Mobile, low-cost arsenic detection tool for safe water

IOP Publishing

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Mobile, low-cost arsenic detection tool for safe water 

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Researchers at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Jodhpur have developed a new low-cost mobile tool to detect arsenic contamination in water sources, addressing a critical threat to human health and the environment.  

Published in IOP Publishing’s academic journal Nanotechnology the new tool offers a low-cost, onsite solution for monitoring water quality, especially useful in low-income regions where access to safe drinking water is a major challenge. The sensor is the first to provide on-site, accurate and repeatable results without the need for complex lab equipment or skilled labour. 

Arsenic contamination in water is a serious health hazard, causing illnesses like skin cancer and other health issues even at very low levels. It is estimated that nearly 43,000 deaths annually1 are attributable to chronic arsenic exposure. 

Traditional methods for detecting arsenic in water, such as spectroscopic and electrochemical techniques, are highly sensitive but often require expensive, complex equipment and skilled labour. These methods are not practical for widespread, real-time monitoring, especially in low-income regions where the need is greatest. 

The new detection tool uses advanced technology to detect arsenic ions in water quickly and at extremely low concentrations. The sensor can measure arsenic levels as low as 0.90 parts per billion (ppb) with a quick response time of just 3.2 seconds. 

Mahesh Kumar, lead author of the paper says: “We've designed the sensor with usability in mind, ensuring that even people in remote areas can benefit from it. By connecting the sensor to a circuit board and an Arduino module for real-time data transmission, we've made it perfect for portable and onsite detection. Our ultimate goal is to reduce the number of deaths and prevent the serious diseases caused by arsenic contamination and to provide safer drinking water for everyone." 

1 https://www.undrr.org/understanding-disaster-risk/terminology/hips/ch0003

ENDS 

  

About IOP Publishing    
IOP Publishing is a society-owned scientific publisher, delivering impact, recognition and value to the scientific community. Its purpose is to expand the world of physics, offering a portfolio of journals, ebooks, conference proceedings and science news resources globally.      

IOPP is a member of Purpose-Led Publishing, a coalition of society publishers who pledge to put purpose above profit.     

As a wholly owned subsidiary of the Institute of Physics, a not-for-profit society, IOP Publishing supports the Institute’s work to inspire people to develop their knowledge, understanding and enjoyment of physics. Visit ioppublishing.org to learn more.    

About IIT Jodhpur 

Indian Institute of Technology Jodhpur (IIT Jodhpur) is one of the prestigious IITs in India. Located in Rajasthan, it offers cutting-edge programs in engineering, science and management areas. Known for its innovative research, IIT Jodhpur emphasizes technology-driven education and collaboration with industry. The institute boasts a modern, eco-friendly campus with state-of-the-art labs, hostels, and facilities. It promotes entrepreneurship through its Technology Innovation and Startup Center. With a vibrant student community and active cultural and technical clubs, IIT Jodhpur is emerging as a hub of academic excellence and innovation in India’s higher education landscape. Visit https://www.iitj.ac.in/ to learn more.  

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Journal

Nanotechnology

DOI

10.1088/1361-6528/adcc37 

Article Publication Date

6-May-2025

 

Liver cancer survival rates reflect income disparities

University of Gothenburg

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Juan Vaz, Sahlgrenska Academy at the University of Gothenburg.

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Credit: Photo: Region Halland

The risk of dying from the most common form of primary liver cancer is about 30 percent higher for patients with low household income compared to those with middle or high household income, according to a study at the University of Gothenburg.

Each year, some 500–550 people in Sweden are diagnosed with what is known as hepatocellular carcinoma, or HCC for short, which is the most common form of primary liver cancer, in other words, a cancer that starts in the liver. Three out of four of those affected are men.

The research team has previously shown that HCC is about five times more common in those with low household income compared to those with high household income. The aim of this study was to examine how diagnosis, treatment, and survival are affected by income, education, ethnicity, and other sociodemographic factors.

The study found that patients with low household income were considerably less likely to be diagnosed with HCC at an early stage and to be offered curative treatment. Low household income was also linked to 29 percent higher mortality compared to middle or high household income.

Efforts required to ensure equal care

The study lead, Juan Vaz, is a researcher in community medicine and public health at Sahlgrenska Academy at the University of Gothenburg and a specialist physician at Halland Hospital in Halmstad:

"The study clearly shows that socioeconomic differences are strongly linked to less favorable health outcomes at all levels of care for patients with HCC in Sweden. The results underline the need for further efforts to ensure that care is truly equal and accessible to all, regardless of socioeconomic background," he says.

The study, published in The Lancet Regional Health – Europe, encompasses all adult patients with HCC included in the Swedish National Liver Registry (SweLiv) between 2011 and 2021, a total of 5,490 patients.

The socioeconomic data were retrieved from other national health registries and demographic databases. The results were adjusted for factors including underlying liver disease, comorbidities, and specific tumor characteristics that can affect the choice of treatment and prognosis.

Targeted screening in deprived areas

The main risk factor for HCC is cirrhosis of the liver, often simply referred to as cirrhosis, which is a pathological breakdown of the liver caused by chronic liver inflammation resulting from, for example, high alcohol consumption or a hepatitis virus infection.

The research team is now employing advanced statistical methods to select areas in Sweden where screening for liver cirrhosis would offer the greatest benefits. Pilot studies are also being planned. "Targeted screening for cirrhosis of the liver in socioeconomically deprived areas can lead to early HCC diagnosis, which in turn can increase the chances of access to curative treatments, as well as all the other health benefits linked to an early cirrhosis diagnosis," says Juan Vaz.

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Journal

The Lancet Regional Health - Europe

DOI

10.1016/j.lanepe.2025.101273 

Method of Research

Observational study

Subject of Research

People

Article Title

Socioeconomic inequalities in diagnostics, care and survival outcomes for hepatocellular carcinoma in Sweden: a nationwide cohort study

 

Shorter and warmer winters may expand the hibernation area of bats in Europe

Model accurately tracks the northward range shift of this species over the past 50 years and shows a further northeast expansion of up to 14 percent of its current range by 2100 – driven by shorter and warmer winters in Europe

Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research (IZW)

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Common noctule bat (Nyctalus noctula)

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Credit: Photo by Dmytro Zubkov

The ambient temperature has a profound impact on the physiology and behaviour of most species. In regions where individuals rely on low temperatures to hibernate effectively, global warming is likely to significantly affect their survival. A team of scientists studied how ambient temperatures shape the energy expenditure of common noctule bats and built a model to predict at which latitudes they could survive hibernation. This model also predicts how the hibernation areas of these bats could change over time. It accurately tracks the northward range shift of this species over the past 50 years and shows a further northeast expansion of up to 14 percent of its current range by 2100 – driven by shorter and warmer winters in Europe.

The study was carried out at the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research (Leibniz-IZW) by a team of scientists from the Departments of Evolutionary Ecology and Evolutionary Genetics. First author Dr Kseniia Kravchenko now is a postdoc at the University of Luxembourg and senior author Dr Shannon Currie now is a lecturer at the University of Melbourne. The paper is published in the scientific journal “Ecology Letters”.

Energy expenditure is closely linked to ambient temperature. When conditions become unfavourable, many mammals such as bats, hibernate to save energy. “Hibernators tend to be overlooked in biophysical models because they switch between two physiological states during hibernation, making modelling more difficult”, explains Shannon Currie. “So, it’s still unclear how climate change will impact these species”. To investigate how this essential life-history trait affect their survival in warmer winters, Kseniia Kravchenko and her colleagues conducted two experiments: „ We assessed how much time common noctules, which are bats weighing around 30 grams, spent in torpor – the physiological state animals enter during hibernation – at different ambient temperatures. To detect torpor, we measured the skin temperature because individuals lower their body temperature to save energy“, Kravchenko explains. In a second experiment, the scientists measured CO2 production as a proxy of the bats‘ energy expenditure under different ambient temperatures.

Models accurately reproduces historical shift of hibernation areas

The results were combined with daily temperature forecasts produced by the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, under different climate change scenarios. This way, the scientists could calculate the energy budget required to survive winter for more than 12,000 locations spread over whole Europe. They compared energy budgets using historical data (1901-2019) as well as under future projections (2019-2100) of four different scenarios of climate change. “Our computations for current temperature data produced a hibernation area which closely matches the actual wintering distribution. This was reassuring given that the model turned to be accurate based on ambient temperature and physiological parameters only. We were also happy because, after all the experimental work and the programming efforts we put in, it showed that our approach actually worked”, says Dr Alexandre Courtiol, scientist and modelling expert at the Leibniz-IZW. “Further computations showed that the hibernation area shifted towards the northeast of Europe between 1901 and 2018, thereby expanding by 6.3 percent in its original size.”

Hibernation areas are expected to shift and expand further north- and eastwards

Feeding the model with different projections of future climate scenarios reveals that both the southern and the northern limits of the potential hibernation area shift further northwards – the southern limit even more so than the northern limit. Since 1901, the suitable wintering grounds have already moved about 260 kilometres northward. “The current spread towards the northeast is predicted to continue by about 80 kilometres averaged across models, increasing the potential hibernation area by 5.8 to 14.2% between 2019 and 2099, depending on the climate change scenario”, the authors conclude. Under the most severe climate change scenario – where emissions are expected to increase, winter temperatures to rise by 2.35°C and average hibernation seasons to shorten by 41 days – this northward shift is predicted to extend to about 730 km, yielding a predicted total northward shift of about 990 km over two centuries.

Common noctules are capable of range shifts of several hundred kilometres in only a few decades as previous studies of Kravchenko and colleagues have shown, so it is possible that as temperatures keep rising this species will keep tracking changes in the potential hibernation area by continuously expanding its hibernation range toward the northeast of Europe. Yet this could lead to challenges when other requirements for hibernation – such as appropriate hibernation sites and food availability before the start of the winter – are not available in the new areas where temperature becomes suitable.

The scientific team found that the hibernation niche of the common noctule bat is adequately explained and accurately approximated by only two straightforward statistics: mean daily ambient temperature during the hibernation season and duration of the hibernation season. “This means we could potentially map the hibernation niche of other species using the same metrics. Yet we still need to closely investigate and monitor effects of climate change on wildlife physiology without forgetting that the environment is more than just ambient temperature”, Prof Dr Christian Voigt, head of the Leibniz-IZW Department of Evolutionary Ecology, sums up. This ecophysiology research is crucial to tailoring conservation interventions and wildlife protection measures in times of environmental change.

Common noctule bat (Nyctalus noctula)

Credit

Photo by Dmytro Zubkov

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Journal

Ecology Letters

DOI

10.1111/ele.70119 

Method of Research

Data/statistical analysis

Subject of Research

Animals

Article Title

Shorter and Warmer Winters Expand the Hibernation Area of Bats in Europe

Article Publication Date

4-May-2025

 

To kiss or not to kiss: Can gluten pass through a smooch?

Sharing a kiss with a partner is safe for those with celiac disease

Digestive Disease Week

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SAN DIEGO, CA. (MAY 5, 2025) — People with celiac disease have reported anxiety about ingesting gluten through a kiss, but a new study concludes that they can indulge without worry — even if their partner just had a gluten-filled snack, according to a study to be presented today at Digestive Disease Week® (DDW) 2025. To be extra safe, the study recommends drinking water before smooching.

“Everyone worries about whether gluten is getting into their food at a restaurant, but no one really looked at what happens when you kiss afterwards,” said Anne Lee, PhD, assistant professor of nutritional medicine at Columbia University. “The advice we gave about kissing and celiac disease was based on precaution and assumptions. We were using our best judgment. I felt it was important to do research to see if there was any actual risk.”

Researchers recruited 10 couples, each with one partner who has celiac disease, for a two-part study. In each session, the non-celiac partner ate 10 saltine crackers, and then the couple kissed for 10 seconds. In one session, the partners waited five minutes before the kiss, and in the other, they drank 4 ounces of water before kissing. In both situations, researchers found that the gluten transfer, which was measured in the saliva of the partner with celiac disease, was minimal in the majority of participants.

Although gluten was still found in saliva after kissing a partner who had consumed gluten and then had a glass of water, in all cases the amount was less than 20 parts per million, the level allowed in gluten-free products, which is considered safe.

Celiac disease, an autoimmune disorder, affects 1% of the population and is typically marked by digestive issues, including abdominal pain, indigestion, and diarrhea. For patients with celiac disease, gluten ingestion causes intestinal damage even if it does not cause immediate symptoms.

Understanding how gluten transfers through kissing could also be useful to people with non-celiac gluten sensitivity who experience symptoms like bloating, fatigue, or brain fog after exposure to gluten.

“For clinicians, we can now say to patients, ‘You don’t have to go to extreme measures,’” Dr. Lee said. “Patients with celiac disease can be more relaxed, knowing that the risk of gluten cross-contact through kissing a partner who has consumed gluten can be brought down to safe levels if food is followed by a small glass of water.”

DDW Presentation Details

Dr. Lee will present data from the study, “Assessing gluten transfer via kissing; a prospective study of celiac-discordant couples,” abstract Mo1242, at 12:30 p.m. PDT, Monday, May 5. For more information about featured studies, as well as a schedule of availability for featured researchers, please visit www.ddw.org/press.  

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Digestive Disease Week® (DDW) is the largest international gathering of physicians, researchers, and academics in the fields of gastroenterology, hepatology, endoscopy, and gastrointestinal surgery. Jointly sponsored by the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases (AASLD), the American Gastroenterological Association (AGA), the American Society for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy (ASGE) and the Society for Surgery of the Alimentary Tract (SSAT), DDW is an in-person and online meeting from May 3-6, 2025. The meeting showcases nearly 6,000 abstracts and more than 1,000 lectures on the latest advances in GI research, medicine, and technology. More information can be found at www.ddw.org

BIONS

Biological particles may be crucial for inducing heavy rain

Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne

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Clouds form upon existing particles in the atmosphere and extreme weather events like flooding and snowstorms are related to production of large amounts of ice in clouds. Biological particles like pollen, bacteria, spores and plant matter floating in the air are particularly good at promoting ice formation in clouds, and EPFL climate scientists show that these particles concentrations evolve as temperatures rise and fall. The results are published in the Nature Portofolio Journal Climate and Atmospheric Sciences.

“Biological particles are very effective at forming ice in clouds, and the formation of ice is responsible for most of the precipitation the planet receives worldwide, because ice falls very quickly from the sky. Intense ice formation is also associated with extreme weather,” explains Thanos (Athanasios) Nenes of EPFL’s Laboratory of atmospheric processes and their impacts, whom lead the study together with postdoctoral researcher Kunfeng Gao.  “Given our findings, weather and climate models absolutely need to take biological particles into account, especially since biological particles are expected to be present in larger amounts in the atmosphere as the climate warms up.”

Indeed, current meteorological and climate models do not consider the effects of biological particles nor their cyclical nature, which means that they are potentially missing important modulators of clouds and drivers of precipitation in the current and future climate forecasts.

 

Mount Helmos, a case study for alpine regions

The study takes in account air samples and their biological content collected at Mount Helmos, an alpine area located in Greece. The mountain reaches an altitude of 2350m, has frequent cloud cover throughout the year, and is influenced by biological emissions from the alpine forest below. As temperatures rise throughout the day, pollen, bacteria, fungal spores and plant matter are released from the alpine forest, culminating midday when the sun is at its highest and reaching lows during the night.

“We find that the number of particles that can nucleate ice coincides with the number of biological particle counts and they both show strongly correlated diurnal periodicity, and the increased biological particles may contribute to cloud formation that can make them precipitate,” concludes Gao.

Nenes, who participated at the IPCC scoping meeting in Malaysia to help define the chapters and shape the contents of the 7th IPCC Assessment Report, says, “the result comes with perfect timing.” As scientific coordinator of the large European project CleanCloud, Nenes is currently leading a second campaign at Mount Helmos, called CHOPIN, which benefits from even more instrumentation to help identify the types of biological particles present in the atmosphere that induce cloud droplet and ice formation. A full suite of cloud radars, aerosol lidars, UAVs, tethered balloons and direct sampling of air (with and without clouds) is used to characterize –  with unprecedented detail – how each biological particle contributes to cloud formation , and which ones are the most effective at doing so, in order to improve weather and climate predictions.

Nenes adds, “The data collected will not only be used for process understanding and model improvement, but also to improve or develop new algorithms used by satellites and ground-based remote sensing to study aerosols and clouds. We and the CleanCloud consortium as a whole will be working with the European Space Agency and our sister consortia CERTAINTY and AIRSENSE to help make the best use of the recently launched EarthCare satellite with the ultimate goal of understanding the role of aerosols on clouds and precipitation in a post-fossil world.”

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DOI

10.1038/s41612-024-00817-9 

Article Publication Date

5-May-2025