Current horticulture practices often rely on pesticides, causing environmental harm. To address this, authors explore the use of ultrasonic sound emissions to detect plant stress at an individual level.
Read More...Impact of environmental stressors on ultrasonic acoustic emissions in different species of plants
Current horticulture practices often rely on pesticides, causing environmental harm. To address this, authors explore the use of ultrasonic sound emissions to detect plant stress at an individual level.
Read More...Convolutional neural network-based analysis of pediatric chest X-ray images for pneumonia detection
The authors test various machine learning models to improve the accuracy and efficiency of pneumonia diagnosis from X-ray images.
Read More...Can the attributes of an app predict its rating?
In this article the authors looked at different attributes of apps within the Google Play store to determine how those may impact the overall app rating out of five stars. They found that review count, amount of storage needed and when the app was last updated to be the most influential factors on an app's rating.
Read More...Nature’s reset: The effect of native and invasive plant forage on honey bee nutrition and survival
The authors looked at survival of honey bees over the winter in regards to native and invasive plant availability. They found that native plants provided greater survivability and overall health compared to environments where there was an abundance of invasive plants.
Read More...Investigating ecosystem resiliency in different flood zones of south Brooklyn, New York
With climate change and rising sea levels, south Brooklyn is exposed to massive flooding and intense precipitation. Previous research discovered that flooding shifts plant species distribution, decreases soil pH, and increases salt concentration, nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium levels. The authors predicted a decreasing trend from Zone 1 to 6: high-pH, high-salt, and high-nutrients in more flood-prone areas to low-pH, low-salt, and low-nutrient in less flood-prone regions. They performed DNA barcoding to identify plant species inhabiting flood zones with expectations of decreasing salt tolerance and moisture uptake by plants' soil from Zones 1-6. Furthermore, they predicted an increase in invasive species, ultimately resulting in a decrease in biodiversity. After barcoding, they researched existing information regarding invasiveness, ideal soil, pH tolerance, and salt tolerance. They performed soil analyses to identify pH, nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), and potassium (K) levels. For N and P levels, we discovered a general decreasing trend from Zone 1 to 6 with low and moderate statistical significance respectively. Previous studies found that soil moisture can increase N and P uptake, helping plants adopt efficient resource-use strategies and reduce water stress from flooding. Although characteristics of plants were distributed throughout all zones, demonstrating overall diversity, the soil analyses hinted at the possibility of a rising trend of plants adapting to the increase in flooding. Future expansive research is needed to comprehensively map these trends. Ultimately, investigating trends between flood zones and the prevalence of different species will assist in guiding solutions to weathering climate change and protecting biodiversity in Brooklyn.
Read More...Anti-inflammatory and pro-apoptotic properties of the polyherbal drug, MAT20, in MCF-7 cells
The authors test potential anti-inflammatory and pro-apoptotic effects of a polyherbal extract formulation on cultured breast cancer cells.
Read More...Which fruit peel helps retain the most soil moisture?
Here, the authors investigated the ability to use fruit peels to help soil retain moisture, a property that is essential to agriculture. Across a 96-hour observation period, orange, banana, and kiwi peel water emulsions were evaluated for their effects on soil moisture. They found that orange peels retained the most moisture, but banana and kiwi peels also offered improvements over their control sample.
Read More...Comparing the reducing sugars in avocados, soybeans, and cinnamon: A Benedict’s test experiment
The authors test the levels of reducing sugars in avocados, soybeans, and cinnamon as part of a diet for individuals managing Type II diabetes.
Read More...Primary source of dietary protein is correlated with differences in the intestinal microbiome diversity
We know relatively little about how vegan diets and non-vegan diets compare when it comes to the gut microbiome. Gollamudi and Gollamudi tackle this challenge by investigating how changes in a participant's diet affected the diversity of their intestinal microbiome.
Read More...Locating sources of a high energy cosmic ray extensive air shower using HiSPARC data
Using the data provided by the University of Twente High School Project on Astrophysics Research with Cosmics (HiSPARC), an analysis of locations for possible high-energy cosmic ray air showers was conducted. An example includes an analysis conducted of the high-energy rain shower recorded in January 2014 and the use of Stellarium™ to discern its location.
Read More...