Researchers track twitter to learn what people valued in New York City parks after COVID-19 pandemic

Peer-Reviewed Publication

NORTH CAROLINA STATE UNIVERSITY

North Carolina State University researchers found they could use Twitter to understand changes in what New York City park users valued most about four iconic city parks before and after COVID-19 lockdowns went into effect. The researchers also found Twitter useful for tracking complaints about individual parks.

The findings indicate social media could be an important tool for park managers, park planners or others to respond in real time to changes in users’ needs or to plan for future parks, potentially faster than using traditional survey-based methods.

“We found that you can pull out detail about individual parks, as well as track what people value in parks, complaints they had about specific events, and even broader societal issues that people are talking about,” said study co-author Aaron Hipp, associate professor of community health and sustainability at NC State. “While we have some additional work to automate this and get closer to real-time monitoring, we think our findings indicate that parks can monitor this information and feel confident that some of the social media traffic can be a pretty reliable reflection of public sentiments.”

For the study, researchers tracked tweets about Central Park in Manhattan, Prospect Park in Brooklyn, Flushing Meadows in Queens and the Bronx Park from March 2019 to February 2020, and then from March 2020 to February 2021. They used natural language processing and topic modeling techniques to analyze a total of 71,792 tweets, which excluded retweets, tweets from influencers, bots, and tweets containing fewer than three words. Overall, they found tweets about Central Park grew 18% and tweets about Prospect Park grew by 87%. Meanwhile, tweets about Flushing Meadows declined 71% and tweets about Bronx Park fell 32%.

Researchers said the findings reflect the effects of a COVID-19 stay-at-home order. Since outdoor recreation was limited to solitary exercise, parks and trails became popular destinations after March 2020. However, this trend did not seem to hold true across all parks due to their distinct offerings.

“Flushing Meadows is famous for sports events, but during the pandemic, those were mostly canceled,” said the study’s lead author Jing-Huei Huang, postdoctoral research scholar at NC State. “In Bronx Park, people tended to tweet about the zoo and Botanical Garden, but those were closed, so that was reflected in the decline in tweets.”

Tweets about physical activity such as walking, jogging and biking grew in all four parks during the pandemic. The researchers also saw concerns about social distancing and related issues in all four.

“In all four parks, we saw participating in physical activity outdoors was particularly important when people had to keep distant from each other, and they were not able to participate in social activities,” Huang said. “We were also able to capture negative feelings when people were upset seeing crowds in parks, or when people weren’t wearing masks,” Huang added. “It’s sending useful signals to the management team.”

They also captured tweets about specific incidents in each park that reflected larger social concerns. For example, they saw a peak in tweets about racial discrimination in May 2020 after the Central Park birdwatching incident, when Amy Cooper, a white woman, called the police on a Black man, Christian Cooper, who was birdwatching. They also saw complaints about Flushing Meadows becoming a “giant parking lot” amid advocacy for a new greenway to increase access and ensure pedestrian safety.

In a follow-up study, they’re planning to compare data gathered using traditional surveys to what they found on social media.

“A long-range goal is to be able to get this feedback in real time, so park managers could launch programming in response,” Hipp said. “For example, amid a surge in demand, you could open a street nearby for waking or biking. There is also big potential here for the evaluation of programs and events especially when decisions are made on the fly, such as during COVID. This social media data can provide a retrospective opportunity to evaluate what people were saying about the park, a specific program or event.”

The paper, “Exploring values through Twitter data associated with urban parks pre- and post-COVID-19,” was published online in Landscape and Urban Planning. Co-authors included Myron F. Floyd and Laura G. Tateosian. The study is part of the project “Greenspace Characteristics and their Associations with Population Health” funded by USDA Forest Service Grant/Agreement Number: 16-JV-11330144-065

-oleniacz-

Note to authors: The abstract follows.

“Exploring values through Twitter data associated with urban parks pre- and post-COVID-19”

Authors: Jing-Huei Huang, Myron F. Floyd, Laura G. Tateosian and J. Aaron Hipp

Published online in Landscape and Urban Planning.

DOI: 10.1016/j.landurbplan.2022.104517

Abstract: Since school and business closures due to the evolving COVID-19 outbreak, urban parks have been a popular destination, offering spaces for daily fitness activities and an escape from the home environment. There is a need for evidence for parks and recreation departments and agencies to base decisions when adapting policies in response to the rapid change in demand and preferences during the pandemic. The application of social media data analytic techniques permits a qualitative and quantitative big-data approach to gain unobtrusive and prompt insights on how parks are valued. This study investigates how public values associated with NYC parks has shifted between pre- COVID (i.e., from March 2019 to February 2020) and postCOVID (i.e., from March 2020 to February 2021) through a social media microblogging platform –Twitter. A topic modeling technique for short text identified common traits of the changes in Twitter topics regarding impressions and values associated with the parks over two years. While the NYC lockdown resulted in much fewer social activities in parks, some parks continued to be valued for physical activity and nature contact during the pandemic. Concerns about people not keeping physical distance arose in parks where frequent human interactions and crowding seemed to cause a higher probability of the coronavirus transmission. This study demonstrates social media data could be used to capture park values and be specific per park. Results could inform park management during disruptions when use is altered and the needs of the public may be changing.

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JOURNAL

Landscape and Urban Planning

DOI

10.1016/j.landurbplan.2022.104517 

ARTICLE TITLE

Exploring public values through Twitter data associated with urban parks pre- and post- COVID-19

Study first to explore ‘walking’ sharks on the move in early life stages

Researchers compare walking, swimming in neonates with bulging bellies and slender juvenile epaulette sharks

Peer-Reviewed Publication

FLORIDA ATLANTIC UNIVERSITY

 

VIDEO: RESEARCHERS INVESTIGATED HOW WALKING AND SWIMMING CHANGES IN THE EPAULETTE SHARK’S EARLY DEVELOPMENT. view more 

CREDIT: CONNOR R. GERVAIS, PH.D.

A newly-discovered walking shark that breaks all of the rules for survival is the focus of a first-of-its-kind study by Florida Atlantic University and collaborators in Australia. Researchers investigated how walking and swimming changes in the epaulette shark’s (Hemiscyllium ocellatum) early development. This small (about 3 feet), reef-dwelling, benthic shark walks both in and out of water by wriggling its body and pushing with its paddle-shaped fins.

Found within the reef flats around Australia’s southern Great Barrier Reef, epaulette sharks experience short periods of elevated CO2 and hypoxia (low oxygen) as well as fluctuating temperatures as reef flats become isolated with the outgoing tide. Remarkably, this walking shark is capable of surviving complete anoxia (no oxygen) for two hours without adverse effects, and at a much higher temperature than most other hypoxia-tolerant animals.

The epaulette shark’s ability to move efficiently among micro-habitats under these challenging environmental conditions could directly impact their survival and physiological responses to climate change. Yet, very few studies have examined their kinematics (body movements). Those that have, only focused on adult-life stages. No study has specifically examined their locomotion (how they move) during early-life stages, until now.

As locomotor performance may be key to the epaulette sharks’ robust response to challenging environmental conditions, FAU researchers in collaboration with Australia’s James Cook University and Macquaire University examined differences in walking and swimming in neonate (newly-hatched) and juvenile walking sharks.

Neonates retain embryonic nutrition via an internalized yolk sac, which results in a bulging belly. In contrast, juveniles are more slender because they actively forage for worms, crustaceans and small fishes. During development, the yolk that the neonate sharks are storing starts to diminish as they develop into juveniles. As the yolk is depleted, the shark then begins to actively forage.

Because of dissimilarities in body shapes, researchers expected to see differences in locomotor performance in these walking sharks. To test their hypothesis, they examined neonate and juvenile locomotor kinematics during the three aquatic gaits they utilize – slow-to-medium walking, fast-walking and swimming – using 13 anatomical landmarks along the fins, girdles and body midline. They quantified axial body kinematics (velocity, tail beat amplitude and frequency and body curvature) and axial body bending, fin rotation and duty factor and tail kinematics.

Surprisingly, results published in the journal Integrative & Comparative Biology, showed that differences in body shape did not alter kinematics between neonate and juvenile walking sharks. Overall velocity, fin rotation, axial bending and tail beat frequency and amplitude were consistent between early life stages.

Data suggest that the locomotor kinematics are maintained between neonate and juvenile epaulette sharks, even as their feeding strategy changes. These findings suggest that submerged locomotion in neonates is not impacted by the yolk sac and the effects it has on body shape, as all aspects of submerged locomotion were comparable to that of the juveniles.

“Studying epaulette shark locomotion allows us to understand this species’– and perhaps related species’– ability to move within and away from challenging conditions in their habitats,” said Marianne E. Porter, Ph.D., senior author and an associate professor, Department of Biological Sciences, FAU’s Charles E. Schmidt College of Science. “In general, these locomotor traits are key to survival for a small, benthic mesopredator that maneuvers into small reef crevices to avoid aerial and aquatic predators. These traits also may be related to their sustained physiological performance under challenging environmental conditions, including those associated with climate change – an important topic for future studies.”

Studying the link between locomotion and the physiological mechanisms required to tolerate challenging environmental conditions represents an essential next step in understanding how this group of important mesopredators will respond to future ocean conditions.

“Investigating how locomotor performance changes over the course of early ontogeny – perhaps the most vulnerable life stages, in terms of predator-prey interactions and environmental stressors – can offer insights into the kinematic mechanisms that allow animals to compensate for constraints to meet locomotor and ecological demands,” said Porter.

Study co-authors are Andrea V. Hernandez, an undergraduate student in FAU’s Department of Biological Sciences; Connor R. Gervais, Ph.D., a research associate at Arc Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, James Cook University, and Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia; and Jodie L. Rummer, Ph.D., a professor of marine biology in the College of Science and Engineering, James Cook University, and a research associate at Arc Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies.

This work was supported, in part, by a National Science Foundation CAREER award to Porter (IOS 1941713), and in part, by an Australian Research Council (ARC) Super Science Fellowship, ARC Early Career Discovery Award, and ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies research allocation awarded to Rummer.

- FAU -

About Florida Atlantic University:
Florida Atlantic University, established in 1961, officially opened its doors in 1964 as the fifth public university in Florida. Today, the University serves more than 30,000 undergraduate and graduate students across six campuses located along the southeast Florida coast. In recent years, the University has doubled its research expenditures and outpaced its peers in student achievement rates. Through the coexistence of access and excellence, FAU embodies an innovative model where traditional achievement gaps vanish. FAU is designated a Hispanic-serving institution, ranked as a top public university by U.S. News & World Report and a High Research Activity institution by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. For more information, visit www.fau.edu.

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JOURNAL

Integrative and Comparative Biology

DOI

10.1093/icb/icac127 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Observational study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Animals

ARTICLE TITLE

Aquatic Walking and Swimming Kinematics of Neonate and Juvenile Epaulette Sharks

Arctic mercury levels drop during the depths of the winter

First-ever measurements of total mercury levels in the polar night uncovered a 33 per cent drop compared to summer levels

Peer-Reviewed Publication

NORWEGIAN UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

 

IMAGE: IT USED TO BE THAT RESEARCHERS DIDN'T STUDY WHAT HAPPENS IN THE ARCTIC DURING THE POLAR NIGHT BECAUSE IT WAS DIFFICULT TO WORK THERE. BUT OVER THE PAST DECADE, RESEARCHERS HAVE VENTURED INTO THIS ENVIRONMENT AND HAVE COME UP WITH SURPRISING FINDINGS. NORWAY'S RESEARCH-DEDICATED ICEBREAKER, KRONPRINS HÅKON, LAUNCHED IN 2017, IS AN IMPORTANT TOOL FOR THIS RESEARCH. view more 

CREDIT: ROBIN HJERTNES

Over the last decade, researchers have learned a lot about the polar night — discovering everything from how tiny marine critters migrate up and down in the sea in response to the weak light of the moon, to seabirds that dive into the pitch-black ocean to feast on bioluminescent plankton and krill.

But what is less well known is how the chemistry of Arctic Ocean water changes during this period, when the sun remains completely below the horizon for a full 24-hour day.

Now, in an article published in Nature Geoscience, Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) researchers report on a surprising trend they discovered in mercury levels in the ocean during the polar night.

“We found that total mercury concentrations in the Barents Sea decreased by about 33 percent from summer to winter,” said Stephen G. Kohler, a PhD candidate at NTNU’s Marine Chemistry and Biogeochemistry group in the Department of Chemistry, and first author of the article.

First-ever winter measurements

These measurements are the first-ever winter reports on this element in Arctic Ocean waters.They were conducted as a part of the Nansen Legacy Project, a 7-year-long collaborative between 10 Norwegian research institutions that involves studying the physical and biological aspects of the Barents Sea during all four seasons.

“Everything that we've done and know about the Arctic so far is entirely based on when we were allowed to go there, which was mostly in the summer,” Kohler said. “And the fact that now we have a snapshot of what's happening during the dark period gives us more insight into the entire mercury cycle.”

The problem with mercury

What happens with mercury levels in the Arctic matters because a specific toxic form of mercury, called methylmercury, can find its way into the food web.This poses risks to the health of animals at the top of the food chain, such as polar bears, and to northern indigenous people who consume contaminated fish and seals as a regular part of their diets.

But what Kohler and his colleagues are interested in is far more fundamental than this — they want to know the basic mechanisms by which mercury moves around in Arctic waters.

Manmade sources of mercury are transported to the Arctic via the air or in water. A large human-caused source of atmospheric mercury is from coal combustion. This mercury in the atmosphere can deposit onto the Arctic surface due to chemical reactions caused by sunlight. In addition, natural sources of mercury to the Arctic Ocean include  releases from melting permafrost into river water and land erosion.

As the planet warms over the next decades, more and more permafrost will melt, releasing more mercury to Arctic waters. That makes it important to understand how the element behaves, in all its different forms, and throughout the year, Kohler said.

Summer increase, winter decrease

Kohler and his colleagues observed higher mercury levels in surface seawater during the summer because the sun is up and everything has thawed, from sea ice to rivers, all of which can deliver mercury to the ocean.

“It’s warmer in the summer. So there’s more river water coming in, light in the atmosphere, and therefore, there's more mercury coming in,” Kohler said.

So you might expect that during the winter, when the Arctic is dark and frozen, mercury values would stay the same, since all the inputs have been stopped. But what Kohler and his colleagues saw, a 33 per cent drop in total mercury amounts compared to summer values, made them look for an explanation.

Particle scavenging

Kohler and his colleagues, including postdoc Nicolas Sanchez, were also measuring levels of other metals in ocean water, including iron and manganese.

And what they found was that manganese levels also decreased in the winter. In seawater, manganese can form small particles which then attract the mercury that’s in the seawater, in a process called scavenging.

These particles can become heavy enough to sink to the bottom of the sea. The researchers suggested that these particles are responsible for taking the mercury to deeper waters and sediments.

“Scavenging is when the particles are essentially just grabbing mercury from the water and taking it along for the ride,” Kohler said.

While this scavenging removes mercury from surface layers, it means increases in  mercury in sediments, where it is brought by the manganese particles.

More toxic mercury in the future

That’s not necessarily good news, even though it seems like it might be.

Once mercury reaches ocean sediments, it can be acted on by bacteria living in the sediments. These bacteria can transform mercury into its toxic form, methylmercury.

All this means that more toxic mercury could find its way into Arctic food webs, Kohler said.

“In the future, rising temperatures caused by climate change will enable more mercury to be released from mercury-rich permafrost around the Arctic circle during the summer,” he said. “This mercury is delivered to the Arctic Ocean via rivers. As a result, increasing amounts of mercury in surface waters indicate increasing amounts of mercury descending to the depths in winter, potentially resulting in more toxic methylmercury formation in the future Arctic Ocean.”

Reference: Kohler, S.G., Heimbürger-Boavida, LE., Petrova, M.V. et al. Arctic Ocean’s wintertime mercury concentrations limited by seasonal loss on the shelf. Nat. Geosci. (2022).  https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-022-00986-3

CAPTION

It’s not easy studying the Arctic during the dark of the polar night. The Nansen Legacy project aims to shed light on the physical, chemical and biological processes in the Barents Sea across all four seasons.

CREDIT

Photo: Stephen Kohler

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JOURNAL

Nature Geoscience

DOI

10.1038/s41561-022-00986-3 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Experimental study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE TITLE

Arctic Ocean’s wintertime mercury concentrations limited by seasonal loss on the shelf.

Middle-aged men led the violence in 1994 genocide in Rwanda

Study provides comprehensive information about participants

Peer-Reviewed Publication

OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY

Although most people who commit violence tend to be teens and young adults, a new study found that the perpetrators of the 1994 genocide in Rwanda were mostly middle-aged men.

Researchers found that 88% of people who participated in the genocide were men with an average age of 34 (when life expectancy peaked below 50), and who census statistics indicate were likely to be married. Between 229,069 and 234,155 individuals were found guilty of a violent offense.

“These are not the people that criminology theories would say are most likely to engage in violent crimes,” said Hollie Nyseth Nzitatira, lead author of the study and associate professor of sociology at The Ohio State University.

“Our results show that individuals involved in genocide don’t always fit the characteristics generally connected to other violent crimes.”

But the study did find one way in which participants in the 1994 genocide in Rwanda were like other violent criminals: A small number of them were responsible for a great many of the crimes. Findings showed 6% of people accounted for 25% of crimes in the genocide.

The study, published recently in the Journal of Peace Research, provides the most comprehensive information about the participants in one of the deadliest episodes of violence during the 20th century. Up to 1 million people were killed in the genocide in Rwanda, mostly members of the Tutsi ethnic group.

The researchers are the first to have obtained access to the complete records of nearly all 1.9 million trials of the gacaca courts, which the Rwandan government set up to try people suspected of participating in the genocide.

“The court data are certainly not perfect, but they provide the best way to know how many people and which people participated in crimes of genocide,” Nyseth Nzitatira said.

Study results showed that between 847,233 and 888,307 people participated in the genocide in Rwanda.  About one-fifth of them participated only in violent crimes, with the great majority only involved in property crimes – most often looting victims and their homes. A small number committed both property and violent crimes.

While women were less likely to perpetrate genocide, over 10,000 women committed violent offenses, with many more committing property crimes.

Overall, 88% of all participants were men, while about 95% of those who committed only violent offenses were men.

This goes along with other research showing that men commit most crimes and especially violent crimes, and it is also consistent with research showing that the Rwandan government encouraged men of the dominant Hutu ethnic group to kill Tutsi, Nyseth Nzitatira said.

The government rationale that Hutu men had to protect their families may also help explain why this study found that participants were relatively older.

“Our data indicate there was wide participation among Rwandans who were older than theories of ‘youth bulges’ in criminal activity would suggest,” Nyseth Nzitatira said.

“Many stories about the genocide focus on youth militias that became prominent, such as the Interahamwe. So, many people think it was 19- and 20-year-olds who were engaging in most of the violence, when it was really men who were in their early- to mid-30s.”

The median age for all participants was 34 – and that age did not change much when the researchers looked at just those who committed violent crimes or those who committed multiple crimes.

The life expectancy in Rwanda just before the genocide began was less than 50, Nyseth Nzitatira said, so the perpetrators were truly middle-aged.

Participants in the genocide were also likely married, which is not surprising given their age.  Statistics show that about 87% of 33-year-old men in Rwanda at the time of the genocide were married or had been married. “These men were told they had to protect their families, their wives and children, from the Tutsi who were supposedly invading their country,” Nyseth Nzitatira said.

Results showed that about 75% of those found guilty of any crimes of genocide, property damage or violence against people, were found guilty of only one crime. But 6% of participants accounted for 25% of all crimes.

That included 11% of people who accounted for 25% of violent crimes and 6% who accounted for 25% of all property crimes.

“The fact that a small number of people are responsible for a large proportion of the violence is very striking, and researchers have found that across many different types of crimes and many different contexts,” she said.

The results showing who participated in the genocide may help prevent and de-escalate future conflicts, according to Nyseth Nzitatira. The information may help in development of targeted interventions for those more likely to engage in violence.

In addition, having these more accurate numbers of how many participated in the genocide is important for the country of Rwanda, Nyseth Nzitatira said.

“More accurate figures can help in the country’s rebuilding and healing, which continues today.”

Co-authors on the study were Laura Frizzell, a doctoral student in sociology at Ohio State, and Jared Edgerton of the Human Trafficking Data Lab at Stanford University, who is now an assistant professor at the University of Texas at Dallas.

The research was funded by the National Science Foundation.

JOURNAL

Journal of Peace Research

DOI

10.1177/00223433221075211 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Data/statistical analysis

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

Analyzing Participation in the 1994 Genocide in Rwanda

Chung-Ang University researchers breathe life into sensors with versatile gas masks

The researchers developed a novel self-powered device that is driven by respiration, allowing them to be integrated with gas masks

Peer-Reviewed Publication

CHUNG ANG UNIVERSITY

 

IMAGE: IN A NEW STUDY, CHUNG-ANG UNIVERSITY RESEARCHERS DESIGN A HIGH-POWER AND HIGH OUTPUT TRIBOELECTRIC NANOGENERATOR (TENG)-BASED SENSOR THAT CAN BE POWERED BY BREATHING. THE RESEARCHERS INTEGRATED THIS DEVICE INTO A GAS MASK TO CREATE A SELF-POWERED HYBRID SENSOR THAT DETECTS BREATHING PATTERNS AND HARMFUL CHEMICALS. view more 

CREDIT: PROF. SANGMIN LEE FROM CHUNG-ANG UNIVERSITY, KOREA

With the onset of the Internet of Things (IoT) era, devices have learned to communicate and exchange data. This is achieved through sensors installed in physical objects, machines, and equipment. The sensors can detect changes in events. However, the need for continuous energy supply to these sensors poses a challenge. Batteries are bulky, expensive, and not environmentally friendly. Additionally, they need to be constantly replaced or recharged.

Consequently, there is a demand for sustainable and renewable energy sources to replace batteries. The triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) is one such device. Put simply, TENGs convert mechanical energy into electrical energy. Their high energy efficiency, compatibility with readily available materials, and low cost make them a promising candidate for powering sensors.

Despite such advantages, however, current TENGs are limited by a low output current. But increasing the output current would require larger equipment, making it impossible to be used in small devices. Is there a way around this trade-off?

Fortunately, a research team led by Associate Professor Sangmin Lee from Chung-Ang University in Korea, has now addressed this issue. “Our lab is interested in high-power TENG design and TENG-based self-powered sensors. We sought to address the limitation of current TENGs so that they could be used to realize portable power sources in practice,” says Dr. Lee, explaining his motivation behind the study, which was published online on May 31, 2022 in Advanced Energy Materials. The study will be featured on the front cover of the upcoming issue.

The team developed a novel device in their study called “inhalation-driven vertical flutter TENG” (IVF-TENG) which exhibits an amplified current output. "Respiration acts as a continuous mechanical input and can be used to operate TENGs. Film-flutter TENGs are such respiration-driven devices that can generate a continuous electrical output from an extremely small respiration input by exploiting the flutter phenomenon arising from airflow-induced vibrations,” explains Dr. Lee.

The IVF-TENG is composed of an aluminium (Al) inlet electrode, an aeroelastic dielectric sheet (polyimide), and an Al outlet electrode. The aeroelastic sheet has four segments with four slits and is subjected to vertical flutter behavior caused by airflow. This makes the proposed IVF-TENG different from existing TENGs.

The team investigated the electrical and mechanical mechanisms of IVF-TENG. They found that IVF-TENG generated a continuous, high-frequency electrical voltage (17 V) and a closed-circuit current of 1.84 μA during inhalation, and an electrostatic discharge voltage of 456 V and closed-circuit output current of 288 mA at the beginning and end of every inspiratory cycle.

They further demonstrated that IVF-TENG can continuously power 130 LEDs in series and 140 LEDs in parallel in every inhalation. Additionally, it could charge a 660 𝜇F capacitor to, in turn, power a Bluetooth tracker and provide its signal to a smartphone. These properties demonstrated the potential for IVF-TENG’s application in portable electronics and wireless data transmission.

Furthermore, the researchers integrated IVF-TENG into a gas mask and demonstrated its ability to monitor the breathing pattern of the user by observing the output response waveform. Moreover, it could detect chemical warfare agents like cyanogen chloride, sarin, and dimethyl methylphosphonate (DMMP), showing its potential for use during emergencies. “Since gas masks are extensively used in emergencies like fire and chemical gas exposure, we focused on applying TENG to a gas mask. We believe that IVF-TENG can be used as a self-powered sensor in such scenarios,” Dr. Lee speculates.

Indeed, their invention could make TENGs reinvent gas masks as a self-powered hybrid sensing system in the near future!

 

***

Reference

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/aenm.202201001

Authors: Deokjae Heo1, Myunghwan Song1, Seh-Hoon Chung1, Kyunghwan Cha1, Youna Kim2, Jihoon Chung2, Patrick T.J. Hwang3, Jaeheon Lee4, Heesoo Jung4, Youngho Jin4, Jinkee Hong2, Min-Kun Kim4, and Sangmin Lee1

Affiliations:
1School of Mechanical Engineering, Chung-Ang University
2Department of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering, College of Engineering, Yonsei University
3Department of Biomedical Engineering, The University of Alabama at Birmingham
4Agency for Defense Development, Chem-Bio Technology Center

 

About Chung-Ang University
Chung-Ang University is a private comprehensive research university located in Seoul, South Korea. It was started as a kindergarten in 1916 and attained university status in 1953. It is fully accredited by the Ministry of Education of Korea. Chung-Ang University conducts research activities under the slogan of “Justice and Truth.” Its new vision for completing 100 years is “The Global Creative Leader.” Chung-Ang University offers undergraduate, postgraduate, and doctoral programs, which encompass a law school, management program, and medical school; it has 16 undergraduate and graduate schools each. Chung-Ang University’s culture and arts programs are considered the best in Korea.
Website: https://neweng.cau.ac.kr/index.do

 

About Associate Professor Sangmin Lee                                       
Dr. Sangmin Lee received his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH) in 2011. He teaches at Chung-Ang University where he is an Associate Professor in the School of Mechanical Engineering. His group researches in the field of energy harvesting based on electrostatic potential, piezoelectric/triboelectric nanogenerators, and hybrid cells. His research interests also lie in surface wetting control including superhydrophobicity/superhydrophilicity based on micro and nanofabrications, and mechanical characterization of micro and nanostructures surfaces.

Read more about Prof. Lee here: https://scholarworks.bwise.kr/cau/researcher-profile?ep=919

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JOURNAL

Advanced Energy Materials

DOI

10.1002/aenm.202201001 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Experimental study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE TITLE

Inhalation-Driven Vertical Flutter Triboelectric Nanogenerator with Amplified Output as a Gas-Mask-Integrated Self-Powered Multifunctional System

Swarms of microrobots could be solution to unblocking medical devices in body

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF ESSEX

 

IMAGE: DR ALI HOSHIAR WORKING IN HIS MICROBIOTICS LAB AT THE UNIVERSITY OF ESSEX view more 

CREDIT: UNIVERSITY OF ESSEX

Swarms of microrobots injected into the human body could unblock internal medical devices and avoid the need for further surgery, according to new research from the University of Essex.

The study is the first-time scientists have developed magnetic microrobotics to remove deposits in shunts – common internal medical devices used to treat a variety of conditions by draining excess fluid from organs.

Shunts are prone to malfunctioning, often caused by blockages due to a build-up of sediment. The sediment not only narrows and obstructs liquid passing through the shunt, but it also affects the shunt’s flexibility. This leads to patients needing repeated, invasive surgeries throughout their lives either to replace the shunt or use a catheter to remove the blockage.

However, this new research, led by microrobotics expert Dr Ali Hoshiar, from Essex’s School of Computer Science and Electronic Engineering, has shown there could be a wireless, non-invasive alternative to clearing the blockage in a shunt.

Published in the IEEE Transaction on Biomedical Engineering journal, Dr Hoshiar and his team have shown that a swarm of hundreds of microrobots – made of nano size magnetic nanoparticles – injected into the shunt could remove the sediment instead.

“Once the magnetic microrobots are injected into the shunt they can be moved along the tube to the affected area using a magnetic field, generated by a powerful magnet on the body’s surface,” explained Dr Hoshiar. “The swarm of microrobots can then be moved so they scrape away the sediment, clearing the tube.

“The non-invasive nature of this method is a considerable advantage to existing methods as it will potentially eliminate the risk of surgery and a surgery-related infection, thereby decreasing recovery time.”

With each microrobot smaller than the width of a human hair, once the swarm has done its job, it can either be guided to the stomach via a magnetic field or bodily fluid, so they leave the body naturally. Because the microrobots have very high biocompatibility they will not cause toxicity.

The research also found a direct relation between the strength of the magnetic field and the success of scraping away the sediment in the shunt.

This is the first proof-of-concept experiment using microswarms for opening a blockage in a shunt. The next stage of this research is to work with clinicians to carry out trials. The researchers are also looking at how the concept can be used to other applications.

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JOURNAL

IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering

DOI

10.1109/TBME.2022.3192807 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Experimental study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE TITLE

A novel non-invasive intervention for removing occlusions from shunts using an abrading magnetic microswarm

Noise affects life on the seafloor

Sounds with low frequencies stress some species of crustaceans, worms and mussels - with potentially far-reaching consequences for marine ecosystems

Peer-Reviewed Publication

ALFRED WEGENER INSTITUTE, HELMHOLTZ CENTRE FOR POLAR AND MARINE RESEARCH

 

IMAGE: PARTICLES GLOWING UNDER UV LIGHT WERE USED TO VISUALIZE THE ANIMALS' DIGGING ACTIVITIES view more 

CREDIT: ALFRED WEGENER INSTITUTE / SHENG WANG

Oceans have their own unique soundscape. Many marine organisms, for example, use sound for echolocation, navigation or communication with conspecifics. In recent decades, however, more and more sounds caused by human activities are permeating the waters. A study by the Alfred Wegener Institute now presents evidence that these sounds affect some invertebrates that live in and on the seafloor in ways that important functions they provide for their ecosystems may be impacted.

Invertebrates such as crustaceans, mussels and worms are ecosystem engineers. They continually change the sediment they live in by burrowing, feeding, aerating and fertilizing with their excreta. These activities are critical to nutrient cycling in the ocean, allowing more carbon from dead organic material to be stored in the seafloor and nutrients to be recycled.

Rising temperatures, ocean acidification and pollutants are placing organisms in marine ecosystems under increasing stress. In recent decades, noises caused by human activities have also increasingly contributed to the problem, affecting the behavior, foraging or communication of marine animals. Sounds from blasting and resource extraction roar through the oceans along with the loud drone of cargo ships and recreational boats. A research team from the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI) in Bremerhaven has now shown in a study published in the journal Environmental Pollution that these sounds stress not only marine mammals, but also invertebrates. “We investigated how crustaceans, mussels and worms on the seafloor respond to low-frequency noise and how frequently and intensively they are able to transform and break down sediment during noise exposure,” says Sheng V. Wang from the Department of Biosciences at AWI. Low-frequency noise is sound with frequencies between 10 and 500 hertz and in water, these sounds can be transmitted over many kilometers.

Despite the constant rise in noise pollution caused by human activities, little is known about how noise affects invertebrates on the seafloor. To help fill this research gap, AWI scientists studied in the laboratory how amphipods, lugworms, and Baltic clams are affected by sound waves with frequencies between 100 and 200 hertz using so-called “noise eggs”. “After six days, we could clearly see that all three species responded to the noise even though they belong to very different groups of animals that lack actual organs for hearing,” says AWI ecologist Dr. Jan Beermann. For example, the amphipods burrowed significantly less and not as deep into the sediment. No clear response was observed for the lugworms but they seemed to behave more inconsistently. Potential stress responses were noted for the Baltic clams which need to be further investigated. The researchers stress the urgent need for field research, however, as experimental setups under laboratory conditions do not encompass the full complexity of nature.

That additional man-made noise could inhibit seafloor invertebrates from cultivating and restructuring sediments may affect important functions of marine ecosystems, from nutrient supply to food availability for those higher up in the food web such as fish. “Things could get even 'noisier' on the seafloor due to human activities,” Beermann says. “We are just beginning to understand how exactly noise processes work here. Understanding this, however, is crucial for the sustainable use of our oceans,” which is why the team plans to conduct further research in this area. Experiments at other AWI sites such as Helgoland and Sylt are also to provide more detailed findings in a project together with European partner research institutions. The international platform JPI Oceans is funding the project.

CAPTION

Amphipods occur in high densities in the seabed of the North Sea

CREDIT

Alfred Wegener Institute / Sheng Wang

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JOURNAL

Environmental Pollution

DOI

10.1016/j.envpol.2022.119899 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Experimental study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Animals

ARTICLE TITLE

Low-frequency noise pollution impairs burrowing activities of marine benthic invertebrates

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

1-Oct-2022