Brain

Glycerol, used in the past as antifreeze for cars, is produced by a range of organisms from yeasts to vertebrates, some of which use it as an osmoprotectant - a molecule that prevents dangerous water loss in salty environments - while others use it as an antifreeze. Here, scientists from the University of Nevada and Miami University in Ohio show that two species of the single-celled green algae Chlamydomonas from Antarctica, called UWO241 and ICE-MDV, produce high levels of glycerol to protect them from osmotic water loss, and possibly also from freezing injury. Presently, only one other organism, an Arctic fish, is known to use glycerol for both purposes. Both species synthesize glycerol with enzymes encoded by multiple copies of a recently discovered ancient gene family. These results, published today in the open-access journal Frontiers in Plant Science, illustrate the importance of adaptations that allow life to not only survive but to thrive in extreme habitats.

The researchers collected both Chlamydomonas species from depths of 13 to 17 m, a region with a steep salinity gradient, in Lake Bonney, a permanently ice-covered lake in the McMurdo Dry Valleys of Victoria Land, Antarctica. Previously, they showed that both species are remarkably adapted to their extreme habitat, with a photosynthetic apparatus adapted to cold, saline, and light-poor conditions, novel proteins, more fluid cell membranes that function at low temperatures, and ice-binding proteins that protect against freeze-thaw injury.

"Our overall goal is to understand how microorganisms survive in extreme environments. The Chlamydomonas species of Lake Bonney are well-suited for such studies because they are exposed to many extremes, including low light, low temperature, oxidative stress, and high salinity. The present results are the first to show that glycerol production by microorganisms, which is well-known in warm, salty environments, is also important in polar regions," says corresponding author Dr James Raymond, Adjunct Research Professor at the School of Life Sciences, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, USA.

Here, the authors show that UWO241 and ICE-MDV carry three and five copies, respectively, of a gene family that was recently shown to synthesize glycerol in distantly related algae from temperate climates. They then show that, in the laboratory, UWO241 steadily raises its within-cell concentration of glycerol by more than four-fold as the salt concentration in the medium increases from 400 to 1,300 mM of NaCl - roughly 0.8 to 2.5 times the salinity of seawater. They also demonstrate a parallel increase in the DNA-to-RNA transcription of one of the gene copies, strongly suggesting that this gene family is likewise necessary and sufficient to synthesize glycerol in Chlamydomonas from Lake Bonney.

A phylogenetic "family tree" based on protein sequence similarity shows that this gene family is ancient, possibly dating back to the origin of eukaryotic organisms over a billion years ago, while multiple copies within each species result from recent gene duplications, followed by their divergence with time. These proteins contain three regions: a tag that directs it to the chloroplast (the site of photosynthesis), a domain that converts the molecule dihydroxyacetone phosphate to glycerol-3-phosphate, and another domain that converts this intermediate product to glycerol.

"It seems likely that the enzyme originated through fusion of two ancestral genes, one coding for a phosphoserine phosphatase and another for a NAD+-dependent glycerol-3-phosphate dehydrogenase. This appears to have first happened in an ancient ancestor of the green algae," says Raymond.

Raymond et al. stress that glycerol is the main, but probably not the only, osmoprotectant in Chlamydomonas from Lake Bonney: increases in within-cell sugar and amino acids could also help to maintain osmotic equilibrium. Chlamydomonas might also produce glycerol through additional pathways, for example through the degradation of triglycerides.

"Recent revelations of the ability of microorganisms to survive in extreme environments are already having a big impact on current thought about the possibility of life on other bodies in the solar system, where cold, salty bodies of water, and even oceans, appear to be abundant," says Raymond.

The historically Black district of Albina in Portland, Oregon, due to racist real estate practices, faced multiple displacement events between 1960 and 1990 with the construction of Interstate 5 through the heart of the neighborhood as well as wholesale destruction of hundreds of homes to make room for the Memorial Coliseum and various other urban renewal projects. Gentrification in Portland saw a mass displacement of Black households from Albina, largely to East Portland, a suburban area that was unincorporated county land prior to the 1990's. As Black people were priced out of the Albina neighborhood, businesses and churches have also closed as a result of losing community members.

Supported by a fellowship from the National Institute for Transportation and Communities (NITC), Steven Howland of Portland State University focused his doctoral research on examining the impacts of gentrification on transportation and social support for black working-poor families in Portland, both those who were displaced to East Portland and those who were able to remain in Albina. Through 27 in-depth interviews with parents of young children (13 Albina residents and 14 residents of East Portland), he sought to understand how they used transportation to make ends meet and how those strategies differ between inner-city and suburban neighborhoods.

Download the final report: "'I Should Have Moved Somewhere Else': The Impacts of Gentrification on Transportation and Social Support for Black Working-Poor Families in Portland, Oregon" https://ppms.trec.pdx.edu/media/project_files/NITC-D-1079_I_Should_Have_Moved_Somewhere_Else.pdf

WHY DO QUALITATIVE RESEARCH?

Qualitative research plays an important role in equitable transportation policy. How does transportation directly affect people's daily lives and decision-making? Quantitative data are often used to make policy decisions, yet numbers only tell part of the story. Researchers can gain different knowledge from an in-depth interview than they might learn from a regional survey.

Jennifer Dill, professor in the Nohad A. Toulan School of Urban Studies and Planning and Howland's advisor, points out that qualitative research has the power to shine light on issues that transportation professionals may have not focused on enough.

"When you're trying to make change, it's always great to have a mix of the quantitative and qualitative. It's people's stories that help us understand and change minds," Dill said.

ALBINA: THE EROSION OF A PORTLAND COMMUNITY

"Ferrell's. Right here it was on Broadway. An ice cream shop. Pietro's was right next to that. There was like, you know, a couple black-owned businesses that's gone now. All of them basically are gone now."

"I would go see family more often if I had the gas money to get all the way over like that. But I don't be having the gas like that to get all the way over there."

"My son lives all the way out east Portland. So, I'm not going to drive out there. And I have two grandsons that live out that way too."

Overall, the cultural rootedness of Albina appeared to be eroding as more and more Black people and businesses left and were being replaced by high-end shops, restaurants, and white people.

Despite the significant cultural losses, the residents of Albina had easier transportation (including a higher rate of car ownership), better-resourced and easily accessed social support networks, and a higher density of nearby destinations to get around easier and accomplish more in a day. East Portlanders struggled far more.

"It really felt like the people in Albina, even for those that were still paying market rent, they still seemed on average to be doing slightly better than those living in East Portland. Even with the higher rents they still had a lot of resources nearby that they could tap into," Howland said.

EAST PORTLAND: A NEIGHBORHOOD OUT OF REACH

"It's either food or gas, a lot of the time."

"Trying to find shortcuts. Go straight there. I just do my triangle: work, home and school."

East Portland residents had to go the furthest for all their activities. Clustering of destinations around the western edge of East Portland put groceries, school and other activities out of reach for most residents. The longer distances between destinations meant more time traveling. That extra time meant they could not get as much done in a day as those living in Albina. Support networks for people in East Portland featured a lot of friends and family that had also been displaced, but everything was so spread out that they were more socially isolated. They often had to turn to their network living in Albina for their more critical needs like childcare, but it took a lot more effort to utilize.

GETTING AROUND: RELIABILITY OF DRIVING VS SAFETY CONCERNS ON TRANSIT

"The buses don't come when they say they're going to come. You have to wait for the bus, and they aren't going to stop. If you're having to be at a place at a certain time you can't depend on the bus to get you there on time."

"There was certain jobs that weren't along a transit line. Maybe a mile or two miles off the line. I didn't have a car to get there so I couldn't take the job."

Howland interviewed participants on how they made choices on getting around, the effects those choices had on their lives, and how they adapted to maintain their mobility. Data doesn't tell the whole story. The narrative behind the mobility experiences of low-income Black community members often gets washed out or misrepresented in the existing data. By understanding their lived experiences and challenges, policy makers and planners are better equipped to intervene.

Overall, the interviews revealed that Albina residents were more likely to drive than East Portlanders. Both populations shared a preference for driving over transit. East Portland in particular is transit-poor, so the lack of ability to get around without a car has upended many aspects of families' lives.

"Last time we rode public transportation there's this dude on there and he was just crazy. Tweaking out really bad. And he kept looking at my son and I'm like, you say something to him I'm going to jail today."

"My 18-year-old, he rode it all the time...But it's a point where I pulled up a time I was driving home and I seen this fight going on, on the platform of the TriMet [MAX stop]. This grown man fighting kids. I pulled up and it was my son [one of the kids]. Some Caucasian guy fighting some black kids and the black kids get in trouble."

Distance and time were factors, of course, that led participants to prefer getting around by driving rather than using transit. Another finding, which Howland had not anticipated, was that safety concerns were also a major deterrent to riding transit.

This was spurred in part by the 2017 racially-motivated murders on the MAX train, which happened the same summer that Howland was conducting interviews. More often however, the concerns had to do with participants' encounters with people experiencing houselessness as well as people with untreated mental illnesses and addictions, which often spilled over into racists outbursts or threats of violence against them or their children.

Highlights from the Findings:

Albina Residents (62%) were more likely to drive than East Portlanders (36%)

Nearly universal dislike of TriMet, and nearly everyone had safety concerns taking transit. No drivers expressed safety issues driving.

Drivers were more likely to use transit as an alternative, and transit riders were more likely to turn to getting rides as an alternative.

Albina residents struggled less in their daily life maintenance, giving them more means to own a car.

East Portland residents gained marginally more benefit from car ownership, but struggled more to own. East Portland residents also had more difficulty getting rides.

Albina residents had positive associations with walking, whereas East Portland residents would walk, but with higher cost due to distances and multiple safety issues.

Very few people rode a bike, but it was more common for their kids - mostly limited to Albina.

TAKEAWAYS FOR TRANSPORTATION PROFESSIONALS

Marginalized individuals have said that they feel more vulnerable to harassment when biking or riding transit, and research has shown there is racism even at the crosswalk - so it feels like the safest place is in a car. If encouraging car-free travel is a priority, planners, engineers and policymakers need to come up with solutions to make transit, biking, walking and rolling feel safer for the most marginalized.

While East Portland has had a lot of investments in road safety, it is the distance between destinations that has really hurt people's ability to survive. As East Portland continues to grow with more low-income people of color, more attention needs to go to the urban development of the area to make daily life easier.

"We have to recognize how our plans impact people. It's not just the space, not just the environment; it's the people themselves. They are impacted. We need to recognize that what we think should be done will have consequences, and we need to be able to plan for those consequences," Howland said.

Implementing anti-displacement housing policies to prevent the dissolution of a community is key, but with that is also being proactively aware of where people might end up if they do get displaced from a newly gentrified area. Community ties are vital for quality of life, particularly as people get older and the design concepts behind aging in place become more critical to apply to transportation projects.

"It's nuanced, but recognize that if you can start to identify an area where a lot of people are being displaced to, you need to start implementing plans there as soon as possible," Howland said.

Howland graduated from Portland State with his PhD in Spring 2020. This summer he received a job offer from the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City to be an Assistant Economist. He will be working in their Community Development section doing research informed by community stakeholders.

This research was funded by the National Institute for Transportation and Communities.

The National Institute for Transportation and Communities (NITC) is one of seven U.S. Department of Transportation national university transportation centers. NITC is a program of the Transportation Research and Education Center (TREC) at Portland State University. This PSU-led research partnership also includes the Oregon Institute of Technology, University of Arizona, University of Oregon, University of Texas at Arlington and University of Utah. We pursue our theme -- improving mobility of people and goods to build strong communities -- through research, education and technology transfer.

Scientists at the Department of Energy's (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory have developed a light-activated coating for filtration membranes -- the kind used in water treatment facilities, at semiconductor manufacturing sites and within the food and beverage industry -- to make them self-cleaning, eliminating the need to shut systems down in order to repair them.

Cheap and effective, water filtration membranes have been around for years but have always been vulnerable to clogging from organic and inorganic materials that stop up its pores over time, a phenomenon known as fouling.

"Anything you stick in water is going to become fouled sooner or later," said Argonne senior scientist Seth Darling.

Darling is director of Argonne's Advanced Materials for Energy-Water Systems (AMEWS) Center, an Energy Frontier Research Center (EFRC) sponsored by the DOE.

"Almost all membranes used in the real world function by a physical mechanism, small holes that block whatever you are trying to filter out," he said. "But they are not doing any chemistry. That's what we've sought to change by putting a coating on the membrane that gives it chemical functionality."

"That's what differentiates our discovery from previous work in this area," said Seth Darling, senior scientist at the Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory. "The membrane can continue to be in service, eliminating the need to, for example, shut down a filtration system in order to clean or replace fouled parts."

While those who work in the area of water filtration have had some success in removing, cleaning and replacing fouled membranes, the process is far from ideal because it takes the membranes -- and sometimes entire water treatment systems -- out of service.

"What we're trying to do is prevent this entirely," Darling said.

He and his team's new, low-cost advancement is a game-changer for industries that rely on this type of technology.

The coating they use is based on titanium dioxide, or TiO2, which has been explored for water treatment applications for years because of its high stability, nontoxicity, low cost and biocompatibility.

Darling and his team took the technology a step further by adding a bit of nitrogen to the mix. The process, called nitrogen doping, makes the membrane sensitive to visible light. The coating serves as a catalyst that breaks down foulants, releasing them from the membrane, thereby rendering it clean.

"Normal TiO2 would work but only with ultraviolet light," said Huiru Zhang, a graduate student who worked on the project. "That might make sense in some situations, but it is far less accessible than visible light."

Compared to regular TiO2, nitrogen-doped TiO2-coated membranes display a 24-fold higher photocatalytic efficiency under sunlight.

Argonne's success in this area is unique: Never before had scientists been able to make membranes clean themselves while they are still functioning as a filter.

"That's what differentiates our discovery from previous work in this area," Darling said. "The membrane can continue to be in service, eliminating the need to, for example, shut down a filtration system in order to clean or replace fouled parts."

The project was funded by the DOE Office of Science as part of the AMEWS EFRC. Darling and his team recently published their findings in the journal Advanced Functional Materials.

"In principle, our discovery can be used anywhere membranes are in water, and even as a coating on other components in water systems," Darling said.

Special metal oxides could one day replace semiconductor materials that are commonly used today in processors. Now, for the first time, an international team of researchers from Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (MLU), the University of Kaiserslautern and the University of Fribourg in Switzerland was able to observe how electronic charge excitation changes electron spin in metal oxides in an ultrafast and inphase manner. The study was published in the journal Nature Communications.

In modern semiconductor electronics, the first key step in every transistor is to lift electrons over the so-called band gap in the semiconductor. Electrons have to move through a material that is, in actual fact, non-conductive. "After they have been excited across the band gap, the moving electric charges of the electrons generate the currents that are used in information processing. These currents can cause processors to become hot, leading to energy loss," explains Professor Wolf Widdra from the Institute of Physics at MLU.

Spintronics attempts to solve this problem with the help of so-called spin. This is the intrinsic angular momentum of an electron that produces the magnetic moment, thereby generating the magnetism that is used in information processing. The coupling of electronic and magnetic properties determines the functionality. "Magnetic oxides are an important class of materials for spintronics because they don't transfer electron current, only magnetic information," says Widdra, who led the study as part of the joint Collaborative Research Centre CRC/TRR 227 "Ultrafast Spin Dynamics" at MLU and Freie Universität Berlin. Until recently, however, it hadn't been clear how the electron transfer across the band gap coupled with the spin of the magnetic oxide. The team has now successfully observed this process and has developed a new theory for it. Groups of theoretical and experimental physicists joined forces to tackle this issue.

Using a state-of-the-art, ultra-short pulse laser, the researchers were able to excite an electron to lift it across the band gap in nickel oxide. They also observed how the information was then transferred to the magnetic system. This enabled the team to identify a previously unknown ultrafast coupling mechanism that occurs on a femtosecond scale, i.e. a quadrillionth of a second. "The complex many-body properties generated through the excitation of the electron by the laser have revealed this surprising observation but also made us think long and hard about how to interpret it correctly," adds Widdra.

According to the physicist, the findings now pave the way for ultrafast spintronics. This should facilitate the development of new ultra-fast storage systems and information technologies in the future.

Southeastern Tibet is an important area for studying the deformation and transport of the Tibetan Plateau materials. Previous studies in this area found two significant crustal low-velocity belts and its might be the channels for the southeastward escape of the Tibetan Plateau materials. Recently, a new research reveals the spatial connectivity and formation of these two low-velocity belts and proposes three major geodynamic modes in the crust and upper mantle of this region.
The title of this research paper is "Shear wave velocity structure of the crust and upper mantle in Southeastern Tibet and its geodynamic implications" and it published in Science China: Earth Sciences in No.9, 2020. The first author of this paper is Zhiqi Zhang, a doctoral graduate student, and the corresponding author is Professor Huajian Yao from University of Science and Technology of China.
As an important corridor for the extrusion of Tibetan Plateau materials, a lot of geophysical studies have been conducted in southeastern Tibet. Many surface wave, body wave, and magnetotelluric tomography studies have observed two low-velocity belts and high-conductivity layers in the middle-lower crust in this area. However, previous studies could not reveal the connectivity between these two low-velocity belts due to the limitations of the imaging methods and the distribution of stations.

This new research is mainly based on the 10-year teleseismic Rayleigh wave data and one year continuous ambient noise data from permanent stations in the southeastern Tibetan Plateau. The high-resolution shear wave velocity (VSV) structure of the crust and upper mantle in this area has been obtained through the 3-D direct surface-wave inversion method. The new model also shows two low-velocity belts in the middle-lower crust in this area. One belt is mainly in the SongPan-GangZi block and northwestern part of the Chuan-Dian diamond block, whereas the other belt is mainly in the Xiaojiang fault zone and its eastern part, the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau. While an obvious high-velocity body is observed in the crust of the inner zone of the Emishan large igneous province (ELIP), which may represent mafic-ultramafic material that remained in the crust when the ELIP formed. This high velocity zone separates the two low-velocity belts near the Anninghe-Zemuhe fault system (Figure 1). Researchers think the low-velocity belt in the northwestern side may be mainly due to the eastward extrusion of low-viscosity materials from the Tibetan Plateau, but the low-velocity belt in the Xiaojiang fault zone and its eastern side is likely caused by plastic deformation or partial melting of felsic rocks due to crustal thickening. Moreover, the significant positive radial anisotropy (VSH>VSV) around the Xiaojiang fault zone further enhances the amplitude of low velocity anomaly in our VSV model. This crustal low-velocity zone also extends southward across the Red River fault and farther to northern Vietnam, which may be closely related to heat sources in the upper mantle. In the upper mantle, there is a large-scale low-velocity anomaly in the Indochina and South China blocks south of the Red River fault. The low-velocity anomaly gradually extends northward along the Xiaojiang fault zone into the Yangtze Craton as depth increases. Through the tomographic model, the researchers think that southeastern Tibet is undergoing three different tectonic modes at the same time: (1) the upper crust is rigid, and as a result, the tectonic mode is mainly rigid block extrusion controlled by large strike-slip faults; (2) the viscoplastic materials in the middle-lower crust, separated by rigid materials related to the ELIP, migrate plastically southward under the control of the regional stress field and fault systems; and (3) the upper mantle south of the Red River fault is mainly controlled by large-scale asthenospheric upwelling and may be closely related to lithospheric delamination and the eastward subduction and retreat of the Indian plate beneath Burma.

This research provides a new explanation for the connectivity and formation of the crustal low-velocity belts and the dynamic processes of crust and upper mantle in southeastern Tibet, which is very valuable for the future geodynamic research in this area.

People who suffer one or more forms of maltreatment in childhood have a higher chance of multimorbidity in later life.

New research, led by scientists at the University of Glasgow, used UK Biobank data from more than 157,000 participants to examine the link between the four forms of childhood maltreatment - physical, sexual, emotional and neglect - and the presence of multiple health conditions, known as multimorbidity, later in adult life.

The researchers, who published their work today in the Journal of Comorbidity, found that those who had experienced all four types of maltreatment were five times as likely to have four or more long-term health conditions, than people who reported experiencing no childhood maltreatment.

When compared with no experience of childhood maltreatment, participants experiencing all four types of maltreatment were more likely to be socially isolated, and more than three times as likely to report poor self-rated health, loneliness, frailty, and chronic widespread pain. In addition, experiencing a greater number of types of childhood maltreatment was also associated with a higher prevalence of mental health conditions.

The study also found that experience of just one type of childhood maltreatment was associated with long term health conditions, including long term pain and frailty.

While experiencing multiple types of childhood maltreatment was rare, researchers found that, overall, child maltreatment affects a relatively high proportion of people, with 33% of the participants included in the study reporting at least one form of maltreatment.

Professor Frances Mair, Norie Miller Professor of General Practice at the University of Glasgow, who led the study, said: "Our findings are in keeping with the growing body of research looking at the impact of childhood adversity on future health and social outcomes. Our work, alongside other studies suggests in this area, suggests that childhood maltreatment can have consequences in later life, including the development of multimorbidity in adulthood.

"Our findings suggest people experiencing childhood maltreatment are not only at risk of higher numbers of long term health conditions in adulthood, but they are also experiencing factors that will complicate self-management and practitioner work - such as mental health problems and isolation - with implications for the resources needed to manage these patients well."

There is a growing interest in the wider impact of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACES), which include child maltreatment as well as domestic violence, parental abandonment, parent with a mental health condition, member of the household in prison, adult in household experiencing drug or alcohol problems. These childhood experiences are already known to have strong associations with multiple poor social and health outcomes, and result in a significant economic burden. In addition, experience of maltreatment is already associated with increased risk factors for chronic disease and a range of different physical and mental health conditions.

Dr Peter Hanlon, one of the lead authors said that, "Multimorbidity is a major global challenge. As well as ensuring adequate support for patients experiencing complex multimorbidity, the importance of prevention is paramount."

While Dr Marianne McCallum joint lead author said: "Investing in prevention and support of early childhood adversity could result in improved health outcomes in the future. Our results add to the evidence that efforts to mitigate the impact of childhood adversity should be seen as public health measures."

The Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST) has made an announcement about the technology to extract high-purity hydrogen from ammonia and generate electric power in conjunction with a fuel cell developed by a team led by Young Suk Jo and Chang Won Yoon from the Center for Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Research. This confirms the possibility of using ammonia as a hydrogen carrier to transport large amounts of hydrogen over long distances.

Although the need to build a global clean energy supply network has been noted worldwide, there are constraints when it comes to transporting renewable energy in the form of electricity across long distances. This has resulted in a growing demand for a technology that can convert surplus renewable energy into hydrogen and transport the hydrogen to the target destination for utilization.

Hydrogen gas, however, cannot be transported in large amounts due to the limitations in the amount that can be stored per unit volume. A strategy suggested to overcome this issue is the use of chemicals in liquid form as hydrogen carriers, similar to the current method of transporting fossil fuels in a liquid form.

Liquid ammonia (hydrogen storage density per volume: 108kg-H2/m3) is capable of storing around 1.5 times more hydrogen than liquefied hydrogen under the same volume. Unlike the conventional hydrogen production method of natural gas steam reforming in which large amounts of carbon dioxide is emitted in the production process, the hydrogen production method using ammonia only leads to the generation of hydrogen and nitrogen.

Despite the many advantages presented by ammonia, there has been relatively little research on producing high-purity hydrogen from ammonia and generating electricity in conjunction with fuel cells.

The research team at KIST developed a low-cost membrane material and a catalyst for decomposition of ammonia into hydrogen and nitrogen. By combining the catalyst and membrane, the research team created an extraction device that is capable of decomposing ammonia and separating pure hydrogen at the same time. With the developed technology, it is possible to continuosly produce high-purity hydrogen, and it can even be applied to small power generation devices by directly connecting it with fuel cells without any additional hydrogen purification processes.

The research team substantially reduced the ammonia decomposition temperature from 550oC to 450oC, thereby lowering energy consumption and doubling the hydrogen production speed compared to the conventional technology. Also, using the low-cost metal membrane, it was able to produce at least 99.99% pure hydrogen without any high-cost isolation process such as pressure swing adsorption (PSA)*.

Currently, storage- and transportation-related infrastructure for ammonia has been commercialized and used worldwide for intercontinental transportation. If the newly developed technology from KIST is applied to such infrastructure, it will help Korea take a step closer to the hydrogen economy.

Dr. Jo Young Suk from KIST said, "We're planning a follow-up study to develop a compact hydrogen power pack that does not emit any carbon dioxide, based on the recently developed technology, and apply it to urban aerial mobilities (e.g. drone taxis), unmanned aerial vehicles, ships, and other modes of transportation." Meanwhile, Yoon Chang Won, the Director of the KIST Center for Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Research said, "The outcome of this research is an ammonia-based hydrogen extraction and purification technology developed by a team of strictly Korean researchers, and it is expected to open a new chapter in large-scale hydrogen supply using ammonia."

Amsterdam, NL, August 18, 2020 - Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a leading cause of death and disability. Post-injury distress is common, with many individuals experiencing chronic anxiety and depressive symptoms as well as chronic pain. In this collection of articles in the journal NeuroRehabilitation, experts report on findings that shed light on the relationship between stress and pain following a TBI and implications for rehabilitation.

Fifty million people globally sustain a TBI every year, with an estimated yearly cost of around $400 billion. TBI may significantly impact a person's social, cognitive, emotional, and behavioral functioning, which may hamper a return to previous roles.

"The brain, in concert with the body's systems, orchestrates the response to stress, the goal being to reduce uncertainty and ensure existence," explained guest editor Gary Goldberg, BASc, MD, Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Medical College of Virginia / Virginia Commonwealth University Healthcare System, Richmond, VA. "This adaptive response to stress is called 'allostasis.' A brain injury increases the likelihood of chronic allostatic overload, or chronic stress, in some patients, making them more prone to a variety of stress-related physical ailments, including chronic pain and posttraumatic stress syndrome."

The papers provide important insights into the relationship between stress and the experience of pain in the general context of brain impairment produced by brain injury, the implications of this work for brain injury rehabilitation, and recommendations for future directions.

Key observations:

How a patient attempts to cope with the injury and the associated existential uncertainty it produces can have major implications for the functional consequences in real-life terms.

How best to address dysfunctional coping precipitated by the injury. Patients' passive coping and avoidance may limit exposure to negative provocative experiences in the short term, but in the long term, entrenched avoidance, supported by the fear-driven belief that emotionally provocative experience will be intolerable and self-endangering, can lead to social isolation, anxiety, depression, and the burden of chronic allostatic overload.

How best to assist patients in overcoming entrenched avoidance beliefs, which may involve, for example, positive social experience in group therapy and structured individual psychotherapy such as acceptance and commitment therapy and cognitive-behavioral psychotherapy.

How to support the beneficial aspects of allostasis, avoid the development of chronic allostatic overload and the energetic crises and accumulation of stress-related debilitating conditions, such as chronic pain, that it can precipitate, and assist patients through whatever means may be most effective.

A novel study by Amanda McIntyre, PhD, RN, Parkwood Institute, St. Josephs Health Care, London, ONT, Canada, and colleagues highlights the presence of significant distress among certain individuals who have experienced acquired brain injury and the role of specific personality trait characteristics on mood and reported quality of life. Patients who reported increased anxiety sensitivity and experiential avoidance in the process of coping with their injury experienced a more depressed mood and reduced quality of life, while individuals who reported substantially less anxiety sensitivity and experiential avoidance may represent individuals with more effective coping strategies in place, resulting in better management of stress and less difficulty with mental distress and depression.

Stephen Walsh, PhD, Department of Psychology, Manchester Metropolitan University, Birley, UK, and colleagues report the case of an individual who suffered a severe frontal lobe TBI following a competitive cycling accident. They noted that the sense of self-worth that individuals derive from social relationships and belonging to social groups may play a key role in determining health and wellbeing. Using interpretative phenomenological analysis, they concluded that paradox, shifting perspectives, and stress due to uncertainty were identified themes in the reported experience of the individual studied. They argued that one cannot fully appreciate the effects of an injury without taking a relational approach that recognizes the impact of the injury in interaction with the social context of the injured person.

"As illustrated by these two studies, the whole question of how best to treat persisting symptoms associated with TBI may well have less to do with the specific details of the physical injury itself, and more to do with multiple other environmental and intrinsic factors influencing how the injured person is coping with the overall experiential impact and stress precipitated by the injury and its complex real-life repercussions," noted Dr. Goldberg. "Research into assisting individuals in the development of resilience and the capacity for 'letting go' of maladaptive beliefs may lead to significant improvements in clinical outcomes in individuals who struggle with the negative impact of chronic stress."

"What is required is an optimal integration of insights obtained through conventional functional neuroscience--for example, with respect to neuropsychopharmacology and the operation of functional brain networks--and insights obtained through a relational, whole-person perspective that recognizes and fully honors and engages the subjective being, personality, and social context of the person whose existential struggles we as healthcare professionals are obligated and entrusted to help mitigate," he concluded.

An increased level of fructose intake during pregnancy can cause significant changes in maternal metabolic function and milk composition and alter the metabolism of their offspring, researchers from the University of Otago, Wellington, have found.

The research, which was led by Dr Clint Gray, a Research Fellow in the Department of Paediatrics and Child Health, found increasing the fructose in the diets of female guinea pigs led to highly significant and consistent changes in the free fatty acids circulating in the blood of their offspring. This was despite the offspring consuming no fructose themselves.

The research is published in the international journal Frontiers in Endocrinology.

First author, PhD student Erin Smith, says "previous research has shown poor quality nutrition during pregnancy can predispose offspring to long-term consequences, including the development of obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular disease later in life".

"However, there has been a lack of data examining the impact of increased fructose intake before and during pregnancy and subsequent adverse effects on lactation, foetal development and offspring metabolic function."

The two experimental groups were fed either a control diet or a fructose diet prior to and during pregnancy. The fructose group was given supplementary fructose water to replicate increased sugar-sweetened beverage intake 60 days prior to mating and until the delivery of their offspring. Fructose made up 16.5 per cent of their diets, closely resembling the average human consumption of fructose/sugar in Western countries, which is estimated at about 14 per cent of average daily caloric intake.

"We found fructose had a significant impact on a pregnant females' metabolic status and the free fatty acid content of their milk. We also provide the first evidence that offspring born from fructose-fed mothers display a very specific pattern of increased free fatty acids and altered lipid metabolism that persists throughout early life."

Ms Smith says it is well known that increased levels of circulating free fatty acids increases the risk of obesity, insulin resistance, type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease - with increased fatty acid synthesis shown to occur following fructose consumption.

She says the evidence suggests suboptimal maternal diets, such as diets high in fructose and refined sugars, may be contributing to the rise in metabolic diseases in humans observed during the past 40 to 50 years.

"Our study emphasises the importance of limiting added refined fructose, such as sugar-sweetened beverages, and striving for a more nutritionally balanced diet in women prior to and during pregnancy and lactation."

Atomically thin diamond, also called diamane, is a two-dimensional carbon allotrope and has attracted considerable scientific interest due to its potential physical properties. However, previous studies suggest that atomically thin diamond films are not achievable in a pristine state because diamonds possess a three-dimensional crystalline structure and would lack chemical stability when thinned down to the thickness of diamond's unit cell due to the dangling sp3 bonds. Chemical functionalization of the surface carbons with specific chemical groups was considered necessary to stabilize the two-dimensional structure, such as surface hydrogenation or fluorination, and various substrates have also been used in these synthesizing attempts. But all of these attempts change the composition of diamond films, that is to say, the successful synthesis of a pristine diamane has up until now not been achieved.

Regulating the phase transition process of carbon materials under high pressure and high temperature is always a straightforward method for achieving diamondization. Here, a team of scientists led by Drs. Feng Ke and Bin Chen from HPSTAR (the Center for High Pressure Science and Technology Advanced Research) used this direct approach, diamondization of mechanically exfoliated few-layer graphene via compression, to synthesize the long-sought-after diamane film. The study is published in Nano Letters.

The diamondization process is usually accompanied by an opening of an energy gap and a dramatic resistance increase due to the sp2-sp3 rehybridization between carbon atoms. "The in-situ electrical transport measurements of few-layer graphene are difficult to carry out under high pressure," said Feng Ke. "However, using our recently developed photolithography-based microwiring technique to prepare film electrodes on a diamond surface for resistance measurements, we are able to study the pressure-induced sp2-sp3 diamondization transition of mechanically exfoliated graphene with layer thickness ranging from 12- to bilayer at room temperature."

Their studies demonstrate that pristine h-diamane could be synthesized by compressing trilayer and thicker graphene to above 20 GPa at room temperature, which once synthesized could be preserved to about 1.0 GPa upon decompression. "The optical absorption reveals that h-diamane has an energy gap of 2.8 ± 0.3 eV, and further band structure calculations confirm an indirect band gap of 2.7-2.9 eV," explained the co-frist-author Lingkong Zhang, a PhD student at HPSTAR. "Compared to gapless graphene, semiconducting h-diamane offers exciting possibilities for carbon-based electronic devices."

The XRD measurements have shown that the few-layer graphene to h-diamane transition is a gradual structural transition, which helps to understand the continuous resistance increase and absorbance decrease in trilayer and thicker graphene with pressure above the transition pressure. Theoretical calculations indicate that a (−2110)-oriented h-diamane is energetically stable and has a lower enthalpy than its few-layer graphene precursor above the transition pressure.

"Like the discovery of graphene, carbon nanotubes, fullerenes, and other novel carbon allotropes, the realization of a pristine diamane represents another exciting achievement in materials science," added Dr. Bin Chen, "Thermal treatment at high pressure may be helpful to preserve a pristine h-diamane to ambient pressure, as suggested from the high-temperature and high-pressure method to synthesize a pressure quenchable h-diamond. The challenges still remain to achieve the preservation and industrial applications of diamane."

We are surrounded by electronic devices. Transistors are used to power telephones, computers, televisions, hi-fi systems and game consoles as well as cars, airplanes and the like. Today's silicon-based electronics, however, consume a substantial and ever-increasing share of the world's energy. A number of researchers are exploring the properties of materials that are more complex than silicon but that show promise for the electronic devices of tomorrow - and that are less electricity-hungry. In keeping with this approach, scientists from the University of Geneva (UNIGE) have been working in collaboration with the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL), the University of Zurich, the Flatiron Institute of New York and the University of Liège. The scientists have discovered a hitherto-unknown physical phenomenon in an artificial material made up of very thin layers of nickelates. This could be exploited to accurately control some of the material's electronic properties, such as the sudden transition from a conductive to an insulating state. It could also be used to develop new, more energy-efficient devices. You can read about this technological advance in the journal Nature Materials.

"Nickelates are known for a special characteristic: they suddenly switch from an insulating state to that of an electrical conductor when their temperature rises above a certain threshold," begins Jean-Marc Triscone, a professor in the Department of Quantum Matter Physics in UNIGE's Faculty of Science. "This transition temperature varies according to the composition of the material."

Nickelates are formed from a nickel oxide with the addition of an atom belonging to so-called &laquorare earth» elements (i.e. a set of 17 elements from the Periodic Table). When this rare earth is samarium (Sm), for example, the metal-insulator jump takes place at around 130°C, while if it is neodymium (Nd), the threshold drops to -73°C. This difference is explained by the fact that when Sm is replaced by Nd, the compound's crystal structure is deformed - and it is this deformation that controls the value of the transition temperature.

In their attempt to learn more about these materials, the Geneva-based scientists studied samples made up of repeated layers of samarium nickelate deposited on layers of neodymium nickelate - a kind of &laquosuper sandwich» where all the atoms are perfectly arranged.

Behaving like a single material

Claribel Domínguez, a researcher in the Department of Quantum Matter Physics and the article's first author, explains: "When the layers are quite thick, they behave independently, with each one keeping its own transition temperature. Oddly enough, when we refined the layers until each one was no larger than eight atoms, the entire sample began behaving like a single material, with only one large jump in conductivity at an intermediate transition temperature."

A very detailed analysis performed by electron microscope at EPFL - backed up by sophisticated theoretical developments undertaken by American and Belgian colleagues - showed that the propagation of the deformations in the crystal structure at the interfaces between the materials only takes place in two or three atomic layers. Accordingly, it is not this distortion that explains the observed phenomenon. In reality, it is as though the furthest layers somehow know that they are very close to the interface but without being physically deformed.

It's not magic

"There's nothing magical about it," says Jennifer Fowlie, a researcher in the Department of Quantum Matter Physics and co-author of the article. "Our study shows that maintaining an interface between a conductive region and an insulating region, as is the case in our samples, is very expensive in terms of energy. So, when the two layers are thin enough, they are able to adopt much less energy-intensive behaviour, which consists of becoming a single material, either totally metallic or totally insulating, and with a common transition temperature. And all this happens without the crystal structure being changed. This effect, or coupling, is unprecedented."

This discovery was made possible thanks to the support provided by the Swiss National Science Foundation and the Q-MAC ERC Synergy Grant (Frontiers in Quantum Materials' Control). It provides a new way of controlling the properties of artificial electronic structures, which, in this instance, is the jump in conductivity obtained by the Geneva researchers in their composite nickelate, which represents an important step forward for developing new electronic devices. Nickelates could be used in applications such as piezoelectric transistors (reacting to pressure).

More generally, the Geneva work fits into a strategy for producing artificial materials "by design", i.e. with properties that meet a specific need. This path, which is being followed by many researchers around the world, holds promise for future energy-efficient electronics.

Psychosocial needs of people affected by cancer are not being adequately met due to the disruption in services caused by Covid-19, a new report in the journal Psycho-Oncology reports.

During this unique study, researchers from six universities, as part of their work on the British Psychosocial Oncology Society Executive Committee, investigated how psychosocial support for those affected by cancer was impacted during the current Covid-19 pandemic.

Surveying 94 professionals working in the field of psychosocial oncology in the UK, the researchers identified a number of concerns regarding suspension of face-to-face delivery of care to those affected by the disease. Care is now being delivered remotely by staff at home or in some regions has been suspended entirely.

Those surveyed reported a decline in the number of patients referred to psychosocial services and expressed concern about the impact delays in accessing care would have on patients. The use of telephone/video calls to complete assessments with this group of patients was also found to be more difficult, particularly if there was no existing relationship between the two, making it harder to form a therapeutic alliance.

Dr Kate Absolom, University Academic Fellow in the School of Medicine at the University of Leeds and chair of the British Psychosocial Oncology Society, supervised the research. She said: "The results from our survey clearly demonstrate the major upheaval Covid-19 has caused. There are significant ongoing concerns about funding and how services and research activity will be maintained in coming months and years.

"It's vital we monitor how the situation develops and work collaboratively other cancer organisations to mitigate challenges and continue developing psycho-oncology activity in the UK."

The research identified that a lack of face-to-face monitoring and social isolation has led to heightened feelings of anxiety and distress amongst some cancer communities, increasing the need for psychological support. Due to this increased demand and the temporary suspension of services delivering psychosocial support, advice and care, the needs of patients may not be met.

The benefits of delivering care remotely to patients was highlighted by some respondents. Many noted that they were now able to assist patients who were previously unable to travel to them due to distance and illness and many welcomed the flexibility working from home offered to staff.

Dr Jo Armes, Reader in Cancer Care and Lead for Digital Health at the University of Surrey and one of the study's authors, said: "Receiving a cancer diagnosis or living with cancer can be both physically and mentally devastating to a patient and their families. Feelings of depression and anxiety are common which negatively impacts their overall wellbeing.

"Moving psychosocial support to remote delivery, and in some cases suspending it all together, has proven to be difficult for staff to deliver and has resulted in the needs of patients affected by cancer not being met. Due to the current pandemic this has unfortunately been unavoidable but it is important that we learn from this experience and see what works well for patients and what doesn't so that plans can be put in place to deal with similar situations in the future."

The research was conducted in collaboration with Dr Steph Archer (University of Cambridge), Dr Trish Holch (Leeds Beckett University), Professor Claire Foster and Dr Lynn Calman (University of Southampton), Dr Sarah Gelcich (University of Leeds) and Dr Sara MacLennan (University of Aberdeen).

MANHATTAN, KANSAS -- Research by Kansas State University shows how politicians from both major parties have changed their political speech from previous centuries.

A computer science research team at K-State analyzed nearly 2 million congressional speeches made by Republican and Democrat legislators from 1873 to 2010. Their computer analysis shows that political speeches are in fact very different in their style from political speeches made in Congress several decades ago.

In the research paper "A data science approach to 138 years of congressional speeches" published recently in the journal Heliyon, K-State computer science students Ethan Tucker and Colton Capps and computer science associate professor Lior Shamir used automatic text analysis algorithms to analyze congressional speeches in different years.

"The research results show that more recent speeches use a smaller vocabulary, simpler language, express more positive or negative sentiments, and have more noticeable differences between Democratic and Republican speakers," Shamir said.

The algorithms measured different aspects of the speeches such as the vocabulary, the reading level, the positive or negative sentiments expressed in the speeches, and more. The sentiments are measured by using artificial intelligence reading of the text and associating words and phrases with positive or negative sentiments given their context.

"Based on that analysis, the algorithm determines whether a piece of text is positive, very positive, negative, very negative or neutral," Shamir said.

The algorithms also measured the frequency in which different topics were discussed. These quantitative speech elements were computed from thousands of congressional speeches made in each year, and the average of each year allowed to measure the changes in the language and topics discussed in Congress during a period of 138 years, Shamir said.

The research showed that the frequency of words related to women's identity -- such as she, her, hers, woman, women, etc. -- has been increasing consistently since the early 1980s, while the frequency of words that identify men have been decreasing. The frequency of words related to women's identity in the 21st century is five times higher compared to the 1950s, but still lower than the frequency of words related to men's identity. Since the 1990s, terms related to women's identity are more frequent in speeches made by Democratic legislators compared to speeches made by Republican legislators.

"For most of the 20th century, however, there were no substantial differences between women's identity in Democratic and Republican speeches, and expressions of women's identity were about 10 times less frequent than expressions of men's identity by legislators from both parties," Shamir said.

The research also showed that the reading level of the speeches changed significantly over the years. The analysis measured the Coleman-Liau readability index, which estimates the reading level of a certain text and associates it with the appropriate school grade. The analysis showed that the reading level of congressional speeches made by both Republican and Democratic legislators increased consistently from the eighth-grade reading level in the 19th century, to the 10th-grade level in the 1970s. But since 1976 the reading level of political speeches has been declining consistently, and as of the 21st century, it is below the ninth-grade reading level. The same trend was also observed with the vocabulary used by congressional members in speeches, which had been increasing consistently until the early 1970s, and then started to decline -- and it is still declining, Shamir said.

The researchers' analysis of the speeches also showed that more recent congressional speeches express more positive and negative sentiments than the speeches made in Congress during the 19th century and early 20th century. The sentiments in political speeches became gradually more positive and peaked in the 1960s, but declined sharply during the 1970s. Since the 1970s the sentiments expressed in congressional speeches have been becoming more positive.

According to the study, the decline in reading level and vocabulary of the speeches can be related to the increasing presence of media -- including live radio and TV coverage -- in Congress beginning in the 1970s. Members of Congress started to gradually adjust their speech styles, addressing the public through the media rather than addressing their fellow legislators.

Another aspect reflected through the analysis was the partisan split, Shamir said. Starting in the mid-1990s, Republican and Democratic speeches became increasingly different from each other and also correlated with the political affiliation of the president. For instance, during the George W. Bush administration, speeches of Democratic legislators expressed more negative sentiments compared to their Republican counterparts. That difference flipped immediately after 2008, with the beginning of the Obama administration, during which Republican speeches became more negative.

"With natural language processing we can extract new knowledge from old data," Shamir said. "There is no practical way to quantify and profile such a large number of speeches without using computers."

Repeated exposure to high-stress calls for service and ongoing exposure to stress without relief were two of the contributing factors that could lead law enforcement officers to become susceptible to adverse events while performing their duties, according to a new study published in BMC Public Health by researchers at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth).

The study team aims to use this research to develop intervention models that can address and help prevent these multifaceted stressors from affecting an officer's ability to respond to high-stress calls confidently.

"If we can develop innovative interventions for law enforcement officers that address their unique occupational demands, we can help mitigate compounding stress factors that affect their overall mental health," said Katelyn Jetelina, PhD, MPH, the study's lead author and an assistant professor at UTHealth School of Public Health in Dallas.

The research team collected data from three law enforcement agencies in the Dallas-Ft. Worth metroplex: a large urban department, a suburban department, and a rural department. The researchers met with officers in focus group settings to identify stressors and to gain insight on how to prevent future adverse effects such as use of force, officer or civilian injury, civilian complaints, or discharge of a weapon.

The study participants were 86% male and 14% female with an average tenure of 12 years. Five themes emerged that influenced an officer's perception of the stress level of a call - officer characteristics such as former military experience or gender, civilian behavior, supervisor factors such as the tendency to micromanage, environmental factors, and situational factors.

The data revealed several factors that contributed to officer stress accumulation, including not "resetting" stress levels after a high-stress call, burnout from answering numerous back-to-back calls, and feeling pressure to move on to the next call quickly. Experience from a previous adverse event was also a contributing factor to cumulative stress. However, according to the focus group responses, behaviors such as taking a break between calls, practicing breathing exercises, and addressing one's mental health over time can help lower levels of chronic stress.

The researchers noted that the combination of the perceived stress level of a call and other cumulative stress factors increase the likelihood for adverse events between police and the public. If the cycle of chronic stress is addressed and limitations placed on the number of high-stress calls an officer responds to during a shift, adverse events may be limited as well. Previous studies have shown that for other occupations, reduced levels of stress increase productivity and job satisfaction.

Irving Police Chief Jeff Spivey, whose officers participated in the study, said the results will help them find additional ways to assist their officers with mental health needs.

"Providing multiple resources for our officers to support and focus on their mental health needs, like our internal peer support groups, is a cause I am very proud to champion," Spivey said. "Peer support services have proven to be effective in helping police officers appropriately manage their mental health; that's why we have teamed up with the Caruth Police Institute and other departments across the state to create a peer network for first responders throughout Texas."

Jetelina and her team are currently testing the feasibility of using smart watches to break cumulative, real-time stress for officers. Additional research on the prevalence of undiagnosed mental health disorders among law enforcement officers is necessary to assess the effectiveness of current mental health resources and to ensure that new resources are developed.

ABERDEEN PROVING GROUND, Md. -- Army and Texas A&M University researchers developed a new material that can autonomously heal in air and underwater.

The first-of-its-kind, 3-D printable and stimuli-responsive polymeric materials are expected to enable massive reconfigurability in future military platforms, which opens new opportunities for morphing unmanned air vehicles and robotic platforms, said Dr. Frank Gardea, an aerospace engineer and principal investigator of this work for the U.S. Army's Combat Capabilities Development Command's Army Research Laboratory.

Army researchers envision a future platform, suitable for air and ground missions, with the reconfiguration characteristics of the T-1000 character in the Hollywood film, Terminator 2, he said. As the research matures, the epoxy material is expected to have the ability for massive reconfigurability and have embedded intelligence allowing it to autonomously adapt to its environment without any external control.

"We want a system of materials to simultaneously provide structure, sensing and response," Gardea said.

Currently, the stimulus this material responds to is temperature, which researchers first selected because of its ease of use during laboratory testing. In the real world, applying a temperature stimulus is not as easy or practical so they introduced light-responsiveness because of its easier to control and apply remotely, Gardea said.

Polymers are made up of repeating units, like links on a chain. For softer polymers, these chains are only lightly connected to each other through crosslinks. The more crosslinks between chains, the more rigid the material becomes.

"Most cross-linked materials, especially those that are 3-D printed, tend to have a fixed form, meaning that once you manufacture your part the material cannot be reprocessed or melted," he said.

This new material has a dynamic bond that allows it to go from liquid to solid multiple times, which allows it to be 3-D printed and recycled. In addition, the dynamic bonds introduce a unique shape memory behavior, in which the material can be programmed and triggered to return to a remembered shape.

The flexibility introduced to the polymer chain allows it to be fine-tuned, in unprecedented ways, to get either the softness of rubber or the strength of load-bearing plastics.

Dr. Bryan Glaz, associate chief scientist for the lab's Vehicle Technology Directorate, said much of the previous work on adaptive materials were for materials systems that are either too soft for structural applications or otherwise not suitable for platform development so turning to epoxies, in some ways, is groundbreaking.

Glaz said the research team's scientific advancement marks "a first step along a very long path toward realizing the scientific possibility for deep future platforms."

This research is part of an exploratory research program led by the corporate laboratory to look at new scientific developments that may disrupt current scientific and technological paradigms 30 to 50 years from now. Glaz said exploratory research, like this, has current significant scientific risk and seeks to address numerous open scientific questions about material performance and durability.

The researchers recently published their findings in a peer-reviewed journal, Advanced Functional Materials, in the paper, A Tailorable Family of Elastomeric-to-Rigid, 3D Printable, Interbonding Polymer Networks.

The research is still in the discovery phase. The team started off trying to develop a 3-D printable material for structural applications that could be used to print components of UAVs or even rotorcraft. During this exploratory research, they noticed that after failure the surfaces became active and "would easily adhere to one another," Gardea said. This is when they decided to investigate the self-healing capabilities.

Gardea said the immediate next steps are to enhance the actuation behavior and healing. The researchers also want to introduce multi-responsiveness and have the material respond to stimuli beyond temperature and light.

This research supports challenges highlighted in the U.S. Army Functional Concept for Movement and Maneuver publication related to multi-domain operations and the Army Modernization Priority for Future Vertical Lift by improving knowledge of material behaviors that may be capable of introducing multi-functionality into far-future Army platforms.