New photocatalyst boosts water splitting efficiency for clean hydrogen production

Peer-Reviewed Publication

TOKYO INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY

 

IMAGE: THE OXYGEN EVOLUTION CATALYST EFFICIENTLY REDUCES THE CONCENTRATION OF THE I3- IONS AND CHANGES TO THE HYDROGEN EVOLUTION CATALYST PREVENT ELECTRON BACK TRANSFERS (DOTTED RED LINES) AND PRIORITIZE ELECTRON TRANSFER TO PRODUCE HYDROGEN (SOLID BLACK LINES) view more 

CREDIT: KAZUHIKO MAEDA FROM TOKYO TECH

In a first, a dye-sensitized photocatalyst that facilitates the most efficient solar water splitting activity recorded to date (for similar catalysts) has been optimized by researchers from Tokyo Tech. Their surface-modified, dye-sensitized nanosheet catalyst shows immense potential, as it can suppress undesirable back electron transfer and improve water splitting activity up to a hundred times!

One of the simplest ways by which water molecules can be split into hydrogen is by using photocatalysts. These materials, which are semiconductors that can absorb light and carry out water-splitting reactions simultaneously, provide a simple setup for the mass production of hydrogen. Semiconductors can generate an electron-hole pair for the water splitting reaction; however, since the charge carriers tend to recombine, a “Z-scheme” photocatalytic system involving two semiconductor materials and an electron mediator has been developed to suppress this.

In this setup, the electron mediator, which is typically a reversible electron acceptor/donor pairs (such as I3-/I-), accepts electrons from one of the photocatalysts and donates them to the other. This separates the charge carriers between the semiconductors. Despite eliminating the charge recombination within the semiconductor, the electron-accepting species (I3-) competes with the hydrogen photocatalyst for electrons, resulting in poor solar-to-hydrogen energy conversion efficiencies.

To improve hydrogen production, a team of international researchers, including Specially Appointed Assistant Professor Shunta Nishioka and Professor Kazuhiko Maeda from Tokyo Institute of Technology (Tokyo Tech) has been working on ways to prevent the unintended electron transfer. On experimenting with ruthenium (Ru) dye-sensitized niobate photocatalysts (Ru/Pt/HCa2Nb3O10), the researchers noticed that hydrogen production increases significantly at low I3- concentrations. These findings led them to develop an efficient water splitting system that consists of an oxygen evolution photocatalyst and a modified Ru dye-sensitized niobate nanosheet that functions as a better hydrogen evolution photocatalyst. “We have successfully improved the efficiency of a Z-scheme overall water splitting system by using a surface-modified dye-sensitized nanosheet photocatalyst,” says Prof. Maeda. The results of their study have been published in the journal Science Advances.

To keep the I3- concentration in the reaction system low, a PtOx/H-Cs-WO3 photocatalyst is used as the oxygen evolution catalyst. At the same time, Al2O3 and poly(styrenesulfonate) (PSS) is added to suppress the back electron transfer from the semiconductor to the oxidized Ru complex and the I3- ion, respectively. This design enables more electrons to participate in the hydrogen evolution reaction, resulting in the most efficient Z-scheme water splitting system to date (Figure 1). “The surface modification of the dye-sensitized nanosheet photocatalyst improved the solar water splitting activity by nearly 100 times, making it comparable to conventional semiconductor-based photocatalyst systems,” says Prof. Maeda.

With the back electron transfer suppressed, the developed photocatalyst could also maintain hydrogen production at low light levels, giving it an edge over other photocatalysts that require high light intensities. Moreover, by minimizing the impact of the back electron transfer reactions, the researchers have not only set a new benchmark for dye-sensitized photocatalysts for Z-scheme water splitting, but also laid the framework to improve other dye-sensitized systems that are used for other important reactions such as CO2 reduction.

CAPTION

Surface modification with an insulator and an anionic polymer improved water splitting activity up to a hundred times. This illustration was selected as a featured image in Science Advances.

CREDIT

Science Advances

About Tokyo Institute of Technology

Tokyo Tech stands at the forefront of research and higher education as the leading university for science and technology in Japan. Tokyo Tech researchers excel in fields ranging from materials science to biology, computer science, and physics. Founded in 1881, Tokyo Tech hosts over 10,000 undergraduate and graduate students per year, who develop into scientific leaders and some of the most sought-after engineers in industry. Embodying the Japanese philosophy of “monotsukuri,” meaning “technical ingenuity and innovation,” the Tokyo Tech community strives to contribute to society through high-impact research.

https://www.titech.ac.jp/english/

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JOURNAL

Science Advances

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Experimental study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE TITLE

Surface-Modified, Dye-Sensitized Niobate Nanosheets Enabling an Efficient Solar-Driven Z-Scheme for Overall Water Splitting

New evidence shows water separates into two different liquids at low temperatures

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF BIRMINGHAM

Fresh evidence that water can change from one form of liquid into another, denser liquid, has been uncovered by researchers at the University of Birmingham and Sapienza Università di Roma.

This ‘phase transition’ in water was first proposed 30 years ago in a study by researchers from Boston University. Because the transition has been predicted to occur at supercooled conditions, however, confirming its existence has been a challenge. That’s because at these low temperatures, water really does not want to be a liquid, instead it wants to rapidly become ice. Because of its hidden status, much is still unknown about this liquid-liquid phase transition, unlike about everyday examples of phase transitions in water between a solid or vapour phase and a liquid phase.

This new evidence, published in Nature Physics, represents a significant step forward in confirming the idea of a liquid-liquid phase transition first proposed in 1992. Francesco Sciortino, now a professor at Sapienza Università di Roma, was a member of the original research team at Boston University and is also a co-author of this paper.

The team has used computer simulations to help explain what features distinguish the two liquids at the microscopic level. They found that the water molecules in the high-density liquid form arrangements that are considered to be “topologically complex”, such as a trefoil knot (think of the molecules arranged in such a way that they resemble a pretzel) or a Hopf link (think of two links in a steel chain). The molecules in the high-density liquid are thus said to be entangled. 

In contrast, the molecules in the low-density liquid mostly form simple rings, and hence the molecules in the low-density liquid are unentangled.

Andreas Neophytou, a PhD student at the University of Birmingham with Dr Dwaipayan Chakrabarti, is lead author on the paper. He says: “This insight has provided us with a completely fresh take on what is now a 30-year old research problem, and will hopefully be just the beginning.”

The researchers used a colloidal model of water in their simulation, and then two widely used molecular models of water. Colloids are particles that can be a thousand times larger than a single water molecule. By virtue of their relatively bigger size, and hence slower movements, colloids are used to observe and understand physical phenomena that also occur at the much smaller atomic and molecular length scales.

Dr Chakrabarti, a co-author, says: “This colloidal model of water provides a magnifying glass into molecular water, and enables us to unravel the secrets of water concerning the tale of two liquids.”

Professor Sciortino says: “In this work, we propose, for the first time, a view of the liquid-liquid phase transition based on network entanglement ideas. I am sure this work will inspire novel theoretical modelling based on topological concepts.”

The team expect that the model they have devised will pave the way for new experiments that will validate the theory and extend the concept of ‘entangled’ liquids to other liquids such as silicon.

Pablo Debenedetti, a professor of chemical and biological engineering at Princeton University in the US and a world-leading expert in this area of research, remarks: “This beautiful computational work uncovers the topological basis underlying the existence of different liquid phases in the same network-forming substance.” He adds: “In so doing, it substantially enriches and deepens our understanding of a phenomenon that abundant experimental and computational evidence increasingly suggests is central to the physics of that most important of liquids: water.”

Christian Micheletti, a professor at International School for Advanced Studies in Trieste, Italy, whose current research interest lies in understanding the impact of entanglement, especially knots and links, on the static, kinetics and functionality of biopolymers, remarks: “With this single paper, Neophytou et al. made several breakthroughs that will be consequential across diverse scientific areas. First, their elegant and experimentally amenable colloidal model for water opens entirely new perspectives for large-scale studies of liquids. Beyond this, they give very strong evidence that phase transitions that may be elusive to traditional analysis of the local structure of liquids are instead readily picked up by tracking the knots and links in the bond network of the liquid. The idea of searching for such intricacies in the somewhat abstract space of pathways running along transient molecular bonds is a very powerful one, and I expect it will be widely adopted to study complex molecular systems.”

Sciortino adds: “Water, one after the other, reveals its secrets! Dream how beautiful it would be if we could look inside the liquid and observe the dancing of the water molecules, the way they flicker, and the way they exchange partners, restructuring the hydrogen bond network.  The realisation of the colloidal model for water we propose can make this dream come true.”

The research was supported by the Royal Society via International Exchanges Award, which enabled the international collaboration between the researchers in the UK and Italy, the EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Topological Design and the Institute of Advanced Studies at the University of Birmingham, and the Italian Ministero Istruzione Università Ricerca – Progetti di Rilevante Interesse Nazionale.

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JOURNAL

Nature Physics

DOI

10.1038/s41567-022-01698-6 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Computational simulation/modeling

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

NTU scientists invent invisible coating to make wood “fireproof”

Business Announcement

NANYANG TECHNOLOGICAL UNIVERSITY

 

IMAGE: (FROM RIGHT) NTU ASSOC PROF ARAVIND DASARI, NTU PHD GRADUATE DR SHEIK ANEES AND PHD STUDENT DEAN SEAH. ASSOC PROF ARAVIND IS HOLDING A COATED PIECE OF LAMINATED TIMBER WHILE DR ANEES AND MR SEAH ARE HOLDING NON-COATED TIMBER. view more 

CREDIT: NTU SINGAPORE

An invisible coating that can “fireproof” wood has been invented by scientists at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore).

With the popularity of mass engineered timber growing in the construction industry, one of the biggest challenges for wood is its flammability. When untreated, wood or timber can burn and combust easily.

For instance, in the Great Fire of London of 1666, a large part of central London was burnt down as timber constituted a major part in construction of buildings. Today, most buildings are built using a combination of steel, concrete and glass, all of which are relatively less susceptible to fire.

Over the last decade, mass engineered timber is gaining popularity due to lower costs and faster construction, which sees productivity gains of up to 35 per cent. If the wood is harvested from sustainably managed forests, it also has a lower carbon footprint when compared to steel or concrete buildings.

Current practices to protect the interior of wooden buildings from fires require the use of fire-retardant panels (typically, gypsum and magnesia boards) or the timber has to be coated with paint-like fire-retardant coatings, both of which conceals the natural wood grain of timber.

In comparison, the new invisible coating developed by NTU allows for natural beauty of timber to shine and yet can still provide a flame barrier when "activated” by fire.

Invented by a team led by Associate Professor Aravind Dasari from the NTU School of Materials Science and Engineering, this fireproof coating is just 0.075 millimetres thick and is highly transparent, making it invisible to the naked eye.

When heated up by a hot flame, a series of complex chemical reactions happens, causing the coating to become a char that expands to more than 30 times its original thickness. This char prevents the fire from combusting the wood underneath, as shown in an accredited lab test.[1]

“Most timber or wooden panels only have a transparent coat that protects them from moisture, weather corrosion, termites or pests, and are not designed to withstand high heat. Thus, timber can still burn very quickly, especially if it is unprotected,” explained Assoc Prof Dasari, an expert in fire-retardant materials.

“In our coating, we used technology to lock certain compounds and interact with the resin. They will actively participate in the chemical reactions in a systematic manner when exposed to high heat, thus leading to the formation of char. This char was engineered to be extremely heat-resistant, insulating the wood underneath from the high heat.”

The innovation has a technology disclosure filed through NTUitive, NTU’s innovation and enterprise company, and the commercialisation project was funded S$250,000 through the NTUitive Gap Fund.

NTU Vice President (Innovation and Entrepreneurship) Professor Louis Phee, described this innovation as a revolutionary step forward for the timber construction industry.

“Leveraging on NTU’s strengths in materials sciences and engineering, this is an example of how fundamental research can be translated into commercial applications with high impact, given that the invisible coating enhances both safety and aesthetics in timber construction with few to no drawbacks,” Prof Phee said.

“Innovations like this are what NTU can offer to industry players who are keen to work with us to license, commercialise and adapt technologies that can be used to create unique products that will ensure competitiveness for Singapore in the global market.”

The NTU team is now in licensing talks with different companies. Venturer Timberwork is actively exploring the usage of this innovative coating to protect their mass engineered timber elements in one of their current projects.

Bolstering engineered timber’s resistance to fire is critical to expanding the uptake of this technology across more of the built environment, says Mr Kevin Hill, Venturer’s Managing Director.

“At Venturer, like other stakeholders in the Mass timber construction sector, we believe more new projects will look at using this new coating technology if fire resistance can be improved. It has the potential to reduce cost and reliance on other more expensive solutions, such as using thicker timber to increase charring layers, or by encapsulating the timber with fireboards, which negates the beauty of this sustainable and productive building technology.”

This new coating is expected to be in high demand by the construction industry, as timber buildings need to meet specific fire codes for buildings set by regulators.

There are only a few products that can provide both transparency and fire retardance that are available in the market. Products which claim to have both properties currently are either extremely prohibitive in cost or are unable to pass international standards required for industrial use.

In industry-standard tests, such as the Single Burning Item[2] tests conducted at a third-party accreditation laboratory, the made-in-NTU coating achieved the highest class possible. When exposed to a high-temperature flame, the coating generated very little smoke and is able to prevent the flames from spreading.

When the char is scraped off, the wood underneath is still intact, proving the efficiency of the coating to protect the wood.

This is important as in a case of a fire, construction materials need to be fire retardant and relatively smoke-free to allow for the safe evacuation of occupants in a building.

The global fire-resistant coating industry is also expected to grow to US$1.06 billion market by 2029[3], in a recent report by Exactitude Consultancy.

Moving forward, Assoc Prof Aravind will look to work with industry partners to test the effectiveness and longevity of the coating.

***END***

CAPTION

Uncoated timber burns and cracks when exposed to fire while coated timber (right) has a layer of char that is activated by fire, and protects the timber underneath, preventing the wood underneath from burning.

CREDIT

NTU Singapore

CAPTION

PhD student Dean Seah, NTU Assoc Prof Aravind Dasari, and NTU PhD graduate Dr Sheik Anees, with mass engineered timber (coated on the right and uncoated on the left) in front of them.

CREDIT

NTU Singapore

CAPTION

NTU Assoc Prof Aravind (left) with PhD student Dean Seah, doing fire tests on timber in the lab.

CREDIT

NTU Singapore

VIDEO

Wood you believe it? "Fire-proofing" wood and yet retaining the natural aesthetics of wood grain is now possible, thanks to an invisible coating invented by #NTUsg scientists.

CREDIT

NTU Singapore

[1] Code of Practice for Fire Precautions in Buildings 2018 (Singapore Civil Defence Force), fire classification procedure for all construction products: (EN 13501-1 / EN 13823)

[2] Industry standard test, as performed in line with EN 13501-1 / EN 13823, which are required by authorities such as the Singapore Civil Defence Force

[3] Fire-resistant coatings market by type (intumescent coatings, cementitious coatings), technology (solvent-borne, water-borne), substrates (metal, wood), application technique (Spray, Brush & Roller) and region, global trends and forecast from 2022 to 2029. Exactitude Consultancy. (2022, May 25). https://exactitudeconsultancy.com/reports/2777/fire-resistant-coatings-market/

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