Remote monitoring of plant drought stress with the apparent heat capacity.

Drought stress has profound impacts on ecosystems and societies, particularly in the context of climate change. Traditional drought indicators, which often rely on integrated water budget anomalies at various time scales, provide valuable insights but often fail to deliver clear, real-time assessments of vegetation stress. This study introduces the Cooling Efficiency Factor Index (CEFI), a novel metric purely derived from geostationary satellite observations, to detect vegetation drought stress by analyzing daytime surface warming anomalies.

A Journey between Neurons and Astrocytes: A Tribute to Giorgio Carmignoto.

The intimate relation between astrocytes and blood vessels was proposed by Camillo Golgi in 1870. Santiago Ramon y Cajal subsequently introduced the idea of astrocytes as regulators of functional hyperaemia accompanying neuronal activity in 1895. In 2003 Giorgio Carmignoto, Micaela Zonta, Tullio Pozzan and their colleagues revealed mechanisms of astrocytic control over vasodilatation.

Phosphorus constrains global photosynthesis more than nitrogen does.

Global vegetation growth is thought to be limited by nitrogen (N) more than by other nutrients. Here we document a stronger phosphorus (P) limitation on global photosynthesis compared with N over the last four decades. On the basis of more than 80,000 field observations of foliar nutrients and a machine learning method, we generated a long-term global dataset of foliar N and P concentrations for the period 1980-2017.

Achieving reproducibility in the innovation process.

Reproducibility is essential for innovation but is often hard to achieve in practice. One reason for this is a lack of appreciation of what needs to be reproduced and how in each phase of the innovation process. In the discovery phase, conclusions need to be reproduced through orthogonal investigation.

Structural and physical investigation of ordered BaO-deficient BaPuO.

Ternary actinide compounds allow for a range of oxidation states and a rich but often not well-known chemistry. Here, a BaO-deficient plutonium-containing perovskite with a composition close to BaPuO has been obtained via solid state synthesis. The compound was characterised using X-Ray Diffraction from room temperature up to 1473 K, revealing two phase transitions and ordered Ba-deficiency.

The computational model lifecycle: Opportunities and challenges for computational medicine in the healthcare ecosystem.

Computational medicine promises significant advancements in healthcare, using physics-based simulations and artificial intelligence to optimise disease diagnosis, personalise treatment strategies and accelerate medical innovation. Biomedical research efforts are generating a growing number of computational models of human pathophysiology and medical treatments, with advanced applications in areas such as cardiovascular diseases, orthopaedics and cancer diagnosis. However, the widespread adoption of these models is hindered by technological and regulatory barriers.

Low-dose aspirin is not effective as an adjunct treatment for HIV infection among people living with HIV on dolutegravir-based antiretroviral therapy: A randomised double-blind, parallel-group placebo-controlled trial.

Background: Despite virologic suppression with antiretroviral therapy (ART), immune activation (IA) in people living with HIV (PLHIV) remains high and is linked to non-AIDS complications. Alongside its other virologic and immunologic benefits, aspirin promisingly appears to lower the residual IA in PLHIV in small studies.

Methods: We conducted a double-blind, parallel-group randomised trial involving ART-naïve PLHIV initiating ART at recruitment.

The global role of bioassessment in policy delivery and decision-making for inland waters.

Bioassessment is necessary to guide the management of freshwater ecosystems and promote sustainable water use. However, many countries either do not have nationally-approved bioassessment systems, or their bioassessment results are not used in water policy decision-making. Despite the importance and urgency of the topic, a global overview of bioassessment and its use in decision-making is missing.

-Mapping Wastewaters from Pathogen A to Z.

The is a novel and centralised digital platform designed to support and advance wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) by cataloguing pathogens detectable in wastewater and their relevance to public health surveillance. The platform is hosted on the EU Wastewater Observatory for Public Health (EU4S) website, where it is populated with peer-reviewed research through a structured workflow under harmonised criteria which address the presence of pathogens in human excreta, detectability in wastewater, and integration into public health systems. This tri-criteria approach ensures that the database is both scientifically robust and operationally actionable.

Towards Healthy and Sustainable Diets: Understanding Food Consumption Trends in the EU.

The assessment of food system sustainability requires a profound understanding of the evolution of food production and consumption. Monitoring the transition towards healthier and sustainable diets is crucial for supporting future interventions. This study explores market sales data as an input to investigate and compare current dietary trends in the European Union Member States over 14 years.

Fetal bovine serum: how to leave it behind in the pursuit of more reliable science.

Cell cultures form the backbone for scientific research and development, but also for clinical diagnostics and biotechnology. Supplying cells with growth factors, hormones, and other nutrients is achieved most often by supplementing culture media with fetal bovine serum (FBS). Despite its nearly ubiquitous use, there are major reproducibility, safety, and animal welfare issues arguing the need to replace FBS.

Dual-scale chemical ordering for cryogenic properties in CoNiV-based alloys.

The mechanical properties of metallic materials often degrade under harsh cryogenic conditions, posing challenges for low-temperature infrastructures. Here we introduce a dual-scale atomic-ordering nanostructure, characterized by an exceptionally high number density of co-existing subnanoscale short-range ordering (approximately 2.4 × 10 m) and nanoscale long-range ordering (approximately 4.

Utilization of semiconductor-decorated tungsten trioxide nanowire membranes for the elimination of microorganisms from potable water.

Microbial contamination in drinking water continues to be a significant global issue due to its direct effects on human health, particularly in areas with insufficient sanitation or deteriorating infrastructure. Conventional treatment systems frequently encounter challenges in fully eliminating pathogenic bacteria, underscoring the pressing necessity for innovative, energy-efficient filtration technology to ensure universal access to clean drinking water. In this regard, numerous reconsidered membrane technologies and filtration solutions have been developed and published recently.

A Transdisciplinary Framework to Bridge Science-Policy-Development Gaps in Global Land Management Initiatives.

Effective implementation of Sustainable Land Management (SLM) remains a major challenge worldwide because of its weak integration within the domains of science, policy, and development practice. Based on global analyses of soil erosion risk and the degree of implementation of SLM research, policies, and practices at the country level, we propose a transdisciplinary framework to address soil erosion through SLM. In the analysis, we used indices of the policy-development, science-policy, and science-development interfaces to evaluate the overall science-policy-development interface (SPDI) in 236 countries.

Synergistic Effects of Electrolyte Additives in a Dual-Salt System for High-Performance Four Electron Aqueous Zinc-Iodine Batteries Across a Wide Temperature Range.

Four-electron aqueous zinc-iodine batteries (4eAZIBs) with the successful I/I/I redox couples have emerged as a promising alternative for large-scale energy storage due to their high energy density. However, the practical application of these batteries, particularly in harsh environments, is hindered by the poor reversibility of Zn plating/stripping processes and the instability of I species in conventional aqueous electrolytes. Here, we design a multi-component hybrid electrolyte composed of Zn(ClO), ZnCl, glycerol (Gly), and polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) to enable highly reversible operation of 4eAZIBs across a wide temperature range.

Novel (d)PCR assays for influenza A(H5Nx) viruses clade 2.3.4.4b surveillance.

BACKGROUNDSince March 2024, cases of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) caused by A(H5N1) virus of clade 2.3.4.

UHPLC-based C-phycocyanin quantification method to support the validation of remote sensing models for harmful cyanobacterial blooms.

The deployment of hyperspectral satellite missions has opened new opportunities for integrated approaches to address the escalating issue of cyanobacterial algal blooms in marine and inland waters. Despite these advancements, the validation of satellite data concerning C-phycocyanin (C-PC) content requires robust analytical methods. Currently, the available techniques, predominantly spectrophotometric or fluorometric, exhibit low reproducibility due to the interference of chlorophyll a and perform optimally with water samples.

Strengthening the competitiveness of EU in vitro biotechnologies.

The EU has been a leader in research and development of in vitro biotechnology (IVB), such as human 3D cell and tissue models used in disease research and drug development. However, it is struggling to convert scientific discoveries into business creation and competitiveness within a rapidly growing international market.

Measurement of the U fission cross section relative to the standard B(n, α) reaction at the CERN n_TOF facility: Results for E< 2 eV.

The neutron induced fission of U is a very important reaction for nuclear technology applications and for the design of future systems to produce clean and safe energy. In addition, it is used as a reference reaction for neutron cross-section measurements, thus, its cross section is needed with a high accuracy over a wide energy range. In this work, the measurement for the U(n,f) reaction was carried out at the n_TOF facility located at CERN, at experimental area EAR-2.

Enteric glia and purinergic signaling in health and disease.

We celebrate the life of our colleague Francesco Di Virgilio, who in his very last public lecture discussed purinergic signaling in neuroglia in physiology and pathophysiology. Here, we write on a subset of a unique type of peripheral neuroglia, enteric glia that accompany enteric neurons in the enteric nervous system of the gut and act to maintain homeostasis in enteric neurocircuits. Bi-directional communication between enteric neurons and glia is majorly mediated by purines.

The Association Between Sensory Impairment and Cognitive Impairment Among Older Adults: Insights From a National Cohort Study in China.

Objectives: Cognitive impairment and sensory impairment are highly prevalent in older adults, but the relationship between the two remains inconclusive. This study aimed to investigate the relationship between visual impairment (VI), hearing impairment (HI), dual sensory impairment (DSI), and the onset of cognitive impairment among Chinese older adults.

Methods: Data were obtained from the 2011-2018 China Longitudinal Healthy Longevity Survey (CLHLS) cohort.