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J Hazard Mater 2022 May 13;436:129135. Epub 2022 May 13.

State Key Lab of Urban and Regional Ecology, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100085, China; Key Laboratory of Urban Environment and Health, Institute of Urban Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xiamen 361021, China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China.

In straw return fields, nitrogen-fertilizers are added to mitigate microbial competition for nitrogen with plants. However, in arsenic (As)-contaminated paddy fields, the specific effects of different nitrogen fertilizers on As mobility after straw incorporation and the interactions among iron(Fe)/carbon(C)/nitrogen(N)/As are not well understood. In the reported microcosm experiment we monitored As-mobility as a function of different dosages of KNO, NHCl and rice straw incorporation. Read More

Environ Sci Pollut Res Int 2022 May 20. Epub 2022 May 20.

State Key Laboratory of Lake Science and Environment, Nanjing Institute of Geography and Limnology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing, China.

Dissolved organic matter (DOM) is ubiquitous in natural waters which exhibits obvious effects on the toxicity of heavy metals. However, information on the toxicity of heavy metals in the presence of DOMs with different molecular weights (MWs) was still unclear. In this study, Suwannee river humic acid (SRHA) and algae-derived organic matter (ADOM) were selected as typical terrestrial and microbial DOMs, with the bulk DOMs fractionating into high MW (HMW-, 1 kDa ~ 0. Read More

Stud Health Technol Inform 2022 May;291:88-102

Department of Health Information Management, School of Allied Medical Sciences, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.

Early Warning Scores (EWSs) systems support the timely detection of patient deterioration and rapid response of the care team. Due to the mobility nature of healthcare settings, there has been a growing tendency to use mobile-based devices in these settings. This chapter aimed to design a mobile-based EWS application (app). Read More

J Forensic Sci 2022 May 20. Epub 2022 May 20.

Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Forensic Investigation Research Station, Colorado Mesa University, Grand Junction, Colorado, USA.

Three fungi not previously reported on desiccated human remains were identified on cadavers at the Forensic Investigation Research Station (FIRS) in Whitewater, Colorado. The location of the FIRS provides the unique opportunity to observe the stages of decomposition in a high desert environment. The two cadavers used in the study were in the late stages of decomposition (PMI of approximately 1520 and 1820 days) to the point of desiccation and had developed an extensive black crust on the skin that remained. Read More

Front Plant Sci 2022 3;13:893278. Epub 2022 May 3.

Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Crop Genetic Improvement, Crops Research Institute, Guangdong Academy of Agricultural Sciences, South China Peanut Sub-Center of National Center of Oilseed Crops Improvement, Guangzhou, China.

The () transcription family were initially identified as important factors for phytochrome A (phyA)-mediated far-red light signaling in ; they play crucial roles in controlling the growth and development of plants. The reported reference genome sequences of , including , , , and , and its related species provide an opportunity to systematically perform a genome-wide identification of homologous genes and investigate expression patterns of these members in peanut species. Here, a total of 650 genes were identified from four and its closely related species . Read More

Front Plant Sci 2022 3;13:843771. Epub 2022 May 3.

Integrated Molecular Plant Physiology Research, Department of Biology, University of Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium.

Soil contamination with indium oxide nanoparticles (InO-NPs) is a challenge for plant growth and productivity. Despite InO-NPs toxicity, their effects on plant growth and metabolism are largely unknown, particularly under future climate CO (eCO). Therefore, the InO-NPs toxicity and stress mitigating impact of eCO in the young and old leaves of C3 (wheat) and C4 (sorghum) plants were investigated. Read More

Curr Zool 2022 Jun 10;68(3):251-264. Epub 2021 Jul 10.

Terrestrial Ecosystem Science and Sustainability, Harry Butler Institute, Murdoch University, 90 South St, Murdoch, WA 6150, Australia.

Bandicoots and bilbies (Order Peramelemorphia) occupy a broad range of habitats across Australia and New Guinea, from open, arid deserts to dense forests. This once diverse group has been particularly vulnerable to habitat loss and introduced eutherian predators, and numerous species extinctions and range retractions have occurred. Understanding reasons for this loss requires greater understanding of their biology. Read More

Front Microbiol 2022 3;13:849637. Epub 2022 May 3.

State Key Laboratory of Crop Stress Biology for Arid Areas, College of Plant Protection, Northwest A&F University, Xianyang, China.

Gut-associated microbes can influence insect health and fitness. Understanding the structure of bacterial communities provides valuable insights on how different species may be selected and their functional characteristics in their hosts. The neutral model is powerful in predicting the structure of microbial communities, but its application in insects remains rare. Read More

Front Microbiol 2022 3;13:870462. Epub 2022 May 3.

Department of Entomology, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou, China.

Insect pests cause significant agricultural and economic losses to crops worldwide due to their destructive activities. Pesticides are designed to be poisonous and are intentionally released into the environment to combat the menace caused by these noxious pests. To survive, these insects can resist toxic substances introduced by humans in the form of pesticides. Read More

Materials (Basel) 2022 Apr 25;15(9). Epub 2022 Apr 25.

Ningxia Huasheng Energy Saving and Environmental Protection Technology Co., Ltd., Yinchuan 750021, China.

In this study, the silica fume replacement rate, fly ash replacement rate, and curing temperature were regarded as the independent variables, and the compressive and flexural strengths were regarded as the response values. The response surface method was used to construct the response surface polynomial regression model and obtain the optimal preparation parameters of a steel slag cement-based gel slurry (SCGS). The univariate and multivariate effects on the SCGS's strength were investigated via analysis of variance and a three-dimensional surface model, and the hydration products and strength development law were characterized via scanning electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction. Read More

Sensors (Basel) 2022 Apr 27;22(9). Epub 2022 Apr 27.

School of Information Technology, Carleton University, Ottawa, ON K1S 5B6, Canada.

With the advent of the Internet of Things (IoT), it has become possible to have a variety of data sets generated through numerous types of sensors deployed across large urban areas, thus empowering the notion of smart cities. In smart cities, various types of sensors may fall into different administrative domains and may be accessible through exposed Application Program Interfaces (APIs). In such setups, for traffic prediction in Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS), one of the major prerequisites is the integration of heterogeneous data sources within a preprocessing data pipeline resulting into hybrid feature space. Read More

Sci Rep 2022 May 19;12(1):8439. Epub 2022 May 19.

Microbiology Section, Department of Botany, The University of Burdwan, Burdwan, West Bengal, 713104, India.

Contamination of soil by antibiotics and heavy metals originating from hospital facilities has emerged as a major cause for the development of resistant microbes. We collected soil samples surrounding a hospital effluent and measured the resistance of bacterial isolates against multiple antibiotics and heavy metals. One strain BMCSI 3 was found to be sensitive to all tested antibiotics. Read More

Environ Sci Pollut Res Int 2022 May 20. Epub 2022 May 20.

College of Water Conservancy and Civil Engineering, Inner Mongolia Agricultural University, Hohhot, 010018, China.

Groundwater is an important resource of water in arid and semi-arid agricultural regions. Thus, identification of hydrogeochemical characters and the influence of geospatial variability and flow pooling are of significance on groundwater resources management and making irrigation decisions in salinized areas. The study specifically focused on the Hetao Irrigation District located in the semi-arid region of northern China. Read More

Sci Rep 2022 May 19;12(1):8435. Epub 2022 May 19.

Department of Soil Science, College of Agriculture, Isfahan University of Technology, Isfahan, 84156-83111, Iran.

Site-specific management of soils needs continuous measurements of soil physicochemical characteristics. In this study, Vis-NIR spectroscopy with two spectroscopic instruments, including charge-coupled device (CCD) and indium-gallium-arsenide (InGaAs) spectrometers, was adopted to estimate some physicochemical characteristics of a calcareous topsoil in an arid climate. Partial least squares (PLS) as linear and artificial neural networks (ANN) as nonlinear multivariate techniques were utilized to enhance the accuracy of prediction. Read More

Nat Commun 2022 May 19;13(1):2761. Epub 2022 May 19.

Materials Science and Engineering Program and Walker Department of Mechanical Engineering, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, 78712, USA.

Extracting ubiquitous atmospheric water is a sustainable strategy to enable decentralized access to safely managed water but remains challenging due to its limited daily water output at low relative humidity (≤30% RH). Here, we report super hygroscopic polymer films (SHPFs) composed of renewable biomasses and hygroscopic salt, exhibiting high water uptake of 0.64-0. Read More

Sci Rep 2022 May 19;12(1):8396. Epub 2022 May 19.

Department of Agricultural Extension and Education, Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources University of Khuzestan, Mollasani, Iran.

As soil is the basis for agriculture, soil erosion is one of the major threats to food security in arid and semi-arid regions across the world. Therefore, soil conservation is an important step to increase productivity and ensure sustainability in agriculture. To implement soil conservation measures, farmers must voluntarily adopt soil conservation behaviors. Read More

Sci Total Environ 2022 May 16:155965. Epub 2022 May 16.

Department of Chemical Engineering, School of Chemical and Materials Engineering, National University of Sciences and Technology, Islamabad, Pakistan.

Slow release urea has been widely tested in recent past as an effective method to enhance the crop productivity with fewer environmental concerns. However, very few research studies have been performed using micronutrients as a source of slow release of urea nitrogen. A laboratory and field study were carried out to check the agronomic effects of zinc oxide nanoparticles and its bulk salt coatings on urea prills on wheat (Triticum aestivum L. Read More

Dev Comp Immunol 2022 May 16;133:104444. Epub 2022 May 16.

Laboratory of Veterinary Microbiology, College of Veterinary Medicine, Gansu Agricultural University, Lanzhou, 730070, PR China. Electronic address:

The role of TANK-binding kinase 1 (TBK1) of humans and mice in innate immunity is well elucidated. Still, the molecular characterization and biological function of the TBK1 gene in herbivorous animals are less studied. Here, the open reading frame (ORF) of TBK1 of the cow and goat was firstly cloned and successfully expressed. Read More

Braz J Biol 2022 27;84:e259582. Epub 2022 Apr 27.

PMAS-Arid Agriculture University Rawalpindi, Department of Zoology, Rawalpindi, Pakistan.

Pheasants are declining everywhere in the world and therefore updated information about their population and habitats are important for conservation and management. The present study was conducted in the Palas Valley, District Kohistan, Pakistan in late spring (May and June) 2020 and early spring (March and April) 2021 to assess the population and anthropogenic stress. The major focus was on three sympatric pheasant species, including Western Horned Tragopan (Tragopan melanocephalus), Himalayan Monal (Lophophorus impejanus), and Koklass Pheasant (Pucrasia macrolopha). Read More

Arch Microbiol 2022 May 19;204(6):336. Epub 2022 May 19.

Department of Biology, Sonoma State University, Rohnert Park, CA, USA.

Genomic and metabolomic studies of endolithic bacteria are essential for understanding their adaptations to extreme conditions of the rock environment and their contributions to mineralization and weathering processes. The endoliths of arid serpentine rocks are exposed to different environmental stresses, including desiccation and re-hydration, temperature fluctuations, oligotrophy, and high concentrations of heavy metals. Bacteria of the genus Rhodococcus commonly inhabit endolithic environments. Read More

Microbiol Spectr 2022 May 19:e0050022. Epub 2022 May 19.

Department of Bioengineering, School of Life Science and Technology, Xinjiang University, Urumqi, People's Republic of China.

Populus euphratica Oliv. has a high tolerance for drought, salinity, and alkalinity. The main purpose of this study is to explore the effects of environments of different salinity intensities on endophytic community structure and the possible roles of endophytes in the tolerance of host plants. Read More

PLoS One 2022 19;17(5):e0267021. Epub 2022 May 19.

National Natural History Collections and Department of Ecology, Evolution and Behavior, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel.

Freshwaters are a very valuable resource in arid areas, such as Mediterranean countries. Freshwater systems are vulnerable ecological habitats, significantly disturbed globally and especially in arid areas. The Sea of Galilee is the largest surface freshwater body in the Middle East. Read More

Acta Parasitol 2022 May 19. Epub 2022 May 19.

Laboratory of Biology and Toxicology (BIOTOX), Department of Biology, Center for Biological and Health Sciences, Regional University of Cariri-URCA, CNPJ-06.740.864/0001-26, CEL. Antônio Luiz Street, 1161-Pimenta, Crato, CE, CEP: 63105-000, Brazil.

Introduction: The lobster cockroach Nauphoeta cinerea (N. cinerea) is indicated as a promising non-mammalian model, because it presents behavioral and biochemical alterations also observed in conventional models. In this research, we identified and characterized the distribution of protozoa that inhabit the digestive system (DS) of N. Read More

Front Nutr 2022 2;9:884086. Epub 2022 May 2.

Key Laboratory of Synthetic and Natural Functional Molecule of the Ministry of Education, College of Chemistry and Materials Science, National Demonstration Center for Experimental Chemistry Education, Northwest University, Xi'an, China.

(L.) Gaertn (also ) is a special Mongolian vegetable, belonging to the family, growing in arid and semi-arid areas of northern China, with a unique flavor and potential health benefits. This article aims to describe the profile of volatile flavor compounds in fresh and different dehydrated samples, establish the fingerprint, and identify the characteristic compounds. Read More

Med Trop Sante Int 2021 Jun 31;1(2). Epub 2021 May 31.

Unité MIVEGEC, Université de Montpellier, IRD, CNRS, Montpellier, France.

Mosquitoes (Diptera, Culicidae) form a family of insects of considerable public health importance. Mention of their presence/absence was tackled in the literature and by specialized websites for eight African countries: Cape Verde, Mauritania, Senegal, Gambia, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger and Chad. In total, 216 species have been recorded belonging to 13 genera: (48 species), (2), (62), (6), (54), (1), (7), (3), (1), (2), (7), (4) and (19). Read More

Front Genet 2022 2;13:848663. Epub 2022 May 2.

Department of Plant Resources and Environment, Jeju National University, Jeju, South Korea.

Magnesium (Mg) is the fourth most abundant element in the human body and plays the role of cofactor for more than 300 enzymatic reactions. In plants, Mg is involved in various key physiological and biochemical processes like growth, development, photophosphorylation, chlorophyll formation, protein synthesis, and resistance to biotic and abiotic stresses. Keeping in view the importance of this element, the present investigation aimed to explore the Mg contents diversity in the seeds of Turkish common bean germplasm and to identify the genomic regions associated with this element. Read More

Heliyon 2022 May 9;8(5):e09386. Epub 2022 May 9.

Department of Biology, The University of Dodoma, P.O. Box 338, Dodoma, Tanzania.

African savannas are broadly categorised into nutrient-rich and nutrient-poor according to soil nutrient availability and precipitation. Soil nutrients limit plant growth in the nutrient-rich savannas, leading to little plant biomass of high nutrient concentrations. In the nutrient-poor savannas soil nutrients are depleted before plant growth ceases, resulting in large production of nutrient-poor plant biomass. Read More

Front Plant Sci 2022 2;13:736009. Epub 2022 May 2.

State Key Laboratory of Vegetation and Environmental Change, Institute of Botany, The Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.

Photosynthetic characteristics are widely used as indicators of plant responses to global environmental changes such as precipitation change and nitrogen (N) deposition increase. How different plant species respond physiologically to the future precipitation change combined with increasing N availability is largely unclear. A field experiment was conducted to study responses in seasonal and interannual leaf carbon (C) exchange of two dominant plant species, and , to additional water (either as spring snow or as summer water) and N application in a semi-arid temperate steppe of China. Read More

Front Plant Sci 2022 2;13:869090. Epub 2022 May 2.

Department of Plant Pathology, Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center, The Ohio State University, Wooster, OH, United States.

Symbiotic fungi in the genus can induce abiotic stress tolerance in crops. The beneficial effects of on water deficit stress are poorly understood and may be isolate-specific. Our objective was to evaluate a collection of Nepalese isolates and their efficacy to improve tomato () growth under water deficit. Read More

Environ Sci Pollut Res Int 2022 May 19. Epub 2022 May 19.

Water Research Center, King Abdulaziz University, P.O. Box 80200, Jeddah, 21598, Saudi Arabia.

A systematic study was performed in the arid coastal aquifer to evaluate groundwater quality using drinking water quality indices (DWQI) and health risk assessment models in southern Saudi Arabia. Groundwater samples were collected (n = 80) and analysed for major and minor ions. Results suggest that 85% of wells are unsuitable for drinking due to high salinity and hardness. Read More