A sustainable path to eliminate hunger in Africa

Peer-Reviewed Publication

INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR APPLIED SYSTEMS ANALYSIS

To feed Africa’s growing population, agricultural-food systems need to be modernized. In a new study, researchers analyzed how continental free trade and agricultural development could ensure sustainable food security for Africa.

Currently, about one-fifth of Africa's population lacks sufficient food for good health. Much of the continent’s food supply is dependent on international imports, which poses risks due to the uncertainty of global food markets. Past efforts to upscale agricultural production in Africa mainly relied on establishing new croplands instead of intensifying yield, leading to environmental degradation, and increasing greenhouse gas emissions. As the continent’s population is projected to double by 2050, finding a sustainable solution to meet the increasing food demand is essential.

The modernization and regional integration of agricultural-food systems is a possible solution for eliminating hunger, ensuring sustainable production growth, and inducing broader economic transformation in Africa. To identify the best ways to bring about these developments and assess potential barriers, an international research team led by KU Leuven and IIASA analyzed the potential impacts of two critical developments—continental trade integration and local agricultural development.

In the study published in Nature Food, the team used the IIASA Global Biosphere Management Model (GLOBIOM) to model agriculture, forestry, and bioenergy sectors across eight African regions. They analyzed several different scenarios including an agricultural development scenario, where crop yield is intensified and the costs of local trade are reduced, as well as a scenario where free trade within the continent is established.

“Our paper sets new frontiers in food systems research,” says study lead author, Charlotte Janssens, a researcher at KU Leuven and a guest researcher in the IIASA Integrated Biosphere Futures Research Group. “Previous studies have either focused on continental trade effects or the sustainability impacts of agricultural development. Our study investigates both components in a consistent modeling framework.”

The team found that free trade alone will not help solve the issue of hunger and greenhouse gas emissions, as trade integration will mostly just lead to the relocation of production. However, under the agricultural development scenario, Africa’s trade balance with the rest of the world improved, and undernourishment was almost fully eliminated by 2050. The associated land-use changes still led to a slight increase in greenhouse gas emissions which would need to be compensated by careful policy design.

“Our contribution is especially timely given that the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) landmark agreement entered into force in 2021, and its national implementation strategies are currently unfolding all across the continent,” says Janssens.

When the researchers combined free trade with agricultural development, they found that the reduction in outside food imports was further enhanced, and production and trade gains were more equally distributed across African regions. In light of this, the results of the study will hopefully guide policymakers to focus on investments in agricultural development along with the current trade integration.

“Overall, we demonstrate that aligning continental free trade and local agricultural development policies will be crucial to simultaneously achieve trade, food security, and climate objectives. Close cooperation between the policy areas of African trade is therefore crucial,” concludes study author Petr Havlik, who leads the Integrated Biosphere Futures Research Group at IIASA.

Reference

Janssens, C., Havlík, P., Boere E., Palazzo, A., Mosnier, A., Leclère, D., Balkovic, J., Maertens, M. (2022). A sustainable future for Africa through continental free trade and agricultural development. Nature Food DOI:10.1038/s43016-022-00572-1 [pure.iiasa.ac.at/18163/]

Contacts:

Researcher contact

Charlotte Janssens
Guest Research Assistant
Integrated Biosphere Futures Research Group
Biodiversity and Natural Resources Program
charlotte.janssens@kuleuven.be

 

Petr Havlik
Research Group Leader and Principal Research Scholar
Integrated Biosphere Futures Research Group
Biodiversity and Natural Resources Program
havlikpt@iiasa.ac.at

 

Press Officer

Ansa Heyl
IIASA Press Office
Tel: +43 2236 807 574
Mob: +43 676 83 807 574
heyl@iiasa.ac.at

 

About IIASA:

The International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) is an international scientific institute that conducts research into the critical issues of global environmental, economic, technological, and social change that we face in the twenty-first century. Our findings provide valuable options to policymakers to shape the future of our changing world. IIASA is independent and funded by prestigious research funding agencies in Africa, the Americas, Asia, and Europe. www.iiasa.ac.at

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JOURNAL

Nature Food

DOI

10.1038/s43016-022-00572-1 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Computational simulation/modeling

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

A sustainable future for Africa through continental free trade and agricultural development

How can we help children with autism or language disorders to understand others?

A UOC project assesses the role of speech intonation and gestures in the communication of typically developing children, children with developmental language disorder and children with autism spectrum disorder

Business Announcement

UNIVERSITAT OBERTA DE CATALUNYA (UOC)

Detecting language comprehension difficulties in children is one of the most complex challenges in linguistic research. The different factors involved in communication – including each child's individual cognitive and linguistic abilities, interpersonal skills and many other factors – make it difficult both to diagnose and to implement specific interventions to help improve language comprehension.

A project led by the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC), called PROGESPRAG (Prosody, Gestures and Pragmatics), is now going to evaluate the linguistic and communicative mechanisms in child development that promote the ability to understand others beyond the literal meaning of words. In particular, it will analyse aspects such as speech prosody and gestural communication in children with developmental language disorder (DLD) or autism spectrum disorder (ASD).

"Its aim is to explore two elements of communication and language that we believe can help children with DLD or ASD in the process of language comprehension, such as speech intonation and body gestures. These are two very important elements in communication but they have not been studied as much as other aspects, such as syntax or vocabulary, when assessing how children speak or understand language," said Núria Esteve-Gibert, who is the leader of this project, a member of the Cognition and Language Research Group (GRECIL) at the UOC's eHealth Center, and director of the UOC's Master's Degree in Learning Difficulties and Language Disorders.

 

Analysis of the mechanisms of linguistic and gestural perception

In particular, this work team will study the prosodic and gestural mechanisms that contribute to child development and the ability of children to understand language and communication beyond the literal meaning of words. "Language involves a complex perception because it is highly dependent on the intention with which the arguments are transmitted at any given moment and on the person we are communicating with. Furthermore, our understanding of the message is influenced by many factors in our environment and context, such as cognitive fatigue or what we think others mean, all of which influence the purpose and understanding of language. Capturing the intonational nuances and gestures that support speech, such as intonation and gesturing, can help children with socio-cognitive and grammatical processing problems to interpret the communicative intent of others," she said.

The project will analyse language comprehension in 250 children between the ages of 5 and 10 from different schools in Catalonia who are developing typically, have a developmental language disorder (DLD) or have autism spectrum disorder (ASD), comparing the results between these three groups.

"In this case, children with autism, for example, do not struggle so much with language, but more with the social and communicative content of social interactions, but these difficulties can also have repercussions on language. In addition, they struggle to integrate information from different senses. That is why, in this project, we want to see if prosody and gestures can help them to decipher the information we transmit more easily and quickly," explained Esteve-Gibert.

In Spain, an estimated 50,000 children suffer from autism spectrum disorder. For its part, developmental language disorder or DLD (also known as specific language impairment, SLI) is estimated to affect around 7% of the child population, which amounts to 300,000 children under the age of 12. Both disorders are associated with problems with speech and comprehension, as well as the ability to express opinions, thoughts and feelings.

In addition, the study will also assess in real time how children process linguistic and prosodic nuances in speech, as well as gestures. In this sense, aspects such as intonation, speech rhythm, body movements, gestures and facial expressions play a very important role in the full and accurate understanding of the message. All of this, indirectly.

"Using methodologies that assess language comprehension indirectly is the right approach because otherwise it is never clear whether children do not respond because they do not understand what we are saying or because they have difficulties in producing a response, particularly in cases of neurodevelopmental disorders," she said.

 

Methodology and applied technology

The team is going to use eye tracking technology that will allow them to identify eye movements and responses to the perception of a message. Eye tracking technology is a system based on the fact that when people hear a sentence and have a visual element around them that represents this sentence, they look at this element implicitly without realising it.

This technology records the movement of the pupil in response to a specific sentence and allows us to see whether the child is looking on the screen at the object mentioned or the intention of the sentence, thus demonstrating that the child has understood the message. "We believe that speech, gestural communication and prosody are all sides of the same coin, and are all essential when it comes to transmitting and understanding the message," said Esteve-Gibert.

 

Assessment of interventions

In addition, this study will also help to improve the different interventions, treatments and tools for improving language comprehension in children (such as the effectiveness of visual aids in specific cases of neurodevelopmental disorders). Thus, the aim is to produce evidence as to how to design the most effective assessments and interventions possible in the treatment of language and communication development difficulties in children, since research analysing these fields is limited and the influence of prosody and gestures on language is unknown.

"We hope that our results will contribute towards designing much more precise and appropriate interventions to help children with these difficulties in the development of language and social communication," she concluded.

 

This study, which is part of the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation's National Research Agency Research, Development and Innovation (RDI) Projects programme, will be conducted during the 2021-2024 period with funding of around €70,000.

This UOC research supports Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 3, Good Health and Well-being; 4, Quality Education; and 10, Reducing Inequality.

UOC R&I

The UOC's research and innovation (R&I) is helping overcome pressing challenges faced by global societies in the 21st century, by studying interactions between technology and human & social sciences with a specific focus on the network society, e-learning and e-health.

The UOC's research is conducted by over 500 researchers and 51 research groups distributed between the university's seven faculties, the E-learning Research programme, and two research centres: the Internet Interdisciplinary Institute (IN3) and the eHealth Center (eHC).

The University also cultivates online learning innovations at its eLearning Innovation Center (eLinC), as well as UOC community entrepreneurship and knowledge transfer via the Hubbik platform.

The United Nations' 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and open knowledge serve as strategic pillars for the UOC's teaching, research and innovation. More information: research.uoc.edu #UOC25years

Food production impacting Earth and its natural processes

Peer-Reviewed Publication

AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL UNIVERSITY

 

IMAGE: TRACTOR MID HARVEST IN AN AGRICULTURAL FIELD. TOM FISK/UNSPLASH view more 

CREDIT: TOM FISK/UNSPLASH

Food production is already one of the biggest stressors to our planet, but it’s made substantially more challenging by the interaction of Earth system processes, according to new research.

Earth system processes refer to the natural activities that keep the planet in a habitable and useful state. This includes processes occurring in the different biospheres like carbon sequestration in forests or nutrient run off into freshwater systems.

The interactions between these processes challenge their boundaries, and effect how well they function.

“Food production is a major cause of environmental stress, impacting on biodiversity loss, the climate and overexploitation of marine resources,” co-author Dr Steven Lade from The Australian National University said.

“We need to start producing food in a sustainable way. By assessing the interaction of Earth system processes we can ensure they are considered when designing and implementing food production and agriculture policy.”

The research, led by Aalto University in Finland, examined and characterised various Earth system processes, highlighting how they can be used when working toward more sustainable food production techniques.

The study highlighted several pivotal interactions that are often overlooked, including the impact of green water on food production and biodiversity.

“Green water refers to the water stored in soil that is available for plants to grow. It has a central role to play in interacting with, and regulating all the other processes like land, biodiversity, and water flow,” Dr Lade said.

“Ensuring we address these various interactions will require action. We need better communication, meaning that authorities responsible for areas like agriculture policy and marine policy need to talk to each other.

“We need to take a holistic approach when it comes to managing sustainable food production so that it doesn’t strain the boundaries of our natural systems. We need to look beyond just water and land as inputs for food production.”

The researchers argue challenges stem from a high density of interactions between the ocean, fresh water and land biospheres.

“Acknowledgement of these interactions and boundaries is needed for maintaining stability and resilience in the Earth’s system. In some instances, human pressures may have already pushed the Earth system beyond the safe operating space for humanity,” Dr Lade said.

“System interactions make sustainable food production more challenging. However, the interconnected nature means taking positive actions can have extensive flow on effects.”

The study has been published in Nature Sustainability.

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JOURNAL

Nature Sustainability

DOI

10.1038/s41893-022-00940-6 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Randomized controlled/clinical trial

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE TITLE

Quantifying Earth system interactions for sustainable food production via expert elicitation

Breaking in a new planet

Impacts affect the porosity and structure of moons and planets more dramatically than scientists suspected, increasing their potential habitability for life

Peer-Reviewed Publication

PURDUE UNIVERSITY

 

IMAGE: BRANDON JOHNSON, AN EXPERT IN IMPACT CRATER DYNAMICS, SURROUNDED BY SOME OF HIS FAVORITE RESEARCH SUBJECTS: MERCURY, MARS AND THE MOON. view more 

CREDIT: PURDUE UNIVERSITY PHOTO/REBECCA MCELHOE

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — The harder you hit something – a ball, a walnut, a geode – the more likely it is to break open. Or, if not break open, at least lose a little bit of its structural integrity, the way baseball players pummel new gloves to make them softer and more flexible. Cracks, massive or tiny, form and bear a silent, permanent witness to the impact.

Studying how those impacts affect planetary bodies, asteroids, moons and other rocks in space helps planetary scientists including Brandon Johnson, associate professor, and Sean Wiggins, postdoctoral researcher, in the College of Science’s Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences at Purdue University, understand extraplanetary geology, especially where to look for precious matter including water, ice and even, potentially, microbial life. A YouTube video is available online.

Every solid body in the solar system is constantly pummeled by impacts, both large and small. Even on Earth, every single spot has been affected by at least three big impacts. Using the moon as a test subject, Johnson, Wiggins and their team set out to quantify the relationship between impacts and a planet’s porosity.

The researchers used extensive lunar gravity data and detailed modeling and found that when large objects hit the moon or any other planetary body, that impact can affect surfaces and structures, even very far away from the point of impact and deep into the planet or moon itself. This finding, detailed in their new study published in the journal Nature Communications, explains existing data on the moon that had puzzled scientists. The research was partially funded by funded by NASA’s Lunar Data Analysis Program.

“NASA’s GRAIL (Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory) mission measured the gravity of the moon and showed that the moon crust is very porous to very great depths,” Johnson said. “We didn’t have a description of how the moon would get so porous. This is the first work that really shows that large impacts are capable of fracturing the moon’s crust and introducing this porosity.”

Understanding where planets and moons have fractured, and why, can help direct space exploration and tell scientists where the best place to look for life might be. Anywhere that rock, water and air meet and interact, there is a potential for life.

“There’s a lot to be excited about,” Wiggins said. “Our data explains a mystery. This research has implications for the early Earth and for Mars. If life existed back then, there were these intermittently big impacts that would sterilize the planet and boil off the oceans. But if you had life that could survive in pores and interstices a few hundred feet or even a few miles down, it could have survived. They could have provided these refuges where life could hide out from these kinds of impacts.

“These findings have a lot of potential for directing future missions on Mars or elsewhere. It can help direct searches, tell us where to look.”

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JOURNAL

Nature Communications

DOI

10.1038/s41467-022-32445-3 

ARTICLE TITLE

Widespread impact-generated porosity in early planetary crusts

New research identifies a simple trick that may reduce drinking

Peer-Reviewed Publication

SOCIETY FOR THE STUDY OF ADDICTION

A new study published today in the scientific journal Addiction has found that households in the United Kingdom consumed about 6.5% less wine when drinking from smaller (290 ml) glasses than from larger (350 ml) glasses.

This randomised controlled trial recruited 260 UK households from the general population that consuming at least two 75cl bottles of wine each week.  During two 14-day intervention periods, households were asked to buy a pre-set amount of wine to drink at home in either 75cl or 37.5cl bottles, in randomised order. They were also randomised to receive smaller (290ml) or larger (350ml) glasses from which to drink. Volume of wine consumed at the end of each 14-day intervention period was measured using photographs of purchased bottles, weighed on provided scales.  Using smaller glasses reduced the amount of wine drunk by around 6.5% (253ml per fortnight) – although there is some uncertainty around this effect. Drinking from smaller bottles reduced the amount of wine drunk by 3.6% (146ml per fortnight) but there is greater uncertainty around this effect.

Wine is the most commonly drunk alcoholic beverage in Europe, and most of it is consumed in homes rather than in bars, restaurants or pubs.  It’s already known that using larger glasses increases the volume of wine sold in restaurants and the size of wine glasses in general has increased dramatically over the last three decades.  If the effects of wine glass size on consumption are proven reliable, with effects sustained over time, reducing the size of wine glasses used in homes could contribute to policies for reducing drinking. These policies could include pricing glasses according to capacity to increase the demand for smaller glasses, and regulating glass sizes in bars, restaurants, and other licensed premises to help shift social norms for what constitutes an acceptable glass size for use outside as well as within the home.

-- Ends –

For editors:

This paper is free to read for one month after publication from the Wiley Online Library: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/add.16005 or by contacting Jean O’Reilly, Editorial Manager, Addiction, jean@addictionjournal.org.

To speak with lead author Dr. Eleni Mantzari please contact her at the University of Cambridge by email (em578@medschl.cam.ac.uk) or telephone (07778149432).

Full citation for article: Mantzari E, Ventsel M, Ferrar J, Pilling MA, Hollands GJ, Marteau TM (2022) Impact of wine bottle and glass sizes on wine consumption at home: a within and between households randomised controlled trial. Addiction: doi: 10.1111/add.16005

Funding: Collaborative Award in Science from Wellcome Trust (Behaviour Change by Design: 206853/Z/17/Z) awarded to Theresa Marteau, Paul Fletcher, Gareth Hollands, Marcus Munafò.

Declaration of interests:  All authors have completed the Unified Competing Interest form (available on request from the corresponding author) and declare: no support from any organisation for the submitted work; no financial relationships with any organisations that might have an interest in the submitted work in the previous three years; and no other relationships or activities that could appear to have influenced the submitted work.

Addiction is a monthly international scientific journal publishing peer-reviewed research reports on alcohol, substances, tobacco, and gambling as well as editorials and other debate pieces. Owned by the Society for the Study of Addiction, it has been in continuous publication since 1884.

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JOURNAL

Addiction

DOI

10.1111/add.16005 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Randomized controlled/clinical trial

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

Impact of wine bottle and glass sizes on wine consumption at home: a within and between households randomised controlled trial

PAID SICK LEAVE NOW!

Access to paid sick leave linked to lower mortality rate among US adult workers

State laws that preempt local authority to enact health-promoting legislation contribute to increased workforce mortality, reports new research in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine

Peer-Reviewed Publication

ELSEVIER

Ann Arbor, August 29, 2022 – Access to paid sick leave is linked to a lower rate of mortality among US working age men and women, according to new research in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, published by Elsevier. The study shows that laws requiring employers to provide paid sick leave are effective in reducing mortality from suicide and homicide among men and homicide and alcohol-related causes among women. The findings also demonstrate that state laws that preempt local governments from enacting such mandates likely contributed to recent increases in mortality among working adults (up 6% from 2010-2017).

“State preemption laws that protect profits over people may be shortening the lives of working-age Americans,” said co-investigator Jennifer Karas Montez, PhD, Aging Studies Institute and Center for Aging and Policy Studies and Department of Sociology, Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY, USA. “We were surprised by how large the ‘preemption effect’ for paid sick leave mandates turned out to be. We project that mortality could potentially decline by over 5% in large central metro counties currently constrained by preemption laws if they were able to mandate a 40-hour annual paid sick leave requirement.”

The study analyzed data from the US Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Vital Statistics System (NVSS) on deaths among adults ages 25-64 by county from 1999-2019. Statistical analyses were used to estimate associations between these death counts and both minimum wage levels and paid sick leave requirements, while accounting for unemployment rates and Medicaid expansion.

The most striking findings are related to paid sick leave requirements: each additional hour of mandated paid sick leave is associated with a significant reduction in mortality due to suicide and homicide for men, and for homicide and alcohol-related deaths for women. The investigators calculated that mortality among their working-age population would have been 7.5% lower in the four counties (Orange County in Florida, and Bexar, Dallas, and Travis Counties in Texas) that attempted to mandate paid leave, only to have their state react by preempting their authority to do so.

The US is one of a few developed countries that has no national paid sick leave policy, forcing millions of workers to choose between going to work while they are ill or staying home without pay and at risk of being fired. The study shows that even before the COVID-19 pandemic, the absence of a paid sick leave requirement has contributed to troubling increasing mortality trends among working-age adults. Lack of paid sick leave increases the odds of economic hardship and involuntary job loss for those who take time off to recover, which, in turn, can elevate the odds of suicide, drug use, and other risky behaviors. It also puts healthy coworkers at risk through exposure to sick colleagues.

Preemption laws, which constrain lower-level governments’ legislative powers, have long been used to harmonize federal, state, and local policymaking or to establish minimum thresholds. The spread and intent of state preemption laws accelerated after 2010 covering new policy domains, such as labor standards, public health, environmental protections, and land use, and defining regulatory ceilings.

“Our study adds to a growing literature pointing to the importance of states’ labor and economic policies on mortality of working-age adults. The consequences of preemption laws stymie local government innovation, constrain opportunities to earn a living wage and take time off of work for medical care without financial repercussions, elevate the risk of death among infants and working age-adults, and contribute to geographic disparities in mortality,” explained lead investigator Douglas A. Wolf, PhD, Aging Studies Institute and Center for Aging and Policy Studies and Department of Public Administration and International Affairs, Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY, USA.

“These findings build on our prior research on the effect of minimum wage preemption laws on infant mortality, adding another policy dimension that addresses working-age mortality and paid sick leave laws — a natural extension of our prior work,” added co-investigator Shannon Monnat, PhD, Aging Studies Institute and Center for Aging and Policy Studies, Department of Sociology, and Lerner Center for Public Health Promotion and Center for Policy Research, Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY, USA.

 

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JOURNAL

American Journal of Preventive Medicine

DOI

10.1016/j.amepre.2022.06.005 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Data/statistical analysis

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

.S. State Preemption Laws and Working-Age Mortality

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

29-Aug-2022

High-capacity Li-metal battery with improved rate-performance and stability

A KERI research team developed a one-dimensional Li-confinable porous hollow carbon host. Improved Li deposition/dissolution efficiency under high-rate testing conditions ... published as a cover paper in ACS Nano.

Peer-Reviewed Publication

NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL OF SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

 

IMAGE: A 1D LI-CONFINABLE HOST WITH A POROUS CARBON SHELL AND LITHIOPHILIC AU NANOPARTICLES IN THE CORE SHOWS IMPROVED LI REVERSIBILITY AT HIGH RATES OWING TO THE FACILE LI+ TRANSPORT AND THE LI DENDRITE SUPPRESSION BY STORING LI AT THE CORE PLACE, REVEALING THE IMPORTANCE OF STRUCTURAL DESIGN FOR LI STORAGE. view more 

CREDIT: KOREA ELECTROTECHNOLOGY RESEARCH INSTITUTE

A study of Li-metal batteries by the research team led by Dr. Byung Gon Kim at Next-Generation Battery Research Center of Korea Electrotechnology Research Institute (KERI, Acting President Nam-Kyun Kim) was published as a cover paper in a renowned international journal.

While the current Li-ion batteries generate energy by taking Li-ions in and out of the graphite anode based on the intercalation mechanism, the Li-metal battery does not rely on this bulky and heavy graphite but uses metallic Li itself as the anode. As the Li-metal shows 10 times higher theoretical capacity (3,860 mAh/g) than graphite (372 mAh/g), it has steadily gained much attention from areas that need high-capacity batteries, such as electric vehicles and energy storage systems.

Despite this advantage, Li can grow in the shape of a tree branch, called Li dendrite, if it is not uniformly and effectively stored when cycling process, leading to large volume expansion of electrode, which in turn may shorten the battery’s cycle life and cause safety issue such as fire and explosion triggered by internal short-circuits.

To tackle this issue, KERI developed 1D Li-confinable porous carbon structure with a hollow core, and a small number of gold nanoparticles with Li affinity were added to the hollow core. Here, the gold controls the growth direction of Li by preferentially reacting with Li, thereby inducing Li deposition inside the core. In addition, many nano-sized pores are formed in the shell part to improve the Li-ion movement toward the core space.

A major challenge observed in the existing hollow core-shell Li host was the Li deposition on the conductive carbon shell, not inside the core, under high-rate charging conditions. Therefore, the KERI team introduced many nano-sized pores to the shell, and achieved significantly improved coulombic efficiency without Li dendrite growth even under a high-current testing condition of 5 mA/cm2.

Dr. Kim’s team collaborated with Prof. Janghyuk Moon at Chung-Ang University for theoretical validation of the effectiveness of this material’s design, and the simulation results showed that the reduced Li ion diffusion length by the shell pores and improved Li affinity by the gold nanoparticles kept Li deposition inside the structure even under high-current charging condition. Moreover, the designed Li host showed excellent cycling performance of over 500 cycles1) under a high current density of 4C rate2) (82.5% capacity retention). It is also notable that this technology meets practicality because the team used the electrospinning technique with advantages in mass production for material synthesis.

“Despite the merit of high capacity, the Li-metal batteries have many hurdles to be overcome for commercialization mainly due to stability and safety issues,” said Dr. Kim. And Dr. Kim also said, “Our study is invaluable in that we developed a technique for mass production of Li-metal reservoir with high coulombic efficiency for fast-rechargeable Li-metal batteries.”

This study by the KERI research team was published as a supplementary cover paper in the August edition of ACS Nano, one of the leading SCIE journals in materials science published by the American Chemical Society. The journal’s Impact Factor is 18.027, and top 5.8% of all journals in its category.

This study was funded by the National Research Foundation’s Technology Development Program to Solve Climate Changes and the KERI Primary Research Program. The team plans to continue with the pursuit of the commercialization of Li-metal battery by, for example, developing functional electrolytes to ensure the stable deposition and dissolution of metallic Li.

KERI is a government-funded research institute dedicated to electricity under the National Research Council of Science & Technology (NST) of the Ministry of Science and ICT. Dr. Kim is an associate professor at University of Science and Technology (UST) KERI Campus.

1) Battery cycle: The number of charge/discharge cycles that can be achieved before the battery reaches the end of its service life or commercial value. For example, a battery with a 500 battery cycle count will lose a half of its energy capacity after 500 cycles of charging/discharging, losing its commercial value. Electric vehicles are so sensitive about the operating mileage that the battery packs are often replaced when they have lost only 20% of their capacity.

2) C-rate: 1C-rate refers current which can charge or discharge the cell in 1 hour. For example, 0.5C is a two-hour discharge and 0.2C is a 5-hour discharge.

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JOURNAL

ACS Nano

DOI

10.1021/acsnano.2c01309 

ARTICLE TITLE

One-Dimensional Porous Li-Confinable Hosts for High-Rate and Stable Li-Metal Batteries

41% of teenagers can't tell the difference between true and fake online health messages

Peer-Reviewed Publication

FRONTIERS

A new study has found that teenagers have a hard time discerning between fake and true health messages. Only 48% of the participants trusted accurate health messages (without editorial elements) more than fake ones. Meanwhile, 41% considered fake and true neutral messages equally trustworthy and 11% considered true neutral health messages less trustworthy than fake health messages. The results highlight a need for better training of teenagers to navigate a world where fake health news is so widespread.

Health mis- and disinformation are a serious public health concern, with an increased spread of fake health news on social media platforms in the last few years. Previous research has shown that online health messages are mostly incomplete and inaccurate and have potentially harmful health information. Fake health news can lead to poor health choices, risk-taking behavior, and loss of trust in health authorities.

“There has been an explosion of misinformation in the area of health during the Covid-19 pandemic,” said principal investigator Dr Radomír Masaryk, of Comenius University.

Most research on message credibility has focused on adults. Masaryk and his colleagues have now investigated whether teenagers are equipped to tackle the high volume of fake health news on the internet. 

“As adolescents are frequent users of the internet, we usually expect that they already know how to approach and appraise online information, but the opposite seems to be true” commented Masaryk.

The researchers found that 41% of teenagers couldn’t tell the difference between true and fake online medical content. What’s more, poor editing of health messages was not perceived as a sign of low trustworthiness. These latest findings were published in Frontiers in Psychology.

Teenagers and the media

Teenagers are an often-overlooked group that are at an increased risk of encountering fake health news. As so-called ‘digital natives’ they are the world’s most well-connected group, with 71% of the world’s youth using the internet.

Research has shown that positive portrayals of risky behavior in the media, such as smoking and drinking, leads to increased risk behavior in teenagers. On the other hand, online health information that supports information provided by professionals can lead to healthy lifestyle changes, self-care, and treatment compliance.

Teenagers look at the structural features of a website, such as language and appearance, to evaluate online information. For example, authoritative organizations, trusted brands, or websites with business-like language tend to be more trusted.

Previous research on message trustworthiness with adolescents identified five editorial elements that deduced perceived message credibility: superlatives, clickbait, grammar mistakes, authority appeal, and bold typeface. Drawing on this previous study, Masaryk and colleagues designed research to evaluate the effects of manipulation with content and format of health online messages on their trustworthiness in an adolescent sample. 

They presented 300 secondary school students (aged between 16 and 19 years old) with seven short messages about the health promoting effects of different fruits and vegetables. The messages had different levels: fake message, true neutral message, and true message with editorial elements (superlatives, clickbait, grammar mistakes, authority appeal, and bold typeface). Participants were then asked to rate the message's trustworthiness.

The participants were able to discern between overtly fake health messages and health messages whether true or slightly changed with editing elements; 48% of participants trusted the true neutral health messages more than the fake ones. However, 41% of participants considered fake and true neutral messages equally trustworthy and 11% considered true neutral health messages less trustworthy than fake health messages.

Clickbait less likely to work

“Putting trust in messages requires identification of fake versus true content,” said Masaryk. 

In the case of health messages that seem plausible and reasonable, teenagers could not tell the difference between true neutral health messages and health messages with editorial elements. Teenagers did not seem to decide on the trustworthiness of a message based on editing cues.

“The only version of a health message that was significantly less trusted compared to a true health message was a message with a clickbait headline,” continued Masaryk.

The results highlight a need for better instruction of teenagers to spot editing cues that give away the quality of a piece of information. The authors suggest focusing on health literacy and media literacy training, and skills such as analytical thinking and scientific reasoning. 

“Analytical thinking and scientific reasoning are skills that help distinguish false from true health messages,” Masaryk concluded.

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JOURNAL

Frontiers in Psychology

DOI

10.3389/fpsyg.2022.940903 

Keeping Kermit: New clues to protecting frogs from deadly Bd fungus

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH AUSTRALIA

 

IMAGE: THE COMMON EASTERN FROGLET IS FOUND IN TASMANIA AND EASTERN AUSTRALIA FROM CENTRAL QUEENSLAND DOWN THROUGH VICTORIA AND ALONG THE COAST OF SA. view more 

CREDIT: "COMMON EASTERN FROGLET (CRINIA SIGNIFERA)" BY DAVID COOK WILDLIFE PHOTOGRAPHY IS LICENSED UNDER CC BY-NC 2.0.

As the globe continues to battle COVID-19, another pandemic – the deadly fungus Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd) - is ravaging the world’s frog species, contributing to the instability of Earth’s delicate ecosystem.

Now, a world-first study from the University of South Australia shows that while Bd can significantly reduce in captive frogs, captivity can have negative consequences for the frogs’ protective skin microbiota, providing new insight into diversity management.

Examining the culture-dependent skin microbiota of the Common Eastern froglet, the study analysed the how captivity and water salinity affects the Bd infection.

It found that the infection significantly reduced in this population of 24 captive frogs, and while water salinity was not the cause of the decline, a natural skin shedding process could help frogs use reduce Bd loads.

Globally, the Bd infection has caused a decline in 501 amphibian species with 90 of these species now presumed extinct, and another 124 declined by over 90 per cent. The infection is currently in 56 countries across six continents.

The Bd infection has been linked to frog decline since the late 1990s, with Bd considered the cause of an unusual spate of frog deaths in Australia, just one year ago.

UniSA researcher and Masters candidate, Darislav Besedin, says finding ways to protect frogs from the lethal Bd infection is a critical step in conserving global biodiversity.

“The world is currently undergoing a sixth mass extinction, where a high percentage of distinct species – particularly amphibians - are dying out,” Besedin says.

“Yet whamost people don’t immediately consider is that every species is interconnected. When one becomes extinct, a range of other species is also affected, creating a domino effect that can have devastating impacts on the environment.

“The drastic decline of amphibians in the last several decades from the lethal Bd infection is a clear sign that there is an ecological imbalance, so monitoring effected species is vital.

“This study provides important clues for managing endangered frog species, most importantly that the Bd infection can be eradicated among captive populations. At this point, we assume that this has to do with the frogs shedding their skin, but it could equally be due to many other factors.

“Our results also show that captivity caused a significant reduction in skin bacteria diversity and richness, likely through the loss of a microbial reservoir, high stress, reduced immunity, and sloughing. So future research must be mindful of this effect.

“Frogs released into the wild after captivity programs will likely have reduced resilience to pathogens. More research is needed to promote a healthy microbiome, possibly even with the help of probiotics.”

Notes for editors:

• The Common Eastern froglet is found in Tasmania and eastern Australia from central Queensland down through Victoria and along the coast of SA.
• This study was conducted with UniSA researchers Dr Miguel de Barros Lopes, Dr Permal Deo, and Prof Craig Williams.
• September is National Biodiversity Month: www.dcceew.gov.au/environment/biodiversity/biodiversity-month

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JOURNAL

Transactions of the Royal Society of South Australia

DOI

10.1080/03721426.2022.2086358 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Experimental study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Animals

ARTICLE TITLE

Effect of captivity and water salinity on culture-dependent frog skin microbiota and Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd) infection