Water quality performance of vegetated compost blankets for highway stormwater management: Particulate matter and trace metals.

Urban stormwater pollution poses serious risks to human and environmental health, including trace metals toxicity. To improve the performance of existing highway Vegetated Filter Strips (VFS), which have limited performance for volume reduction and pollutant removal, amendment with a Vegetated Compost Blanket (VCB), a layer of seeded compost, has been proposed. A novel VCB/VFS system was assessed as a Stormwater Control Measure (SCM) via particulate matter and trace metals removal performance.

Benefit-Cost Analysis for Earthquake-Resilient Building Design and Retrofit: State of the Art and Future Research Needs.

This paper reviews the state of the art in using benefit-cost analysis (BCA) to inform earthquake risk reduction decisions by building owners and policymakers. The goal is to provide a roadmap for the application and future development of BCA methods and tools for earthquake risk reduction. Our review covers three earthquake risk reduction measures: adopting up-to-date building codes for new construction, designing new buildings to exceed code requirements, and retrofitting deficient existing buildings.

Optimizing native vegetation establishment in urban soils: Assessing the impacts of organic amendments on specific growth parameters.

Following soil disturbances, establishing healthy roadside vegetation can reduce surface water runoff, improve soil quality, decrease erosion, and enhance landscape aesthetics. This study explores the use of organic soil amendments (OAs) as alternatives to conventional vegetation growth approaches, aiming to provide optimal compost mixing ratios for poor soils, and clarify guidelines for OAs' use in roadside projects. Three sandy loam soils and one loam soil were chosen for the study.

Using organic amendments in disturbed soil to enhance soil organic matter, nutrient content and turfgrass establishment.

Disturbed soils, including manufactured topsoils, often lack physical and chemical properties conducive to vegetation establishment. As a result, efforts to stabilize disturbed soils with vegetation are susceptible to failure. Urban organic waste products such as wood mulch, composted leaf and yard waste, and biosolids are widely distributed as organic amendments that enhance sustainability and plant establishment.

ProSAAS is Preferentially Secreted from Neurons During Homeostatic Scaling and Reduces Amyloid Plaque Size in the 5xFAD Mouse Hippocampus.

The accumulation of β-amyloid in Alzheimer's disease greatly impacts neuronal health and synaptic function. To maintain network stability in the face of altered synaptic activity, neurons engage a feedback mechanism termed homeostatic scaling; however, this process is thought to be disrupted during disease progression. Previous proteomics studies have shown that one of the most highly regulated proteins in cell culture models of homeostatic scaling is the small secretory chaperone proSAAS.

Nutrient transport, shear strength and hydraulic characteristics of topsoils amended with mulch, compost and biosolids.

Anthropogenic disturbance of soils can disrupt soil structure, diminish fertility, alter soil chemical properties, and cause erosion. Current remediation practices involve amending degraded urban topsoils lacking in organic matter and nutrition with organic amendments (OA) to enhance vegetative growth. However, the impact of OAs on water quality and structural properties at rates that meet common topsoil organic matter specifications need to be studied and understood.

Physical Delithiation of Epitaxial LiCoO Battery Cathodes as a Platform for Surface Electronic Structure Investigation.

We report a novel delithiation process for epitaxial thin films of LiCoO(001) cathodes using only physical methods, based on ion sputtering and annealing cycles. Preferential Li sputtering followed by annealing produces a surface layer with a Li molar fraction in the range 0.5 < < 1, characterized by good crystalline quality.

Enabling effective breathing sound analysis for automated diagnosis of lung diseases.

With the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic, early diagnosis of lung diseases has attracted growing attention. Generally, monitoring the breathing sound is the traditional means for assessing the status of a patient's respiratory health through auscultation; for that a stethoscope is one of the clinical tools used by physicians for diagnosis of lung disease and anomalies. On the other hand, recent technological advances have made telehealth systems a practical and effective option for health status assessment and remote patient monitoring.

Genome-wide investigation of multiplexed CRISPR-Cas12a-mediated editing in rice.

Clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR) nucleases like Cas9 and Cas12a are revolutionizing plant basic research and crop breeding. A major advantage of CRISPR over earlier nucleases systems is its capability of multiplexed genome editing. However, it remains unknown about the potential off-target effects when multiple concurrent DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs) are induced in a crop genome.

EXPECTATION CONSISTENT PLUG-AND-PLAY FOR MRI.

For image recovery problems, plug-and-play (PnP) methods have been developed that replace the proximal step in an optimization algorithm with a call to an application-specific denoiser, often implemented using a deep neural network. Although such methods have been successful, they can be improved. For example, the denoiser is often trained using white Gaussian noise, while PnP's denoiser input error is often far from white and Gaussian, with statistics that are difficult to predict from iteration to iteration.

Intra-daily variation of Escherichia coli concentrations in agricultural irrigation ponds.

Microbial water quality is determined by comparing observed Escherichia coli concentrations with regulatory thresholds. Measured concentrations can be expected to change throughout the course of a day in response to diurnal variation in environmental conditions, such as solar radiation and temperature. Therefore, the time of day at which samples are taken is an important factor within microbial water quality measurements.

Fall cover crop nitrogen uptake drives reductions in winter-spring leaching.

Cover crops can reduce nitrate leaching after cash crop harvest. Despite widespread cover crop implementation, there has been a limited effect on water quality in the Chesapeake Bay watershed. We hypothesize that typical timing for Maryland cover crop planting after cash crop harvest is too late to allow roots to take up substantial nitrate from the soil profile before it is leached by winter drainage water.

Validation of DNA marker-assisted selection for forage biomass productivity under deficit irrigation in alfalfa.

Drought and limited irrigation resources threaten agricultural sustainability in many regions of the world. Application of genomic-based breeding strategies may benefit crop variety development for these environments. Here, we provide a first report on the effect of deploying DNA marker-assisted selection (MAS) for the drought resilience quantitative trait in alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.

Sensitivity and uncertainty analysis for predicted soil test phosphorus using the Annual Phosphorus Loss Estimator model.

In this study we conducted a sensitivity and uncertainty analysis using the Annual P Loss Estimator (APLE) model focusing on model predictions of soil test phosphorus (STP). We calculated and evaluated the sensitivity coefficients of predicted STP and changes in STP using 1- and 10-yr simulations with and without P application. We also compared two methods for estimating prediction uncertainties: first-order variance approximation (FOVA) and Monte Carlo simulation (MCS).

H Production in the B(n,α)Li Reaction in Water.

We demonstrate a method for measuring the H produced in water from the B(n,α)Li fission reaction. Low energy neutrons from the NIST Center for Neutron Research interact with borate-containing water in a temperature-controlled high pressure cell made from titanium. After exposure for one to several hours, the water is extracted and sparged with argon.

Tetracycline, sulfadimethoxine, and antibiotic resistance gene dynamics during anaerobic digestion of dairy manure.

Antibiotic use in animal husbandry is a potential entryway for antibiotics and antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) to enter the environment through manure fertilizer application. The potential of anaerobic digestion (AD) to remove antibiotics and ARGs was investigated through tetracycline (TC) and sulfadimethoxine (SDM) additions into dairy manure digested for 44 d. This was the first study to evaluate antibiotics at concentrations quantified on-farm and relevant to field applications of manure.

New Developments in Non-invasive Brain Stimulation in Chronic Pain.

Purpose Of Review: The goal of this review is to present a summary of the recent literature of a non-invasive brain stimulation (NIBS) to alleviate pain in people with chronic pain syndromes. This article reviews the current evidence for the use of transcranial direct current (tDCS) and repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) to improve outcomes in chronic pain. Finally, we introduce the reader to novel stimulation methods that may improve therapeutic outcomes in chronic pain.

Modeling the kinetics of manure-borne fecal indicator removal in runoff.

Several manure-borne microorganism removal models have been developed to provide accurate estimations of the number of microorganisms removed from manure or manured soils undergoing rainfall. It has been commonly assumed that these models perform equally well when used to simulate microbe removal in runoff from manures of different consistency and levels of weathering. The objectives of this work were (a) to observe kinetics of the removal of Escherichia coli and enterococci with runoff for two different manure consistencies and three manure weathering durations, and (b) to compare performance of the log-linear, Vadas-Kleinman-Sharpley, and Bradford-Shijven models in simulation of the observed kinetics.

Seasonal and temporal factors leading to urea-nitrogen accumulation in surface waters of agricultural drainage ditches.

Urea-nitrogen (N) is commonly applied to crop fields, yet it is not routinely monitored despite its association with reduced water quality and its ability to increase toxicity of certain phytoplankton species. The purpose of this work was to characterize temporal fluctuations in urea-N concentrations and associated environmental conditions to infer sources of urea-N in agricultural drainage ditches. Physicochemical properties and N forms in ditch waters were measured weekly during the growing seasons of 2015-2018.

Headwater stream condition and nutrient runoff: Relating SWAT to empirical ecological measures in an agricultural watershed in Pennsylvania.

Managing nonpoint sources of nutrients and sediments is the primary challenge for improving conditions in the Susquehanna-Chesapeake basin. Aquatic macroinvertebrates are widely used indicators of stream ecological integrity, but the relationship between nutrient runoff and macroinvertebrate response remains indistinct. Logistical and financial hurdles hinder collection of high-resolution empirical nutrient data, but landscape-based models like the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) offer a more practical approach.

Position paper on COVID-19 imaging and AI: From the clinical needs and technological challenges to initial AI solutions at the lab and national level towards a new era for AI in healthcare.

In this position paper, we provide a collection of views on the role of AI in the COVID-19 pandemic, from clinical requirements to the design of AI-based systems, to the translation of the developed tools to the clinic. We highlight key factors in designing system solutions - per specific task; as well as design issues in managing the disease at the national level. We focus on three specific use-cases for which AI systems can be built: early disease detection, management in a hospital setting, and building patient-specific predictive models that require the combination of imaging with additional clinical data.

Microgreen nutrition, food safety, and shelf life: A review.

Microgreens have gained increasing popularity as food ingredients in recent years because of their high nutritional value and diverse sensorial characteristics. Microgreens are edible seedlings including vegetables and herbs, which have been used, primarily in the restaurant industry, to embellish cuisine since 1996. The rapidly growing microgreen industry faces many challenges.

The promises and pitfalls of sex difference research.

Funding agencies in North America and Europe are recognizing the importance of the integration of sex differences into basic and clinical research. Although these mandates are in place to improve our knowledge of health for both men and women, there have been a number of implementation issues that require vigilance on the part of funders and the research community. Here we discuss issues on simple inclusion of both sexes in studies to specialisation of sex differences with attention paid to statistics and the need for sex-specific treatments.

Optical elastography and tissue biomechanics.

Mechanical forces play an important role in the behavior and development of biological systems and disease at all spatial scales, from cells and their constituents to tissues and organs. Such forces have a profound influence on the health, structural integrity, and normal function of cells and organs. Accurate knowledge of cell and tissue biomechanical properties is essential to map the distribution of forces and mechanical cues in biological systems.