Search Results (192)

Cold injury is a major limiting factor for tropical fruit cultivation in temperate regions. Papayas are particularly sensitive to low temperatures, and exposure to 12–14 °C significantly inhibits their growth. This study determined whether combining root-zone heating with minimal greenhouse heating could improve overwinter survival and recovery under low-temperature stress conditions. Root-zone temperature was maintained above 15 °C throughout the overwintering period. Conversely, the greenhouse temperature was set at the minimum level required to avoid exposure to freezing temperatures. Tree responses were measured based on survival rate, shoot growth, SPAD, and stomatal conductance in three treatments: root-zone heating with minimal greenhouse heating, conventional whole-greenhouse heating, and a minimum-heating control. Root-zone heating with minimal greenhouse heating enabled successful overwinter survival and recovery. It exhibited comparable plant performance to conventional whole-greenhouse heating, whereas all plants in the control treatment died. Stomatal conductance recovered more rapidly in trees receiving root-zone heating than in those receiving conventional whole-greenhouse heating, suggesting earlier resumption of physiological activity. These results demonstrate that root-zone temperature management can mitigate low-temperature stress and promote post-winter physiological recovery, thus providing a potential strategy for overwintering tropical crops with reduced reliance on greenhouse heating. Full article

Objectives: To address the critical limitations of current formulations that fail to simultaneously resolve indomethacin’s poor water solubility, susceptibility to gastric acid hydrolysis, and difficulty in balancing rapid onset with long-term sustained release, this study prepared solid dispersions via anti-solvent freeze-drying to improve drug dissolution, constructed oral buccoadhesive bilayer controlled-release tablets using direct powder compression, and elucidated the intrinsic relationships among polymer gel properties, swelling-erosion behavior, tablet integrity maintenance, and drug release mechanisms. Methods: Solid dispersions (SDs) were prepared by anti-solvent freeze-drying. Bilayer tablets (25 mg IND/tablet, 12.5 mg/layer) were fabricated via direct powder compression after optimizing disintegrants and polymer matrices. In vitro dissolution, surface pH, adhesion time, and adhesion strength were evaluated. Results: SDs enhanced dissolution by at least 30-fold in water and 2.4-fold at pH 6.8 within 2 h versus pure drug. Optimized bilayer tablets achieved 45% drug release at 20 min and 80% sustained release over 8 h, with surface pH of 6.8 ± 0.1, adhesion time of 8.3 ± 0.1 h, and adhesion strength of 57 ± 0.13 g. Conclusions: The physicochemical properties of polymeric excipients are critical for balancing drug release and mucoadhesion in buccal tablets. To achieve ideal controlled-release effects, in addition to focusing on the swelling and erosion characteristics of matrix-based tablets, the ability to maintain tablet integrity during dynamic dissolution must be further investigated, which is an essential factor for ensuring precisely modulated drug release. Meanwhile, when employing solid dispersions as solubilizing intermediates to prepare controlled-release formulations, the gelling properties of polymers in each formulation component should be fully considered to avoid incomplete disintegration and insufficient release at the initial dissolution stage. Full article

Athetis lepigone (Möschler) is an important pest of maize in North China, whose larvae feed mainly on maize leaves, stems, and roots during the seedling stage, with conventional maize lacking effective resistance to it. In recent years, transgenic Bt maize expressing Cry1Ab and Vip3Aa proteins has been commercialized in China; however, its resistance against A. lepigone has not yet been systematically evaluated. In this study, three Bt maize events, DBN3601T expressing Cry1Ab and Vip3Aa, DBN9936 expressing Cry1Ab, and DBN9501 expressing Vip3Aa, were used to comprehensively assess resistance against the pest based on Bt protein expression levels in different maize tissues, larval susceptibility across instars, and larval feeding behavior under controlled laboratory conditions. The results showed that Bt protein expression varied significantly among maize tissues commonly fed upon by the insect, following the general pattern: seedling leaf > stem > root. Bioassays using artificial diets incorporated with freeze-dried maize leaf powder indicated that larvae were significantly more susceptible to Cry1Ab than to Vip3Aa, with LC₅₀ values of 1.05 and 2.65 μg·g⁻¹, respectively. Maize co-expressing both proteins exhibited high insecticidal activity. First-instar larvae displayed feeding avoidance of Bt maize tissues, and early instars were more sensitive than later instars; however, stems and roots showed stronger toxicity to older larvae. In simulated field infestation assays, the control efficacies of DBN3601T, DBN9936, and DBN9501 reached 94.35%, 88.79%, and 10.56%, respectively, at five days post-infestation. Overall, DBN3601T maize exhibited a strong resistance performance against A. lepigone, indicating strong potential for pest management applications. Full article

Background/Objectives: Residues of β-lactam antibiotics in foods of animal origin are important for official residue control and public-health risk assessment. Sample storage conditions may affect the measured concentrations of these analytes, whereas cooking may influence consumer exposure. This study evaluated the stability of six β-lactam antibiotics—amoxicillin, ampicillin, phenoxymethylpenicillin, benzylpenicillin, cefazolin, and cefotaxime—and clavulanic acid, a β-lactamase inhibitor, in chicken meat during storage and thermal processing. Methods: Incurred chicken meat samples were obtained after in vivo administration of the studied compounds. Stability was assessed during storage at +4 °C, −20 °C, and −86 °C for up to 165 days, during repeated freeze–thaw handling, and during heating at 100 °C for up to 30 min. The target compounds were quantified by HPLC–MS/MS after acetonitrile extraction and hexane clean-up. Results: The studied compounds were unstable at +4 °C, with concentrations decreasing below the detection limit within 3–27 days depending on the compound. Storage at −20 °C was insufficient for long-term preservation of most penicillins, whereas −86 °C improved stability. Cefazolin was the most stable compound under the tested storage conditions, while cefotaxime was the least stable. Heating at 100 °C for 30 min caused substantial reduction in parent-compound concentrations, ranging from 63.8 ± 4.0% for cefazolin to complete disappearance below the detection limit for cefotaxime. Conclusions: For reliable official residue analysis, chicken meat samples intended for β-lactam testing should be stored at −86 °C whenever long-term storage is required. Repeated thawing should be avoided. Cooking substantially reduces the concentrations of the parent compounds but cannot be considered a reliable safety measure, because degradation may be incomplete and degradation products were not assessed in this study. Full article

Milk adulteration is a common form of food fraud, particularly in high-value dairy products from small ruminants. A frequent practice involves dilution with water, often combined with the addition of sugars to mask physicochemical changes and avoid detection during routine quality control. This study aimed to develop an analytical approach for detecting combined adulteration in goat and sheep milk involving both water dilution and sucrose addition. Controlled experiments were conducted by diluting milk samples with water (1–15%) followed by the addition of sucrose solutions. Changes in physicochemical parameters, including fat, protein, total solids, lactose, density, freezing point depression, mineral content, and pH, were evaluated using an automated milk analyzer. In parallel, a suspected adulterant powder was characterized using conventional chemical analysis, ICP-AES, and HPLC-RI, revealing a composition predominantly of sucrose (91.4% w/w) with elevated sodium levels. Sucrose in milk samples was subsequently quantified using an enzymatic spectrophotometric method. Water dilution reduced protein, total solids, and density, while sucrose addition partially restored these parameters, masking adulteration effects. However, sucrose was reliably detected at concentrations above 0.1%. The proposed workflow may provide a practical and cost-effective complementary tool for routine dairy authenticity surveillance and fraud prevention. Full article

Background/Objectives: Curcumin (CUR) is a potent anticancer agent whose clinical application is hindered by its extremely poor aqueous solubility. This study reports the development of enzyme-responsive whey protein isolate (WPI) nanoparticles for CUR targeted delivery. Methods: To overcome the initial solubility barrier, CUR was first formulated as a solid dispersion with WPI using freeze-drying. This process resulted in a significant enhancement in aqueous solubility (up to 1478-fold), with CUR existing in molecular dispersion or in an amorphous state within the protein matrix as confirmed by Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC) and Fourier-transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy. The solubilized CUR-WPI solid dispersion was subsequently used to generate nanoparticles via a thermal gelation method, avoiding the use of organic solvents or toxic chemical crosslinkers. Results: The resulting nanoparticles exhibited a high drug loading efficiency of 85%. In vitro release studies demonstrated minimal CUR release in physiological buffer (pH 7.4) over 24 h, whereas exposure to trypsin, a nonspecific serine protease used as an in vitro model for tumor-associated proteolytic activity, triggered rapid nanoparticle degradation and released 95% of CUR within 3 h. Conclusions: These findings suggest that WPI-based nanoparticles developed from solid dispersions offer a promising, biocompatible platform for the solubility enhancement and protease-triggered delivery of hydrophobic anticancer drugs. Full article

To address the challenges of unstable target localization and poor multi-module coordination in automated green pepper harvesting—caused by occlusions from branches and leaves, as well as varying lighting conditions—this paper presents the design and implementation of a modular robotic picking system. At the perception level, the system integrates a YOLOv8 detector with a RealSense D435i camera to identify and locate the calyx–ectocarp junctions of green peppers. An integrated multi-target tracking and filtering framework is proposed, which fuses multi-feature association, trajectory smoothing and coordinate denoising strategies to suppress depth noise and trajectory jitter, thereby enhancing the stability and accuracy of 3D localization. At the control and execution level, a depth-first picking sequence strategy with ID freeze-state management is implemented within a multithreaded software–hardware co-design architecture. This approach avoids task conflicts and duplicate operations while supporting continuous multi-fruit harvesting. Field experiments under natural outdoor lighting and varying occlusion levels demonstrate that the proposed system achieves recognition rates of 91.57% and 80.29% and harvesting success rates of 82.85% and 77.68% for non-occluded and lightly occluded fruits, respectively. The average picking cycle per pepper fruit is 9.8 s. This system provides an effective technical solution for addressing stability control challenges in the automated harvesting process of green peppers. Full article

In Canada, Indigenous communities have been disproportionately flooded. Specifically, Fort Albany First Nation (FN) located on a flood plain near the mouth of the Albany River in subarctic Ontario, Canada, has been evacuated frequently due to flooding or the threat of flooding―even though dikes were constructed in the late 1990s to safeguard the community. Thus, a fundamental question needs to be asked: Why is Fort Albany FN located on a flood plain in the first place? We answer the question through an Indigenous environmental justice lens using document and archival research in the context of the treaty making process between Fort Albany FN and the British Crown, and the establishment of reserves. In brief, procedural issues were noted, as there was no transparency in reserve choice at the time of signing the treaty, and during the actual surveying of the reserve boundaries with certain types of land being excluded from reserve locations, unbeknownst to the FNs peoples. The Cree were also misled into believing that they would retain access to their whole traditional homeland―and not be confined to reserve land―the Cree believed that they only agreed to share the land. Historically, the Cree harmonized with the seasons and would not be residing in the Albany River floodplain during river freeze-up and during river break-up―adaptive behaviour to avoid flooding. Harmonizing with the environment had allowed the mobile Cree to live successfully with the annual flooding of the Albany River for millennia, until being forced to live permanently on reserve land by the colonial government. Nonetheless, the Cree still sustain their cultural worldview acknowledging the Cree cycle of life. The way forward for Fort Albany First Nation will be either relocation to high ground or trying to tame nature by reinforcing the existing dikes—or some novel combination of both based on two worldviews. Full article

Background: Observational fear, a form of empathic response to others’ distress, exhibits marked sex differences. Oxytocin (OT) is a key modulator of social and emotional behaviors, but its role in observational fear—and how this varies by sex and administration route—remains controversial. Methods: We studied behavioral responses in male and female mice during observational fear. We first blocked systemic oxytocin (OT) signaling with a peripheral antagonist. We then tested different routes of OT administration (intranasal, intraperitoneal). Further, we microinjected OT directly into the anterior insular cortex (AIC). Finally, we used a chemogenetics strategy to selectively activate or inhibit OT neurons. Results: Male mice exhibited sustained freezing behavior and elevated corticosterone levels in response to observational fear. In contrast, females more quickly resumed baseline activity levels and showed an increased number of interactions. Systemic blockade of oxytocin (OT) signaling selectively reduced fear expression in males. Strikingly, intranasal OT administration elicited heightened fear-related responses in both sexes, whereas intraperitoneal OT administration induced anxiolytic-like effects. Direct OT microinjection into the anterior insular cortex (AIC) produced sex-divergent reductions in fear responses: decreasing freezing duration in males and reducing avoidance behaviors in females. Chemogenetic activation of OTergic neurons replicated these anxiolytic effects, while inhibition had no effect. Conclusions: OT bidirectionally regulates observational fear in a sex-, route-, and site-specific manner, challenging the simplistic view of OT as universally prosocial. The AIC is a critical node in empathetic fear circuits. These findings underscore the necessity for precision in targeting the OT system for treating stress-related psychiatric disorders. Full article

Dementia-related neurotoxicity induced by environmental metals remains a public health concern, and experimentally tractable vertebrate models that integrate behavioral and molecular endpoints are needed. Here, we established an adult zebrafish (Danio rerio) co-exposure paradigm using aluminum chloride (AlCl₃; 0.75 and 1.50 μM) and lead acetate (AcPb; 0.26 and 0.53 μM) and assessed anxiety-like behavior and cognition together with cholinergic and oxidative stress biomarkers. In the Novel Tank Diving Test, co-exposure increased latency to the top zone and reduced vertical exploration (top/bottom time ratio), with enhanced freezing, while average speed and total distance were not significantly altered, indicating an anxiogenic phenotype without major locomotor impairment. In the Novel Approach Test, the high co-exposure condition (AlCl₃ 1.5 μM + AcPb 0.53 μM) produced the strongest avoidance of the inner zone and increased immobility, effects attenuated by mexazolam (10 µM). Cognitive performance was markedly impaired under combined exposure: in the Novel Object Recognition Test, the novel-object preference index decreased from 64.83% (control) to 35.75–36.73% (co-exposure; p = 0.0016), whereas galantamine improved preference (58.60%). In the Y-maze test, spontaneous alternation dropped from 78.22% (control) to ~42.90–44.94% in AlCl₃ 200 and both co-exposures (p = 0.0048), and time in the novel arm decreased from 26.09 s to 10.53–11.35 s (p < 0.0001). Biochemically, metals inhibited brain acetylcholinesterase, most strongly under high co-exposure (7.60 vs. 15.92 nmol ATCh/min/mg; ~52%), and induced severe oxidative stress, evidenced by decreased superoxide dismutase, catalase, glutathione peroxidase and reduced glutathione, alongside increased malondialdehyde (MDA) and protein carbonyls (with MDA doubling to 14.90 vs. 7.04 nmol/mg). Pearson correlations supported coupling between the cholinergic/redox axis and novelty-related behaviors. Overall, this easy-to-implement zebrafish Al–Pb model provides a practical platform for mechanistic studies and in vivo screening of candidate neuroprotective agents. Full article

Axial postural abnormalities in Parkinson’s Disease (PD) are traditionally assessed using clinical rating scales, although picture-based assessment is considered the gold standard. This study evaluates the reliability and clinical relevance of two markerless body-tracking frameworks, the RGB-D-based Microsoft Azure Kinect (providing the reference KIN_3D model) and the RGB-only Google MediaPipe Pose (MP), using a synchronous dual-camera setup. Forty PD patients performed a 60 s static standing task. We compared KIN_3D with three MP models (at different complexity levels) across horizontal, vertical, sagittal, and 3D joint angles. Results show that lower-complexity MP models achieved high congruence with KIN_3D for trunk and shoulder alignment (ρ > 0.75), while the lateral view significantly improved tracking of sagittal angles (ρ ≥ 0.72). Conversely, the high-complexity model introduced significant skeletal distortions. Clinically, several angular parameters emerged as robust metrics for postural assessment and global motor impairments, while sagittal angles correlated with motor complications. Unexpectedly, a more upright frontal alignment was associated with greater freezing of gait severity, suggesting that static postural metrics may serve as proxies for dynamic gait performance. In addition, both RGB-only and RGB-D frameworks effectively discriminated between postural severity clusters. While the higher-complexity MP model should be avoided due to inaccurate 3D reconstructions, our findings demonstrate that low- and medium-complexity MP models represent a reliable alternative to RGB-D sensors for objective postural assessment in PD, facilitating the widespread application of objective posture measurements in clinical contexts. Full article

Metabolic profiling enables comprehensive characterisation of the small molecules that are part of the biochemical composition of biological fluids. The most widely profiled biofluids include serum and plasma. Additionally synovial fluid provides a direct reflection of the metabolomic environment of joints and holds promise for biomarker discovery in arthropathies. However, the reproducibility of metabolomics data is highly sensitive to pre-analytical variation, and at the present time, standardised protocols for synovial fluid remain underdeveloped. This review aims to identify and evaluate the existing literature on effects of biofluid pre-analytical handling treatments on metabolic profiles. This review was conducted and reported according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses extension for Scoping Reviews (PRISMA-ScR) guidelines. A search was carried out to identify studies employing LC-MS, GC-MS, and NMR spectroscopy for the investigation of factors including sample collection variables, pre-centrifugation conditions, centrifugation parameters, post-centrifugations conditions, sample storage conditions, and freeze/thaw cycling. Best practice recommendations emerging from this review include the use of additive free serum and heparin plasma tubes, the centrifugation of samples within two hours of collection, immediate storage of samples at −80 °C, and avoidance of repeated freeze/thaw cycling. However, while pre-analytical influences have been extensively characterised for plasma and serum, evidence for synovial fluid remains limited. Overall, the findings highlight the existing recommendations for plasma and serum and demonstrate the need for standardised pre-analytical protocols and validation of quality control markers to advance synovial fluid metabolomics. Full article

The Gold-spotted pond frog (Pelophylax chosenicus (Okada, 1931)), classified as an endangered species in South Korea, has experienced significant population declines due to habitat loss, primarily driven by agricultural expansion and urbanization. This study aimed to assess the hibernation ecology of P. chosenicus using PIT tagging technology, focusing on its hibernation behavior, environmental conditions, and implications for conservation and restoration. Over a three-year period (2021–2024), PIT tags were implanted in 408 frogs, enabling continuous monitoring of hibernation sites and individual characteristics. The results revealed that hibernation depths ranged from 1 to 23 cm, with deeper burrowing observed during colder months, indicating a temperature-dependent survival strategy. The soil temperature at hibernation sites remained consistently higher than ambient air temperature, suggesting an adaptive mechanism to avoid freezing conditions. Additionally, frogs exhibited a strong preference for hibernation sites near water bodies, where soil moisture levels were high, highlighting the importance of preserving suitable microhabitats for successful overwintering. These findings provide valuable insights into the hibernation ecology of P. chosenicus and are critical for guiding effective habitat restoration initiatives. Future research should investigate physiological adaptations to varying hibernation environments and the potential impacts of climate change may impact the survival of this endangered species. Full article

In freshwater fish, group behavior is ecologically critical for daily activities such as predator avoidance. However, species with varying shoaling preferences exhibit divergent behavioral responses under different environmental conditions. This study investigated the behavioral responses of three shoaling species (Moenkhausia costae, Puntius tetrazona, and Myxocyprinus asiaticus) and three non-shoaling species (Trichogaster trichopterus, Micropterus salmoides, and Cichlasoma managuense) to simulated predation in either an open arena or a six-arm maze with shelter available. Our findings reveal that, in open water, shoaling species employ a dual strategy against predators: maintaining high group cohesion while increasing swimming speed and acceleration. This exploits the confusion effect to mitigate individual predation risk. In contrast, non-shoaling species do not engage in evasive maneuvers; instead, they adopt a cryptic strategy by minimizing activity and often freezing in place to avoid detection. In the six-arm maze, shoaling species consistently employed group coordination strategies, whereas non-shoaling species primarily relied on shelter concealment or reduced activity. Notably, shoaling species maintained high cohesion, synchronization, and activity levels across both open and complex habitats, using coordinated movement to facilitate collective escape. Together, our findings demonstrate that habitat complexity and social tendencies jointly determine how fishes trade off risk and safety. This work provides new insights into the adaptive evolution of social behavior in dynamic aquatic ecosystems. Full article

With the Longzhong Water Conservation and Ecological Water Supply and Storage Reservoir Project (Upper Yellow River) as the engineering background, this study selected sulfate sandy soil from Jingtai County (Baiyin City, Gansu Province, the project area) as the test soil to explore the effects of moisture content and salt content on the frost heave characteristics of sulfate sandy soil in seasonal frozen soil areas, and to avoid engineering problems caused by its frost heave deformation. Indoor freeze–thaw experiments and data analysis were conducted; water and salt content gradients were set in line with the actual engineering conditions, and indoor unidirectional freezing frost heave tests were carried out to simulate the natural freeze–thaw environment. The test results show that temperature is a key factor regulating soil frost heave: the frost heave rate varies in an “S-shaped” pattern with decreasing temperature (slightly decreasing at 10~0 °C, increasing rapidly at 0~−10 °C with the most significant growth at 0~−5 °C, and stabilizing below −10 °C). Under constant compaction, the frost heave rate increases parabolically with moisture content (the growth rate slows down after 15% and stabilizes at 17%) and linearly with salt content (with a small increment). Based on the test data, a frost heave rate prediction model considering moisture content and salt content was established; the correlation between the calculated values of the model and the measured values is strong (R² > 0.92), which can provide a reference for predicting the frost heave rate of such sulfate sandy soil. The key conclusions are as follows: The frost heave of the soil is dominated by temperature and moisture content (the effect of salt content is secondary); the temperature range of 0~−5 °C is the critical period for engineering frost heave prevention. This study provides technical support for the frost heave prevention design of the Longzhong Reservoir and similar engineering projects in seasonal frozen soil areas of Northwest China. Full article