University of Limerick, Ireland researchers develop new method of generating eco-friendly energy

Researchers at University of Limerick in Ireland have developed a new method of growing organic crystals that can be used for energy-harvesting applications.

University of Limerick

 

image: 

PhD student Tara Ryan, Associate Professor Sarah Guerin, PhD student Krishna Hari and Dr Suman Bhattacharya pictured in the Bernal Institute at University of Limerick

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Credit: University of Limerick

University of Limerick, Ireland researchers develop new method of generating eco-friendly energy

Press release (19/11/24)

***REPRO free image attached

Researchers at University of Limerick in Ireland have developed a new method of growing organic crystals that can be used for energy-harvesting applications.

The energy that is being harvested as part of this research is being generated by squeezing amino acid molecules, the building blocks of proteins that exist in the human body.

Piezoelectricity, which translates from Greek to mean pressing electricity, usually found in ceramics or polymers, is also present in human biomolecules.

The research team from the Actuate Lab in the Department of Chemical Sciences and Bernal Institute at UL, have previously utilised predictive computer models that allow them to identify how much electricity a biological material will generate when you squeeze it – making this material suitable to power sensors in consumer electronics and medical devices.

This latest breakthrough, published in the journal Physical Review Letters, will allow the researchers to shape the crystals they make using silicon moulds into discs or any custom shape required depending on the application, for example, a medical device element versus a phone microphone or car sensor.

Tapping these discs and plates generates useful voltage that if amplified could be used to charge electronic devices using everyday forces.

Discussing the significance of the development, lead author of the paper and PhD student at UL Krishna Hari explained: “The versatile moulding technique that we have developed is a low-cost, low-temperature growth method that opens the path to phase in biomolecular piezoelectrics as high-performance, eco-friendly alternatives to currently used ceramics.”

The research project Pb-FREE: Piezoelectric Biomolecules for Lead-Free, Reliable, Eco-Friendly Electronics is being funded by a European Research Council (ERC) starting grant awarded to Associate Professor Sarah Guerin.

The UL lecturer and researcher, who was named Research Ireland (SFI) Early Career Researcher of the Year in 2023, said she was optimistic about what this latest development could mean for solid-state chemistry.

“We hope it will be a gamechanger for the whole field because there are many scientists trying to grow biological crystals that are still behaving in a chaotic way. I am excited to see if this takes off as a methodology for other people working in sustainable piezoelectrics,” explained Associate Professor Guerin.

If successful, the research undertaken by the team at UL also has the potential to remove environmentally damaging materials such as lead from consumer electronics.

“There are EU regulations around the use of lead, but piezoelectrics are one of the last remaining mainstream technologies allowed to contain this substance because there is no high-performance alternative,” Associate Professor Guerin explained.

“There are about 4,000 tons of lead-based electronic waste generated from these sensors every year, and this research has the potential to remove this waste from the manufacturing process.”

ENDS

The study, ‘Molded, Solid-State Biomolecular Assemblies with Programmable Electromechanical Properties’, by Krishna Hari, Tara Ryan, Suman Bhattacharya, and Sarah Guerin, has been published in the journal Physical Review of Letters.

Caption for image: PhD student Tara Ryan, Associate Professor Sarah Guerin, PhD student Krishna Hari and Dr Suman Bhattacharya pictured in the Bernal Institute at University of Limerick

For further information, please contact:

Alan Owens

Communications Manager

University of Limerick

alan.owens@ul.ie

 

About University of Limerick:

University of Limerick is a research-led, independent, internationally focused university with almost 18,000 students and 2,000 staff. It is a young, energetic and enterprising University with a proud record of innovation in education and excellence in research and scholarship.

More information is available at www.ul.ie.

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Journal

Physical Review Letters

DOI

10.1103/PhysRevLett.133.137001 

Method of Research

Imaging analysis

Subject of Research

Not applicable

Article Title

Molded, Solid-State Biomolecular Assemblies with Programmable Electromechanical Properties

 

Meningitis has a much greater impact on child mortality than previously thought

New study by the CHAMPS network reveals high rates of antibiotic-resistant bacteria in hospital-associated cases of meningitis in children under five years of age

Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal)

Meningitis contributes to higher child mortality rates than estimated by the WHO, according to a new study by the CHAMPS network and led by the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal), an institution supported by “la Caixa” Foundation. The study, published in Journal of Infection, reveals a high prevalence of drug-resistant bacteria in hospital cases, highlighting the need for earlier suspicion and faster diagnosis and appropriate treatment to reduce mortality.

Meningitis remains a serious condition, especially for young children, with high death rates and lasting neurological effects in survivors. Vaccines can protect against the most common types of meningitis-causing bacteria, such as Haemophilus influenzae type B (Hib), Streptococcus pneumoniae, and Neisseria meningitidis. Yet, reaching the World Health Organization’s (WHO) goal to eliminate meningitis by 2030 requires a clearer understanding of the global impact of this disease and the specific pathogens involved.

“Meningitis poses a diagnostic challenge due to its non-specific symptoms, which often resemble those of other serious illnesses,” explains senior author Quique Bassat, ICREA researcher and General Director at ISGlobal. “Identifying the specific pathogens behind meningitis cases would allow us to make a better use of resources and guide the development of new highly-awaited vaccines,” he adds.

The study draws on data from the CHAMPS network, which is conducting an in-depth investigation into causes of childhood deaths in seven countries: Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Kenya, Mali, Mozambique, Sierra Leone, and South Africa. Using a technique called MITS (minimally invasive tissue sampling), researchers perform biopsies to obtain samples of key organs or fluids, including cerebrospinal fluid, followed by histopathological examination, molecular testing for 126 pathogens, and microbiological cultures.

A significant contributor to death

The study found that meningitis was a contributing factor in 7% of the 3,857 deaths analysed. The highest proportions of child deaths due to meningitis were observed in South Africa (16.6%) and Ethiopia (15.6%), followed by Mali and Sierra Leone. Most of these deaths (66%) occurred in newborns, with the remaining cases diagnosed in older infants and young children. “The higher incidence among newborns may be due to the vertical transmission of pathogens infecting their mothers, and the lack of specific strategies to protect them during delivery. Additionally, their underdeveloped immune systems also confer a higher vulnerability,” says Sara Ajanovic, ISGlobal researcher and co-author of the study.

A shift towards antibiotic-resistant bacteria

The prevalence of pathogens associated with meningitis deaths in the hospital and in the community varied between regions. However, the most common pathogens were Acinetobacter baumannii and Klebsiella pneumoniae, particularly in deaths occurring in healthcare settings. These multi-drug resistant bacteria are often acquired in the hospital, which means that improving infection prevention practices in hospitals is essential for reducing meningitis cases. Worryingly, it also means that without the appropriate antibiotics, the risk of dying from meningitis remains high. 

Almost half of meningitis deaths occurred at the community, likely due to limited access to healthcare. While vaccines have significantly reduced cases of Streptococcus pneumoniae, this bacterium still caused many of the community-acquired cases of meningitis.

These findings indicate a shift in the landscape of pathogens associated with meningitis, with an increase of pathogens like K. pneumoniae and A. baumannii, alongside a decline in S. pneumoniae and Hib due to vaccination efforts. This shift, the authors point out, “challenges the foundations of current empirical antibiotic guidelines.”

Implications for public health

CHAMPS' findings suggest that meningitis contributes to higher child mortality rates (7%) than the WHO’s estimate of 5.1%. Critically, many of these cases had not been recognized as meningitis before death, highlighting the need for faster diagnosis and treatment to prevent fatalities. “Less than a quarter of all confirmed meningitis cases had undergone a lumbar puncture -the gold standard technique for diagnosing meningitis - prior to death, highlighting the urgent need to deploy more actively this diagnostic approach to avoid missing cases of this life-threatening infection,” says Bassat.

"The changing landscape of the pathogens causing lethal meningitis in children in these settings underscores the positive effect of vaccine campaigns conducted in the last decades, which must be continued,” adds Ajanovic. However, the findings highlight an urgent need for developing new vaccines against emerging pathogens such as K. pneumoniae, and for updating clinical guidelines. This includes testing for these pathogens and their resistance patterns, as well as adjusting antibiotic regimens to ensure an effective treatment.

CHAMPS work recognised in Catalonia

On 26 October, the Catalan Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases awarded the Josep Barrio Infectious Diseases Prize to Quique Bassat for the best scientific paper published in 2023 by a member of the society. The paper was a study by the CHAMPS network showing that infectious diseases continue to cause most deaths in infants and children, often in conjunction with malnutrition.

Reference

Mahtab S, Madewell ZJ, Baillie V et al. Etiologies and Comorbidities of Meningitis Deaths in Chilren Under 5 Years in High-Mortality Settings: Insights from the CHAMPS Network in the Post-Pneumococcal Vaccine Era. J Infection. 10.1016/j.jinf.2024.106341

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Journal

Journal of Infection

DOI

10.1016/j.jinf.2024.106341 

Subject of Research

People

Article Title

Etiologies and Comorbidities of Meningitis Deaths in Chilren Under 5 Years in High-Mortality Settings: Insights from the CHAMPS Network in the Post-Pneumococcal Vaccine Era

Psychotic-like experiences in adolescents linked to depression and self-destructive behaviour

NOT RELATED TO CANNABIS USE

University of Helsinki

Psychotic-like experiences resemble symptoms of psychosis, but are milder, less frequent and much more common than psychotic disorders. While these symptoms do not constitute a disorder diagnosed as psychosis, they can still be disruptive, distressing or detrimental to functional capacity. Typical psychotic-like experiences include perceptual distortions and hallucinations, suspicious paranoid thinking, delusions and bizarre, unusual thoughts.

According to a study recently completed by researchers in adolescent psychiatry at the University of Helsinki and HUS Helsinki University Hospital, psychotic-like experiences are abundant among adolescents referred to care, but are generally considered fairly neutral, with only some of the adolescents reporting them as frightening, worrisome or harmful. In the study, the correlation between psychotic-like experiences and depressive symptoms turned out to be strong. This link was not explained by connections between individual psychotic-like experiences and depressive symptoms, but by factors that more broadly measure paranoia and unusual thoughts. In addition to depressive symptoms, paranoid thoughts and unusual thought content were also associated with self-destructive thinking.

Making questions about psychotic-like experiences part of care

The findings show that psychotic-like experiences should be systematically surveyed in all adolescents seeking psychiatric care. It should also be assessed how frightening, worrisome or harmful they are considered to be. Particularly in the case of responses emphasising bizarre thinking and exaggerated suspiciousness, attention should also be paid to assessing mood and self-destructive thinking, as these factors can remain hidden without further enquiry.

“Our findings provide a clear recommendation for treatment practices: psychotic-like experiences should be assessed as part of routine procedures, but it is also important to determine how they are perceived. These phenomena cannot be uncovered unless separately and systematically asked,” says the principal investigator, Docent Niklas Granö.

It should be clearly explained to adolescents and their families that these symptoms are common and often manageable. In addition, applications of cognitive psychotherapy, even brief interventions, can help adolescents understand their symptoms and alleviate the strain they cause.

“The assessment and treatment of adolescent mental health has been entirely underresourced in Finland. Now, the launch and development of operations by the new wellbeing services counties offers a great opportunity to develop psychiatric care for adolescents and take into consideration the assessment and potential treatment, even in the short term, of common symptoms that are often excluded from systematic assessment,” says Granö.

Related research articles:
Prevalence of psychotic-like experiences and their association with depression symptoms among patients entering adolescent psychiatric care. Granö, Lintula, Therman, Marttunen, Edlund & Ranta. Nordic Journal of Psychiatry, 2024

Factor and network analysis of psychosis-like experiences and depressive symptoms in a sample of Finnish adolescents entering psychiatric services. Granö, Lintula, Therman, Marttunen, Lång & Ranta. PubMed 2023.

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Journal

Psychosis

DOI

10.1080/17522439.2024.2416423 

Subject of Research

People

Article Title

Under the surface: paranoid and unusual thought content are associated with depressive symptoms and suicidal ideation in adolescents entering psychiatric care

News Release 17-Nov-2024

‘Teen-friendly’ mindfulness therapy aims to help combat depression among teenagers

University of Cambridge

Researchers have developed a mindfulness therapy tailored specifically to appeal to teenagers to help them cope with increasing levels of depression and mental health problems.

The approach teaches participants to tune into and manage negative thought patterns that can trigger or maintain depression, and allow them instead to focus on the present moment.

Developed by teams at the University of Cambridge and King’s College London, the ATTEND programme – Adolescents and carers using mindfulness Therapy To END depression – also includes sessions for parents and guardians, ensuring a family-centred approach to tackling the problem. The programme is funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research.

Depression among teenagers is a serious issue in the UK, affecting approximately 140,000 young people aged 15-19. Only about 35,000 receive treatment, and of these 14,000 do not respond to the treatment while an additional 8,000 relapse after initial success. This highlights an urgent need for more effective and sustainable solutions.

Professor Tamsin Ford, Head of the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Cambridge, said: “Too many young people struggle with their mental health but fail to get the support they need through the NHS. Even among those who do receive support, the treatment doesn’t work effectively enough for more than half of them.

“We know that adult mindfulness courses can help people living with depression, but what might work for an adult is likely to be different from what will work for a teenager. That’s why we’ve developed a more ‘teen-friendly’ therapy that’s more engaging and, we hope, more effective.”

Professor Ford and colleagues from King’s College London and the Universities of Exeter and Surrey have developed Mindfulness for Adolescents and Carers, a programme based on the highly-regarded Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT).

MBCT is an evidence-based treatment recommended by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) for adults with recurrent depression. It combines mindfulness techniques with cognitive behavioural approaches to help individuals avoid relapse. Professor Ford and colleagues have been adapting MBCT to make it more engaging and effective for teenagers.

With the new course, teenagers will attend eight weekly skills-based sessions delivered either in person or online in groups. The ATTEND programme is also working with families to design an app that helps participants reinforce the skills they learn between sessions.

Unlike traditional MBCT, Mindfulness for Adolescents and Carers includes sessions for both teens and their parents or carers. There are also more movement breaks, shorter skills practice sessions, snacks, and teen-friendly activities.

Professor Patrick Smith, Professor of Clinical Psychology at King’s College London, said: “Supporting a teenager with depression can be incredibly challenging for families. Parents often struggle to know how to best help their children. That’s why our course offers separate, parallel training for parents or carers alongside the teens’ sessions. We hope this will help parents better understand and support their child’s recovery, while also potentially improving their own mental health and family relationships.”

While MBCT is well-established for adults, its effectiveness for teenagers is still being explored. The ATTEND programme is a large-scale trial across England that aims to assess whether Mindfulness for Adolescents and Carers is more effective than the current NHS treatments available for depression.

The team aims to recruit 480 teenagers and their parents, half of whom will participate in the mindfulness groups, while the other half continue with their usual care. The researchers will be looking at outcomes such as recovery rates, relapse prevention, and cost-effectiveness compared with standard approaches.

Professor Ford added: “Although our main goal is to see whether our mindfulness course can help teenagers recover from low mood or depression and prevent relapses, we’re also interested in the benefits it might provide to their carers.

“Equally importantly, we want to see whether this approach – if effective – could be integrated into NHS services. This would ensure that it’s accessible to many more teenagers who are struggling with their mental health.”

Young people and parents who have experienced depression have been involved in the design of the ATTEND programme from the beginning. Their input has ensured that the programme is tailored to the needs of families and is engaging for both teens and their carers.

How to Get Involved

The ATTEND team is currently recruiting 15- to 18-year-olds experiencing depression or low mood, who have received some treatment but have not fully recovered, to participate in the trial in Cambridge and Peterborough, London, Devon, Sussex, Nottingham, and Oxford. Participants are also offered a financial incentive of £60 each for completing the study.

If you or someone you know is interested in participating, please visit the ATTEND study website for more information.

“If we can get in early, then we can save people future pain”

Kat Nellist knows exactly what it is like to experience anxiety and depression when you’re young. Even by the age of eight years old, she was receiving counselling.

“I couldn’t really remember a time where I didn't have it,” she says.

Kat was very anxious and found it hard to make friends. She struggled to focus on school work and didn’t get involved in school activities. “All those sorts of things, like a sense of achievement and a social circle, if you don't have them in your life, then it's hard to keep yourself going. It makes it worse and worse, because you withdraw from everything, and that makes you even sadder. It was a bad spiral.”

Kat received a formal diagnosis of anxiety and depression in her pre-teens and tried different types of therapies, including cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), also known as ‘talking therapy’, but struggled to connect with her therapist, an experience not uncommon, she says.

When she was 15, she was offered mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT). It was an eight-week group-based activity. Group meetings may sound daunting for someone who suffers from anxiety, but she says it meant she was able to meet people similar to herself, which conversely helped reduce her anxiety.

“CBT is about trying to distance yourself from your thoughts and realising that your thoughts don't have to control your feelings,” she says. “It teaches you that you don’t have to interact with your thoughts. It allows you to recognise negative thought patterns when they occur, whether that’s negative ‘self-talk’ or feeling that something small will be the end of the world. You learn to say to yourself, ‘I'm having this thought pattern, but that doesn't mean I have to believe it. It's a thought, it's not a fact.’”

MBCT takes this a step further and teaches the individual to allow the negative thoughts to come and go and to be present in the current moment, for example when enjoying time with friends.

“It teaches you to think ‘Well, that's a really sad thought, but I'd rather attend to the thing I'm busy doing. Because right now, I don't need to get pulled down that little spiral and I can actually continue enjoying my coffee.’”

Importantly, too, the course helped improve Kat’s relationship with her parents. “When you're a teenager, there’s always a bit of friction between you and your mum and dad. That's just what being a teenager is. But [MBCT] improved that relationship, which improved my life in every way.”

Now in her mid-twenties, Kat is studying for a degree in Psychology at Goldsmith’s, University of London. She still has negative thoughts, but has learned to live with them. “I still use the coping mechanisms that I learned as a teenager to cope with struggles I have as an adult. You don’t stop having problems entirely, they’re just very different life problems.”

She is determined that her experience can help others, and as such is the patient and public involvement co-lead for the ATTEND study, which she has helped design.

“My main role is making sure that we consider young people's feelings throughout the project. The whole thing needs to be teenager-centred,” she says.

“Teenagers can often get neglected. There's a lot of help for young children and a lot of help for adults, but sometimes when you’re in your mid-teens you can slip through the cracks a little bit. It's an important time to intervene because that is when a lot of mental health problems start to arise. If we can get in early, then we can save people future pain and give them more support.”

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Subject of Research

People

 

Virtual game day? UGA study explores sports in the metaverse

Interacting with others, unique virtual experiences valued in shared digital spaces

University of Georgia

Virtual reality and the metaverse are setting the stage for new ways to watch sporting events. A new study from the University of Georgia suggests that users value the unique virtual interactions with others offered by digital events.

The metaverse refers to digital shared spaces that operate in real time. It’s highly immersive and allows people from all over the world to interact in the same virtual space.

The study focused on a metaverse-based stream of the 2022 FIFA World Cup, how it was viewed by participants and what would drive them to join a similar event again.

It’s an experience you cannot get in real life …. the metaverse allows more people to access this type of content.” —Sam Chen, College of Education

The researchers found that spectators enjoyed interacting with others, the ability to easily change seats and locations and customizing their avatars. Metaverse-based events were also easier to join than those in real life.

“It’s an experience you cannot get in real life because that’s the World Cup, right? It’s very expensive if you want to get front-row tickets,” said Sam Chen, lead author of the study and doctoral student at UGA’s Mary Frances Early College of Education. “This immersive feature of the metaverse allows more people to access this type of content.”

Connecting with others a major draw of the metaverse

Participants watched the World Cup in a virtual stadium and saw the players on the field, mirroring the experience of watching the game in real life.

But in the metaverse, users could also switch seats or move to other locations, such as a virtual sports bar. That’s typically not an option at in-person events.

The researchers found that interacting with others in the metaverse was the most important thing to participants.

“In the metaverse, we can communicate and use our own voice, and the people nearby will hear,” said Chen. “We can also communicate by typing text or emojis, and other users can see those above our avatars. And we can communicate via our avatar’s body language, such as waves.”

The ability to communicate with others in the experience was a driving force for participants who said they would participate in similar events in the future.

Users also enjoyed the opportunity to reconnect with distant friends and build new friendships in the virtual space.

Spectators can watch events in ways they can’t in the real world

Metaverse-based events let people experience sports in new ways, not only through communication but through the digital space itself.

When going to an event in real life, audiences are bound to the ticket they’ve purchased. Attendees can only sit in their assigned seat, and they often aren’t able to reenter the venue if they leave.

In the metaverse, users can sit wherever they wish in the stadium and even go on the field.

“They can take a selfie with their avatar and their favorite player,” said Chen. “This kind of experience you cannot get from other online digital platforms.”

Participants can also change environments rather than staying in the stadium. If they wanted to go to another location to watch the game, they could leave at any time and return to the stadium later.

And users can customize their avatars, such as having their virtual figure wear their favorite team’s jersey. This increases fans’ sense of belonging and engagement.

The experience is as important as the game

Previous research on sporting events suggested that the game itself was the main factor driving attendance. If the game was enjoyable, researchers thought participants would be more likely to come back for another one in the future.

But the present study suggests that in the metaverse, the game itself may no longer be the primary motivator for attendance; instead, organizers must focus on the entire user experience.

“Users expect more than the game itself in the metaverse,” said Chen. “The environment of the metaverse — like the use of avatars, the virtual interactions, the stream quality — they’re all equally important as the core product.”

The study was published in Sport Management Review and co-authored by James J. Zhang of UGA’s Department of Kinesiology.

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Journal

Sport Management Review

DOI

10.1080/14413523.2024.2401640 

Article Title

Market demand for metaverse-based sporting events: a mixed-methods approach

Here’s something Americans agree on: Sports build character

Belief in the ‘Great Sport Myth’ may be problematic

Ohio State University


COLUMBUS, Ohio – In a polarized nation, there is one thing that nearly all Americans agree on, according to a recent study: Sports are good for us.

Researchers from The Ohio State University and Ithaca College found that more than 9 out of 10 Americans agreed that sports build character and improved one’s health, while 84% agreed playing sports makes one popular in school and 85% said it makes one more well-known in the community.

According to 67% of those surveyed, playing sports even leads to better grades in school.

While these beliefs may seem harmless, they suggest that most Americans endorse what is called the “Great Sport Myth,” said Evan Davis, lead author of the study and assistant professor of sport management at Ithaca College.

“There are a lot of issues and problems in sports, but the Great Sport Myth glosses over them and says that sports are inherently good and pure,” Davis said.

Some youth who play sports face mistreatment including abuse and bullying, while even more experience burnout, unequal access to some sports and facilities, and other issues, said study co-author Chris Knoester, professor of sociology at Ohio State.

“The Great Sport Myth says that the positive results from sports are automatic – you just have to roll out the ball and good things are going to happen,” Knoester said. “That’s not true, but a large majority of Americans appear to buy into that.”

The study was published recently in the Journal of Sport and Social Issues.

It is true that sports can have many benefits for those who participate, the researchers said. The issue is to make sure that people don’t get so blinded by the good things about sports that they ignore the problems.

For example, previously published Ohio State research links youth sports participation with better mental health in adulthood. But the benefits were only apparent for those who continued to play sports throughout childhood. Most youth sports participants reported dropping out of sports and commonly said they did so because it was not fun, they were not a good enough player, they did not get along with the coach or teammates, they became injured, or they did not have enough money.

These findings underline that the benefits of sports depend on the situational contexts of them, including the presence of positive, healthy interactions and inclusive cultures, Knoester said.

The Great Sport Myth is a concept developed and introduced in 2015 by influential sport sociologist Jay Coakley, a professor emeritus at the University of Colorado-Colorado Springs.

The purpose of this new study was to use a large national survey to assess and analyze the extent to which U.S. adults endorse two essential components of the myth: the assumed personal development and social capital benefits of playing sports.

Survey data came from the National Sports and Society Survey (NSASS), sponsored by Ohio State’s Sports and Society Initiative.

The survey was completed by 3,993 adults who volunteered to participate through the American Population Panel, run by Ohio State’s Center for Human Resource Research. Participants, who came from all 50 states, answered the survey online between the fall of 2018 and spring of 2019.

Because NSASS participants are disproportionately female, white and college graduates, the researchers weighted the survey results to reflect the U.S. population more accurately.

The results showed that the majority of Americans thought sports helped people’s character, health, grades, popularity in school and recognition in the community.

But the findings also showed that various groups that people belonged to, their position in society and experiences with sports all played a role in how much they agreed with these key components of the Great Sport Myth.

The researchers found that Black Americans were more likely than white Americans to embrace aspects of the myth. That makes sense, Davis said.

“It seems as if, in the Black community, sports are often viewed in a positive light and have historically been seen as a unique way to get ahead in society,” he said.

Knoester said one particularly intriguing finding was that the more children a study participant had, the more likely he or she endorsed the elements of the Great Sport Myth.

“This might have to do with the extent that children really immerse parents in sports cultures, as they take their kids to soccer practices or other sports activities,” Knoester said.

“It seems to really encourage parents to believe in how good sports are for their children.”

Christians and conservatives were more likely to embrace the benefits of sports participation for personal development and gaining popularity in the community. Heterosexuals were more positive than those who identified as sexual minorities, and men were more positive than women and those who are nonbinary.

Not surprisingly, people who said they grew up in communities high in passion for sports and who became bigger sports fans and participants were also more likely to believe in aspects of the Great Sport Myth. But people who reported being mistreated in their sports interactions, such as being subject to cruel comments or more extreme forms of abuse, were less enthusiastic about the benefits of sports.

The researchers also analyzed how combinations of these different factors were linked to feelings about the value of sports.

Based on their answers to questions about family and community exposure to sport, immersions in sport cultures, and beliefs about the values of sports, Davis and Knoester compared those who had more negative involvement and low involvement in sports compared to those who had more positive and high involvement in sports.

Results showed an enormous difference – more than 70 percentage points – in the probability between these two groups that respondents would strongly agree that sports build character.

“It is the people who are most immersed in these sports cultures that have the greatest belief in elements of this myth,” Knoester said. “But they may also be less likely to be critical of the problems that are going on.”

Davis added: “What makes the Great Sport Myth a myth is that it’s become the preferred story about sport. If you ask people how they feel about sports, they immediately go to the positives but rarely consider the negatives.

The focus should be on the context of how sports are operating in each situation, Knoester added.

“Sports often do good things, but it is important to be critical and take the time to assess our sports environments to make sure we are really getting the best outcomes that sports can produce.”

Journal

Journal of Sport and Social Issues

DOI

10.1177/01937235241293718

Method of Research

Data/statistical analysis

Subject of Research

People

Article Title

U.S. Public Opinion About the Personal Development and Social Capital Benefits of Sport: Analyzing Components of the Great Sport Myth

More people can survive sports-related cardiac arrest

University of Gothenburg

 

image: 

Matilda Frisk Torell, Sahlgrenska Academy at the University of Gothenburg.

 

view more 

Credit: Photo by Andreas Claesson

Most cases of cardiac arrest during sport are likely to be preventable. In addition, the emergency response with cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and defibrillators within the sports context can be improved. This has been shown in a thesis from the University of Gothenburg.

Swedish ambulance services report around 6,000 cases of sudden cardiac arrest annually. These are people who are not hospitalized but fall ill at home, at work or in other contexts. Of these, around 400 are affected within the context of sport.

In a thesis at Sahlgrenska Academy at the University of Gothenburg, Matilda Frisk Torell, PhD student and Cardiologist, has taken a closer look at e.g., emergency assistance and prognoses for people who suffer sudden cardiac arrest during sports.

The chances of survival were found to be significantly better for sports-related cardiac arrest, especially if it occurred in a sports and training facility. In this group, survival 30 days after the event was 56%, compared with 12% for out-of-hospital cardiac arrest in general.

Late or no defibrillation

Early CPR and defibrillation with an automated external defibrillator, AED, are crucial, but it still took at least 10 minutes before an available AED was used. Despite the fact that a majority (73%) of those who suffered a cardiac arrest at a sports facility had an acute cardiac arrhythmia, known as ventricular fibrillation, where the defibrillator can be the difference between life and death, only 14% of the youngest, up to 35 years old, were connected to a public defibrillator before the ambulance arrived.

“We have the opportunity to further increase survival rates if more sports facilities and other places where people play sports are equipped with public defibrillators and if more people learn to recognize cardiac arrest, know how to perform CPR and can use the defibrillator,” says Matilda Frisk Torell.

Her thesis also shows that sports-related cardiac arrest was rare among women, accounting for only 9% of the cases, and that women fared worse. The survival rate at 30 days after cardiac arrest during sports was 30% for women and almost 50% for men.

Dare to perform CPR

Likely explanations for the difference in survival are that women were more likely to exercise with fewer people around them, and that it took longer to start CPR. Matilda Frisk Torell adds:

“We observed that it took significantly longer to start CPR in women, which shows that we need to be better at recognizing sports-related cardiac arrests in women and that we need to dare to start CPR. More studies are also needed to investigate how women participate in sport and whether there are differences in the underlying causes.

Among young people who died of sudden cardiac arrest due to a primary arrhythmia, half had pre-existing symptoms and one fifth had ECG changes before the cardiac arrest. Fainting and seizures are important symptoms to react upon.

“Young people who play sports at an elite level should undergo screening, including ECG. Then we have a chance to catch those individuals with an increased risk of sudden cardiac arrest so that they can be advised on continued sports and possible treatment,” concludes Matilda Frisk Torell.

Thesis: Sudden cardiac arrest in relation to exercise, https://hdl.handle.net/2077/82300

 

Spinning fusion fuel for efficiency

Aligning the quantum property known as spin for fusion fuels could make it easier to generate electricity economically

DOE/Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory

 

image: 

An artist’s interpretation of spin-aligned atoms during the process of fusion. 

 

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Credit: Kyle Palmer / PPPL Communications Department

A different mix of fuels with enhanced properties could overcome some of the major barriers to making fusion a more practical energy source, according to a new study. 

The proposed approach would still use deuterium and tritium, which are generally accepted as the most promising pair of fuels for fusion energy production. However, the quantum properties of the fuel would be adjusted for peak efficiency using an existing process known as spin polarization. In addition to spin polarizing half the fuels, the percentage of deuterium would be increased from the usual amount of roughly 60% or more. 

Models created by scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) showed the approach allowed tritium to burn more efficiently without sacrificing fusion power. This could dramatically reduce the amount of tritium needed to start up and maintain fusion reactions, leading to more compact and affordable fusion systems.

“Fusion is really, really hard, and nature doesn’t do you many favors,” said Jason Parisi, a staff research physicist at the Lab and first author on the research paper. “So, it was surprising how big the improvement was.”

The paper, which was published in the journal Nuclear Fusion, suggests the approach could burn tritium as much as 10 times more efficiently. The research also underscores PPPL’s role at the forefront of fusion innovation, particularly when it involves a system such as the one studied in Parisi’s research, where gasses are superheated to create a plasma confined by magnetic fields into a shape similar to a cored apple. The Lab’s primary fusion device, the National Spherical Torus Experiment - Upgrade (NSTX-U), has a similar shape to the one the researchers considered when they tested their approach.

“This is the first time researchers have looked at how spin-polarized fuel could improve tritium-burn efficiency,” said staff research physicist and co-author Jacob Schwartz. 

Minimizing tritium requirements by maximizing burn efficiency

PPPL principal research physicist and co-author of the paper Ahmed Diallo likens tritium-burn efficiency to the efficiency of a gas stove. “When gas comes out of a stove, you want to burn all the gas,” Diallo said. “In a fusion device, typically, the tritium isn’t fully burned, and it is hard to come by. So, we wanted to improve the tritium-burn efficiency.”

The PPPL team consulted the fusion community and the broader community involved in spin polarization as a part of their work to find ways to enhance tritium-burn efficiency. “Fusion is one of the most multidisciplinary areas of science and engineering. It requires progress on so many fronts, but sometimes there are surprising results when you combine research from different disciplines and put it together,” Parisi said.

A different kind of spin

Quantum spin is very different from the physical spin on a baseball. For example, a good pitcher can throw the ball with one of several different spins. There is a continuum of possibilities. However, there are only a few discrete options for the quantum spin on a particle – for example, up and down.

When two fusion fuel atoms have the same quantum spin, they are more likely to fuse. “By amplifying the fusion cross section, more power can be produced from the same amount of fuel,” said Parisi. 

While existing spin-polarization methods don’t align every atom, the gains shown in the PPPL model don’t require 100% spin alignment. In fact, the study demonstrates that modest levels of spin polarization can substantially improve the efficiency of the tritium burn, improving overall efficiency and reducing tritium consumption.

Improving efficiency to reduce tritium requirements

With less tritium required, the overall size of the fusion power plant can be reduced, making it easier to license, situate and construct. Collectively, this should lower the operating costs of the fusion system. 

Tritium is also radioactive, and while that radiation is relatively short-lived compared to the spent fuel from nuclear fission reactors, reducing the amount required has safety benefits because it decreases the risk of tritium leakage or contamination.

“The less tritium you have flowing through your system, the less of it will get into the components,” said Parisi. The storage and processing facilities required for the tritium can also be made much smaller and more efficient. This makes things like nuclear licensing easier. “People think that the site boundary size is somewhat proportional to how much tritium you have. So, if you can have a lot less tritium, your plant could be smaller, faster to get approved by regulators and cheaper.”

New avenues to explore

The DOE’s Office of Science has funded separate research about some of the technologies needed to inject the spin-polarized fuel into the fusion vessel. Further work is needed to investigate things needed to implement the proposed system but have yet to be fully explored. “Whether it’s possible to have integrated scenarios that maintain a high-grade fusion plasma with these specific flows of excess fuel and ash from the plasma needs to be determined,” Schwartz said.

Diallo said there are also potential issues related to polarization methods, but these create opportunities. “One challenge would be to demonstrate techniques to produce spin-polarized fuel in large quantities and then store them. There’s a whole new technology area that would open up.”

PPPL is mastering the art of using plasma — the fourth state of matter — to solve some of the world’s toughest science and technology challenges. Nestled on Princeton University’s Forrestal Campus in Plainsboro, New Jersey, our research ignites innovation in a range of applications including fusion energy, nanoscale fabrication, quantum materials and devices, and sustainability science. The University manages the Laboratory for the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science, which is the nation’s single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences. Feel the heat at https://energy.gov/science and https://www.pppl.gov.  

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Journal

Nuclear Fusion

Subject of Research

Not applicable

Article Title

Simultaneous enhancement of tritium burn efficiency and fusion power with low-tritium spin-polarized fuel