Browse Articles

Using DNA Barcodes to Evaluate Ecosystem Health in the SWRCMS Reserve

Horton et al. | Sep 27, 2018

Using DNA Barcodes to Evaluate Ecosystem Health in the SWRCMS Reserve

Although the United States maintains millions of square kilometers of nature reserves to protect the biodiversity of the specimens living there, little is known about how confining these species within designated protected lands influences the genetic variation required for a healthy population. In this study, the authors sequenced genetic barcodes of insects from a recently established nature reserve, the Southwestern Riverside County Multi-Species Reserve (SWRCMSR), and a non-protected area, the Mt. San Jacinto College (MSJC) Menifee campus, to compare the genetic variation between the two populations. Their results demonstrated that the midge fly population from the SWRCMSR had fewer unique DNA barcode sequence changes than the MSJC population, indicating that the comparatively younger nature reserve's population had likely not yet established its own unique genetic drift changes.

Read More...

Rhizosphere metagenome analysis and wet-lab approach to derive optimal strategy for lead remediation in situ

Bhat et al. | Jul 18, 2023

Rhizosphere metagenome analysis and wet-lab approach to derive optimal strategy for lead remediation <i>in situ</i>
Image credit: Karolina Grabowska

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) reports a significant number of heavy metal-contaminated sites across the United States. To address this public health concern, rhizoremediation using microbes has emerged as a promising solution. Here, a combination of soil microbes were inoculated in the rhizosphere in soil contaminated with 500 parts per million (ppm) of lead. Results showed rhizoremediation is an effective bioremediation strategy and may increase crop productivity by converting nonarable lands into arable lands.

Read More...

Mining social media posts: An alternative approach to understanding home health care workers’ experiences

Tang et al. | Jun 15, 2026

Mining social media posts: An alternative approach to understanding home health care workers’ experiences
Image credit: Markus Winkler

This study developed an effective method for extracting valuable information from social media data and employed computer-assisted human coding alongside the AI-powered tool to analyze social media posts. The findings provide a deep understanding of the major challenges that home health care workers are experiencing and offer important implications regarding how to improve home healthcare workers' well-being, and provide suggestions on optimizing the home health care service experience.

Read More...