered oxides in the cathode. The mechanism explains the chemical nature of the contamination products on the cathode that lead to battery degradation.
Along with Chen’s early seminal paper investigating the decomposition mechanism of cathode materials using high-energy X-ray diffraction, this new study sheds light on the cathode hydrogenation-based degradation mechanism.
Based on their results, scientists can further develop bottom-up approaches to reduce self-discharge and cathode degradation, with the goal of lengthening battery life.
“By mitigating self-discharge, we can design a smaller, lighter and cheaper battery without sacrificing end-of-life battery performance,” Chen said.
Advanced Photon Source helps validate research findings
Argonne beamline scientists Cheng-Jun Sun, Shelly Kelly and Zhan Zhang used the APS to work with Wan to design the X-ray spectroscopy and scattering experiments that validated the landmark findings.
“X-ray spectroscopy measurements allow an atomic view of the nickel, manganese and cobalt metal atoms within the cathode,” Kelly said. “Using the APS, we could see the effect of the accumulation of protons at the surface of the cathode, which ultimately results in self-discharge.”
The APS, which welcomes more than 5,500 scientists from around the world in a typical year, is currently undergoing a massive upgrade that will replace the current electron storage ring with a new, more powerful model. When completed later in 2024, the upgrade will increase the brightness of the APS X-ray beams by up to 500 times.
“The research team, which includes a number of longtime APS users, is excited to embrace the new and exciting opportunities brought by the APS upgrade to target the grand challenges in energy sciences, including building better batteries,” Wan said.
Other senior co-authors include Oleg Borodin, a scientist at ARL, and Kang Xu, a fellow of the Materials Research Society and the Electrochemical Society and an ARL fellow emeritus who was a former team leader at ARL and is now chief scientist at SES AI.
The research team dedicated their paper to the late George Crabtree and the late Peter Faguy. Crabtree, an Argonne Senior Scientist and Distinguished Fellow, served as director of the DOE’s Joint Center for Energy Storage Research from 2012 to 2023. Faguy, an electrochemist at the DOE, served as the DOE project manager on this research.
About the Advanced Photon Source
The U. S. Department of Energy Office of Science’s Advanced Photon Source (APS) at Argonne National Laboratory is one of the world’s most productive X-ray light source facilities. The APS provides high-brightness X-ray beams to a diverse community of researchers in materials science, chemistry, condensed matter physics, the life and environmental sciences, and applied research. These X-rays are ideally suited for explorations of materials and biological structures; elemental distribution; chemical, magnetic, electronic states; and a wide range of technologically important engineering systems from batteries to fuel injector sprays, all of which are the foundations of our nation’s economic, technological, and physical well-being. Each year, more than 5,000 researchers use the APS to produce over 2,000 publications detailing impactful discoveries, and solve more vital biological protein structures than users of any other X-ray light source research facility. APS scientists and engineers innovate technology that is at the heart of advancing accelerator and light-source operations. This includes the insertion devices that produce extreme-brightness X-rays prized by researchers, lenses that focus the X-rays down to a few nanometers, instrumentation that maximizes the way the X-rays interact with samples being studied, and software that gathers and manages the massive quantity of data resulting from discovery research at the APS.
This research used resources of the Advanced Photon Source, a U.S. DOE Office of Science User Facility operated for the DOE Office of Science by Argonne National Laboratory under Contract No. DE-AC02-06CH11357.
The U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, visit https://energy.gov/science.
Experimental Table at APS
From left: Physicist Zhan Zhang, Postdoc Jiyu Cai, Senior Chemist Zonghai Chen and Physicist and Group Leader Shelly Kelly working on the experimental table for X-ray measurements at the recently upgraded 25-ID beamline at the APS.
Credit
(Image by Argonne National Laboratory/Mark Lopez.)
Solvent-mediated oxide hydrogenation in layered cathodes
Harnessing the power of porosity: A new era for aqueous zinc-ion batteries and large-scale energy storage
Tsinghua University Press
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This diagram illustrates the primary benefits of porous zinc anodes, including enhanced electric field distribution, improved Zn²⁺ ion flux, effective volume change accommodation, and internal stress relaxation, all of which contribute to the suppression of dendrite growth and increased battery performance in aqueous zinc-ion batteries.
As the global demand for energy storage solutions grows, the limitations of current lithium-ion batteries, such as safety concerns and high costs, have driven the exploration of alternative technologies. Aqueous zinc-ion batteries (AZIBs) have emerged as a promising candidate due to their inherent safety, cost-effectiveness, and environmental sustainability. However, challenges like zinc dendrite growth continue to hinder their widespread adoption. Due to these challenges, there is a pressing need to delve deeper into innovative solutions to improve AZIB performance.
The study (DOI: 10.26599/EMD.2024.9370040), conducted by researchers from Tsinghua University and the University of Technology Sydney, was published in Energy Materials and Devices on August 16, 2024. It provides a comprehensive review of recent advancements in the engineering of porous zinc metal anodes for AZIBs. The focus of the research is on the structural orderliness of these porous anodes and their critical role in enhancing battery performance. The review underscores the potential of porous zinc anodes in overcoming the limitations of traditional planar zinc anodes.
The research highlights the significant advantages of porous zinc anodes over traditional planar zinc anodes. The porous structures provide numerous nucleation sites, which reduce the nuclear energy barriers and mitigate localized charge accumulation. This, in turn, suppresses dendrite growth, ensuring a longer battery lifespan. The study also emphasizes the role of three-dimensional porous structures in facilitating uniform electric field distribution and homogeneous ion flux, which are crucial for stable zinc deposition and stripping. Additionally, the substantial internal volume in these anodes accommodates volume changes and deposition stress, further enhancing battery performance. The review presents various fabrication techniques for porous zinc anodes, including etching, self-assembly, laser lithography, electrochemical methods, and 3D printing. The researchers also provide strategic insights into the design of porous zinc anodes to facilitate the practical implementation of AZIBs for grid-scale energy storage applications.
Prof. Dong Zhou, one of the lead researchers, remarked, "The development of porous zinc anodes represents a significant step forward in the advancement of zinc-ion batteries. By addressing the dendrite growth issue, we are moving closer to making AZIBs a commercially viable alternative to lithium-ion batteries. Our work not only provides a comprehensive understanding of the current advancements but also offers strategic insights into future research directions."
The innovative design of porous zinc anodes has the potential to revolutionize the field of energy storage. By improving the performance and safety of AZIBs, these anodes could enable the development of large-scale, sustainable energy storage systems, crucial for integrating renewable energy sources into the grid. Moreover, the advancements in porous zinc anodes could also lead to the development of safer and more cost-effective batteries for a wide range of applications, from electric vehicles to portable electronics, thus contributing to the global transition towards cleaner energy solutions.
This work is granted by National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 22309102), China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (Grant No. 2222M711788), National Key Research and Development Program of China (Grant No.2022YFB2404500), Fundamental Research Project of Shenzhen (Grant No. JCYJ20230807111702005), the Australian Research Council through the ARC Discovery Project (Grant No. DP230101579) and ACR Linkage Project (Grant No. LP200200926).
Energy Materials and Devices is launched by Tsinghua University, published quarterly by Tsinghua University Press, exclusively available via SciOpen, aiming at being an international, single-blind peer-reviewed, open-access and interdisciplinary journal in the cutting-edge field of energy materials and devices. It focuses on the innovation research of the whole chain of basic research, technological innovation, achievement transformation and industrialization in the field of energy materials and devices, and publishes original, leading and forward-looking research results, including but not limited to the materials design, synthesis, integration, assembly and characterization of devices for energy storage and conversion etc.
SciOpen is an open access resource of scientific and technical content published by Tsinghua University Press and its publishing partners. SciOpen provides end-to-end services across manuscript submission, peer review, content hosting, analytics, identity management, and expert advice to ensure each journal’s development. By digitalizing the publishing process, SciOpen widens the reach, deepens the impact, and accelerates the exchange of ideas.
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Existing global energy projections underestimate the impact of climate change on urban heating and cooling systems by roughly 50% by 2099 if greenhouse gas emissions remain high, researchers report. This disparity could profoundly affect critical sustainable energy planning for the future.
Existing studies predominantly concentrate on chemical feedback loops, which are large-scale processes involving complex interactions between energy use, greenhouse gas emissions and the atmosphere. However, a research group led by the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign focuses on the often-overlooked physical interactions between urban infrastructure and the atmosphere that can contribute to local microclimates and, ultimately, global climate.
A new study led by civil and environmental engineering professor Lei Zhao emphasizes that smaller-scale city-level waste heat from residential and commercial property heating and cooling efforts can lead to big impacts on local climates and energy use. The study findings are published in the journal Nature Climate Change.
“The heat generated from heating and cooling systems is a substantial part of the total heat generated within urban areas,” Zhao said. “These systems generate a lot of heat that is released into the atmosphere within cities, making them hotter and further increasing the demand for indoor cooling systems, which feeds even more heat into local climates.”
This process is part of what researchers call a positive physical feedback loop between building cooling-system use and the warming of local urban environments. The authors also note that rising temperatures under climate change could potentially decrease energy demand during the colder months, a negative feedback loop that should be considered in any temperature and energy demand projections.
According to the study, less heating use would lead to less heat being released into the urban environment, inducing less urban warming than under the present climate.
“This process forms a negative physical feedback loop that may dampen the heating demand decrease,” Zhao said. “But it does not by any means cancel out the positive feedback loop effect. Instead, our model suggests that it could polarize the seasonal electricity demand, which poses its own set of problems for which careful planning is needed.”
To include these overlooked physical contributions into the larger overall picture of climate change, the team used a hybrid modeling framework that combines dynamic Earth system modeling and machine learning to examine the global urban heating and cooling energy demand under urban climate change variability and uncertainties — including the spatial and temporal challenges posed by the fact that cities vary in income, infrastructure, population density, technology and temperature tolerance.
“I think the take-home message for this study is that energy projections that integrate the effects of positive and negative physical feedback loops are needed and will lay the groundwork for more comprehensive climate impact assessment, science-based policymaking and coordination on climate-sensitive energy planning.”
Zhao’s team is already learning how variables and uncertainties like humidity, building materials and future climate-mitigating efforts will further factor into their models to improve energy-demand projections.
The National Science Foundation and iSEE at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign supported this study.
A new study by University of Illinois engineers found that urban heating and cooling will play a substantial role in future energy demand under climate change. (IMAGE)
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, News Bureau
A new study by University of Illinois engineers found that urban heating and cooling will play a substantial role in future energy demand under climate change.
