Wearable tensile strain sensors have attracted substantial research interest due to their great potential in applications for the real-time detection of human motion and health through the construction of body-sensing networks. Conventional devices, however, are constantly demonstrated in non-real world scenarios, where changes in body temperature and humidity are ignored, which results in questionable sensing accuracy and reliability in practical applications. In this work, a fabric-like strain sensor is developed by fabricating graphene-modified Calotropis gigantea yarn and elastic yarn (i.e. Spandex) into an independently crossed structure, enabling the sensor with tunable sensitivity by directly altering the sensor width. The sensor possesses excellent breathability, allowing water vapor generated by body skin to be discharged into the environment (the water evaporation rate is approximately 2.03 kg m−2 h−1) and creating a pleasing microenvironment between the sensor and the skin by avoiding the hindering of perspiration release. More importantly, the sensor is shown to have a sensing stability towards changes in temperature and humidity, implementing sensing reliability against complex and changeable wearable microclimate. By wearing the sensor at various locations of the human body, a full-range body area sensing network for monitoring various body movements and vital signs, such as speaking, coughing, breathing and walking, is successfully demonstrated. It provides a new route for achieving wearing-comfortable, high-performance and sensing-reliable strain sensors.
Tag: human activity
Sensing, feeling, thinking: Relating to nature with the body, heart and mind
The cultural ecosystem services (CES) construct has evolved to accommodate multiple worldviews, knowledge systems and conceptualizations of nature and values, including relational and mental health values. Cultural ecosystem services research and practice has mostly focused on cognitive ways of constructing and expressing intangible values of, and relationships with, nature. But our non-material relationships with nature are not exclusively cognitive: sensory and affective processes are fundamental to how we build, enact and experience these relationships. Building on the core ideas of relational values, embodied experiences and connectedness with nature, we present a simple framework to explore the sensory, affective and cognitive dimensions of human–nature interactions, as well as the settings and activities that frame them. We demonstrate its use in a case study in the Peruvian Andes, where we applied an inductive, exploratory approach to elicit personal imageries and imaginings related to nature, place and recreation. The narratives shared were rich with symbolism and personal sensory experiences, emotions and memories, which the interviewees linked with general assertions about people, place and nature. We discuss the usefulness of such a perspective for CES research, and for human well-being, environmental justice and landscape management.
Sensing, feeling, thinking: Why the body, heart and mind are all important in ecosystem management
Key messages
- People value ecosystems for the different contributions that they make to human well-being, both material and non-material.
- Non-material contributions, such as those related to identity, sense of place and psychological well-being, have affective, cognitive and sensory dimensions.
- Although overlooked in ecosystem management and research, the affective and sensory aspects are important for connectedness with nature, human well-being, conservation and environmental justice.
- This brief summarizes the main findings of qualitative research in Apurimac (Peru) that explores the affective, cognitive and sensory dimensions of people’s ecosystem experiences and imaginaries.
- Understanding the diversity of people’s experiences and imaginaries is important for more equitable and sustainable ecosystem management.
Guiding community discussions on human-water-related challenges by serious gaming in the upper Ewaso Ng’iro river basin, Kenya
Water-related conflicts in river catchments occur due to both internal and external pressures that affect catchment water availability. Lack of shared understanding by catchment stakeholders increase the complexity of human-water issues at the river catchment scale. Among a range of participatory approaches, the development and use of serious games gained prominence as a tool to stimulate discussion and reflection among stakeholders about sustainable resource use and collective action. This study designed and implemented the ENGAGE game (Exploring New Gaming Approach to Guide and Enlighten), that mimics the dynamics observed during the dry season in the upper Ewaso Ng’iro catchment, North West of Mount Kenya. The purpose of this study was to explore the potential role of serious gaming in subsequent steps of strengthening stakeholder engagement (agenda setting, shared understanding, commitment to collective action, and means of implementation) toward addressing complex human-water-related challenges at the catchment scale. We assessed the type of decisions made during gameplay, the communication dynamics, active participation, and the implication of decisions made on water availability. The results of three game sessions show that the ENGAGE game raised awareness and provided a recognizable hydro-logic background to conflicts while guiding community discussions toward implementable decisions. The results revealed increasing active participation, knowledge gain, and use of plural pronouns, and decreasing individual interests and conflicts among game participants. This study presents important implications for creating a collective basis for water management and can inform human-water policies and modification of the process behind water allocation rules in a river catchment.
Farmer Options and Risks in Complex Ecological-Social systems: The FORCES game designed for agroforestry management of upper watersheds
Serious games have gained popularity as an innovative participatory approach to explore the complexity of social-ecological systems, managing the trade-offs between economic and ecological targets. Serious games can be abstract and generic, or more complex and specific. They can be used to raise awareness, increase shared understanding of options and risks, and/or commitment to common goals. We here aim to clarify design principles applied in the FORCES game (Farmer Options and its Risk in Complex Ecological-Social systems) as single-player game to be easily adaptable to diverse (upper) watershed contexts. Three steps involved are game design (balance generic and site-specific information), game use in (and possibly adaptation to) specified context(s) and evaluation of contextualized impacts. The FORCES game design was based on three contrasting watershed case studies in East Java, Indonesia, rather than on single, specific case study. Game development consisted of preparation (defining the context, generic core issues and game objectives), development process (ideating, setting the actors, resources, elements, and mechanisms), and assessment (prototyping, exploration of solution space, game trial and player feedback). Fifty-five smallholders played the FORCES in three landscapes to test the game’s performance and impact on participants’ insights. Therefore, we recorded every game session and performed pre- and post-game interviews for each participant. The developed FORCES game focuses on decisions of individual farmers involving plot-level plant (annual crops, trees) choices with financial cost-benefits consequences and links to ecological impacts on the litter layer, water balance, and erosion. The FORCES game was successfully applied in three distinct landscapes, demonstrating its adaptability. The game’s generic water balance supported the transferability to different contexts, while fine-tuning of plot management options to reflect local variation was simple due to the solid underlying game mechanics. According to players, the game reflects local dynamics in the landscapes and provides a realistic experience, triggering participants to make decisions close to their real-life choices and learn from the consequences. While the game has limited representation of social interactions due to its single-player design, FORCES allowed relational values to be recognized in players’ responses.
Human activities link fruit bat presence to Ebola virus disease outbreaks
A significant link between forest loss and fragmentation and outbreaks of Ebola virus disease (EVD) in humans has been documented. Deforestation may alter the natural circulation of viruses and change the composition, abundance, behaviour and possibly viral exposure of reservoir species. This in turn might increase contact between infected animals and humans.
Fruit bats of the family Pteropodidae have been suspected as reservoirs of the Ebola virus. At present, the only evidence associating fruit bats with EVD is the presence of seropositive individuals in eight species and polymerase chain reaction-positive individuals in three of these.
Our study investigates whether human activities can increase African fruit bat geographical ranges and whether this influence overlaps geographically with EVD outbreaks that, in turn, are favoured by deforestation.
We use species observation records for the 20 fruit bat species found in favourable areas for the Ebola virus to determine factors affecting the bats’ range inside the predicted Ebola virus area. We do this by employing a hypothetico-deductive approach based on favourability modelling.
We show that the range of some fruit bat species is linked to human activities within the favourable areas for the Ebola virus. More specifically, the areas where human activities favour the presence of five fruit bat species overlap with the areas where EVD outbreaks in humans were themselves favoured by deforestation. These five species are as follows: Eidolon helvum, Epomops franqueti, Megaloglossus woermanni, Micropteropus pusillus and Rousettus aegyptiacus. Of these five, all but Megaloglossus woermanni have recorded seropositive individuals. For the remaining 15 bat species, we found no biogeographical support for the hypothesis that positive human influence on fruit bats could be associated with EVD outbreaks in deforested areas within the tropical forest biome in West and Central Africa.
Our work is a useful first step allowing further investigation of the networks and pathways that may lead to an EVD outbreak. The modelling framework we employ here can be used for other emerging infectious diseases.