Unprocessed water from hand-pressed wells is still commonly used as a source of drinking water in Chenzhou, the “Nonferrous Metal Village” of China. Long et al. conducted a study to measure the heavy metal contamination levels and potential health effects in this area. Water samples were analyzed through Inductively Coupled Plasma Optical Emission Spectroscopy (ICPOES) and the concentrations of 20 metal elements. Results showed that although none of the samples had dangerous levels of heavy metals, the concentrations of Al, Fe, and Mn in many locations substantially exceeded those suggested in the Chinese Drinking Water Standard and the maximum contaminant levels of Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The authors have made an important discovery regarding the water safety in HuNan and their suggestions to install water treatment systems would greatly benefit the community.

In this study, the authors examine how knowledge, lack of knowledge, and deception affect the rate of perceived exertion and actual performance of teenagers in sprint training. Their results suggest that fully informing athletes about workout duration yields the fastest and most consistent speeds.

Recognizing a potential link between mental focus and physical endurance, here, the authors considered the effects of mental visualization on strength endurance. By comparing the number of repetitions completed in sets where the lifter was aware of the weight to be lifted against sets where the lifter was kept unaware, they found that the lifter was able to maintain strength endurance when unable to accurately visualize the weight they lifted in this exploratory study.

This study aimed to determine if confinement affects associative learning in chickens. The research found that the difference in time lapsed before chickens began to consume cottage cheese before and after confinement was significant. These results suggest that confinement distresses chickens, as it impairs associative learning without inducing confusion.

In organic synthesis, protecting groups are derivatives of reactive functionalities that play a key role in ensuring chemoselectivity of chemical transformations. To protect alcohols and amines, acid-labile tert-butyloxycarbonyl protecting groups are often employed but are avoided when the substrate is acid-sensitive. Thus, orthogonal base-labile protecting groups have been in demand to enable selective deprotection and to preserve the reactivity of acid-sensitive substrates. To meet this demand, we present 4-nitrophenyl carbonates and carbamates as orthogonal base-labile protecting group strategies.

In this study, the authors investigate a potential case of cross antibiotic-resistance. Using swabs from an individual who received long-term treatments of azithromycin, they addressed the question of whether any bacteria in this individual might develop resistance to not only azithromycin, but also other antibiotics with similar structures. This study cleverly addresses the important issue of antibiotic resistance from a new and thoughtful approach.

In a world where water shortage is becoming an increasing concern, and where population increase seems inevitable, food shortage is an overwhelming concern for many. In this paper, the authors aim to characterize a drought-resistant strain of A. thaliana, investigating the cause for its water resistance. These and similar studies help us learn how plants could be engineered to improve their ability to flourish in a changing climate.

FBS is an important component in in vitro cell culture work, helping to provide needed nutrients to cells to grow. The authors look at the ability of an alternative to FBS to support cell growth in culture.

Here, recognizing a declining supply of rock phosphate, as well as its role in crop fertilization, the authors investigated a fungus that forms a symbiotic relationship with many crops. They found that symbiosis between the fungus and common bean plant increased the affinity of the plant towards absorbing nutrients as evidenced by lower root-to-shoot ratios in beans planted in soil with various concentrations of phosphorous and salinity.

To best identify tuberculosis and pneumonia diagnoses in chest x-rays, the authors compare different deep learning convolution neural networks.