Tech

Scientists at the Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore) have developed a liquid window panel that can simultaneously block the sun to regulate solar transmission, while trapping thermal heat that can be released through the day and night, helping to reduce energy consumption in buildings.

The NTU researchers developed their 'smart window' by placing hydrogel-based liquid within glass panels and found that it can reduce up to 45 per cent of heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning energy consumption in buildings in simulations, compared to traditional glass windows. It is also around 30 per cent more energy efficient than commercially available low-emissivity (energy-efficient) glass, while being cheaper to make.

The 'smart window' is the first reported instance in a scientific journal of energy-saving smart windows made using liquid, and supports the NTU Smart Campus vision which aims to develop technologically advanced solutions for a sustainable future.

Windows are a key component in a building's design, but they are also the least energy-efficient part. Due to the ease with which heat can transfer through glass, windows have a significant impact on heating and cooling costs of a building. According to a 2009 report by the United Nations, buildings account for 40 per cent of global energy usage, and windows are responsible for half of that energy consumption.

Conventional energy-saving low-emissivity windows are made with expensive coatings that cut down infrared light passing into or out of a building, thus helping to reduce demand for heating and cooling. However, they do not regulate visible light, which is a major component of sunlight that causes buildings to heat up.

To develop a window to overcome these limitations, the NTU researchers turned to water, which absorbs a high amount of heat before it begins to get hot - a phenomenon known as high specific heat capacity.

They created a mixture of micro-hydrogel, water and a stabiliser, and found through experiments and simulations that it can effectively reduce energy consumption in a variety of climates, due to its ability to respond to a change in temperature. Thanks to the hydrogel, the liquid mixture turns opaque when exposed to heat, thus blocking sunlight, and, when cool, returns to its original 'clear' state.

'Liquid window' most suitable for office buildings

At the same time, the high heat capacity of water allows a large amount of thermal energy to be stored instead of getting transferred through the glass and into the building during the hot daytime. The heat will then be gradually cooled and released at night.

Dr Long Yi, lead author of the research study published in the journal Joule, and Senior Lecturer at the School of Materials Science & Engineering said, "Our innovation combines the unique properties of both types of materials - hydrogel and water. By using a hydrogel-based liquid we simplify the fabrication process to pouring the mixture between two glass panels. This gives the window a unique advantage of high uniformity, which means the window can be created in any shape and size."

As a result of these features, the NTU research team believes that their innovation is best suited for use in office buildings, where operating hours are mostly in the day.

As a proof of concept, the scientists conducted outdoor tests in hot (Singapore, Guangzhou) and cold (Beijing) environments.

The Singapore test revealed that the smart liquid window had a lower temperature (50°C) during the hottest time of the day (noon) compared to a normal glass window (84°C). The Beijing tests showed that the room using the smart liquid window consumed 11 per cent less energy to maintain the same temperature compared to the room with a normal glass window.

Smart window shifts electricity load peak, blocks noise

The scientists also measured when the highest value of stored thermal energy of the day occurred.

This 'temperature peak' in the normal glass window was 12pm, and in the smart liquid window was shifted to 2 pm. If this temperature peak shift is translated to a shift in the time that a building needs to draw on electrical power to cool or warm the building, it should result in lower energy tariff charges for users.

Simulations using an actual building model and weather data of four cities (Shanghai, Las Vegas, Riyadh, and Singapore) showed that the smart liquid window had the best energy-saving performance in all four cities when compared to regular glass windows and low emissivity windows.

Soundproof tests also suggested that the smart liquid window reduces noise 15 per cent more effectively than double-glazed windows.

First author of the study Wang Shancheng, who is Project Officer at the School of Materials Science & Engineering said, "Sound-blocking double glazed windows are made with two pieces of glass which are separated by an air gap. Our window is designed similarly, but in place of air, we fill the gap with the hydrogel-based liquid, which increases the sound insulation between the glass panels, thereby offering additional benefit not commonly found in current energy-saving windows."

The other first author, Dr Zhou Yang was a PhD student in NTU and is currently an Associate Professor at China University of Petroleum-Beijing (CUPB).

Providing an independent view, Professor Ronggui Yang, of the Huazhong University of Science and Technology, China, a recipient of the 2020 Nukiyama Memorial Award in Thermal Science and Engineering and an expert in thermal and energy systems said, "This is the first instance of a hydrogel-based liquid smart window, and it takes us far from a conventional glass design. The disruptive innovation leads to solar regulation and heat storage, which together render outstanding energy-saving performance."

The research team is now looking to collaborate with industry partners to commercialise the smart window.

In the Northwest Pacific, most tropical cyclones occur alone during their lifetime. However, sometimes two or several tropical cyclones exist simultaneously. Generally, two tropical cyclones occurring simultaneously are referred to as binary tropical cyclones (BTCs), and they concurrently perform a mutual counterclockwise spin and move closer to each other when at a relatively close range. This phenomenon was first noted by Fujihara in 1921.

There are three existing BTC definitions with different criteria based on the separation distance, TC intensity and the coexistence time, which seem to be objective factors. However, as there is so explanation or reason in existence regarding the origins of these definitions, in truth they are mainly subjective.

To address this problem, Prof. Fumin Ren and his research team, from the viewpoints of two important parameters of BTCs--namely, the two TCs moving closer to each other and performing a mutual counterclockwise spin--carried out a study that analyzed two best-track datasets, provided by the China Meteorological Administration (CMA) and the Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC). They established an objective standard, which includes a main standard for defining BTCs and a secondary standard for identifying typical/atypical BTCs, based on the high level of consistency between the two datasets.

"The main standard has two requirements: two coexisting TCs are a pair of BTCs if the separation distance is less than 1800 km, and if this separation maintains for at least 12 hours," says Ren, with Chinese Academy of Meteorological Sciences.

The above research has been accepted and published by Advances in Atmospheric Sciences (https://doi.org/10.1007/s00376-020-9287-3).

BTCs often bring extreme precipitation when they make landfall, and cause serious disasters. For example, the strong typhoon "Morak" in 2009 caused about 700 deaths or disappearances over the southern Taiwan Island.

"We still do not have a clear picture of the characteristics of BTC interactions in China's offshore area, and this is what we are going to investigate next," concludes Ren.

It's a major breakthrough in the field of electronics. Engineers at EPFL's Laboratory of Nanoscale Electronics and Structures (LANES) have developed a next-generation circuit that allows for smaller, faster and more energy-efficient devices - which would have major benefits for artificial-intelligence systems. Their revolutionary technology is the first to use a 2D material for what's called a logic-in-memory architecture, or a single architecture that combines logic operations with a memory function. The research team's findings appear today in Nature.

Until now, the energy efficiency of computer chips has been limited by the von Neumann architecture they currently use, where data processing and data storage take place in two separate units. That means data must constantly be transferred between the two units, using up a considerable amount of time and energy.

By combining the two units into a single structure, engineers can reduce these losses. That's the idea behind the new chip developed at EPFL, although it goes one step beyond existing logic-in-memory devices. The EPFL chip is made from MoS2, which is a 2D material consisting of a single layer that's only three atoms thick. It's also an excellent semi-conductor. LANES engineers had already studied the specific properties of MoS2 a few years ago, finding that it is particularly well-suited to electronics applications. Now the team has taken that initial research further to create their next-generation technology.

The EPFL chip is based on floating-gate field-effect transistors (FGFETs). The advantage of these transistors is that they can hold electric charges for long periods; they are typically used in flash memory systems for cameras, smartphones and computers. The unique electrical proprieties of MoS2 make it particularly sensitive to charges stored in FGFETs, which is what enabled the LANES engineers to develop circuits that work as both memory storage units and programmable transistors. By using MoS2, they were able to incorporate numerous processing functions into a single circuit and then change them as desired.

In-depth expertise

"This ability for circuits to perform two functions is similar to how the human brain works, where neurons are involved in both storing memories and conducting mental calculations," says Andras Kis, the head of LANES. "Our circuit design has several advantages. It can reduce the energy loss associated with transferring data between memory units and processors, cut the amount of time needed for computing operations and shrink the amount of space required. That opens the door to devices that are smaller, more powerful and more energy efficient."

The LANES research team has also acquired in-depth expertise in fabricating circuits out of 2D materials. "We made our first chip ten years ago by hand," says Kis. "But we have since developed an advanced fabrication process that lets us make 80 or more chips in a single run, with well-controlled properties."

The renin-angiotensin system (RAS) becomes active at low blood pressure and forms angiotensin II, a hormone that causes blood vessels to constrict, causing blood pressure to rise again. The enzyme dipeptidyl peptidase 3 (DPP3) is significantly involved in the metabolism of angiotensin II.

The head of the Institute of Biochemistry at Graz University of Technology, Peter Macheroux, and his team are world leaders in DPP3 research: "For example, we now know that people who suffer a heart attack, blood poisoning or acute kidney injury have elevated levels of DPP3 in their bloodstream. This increase correlates with increased mortality." However, little is known about the physiological function of DPP3. For this reason, the working group led by Macheroux, together with researchers from the University of Graz and Med Uni Graz, investigated how DPP3 affects the RAS. The results were published in the Journal of Biological Chemistry.

Effects of DPP3 deficiency

The DPP3 gene was specifically switched off in a mouse model at the University of Graz (knock-out mouse model). Using mass spectroscopic analyses, the researchers discovered that DPP3 regulates RAS processes and the water balance by breaking down angiotensin peptides. The DPP3 deficiency led to increased fluid and food intake. Nevertheless, the knock-out mice had a lower body weight and less fat mass than the mice of the control group (wild type mice). Furthermore, the concentration of angiotensin II was significantly higher in knock-out mice. This increased angiotensin II level caused oxidative stress and reduced metabolism. "The exact effects of these changes are still unclear, however, and will have to be examined in more detail in follow-up studies. For example, the blood pressure did not change measurably," said Macheroux.

Gender-specific differences

For the first time it was also possible to prove that there are gender-specific differences. While major changes in RAS were found in male mice, female mice were hardly affected by DPP3 knock-out. "This documents a direct connection between the hormone system and the physiological role of DPP3. Oestrogen in particular is likely to inhibit the production of angiotensin II," say the two first authors Shalinee Jha and Ulrike Taschler from the Institute of Biochemistry at TU Graz and the Institute of Molecular Biosciences at the University of Graz.

Development of an inhibitor

The characterization of DPP3 in this study shows that DPP3 can modulate metabolic and cellular processes in RAS. This property could be of great benefit in the treatment of various cardiovascular diseases in the future. Macheroux: "In a next step, we would like to advance the development of an enzyme-inhibiting substance (inhibitor) for DPP3. Work on this has already begun at the Institutes of Biochemistry and Organic Chemistry at TU Graz."

Older, large-diameter trees have been shown to store disproportionally massive amounts of carbon compared to smaller trees, highlighting their importance in mitigating climate change, according to a new study in Frontiers in Forests and Global Change. Researchers examined the aboveground carbon storage of large-diameter trees (>21 inches or >53.3 cm) on National Forest lands within Oregon and Washington. They found that despite only accounting for 3% of the total number of trees on the studied plots, large trees stored 42% of the total above-ground carbon within these forest ecosystems. This study is among the first of its kind to report how a proposed policy could affect carbon storage in forest ecosystems, potentially weakening protections for large-diameter trees and contributing to huge releases of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere in the face of a changing climate.

In the Pacific Northwest region of the US, a 21-inch diameter rule was enacted in 1994 to slow the loss of large, older trees in national forests. However, proposed amendments to this limit would potentially allow widespread harvesting of large trees up to 30 inches in diameter with major implications for carbon dynamics and forest ecology. Dr David Mildrexler, who led the study, highlights:

"Large trees represent a small proportion of trees in the forest, but they play an exceptionally important role in the entire forest community -- the many unique functions they provide would take hundreds of years to replace."

To examine the relationship between tree diameter and aboveground carbon storage in forests east of the Cascades Crest, the researchers used species-specific equations to relate tree diameter and height to the aboveground biomass in the stem and branches, taking into account that half this biomass in a tree is comprised of carbon. They also examined what proportion large trees made up of the total forest stand, their total calculated aboveground carbon storage and therefore what the potential consequence of removing these large trees could have within future forest management practices.

The study also revealed that trees >30 inches (>76.2 cm) in diameter only constituted 0.6% of the total stems, but these giants accounted for over 16% of the total aboveground carbon across the forests examined. Once trees reached a large size, each additional increment in diameter resulted in a significant addition to the tree's total carbon stores:

"If you think of adding a ring of new growth to the circumference of a large tree and its branches every year, that ring adds up to a lot more carbon than the ring of a small tree.' explains Dr Mildrexler. "This is why specifically letting large trees grow larger is so important for climate change because it maintains the carbon stores in the trees and accumulates more carbon out of the atmosphere at a very low cost."

The study highlights the importance of protecting existing large trees and strengthening the 21-inch rule so that additional carbon is accumulated as 21-30" diameter trees are allowed to continue to grow to their ecological potential, and letting a sufficient number of sub-21 inch trees grow further and become additional large, effective carbon stores.

Dr Mildrexler argues that this is among the most effective short-term options for stabilizing climate change and providing other valuable ecosystem services:

"Large trees are the cornerstones of diversity and resilience for the entire forest community. They support rich communities of plants, birds, mammals, insects, and micro-organisms, as well as act as giant water towers that tap into groundwater resources and cool our planet through evaporation."

"There is a real need for monitoring forest condition beyond what the forest service does on their inventory plots, and so local communities can also play their part to provide citizen science data and learn about the living forests on their lands, contributing to community income and mitigating climate change."

Two of humanity's biggest problems - the climate crisis and abysmal eating habits - can partly be solved by one healthy solution: eating more food from trees, specifically tropical ones. While global trends in agriculture and diets are not easily reversed, scientists say that creating incentives to grow and eat more mangos, avocados and Brazil nuts - and dozens of tree-sourced foods most people have never heard of - can be both attainable and sustainable.

Writing in People and Nature, researchers outline the myriad nutritional, economic and environmental-health potential of increasing the production and consumption of tropical fruits. They present an overview of benefits from tree-sourced foods in terms of nutrition and discuss the barriers and risks of scaling up supply to a global level.

"Planting the right type of trees in the right place can provide nutritious foods to improve diets sustainably while providing other valuable ecosystem services such as carbon sequestration," said Merel Jansen, the lead author from ETH Zurich and the Center of International Forestry Research. "It also can contribute to development issues related to poverty reduction, biodiversity conservation, and food security."

In spite of the diversity of edible plants - there are more than 7,000 - the global food system is founded on extraordinarily low diversity. Almost half the calories consumed by humans come from only four crops: wheat, rice, sugarcane and maize. The overconsumption of these energy-rich but nutrient-poor foods - in combination with underconsumption of more nutritious foods - has contributed significantly to malnutrition, which afflicts some two billion people. Moreover, their cultivation has caused widespread losses of biodiversity and contributed to climate change.

For these reasons, experts are calling for a transformation of global food systems characterized by the cultivation and consumption of foods that simultaneously deliver nutritional, environmental and health benefits. Because tropical tree species, which may exceed 50,000, have this potential they can be a critical part of the solution, say the authors.

"Leveraging the diversity and local knowledge of tree species in tropical landscapes offers an excellent nature-based solution to match the rising global demand for diversified, healthy and sustainable diets, and to re-valuate native tree species and local farming practices," said Chris Kettle, the principal investigator of this work, from the ETH Zurich and Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT.

The world's hundreds of millions of smallholder farmers, who have been often pushed aside by the industrialization of food systems, have the potential to be key players in food system transformation. With the right incentives, investments and involvement, smallholder farms could scale up agroforestry systems to produce more, healthy food, while simultaneously diversifying their income sources.

Marginalized groups and women also stand to gain from tree-sourced food sources, especially when the foods are harvested from trees that are not planted but grow spontaneously or and have the potential for natural regeneration that can be managed. This is because, in part, women farmers tend to have limited access to land, credit and other assets.

There are many clear opportunities to incorporate food-producing trees into landscapes. The majority of global cropland does not incorporate trees but has a high potential for doing so. Further, vast tracts of land in the tropics have been cleared for agriculture and then abandoned, and coordinated restoration efforts could include the establishment of sustainably managed agroforestry systems.

Avoiding pitfalls

Increased demand for tree-sourced products has potential downsides. The establishment of industrial cacao plantations in West Africa and oil palm plantations in south-east Asia have deforested landscapes, degraded soils, harmed biodiversity and increased carbon emissions. Avocado farms in Mexico, made profitable by increased demand north of the border, have been recently targeted by organized crime. Dependency on single products can lead to widespread shocks when prices crashed, as has happened to cacao farmers in Côte d'Ivoire.

"A combination of interventions by states, markets and civil society across the supply chain - from producers to consumers - is necessary to guarantee that increases in demand are supplied from sustainable production systems that are diverse, and that will not lead to large-scale deforestation or other unwanted side effects," said Jansen.

To make increased tree-sourced food production an integral part of the global food system transformation, the authors propose the following:

Consumer demand: More information needs to reach consumers about tree-source food. "To radically change diets, extensive behavioral change campaigns will likely be necessary, especially to increase the consumption of underutilized nutritious and healthy foods," the authors say.

Land tenure: One barrier to the implementation of tree-based food production systems is insecure land tenure rights. These are particularly important since tree-crops can require substantial up-front expenses and return on investment can take years. Secure land rights are considered key to overcoming these barriers.

Investment costs and pay-back time: Intercropping with annual crops, payment for ecosystem services, redirecting annual crop subsidies, and provision of micro-credits to establish agroforestry systems can create funding opportunities. These can help alleviate high investment costs and long pay-back times.

Supply chain development: Developing supply chains for potentially popular products is essential for rural communities to access markets. NGOs, private investors and the public sector can all contribute.

Genetic resource conservation: Investment in the conservation of genetic resources that underpin diversity is necessary for crop tree systems to flourish. Additionally, reliable seed sources and seedlings need to be available for the establishment of tree crop farms.

Technological development: Development of propagation methods, planting techniques and post-harvest technologies for currently undomesticated trees can help to better use the enormous diversity of trees in our food systems.

Diversification: To avoid the pitfalls of monoculture systems including price shocks and environmental degradation, sustainable crop tree systems must include a variety of plants and crops.

Cesarean section delivery and vaginal delivery lead to different hormonal exposures that may affect a newborn's development, according to an article published in the Journal of Neuroendocrinology.

The article notes that levels of each of the 'birth signaling hormones'--oxytocin, arginine vasopressin, epinephrine, norepinephrine, and the glucocorticoids--are lower following cesarean delivery compared with vaginal delivery. These hormones may play various roles in helping an infant adapt following birth, and alterations in their levels in early life can result in long-term neurodevelopmental consequences.

"Given that nearly one-third of all births in the U.S. currently occur via cesarean delivery, it's important that we try to understand whether the well-established epidemiological associations between cesarean delivery and various neurodevelopmental outcomes--such as higher rates of autism and obesity--are due to changes in these important hormones during the sensitive period that is birth," said author William Kenkel, PhD, an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences at the University of Delaware.

For students studying ecology and evolution, it's important to experience the processes and concepts they are learning about nature in nature. As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, however, field-based courses rapidly transitioned to online only delivery. An article published in Ecology and Evolution discusses the potential advantages of pairing an intensive lab experience with an otherwise online delivery.

The authors note that a short but intensive time period in the field may be better than the traditional low intensity weekly lab structure because its allow a group to be tested and isolated, offers more flexibility for students with competing interests for their time, and enhances student interpersonal skills.

"With our rapid pivot to online instruction, it is more important than ever to ensure our students have meaningful field-based experience," said co-author Robert McCleery, PhD, of the University of Florida.

Human skin bruises when the tissue and muscle in the area suffer trauma or become damaged due to an application of blunt force. However, when an object suffers an impact that is expected to damage, it is necessary to examine every inch of the surface of the material to understand the extent of the damaged. In the case of an airplane, for example, it is fully inspected to ensure safety. If the areas damaged by a physical impact undergo a change in color, just like human skin, it will be easy to distinguish what needs to be repaired.

Spiropyran, a molecule that reacts to external force, changes color when it is physically stimulated due to a change in its chemical structure. When this substance is injected in concrete or silicone, it reacts to mechanical stimuli such as force, deformation and damage by changing color. However, the mechano-sensitivity of such composite material is too low for real-life applications. When applied to silicone, for example, the color changes only after deformation of at least 500%.

A research team headed by Dr. Jaewoo Kim from the Structural Composite Research Center at the Institute of Advanced Composite Materials of the Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST) has drastically improved the mechano-sensitivity for the material to be applicable to wearable sensors and artificial skin.

In order to enhance sensitivity, previous studies have applied a method of modifying the molecular structure of spiropyran according to the material it would be combined with prior to synthesis. In contrast, the KIST researchers synthesized the composite material first and then added a certain type of solvent to improve the sensitivity through a sort of aging process. Then, the changes in the color and fluorescence of the composite material were observed, while controlling the absorption time with the solvent, and it was found that increasing the treatment time improved the sensitivity. The spiropyran-polymer developed through this new process showed 850% improvement in sensitivity compared to the previously developed materials. Such remarkable sensitivity was seen for various types of deformations such as tension, compression and bending.

Also, unlike the existing method of improving sensitivity by manipulating each material separately, the new method developed through this study that increases sensitivity simply with an aging process using a solvent presents advantages in that it can be easily applied to various materials.

Dr. Jaewoo Kim from KIST said, "Through this study, a process that can dramatically improve the mechano-sensitivity of spiropyran-based stress-sensitive smart polymer materials has been developed, and through analysis, the mechanism behind sensitivity improvement was identified. [...] Based on this, we plan to devote ourselves to a follow-up study in which we apply the technology to futuristic wearable sensors and artificial skin."

The University of Nottingham has cracked the conundrum of how to use inks to 3D-print novel electronic devices with useful properties, such as an ability to convert light into electricity.

The study shows that it is possible to jet inks, containing tiny flakes of 2D materials such as graphene, to build up and mesh together the different layers of these complex, customised structures.

Using quantum mechanical modelling, the researchers also pinpointed how electrons move through the 2D material layers, to completely understand how the ground-breaking devices can be modified in future.

Paper co-author, Professor Mark Fromhold, Head of the School of Physics and Astronomy said, "By linking together fundamental concepts in quantum physics with state-of-the art-engineering, we have shown how complex devices for controlling electricity and light can be made by printing layers of material that are just a few atoms thick but centimetres across.

"According to the laws of quantum mechanics, in which the electrons act as waves rather than particles, we found electrons in 2D materials travel along complex trajectories between multiple flakes. It appears as if the electrons hop from one flake to another like a frog hopping between overlapping lily pads on the surface of a pond."

The study, 'Inter-Flake Quantum Transport of Electrons and Holes in Inkjet-Printed Graphene Devices', has been published in the peer-reviewed journal Advanced Functional Materials.

Often described as a 'super material', graphene was first created in 2004. It exhibits many unique properties including being stronger than steel, highly flexible and the best conductor of electricity ever made.

Two-dimensional materials like graphene are usually made by sequentially exfoliating a single layer of carbon atoms - arranged in a flat sheet - which are then used to produce bespoke structures.

However, producing layers and combining them to make complex, sandwich-like materials has been difficult and usually required painstaking deposition of the layers one at a time and by hand.

Since its discovery, there has been an exponential growth in the number of patents involving graphene. However, in order to fully exploit its potential, scalable manufacturing techniques need to be developed.

The new paper shows that additive manufacturing - more commonly known as 3D printing - using inks, in which tiny flakes of graphene (a few billionths of a metre across) are suspended, provides a promising solution.

By combining advanced manufacturing techniques to make devices along with sophisticated ways of measuring their properties and quantum wave modelling the team worked out exactly how inkjet-printed graphene can successfully replace single layer graphene as a contact material for 2D metal semiconductors.

Co-author, Dr Lyudmila Turyanska from the Centre for Additive Manufacturing, said, "While 2D layers and devices have been 3D printed before, this is the first time anyone has identified how electrons move through them and demonstrated potential uses for the combined, printed layers. Our results could lead to diverse applications for inkjet-printed graphene-polymer composites and a range of other 2D materials. The findings could be employed to make a new generation of functional optoelectronic devices; for example, large and efficient solar cells; wearable, flexible electronics that are powered by sunlight or the motion of the wearer; perhaps even printed computers."

The study was carried out by engineers at the Centre for Additive Manufacturing and physicists at the School of Physics and Astronomy with a common interest in quantum technologies, under the £5.85m EPSRC-funded Programme Grant, Enabling Next Generation Additive Manufacturing.

The researchers used a wide range of characterisation techniques - including micro-Raman spectroscopy (laser scanning), thermal gravity analysis, a novel 3D orbiSIMS instrument and electrical measurements - to provide detailed structural and functional understanding of inkjet-printed graphene polymers, and the effects of heat treating (annealing) on performance.

The next steps for the research are to better control the deposition of the flakes by using polymers to influence the way they arrange and align and trying different inks with a range of flake sizes. The researchers also hope to develop more sophisticated computer simulations of the materials and the way they work together, developing ways of mass-manufacturing they devices they prototype.

A very few species of parasitoid wasps can be considered aquatic. Less than 0.1% of the species we know today have been found to enter the water, while searching for potential hosts or living as endoparasitoids inside of aquatic hosts during their larval stage.

Within the subfamily Microgastrinae (family Braconidae), only two species have previously been recorded to be aquatic, based on their parasitism of aquatic caterpillars of moths. However, none has been known to actually dive in the water.

Recently, during their research work in Japan, Dr. Jose Fernandez-Triana of the Canadian National Collection of Insects and his team found and recorded on camera the first microgastrine parasitoid wasp that dives underwater for several seconds, in order to attack and pull out caterpillar hosts, so that it can lay its eggs inside them before releasing them back in the water.

Interestingly, the wasp, which was described as a new to science species in the open-access, peer-reviewed scientific Journal of Hymenoptera Research, was given the awe-striking name Microgaster godzilla, because its emergence out of the water reminded the scientists of the Japanese iconic fictional monster Godzilla.

In the video, the female wasp can be seen walking over floating plants as it searches for hosts, specifically larvae of the moth species Elophila turbata, which constructs a portable case from fragments of aquatic plants and lives inside it near the water surface. Once the wasp finds one of those cases, it first probes it repeatedly with its antennae, while moving around. Eventually, it forces the larvae to come out of the case and parasitizes it by quickly inserting its ovipositor. In some cases, the wasp has to submerge completely underwater for several seconds, in order to find and pull the caterpillar out of its case. To do this, the species has evolved enlarged and strongly curved tarsal claws, which are thought to be used to grip the substrate as it enters the water and looks for hosts.

As for the curious choice of name for the new species, Dr. Jose Fernandez-Triana explains:

"The reasons why we decided to use the name of Godzilla for the wasp species are interesting. First, being a Japanese species, it respectfully honours Godzilla, a fictional monster (kaiju) that became an icon after the 1954 Japanese film of the same name and many remakes afterwards. It has become one of the most recognizable symbols of Japanese popular culture worldwide. Second, the wasp's parasitization behaviour bears some loose resemblance to the kaiju character, in the sense that the wasp suddenly emerges from the water to parasitize the host, similar to how Godzilla suddenly emerges from the water in the movies. Third, Godzilla has sometimes been associated, albeit in different ways, with Mothra, another kaiju that is typically portrayed as a larva (caterpillar) or an adult moth. As you can see, we had biological, behavioural and cultural reasons to justify our choice of a name. Of course, that and having a bit of fun, because that is also an important part of life and science!"

Beyond unusual behaviours and funny names, Dr. Fernandez-Triana wants to emphasize the importance of multidisciplinary work and collaboration. The team that published this paper got to know each other at an international meeting devoted to biological control (The 5th International Entomophagous Insects Conference in Kyoto, Japan, 2017).

"I was very impressed by several presentations by Japanese grad students, which included video recordings of parasitoid wasp biology. As a taxonomist, I am always impressed with the quality of research done by colleagues in other fields. In this case, we saw an opportunity to combine our efforts to study the wasp in detail and, when we found that it was a new species, we described it together, including adding the filmed behaviour to the original description. Usually, taxonomic descriptions of parasitoid wasps are based on dead specimens, with very few details--often none--on its biology. Thanks to my biocontrol colleagues, we could add more information to what is known about the new species being described. Hopefully we can continue this collaboration and combined approach for future studies".

Large amounts of chemical fertilizers can lead to severe environmental pollution. Biofertilizers are a preferred and sustainable alternative technology that can promote plant health without damaging ecological impacts. Plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria (PGPRs) can be used as biofertilizers and reduce the use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides while also ensuring sustainable and increased production.

While scientists know the benefits of PGPRs, they are still unclear on how these bacteria function. In a recent study published in the Molecular Plant-Microbe Interactions (MPMI) journal, a group of scientists in China studied the Bacillus pumilus LZP02 strain. Using proteomic, transcriptomic and metabolomics techniques, they found that the bacteria could beneficially colonize the rice root surface and promote growth.

"Our study has demonstrated that B. pumilus LZP02 colonizes rice roots and promotes growth by improving carbohydrate metabolism and phenylpropanoid biosynthesis," explained Zhigang Wang, one of the scientists involved in the research. "These findings show a new light on how microbes and plants communicate in a friendly way."

For more information about this research, read "Bacillus pumilus LZP02 Promotes Rice Root Growth by Improving Carbohydrate Metabolism and Phenylpropanoid Biosynthesis" published in the October issue of MPMI.

Climate change will bring an acute toll worldwide, with rising temperatures, wildfires and poor air quality, accompanied by higher rates of cancer, especially lung, skin and gastrointestinal cancers, according to a new report from UC San Francisco.

In an analysis of nearly five dozen published scientific papers, the researchers provided a synopsis of future effects from global warming on major cancers, from environmental toxins to ultraviolet radiation, air pollution, infectious agents and disruptions in the food and water supply.

Ultimately, the most profound challenge to the global cancer picture could come from the disruption of the complex health care systems required for cancer diagnosis, treatment, and care, the authors wrote. The review appears in The Lancet Oncology.

"In the worldwide battle to mitigate climate change, the international community is not on track to slow emissions of greenhouses gases," said lead author Robert A. Hiatt, MD, PhD, UCSF professor of epidemiology and biostatistics, and associate director for population science at the UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center. "2015-2019 were the five warmest years on record, and 2020 has seen tremendous climate impacts, from wildfires to hurricanes."

The impacts of climate change on health are large and are expected to continue growing without rapid action. High temperatures, poor air quality and wildfires cause higher rates of respiratory and cardiovascular diseases. Warmer temperatures and changing rainfall patterns raise the risk and spread of vector-borne disease, such as malaria and dengue. "Extreme weather events cause death, injury, displacement, and disrupt health-care delivery," the authors wrote.

Cancer is widely predicted to be the leading cause of death in the 21st century. Worldwide, there were 24.5 million new cases of cancer and 9.6 million deaths in 2017, a striking increase from 2008 with 12.7 million cases and 7.6 million deaths.

The authors said the biggest cancer threats are likely to be from air pollution, exposure to ultraviolent radiation and industrial toxins, and disruptions in food and water supply. Lung cancer, already the primary cause of cancer deaths worldwide, is expected to increase as a result of escalating exposure to particulate matter in air pollution, estimated to be responsible for as much as 15 percent of new cases.

While the overall effects of climate change on nutrition-related cancers are difficult to determine, the authors said, one comprehensive modeling study predicted more than half a million climate-related deaths worldwide, including cancer deaths, as a result of changes in food supply by 2050, such as reduced consumption of fruits and vegetables.

Climate change is already exacerbating social and economic inequities, leading to higher rates of migration and poverty. The authors note that poor people and communities of color are disproportionately affected by cancer and have a higher cancer mortality. World Bank estimates that climate change will push 100 million people globally back into poverty by 2030.

Major disruptions are also expected to take place in the infrastructure of health care systems for cancer control, which could affect all cancers. The COVID-19 pandemic has provided a clear example of this disruption, shifting medical resources away from cancer and causing thousands of patients to delay cancer screenings out of fear of contracting the virus.

"Extreme weather events such as storms and flooding can destroy or damage health-care infrastructure, reducing health care quality and availability," said the authors. These events also interrupt service delivery by causing power shortages, disrupting supply chains, transportation, and communication, and resulting in staff shortages. Ironically, COVID-19 also revealed a ray of hope in reversing the damage.

"The early pandemic response resulted in a striking reduction in air pollution," Hiatt said, "showing the potential of extreme measures to result in rapid environmental change."

It could take decades to fully understand the impact of climate change on cancer, given a sometimes lengthy delay from exposure to clinical diagnosis. But the authors said that shouldn't prevent acting now, as the harmful impacts from air pollution and other climate risks will continue to grow during that time.

"There is a lot we can be doing to mitigate climate change and to mitigate the impact on cancer," said co-author Naomi Beyeler, MPH, co-director of the Evidence to Policy Initiative and Lead for Climate and Health at the UCSF Institute for Global Health Sciences. "We should be doing both, and we should be doing both with urgency."

By reducing pollution, deaths from lung cancer could decline, the authors said, and there are numerous clinical, behavioral, and policy solutions to slow climate change, and prevent cancer cases and deaths.

"The COVID-19 pandemic has shown us the importance of science and public health," said Beyeler, "and we have seen over the past months that as a global health community, we are able to mobilize the investments, research, and collective action needed to solve health problems on a global scale. Now is the time to apply this ambition to tackling the climate crisis."

Overview:

A research team in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Toyohashi University of Technology developed a method for reducing aerodynamic noise via plasma. Cavity flow, such as the flow around car gaps of high-speed trains, often radiates aerodynamic noise. A plasma actuator inducing flow was applied to suppress this noise. By periodically switching off the power of the plasma actuator, a higher reduction in sound pressure level was observed when compared with continuous operation under the same power consumption.

Details:

A research team in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Toyohashi University of Technology has developed a method for reducing aerodynamic noise via plasma generation in air. The flow over a hole or concave shape is termed as cavity flow, where aerodynamic noise is often radiated. The plasma actuator is a device that can induce various flows in air via plasma generation. Thus, a plasma actuator was applied to suppress this noise. The team demonstrated a reduction in aerodynamic noise by a maximum of 35 dB. Furthermore, the periodic switching off of the plasma actuator at an appropriate frequency led to a higher reduction in sound levels when compared with the continuous operation of the plasma actuator under the same power consumption. The results of their research were published in Physics of Fluids on October 9, 2020.

The aerodynamic sound often radiates from a cavity flow, such as the flow around the car gaps of high-speed trains and landing gear configurations of aircraft. Given that this noise is uncomfortable for passengers, it is necessary to reduce this noise. Recently, a flow-induced device consisting of top and bottom electrodes and a dielectric layer between them, termed as plasma actuator, has been utilized for flow control.

A research team in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Toyohashi University of Technology demonstrated that the plasma actuator successfully weakened vortices that can cause intense levels of sound. Thus, the aerodynamic noise from the cavity flow was reduced, and the maximum reduction in sound level corresponded to 35 dB. Furthermore, to reduce the power required for driving the plasma actuator, the plasma actuator was periodically switched off. This type of driving is termed as "intermittent control." Intermittent control at an appropriate frequency leads to higher sound reduction when compared with the continuous control under the same power consumption. The simulations of flow and sound in a supercomputer clarified the weakening of the vortices, which cause intense sound, under the control via a plasma actuator. Moreover, the cavity tone was continuously reduced even via intermittent control at an appropriate frequency.

The mechanism of acoustic radiation from the cavity flow is similar to that of a whistle. If a finger is moved to or from the mouth during whistling, the whistle tone stops and starts. It is important to consider the effect of the speed at which the finger is moved. Furthermore, it is important to determine whether the tone can be stopped by sufficiently fast movement. By utilizing the fast time response of the plasma actuator, the results of this study addressed this question. The results indicated a continuous reduction in the tone via control at an appropriate frequency, which is dependent on the cavity flow configurations.

Future Outlook:

The plasma actuator still exhibits problems due to the limitation in induced flow speed and the treatment of ozone generation with plasma. However, the research team believes that this noise reduction method directly or indirectly leads to the design of comfortable transport vehicles. The aerodynamic noise poses a problem when the speed of transport vehicles is increased. Hence, the development of a reduction mechanism for aerodynamic noise can lead to faster transport vehicles with lower noise levels.

MINNEAPOLIS - Women who work in the paid labor force in early adulthood and middle age may have slower memory decline later in life than women who do not work for pay, according to a new study published in the November 4, 2020, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. Researchers found an association between working for pay and slower memory decline regardless of a woman's marital or parenthood status.

"Our study followed a large number of women across the United States and found the rates of memory decline after age 55 were slower for those who spent substantial amounts of time in the paid workforce before age 50, even among those who stopped working for a number of years to raise children before returning to work," said study author Elizabeth Rose Mayeda, Ph.D., M.P.H., of the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health in Los Angeles. "While there's no debate that managing a home and a family can be a complex and full-time job, our study suggests that engaging in paid work may offer some protection when it comes to memory loss--possibly due to cognitive stimulation, social engagement or financial security."

The study involved 6,189 women who had an average age of 57 at the start of the study. Researchers divided the participants into five groups based on their work-family life histories between ages 16-50: working non-mothers, working married mothers, working single mothers, non-working single mothers and non-working married mothers. The women were followed for an average of 12 years and were given memory tests every two years.

Researchers found that while memory scores were similar for all women between ages 55 and 60, after age 60 the average rate of decline on the memory test scores was slower for women who participated in the paid labor force than for women who did not.

At the first memory assessment, over 98% of women had memory test scores between -3 to 3 standardized units. From age 60 to age 70, the average memory decline among working married mothers was 0.69 standardized units compared to a faster memory decline of 1.25 standardized units among non-working single mothers and 1.09 standardized units among non-working married mothers. Overall, after adjusting for other factors that could affect the relationship between work-family profiles and later-life memory decline, such as age, education and socioeconomic status in childhood, this translated into an average rate of memory decline that was more than 50% greater among women who did not work for pay after having children than among mothers who worked.

"We found the timing of labor force participation did not appear to matter," said Mayeda. "Rates of memory decline were similar for married working mothers including those who consistently worked, those who stayed home for a few years with children as well as those who stayed home many years before returning to the workforce, suggesting that the benefits of labor force participation may extend far into adulthood."

Mayeda continued, "Memory decline can be an early sign of Alzheimer's dementia, and more women than men live with Alzheimer's dementia. Policies that help women with children participate in the workforce may be an effective strategy to prevent memory decline in women. However, our observational study cannot determine cause and effect, so while our results are promising, more research is needed."