Assessing the impacts of stakeholder involvement in long-term agricultural experiments via a case study in the upper US Midwest.

Agricultural researchers are increasingly encouraged to engage with stakeholders to improve the usefulness of their projects, but iterative research on the design and assessment of stakeholder engagement is scarce. The USDA Long-Term Agroecosystem Research (LTAR) Network recognizes the importance of effective engagement in increasing the utility of information and technologies for future agriculture. Diverse stakeholders and researchers at the Kellogg Biological Station (KBS) LTAR site co-designed the KBS LTAR Aspirational Cropping System Experiment, a process that provides a testing ground and interdisciplinary collaborations to develop theory-driven assessment protocols for continuous stakeholder engagement.

Ultrasound-guided percutaneous core-needle biopsy for the diagnosis of type 1 autoimmune pancreatitis.

Purpose: This study aimed to investigate the usefulness of ultrasound-guided core-needle biopsy (US-CNB) for diagnosing type 1 AIP and evaluate the radiological outcomes following steroid therapy.

Materials And Methods: From January 2017 to June 2023, patients with pathology results containing "lymphoplasmacytic infiltration" and "fibrosis" were enrolled. The detection rate of level 1 histology by International Consensus Diagnostic Criteria (ICDC) and the contribution of US-CNB were assessed.

Non-lethal sonodynamic therapy inhibits high glucose and palmitate-induced macrophage inflammasome activation through mtROS-DRP1-mitophagy pathway.

Obesity plays a crucial role in the development and progression of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) by causing excessive release of free fatty acid from adipose tissue, which in turn leads to systemic infiltration of macrophages. In individuals with T2DM, the infiltration of macrophages into pancreatic islets results in islet inflammation that impairs beta cell function, as evidenced by increased apoptosis and decreased glucose-stimulated insulin secretion. The present study aimed to investigate the effects of non-lethal sonodynamic therapy (NL-SDT) on bone marrow-derived macrophages (BMDMs) exposed to high glucose and palmitic acid (HG/PA).

The Physicochemical Properties and Structure of Mung Bean Starch Fermented by .

Understanding the relationship between gel formation and the hierarchical structure of mung bean starch fermented by has potential value for its green modification and quality improvement. The variations in characteristics, including gelation characteristics, starch chain, and the molecular order degree of mung bean starch fermented by different , were compared. The results show that in the gelation process, starch began to disintegrate at 65 °C, indicating a critical temperature for structural changes.

An integrated tool for cost-effectively applying nutrient management practices for corn, soybeans, and wheat.

Harmful algal blooms (HABs) problem in Lake Erie has become critical recently-primarily triggered by phosphorus losses from cropland in the Maumee River watershed (major crops of corn/soybeans/wheat). Implementing agricultural best management practices (BMPs) is crucial to reduce excess nutrient loadings. Nutrient management is the management of nutrient applications for crop production that maximizes nutrient use efficiencies and minimizes nutrient losses.

Activities of Daily Living Disability Transition Patterns in Older Adults with Chronic Diseases: A Four-Year Cohort Study in China.

Background: Older adults with chronic diseases often experience higher rates of Activities of Daily Living (ADL) disability, with research primarily examining the transition between states of ADL disability and non-disability. The current study aims to analyze the patterns and factors of mutual transitions between multiple different ADL disability states in older adults with chronic diseases.

Methods: This longitudinal study utilized data from the Shanghai Elderly Care Unified Needs Assessment (SECUNA) spanning 2014 to 2017, with 2014 being the baseline.

Safety and effectiveness of balloon catheter-assisted ultrasound-guided percutaneous microwave ablation in difficult-site liver cancer.

Background: Balloon catheter isolation is a promising auxiliary method for thermal ablation treatment of liver cancer. We aimed to explore the safety and effectiveness of balloon catheter isolation-assisted ultrasound-guided percutaneous microwave ablation (MWA) in treating liver cancer in difficult anatomical locations.

Methods: Data of 132 patients with 145 difficult-site liver cancer treated with ultrasound-guided percutaneous MWA were retrospectively analyzed.

The LTAR Cropland Common Experiment at the Kellogg Biological Station.

The Kellogg Biological Station Long-term Agroecosystem Research site (KBS LTAR) joined the national LTAR network in 2015 to represent a northeast portion of the North Central Region, extending across 76,000 km of southern Michigan and northern Indiana. Regional cropping systems are dominated by corn (Zea mays)-soybean (Glycine max) rotations managed with conventional tillage, industry-average rates of fertilizer and pesticide inputs uniformly applied, few cover crops, and little animal integration. In 2020, KBS LTAR initiated the Aspirational Cropping System Experiment as part of the LTAR Common Experiment, a co-production model wherein stakeholders and researchers collaborate to advance transformative change in agriculture.

Acellular dermal matrix hydrogels promote healing of radiation-induced skin injury in a rat model.

Background: radiation-induced skin injury (RISI) is a common complication of radiotherapy, affecting 85-95% of patients. Current treatments lack sufficient evidence of efficacy. Acellular dermal matrix (ADM) hydrogels have shown promise in treating chronic wounds, burns, and ulcers, but their potential in RISI remains unexplored.

Utility of Promoter in Development of an Effective CRISPR/Cas9 System for Soybean Genome Editing and Its Application in Engineering of Soybean Seeds Producing Super-High Oleic and Low Saturated Oils.

This study reports the use of the promoter () to develop an efficient CRISPR/Cas9 system for soybean genome editing. When this promoter was paired with promoters to drive Cas9 and single guide RNA expression, respectively, simultaneous editing of the three fatty acid desaturase genes , , and occurred in more than 60% of transgenic soybean lines at T generation, and all the triple mutants possessed desirable high-oleic traits. In sharp contrast, not a single line underwent simultaneous editing of the three target genes when was replaced by the widely used promoter.

Active dual quasi-BICs in a dielectric metasurface with VO for slow light and optical modulation.

We investigate the temperature tunable dual quasi-bound states in the continuum (qBICs) in a silicon/vanadium dioxide (Si/VO) hybrid metasurface with Q-factor being as large as 9.3 × 10 and 2.8 × 10 by breaking the in-plane C symmetry.

A Cooperative Intrusion Detection System for the Internet of Things Using Convolutional Neural Networks and Black Hole Optimization.

Maintaining security in communication networks has long been a major concern. This issue has become increasingly crucial due to the emergence of new communication architectures like the Internet of Things (IoT) and the advancement and complexity of infiltration techniques. For usage in networks based on the Internet of Things, previous intrusion detection systems (IDSs), which often use a centralized design to identify threats, are now ineffective.

High catalytic activity and abundant active sites in MC monolayer for nitrogen reduction reaction.

Developing highly efficient single-atom catalysts (SACs) for the nitrogen reduction reaction (NRR) to ammonia production has garnered significant attention in the scientific community. However, achieving high activity and selectivity remains challenging due to the lack of innate activity in most existing catalysts or insufficient active site density. This study delves into the potential of MC materials (M = Cr, Ir, Mn, Mo, Os, Re, Rh, Ru, W, Fe, Cu, and Ti) with high transition metal coverage as SACs for NRR using first-principles calculations.

Identification of key biomarkers for early warning of diabetic retinopathy using BP neural network algorithm and hierarchical clustering analysis.

Diabetic retinopathy is one of the most common microangiopathy in diabetes, essentially caused by abnormal blood glucose metabolism resulting from insufficient insulin secretion or reduced insulin activity. Epidemiological survey results show that about one third of diabetes patients have signs of diabetic retinopathy, and another third may suffer from serious retinopathy that threatens vision. However, the pathogenesis of diabetic retinopathy is still unclear, and there is no systematic method to detect the onset of the disease and effectively predict its occurrence.

Mass-Produced Skin-Inspired Piezoresistive Sensing Array with Interlocking Interface for Object Recognition.

E-skins, capable of responding to mechanical stimuli, hold significant potential in the field of robot haptics. However, it is a challenge to obtain e-skins with both high sensitivity and mechanical stability. Here, we present a bioinspired piezoresistive sensor with hierarchical structures based on polyaniline/polystyrene core-shell nanoparticles polymerized on air-laid paper.

Upgrading CO to sustainable aromatics via perovskite-mediated tandem catalysis.

The directional transformation of carbon dioxide (CO) with renewable hydrogen into specific carbon-heavy products (C) of high value presents a sustainable route for net-zero chemical manufacture. However, it is still challenging to simultaneously achieve high activity and selectivity due to the unbalanced CO hydrogenation and C-C coupling rates on complementary active sites in a bifunctional catalyst, thus causing unexpected secondary reaction. Here we report LaFeO perovskite-mediated directional tandem conversion of CO towards heavy aromatics with high CO conversion (> 60%), exceptional aromatics selectivity among hydrocarbons (> 85%), and no obvious deactivation for 1000 hours.

Hierarchical Piezoelectric Composites for Noninvasive Continuous Cardiovascular Monitoring.

Continuous monitoring of blood pressure (BP) and multiparametric analysis of cardiac functions are crucial for the early diagnosis and therapy of cardiovascular diseases. However, existing monitoring approaches often suffer from bulky and intrusive apparatus, cumbersome testing procedures, and challenging data processing, hampering their applications in continuous monitoring. Here, a heterogeneously hierarchical piezoelectric composite is introduced for wearable continuous BP and cardiac function monitoring, overcoming the rigidity of ceramic and the insensitivity of polymer.

SENP3 mediates the activation of the Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway to accelerate the growth and metastasis of oesophagal squamous cell carcinoma in mice.

As a common malignant tumor, esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) is occasionally seen in clinical practice. This type of disease has low incidence rate and mortality. The post-translational modification of small ubiquitin like modifiers (SUMO) can play a crucial role in regulating protein function, and can significantly impact the occurrence and development of diseases.

Long Non-coding RNA X-Inactive Specific Transcript Promotes Esophageal Squamous Cell Carcinoma Progression via the MicroRNA 34a/Zinc Finger E-box-Binding Homeobox 1 Pathway.

Background: The long non-coding RNA X-inactive specific transcript (XIST) plays a crucial role in transcriptional silencing of the X chromosome. Zinc finger E-box-binding homeobox 1 (ZEB1) is a transcription factor involved in epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) regulation.

Aims: This study aimed to investigate the impact of XIST on esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) progression and its underlying mechanism involving the miR-34a/ZEB1/E-cadherin/EMT pathway.

Synthesis of 12-Connected Three-Dimensional Covalent Organic Framework with lnj Topology.

The structural exploration of three-dimensional covalent organic frameworks (3D COFs) is of great significance to the development of COF materials. Different from structurally diverse MOFs, which have a variety of connectivity (3-24), now the valency of 3D COFs is limited to only 4, 6, and 8. Therefore, the exploration of organic building blocks with higher connectivity is a necessary path to broaden the scope of 3D COF structures.

Voltage-Mode Ferroelectric Synapse for Neuromorphic Computing.

Ferroelectric materials with a modulable polarization extent hold promise for exploring voltage-driven neuromorphic hardware, in which direct current flow can be minimized. Utilizing a single active layer of an insulating ferroelectric polymer, we developed a voltage-mode ferroelectric synapse that can continuously and reversibly update its states. The device states are straightforwardly manifested in the form of variable output voltage, enabling large-scale direct cascading of multiple ferroelectric synapses to build a deep physical neural network.