Search Results (339)

Soil fumigation effectively mitigates replanting obstacles induced by intensive cultivation, yet its non-targeted biocidal effects can suppress beneficial microbial activity, potentially compromising agricultural sustainability. Microbial inoculation, as a strategy to supplement beneficial microorganisms, is often employed to restore soil microbial communities. However, in practice, commonly used exogenous microbial consortia exhibit poor adaptability in non-native environments, frequently resulting in limited efficacy. To address this limitation, we propose an ecological intervention based on the reintroduction of indigenous cultivable microorganisms: cultivable microbial communities were isolated from healthy adjacent soils and inoculated into fumigated soils affected by replanting obstacles. The experimental soil consisted of black soil under continuous cropping, collected from Northeast China. The three treatments were continuous cropping soil (control), fumigated continuous cropping soil and fumigated continuous cropping soil after inoculation of indigenous cultivable microorganisms. Using high-throughput sequencing and agronomic–chemical analyses, combined with cross-domain networks and procrustes analysis, we systematically assessed the ecological effects of this approach on microbial restoration and the alleviation of replanting obstacles. The results showed that indigenous cultivable microorganism inoculation significantly increased the richness of bacterial and fungal communities in fumigated soils within 21 days, extending microbial richness and diversity. Furthermore, inoculation accelerated the reconstruction of dominant microbial community structures, with the relative abundance of dominant species reaching up to 80%. Positive synergistic interactions between bacteria and fungi increased by approximately 10%, enhancing network stability. Key bacterial taxa, such as Paenibacillus and Mycobacterium, were significantly correlated with available potassium and phosphorus content, while Micromonospora, Massilia, and Flavisolibacter influenced plant fresh weight, total nitrogen, and potassium accumulation. Key fungal taxa, such as Cryptococcus and Phialemonium, were significantly associated with soil organic matter stability, maize photosynthetic efficiency, plant dry weight, and total phosphorus content. This study confirms the ecological adaptability and functionality of indigenous cultivable microorganisms in soil ecosystem restoration, offering a low-risk, highly effective localized intervention strategy for sustainable agriculture. Full article

The cultivation of asparagus (Asparagus officinalis L.) is plagued by two serious issues: “asparagus decline” and “asparagus replant problem”. The average lifespan of an asparagus plant is 15 to 20 years. However, its productivity decreases after a few years (asparagus decline). Even when these asparagus plants are replaced with new ones, the new plants remain unproductive (asparagus replant problem). The main causes of these problems are a Fusarium infection and asparagus autotoxicity. Several reviews have been conducted on Fusarium. Despite the accumulation of evidence on asparagus autotoxicity in the literature over the past four decades, no review has focused specifically on asparagus autotoxicity. It has been reported that asparagus growth is inhibited by asparagus root residues, leachates, root exudates, and rhizosphere soils. Several phenylpropanoids, including trans-cinnamic acid, p-coumaric acid, caffeic acid, and ferulic acid, have been identified as asparagus autotoxic substances in these root residues, root exudates, rhizosphere soils, growth media, and/or plant tissues. Tryptophan, 3,4-methylenedioxycinnamic acid, and iso-agatharesinol were also identified as asparagus autotoxic substances. These substances may cause autotoxicity by disrupting phytohormone levels, cellular metabolism, impairing membrane function, and by inducing oxidative stress. Although cinnamic, p-coumaric, caffeic, and ferulic acids have been reported to act as antibiotics, these compounds have also been shown to weaken the defense mechanisms of asparagus against pathogen infection, and enhance the Fusarium pathogenicity. The presence of these autotoxic substances, coupled with a Fusarium infection, may create a vicious cycle that worsens “asparagus decline” and “asparagus replant problem”. This is the first review to focus on the asparagus autotoxicity. Full article

Light availability is a key environmental factor influencing plant functional traits and ecological strategies. To investigate how natural populations of Iris pumila respond to contrasting irradiance, we conducted an in situ reciprocal transplant experiment using clonal genotypes from two natural populations, each originating from an open dune and a shaded forest habitat. Leaves collected from each of the replanted and transplanted genotypes were analyzed for structural (specific leaf area—SLA, leaf dry matter content—LDMC), physiological (specific leaf water content—SLWC, photosynthetic pigments) and biochemical (peroxidase—POD, glutathione reductase—GR, phenolics and anthocyanins) traits. Shade-grown individuals developed thinner leaves with higher SLA and chlorophyll content, enhancing light-harvesting efficiency, whereas sun-exposed plants exhibited greater LDMC, increased POD and GR activities and higher anthocyanin levels—traits consistent with enhanced photoprotection under high irradiance. All genotypes exhibited pronounced plasticity to light intensity, with habitat exerting a stronger influence on trait expression than population origin. To evaluate oxidative balance, we proposed the ODAC index (Oxidative Damage to Antioxidant Capacity), which integrates lipid peroxidation with antioxidant capacity. ODAC values revealed consistent population-level differences, with higher values in Dune genotypes across habitats, indicating a constitutively elevated oxidative load relative to antioxidant protection and suggesting differentiation in redox regulation between populations. Overall, leaf trait variation in I. pumila appears to be primarily driven by plastic responses to light conditions, while differentiation in oxidative physiology contributes to functional divergence between populations. Full article

Transplanting status is a significant indicator for rice cultivation, and is essential for field management, food security and agricultural production. However, traditional characterization cannot detect the transplanting status in a timely and effective manner; manual seedling replanting is labor-intensive, has a high cost and is inefficient. This study proposed a detection method for floating seedlings and missed transplanting. The method employed a self-built improved YOLO, namely HGV-YOLO. We leverage a HorBlock module to achieve the splitting of the morphological features of rice seedlings in different dimensions of the backbone network of YOLOv8n, which enabled the network to further enhance the classification and recognition ability of rice seedlings. Furthermore, Grouped Spatial Convolution (GSConv) replaces convolution, and the VOV-GSCSP replaces the C2f modules, reducing the number of parameters and improving the model’s inference speed. To improve the model’s bounding box precision, the WIoU loss function was also incorporated. Finally, we use the least squares method to predict the center point of the rice seedlings. The experimental results indicate that HGV-YOLO achieves a precision of 93.7%, a recall of 83.1%, and an mAP@0.5 of 91.1%. Compared to YOLOv8n, HGV-YOLO reduces Params by 3.1% and GFLOPs by 1.2%, respectively, while improving mAP@0.5 by 2.3%. Compared to YOLOv3-tinyYOLOv5 and YOLOv6, HGV-YOLO achieves increases in mAP@0.5 of 4.6 %, 3.1%, and 2.8%, respectively. In summary, the HGV-YOLO model exhibits a strong performance and provides valuable insights for advancing the autonomous navigation of rice transplanting robotics. Full article

Background/Objectives: Traumatic dental injuries (TDIs), particularly avulsion, require immediate and appropriate first aid to ensure favorable outcomes. Adolescents are often the first responders during school or sports activities, yet their preparedness remains unclear. This study aimed to assess the knowledge, attitude, and awareness of adolescents regarding the emergency management of TDIs. Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional survey was conducted among 400 adolescents aged 15 to 18 years from four randomly selected colleges in Mangaluru, Karnataka. A structured, validated 16-item questionnaire assessed demographic characteristics and domains of knowledge (6 items), attitude (6 items), and awareness (6 items). Data was analyzed using descriptive statistics, chi-square tests, and one-way ANOVA. Results: The mean knowledge score was 2.50 ± 1.04 (95% CI: 2.40–2.60), indicating limited knowledge of dental trauma management; only 26.3% of participants recognized that avulsed permanent teeth can be replanted and 7% identified an appropriate storage medium. The mean attitude score was comparatively high (4.38 ± 1.12; 95% CI: 4.27–4.49), with 88.8% of students willing to assist an injured peer, reflecting a large attitude–knowledge discrepancy (Cohen’s d = 1.47). The mean awareness score was 2.24 ± 1.24 (95% CI: 2.12–2.36), indicating limited awareness of preventive practices, including low mouthguard use (11.5%). Shapiro–Wilk testing confirmed non-normal distribution of KAA scores (p < 0.05); accordingly, non-parametric analyses showed no significant differences across schools, academic streams, gender, or education level (Kruskal–Wallis and Mann–Whitney U tests; p > 0.05). Conclusions: Despite favorable attitudes toward assisting peers, adolescents demonstrated limited knowledge and awareness regarding the emergency management and prevention of traumatic dental injuries, particularly in tooth replantation, appropriate storage media, and mouthguard use, highlighting the need for targeted, school-based dental first-aid education programs. Full article

Accurate real-time detection, geolocation, and counting of palm trees are essential for plantation management, yield estimation, and resource allocation in precision agriculture. Traditional approaches such as manual surveys or offline image processing are labor-intensive and unsuitable for large-scale applications. This study introduces a fully onboard real-time framework that integrates Unmanned Aerial Vehivle (UAV) imagery, the YOLOv12 deep learning model, and a camera projection technique to detect, geolocate, and count palm trees directly during flight. The lightweight YOLOv12n variant, deployed on an NVIDIA Jetson Nano edge device, achieved a detection precision of 92.4%, an average geolocation error of 2.14 m, and a counting error of only 0.2% across 915 trees. Unlike many existing methods that rely on offline processing or offboard computation, the proposed system performs all computations in real time, enabling immediate decision-making for tasks such as plantation density analysis, replanting planning, and yield forecasting. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed approach provides a scalable, cost-effective, and autonomous solution for modern precision agriculture. Full article

Background: In the past ten years, the number of publications on injuries associated with electric scooters (e-scooters) has been increasing continuously. The aim of this systematic review and meta-analysis was to synthesize the original study results on injury types, injury severity, clinical care, accident mechanisms, risk factors, and patient characteristics associated with e-scooter accidents. Methods: The literature search was conducted in PubMed, EMBASE and Medline. We included quantitative clinical studies published between 07/2019 and 07/2024 that report e-scooter-associated injuries in patients who presented to an emergency department. Variables that were reported as proportions (e.g., frequency of extremity fractures) were summarized using a proportional meta-analysis. Parameters on a continuous scale were combined using a meta-analysis of the arithmetic means. Results: Among 524 unique records, 149 articles met the inclusion criteria, and 68 were eligible for quantitative analyses. Most e-scooter patients sustained injuries to the head and face with a pooled frequency of 42.1% (95% CI 38.7–45.4). Injuries of the upper extremities were estimated at 40.1% of patients (95% CI 35.8–44.4). Fractures of the extremities occurred with a pooled frequency of 25.7% (95% CI 22.5–28.9). An estimated proportion of 2.3% (95% CI 1.6–3.0) sustained severe traumatic brain injuries. Determined by the Injury Severity Score (ISS), 2.8% (95% CI 1.5–4.1) of the e-scooter patients were severely injured (ISS ≥ 16). Conclusions: Injuries to the head and face as well as the upper extremities are the most common causes for emergency department visits following e-scooter accidents. One in four patients presented with extremity fractures. Severe injuries, however, affect less than three percent of e-scooter patients. Full article

Apple replant disease (ARD) is a soil-borne disease that severely restricts root development in orchards, impedes tree growth, and leads to reduced yields and decreased fruit quality, and thus significant economic losses. Previous studies identified Fusarium oxysporum as a major pathogenic agent. In this study, a T-DNA insertion mutant library of 13,000 F. oxysporum HS2 strains was utilized to screen for mutants with impaired pathogenicity. Nine mutants exhibiting reduced virulence were obtained, and the insertion sites of five mutants were successfully identified. Among them, we selected the HS2-29 strain, which exhibited the most significant decrease in conidial production, for further investigation. Its T-DNA was inserted into the FoPLT gene. RT-qPCR analysis revealed that the expression of the FoPLT gene rapidly increased during the early infection stage, followed by a decline and eventual stabilization. After the deletion of the FoPLT gene, the production of aerial hyphae, conidial yield, conidial length, and conidial diameter all significantly decreased. Stress tolerance assays indicated that FoPLT does not affect cell wall integrity in F. oxysporum. The deletion of the FoPLT gene significantly reduced the pathogenicity of F. oxysporum, and inoculating Malus robusta seedlings with the FoPLT knockout mutant led to significant increases in plant height, root length, fresh weight, and dry weight. These results suggest that the FoPLT gene plays a critical role in the pathogenicity of F. oxysporum. Full article

Background: Continuous cropping severely restricts ornamental gourd productivity through yield decline, microbial dysbiosis, and rhizosphere autotoxin production. This study characterized rhizosphere–root–leaf metabolic reorganization under three-year monoculture, identifying key metabolites, pathways, and a hierarchical cascade for stress adaptation. Methods: Ornamental gourd seedlings were potted in three-year monoculture soil exhibiting replanting disorders. At the seven-leaf stage, rhizosphere soil, roots, and leaves were sampled for untargeted UHPLC-MS/MS metabolomics, followed by PCA, OPLS-DA, differential analysis (VIP > 1, p < 0.05), and KEGG pathway enrichment analysis. Results: A total of 10,792 metabolic features were detected in positive mode and 8992 in negative mode. PCA explained 83.84% of the variance, with PC1 at 56.35% and PC2 at 27.49%, clearly separating the compartments of the study. A total of 1132 shared metabolites were suppressed, with log2 fold changes exceeding −1. Roots displayed activation, with upregulated metabolites outnumbering downregulated ones, and log2 fold changes frequently exceeding +3. Leaves exhibited mean log2 fold changes of approximately +1 for phenylpropanoid intermediates, indole, and terpenoid biosynthesis. The enriched pathways included amino acid metabolism, phenylpropanoid and flavonoid biosynthesis, lipid metabolism, and hormone signaling. Conclusions: Continuous cropping induces a hierarchical rhizosphere–root–leaf metabolic cascade, linking suppressed soil activity with reinforced root defense and coordinated leaf signaling, centered on the phenylpropanoid and flavonoid pathways as key drivers of adaptation. Full article

Background and Objectives: Severe burn injuries are still associated with high mortality. The length of intensive care stay is strongly influenced by the severity of organ failure, with multi-organ failure being the main cause of death in up to 40% of cases. Liver dysfunction is the second most common organ failure. Conventional diagnosis relies on static laboratory parameters that reflect damage already caused. Measuring the hepatic clearance of indocyanine green (LiMON^®) offers a dynamic, bedside method for detecting liver dysfunction early, enabling timely therapy adjustments. Materials and Methods: In this prospective single-centre observational study, all patients admitted to the Unfallkrankenhaus Berlin Burns Centre from October 2022 to September 2024 with ≥30% TBSA burns were included. Liver function was assessed via LiMON^® within 24 h post-injury and every 48 h until day 14 or ICU discharge. Static liver parameters were measured in parallel. Results: We included a total of 23 patients. An initial measurement was only successful in 18 cases. On admission, six patients (33%) had normal liver function with a plasma duration rate (PDR) > 18% (PDR 30.9 ± 7.3%), while 12 (67%) showed reduced clearance (PDR 14.5 ± 2.6%). In 75% of cases (n = 9), function recovered within 48 h. Based on PDR progression, four liver function patterns were defined: “stable”, “recovery”, “late insufficiency”, and “failure”; a fifth pattern included all patients who were deceased during this study (“death”). These groups differed in fluid therapy, plasma transfusion, and catecholamines administered. PDR correlated well with aminotransferase levels. Conclusions: Dynamic liver function monitoring enables earlier detection of impairment than static markers. Early identification of at-risk patients could guide fluid management and improve outcomes. LiMON^® is a valuable tool in burn care, though alternative methods may be needed in patients with severe systemic hypoperfusion. Full article

Cashew (Anacardium occidentale L.), a vital tropical cash crop, may face yield declines in old plantations due to unexplored risks of autotoxicity. This study investigated the allelopathic and autotoxic potential of cashew plant under laboratory and greenhouse conditions. The laboratory bioassays with leaf and stem bark (10–200 mg) demonstrated a strong allelopathic effect, reducing lettuce radicle elongation to 7–46.0% and 9–79% of the control, respectively. Aqueous leaf extract (50 mg/mL) completely inhibited (0%) lettuce seed germination and reduced pepper germination to 42%. However, the root exudate of cashew seedlings did not have any inhibitory effect on the test plants. Greenhouse experiments simulating field litter fall revealed significant autotoxicity in cashew. Cashew seedlings grown in growth media amended with 10% cashew leaf powder exhibited severe growth suppression after 13 weeks, including a reduction in plant height by 58.2% compared to controls. Chlorophyll content, stem girth, and leaf number were also significantly reduced. This study concludes that cashew possesses significant allelopathic properties and a clear potential for autotoxicity, as directly evidenced by the suppressed growth of its own seedlings following the incorporation of leaf powder. These findings identify autotoxicity, mediated through leaf litter decomposition, as a critical risk factor for the replanting success and long-term sustainability of cashew orchards, necessitating further investigation into management strategies. Full article

The People’s Palm Oil Replanting (PSR) program is a national strategic initiative of the Indonesian government that is aimed at rejuvenating aging oil palm plantations to enhance productivity and sustainability among smallholder farmers. However, participation rates remain below policy targets, indicating the presence of constraints beyond financial considerations. This study aims to identify the determinants of smallholder farmers to participate in the PSR program. Using 348 farmers as samples, and by employing SEM-PLS, the study revealed that non-economic factors, proxied by two variables (farm and location), are the most significant factors that determine the decision of farmers in joining the PSR, while governance and technical procedure have no significant impact on farmers’ decisions to join the PSR Program. An interesting finding was also documented in this study, in which the economic factor has no significant impact. Overall, the findings showed that the economic factors alone are insufficient to drive smallholders into joining PSR programs. Instead, institutional support, access to reliable information, governance alignment, and farm conditions are more crucial. Hence, a proper policy mix is required to maximize the impact of the program for the farmers. Full article

The survival and growth of mangroves along coastal China is threatened by invasive smooth cordgrass (Spartina alterniflora). Due to the high mortality and frequent replanting of mangrove trees and the impacts of invasive smooth cordgrass, the exact mangrove forest area in Zhejiang Province, China, is still unclear. Based on provincial-scale fine-resolution Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) imagery and a large number of field survey plots, this study mapped the distribution of mangroves and smooth cordgrass in 2023 using three machine learning classifiers, including Classification and Regression Tree (CART), Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs), and Support Vector Machine (SVM). The accuracy assessment indicated that the CNN algorithm was superior to the other two algorithms and yielded an overall accuracy and Kappa coefficient of 97% and 0.96, respectively. The total areas of mangrove forest and smooth cordgrass were 140.83 ha and 52.95 ha, respectively, in 2023 in Zhejiang Province. The mangrove forest area was mostly concentrated in Yuhuan, Dongtou, Yueqing, and Longgang districts. The mean canopy coverage of mangrove trees was only 36.41%, with lower than 20% coverage in all northern and some central districts. At the spatial scale, the mangrove trees showed a scattered distribution pattern, and over 70.04% of the planting area had canopy coverage lower than 20%. Smooth cordgrass has widely invaded all 11 districts, accounting for about 13.7% of the total planting area of mangrove trees. Over 67.3% and 85.4% of the planting areas have been occupied by smooth cordgrass in Wenling and Jiaoxiang districts, respectively, which necessitates an intensive anthropogenic intervention to control its spread in these districts. Our study provides more accurate monitoring of the mangrove and smooth cordgrass distribution areas at a provincial scale. The findings will help guide the replanting and management activities of mangrove trees, control planning for smooth cordgrass, and provide a data basis for the accurate estimation of carbon stock for mangrove forests in Zhejiang Province. Full article

Replantation of an amputated finger is a complex microsurgical procedure that is rarely attempted in low-resource settings due to limited infrastructure and expertise. We report a case of complete amputation of a finger in rural Kenya that was successfully replanted during a humanitarian surgical mission. A 28-year-old man sustained a severe crush avulsion agricultural machine injury resulting in the amputation of all ten digits; only one digit was deemed suitable for replantation. The replantation was performed under loupe and microscope magnification by a visiting specialist team in collaboration with local staff. Intraoperatively, bony fixation with Kirschner wires, extensor and flexor digitorum profundus tendon repair, arterial and venous anastomoses, and neurorrhaphy of the digital nerve were achieved. Postoperatively, the finger survived with adequate perfusion. At one-month follow-up, the replanted finger was viable with progressing wound healing and early joint motion; further rehabilitation was arranged to maximize functional recovery. This case, which is, to our knowledge, one of the first documented digital replantations in East Africa, illustrates that successful microsurgical limb salvage is feasible in a non-specialized hospital setting. Our experience underscores that, with proper planning, training, and teamwork, advanced reconstructive procedures like finger replantation can be safely carried out even in resource-constrained hospitals, offering patients in low-income regions outcomes previously achievable only in high-resource centers. Full article

The aim of this study was to accurately meet the demand of real-time detection of seedling shortage in large-scale seedling production and solve the problems of low precision of traditional models and insufficient adaptability of mainstream lightweight models. This study proposed a Light-YOLO-Pepper seedling shortage detection model based on the improvement of YOLOv8n. This model was based on YOLOv8n. The SE (Squeeze-and-Excitation) attention module was introduced to dynamically suppress the interference of the nutrient soil background and enhance the features of the seedling shortage area. Depth-separable convolution (DSConv) was used to replace the traditional convolution, which can reduce computational redundancy while retaining core features. Based on K- means clustering, customized anchor boxes were generated to adapt to the hole sizes of 72-unit (large size) and 128-unit (small size and high-density) seedling trays. The results show that the overall mAP@0.5, accuracy and recall rate of Light-YOLO-Pepper model were 93.6 ± 0.5%, 94.6 ± 0.4% and 93.2 ± 0.6%, which were 3.3%, 3.1%, and 3.4% higher than YOLOv8n model, respectively. The parameter size of the Light-YOLO-Pepper model was only 1.82 M, the calculation cost was 3.2 G FLOPs, and the reasoning speeds with regard to the GPU and CPU were 168.4 FPS and 28.9 FPS, respectively. The Light-YOLO-Pepper model was superior to the mainstream model in terms of its lightweight and real-time performance. The precision difference between the two seedlings was only 1.2%, and the precision retention rate in high-density scenes was 98.73%. This model achieves the best balance of detection accuracy, lightweight performance, and scene adaptability, and can efficiently meet the needs of embedded equipment and real-time detection in large-scale seedling production, providing technical support for replanting automation. Full article