Search Results (396)

Aiming at the problems of tree vigor decline and unstable fruit quality caused by soil impoverishment and easy nutrient loss in the Ziziphus jujuba Mill. ‘Huizao’ (Huizao) producing areas of southern Xinjiang, the application effect of bag-controlled slow-release fertilizer (BCSRF) in this region remains unclear. In this study, a field experiment was conducted with four fertilization concentration gradients, including CK (0 kg/ha), T1 (22 kg/ha), T2 (44 kg/ha), and T3 (66 kg/ha), to investigate the effects of BCSRF on soil nutrient dynamics and plant growth, as well as the fruit yield and quality of Huizao. The results showed that BCSRF could effectively maintain the supply levels of soil alkali-hydrolysable nitrogen, available phosphorus, and available potassium during key growth periods, among which the T3 treatment exhibited the most significant effect. This treatment not only significantly increased the yield per plant of Huizao by 39.34% compared with the control, but also markedly enhanced the contents of the endogenous substance, including soluble sugar and cyclic adenosine monophosphate. This study confirms that under the condition of sandy loam soil in southern Xinjiang, a single basal application of an appropriate amount of BCSRF can achieve continuous nutrient supply, simultaneously improve soil fertility and fruit quality, providing a theoretical basis and technical guidance for simplified and efficient fertilization in local jujube orchards. Full article

The interaction between organic and inorganic nutrients, bacterial communities, and soil fertility has been well documented over time. Conventional agricultural systems heavily utilize both inorganic and organic fertilizers, each exerting distinct effects on soil microbial dynamics and plant growth. The objective of our experiments was to identify the most effective fertilization strategy for improving the biological quality of a microbiologically impoverished and low-productivity soil. To this end, four fertilization strategies were evaluated: (i) organic fertilizers characterized by a high content of organic carbon (Fertil 4-5-7—variant 1); (ii) organic fertilizers with 12% organic nitrogen from proteins (Bio Ostara N—variant 2) (iii) combined inorganic–organic fertilizers (P35 Bio—variant 3) and (iv) mineral (inorganic) fertilizers (BioAktiv—variant V4). This study aimed to assess the short-term effects of fertilizers with varying chemical compositions on the density of cultivable heterotrophic bacteria and their associated dehydrogenase (DH) activity in a petrocalcic chernozem soil containing pedogenic carbonates. Soil sampling was conducted according to a randomized block design, comprising four replicates per treatment (control plus four fertilizer types). The enumeration of cultivable bacteria was performed using Nutrient Agar and A2R Agar media, whereas dehydrogenase activity (DHA) was quantified based on the reduction of 2,3,5-triphenyl-2H-tetrazolium chloride (TTC) to 1,3,5-triphenyl-tetrazolium formazan (TPF) by bacterial dehydrogenase enzymes. Marked differences were observed in both parameters between the plots amended with inorganic fertilizers and those treated with organic fertilizers, as well as among the organic fertilizer treatments of varying composition. The most pronounced increases in both bacterial density and dehydrogenase activity (DHA) were recorded in the plots receiving the fertilizer with a high organic nitrogen content. In this treatment, the maximum bacterial population density reached 6.25 log₁₀ CFU g⁻¹ dry soil after approximately two months (May), followed by a significant decline starting in July. In contrast, DHA exhibited a more rapid response, reaching its peak in April (42.75 µg TPF g⁻¹ soil), indicating an earlier DHA activation of microbial metabolism. This temporal lag between the two parameters suggests that enzymatic activity responded more swiftly to the nutrient inputs than did microbial biomass proliferation. For the other two organic fertilizer variants, bacterial population dynamics were broadly similar, with peak densities recorded in June, ranging from 5.98 log₁₀ CFU g⁻¹ soil (V3) to 6.03 log₁₀ CFU g⁻¹ soil (V1). A comparable trend was observed in DHA: in V3, maximum DHA was attained in June (30 µg TPF g⁻¹ soil), after which it remained relatively stable, whereas in V1, it peaked in June (24.05 µg TPF g⁻¹ soil) and subsequently declined slightly toward the end of the experimental period. Overall, the temporal dynamics of bacterial density and DHA demonstrated a strong dependence on the quality and biodegradability of the organic matter supplied by each fertilizer. Both parameters were consistently lower under inorganic fertilization compared with organic treatments, suggesting that the observed increases in microbial density and activity were primarily mediated by the enhanced availability of organic substrates. The relationship between the density of culturable heterotrophic bacteria and dehydrogenase (DH) activity was strongly positive (r = 0.79), indicating a close functional linkage between bacterial density and oxidative enzyme activity. This connection suggests that the culturable fraction of the heterotrophic microbial community plays a key role in the early stages of organic matter mineralization derived from the applied fertilizers, particularly in the decomposition of easily degradable substrates. Full article

Continuous monoculture of Panax notoginseng leads to severe replant disease, yet the mechanisms by which root exudates mediate rhizosphere microbiome assembly and pathogen enrichment remain poorly understood. Here, we demonstrate that long-term root exudate accumulation acts as an ecological filter, driving the fungal community toward a phylogenetically impoverished, pathogen-dominated state. Specifically, exudates enriched the soil-borne pathogen Fusarium while reducing the abundance of potentially antagonistic fungi. In contrast, bacterial communities exhibited higher resilience, with exudates selectively enriching oligotrophic taxa such as Terrimonas and MND1, but suppressing nitrifying bacteria (e.g., Nitrospira) and plant-growth-promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR). Microbial functional profiling revealed a shift in nitrogen cycling, characterized by suppressed nitrification and enhanced nitrate reduction. Crucially, co-occurrence network analysis identified bacterial taxa strongly negatively correlated with Fusarium, providing a synthetic community blueprint for biocontrol strategies. Our study establishes a mechanistic link between root exudate accumulation and negative plant–soil feedback in monoculture systems, highlighting microbiome reprogramming as a key driver of replant disease. These insights offer novel avenues for manipulating rhizosphere microbiomes to sustain crop productivity in intensive agricultural systems. Full article

Significant rural transformation has occurred in China’s formerly impoverished areas due to targeted poverty alleviation and rural revitalization strategies. In these areas, the coordinated development of the economic and ecological values of cultivated land resources is essential for rural transformation. This study focuses on the Liupan Mountain area, a typical poverty alleviation demonstration zone and Ecological and economic fragile area in Northwestern China. By collecting statistical yearbook data and raster data, it establishes a valuation system for cultivated land resources, transforming these resources into quantifiable poverty alleviation capital. This approach provides support for the long–term consolidation of targeted poverty alleviation policies. By integrating the Production Possibility Frontier (PPF) method with GIS spatial analysis, we developed a workflow to analyze value correlations and spatial patterns. The results showed the following: (1) While ecological values grew steadily from 2007 to 2022, economic value increased initially and then decreased, with both exhibiting significant spatial heterogeneity. (2) The relationship between economic value and ecological value evolved into a continuously strengthening synergy. (3) The integration of PPF curves with GIS visualization technology enabled the identification of underutilized, overutilized, and optimally utilized areas, revealing a distinct “π–shaped” overutilization zone. This study elucidates the trade–offs, synergies, and spatial characteristics of cultivated land values, providing critical insights for sustainable land resource management in post–poverty transformation areas. Full article

Background: The 2022 Pakistan floods devastated healthcare access for pregnant women in already impoverished areas in Sindh province. This study examines how Cash for Health assistance (CH) of USD 112 alleviated financial burdens and improved maternal health outcomes and resilience, bridging a critical literature gap on cash effectiveness in humanitarian crises. Methodology: This study used a mixed-methods approach to assess the CH assistance intervention for families of pregnant/lactating women in flood-affected rural Sindh, Pakistan. A pre-post quantitative analysis of baseline (May–June 2024) and endline (August–November 2024) survey data in ~100 villages (Jamshoro/Sehwan) examined changes in healthcare access, expenditure, and preferences using t-tests, proportion tests, and multivariable regression. Concurrently, five qualitative case studies from key informant interviews provided thematic content analysis, triangulating findings on economic, health, and social impacts. Results: Respondents predominantly had low literacy rates and were from households of daily wage laborers in vulnerable, flood-affected areas. While income and education remained low, instances of forgone care due to financial barriers increased (68% to 97%, p < 0.001). CH significantly improved healthcare access (58% to 98%, p < 0.001). Access to regular physicians (20% to 69%) and private facilities (10% to 41%) notably expanded. Healthcare expenditure significantly increased from USD 9.3 to USD 25, with a shift in spending preference towards medication, consultations, and diagnostics. CH also significantly improved food security (21% to 97%), meal frequency, and overall household stability, including reducing domestic violence. Qualitative data emphasized pre-existing vulnerabilities and CH’s role in addressing health, nutrition, and psychosocial needs. Conclusions: CH significantly improved healthcare access and reduced financial burdens for vulnerable pregnant women post-disaster. However, a sustainable impact requires integrated “cash plus” models, combining financial aid with stronger health systems, psychosocial support, and literacy for long-term resilience. Full article

This article examines how ethnographic methodology and literary theory can advance research engines and artificial intelligence systems beyond the reductive computational approaches that dominate contemporary AI development. Drawing on recent Stanford research revealing fundamental gaps in large language models’ ability to distinguish factual knowledge from belief, I argue that contemporary AI systems enact what I term “abducted semantics”—appropriating the inferential logic of human meaning-making while systematically attenuating the culturally embedded, phenomenologically grounded capacities that generate authentic understanding. Through close analysis of Clifford Geertz’s thick description, Charles Sanders Peirce’s triadic semiotics, and canonical literary works—Miguel de Cervantes’ Don Quixote and Gabriel García Márquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude—I demonstrate that human understanding operates through complex semiotic processes irreducible to pattern-matching and statistical prediction. The article proposes concrete interventions to transform research engines from tools of semantic extraction into technologies that preserve and enhance interpretive richness, arguing that ethnographic and literary methodologies offer essential correctives to the epistemological impoverishment inherent in current AI architectures. Full article

Background/Objectives: Loneliness can be differentiated from social isolation. The first is the subjective perception of being isolated from others, while the other is the entire emotional and social experience. The feeling of loneliness defines the discrepancy between desired and actual social relations. Loneliness is an unpleasant phenomenon that involves quantitative and qualitative impoverishment of interpersonal relationships. The aim of this study was to analyze feelings of loneliness—including intimacy, social connections, and belonging—among adolescents and how these feelings relate to different aspects of family relationships, such as communication, cohesion, autonomy-control, and identity. Methods: The study was conducted among 136 adolescents (aged 15–17, 70% of girls and 30% of boys). The following self-report measures were used: the R-UCLA Loneliness Scale, the State–Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI)—X2, and the Family Relations Questionnaire, version: My Family. Correlation analyses were performed, followed by stepwise regression for three loneliness sub-scales. Results: The results have shown that anxiety and adverse family relationship factors were identified as significant predictors of adolescent loneliness. Communication, cohesion, autonomy-control, and identity within the family context each contributed uniquely to the experience of loneliness. Conclusions: The conclusion is that trait anxiety and the evaluation of family functioning are very strong predictors of loneliness among young people. Moreover, distinct aspects of family relationships shape different forms of loneliness, highlighting the multifaceted nature of adolescent social experiences. Full article

We studied Lycaena helle (Lepidoptera: Lycaenidae) population genetics in lowlands and mountains of East-Central Europe using the microsatellite markers previously applied in population studies mainly in mountains of Western Europe. As in the West, the East-Central populations are genetically diverse (mean expected/observed heterozygosity 0.67/0.49), affected by drift processes (mean inbreeding coefficient 0.277) and widely differentiated (mean F_ST 0.209). The Polish lowland populations, all of them bivoltine in contrast to mountain populations, are less differentiated than Romanian populations, which are bivoltine in low and univoltine in high altitudes. The lowland Romanian population Vad is extremely genetically impoverished. A transferred CZ population from Western Europe is impoverished relative to its donor population, but the genetic parameters remain within a range of other studied so far. Dendrogram of allelic frequencies suggests that the populations form two branches, one rooted in southeastern Poland and branching towards Carpathians in Romania, one encompassing populations in central and northern Poland. We conclude that the lowland Romanian populations, plus populations in unglaciated southeastern Poland, represent sites where the species survived the glacial cycles in situ, comprising rear edge of subsequent upslope expansion, while northern Poland was colonised from more easterly regions. Full article

The absence of domestic wastewater (DWW) treatment in impoverished rural communities of the global south remains a pressing challenge for both public health and environmental sustainability. This study presents a simplified and decentralized treatment chain at laboratory-scale designed under the principles of nature-based solutions (NBS) and the circular economy (CE), emphasizing the integration of the macrophyte Eichhornia crassipes (EC) and bioproducts derived from aloe vera waste (AVW) and soursop seed waste (SSW). The system comprises three sequential stages: (1) coagulation using AVW, which achieved up to 39.9% turbidity reduction; (2) a horizontal flow biofilter system (HFB) employing the aquatic macrophyte EC, which removed 97.9% of fecal coliforms, 82.4% of Escherichia coli, and 99.9% of heterotrophic bacteria; and (3) a tertiary treatment step employing adsorbent derived from SSW, which attained 99.7% methylene blue removal in preliminary tests and an average 97.5% turbidity reduction in DWW. The integrated configuration demonstrates a practical, effective, and replicable approach for decentralized domestic wastewater treatment, fostering local waste valorization, reducing reliance on commercial chemicals, and enhancing water quality in resource-limited rural areas, with potential for scaling to pilot applications in rural communities. Full article

Indoor localization based on range measurements in wireless sensor networks involves nonlinear measurement models and is susceptible to non-Gaussian noise, which is associated with complex indoor environments. While particle filters (PFs) are well-suited to such systems, they suffer from sample impoverishment, whereby a diminishing sample diversity leads to failures under various conditions. Hence, this paper proposes a novel hybrid localization algorithm that combines a PF, a finite impulse response (FIR) filter, and an artificial neural network. In the proposed algorithm, the PF serves as the main filter for localization because it performs excellently in nonlinear, non-Gaussian systems under normal operation. The neural network is trained to classify whether the system is operating normally or experiencing a failure, based on estimation results from the PF. If a PF failure is detected by the network, the assisting FIR filter is activated to recover the PF from failures. The localization accuracy and reliability of the proposed neural network-aided hybrid particle/FIR filter are confirmed via comparisons with existing algorithms. Full article

Background: Cochlear implants (CIs) are transformative neuroprosthetics that restore speech perception for individuals with severe-to-profound hearing loss. However, temporal envelope cues are well-represented within the signal processing, while spectral envelope cues are poorly accessed by CI users, resulting in substantial deficits compared to normal-hearing individuals. This profoundly impairs the perception of complex auditory stimuli like music and vocal prosody, significantly impacting users’ quality of life, social engagement, and artistic expression. Methods: This narrative review synthesizes research on CI signal-processing limitations, perceptual and production challenges in music and singing, the role of the auditory–motor feedback loop, and strategies for improvement, including rehabilitation, technology, and the influence of neuroplasticity and sensitive developmental periods. Results: The degraded signal causes marked deficits in pitch, timbre, and vocal emotion perception. Critically, this impoverished input functionally breaks the high-fidelity auditory–motor feedback loop essential for vocal control, transforming it from a precise fine-tuner into a gross error detector sensitive only to massive pitch shifts (~6 semitones). This neurophysiological breakdown directly causes pervasive pitch inaccuracies and melodic distortion in singing. Despite these challenges, improvements are possible through advanced sound-processing strategies, targeted auditory–motor training that leverages neuroplasticity, and capitalizing on sensitive periods for auditory development. Conclusions: The standard CI signal creates a fundamental neurophysiological barrier to singing. Overcoming this requires a paradigm shift toward holistic, patient-centered care that moves beyond speech-centric goals. Integrating personalized, music-based rehabilitation with advanced CI programming is essential for improving vocal production, fostering musical engagement, and ultimately enhancing the overall quality of life for CI users. Full article

Street vending is a prevalent feature of the informal economy in African societies. Despite its role in generating income opportunities and fostering affordability and accessibility to goods for impoverished urban residents, street vending is considered by many governments to be antithetic to modern urban planning or development and in violation of laws pertaining to the use of public spaces. Whereas there has been an increasing academic interest in informal street vending, this scoping review seeks to identify gaps in the academic literature with respect of how street vending is understood and how conflict between street vendors and public authorities is conceptualized. This review can identify pressing research needs and inform indigenous and sustainable approaches to social work practice at micro and macro levels. This scoping review maps empirical research reported in peer-reviewed literature over a period from 1 January 2010 to 31 May 2024. It addresses street vending in sub-Saharan Africa and seeks to explicate the nature of conflict observed between street vendors and public authorities, theoretical explanations of the problem of street vending and its potential solutions. Few concrete solutions are provided in the literature and there is a clear lack of social work perspective on this topic. We argue that more research from this perspective is needed to gain a better understanding of the lived experiences of conflict faced by women street vendors. Full article

The Ultra-Micro (UMi) financing program represents a significant public sector innovation in Indonesia’s approach to poverty alleviation and financial inclusion. Initially conceived as a social assistance initiative, UMi has evolved into a strategic government intervention designed to transform impoverished individuals into entrepreneurs. This shift reflects a policy innovation that redefines the role of the state from passive welfare provider to active enabler of economic participation. Despite ambitious goals, its implementation and impact face scrutiny. This study employed an exploratory qualitative approach through individual interviews with elite participants and debtors of UMi. The data used triangulation from documentation, observation, and in-depth interviews with key informants, selected through purposive sampling. Findings indicate that the program’s implementation—anchored in government regulations and executed through non-bank financial institutions (NBFIs)—demonstrates innovative service delivery. In this study, UMi exemplifies how public sector innovation—through policy reform, institutional collaboration, and community engagement—can drive inclusive economic growth. The study provides valuable insights for policymakers, practitioners, and scholars seeking to advance financial inclusion and sustainable economic development. Full article

In mid-2023, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres warned that almost 80 years following the end of World War Two, “the global financial architecture is outdated, dysfunctional, and unjust. It is no longer capable of meeting the needs of the 21st-century world: a multipolar world characterized by deeply integrated economies and financial markets. But also marked by geopolitical tensions and growing systemic risks.” Further, the Secretary-General cautioned that “the current global financial system exacerbates inequalities, denying the poorest countries the credit and debt support they need and deserve”. We address the question: How does the transfer of modern technologies improve the economic development of impoverished nations? In this paper we demonstrate that rapid technological change is a double-edged sword—bringing significant productivity gains and economic progress while also causing profound societal disruptions and posing a threat of political instability in parts of the world. Nevertheless, we believe that a rapid and sustained transfer of these technologies holds great promise for the rapid development of today’s less developed nations. Full article

Background: Neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) significantly impact global health, particularly affecting impoverished communities. Among these diseases, leishmaniasis, caused by protozoan parasites of the genus Leishmania and transmitted through sandfly vectors, remains a challenge due to limited therapeutic options. Current treatments often suffer from significant limitations, such as high toxicity, limited efficacy, and the emergence of drug resistance. Objectives: This study investigates the potential antileishmanial mechanism of action of nitroindazole derivatives, specifically evaluating the compound VATR131, a molecule with notable selectivity and potency against Leishmania infantum. Methods: We employed computational methodologies, including target fishing, molecular docking, and atomistic molecular dynamics simulations, to identify and characterize potential molecular targets of VATR131. Results: The analysis revealed cysteine peptidase A as a promising target potentially mediating the antileishmanial activity of VATR131. Molecular dynamics simulations suggest critical hydrophobic interactions and hydrogen bonds between the compound and its most likely receptor, thus offering deeper insights into its potential mechanism of action. Conclusions: These findings contribute to the development of novel and effective therapies for leishmaniasis, highlighting the need for experimental validation and continued investigation of nitroindazole derivatives as promising therapeutic candidates. Full article