Retreating glaciers: fungi enhance carbon storage in young Arctic soils

LUDWIG-MAXIMILIANS-UNIVERSITÄT MÜNCHEN

Melting Arctic glaciers are in rapid recession, and microscopic pioneers colonize the new exposed landscapes. LMU researchers have revealed that yeasts play an important role in soil formation in the Arctic.

Roughly a tenth of the land surface of the Earth is covered by glacial ice. However, glaciers are retreating ever further and ever faster as a consequence of global warming. As they do so, they expose new landscapes which for millennia have been covered in ice, with extremely limited contact with air, light, and nutrients: conditions that are very challenging for life to survive. After glacial ice melts and retreats, various microbial lifeforms colonize the now accessible bedrock, accumulating nutrients and forming new soils and ecosystems. As soil can be a significant carbon store under the right circumstances, how exactly new soils form after the melting of glaciers is a question of great scientific and societal relevance.

The very first pioneers of the inhospitable terrain are microorganisms such as bacteria and fungi. “Microbes determine how much carbon and nitrogen can be stored in the young soils,” explains Professor William Orsi from the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at LMU. “But little is known about the exact processes behind this nutrient stabilization through microbial activity.” To better understand them, Orsi and his team studied soils in the Arctic that have recently been exposed. Their investigations were part of the dissertation of Orsi’s doctoral student Juan Carlos Trejos-Espeleta and were carried out in close cooperation with Arctic biogeochemist and CNRS researcher Dr. James Bradley from the Mediterranean Institute of Oceanography in France. The study was funded by the German National Science Foundation (DFG) the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), and the National Science Foundation (NSF). The results of the study, in which other researchers from the United States, the United Kingdom, and Switzerland were involved, have now been published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

Timeline of colonization

The object of their analyses was the glacier foreland of Midtre Lovénbreen, a retreating valley glacier in the northwest of Spitsbergen. “In the high Arctic, the melting of glaciers is particularly dramatic,” says Orsi. “Ice-free terrestrial environments are expanding there at an extraordinarily fast rate.” James Bradley, who first worked at the site in 2013, said: “A decade ago I was drilling ice cores into the glacier. When we returned in 2021, the glacier had shrunk and instead of ice there were barren, seemingly lifeless soils”. But upon laboratory-based analyses of these soils, the researchers found that they contain incredibly diverse communities of microbes.

The newly exposed areas are ideal for researching incremental changes in the soil. The closer soil is to the glacier margin, the younger it is; whereas the further away soil is, the more time life has had to colonize the terrain. Immediately beyond the ice, there is a zone of glacial rocky debris where no visible plant life exists, followed by moraines with isolated mosses and lichens, and after this only then do flowering plants and soil begin to form in an advanced stage of development. As such, receding glacier edges are ideal natural laboratories for observing the various stages of soil development. The ecosystems are some of the most pristine, delicate, and vulnerable habitats on the planet, and they are rapidly colonised by specialised microbes, even though they are subject to extremes in temperature, light, water and nutrient availability.

Orsi’s team investigated the microbial composition of the various areas by means of DNA analysis while also measuring the cycling and flow of carbon and nitrogen. Through experiments involving isotope labeled amino acids, they were able to precisely follow the microbial assimilation and metabolism of organic carbon. “We were especially interested in what proportion of carbon microorganisms lock in the soil as biomass and how much they release back into the atmosphere as carbon dioxide,” says Juan Carlos Trejos-Espeleta.

Pioneer fungi sequester carbon in the soil

Their main focus was on fungi – a class of organism that is much better than bacteria at storing a lot of carbon in the soil and keeping it there. The ratio of fungi to bacteria is an important indicator of carbon storage: More fungi mean more carbon in the soil, while more bacteria generally lead to the soil emitting more CO2. “In high Arctic ecosystems, the variety of fungi is particularly high compared to that of plants, which increases the likelihood that fungal communities could play a key role there as ecosystem engineers,” reckons Orsi. Discovering more about the carbon assimilation processes of fungal and bacterial populations and carbon flow processes in the ecosystem is crucial for making accurate predictions about how terrestrial ecosystems in the Arctic will respond to future warming.

And indeed, the researchers were able to show that fungi – or more precisely, specific basidiomycete yeasts – play a decisive role in the early stabilization of the assimilated carbon. According to the study, they are the fungal pioneers in the young postglacial soils and make a decisive contribution to the enrichment of organic carbon. The research team found that these specialized fungi are not only able to colonise the harsh Arctic landscapes before any other more complex life, but that they also provide a foothold for soil to develop by building up a base of organic carbon which other life can use. In soils in medium and late stages, bacteria increasingly dominate amino acid assimilation, leading to a significant reduction in the formation of biomass and an increase in CO2 from respiration. “Our results demonstrate that fungi will play a critical role in future carbon storage in Arctic soils as glaciers shrink further and more of Earth’s surface area is covered by soil” summarizes Orsi.

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JOURNAL

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

DOI

10.1073/pnas.2402689121 

ARTICLE TITLE

Principal role of fungi in soil carbon stabilization during early pedogenesis in the high Arctic

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

2-Jul-2024

XAOS

From stars to oceans: the impact of penetrative turbulence on climate science

Understanding the role of penetrative turbulence in climate and weather prediction

INSTITUTE OF ATMOSPHERIC PHYSICS, CHINESE ACADEMY OF SCIENCES

 

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“SCALING LAWS BEHIND PENETRATIVE TURBULENCE: HISTORY AND PERSPECTIVES” BY PROFESSOR ZIJING DING AND COLLEAGUES IS FEATURED ON THE COVER OF ADVANCES IN ATMOSPHERIC SCIENCES, VOLUME 41 (2024), ISSUE 10. THE MORPHOLOGY OF CLOUDS CAN BE SEEN AS A MANIFESTATION OF TURBULENCE (COVER PHOTO BY YUANFEI ZHANG). THE GROUND IS COVERED WITH PENETRATIVE FLOW SIMULATIONS FROM PROFESSOR ZIJING DING'S RESEARCH GROUP, RESEMBLING A REFLECTION OF THE SKY ON THE EARTH.

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CREDIT: ADVANCES IN ATMOSPHERIC SCIENCES

Turbulence is an area of fluid dynamics that has been known about and researched for over a century. Most of us are broadly aware of it as a concept from our travels in the air, wherein it can at best be an inconvenience but at worst a frightening and dangerous experience. Indeed, this was starkly demonstrated recently when, in May 2024, a Singapore Airlines flight from London to Singapore encountered severe turbulence that was fatal for one passenger and left many others injured.

Perhaps less familiar to people is the specific phenomenon of penetrative turbulence, or penetrative convection, which is the subject of a recent review article written by Professor Zijing Ding and his team from the School of Energy Science and Engineering at the Harbin Institute of Technology in China, published in the journal Advances in Atmospheric Sciences.

Penetrative turbulence occurs when a fluid that has been heated in an unstable manner penetrates another layer of fluid that has been stratified stably. It is a phenomenon often observed in large-scale natural and engineering environments, and is especially important in the earth and planetary sciences, as highlighted.

For example, penetrative turbulence is thought to play an important role in the mass–momentum transport in the tachocline (the transition region of stars between the radiative interior and the differentially rotating outer convective zone); and, here on Earth, it is also important for underwater oceanic life in winter. It influences the distribution of phytoplankton and other marine organisms, and can thus serve as an indicator of ecosystem health and contribute to the carbon cycle within these water bodies.

In our atmosphere, penetrative turbulence is central to the motions of key circulation systems, and thus its successful incorporation into prediction models ultimately impinges on our ability to forecast the weather. Of course, this takes on added importance in the current context of climate change and the effects it is having in the form of extreme weather events, such as droughts and floods.

“Our paper examines past theoretical, numerical, and experimental studies on penetrative turbulence, along with field studies that have provided insights into turbulence modeling”, explains Professor Ding.

“We look at the physical factors that initiate penetrative convection, state-of-the-art methods being applied to better understand its transport mechanisms and statistical properties, and discuss some perspectives emerging from the knowledge we have gained in terms of implications and practical applications in various scientific fields”.

A central theme of the review is the derivation of scaling laws embedded within large-scale penetrative turbulence. The ability to do so has, for example, enhanced our comprehension of heat distribution dynamics in the oceans, which, when integrated with other dynamic oceanographic factors such as wind-driven currents and thermohaline circulation, can help elucidate the influences of oceanic processes and glacial melt on Earth's climate.

In addition, the exploration of penetrative convection extends beyond natural systems to technical applications in engineering, such as the design of heat exchangers and the optimization of geothermal energy systems.

“However, practical applications often expose the limitations of our theoretical models”, adds Professor Ding, “and this is perhaps most notably the case in the atmospheric sciences”.

The frequency of extreme weather events is on the rise due to global warming, and scientists have been aware of penetrative convection as a contributing factor to this trend. By integrating more precise representations of penetrative convection into climate models, it should become possible to generate more reliable predictions of long-term climate patterns.

“Ultimately, in the atmospheric sciences, our goal is clear”, concludes Professor Ding. “We need a more realistic model of atmospheric convection to facilitate better predictions of both weather and climate. This requires us to successfully incorporate such influences as boundary conditions, Earth's rotation, and solar radiation, to name but a few”.

Advancements in our understanding of penetrative turbulence are central to these aims, and this timely review by Professor Ding and his colleagues provides a valuable point of reference for scientists to continue their studies in this important field.

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JOURNAL

Advances in Atmospheric Sciences

DOI

10.1007/s00376-024-4014-0 

ARTICLE TITLE

Scaling Laws Behind Penetrative Turbulence: History and Perspectives

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

2-Jul-2024

 

Human crying stresses out dogs more than pigs

Researchers at ELTE Department of Ethology in Budapest compared how companion dogs and companion miniature pigs from all over the world reacted to human emotional vocalizations

EÖTVÖS LORÁND UNIVERSITY

 

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RESEARCHERS AT ELTE DEPARTMENT OF ETHOLOGY IN BUDAPEST COMPARED HOW COMPANION DOGS AND COMPANION MINIATURE PIGS FROM ALL OVER THE WORLD REACTED TO HUMAN EMOTIONAL VOCALIZATIONS. 

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CREDIT: PHOTO: OSZKÁR DÁNIEL GÁTI

Researchers at ELTE Department of Ethology in Budapest compared how companion dogs and companion miniature pigs from all over the world reacted to human emotional vocalizations. They found that both dogs and pigs differentiated between human crying (a negative but very usual vocalization) and human humming (not negative but unusual vocalization), but their reactions to the sounds differed.

Dogs' responses indicated that they matched their emotional state with the emotional content of the vocalizations they heard, supporting the concept of emotional contagion. In contrast, pigs exhibited more stress behaviours when exposed to the more neutral but unusual humming. These findings suggest that the special selection of dogs for dependency on humans during domestication may play a crucial role in facilitating emotional contagion induced by human sounds.

Animals, including humans, express their emotions through different channels, like vocalizations. These emotional vocalizations, especially those of negative valence, are suggested to possess a well-conserved acoustic structure through evolution, meaning that how they code information about an individual’s emotional state is very similar across species. This implies that not only conspecifics (members of the same species) but

also heterospecific (members of different species) individuals can process these vocalizations similarly.

Furthermore, hearing emotional vocalizations can lead to a process called emotional contagion, wherein there is an automatic emotional state matching between the caller and the receiver. Cross-species emotional contagion has been observed in family dogs after hearing human distress vocalizations. “We were curious whether the emotional contagion observed between dogs and humans was related to the well-conserved acoustic structure of some emotional vocalizations across species – explains Fanni Lehoczki from the Neuroethology of Communication Lab at ELTE Department of Ethology, first author of the study – or if it was promoted by the dogs' specific selection for cooperation and dependency on humans.”

VIDEOABSTRACT: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zWW48mK_p9E 

To address this question, the

researchers compared the reactions of similarly raised family dogs and family minipigs to human sound playbacks.

Miniature pigs are also domestic animals and popular companions, but their common past with humans lacks selection for cooperation. The animals were exposed to a high-intensity, negative sound with a well-conserved acoustic structure: crying, and to a low-intensity, slightly positive and also unusual human sound: humming.

“For collecting this data we used a so-called ‘citizen science approach’- explains co-first author Paula Pérez Fraga, also from the Neuroethology of Communication Lab at ELTE Department of Ethology. The animals were tested remotely at their homes by their owners, facilitating the inclusion of more subjects in the study from various locations worldwide.”

Researchers found a very interesting result: dogs matched their emotional state with that of the human vocalization they heard, meaning that they displayed more behaviours indicative of high-arousal and negative emotional state, and vocalized more to the crying than to the humming. However, family pigs seemed to be highly aroused and in a more negative emotional state after hearing the more neutral humming.

“Our findings suggest that decoding the emotional content of certain human vocalizations, particularly those lacking a conservative acoustic structure and possibly perceived as less relevant for animals, such as humming, might be challenging for some domestic species.- says Pérez Fraga - While we cannot exclude that pigs also experienced emotional contagion when listening to human crying, one explanation for their reaction might be that humming is highly unusual, and surprising sounds stresses out pigs more than human sadness. On the other hand, one thing is clear, dogs seem to be specially keen on catching the emotional content of differently valenced human vocalizations, even of the more unusual ones. Therefore, selection for cooperation with humans might be key in promoting human-sound induced emotional contagion in domestic animals. However, to confirm this suggestion further research is needed involving physiological measurements.” 

 

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This study was published on 2nd of July 2024 in Animal Behaviour titled “Family pigs’ and dogs’ reactions to human emotional vocalizations - A citizen science study”, written by Fanni Lehoczki, Paula Pérez Fraga, and Attila Andics. This project was funded by the National Research, Development and Innovation Office, the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (Lendület Program), the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation program, and by Eötvös Loránd University (ELTE). 

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JOURNAL

Animal Behaviour

DOI

10.1016/j.anbehav.2024.05.011 

ARTICLE TITLE

Family pigs’ and dogs’ reactions to human emotional vocalizations:a citizen science study

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

2-Jul-2024

 

Sometimes friend, sometimes foe

How different species interact with each other, for example as predator and prey, is by no means fixed and can depend on the prevailing environmental conditions

UNIVERSITY OF KONSTANZ

To what extent is the relationship between different species fixed? Does a predator, for example, always act as a predator towards its prey? And will species that compete for the same nutrients always be competitors? For a long time, ecologist and evolutionary biologists assumed that such relationships between different species never change. But we now know that they can change – depending on the environmental conditions.

One of the central questions that the new research unit "Density dependent symbiosis in planktonic systems", or "DynaSym" for short, will investigate, is the role played by the population densities of the interacting species. The German Research Foundation (DFG) announced today (2. July 2024) that they will initially fund the research unit for four years (starting in October 2024). Spokesperson for DynaSym is the ecologist and evolutionary biologist Lutz Becks from the Department of Biology at the University of Konstanz.

Combining theoretical and experimental approaches
"Using microorganisms as model organisms, we want to find out how density changes the type of interaction between species and how this affects the dynamics of populations and communities," explains Becks. For example, under what conditions does a competitive relationship change into a mutualistic relationship that is beneficial to both species? And do such changes have subsequent effects on population densities – in other words, are there feedback mechanisms?

The researchers work in eight sub-projects at a total of six German universities and research institutions, and are collaborating with partners from France, Israel and the USA. Through the combination of experimental and modelling approaches, the project aims to provide new general mechanistic insights into the dynamics of communities and thus a basis for revising and extending existing theories in ecology. "Thanks to our interdisciplinary approach, which brings together experts in experimental ecology and evolution with modellers, we are in an excellent position to comprehensively investigate the processes underlying the complex dynamics of biotic communities", says Becks.

About the DFG research units
A total of nine new research units and a new Centre for Advanced Studies in Humanities and Social Sciences will be funded, as the German Research Foundation announced today (2. July 2024). The aim of DFG research units is to promote medium-term close collaboration of several outstanding researchers to work on a special research task with the aim of achieving results that clearly go beyond individual grants. The maximum funding duration of a research unit is two periods of four years each. In the first period, the new units will receive a total of around 41.3 million euros.

 

Key facts: The German Research Foundation funds nine new research units and a new Centre for Advanced Studies in Humanities and Social Sciences The research unit "Density dependent symbiosis in planktonic systems" ("DynaSym") investigates the influence of population densities on the interaction between different species. Spokesperson for DynaSym is the ecologist and evolutionary biologist Lutz Becks from the Department of Biology at the University of Konstanz. Principal investigators and research institutions involved in DynaSym: Professor Lutz Becks (University of Konstanz) Professor Ursula Gaedke, Dr Toni Klauschies & Professor Guntram Weithoff (University of Potsdam) Dr Birte Matthiessen (GEOMAR Helmholtz Center for Ocean Research, Kiel) Dr Stefanie Moorthi (University of Oldenburg) Professor Herwig Stibor & Dr Maria Stockenreiter (Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich) Dr Hildegard Uecker (Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology, Plön) International project partners: Professor Frida Ben-Ami (Tel-Aviv University; Israel) Professor Meghan Duffy (University of Michigan; USA) Professor Jelena Pantel (University of Franche-Comté; France)

 

Note to editors:

A photo is available for download here:

Link: https://www.uni-konstanz.de/fileadmin/pi/fileserver/2024/evaluation_aus_einem.jpg

Caption: Professor Lutz Becks, spokesperson of the new DFG research unit "DynaSym"

Image: © University of Konstanz, Inka Reiter

 

New study on children and food:  Fruit chunks in yogurt are a turn off for one age group in particular

It’s no secret that kids aren’t crazy about having too many seeds, pulp or chunks in their food. But six-year-olds in particular definitely can’t stand lumps, according to a new study from the University of Copenhagen published today. 

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF COPENHAGEN - FACULTY OF SCIENCE

If you feel like your six-year-old has suddenly gotten extra fussy about the texture of their dinner, don't worry. It will pass. A new study from the University of Copenhagen’s Department of Food Science demonstrates that at the age of six, children prefer to avoid crunch in their peanut butter, berries in jam and pieces of fruit in yogurt,  

In the study, the researchers asked 485 children between the ages of five and twelve to choose between six different foods with and without lumps, seeds and pieces of fruit in them. The foods were bread, orange juice, peanut butter, strawberry jam, yogurt and tomato soup. The researchers showed children drawings of these foods both with and without lumps, and then asked them to choose between them.

In 76 percent of the instances, six-year-olds opted for foods without lumps, the highest preference rate observed across the age groups.

"The fact that children in general are not happy with too many lumps in food is probably something many people can recognize, but this is the first time that a scientific study has linked a specific age group, namely six-year-olds, so clearly to this food preference," says Dr. Ching Yue Chow, first author of the study. 

To get answers that were as precise as possible, the researchers have used real foods to test how consistent children were in answering these questions in other studies.

Protection against dangerous foods

According to Ching Yue Chow, there may be an explanation for why children's fear of complex texture in food peaks around the age of six.

"Food neophobia is often described as the reluctance to eat new or unfamiliar foods. It is thought to be a protective function to prevent children from eating potentially poisonous foods or other dangerous things when they start to become more independent. Studies have reported that food neophobia starts from a low baseline at weaning. It increases sharply as a child becomes more mobile and independent, reaching a peak at around 6 or 7 years old.

As such, it makes sense that this particular group in our study does not like too many lumps in food, as it is at this age that they are most cautious when it comes to food," explains Ching Yue Chow.         

The researchers also examined whether chunk size in food has anything to say. But here, they found no unequivocal answer.

"It seemed that the children generally had no problem in distinguishing different sizes of chunks when foods were in their mouths. For them, it's mostly about the presence or absence of chunks," says Ching Yue Chow. 

However, despite there being a low point in the desire to eat food with chunks at the age of six, it gradually goes the other way in 7-12-year-olds, the study shows. And this is supported by our previous knowledge in advance of how children's food preferences mature with age.

"As children reach school age, they may become more influenced by classmates and others within their circle to try new types of food and have more of a desire to expand their horizons. We can also see that the proportion that would like to have food with chunks in food grows in concert with their age in the study," says Ching Yue Chow.

New dishes may need to be introduced 8-15 times

And according to the researcher, the "anti-chunk phase" that 6-year-olds have, you have to accept as a parent, although it can be frustrating when the kids don't want to eat the food they're served. But that can easily change once they're past the critical age of six. You just have to keep trying – often up to 15 times, the recommendation goes:

"A lot of research on children and foods shows that repeated exposures to new dishes have a positive effect on whether they’ll bother eating them. Specifically, it is about giving children the opportunity to taste new food while there is something on the plate that they already know. Often they need to be presented with the new dish 8-15 times before they develop preference for it, but persistence pays off," explains Ching Yue Chow.

Furthermore, it’ a good idea to avoid compulsions and rewards for children to eat their vegetables.

“Rewarding a child with an ice cream if they eat their broccoli, is a very short-term strategy. Because the moment you remove the ice cream, they don't want to eat the healthy foods. At the same time, you shouldn’t pressure a child or try to force them to eat certain things, because you risk that they will eat the new food even less than before because they associate it with something negative," says Ching Yue Chow.

The new research results shed more light on the food preferences of children between the ages of five and twelve, which the researcher hopes can make parents and the food industry wiser about our relationships with food.

"It is important to understand the underlying psychology of children when you, as a parent, serve them food and when you as a company develop new products to avoid children becoming unnecessarily picky. Here, I hope that our study can serve as an inspiration to parents and those who develop new food products," concludes Ching Yue Chow

 

The 6-year-olds like lumps in their food the least:

About the study:

• The study is published in [link]
• The research was carried out in a close collaboration between Future Consumer Lab, Department of Food Science, University of Copenhagen and the CASS Food Research Centre at Deakin University, Australia.
• The researchers behind the study are: Ching Yue Chow, Anne C. Bech, Annemarie Olsen, Russell Keast, Catherine G. Russell and Wender L.P. Bredie.
• The study involved 485 Australian children aged 5-12 years.
• The study is funded by Innovation Fund Denmark and Arla Foods.

 

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JOURNAL

Journal of Texture Studies

DOI

10.1111/jtxs.12848 

ARTICLE TITLE

Oral size perception and texture preferences for particle-containing foods in children aged 5–12

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

1-Jul-2024

 

Flexible and durable bioelectrodes: the future of healthcare wearables

The proposed bioelectrode can lead to comfortable and long-lasting wearables for healthcare and fitness applications

Peer-Reviewed Publication

TOKYO INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY

 

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THE PERMEABILITY AND STRETCHABILITY OF THE SWCNT-SBS NANOSHEET MAKE IT SUITABLE FOR SKIN-CONFORMABLE BIOELECTRODES.

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CREDIT: TOKYO TECH.

The use of wearable electronics that continuously monitor biosignals has transformed the healthcare and fitness industries. These devices are becoming increasingly common and are projected to reach a market valuation of approximately USD 572.06 billion by 2033. With this rapid growth, there is an escalating demand for high-quality bioelectrodes capable of accurately recording biosignals over extended periods. However, many of the materials currently used for bioelectrodes, such as metals, conductive polymers, and hydrogels, have limitations. They often lack the flexibility to stretch the skin without breaking and have low humidity permeability, leading to sweat buildup and discomfort.

To address these limitations, in a study published in the journal NPG Asia Materials on 20 June 2024, a research team led by Assistant Professor Tatsuhiro Horii and Associate Professor Toshinori Fujie from Tokyo Institute of Technology (Tokyo Tech) has developed a bioelectrode material that is stretchable and permeable to humidity and conforms closely to the skin. This innovative material is composed of layers of conductive fibrous networks consisting of single-wall carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) on a stretchable poly(styrene-b-butadiene-b-styrene) (SBS) nanosheet. The nanosheet conforms tightly to the skin, allowing for precise biosignal measurements, while the carbon nanotube fibers maintain the material’s stretchability and humidity permeability.

“Self-supporting electrodes that are stretchable, permeable to humidity, and conformable to skin surface bumps are required to allow for the natural deformation of skin without restricting body movements,” says Horii.

The researchers applied SWCNTs as aqueous dispersions onto SBS nanosheets, creating multiple layers reaching a thickness of only 431 nm. Each coating of SWCNTs increased the density and thickness of the fibers, modifying the bioelectrode's characteristics. While adding more SWCNT layers increased nanosheet stiffness (from an initial 48.5 MPa elastic modulus to 60.8 MPa for a single layer and 104.2 MPa for five layers), the bioelectrode maintained impressive flexibility. Pristine SBS nanosheets and those with one or three layers of SWCNTs (SWCNT 3rd-SBS) stretched elastically by 380% of their original length before permanent deformation. This flexibility surpasses metal electrodes like gold, which have Young's moduli in the several-hundred-GPa range and can only stretch less than 30% of their original length before breaking.

Another crucial requirement for bioelectrodes is high water vapor permeability to prevent sweat buildup during exercise. Adding SWCNTs is beneficial as its fibrous network structure improves breathability compared to continuous films. In experiments measuring water vapor transmission rate (WVTR), researchers found that SWCNT 3rd-SBS exhibited a WVTR of 28,316 g m-2 (2 h)-1, which is twice that of normal skin. 

The bioelectrode material is also highly resilient for extended use. To test the material’s durability, the researchers immersed the bioelectrodes in artificial sweat and subjected them to repeated bending, measuring the change in resistance. In these tests, they found that the resistance increased negligibly, by only 1.1 times in sweat and by 1.3 times over 300 cycles of bending. Furthermore, the SWCNT 3rd-SBS nanosheets showed little to no detachment after being rubbed ten times, indicating its suitability for prolonged use.

To assess its real-world performance, the researchers compared an SBS nanosheet with three layers of SWCNT to commercially available bioelectrode materials such as Ag/AgCl gel electrodes. The bioelectrodes were attached to the forearm, and surface electromyography (sEMG) measurements were taken during gripping motions. In this experiment, the performance of the SWCNT-SBS nanosheet was comparable to that of commercial Ag/AgCl gel electrodes, achieving similar signal-to-noise ratios of 24.6 dB and 33.3 dB, respectively.

“We obtained skin-conformable bioelectrodes with high water vapor permeabilities, which showed comparable performance in sEMG measurements to those of conventional electrodes,” concludes Fujie, highlighting the material’s promising capabilities for healthcare wearables.

 

 

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

NPG Asia Materials

DOI

10.1038/s41427-024-00553-9 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Experimental study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE TITLE

Ultrathin skin-conformable electrodes with high water vapor permeability and stretchability characteristics composed of single-walled carbon nanotube networks assembled on elastomeric films

 

Unveiling East Asia's urban landscape: a massive mapping project illuminates 280 million buildings

JOURNAL OF REMOTE SENSING

 

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THE COMPARISON RESULTS WITH DIFFERENT PRODUCTS IN CHINA. IMAGES ARE FROM © GOOGLE EARTH 2021.

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CREDIT: JOURNAL OF REMOTE SENSING

A pioneering study has completed a detailed mapping of 280 million buildings in East Asia, a region grappling with urbanization challenges. This mapping, the most extensive to date, utilizes very high-resolution (VHR) imagery to create a precise and comprehensive dataset. The findings are set to transform urban planning and management, offering an unprecedented level of detail that was previously unattainable.

Accurate and comprehensive building data is critical for urban management and planning. Existing datasets, such as those from Microsoft and OpenStreetMap, often lack completeness and accuracy in East Asia, limiting their utility for large-scale applications. The complex distribution of buildings and scarcity of auxiliary data in this region further complicate the extraction of reliable building footprints. Based on these challenges, there is a need for a more detailed and accurate dataset to support urban analysis and planning. Therefore, a comprehensive mapping framework was developed to address these issues and produce a high-quality building dataset for East Asia.

Researchers from Sun Yat-sen University, in collaboration with international experts, published their findings (DOI: 10.34133/remotesensing.0138) in the Journal of Remote Sensing, on 9 May, 2024. The study details a novel framework for building extraction using very high-resolution (VHR) images, marking a significant leap in urban data acquisition.

The study addresses the limitations of existing building datasets in East Asia by introducing a comprehensive large-scale building mapping (CLSM) framework. This framework employs innovative strategies such as region-based adaptive fine-tuning, stable boundary optimization, and high model efficiency through model distillation. Using high-resolution Google Earth images, researchers extracted building footprints across five East Asian countries, resulting in a dataset of over 280 million buildings spanning 2,897 cities, with an average overall accuracy of 89.63% and an F1 score of 82.55%. The CLSM framework effectively manages the complex layouts and diverse appearances typical of East Asian urban environments. Its boundary enhancement and regularization modules improve building boundary extraction accuracy, while the model distillation technique boosts computational efficiency. The region-based adaptive fine-tuning strategy enhances the model's generalization capabilities, ensuring consistent high-quality results across various regions. Compared to existing datasets, this new dataset offers superior quality and completeness, making it invaluable for urban planning, energy management, and related research fields.

Dr. Jiajun Zhu, a lead researcher in the study, stated, "Our comprehensive mapping framework addresses the critical need for accurate and complete building data in East Asia. This dataset not only enhances urban planning and management but also supports a wide range of research applications. The high accuracy and detailed representation of building footprints offer new opportunities for urban analysis and sustainable development."

The implications of this research are far-reaching, offering support for urban analysis, energy modeling, and sustainable city planning. The dataset's availability promises to be a cornerstone for future studies and urban development strategies in one of the world's most populous and rapidly urbanizing regions.

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References

DOI

10.34133/remotesensing.0138

Original Source URL

https://spj.science.org/doi/10.34133/remotesensing.0138

Funding information

This study was supported in part by the National Key R&D Program of China under Grant 2022YFB3903402, in part by the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant 42222106, in part by the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant 61976234, and in part by the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities, Sun Yat-sen University under Grant 22lgqb12.

About Journal of Remote Sensing

The Journal of Remote Sensing, an online-only Open Access journal published in association with AIR-CAS, promotes the theory, science, and technology of remote sensing, as well as interdisciplinary research within earth and information science.

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JOURNAL

Journal of Remote Sensing

DOI

10.34133/remotesensing.0138 

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE TITLE

The Last Puzzle of Global Building Footprints—Mapping 280 Million Buildings in East Asia Based on VHR Images

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

 

Meet the team 3D modelling France’s natural history collections

SOCIETY FOR EXPERIMENTAL BIOLOGY

France’s natural history collections contain nearly 6% of the world’s total natural specimens across multiple institutions, and the e-COL+ project aims to capture and reconstruct these specimens in 3D for easy access and 3D printing around the world.

“I’m a researcher of vertebrate locomotion and vocalisation, so I produce a lot of CT scans and 3D models – and now I’m in charge of developing the museum’s own 3D digital collection,” says Dr Pauline Provini, a lecturer at the Natural History Museum in Paris, France and collaborator on the e-COL+ project. Dr Provini is in line to become the Scientific and Technical Coordinator for the project, following the announced retirement of the current Coordinator Pierre-Yves Gagnier.

Dr Provini and her partners plan to produce several thousands of 3D models of whole animal specimens and fragmental specimens, which includes bones and partial remains. The e-COL+ project is led by France’s National Natural History Museum and includes 9 other national research institutions and universities.

The e-COL+ project has four main objectives. Firstly, to provide modern equipment, especially 3D scanning tools, to the partcipating project partners so that they can digitise their collections.

Secondly, to create a comprehensive dataset of 3D models of animals that cover a wide range of taxonomy, including both living and extinct species. “We want to have digital versions of representatives of most modern vertebrates and arthropods,” says Dr Provini. “We also want to incorporate any existing 3D models from the French collections and help to fill the gaps.”

Depending on the size and type of the specimen, Dr Provini and her team use different scanning techniques. “We use surface scanners for bones and whole skeletons, but we use CT scans for specimens that are kept in fluid,” she says. “For small specimens like insects, we use external providers like the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility.”

Thirdly, they wish to build AI tools to help improve the 3D model reconstruction process. “This can help with the automatic identification of a species or the parts of the specimen, which is a very important development for the project,” says Dr Provini.

The fourth and final objective is to organise storage, availability, and presentation of the digital models for both research and public use. “We want to build an online 3D catalogue that people can use to download the models. Not only researchers, but also more general audiences,” says Dr Provini.

A major benefit of this project is the ability to rapidly share access to specimens between research institutions and other museums around the world. “Typically, institutions can borrow specimens from other places for their own exhibitions, but it can be very complicated because there's a lot of paperwork to do – especially if they’re very rare or fragile specimens,” says Dr Provini. “Now we just send the numerical model, and they can 3D print the model whenever they want.”

The e-COL+ project also has benefits for teaching by providing access to specimens that may otherwise be restricted. “It will be important for learning anatomy and other subjects, but also useful for learning to use 3D printing technology and software," says Dr Provini.

The e-COL+ project is set to conclude in 2029. It is funded by the French government and managed by the French National Research Agency under the Programme d'Investissements d'Avenir (ANR-21-ESRE-0053).

This project is being presented at the Society for Experimental Biology Annual Conference in Prague on the 2-5th July 2024.