Cool comfort: beating the heat with high-tech clothes

University of South Australia

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An illustration of how the white, nanostructured fabric has been designed, using lightweight particles.

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Credit: University of South Australia

As global temperatures rise and heatwaves intensify, a new textile innovation co-developed by University of South Australia scientists promises to keep people cooler, drier, and more comfortable in extreme heat.

Partnering with researchers from Zhengzhou University in China, UniSA materials scientist Professor Jun Ma has helped to create a lightweight breathable fabric that reflects 96% of the sun’s rays in outdoor conditions.

The moisture-wicking composite fabric is described in the journal Nano Research.

In outdoor field tests, the new textile lowered skin temperature by 2 degrees celsius under direct sunlight and by 3.8 degrees celsius at night compared with bare skin.

Unlike traditional cotton fabrics, which tend to trap heat and sweat, the polylactic acid/boron nitride nanosheet (PLA/BNNS) material actively releases warmth while keeping the skin dry.

Professor Ma, from UniSA’s Future Industries Institute, says the project addresses a critical challenge in personal comfort as the world adapts to rising heat stress.

“We’re seeing more frequent and intense heatwaves globally, and that has serious implications for outdoor workers, athletes and people living without access to air conditioning,” Prof Ma says.

“Our goal was to design a smart, sustainable fabric that passively regulates body temperature – not by using energy, but by harnessing natural physical processes.”

Using a scalable electrospinning technique, the researchers embedded boron nitride nanosheets – highly thermally conductive, lightweight particles – within a biodegradable polylactic acid fibre matrix. The result is a white, nanostructured fabric with exceptional solar reflectance and five times more breathability than cotton.

“The combination of high solar reflectance, heat radiation and moisture control means that the wearer feels noticeably cooler and drier,” Prof Ma says.

“It’s particularly beneficial for people who work outdoors in construction, mining, agriculture or emergency services, where heat exposure is both a comfort and safety issue.”

The study’s lead author, Associate Professor Yamin Pan from Zhengzhou University, says the collaboration with UniSA was instrumental in testing and refining the material’s thermal performance.

“UniSA’s advanced materials expertise helped us evaluate the heat transfer and radiative cooling properties of the fabric,” says Assoc Prof Pan. “The partnership shows how international collaboration can accelerate the development of smart, sustainable materials.”

Made primarily from biodegradable PLA, the fabric also aligns with the global shift towards environmentally responsible materials.

The researchers believe the technology could be easily adapted for sportswear, uniforms, outdoor workers, and even military and emergency clothing designed for extreme heat.

Prof Ma says the team is now exploring potential commercial applications and large-scale manufacturing opportunities.

“The electrospinning process is straightforward and cost effective, which means the fabric could be produced at industrial scale,” he says. “With further development, it has the potential to transform the next generation of cooling clothing.”

The paper, ‘Moisture-wicking fabric for radiation cooling’ is published in Nano Research. DOI: 10.26599/NR.2025.94907537

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Journal

Nano Research

DOI

10.26599/NR.2025.94907537 

Method of Research

Experimental study

Subject of Research

Not applicable

Article Title

Moisture-wicking fabric for radiation cooling

UK

Thousands of NHS doctors trapped in insecure “gig economy” contracts

Almost 9 in 10 trusts use contracts that deny doctors training and fair pay progression; Experts warn that the NHS is effectively “behaving like a gig economy employer”

BMJ Group

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Thousands of locally employed doctors (LEDs) - many of them international graduates and from ethnic minority backgrounds - are trapped on insecure NHS contracts with no access to training, career progression, or national safeguards, reveals an investigation published by The BMJ today.

LEDs are the fastest growing group of doctors in the UK, driven mostly by those who graduated outside the UK. From 2019 to 2023, the number of LEDs in England and Wales rocketed by 75% to 36,831 doctors.

Freedom of Information (FoI) data obtained by The BMJ show that almost nine in 10 UK acute trusts use local contracts - some dating back as far as 2002 without safeguards introduced in 2016 - letting them set terms without guarantees on pay, hours, teaching, or supervision.

Although guidance states that doctors should spend no longer than two years on local contracts, The BMJ has found alarming evidence of senior doctors effectively stranded in these unsuitable contracts for 10 years or more.

Data gathered from FoI requests found that around one quarter of doctors on local contracts had been employed by their trust for more than two years. Doctors from ethnic minority backgrounds were more likely to be in this position, our data found.

One such doctor, a surgeon with a degree from South East Asia, told The BMJ that she had been on an LED contract for over 17 years. When she raised these issues with her line manager, she was told that she could either accept the situation or quit.

Another doctor working in plastic surgery in the North West on a trust grade registrar contract said: “This is a stagnant post—there is no scope for growth. That’s the problem with the locally employed doctors—the local trust, they have their own rules, and we’re just doing the gap filling role in the service delivery system here.”

Another doctor who has been on a local contract since 2016 said: “I’m kind of trapped in this LED contract. It’s been so annoying, and it’s been going on for years. It’s so unfair.”

And an international medical graduate from Pakistan, working in Yorkshire on a local contract for more than two years, said: “Many of our trust grades have not had appraisals for the past two years. The trainees do get their appraisals. We don’t have teaching opportunities, and we don’t have time for learning. We can’t be stuck like this.”

Many of these doctors feel unable to challenge their employment status due to factors such as family responsibilities, financial pressures, visa constraints, career progression concerns, and the fear of uncertainty.

The BMA’s deputy chair of council, Emma Runswick, describes The BMJ’s findings as “further stark evidence of the way that locally employed doctors are exploited in a contractual ‘wild west,’” with dire terms and conditions and a lack of clear development opportunities.

Others describe the situation as a “two tier system” for doctors in the NHS and warn that the NHS is effectively “behaving like a gig economy employer.”

Partha Kar, consultant endocrinologist and a Royal College of Physicians elected councillor, wants to see a national framework that holds trusts to account. There should be no such thing as a non-training doctor, he says, and everyone should have access to clinical and educational supervision and the ability to progress their career.

A spokesperson for the Department of Health and Social Care says that LEDs are “an integral and highly valued” part of the NHS and that it is aware of reports from doctors that “trusts are not appropriately treating staff . . . This is completely unacceptable, and we are committed to improving working conditions through the implementation of elements of the SAS pay deal.”

NHS Employers also says that LEDs are “valuable” to the NHS and should be supported to help develop their careers. But nationally agreed contracts, although recommended, are not always suitable, says its chief executive, Danny Mortimer.

Rob Fleming, specialist anaesthetist and member of a campaign group, the SAS Collective, says the NHS must be stopped from “behaving like a gig economy employer.” He concludes, “We believe that locally employed doctors should be offered the appropriate permanent SAS contract for their work. As well as employment rights, this would give these folks the professional identity they are currently being denied.”

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Journal

The BMJ

DOI

10.1136/bmj.r2383 

Subject of Research

People

Article Title

Revealed: NHS “exploits” thousands of doctors trapped in dead end contracts

Article Publication Date

19-Nov-2025

Two thirds of women gain too much or too little weight in pregnancy: Global study

Monash University

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Key points

• Higher and lower than recommended gestational weight gain is associated with increased pregnancy complications
• Support is needed to improve health for women across the globe
• Findings may help inform global standards for healthy weight gain in pregnancy

Around two-thirds of pregnancies have weight gain that is more or less than recommended and is associated with complications such as preterm birth, large birth weight, and admission to intensive care.

The findings are part of a Monash University-led systematic review of data from 1.6 million women, published by The BMJ.

Gaining too much or too little weight during pregnancy, known as gestational weight gain or GWG, represents combined growth of mother and baby, and is associated with increased risks to both mother and child.

Each year 130 million births occur globally in total, in the context of increasingly unhealthy and processed food supply and environmental drivers, causing an epidemic of excess GWG.

First author Dr Rebecca Goldstein, from the Monash Centre for Health Research and Implementation (MCHRI), said the study’s results underlined the need for international action.

“These findings reinforce the need for international reference standards for healthy GWG alongside lifestyle support and public health measures to improve outcomes for mothers and babies worldwide,” Dr Goldstein said.

Most countries rely on Institute of Medicine GWG guidelines*, but these are based on data from predominantly Caucasian women in high income countries in the 1980s, so they don’t reflect ethnically diverse populations across low, middle and high-income settings, or changes in food supply and environment that are driving global trends such as rising weight (BMI).

In response, the World Health Organization (WHO) has launched an initiative to develop global healthy GWG standards aimed at defining optimal GWG recommendations across diverse settings.

To support this initiative, Monash University researchers and collaborators from the WHO analysed data from 40 observational studies involving 1.6 million women aged 18 and over from five of the six WHO defined world regions that reported pregnancy outcomes according to BMI and GWG from 2009 to 2024. Of these 40 studies, 36 were considered to be high quality.

Around half (53 per cent) of study participants had a healthy pre-pregnancy BMI, with others classified as below (6 per cent), above (19 per cent), or well above healthy weight (obese) (22 per cent). Only a third (32 per cent) had GWG within recommended ranges, with 23 per cent gaining below and 45 per cent gaining above recommended.

Based on WHO BMI criteria, the research study found that GWG below the recommended range was associated with: lower risk of caesarean delivery; a large for gestational age infant; and high birth weight (macrosomia) but higher risk of preterm birth; a small for gestational age infant; low birth weight; and respiratory distress.

Conversely, GWG above the recommended range was associated with: a higher birth weight and a higher risk of caesarean delivery; hypertensive disorders of pregnancy; a large for gestational age infant (macrosomia), and admission to a neonatal intensive care unit; and a lower risk of preterm birth and a small for gestational age infant.

Similar patterns were apparent when Asian BMI categories were used in studies conducted in this world region.

The researchers point to some limitations, such as variations in BMI and GWG classifications, and note that few studies from low income countries met their inclusion criteria, limiting diversity. Nor can they rule out the possibility that other unmeasured factors, such as smoking status, age and ethnicity, may have influenced their results.

However, Senior author Professor Helena Teede, who is Director of the Monash Centre for Health Research and Implementation, and an Endocrinologist at Monash Health, said the study supported the need for a global approach.

“Our findings inform and support the need for optimised, evidence-based WHO international GWG reference standards based on individual patient data, applicable to contemporary and diverse global populations,” Professor Teede said. “This work builds on and improves current recommendations and highlights the need for multi-level support to improve the health of mothers and babies worldwide.

“Whilst this work supports guidance on healthy GWG, it will need to be incorporated into individualised care to meet the needs of those in pregnancy, limiting stigma and optimising healthy outcomes for women and the next generation. Ultimately, the burden of health impacts shown here mandate action to support women across policy, healthcare and individual level solutions for the health of mothers and babies.”

Read the research paper in The BMJ: Gestational weight gain and risk of adverse maternal and neonatal outcomes in observational data from 1.6 million women: systematic review and meta-analysis
DOI: 10.1136/bmj-2025-085710

This study involved researchers from Monash University, Monash Health, the World Health Organization’s Department of Nutrition and Food Safety, the National Institute of Perinatology in Mexico, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ) in Brazil and California Polytechnic State University.

Background*

In 1990 the USA’s Institute of Medicine (IOM), now known as the National Academy of Medicine  generated gestational weight gain guidelines based on a modest sized population of predominantly white women from 1980 in the US, with a mean body mass index (BMI) of 24 and age of 26 years, focusing on the outcome of low birth weight. The 2009 IOM guideline update incorporated WHO BMI categories and broader outcomes, varying recommended GWG by maternal BMI. These guidelines have since provided an important international reference point. However, the evidence underpinning them reflects the population and priorities of that era, characterised by lower maternal age and BMI, with limited ethnic diversity and a narrow high income setting.
 

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Journal

BMJ

DOI

10.1136/bmj-2025-085710 

Method of Research

Systematic review

Subject of Research

People

Article Title

Gestational weight gain and risk of adverse maternal and neonatal outcomes in observational data from 1.6 million women: systematic review and meta-analysis

Article Publication Date

19-Nov-2025

 

School accountability yields long-term gains for students

University of California - Riverside

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Ozkan Eren

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Credit: Stan Lim/UC Riverside

A University of California, Riverside-led study shows that holding underperforming schools accountable can yield life-changing benefits for their most vulnerable students.

The research, led by UCR economist and professor Ozkan Eren, found that when high schools receive the state’s lowest performance rating—and are subsequently compelled to make changes—students are significantly less likely to have run-ins with law enforcement later in life.

“In terms of long-run criminal involvement, we find that if the school has a lower rating, students are less likely to be arrested and less likely to be incarcerated,” said Eren, a professor of economics in UCR’s College of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences.

The study tracked more than 54,000 South Carolina students who entered ninth grade between 2000 and 2005. Researchers followed the students into their early 30s, linking education records with data on arrests, incarceration, and participation in social welfare programs.

Students who attended schools rated “unsatisfactory” were nearly 3 percentage points less likely to be arrested in adulthood than peers in slightly higher-rated schools, resulting in an overall 12% reduction in arrests. Incarceration rates also declined, though those results were less precise. The study found no significant impact on enrollment in public assistance programs such as food aid or the federal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program.

Eren said the changes stem from accountability pressure triggered by poor ratings, which carry the threat of sanctions such as leadership changes or even state takeover. In response, schools often make internal reforms that improve the learning environment.

“Even in the short run, we see that there is a change in the school climate,” Eren said. “Those improvements in school climate, in the long run, translate into lower criminal involvement.”

Eren and his colleagues examined data from South Carolina’s school accountability system, which rates public schools from “excellent” to “unsatisfactory” based on graduation rates, test scores, and eligibility for merit-based scholarships. Schools with lower ratings are required to submit improvement plans and are subject to oversight.

What sets this study apart is its focus on long-term outcomes and its use of a robust research method called regression discontinuity. This technique isolates the causal effect of receiving a failing grade by comparing schools just above and just below the threshold for an “unsatisfactory” rating.

“When we compare these two sets of schools, we see that F-rated schools, because of the accountability pressure, perform better than D-rated schools,” Eren said. “That kind of pressure does not exist, let’s say, for B- and A-rated schools.”

While the study does not identify specific school-level interventions, it found that the improvements occurred without significant increases in spending, teacher turnover, or principal replacements. Instead, shifts in school culture and student engagement likely drove the changes.

Eren cautioned that the findings apply specifically to schools at the bottom of the performance scale and may not translate to all accountability systems.

“Can we say this is a general policy prescription? I’m not sure,” he said. “But what we can say with confidence is that accountability pressure helps schools at the bottom of the ratings distribution perform better.”

The study, titled “School Accountability, Long-Run Criminal Activity, and Self-Sufficiency,” was co-authored with David Figlio of the University of Rochester, Naci Mocan of Louisiana State University, and Orgul Ozturk of the University of South Carolina. It was published in the Journal of Human Resources.

 

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Journal

Journal of Human Resources

DOI

10.3368/jhr.0723-13034R1 

Method of Research

Data/statistical analysis

Subject of Research

People

Article Title

School Accountability, Long-Run Criminal Activity, and Self-Sufficiency*

Article Publication Date

18-Nov-2025