Display chemicals accumulate in Arctic, Antarctic, and Qinghai-Xizang Plateau soils

Chinese Society for Environmental Sciences

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Decadal accumulation of display materials in pristine soils of the Three Poles. Expanding consumer electronics drive high-volume production of liquid crystal monomers (LCMs) and organic light-emitting materials (OLEMs), which can undergo long-range atmospheric transport and accumulate in soils of the Qinghai–Xizang Plateau, Arctic, and Antarctic. Across 55 surface soils collected between 2010 and 2022, 42 target analogs were detected at total concentrations up to 3,130 pg g⁻¹ dry weight (dw), with 33 showing upward annualized growth and higher ecological risk quotients (RQs) on the Qinghai–Xizang Plateau, supporting evaluation under international regulatory frameworks.

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Credit: Environmental Science and Ecotechnology

Synthetic chemicals with long-range transport potential are increasingly scrutinized under international chemical treaties. The rapid growth of consumer electronics has led to massive production of liquid crystal monomers (LCMs) and organic light-emitting materials (OLEMs). Although models predict that these compounds are persistent and semi-volatile, field evidence from remote cryospheric sinks has been lacking. This study analyzed surface soils from the Qinghai-Xizang Plateau (QXP), the Arctic, and the Antarctic, and found widespread occurrence of display-related chemicals. The results show upward temporal trends for many analogs and indicate that these chemicals can undergo long-range transport and accumulate in pristine soils.

Persistent organic pollutants (POPs) are regulated under the Stockholm Convention because of their long-term risks to ecosystems and human health. Assessing environmental persistence and long-range transport potential (LRTP) is therefore essential for identifying new candidate POPs. The Arctic, the Antarctic, and the Qinghai-Xizang Plateau (QXP) are sensitive indicators of contaminant transport, yet data gaps remain for high-production industrial chemicals used in modern electronics. liquid crystal monomers (LCMs) and organic light-emitting materials (OLEMs) have been detected in soil, water, sediment, and biota, and some show predicted toxicity, persistence, and semi-volatility. However, field evidence from remote polar soils is scarce. Given these knowledge gaps, in-depth research is needed on the environmental persistence, long-range transport, and ecological risks of display-related chemicals in remote cryospheric soils.

In a study published (DOI: 10.1016/j.ese.2026.100770) online 23 September 2026 in Environmental Science and Ecotechnology, researchers from Jianghan University, Beijing Normal University, Linköping University, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and Xizang University examined 55 surface soil samples from the QXP, Arctic, and Antarctic collected between 2010 and 2022. They detected 42 display-related analogs, characterized their spatiotemporal patterns, and conducted a screening-level ecological risk assessment. The work provides field-based evidence on their persistence and long-range transport.

The team detected a broad suite of display chemicals across all three polar regions, including fluorinated biphenyls and their analogs (FBAs), cyanobiphenyls and their analogs (CBAs), biphenyls/bicyclohexyls and their analogs (BAs), and OLEMs. Total concentrations were comparable to levels of legacy POPs in remote environments. Notably, many analogs showed higher concentrations in more recent sampling campaigns, suggesting ongoing environmental input and accumulation. The composition differed by region: FBAs dominated on the QXP and in the Antarctic, while CBAs were more prominent in the Arctic; BAs made a relatively larger contribution in the Antarctic than on the QXP. The researchers also found that soil organic carbon (TOC) correlated with hydrophobic compounds, indicating that soil organic matter helps retain these chemicals. Spatial patterns did not differ significantly between sites near research stations and more distant locations, supporting long-range atmospheric transport as a primary pathway. Screening risk quotients (RQs) were up to two orders of magnitude higher on the QXP than in polar sites, highlighting greater potential ecological concern in the high-altitude region. The authors note that continued release of these “chemicals in use” may gradually increase exposure in vulnerable cryospheric ecosystems.

The authors noted the decade-spanning dataset provides field-based evidence that display chemicals are not confined to manufacturing hubs or cities. According to the authors, rising concentrations of fluorinated and cyano-substituted congeners suggest that LCMs and OLEMs can undergo regional or long-range atmospheric transport and accumulate in remote cryospheric soils. They said the results support prioritizing high-production optoelectronic materials for further toxicity testing, atmospheric monitoring, and international chemical screening. They suggest the findings support evaluating such materials under international regulatory frameworks.

The findings have implications for chemical regulation, environmental monitoring, and risk management. As display-related chemicals remain in use and production expands, their continued release may gradually increase exposure in vulnerable polar and high-altitude ecosystems. The authors call for experimentally measured soil toxicity data, improved emission inventories, multimedia fate modeling, and source apportionment to reduce uncertainty. They also recommend evaluating LCMs and OLEMs under international frameworks such as the Stockholm Convention, where persistence and LRTP are key criteria. Such steps would help regulators identify problematic analogs earlier and protect remote environments from long-term contamination.

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References

DOI

10.1016/j.ese.2026.100770

Original Source URL

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ese.2026.100770

Funding Information

This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (42476261, 22406067, 22193051, 22136006), the project of cooperation between the Chinese Academy of Engineering and local government (HB2025B19), and the China Scholarship Council (202508420136).

About Environmental Science and Ecotechnology

Environmental Science and Ecotechnology (ISSN 2666-4984) is an international, peer-reviewed, and open-access journal published by Elsevier. The journal publishes significant views and research across the full spectrum of ecology and environmental sciences, such as climate change, sustainability, biodiversity conservation, environment & health, green catalysis/processing for pollution control, and AI-driven environmental engineering. The latest impact factor of ESE is 14.3, according to the Journal Citation ReportsTM 2024.

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Journal

Environmental Science and Ecotechnology

DOI

10.1016/j.ese.2026.100770

Subject of Research

Not applicable

Article Title

Decadal accumulation of display materials in pristine soils of the Three Poles

 

International experience gives business leaders an edge, University of Bath study finds

Nature of international experience and context key to success

University of Bath

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Business leaders with international experience play a significant role in shaping the success of their organisations and are often associated with stronger organisational performance, including higher growth, profitability and stock market performance, according to a new study published in the Journal of Management.

The study, by Dr Fei Qin of the University of Bath School of Management and her co-researchers Professor Klaus Meyer of the Ivey Business School and Professor Sabina Tasheva Nielsen of University of Sydney, examined how the international experience of chief executives, founders, senior management teams and boards influences business strategy and performance.

“International experience is much more than simply spending time abroad. It can be accrued through formative years abroad, education, work assignments, or exposure to different cultures and business environments,” said Dr Qin.

“These experiences can develop leaders’ understanding of foreign markets, broaden their professional networks and shape how they interpret opportunities and risks. More importantly, its value is not limited to multinational firms with global operations. It can also help smaller or local firms become more entrepreneurial, creative and innovative.”

The researchers found that companies led by executives with greater international experience often invested more in innovation and were better able to generate returns from those investments. They were also more likely to support and successfully implement international expansion strategies, including entering new markets, pursuing acquisitions abroad and expanding more rapidly overseas.

International experience was also linked to improved understanding of governance and risk management, and greater support for sustainability, environmental initiatives and corporate social responsibility activities.

“Essentially international experience influences organisations in three main ways: human capital (skills and knowledge), social capital (networks and relationships), and cognition and values (how leaders think and make decisions) – but it is important to understand that the benefits of international experience may not always automatically translate to effective strategies and performance,” Dr Qin said.

The study - The Impact of Strategic Leaders’ International Experience on Organizations: An Integrative Review and Multilevel Framework – found outcomes depended on factors such as the type and relevance of the experience, the dynamics of the leadership teams, and the organisational and industry context in which leaders operate.

"While international experience often improves leadership decision-making, innovation and growth, the benefits are not guaranteed. Its value depends on context. Increasingly, what matters is the composition of the leadership team as a whole and how different forms of international experience are brought together. It matters whether that experience is concentrated in one individual or distributed across the leadership team,” Dr Qin said.

“A degree of shared experience can be very valuable. It gives people common reference points and can strengthen confidence in collective decision-making. But leaders who have worked across different countries, regions or institutional environments may also identify different opportunities and challenge assumptions that might otherwise go unquestioned.”

“What this means in practice for senior-level recruitment and leadership development is that organisations should move beyond simply asking whether a leader has international experience and instead consider the nature of that experience and its length, breadth, variety, and the degree of cultural and institutional distance involved, as well as the organisational conditions and mechanisms that enable it to be effectively integrated and harnessed to create value,” Dr Qin said.

ENDS/tr

Notes to editors:

Please contact the University of Bath Press Office on press@bath.ac.uk

 

About the University of Bath

The University of Bath is one of the UK's leading universities, recognised for high-impact research, excellence in education, an outstanding student experience and strong graduate prospects.

• We are ranked among the top 10% of universities globally, placing 132nd in the QS World University Rankings 2026.
• We are ranked in the top 10 in all of the UK’s major university guides.
• The University achieved a triple Gold award in the last Teaching Excellence Framework 2023, the highest awards possible, for both the overall assessment and for student outcomes and student experience. The Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF) is a national scheme run by the Office for Students (OfS).
• We are The Times and The Sunday Times Sport University of the Year 2026.

Research at Bath is shaping a better future through innovation in sustainability, health, and digital technologies. Find out all about our Research with Impact: http://bit.ly/3ISz1Wu 

 

 

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Journal

Journal of Management

DOI

10.1177/01492063261465642

Method of Research

Observational study

Subject of Research

People

Article Title

The Impact of Strategic Leaders’ International Experience on Organizations: An Integrative Review and Multilevel Framework

 

Efficiency of computer vision in modulating happiness

The science behind forcing a smile

Bentham Science Publishers

The study, "Efficiency of Computer Vision in Modulating Happiness: An Interventional Study," was carried out by Achal Shetty in The Open Psychology Journal.

A new interventional study testing whether computer vision technology can induce happiness more reliably than the classic pen-in-mouth technique has produced a counterintuitive result: the older, simpler method consistently outperformed the technology-assisted approach, suggesting that frequent automated reminders to smile may actually interfere with the very emotional state they are trying to generate.

If you want to publish your article please visit : https://bit.ly/4de0DRi

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The Science Behind Forcing a Smile

The idea that deliberately manipulating your facial muscles can change how you feel is known as the Facial Feedback Hypothesis, and it has been debated by psychologists for nearly half a century. The basic principle is this: just as emotions produce facial expressions, facial expressions can in turn feed back into the brain and influence emotional experience. One of the most studied practical applications of this is the pen-in-mouth technique, in which a participant bites sideways on a pen without letting it touch the lips, inadvertently producing the muscle activation of a smile. Studies have shown that this can increase feelings of happiness. The challenge with this and similar methods is that there is no standardised way to ensure participants are producing the right facial expression at the right intensity. One person's attempt at a smile may produce a completely different muscle activation pattern from another's. Computer vision (CV) technology, which can read and score facial expressions in real time, seemed like a logical solution: if a system can detect when someone is genuinely smiling at 80% intensity or above and prompt them when they fall below that threshold, the intervention should theoretically be more precise and more effective. This study set out to test that assumption directly.

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What the Study Found: The Old Method Won

A total of 138 medical and engineering students aged 18 to 35 were recruited in Mangalore, India, and alternately assigned to one of two groups. Both groups performed an emotion recognition task in two phases: a control phase in which they pursed their lips into a whistling shape (which prevents facial mimicry and does not signal any particular emotion), and an intervention phase in which they were asked to either hold a smile continuously while being monitored by a Microsoft Cognitive Services facial recognition system (CV-assisted group), or bite sideways on a pen without touching their lips (traditional group). After each phase, participants viewed 44 photographs of people displaying happiness, sadness, and neutral expressions at varying intensities across different sexes and racial groups, and labelled each one as quickly and accurately as possible. The measure of whether happiness had been successfully induced was based on the congruency effect: people in a happy emotional state recognise happy faces more accurately and more quickly than those in a neutral or negative state. Both groups improved significantly on correct emotion recognition during the intervention phase compared to their control-phase baseline. However, when the two groups were compared directly after the intervention, the traditional pen-biting group showed a significantly higher proportion of correct identifications of happy faces than the CV-assisted group (p = 0.014 overall, p = 0.005 among female participants). This difference was consistent across subgroup analyses by sex and academic background. Interestingly, the CV system confirmed that participants in the CV-assisted group had technically superior smiles, with significantly higher facial expression scores than those in the traditional group. Yet those more technically perfect smiles produced less happiness. The author proposes a plausible explanation: the repeated automated prompts to smile issued whenever a participant's expression dropped below the 80% threshold may have disrupted concentration, created a sense of performance pressure, and paradoxically undermined the natural emotional process the smiling was meant to trigger.

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What This Means for Self-Care and Future Research

The findings matter beyond the laboratory. If a precise and repeatable method for inducing happiness could be reliably established, it could have practical applications in mental health self-care, particularly for the hundreds of millions of people living with depression worldwide who could benefit from simple, accessible behavioural techniques to modulate their mood. This study suggests that computer vision monitoring, at least in its current implementation with frequent interruptions, is not the right tool for that purpose. The traditional pen-biting technique, despite its lack of precision, appears to produce a more authentic emotional response, possibly because it does not interfere with the participant's natural focus. The author identifies two clear directions for future work: establishing standardised, evidence-based guidelines for executing the pen-in-mouth technique so that its benefits can be more uniformly replicated, and redesigning the computer vision approach to deliver less frequent and less intrusive feedback, potentially achieving the precision of the technology without the disruptive side effects. The study acknowledges limitations including its fixed within-subject order (control always preceding intervention, which may have introduced a practice effect), the restriction of participants to young adults from two academic institutions, and the absence of a direct self-report measure of happiness to corroborate the behavioural findings. The research was conducted and led by corresponding author Dr. Achal Shetty, Father Muller Medical College, Mangalore, India.

Read the published article here: https://bit.ly/4hyiXIk

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Article title: Efficiency of Computer Vision in Modulating Happiness: An Interventional Study

DOI: 10.2174/0118743501522541260910075318–

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Journal

The Open Psychology Journal

DOI

10.2174/0118743501522541260910075318

Method of Research

Systematic review

Article Title

Efficiency of Computer Vision in Modulating Happiness: An Interventional Study

 

Mental health, sleep disorders among risk factors for long-term concussion symptoms

A new study has found almost half of people who experience a concussion still experience problems a year later, while also revealing which factors put patients most at risk of long-term symptoms

Curtin University

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A new Curtin University study has found almost half of people who experience a concussion still experience problems a year later, while also revealing which factors put patients most at risk of long-term symptoms.

 

The Concussion Recovery Study followed 232 adults aged 18-65 who had sustained a concussion and found 45.6 per cent still reported symptoms 12 months after their injury.

 

Ongoing effects included fatigue, difficulty concentrating, headaches, dizziness, memory problems, sensitivity to noise and light, balance issues, irritability and more.

 

Published in PLOS One, the research identified the strongest predictors of long-term symptoms, while also challenging commonly held assumptions about what leads to prolonged issues.

 

Study author Dr Jacinta Thorne, from the Curtin Medical Research Institute, said participants who reported severe symptoms in the days after their concussion were almost three times more likely to still be experiencing symptoms a year later.

 

"Feeling slow, mentally foggy or nervous in the days immediately following injury were important warning signs that someone may need closer monitoring and support during recovery," Dr Thorne said.

 

However, researchers also found initial indicators of injury severity don’t necessarily lead to a longer recovery.

 

"We found no evidence that loss of consciousness, post-traumatic amnesia or whether a patient received a CT scan predicted who would experience persistent symptoms a year later," Dr Thorne said.

 

"That tells us it's not always the injury that appears most serious at the time that leads to the poorest recovery.

 

"Instead, what people are feeling and experiencing in the days immediately after the injury appears to be far more important than traditional markers of injury severity."

 

The study also revealed other risk factors for long-term recovery in people with:

 

• History of mental health conditions - 2.6 times more likely to experience symptoms after 12 months
• Pre-existing sleep disorders - 5.1 times more likely at 12 months
• Concussion from a non-sport injury - 2.5 times more likely at 12 months

Dr Thorne said this showed recovery was about much more than the initial injury.

 

“People who already live with sleep difficulties or mental health challenges may have fewer reserves to draw on during recovery, while non-sport injuries are often associated with events such as falls, assaults and vehicle crashes that can bring additional physical or psychological stress,” Dr Thorne said.

 

Researchers found despite the high numbers of participants who still experienced symptoms after 12 months, 97 per cent had returned to work within a year of their injury.

 

Co-author Dr Jemma Keeves, also from Curtin Medical Research Institute, said this showed returning to work didn’t mean someone had recovered.

 

"Our findings suggest many people continue working despite ongoing fatigue, concentration difficulties and other symptoms,” Dr Keeves said.

 

“The good news is that identifying all of these risk factors early gives clinicians an opportunity to provide more targeted follow-up and support for the people most likely to experience ongoing symptoms and help them maintain a better quality of life.”

 

Connectivity Traumatic Brain Injury Australia CEO Naomi Fuller said the study highlighted why concussion research was so important.

 

“This work shows that many Australians are living with symptoms long after they sustain a concussion,” Ms Fuller said.

 

“Concussion recovery can look different for everyone and we are increasingly understanding the effects that these long-term symptoms have on different aspects of people’s lives.

 

“We hear a lot about sports concussion in the media, but as this study showed, concussion from non-sporting causes is also prevalent within the community and can have long-term consequences.”

 

The paper, Predicting recovery outcomes following mild traumatic brain injury in an Australian community cohort: Results from the Concussion Recovery Study (CREST), was published in PLOS One.

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Journal

PLOS One

DOI

10.1371/journal.pone.0339248

Method of Research

Survey

Subject of Research

People

Article Title

Predicting recovery outcomes following mild traumatic brain injury in an Australian community cohort: results from the Concussion Recovery Study (CREST)

Article Publication Date

7-Oct-2026

COI Statement

Prof. Melinda Fitzgerald declares her role as CEO of Connectivity Traumatic Brain Injury Australia Ltd. All other authors of this manuscript have no conflicts of interest associated with this publication.

 

A honey trap for protecting the forest

The first use of F-FIT with Platycerus beetles to assess habitat conditions in operational forests

Kyoto University

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A male Platycerus takakuwai Fujita, 1987.

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Credit: Satoshi Asano

Kyoto, Japan -- Monitoring biological indicators plays a crucial role in forest management, which requires finding a delicate balance between timber use and biodiversity conservation. Across forests and across species, responses to forestry operations that alter habitat conditions vary, so repeatable surveys of biological indicators like ground-dwelling beetles can capture forest spatial variation and changes over time.

While ground dwelling beetles help scientists understand conditions on the forest floor, indicators that reflect conditions in the canopy have been more evasive. But a team of researchers at Kyoto University thought that Platycerus might fit this role: a genus of stag beetles that inhabits broadleaf forests, munching on the dead wood of trees as larvae and new leaf buds as adults. The research team chose to investigate whether these beetles might complement their ground-dwelling counterparts in the biological monitoring of broadleaf forests.

In the forests of Hida, Japan, the scientists conducted a survey called a female-attracted flight Interception trap -- F-FIT -- a "honey trap" that uses female Platycerus stag beetles to attract males. F-FIT was introduced only recently to address the limitations of conventional Platycerus surveys, which depend on an observer's skill and may risk damaging breeding sites. With this new survey, the team recorded captures of male Platycerus takakuwai, a species typical to Japan.

Using F-FIT data, the scientists analyzed capture counts in relation to location data and environmental variables such as weather, elevation, forest structure, and forest-edge position. The team then compared multiple statistical models to examine the relationships between differences in capture counts and environmental conditions across locations.

The project's results revealed that beetle capture counts increased toward forest interiors and declined toward open areas. This indicates that the relationship between tree density and capture counts can be characterized as varying across locations rather than uniformly across the forest, highlighting the value of looking beyond forest-wide averages when assessing habitat conditions.

This study represents the first application of F-FIT to habitat assessment in operational broadleaf forestry. The successful linking of capture counts to trap locations demonstrates the potential of this survey method to provide spatial information on local forest habitat conditions, which can be used for better environmental assessment and management of these forests.

"I'm interested in how forest resources can be used while maintaining habitats for wildlife," says first author Minori Tokito. "It was rewarding to see F-FIT develop from a quantitative survey method into a source of information for considering how forests are used and managed."

The team now has larger-scale surveys underway, and future work will need to examine whether similar spatial patterns are observed across forests, years, and survey dates. As Platycerus takakuwai is found in Japan, the scientists aim to develop locally useful indicators to support forest management that balances timber use and biodiversity conservation in other regions.

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The paper "A honey trap for Platycerus (Coleoptera: Lucanidae): Georeferenced captures indicate forest-habitat patterns in operational broadleaf forestry" appeared on 6 September 2026 in Forest Ecology and Management, with doi: 10.1016/j.foreco.2026.124225

About Kyoto University

Kyoto University is one of Japan and Asia's premier research institutions, founded in 1897 and responsible for producing numerous Nobel laureates and winners of other prestigious international prizes. A broad curriculum across the arts and sciences at undergraduate and graduate levels complements several research centers, facilities, and offices around Japan and the world. For more information, please see: http://www.kyoto-u.ac.jp/en

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Journal

Forest Ecology and Management

DOI

10.1016/j.foreco.2026.124225

Method of Research

Observational study

Subject of Research

Animals

Article Title

A honey trap for Platycerus (Coleoptera: Lucanidae): Georeferenced captures indicate forest-habitat patterns in operational broadleaf forestry

Article Publication Date

6-Sep-2026