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Adoption of improved crop varieties limited biodiversity losses, terrestrial carbon emissions, and cropland expansion in the tropics

Research investments in crop improvements, including by national and international agricultural research centers, have made significant contributions to raising yields of staple food crops in developing countries. Although mostly intended to improve food security and rural incomes, innovations in crop production also have major implications for the environment. Building on the latest productivity estimates from historical crop improvements in developing countries and using a gridded (0.25 degrees) equilibrium model of global agriculture, we assess the impacts of improved crop varieties on cropland use, threatened biodiversity, and terrestrial carbon stocks over 1961–2015. We replicate a historical baseline and produce a counterfactual scenario which shows the impact of omitting productivity improvements from these technologies. The results show that higher crop productivity generally lowered commodity prices, which reduced incentives to expand cropland except in those areas where productivity gains outweighed price declines. The net global effect of technology adoption was to limit conversion of natural habitat to agricultural use, although it did cause cropland to expand in some areas. We estimate that adoption of improved crop varieties in developing countries saved on net 16.03 [95% CI, 12.33 to 20.89] million hectares worldwide. With more natural habitat preserved, around 1,043 [95% CI, 616 to 1,503] threatened animal and plant species extinctions were avoided over this period. In addition, net land use savings from the improved crop varieties resulted in avoided terrestrial greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of around 5.35 [95% CI, 3.75 to 7.22] billion metric tons CO 2 equivalent retained in terrestrial carbon stocks.

Beyond borders: Decoding the influence of economic development, money confidence, financial market, and purchasing power on currency internationalization

Due to dedollarization and deglobalization trends, countries are pursuing currency diversification to reduce reliance on the U.S. dollar and mitigate currency risks. The research on the drivers of currency internationalization still faces problems such as small sample sizes, fewer methods, and incomplete theoretical frameworks. This study aims to investigate the effects of economic development, money confidence, and the financial market on currency internationalization. It also explores whether purchasing power mediates the relationships between the first two exogenous variables and currency internationalization. The Partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) method is used to analyze secondary data from 9 of the 10 most used currencies (excluding the euro) from 2000 to 2020 to examine these relationships. The findings show that economic development and money confidence have negative and significant relationships with currency internationalization, while financial market and purchasing power have positive and significant relationships with currency internationalization. The relationships between economic development and currency internationalization, as well as between money confidence and currency internationalization, are both mediated by purchasing power. These mediation effects are partially complementary mediation effects. Accordingly, to promote currency internationalization, this study recommends governments should adopt policies to develop the financial market, increase openness, and reduce capital controls. It also highlights the importance of managing inflation, diversifying reserve assets, and maintaining a flexible exchange rate to prevent currency depreciation. This study is limited by the exclusion of the euro, reliance on hard data, a small sample size, and a narrow focus on economic factors.

Biochemical response to neoadjuvant hormonal therapy predicts long-term prostate cancer survival outcomes after high-dose-rate brachytherapy with external beam radiotherapy

The C2 domain augments Ras GTPase-activating protein catalytic activity

Regulation of Ras GTPases by GTPase-activating proteins (GAPs) is essential for their normal signaling. Nine of the ten GAPs for Ras contain a C2 domain immediately proximal to their canonical GAP domain, and in RasGAP (p120GAP, p120RasGAP; RASA1 ) mutation of this domain is associated with vascular malformations in humans. Here, we show that the C2 domain of RasGAP is required for full catalytic activity toward Ras. Analyses of the RasGAP C2-GAP crystal structure, AlphaFold models, and sequence conservation reveal direct C2 domain interaction with the Ras allosteric lobe. This is achieved by an evolutionarily conserved surface centered around RasGAP residue R707, point mutation of which impairs the catalytic advantage conferred by the C2 domain in vitro. In mice, R707C mutation phenocopies the vascular and signaling defects resulting from constitutive disruption of the RASA1 gene. In SynGAP, mutation of the equivalent conserved C2 domain surface impairs catalytic activity. Our results indicate that the C2 domain is required to achieve full catalytic activity of GAPs for Ras.

Facilitating safe transition to home for preterm infants (FAST home): Protocol for a retrospective observational study

Background Preterm infants (i.e., those born before 37 completed weeks of pregnancy) often require additional care and are admitted to neonatal units soon after birth. Readiness for discharge home typically requires a level of physiological maturity such that an infant is able to: 1) breathe spontaneously without additional support; 2) maintain their own body temperature; 3) take all their nutritional requirements orally; 4) weighs ≥ 1700g and is gaining weight. Longer hospital stays than necessary can be detrimental to infants, stressful for families, and costly. Currently, little is known about whether, how long and why preterm infants stay in hospital beyond physiological readiness for discharge. Materials and methods We will conduct a retrospective cohort study using data from the National Neonatal Research Database on all infants born at < 37 weeks’ gestational age (GA) admitted to neonatal units in England and Wales from 2016-2022. The day of life and postmenstrual age infants reach each physiological milestone, and the final barrier to discharge, will be identified. We will assess whether the final barrier differs by GA and between neonatal Operational Delivery Networks and summarise the number of days infants remain in hospital after surpassing all physiological milestones. We will explore the characteristics of infants, mothers and neonatal units associated with extended hospital stays beyond physiological readiness for discharge. Discussion The results of this study will allow identification of areas to target to help achieve a safe reduction in length of hospital stay and will support the development of evidence-based recommendations to guide optimal discharge practices. Trial registration ClinicalTrials.gov NCT06284044

Pigs solve a cooperative task without showing a clear understanding of the need for a partner

Abstract Many animal species engage in cooperation, whereby they act together, typically to achieve a common goal. Domestic pigs were recently shown to lift a log together in pairs in the joint log-lift (JLL) task to access food treats. However, it is not yet clear whether pigs understand that they need a partner for this task. To investigate this, we applied a recruitment approach similar to that used for chimpanzees, coral trout, wolves and dogs. Pigs that were proficient with the JLL task were given access to the task on their own but could open a door to recruit a familiar partner from an adjacent enclosure. Pigs opened the door in all experimental conditions, allowing the partner to enter (if a partner was present). Comparing across conditions, latencies to open the door and to return to the box after opening the door generally did not suggest that subjects understood the need for the partner. As with many animal species in cooperative tasks, pigs may achieve a complex cooperative outcome in the JLL task without a full understanding of the need for a partner.

Bilateral cellular flows display asymmetry prior to left–right organizer formation in amniote gastrulation

A bilateral body plan is predominant throughout the animal kingdom. Bilaterality of amniote embryos becomes recognizable as midline morphogenesis begins at gastrulation, bisecting an embryonic field into the left and right sides, and left–right (LR) asymmetry patterning follows. While a series of laterality genes expressed after the LR compartmentalization has been extensively studied, the laterality patterning prior to and at the initiation of midline morphogenesis has remained unclear. Here, through a biophysical quantification in a high spatial and temporal resolution, applied to a chick model system, we show that a large-scale bilateral counterrotating cellular flow, termed “polonaise movements”, display LR asymmetries in early gastrulation. This cell movement starts prior to the formation of the primitive streak (PS) (the earliest midline structure) and the subsequent appearance of Hensen’s node (the LR organizer). The cellular flow speed and vorticity unravel the location and timing of the LR asymmetries. The bilateral flows displayed a Right dominance after 6 h since the start of cell movements. Mitotic arrest that diminishes PS formation resulted in changes in the bilateral flow pattern, but the Right dominance persisted. Our data indicate that the LR asymmetry in amniote gastrula becomes detectable earlier than suggested by current models, which assume that the asymmetric regulation of the laterality signals at the node leads to the LR patterning. More broadly, our results suggest that physical processes can play an unexpected but significant role in influencing LR laterality during embryonic development.

The effect of nursing shared governance educational program on nurse managers’ knowledge for sustainable nursing excellence and empowerment

Background Nursing governance residues one of the most composite functions in the complex and complicated healthcare arena. Providing nurse managers with professional nursing governance knowledge and its related practices is essential in today’s competitive healthcare environment for nursing practices excellence. Objective This research aimed to determine the effect of Professional Nursing Shared Governance Awareness Sessions on First-Line Nurse Managers’ Knowledge. Design A quasi-experimental research design. Setting Alexandria Medical Research Institute hospital. Participants A total of 50 first-line nurse managers were recruited for the participating hospital. Methods Professional Nursing Shared Governance Knowledge Questionnaire and the participants’ socio-demographic characteristics questions were included. Results There was a statistically significant differences between the overall mean score of first-line nurse managers’ knowledge about professional nursing shared governance before and after attending nursing shared governance awareness sessions (p < 0.001). The overall mean score of professional nursing shared governance was increased significantly from 3.12 ± 2.54 to 5.86 ± 0.35 (t 7.493, p < 0.001). Conclusions This research plugs the Arabian nursing literature gap by representing how effective professional nursing shared governance awareness sessions could improve the nurse managers’ level of knowledge regarding the governance concept and its practices. Participants perceived the awareness sessions as constructive and strategic contrivances to determine and evolve high-potential personnel in opportunities as giving compassionate organizational structures and effective leadership behaviors for aggregating contribution of nurses in work enterprise, problem-solving, conflict resolution, teams and organizational decision-making as “crucial components to an efficacious organization”. Hence, the definitive issue for the nursing profession future is participative decision making through shared governance, as it should be a part of every organization’s strategic plan.

Hemodialysis employing molecular hydrogen (H2) enriched dialysis solution may improve dialysis related fatigue through impact on energy metabolism

The estimated cost of preventing extinction and progressing recovery for Australia’s priority threatened species

The global extinction crisis is intensifying rapidly, driven by habitat loss, overexploitation, climate change, invasive species, and disease. This unprecedented loss of species not only threatens ecological integrity but also undermines ecosystem services vital for human survival. In response, many countries have set ambitious conservation targets such as halting species extinctions, yet the necessary financial commitments to achieve this are rarely prescribed. Estimating costs can be achieved using an ensemble of spatially variable species-specific cost models for threat abatement activities. We employ this method to provide a cost assessment to halt extinctions for Australia’s priority terrestrial and freshwater species. We show that it will cost ~AUD15.6 billion/year for 30 y to halt extinctions for these 99 priority species (comparable to 1% of Australia’s GDP). The more ambitious objectives to move priority species down one threat category (~AUD103.7 billion/year) or remove from the threatened species list entirely (~AUD157.7 billion/year) would require considerably more investment. Regardless of what is spent, we found that 16 (16%) priority species could not be removed from the threatened species list due to extensive historical declines and pervasive, ongoing, unmanageable threats, such as climate change. But implementing these efforts could ensure conservation benefits for over 43% of all nationally listed nonmarine threatened species. Adequate funding is crucial for meeting government commitments and requires both government leadership and private sector investment.

A simulated annealing with graph-based search for the social-distancing problem in enclosed areas during pandemics

During the pandemic, decision-makers offered many preventive policies to reduce the negative effects of the pandemic. The social distance rule in enclosed areas was implemented by educational institutions in any countries. In this study, we deal with the problem of assigning students to seats by considering the social distancing constraint and with objective of maximizing the total distance among the students. This problem is found to be similar to the Maximum Diversity Problem (MDP) in the literature. We name this new problem as Maximum Diversity Social Distancing problem (MDPs). A simulated annealing algorithm framework for MDPs (SA-MDPs) is proposed to identify an optimal or near-optimal solution within a reasonable computational time. A greedy random-based algorithm is presented to determine efficiently an initial feasible solution. The new neighborhood search procedure based on graph theory is introduced, in which the dominated, dominating, and nondominated seats are determined based on social distance. The proposed SA-MDPs is evaluated on classrooms with varying capacities and benchmarked against an off-the-shelf optimization solver. The computational tests demonstrated that the SA-MDP model consistently provided either proven optimal solutions or superior best-known solutions compared to a commercial solver, all within a reasonable CPU time.

Numerical modeling of oxygen diffusion in tissue spheroids undergoing fusion using function representation and finite volumes

Abstract A three-dimensional cell culture called a spheroid serves as a foundational entity in a wide variety of modern tissue engineering applications, including 3D-bioprinting and preclinical drug testing. Lack of oxygen within tissue spheroids hinders metabolism of cells and eventually leads to cell death. Prevention of necrosis is crucial to success of tissue engineering methods and such prevention requires estimation of cell viability in the spheroid. We propose a novel approach for numerical modeling of diffusion in tissue spheroids during their fusion. The approach is based on numerical solutions of partial differential equations and the application of Function Representation (FRep) framework for geometric modeling. We present modeling of oxygen diffusion based on meshes derived from the geometry of fusing spheroids, a method for selecting optimal spheroid size, and several statistics for estimating cellular viability. Our findings provide insights into oxygen diffusion in three-dimensional cell cultures thus improving the robustness of biotechnological methods that employ tissue spheroids.

Estimating the legibility of international borders

Researchers in the social sciences are interested in the consequences of institutions, increasingly on a global scale. Institutions that may be negotiated between states can have consequences at a microlevel, as local populations adjust their expectations and ultimately even their behavior to take institutional rules into account. However, large-scale fine-grained analyses that test for the complex evidence of such institutions locally are rare. This article focuses on a key institution: International borders. Using computer vision techniques, we show that it is possible to produce a geographically specific, validated, and replicable way to characterize border legibility , by which we mean the ability to visually detect the presence of an international border in physical space. We develop and compare computer vision techniques to automatically estimate legibility scores for 627,656 imagery tiles from virtually every border in the world. We evaluate statistical and data-driven computer vision methods, finding that fine-tuning pretrained visual recognition models on a small set of human judgments allows us to produce local legibility scores globally that align well with human notions of legibility. Finally, we interpret these scores as useful approximations of states’ border orientations, a concept that prior literature has used to capture the visible investments states make in border areas to maintain jurisdictional authority territorially. We validate our measurement strategy using both human judgments and five nomological validation indicators.

Privacy-preserving method for face recognition based on homomorphic encryption

In recent years, facial recognition technology has been widely adopted in modern society. However, the plaintext storage, computation, and transmission of facial data have posed significant risks of information leakage. To address this issue, this paper proposes a facial recognition framework based on approximate homomorphic encryption (HE_FaceNet), aimed at effectively mitigating privacy leaks during the facial recognition process. The framework first utilizes a pre-trained model to extract facial feature templates, which are then encrypted. The encrypted templates are matched using Euclidean distance, with the final recognition being performed after decryption. However, the time-consuming nature of homomorphic encryption calculations limits the practical applicability of the HE_FaceNet framework. To overcome this limitation, this paper introduces an optimization scheme based on clustering algorithms to accelerate the facial recognition process within the HE_FaceNet framework. By grouping similar faces into clusters through clustering analysis, the efficiency of searching encrypted feature values is significantly improved. Performance analysis indicates that the HE_FaceNet framework successfully protects facial data privacy while maintaining high recognition accuracy, and the optimization scheme demonstrates high accuracy and significant computational efficiency across facial datasets of varying sizes.

Artificial intelligence models development for profitability factor prediction in concentrated solar power with dual backup systems

Evidence for domain-general arousal from semantic and neuroimaging meta-analyses reconciles opposing views on arousal

Arousal refers to changes in brain-body state underpinning motivated behavior but lacks a proper definition and taxonomy. Neuroscience and psychology textbooks offer surprisingly different views on what arousal is, from a global brain-wide modulation of neuronal activity to a multidimensional construct, with specific brain-body patterns tuned to a given situation. The huge number of scientific articles mentioning arousal (~50,000) highlights the importance of the concept but also explains why such a vast literature has never been systematically reviewed so far. Here, we leverage the tools of natural language processing to probe the nature of arousal in a data-driven, comprehensive manner. We show that arousal comes in seven varieties: cognitive, emotional, physiological, sexual, related to stress disorders, to sleep, or to sleep disorders. We then ask whether domain-general arousal exists at the cortical level, and run meta-analyses of the brain imaging literature to reveal that all varieties of arousal, except arousal in sleep disorders for lack of data, converge onto a cortical network composed of the presupplementary motor area and the left and right dorsal anterior insula. More precisely, we find that activity in dysgranular insular area 7 (Jülich atlas), the region with the highest convergence across varieties of arousal, is also specifically associated with arousal. The domain-general arousal network might trigger the reorganization of large-scale brain networks—a global mechanism—resulting in a context-specific configuration—in line with the multidimensional view. Future taxonomies of arousal refining the alignment between concepts and data should include domain-general arousal as a central component.

Understanding the history of the late Roman synagogue at Huqoq in Israel’s Galilee through radiocarbon dating and observations on site formation

Galilean-type synagogues are monumental, basilical structures found in northern Israel that have long been dated, mainly on stylistic grounds, to the 2nd – 3rd centuries CE. This chronology is influenced by historical considerations – specifically, the notion that monumental synagogues must have been constructed before Jews came under Christian rule in the early 4th century. However, the stratigraphic contexts of the pottery and coins associated with the foundation of these buildings suggest they represent an architectural innovation dating to the 4th (especially the later 4th) to 6th centuries CE. The Huqoq Excavation Project was initiated in 2011 with the goal of determining the construction date of a Galilean-type synagogue through controlled stratigraphic excavation, including the systematic collection of samples for radiocarbon dating along with micromorphological analysis of the fill deposits. Here we present the initial results of these analyses, which indicate that the radiocarbon ages conform with the pottery data to place the construction of the Huqoq synagogue in the late 4th – early 5th centuries (late Roman period). However, the ages of dated samples from thick fills overlying the floor, which were deposited when the synagogue was rebuilt and expanded in the early 14th century (late medieval/Mamluk period) do not reflect the stratigraphic sequence.

Economic renovation of a hillside drip irrigation system using drip tape inlet pressure regulators under computer-aided design

Simulating atmospheric freezing of single aqueous droplets to ice in a cryogenically cooled ultrasonic levitator

Atmospheric freezing of water droplets suspended in air followed by cloud formation and precipitation represent fundamental steps of the terrestrial water cycle. These aqueous droplets exhibit distinct freezing mechanisms and thermodynamic requirements compared to bulk water often forming metastable supercooled water at subzero temperatures on the Celsius scale (<273 K) prior to crystallization. Here, we report on a real-time spectroscopic investigation combined with simultaneous visualizations of single aqueous droplet freezing events inside a cryogenically cooled ultrasonic levitation chamber with the ultimate goal of probing the molecular structure evolution and stages of ice formation. The observed droplet freezing follows a pseudoheterogeneous ice nucleation mechanism mimicking the process that occurs for atmospherically supercooled water droplets at the air–water interface. This proof-of-concept experimental setup allows future crystallization studies of homo- and heterogeneously doped aqueous droplets under simulated atmospheric environments—also in the presence of reactive trace gases, thus untangling dynamic molecular interactions and chemical reactions, which are of fundamental interest to low-temperature atmospheric chemistry delineating with ice nucleation mechanisms.

A Study on the psychometric properties of the Chinese version of the Parent Tic Questionnaire

Introduction The Parent Tic Questionnaire (PTQ) is a tool for parents to assess their child’s tic severity, but its effectiveness in non-Western contexts like China has not been thoroughly examined. This study aimed to evaluate the psychometric properties of the PTQ in assessing motor and vocal tic severity among Chinese children diagnosed with tic disorders. Method Parents of 268 Chinese children and adolescents aged 6–17 years, diagnosed with tic disorders, completed the PTQ. The study assessed tic severity using the Yale Global Tic Severity Scale (YGTSS) and PTQ. Additionally, obsessive-compulsive symptoms were measured using the Children Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale (CY-BOCS), and other behavioral problems were evaluated using the Conners’ Parent Rating Scale (CPRS-48). Results The PTQ showed acceptable to good internal consistency (Cronbach’s alpha = 0.67 for motor, 0.77 for vocal, and 0.79 for total tic scores) and acceptable to good two-week test-retest reliability (intraclass correlations, ICC = 0.74 for motor, 0.81 for vocal, and 0.79 for total tic scores). It demonstrated good convergent validity with the YGTSS and effective discriminant validity from obsessive-compulsive and internalizing symptoms (i.e., anxiety and psychosomatic). Furthermore, our analysis revealed significant variability in item difficulty across the questionnaire, indicating differences in how various tics are perceived and reported by Chinese parents, which may influence the assessment’s accuracy and reliability. Discussion The findings indicate that the Chinese version of the PTQ is a reliable and valid tool for assessing tic severity in Chinese children with tic disorders, offering significant implications for clinical assessment in diverse cultural contexts. Additionally, our findings on item difficulty highlight the need for further cultural adaptations of the PTQ.