Baobab Index

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Hemodialysis (HD) is the most widely used renal replacement therapy for patients with end-stage renal disease (ESRD) and is frequently accompanied by long-term complications that impair quality of life, including metabolic and inflammatory disturbances. Growing evidence suggests that these complications may be linked to alterations in the gut microbiota; however, microbial composition and interaction patterns in HD patients remain incompletely characterized. In this exploratory, cross-sectional study, high throughput 16S rRNA gene sequencing was used to profile the fecal microbiota of patients undergoing hemodialysis and of healthy controls. The objective was to characterize associations between hemodialysis and gut microbial composition, ecological network organization, and predicted functional potential. Comparative analyses revealed significant differences in bacterial community structure and microbial networks in the HD cohort. Both gender and dialysis vintage were associated with variation in specific taxa, including increased detection of the Synergistetes phylum, particularly among male patients and those undergoing long-term HD. Associations were also observed between clinical and demographic factors and the relative abundance of several short-chain fatty acid-associated taxa, including members of the Lachnospiraceae and Ruminococcaceae families and the genus

Ensuring animal welfare in extensive sheep production systems remains challenging due to large grazing areas, limited human supervision and the difficulty of detecting early signs of health or behavioural problems. Precision Livestock Farming (PLF) technologies have emerged as promising tools to enhance monitoring and welfare assessment in such environments. This review examines recent advances in PLF technologies and their potential contribution to improving sheep welfare in extensive farming systems. A synthesis of more than 35 peer-reviewed studies was conducted, focusing on the use of wearable sensors, computer vision, artificial intelligence and environmental monitoring technologies for behavioural and physiological assessment in sheep. The reviewed literature indicates that wearable devices, including accelerometers and Global Positioning System (GPS) collars, can achieve up to 85% accuracy in detecting lameness and over 97% accuracy in identifying stress-related physiological changes. Integration of remote sensing tools, drones and ground-based sensors also improves monitoring of grazing patterns, social behaviour and environmental conditions. However, adoption remains limited due to economic costs, technical constraints and limited farmer awareness. Advances in cost-effective sensors, standardized welfare indicators and participatory technology design may facilitate wider adoption of PLF tools, supporting improved animal welfare, productivity and sustainability in extensive sheep production systems.

CRISPR (clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats)-based genome engineering is reshaping how environmental contamination can be interrogated and remediated, offering a level of programmability and specificity that conventional physicochemical workflows seldom match. Microplastics polymer fragments below 5 mm that now pervade virtually every ecosystem are especially difficult to monitor and remove because of their chemical heterogeneity, sub-millimeter size, and capacity to adsorb co-pollutants. This review examines how the molecular logic of CRISPR-Cas systems is being repurposed for two complementary goals: sensitive analytical detection and microbially driven degradation of plastic particles. We first outline the biochemistry of Cas-mediated cis- and trans-cleavage that underpins isothermal, amplification-free biosensing, and then survey direct strategies, in which polymer-binding DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) aptamers are coupled to Cas12a (CRISPR-associated protein 12a), alongside indirect strategies that read out the molecular stress signatures provoked by microplastic exposure in sentinel organisms and plastisphere communities. On the remediation side, we discuss how targeted editing, CRISPR interference, and rationally assembled microbial consortia enhance enzymatic depolymerization and redirect carbon flux toward valuable bioproducts. By integrating detection and remediation within a single conceptual framework, we identify the principal bottlenecks, aptamer selectivity in complex matrices, reagent stability under field conditions, and host metabolic burden, and outline research priorities for translating these tools from proof of concept toward deployable environmental technologies.

Astragalus species have long been recognized for their pharmacological relevance, yet the antidiabetic properties of

Soybean ( Genome-wide identification of Thirty The

Cold episodes during early crop development threaten cereal establishment and yield, but it remains unclear whether ancestral cold exposure can generate measurable inherited resilience in barley. We tested this question in a three-generation field experiment using 138 barley accessions and eight third-generation lineage-treatment combinations that separated no-memory, transgenerational, intergenerational and repeated cold-memory classes under control and recurrent cold-stress conditions. Cold stress was imposed by delayed sowing, and establishment, physiological, biochemical, growth, reproductive and yield traits were integrated with standardized cold-memory indices and genome-wide association mapping. Under third-generation cold stress, memory-conditioned lineages outperformed the no-memory cold-stressed lineage for several key traits: germination increased from 79.0% to 83.5-86.6%, seedling survival from 68.0% to 77.7-85.5%, electrolyte leakage declined from 51.5% to 42.1-34.3%, and grain yield per plant increased from 4.27 g to 5.04-5.75 g. The integrated cold resilience index also increased from 38.9 in the no-memory cold-stressed lineage to 49.8, 54.5 and 58.9 in the transgenerational, intergenerational and repeated-memory lineages, respectively. Trait-specific indices confirmed a consistent response hierarchy, with grain-yield memory reaching 26.3%, 36.7% and 44.0% in the same three memory classes. Correlation analysis resolved a stress-protection module centred on membrane stability, oxidative-damage protection and survival, and a productivity module centred on grain-yield memory, reproductive yield and benefit-cost ratio. GWAS using 17,894 quality-filtered SNPs detected 137 significant marker-index-memory associations, including major loci for germination memory on 5H (- log