Authors of the article state that airborne particulate matter (PM) can accumulate on feather surfaces and alter feather appearance, so they quantified PM accumulation on Rock Pigeon feathers and analyzed the spectral properties of extracted particulates. Their findings suggest that wild birds could incur an urban pollution penalty as PM accumulation has the potential to alter feather properties.

Article discusses an interesting approach to accounting for brain and behavioral asymmetry based on competition and cooperation in phenotypically asymmetric individuals. The model in question shows, in an almost fully analytical way, that under proper conditions, there exists an unequal number of equilibrium of left-and right-lateralized individuals.

Authors of the article sought to examine the effectiveness of an acute prolonged exercise session on post-exercise executive function in physically active adults and to assess if age or pre-exercise cognitive performance was predictive of the magnitude of change in executive task performance. Their results support the effectiveness of a single prolonged exercise bout to augment executive function in physically active adults, irrespective of age.

Article describes how authors use state-of-the-art electron microscopy techniques to show that the magnetization reversal process in an Al0.3CoFeNi magnetic complex concentrated alloy (CCA), which is responsible for its coercivity, changes dramatically from a nucleation-type mechanism in the FCC+L12 state of the CCA. Their work reveals that heterophase FCC/BCC interfaces have a much stronger effect on coercivity than isostructural chemically ordered/disordered interfaces and provides a powerful guide to the rational design of microstructure to tune magnetic properties in both complex concentrated alloys and conventional magnetic alloys.

Article investigates the influence of carbon nanotube (CNT) dispersions on the electrical properties and noise signal amplitude of 𝑉𝑂𝑥 films. The results presented in this work provide a better understanding of 𝑉𝑂𝑥-based composites, thereby enabling the development of new, versatile and functional materials for device applications.

Article states that elongator complexes (ELPs) are the protein complexes that promote transcription through histone acetylation in eukaryotic cells and interact with elongating RNA polymerase II. ELPs’ role in plant growth and development, signal transduction, and response to biotic and abiotic stresses have been confirmed in model plants, but the functions of the wheat ELP genes are not well documented. The present study identified 18 members of the ELPs from the wheat genome with a homology search.

Authors of the article state that various growth systems are available for studying plant root growth and plant–microbe interactions including hydroponics and aeroponics. The aim of their study is to present step-by-step instructions for fabricating an aeroponic system, also called a “caisson,” that has been in use in several legume research labs studying the development of symbiotic nitrogen fixing nodules, but for which detailed directions are not currently available.

Article presents POSMM, Python-Optimized Standard Markov Model classifier, which is a new incarnation of the Markov model approach to metagenomic sequence analysis. The authors claim that by combining POSMM with ultrafast classifiers such as Kraken2, their complementary strengths can be leveraged to produce higher overall accuracy in metagenomic sequence classification than by either as a standalone classifier. POSMM is a user-friendly and highly adaptable tool designed for broad use by the metagenome scientific community.

Article discusses authors' findings that through genetic screening for suppressors of defense gene induction in the low lignin ccr1-3 mutant of Arabidopsis thaliana, we found that loss of function of the receptor-like kinase FERONIA, although not restoring growth, affected cell wall remodeling and blocked release of elicitor-active pectic polysaccharides as a result of the ccr1-3 mutation. They determine that engineering plant cell walls will require development of ways to bypass endogenous pectin signaling pathways.

Article describes how forests are generally extracted from remotely sensed images based on the spectral features, ignoring other important auxiliary information, and the techniques of precise extraction need to be further improved. By using the Sentinel–2 image and auxiliary factors (AFs) including site conditions (SCs) and vegetation indices (VIs), the random forest model with AFs (RF–AFs) was adopted for the extraction of the economic forests in Lancang County.

Article asserts that green agriculture is the future of agricultural development. The policy implication of this paper is that developing countries should actively promote the market-oriented reform of agricultural subsidies to promote green agricultural development.

Article describes how complexes with closed-shell (d10–d10) interactions have been studied for their interesting luminescence properties in organic light-emitting diode (OLED) devices. The present computational study aims at understanding the chemical bonding/interactions in a series of molecules with unusually short metal–metal bond distances between monovalent coinage-metal (d10–d10) centres.

Article describes how two new tetradentate N4 ligands (LN4), LN4 = Me2,Me2PyzTACN (1-(2-(3,5-dimethyl-1H-pyrazol-1-yl)ethyl)-4,7-dimethyl-1,4,7-triazacyclononane) and Me2,MeImTACN (1-((1-methyl-1H-imidazol-1-yl)methyl)-4,7-dimethyl-1,4,7-triazacyclononane) have been synthesized and their corresponding Fe(II) complexes [FeII(Me2,Me2PyzTACN)(CF3SO3)2], 1Pz, and [FeII(Me2,MeImTACN)(CF3SO3)2], 1Im, have been prepared and characterized. Based on these labelling studies, the steric influence exerted by each of the ligands towards the relative reactivity of the oxo ligands of the corresponding pair of Fe(V)(O)(OH) tautomers can be derived.

Authors of the article describe a post-imprinting modification of the imprinted molecular cavities for electrochemical sensing of a target protein. These mesoporous cavities were modified with a ferrocene ‘electrochemical’ tracer for electrochemical transduction of the target protein recognition.

Article describes the devastating effects of nuclear radiation and its long-lasting consequences on Earth’s ecosystems. The authors call upon all scientists to communicate the importance of the environmental impacts of such an event to all life forms on Earth, including humankind.

Article describes how products of plant secondary metabolism, such as phenolic compounds, flavonoids, alkaloids, and hormones, play an important role in plant growth, development, stress resistance. The authors state that the overall goal of this study was to develop a high-throughput workflow to identify and quantify plant polyphenols.

Article asserts that the world’s population is projected to increase by two billion by 2050, resulting in food and energy insecurity. This review provides a summary of the current knowledge of oil metabolism and discusses how photochemical activity and unconventional pathways can contribute to high carbon conversion efficiency in seeds.

Article discusses how the south Florida subspecies of the Red-shouldered Hawk (Buteo lineatus extimus) is distinctly paler and smaller than other subspecies, reproduces at a lower rate, and can occupy very different habitats such as open marshes and grasslands with only scattered trees. The authors evaluated population differentiation between the south Florida population of Red-shouldered Hawks and two populations of eastern Red-shouldered Hawks (B. l. lineatus) in suburban (Cincinnati) and rural (Hocking Hills) environments in southern Ohio.

Article describes how environmental air pollution remains a major contributor to negative health outcomes and mortality, but the relationship between socially vulnerable populations and air pollution is not well understood. This paper seeks to understand how air pollution monitor placement strategies and policy may neglect social vulnerabilities and therefore potentially underestimate exposure burdens in vulnerable populations.

Article discusses how African American/Black communities comprise 12.2% of the U.S. population, with a COVID-19 infection rate of more than 18% and marginal access to healthcare services. This scoping review synthesizes the emerging evidence on healthcare accessibility among older African American adult communities with dementia and COVID-19, as well as the resource requirements for this population during the pandemic.

Article presents a COF (covalent organic framework)-based adsorption-photocatalysis strategy for selective removal of uranyl from seawater in the absence of sacrificial reagents. This work shows that multivariate COF adsorption-photocatalysts can be rationally engineered to work efficiently and stably without sacrificial electron donors, thus opening the pathway for the economic and efficient extraction of uranium from the earth’s oceans.

Article discusses how, based on recent studies, graphene quantum dots (GQDs) are expected to possess advantageous photothermal properties and facilitate fluorescence image-tracking in the visible and near-infrared (NIR), while surpassing other graphene-based materials in their biocompatibility. The combination of the photothermal and imaging modalities tested in vitro makes the GQDs developed in this work prospective agents for cancer theragnostics.

Article discusses the Mexican cavefish Astyanax mexicanus, has lost moderate-to-vigorous activity following cave colonization, reaching basal swim speeds ~3.7-fold slower than their river-dwelling counterpart. Collectively, the authors reveal broad skeletal muscle changes following cave colonization, displaying an adaptive skeletal muscle phenotype reminiscent to mammalian disuse and high-fat models while simultaneously maintaining a unique capacity for sustained muscle contraction via enhanced glycogen metabolism.

Article describes how airborne hyperspectral data has high spectral-spatial information, but mining and using this information effectively is still a great challenge. Therefore, a 3D-1D-CNN model was proposed for feature extraction in complex urban with hyperspectral images affected by cloud shadows.