Dynamic Frontier Research Articles

Endoplasmic reticulum homeostasis in plant–pathogen interactions: new scenarios for an old story

Abstract The endoplasmic reticulum (ER) is a specialized organelle that connects almost all subcellular structures from the plasma membrane to the nucleus. The ER is involved in secretory protein synthesis, folding, and processing. Evidence has emerged that the ER is at the frontier of the battle between plant hosts and pathogens. Its structural and functional homeostasis is crucial for the survival of plant cells. Pathogens secrete effectors to take over normal functions of the ER, while host plants fight back to activate ER stress responses. Exciting advances have been made in studies on host plant–pathogen dynamics during the past decades, namely some new players involved have been recently resolved from both pathogens and hosts. In this review, we summarize advances in identifying structural characteristics of the key pathways and effectors targeting the ER. Newly identified ER-phagy receptors and components downstream of inositol-requiring 1 (IRE1) will be described. Future studies will be envisaged to further our understanding of the missing parts in this dynamic frontier.

Weed Competition and Performance of Sorghum and Groundnut Intercrop as Influenced by Row Orientation and Arrangement

Background: Intercropping and row arrangement represent a dynamic frontier of research and practical application, influencing resource allocation, weed competition and overall crop productivity in a modern agro ecosystem. This study aimed to investigate the impact of row orientation and arrangement on weed competition and crop performance within the Sudan savannah ecology of Nigeria during the 2018 rainy season. Methods: A field experiment was conducted at BUK (Latitude 11°58'N and Longitude 8°25'E) and Minjibir (Latitude 12.14590N and Longitude 0.866'4850E), utilizing two orientations (East-West and North-South) and seven sorghum: groundnut row arrangements (1:1, 1:2, 2:1, 2:2, 3:3, 2:4 and 4:2). A randomized complete block design with three replications was used, with simultaneous cultivation of SAMSORG 40 sorghum and SAMNUT 24 groundnut varieties. Result: The 2:1 row arrangement exhibited the lowest weed density (23.2 and 31.1 m-2) and dry weight (408.6 and 438.2 kg ha-1). East-West orientation reduced weed density by 24.5% at BUK and 20.8% at Minjibir. North-South row orientation significantly increased sorghum grain yield by 17.7% and reduced groundnut kernel yield by 9.37%. Higher sorghum yield (699.6 and 773. 7 Kg ha-1) was observed with 2:1 whereas the 1:2 arrangement yielded more groundnut kernels (329.2 and 338.1 kg ha-1). East-West orientation and the 2:1 row arrangement suppressed weed growth and recorded higher yields.

Extracellular vesicles: Function, resilience, biomarker, bioengineering, and clinical implications.

Extracellular vesicles (EVs) have emerged as key players in intercellular communication, disease pathology, and therapeutic innovation. Initially overlooked as cellular debris, EVs are now recognized as vital mediators of cell-to-cell communication, ferrying a cargo of proteins, nucleic acids, and lipids, providing cellular resilience in response to stresses. This review provides a comprehensive overview of EVs, focusing on their role as biomarkers in disease diagnosis, their functional significance in physiological and pathological processes, and the potential of bioengineering for therapeutic applications. EVs offer a promising avenue for noninvasive disease diagnosis and monitoring, reflecting the physiological state of originating cells. Their diagnostic potential spans a spectrum of diseases, including cancer, cardiovascular disorders, neurodegenerative diseases, and infectious diseases. Moreover, their presence in bodily fluids such as blood, urine, and cerebrospinal fluid enhances their diagnostic utility, presenting advantages over traditional methods. Beyond diagnostics, EVs mediate crucial roles in intercellular communication, facilitating the transfer of bioactive molecules between cells. This communication modulates various physiological processes such as tissue regeneration, immune modulation, and neuronal communication. Dysregulation of EV-mediated communication is implicated in diseases such as cancer, immune disorders, and neurodegenerative diseases, highlighting their therapeutic potential. Bioengineering techniques offer avenues for manipulating EVs for therapeutic applications, from isolation and purification to engineering cargo and targeted delivery systems. These approaches hold promise for developing novel therapeutics tailored to specific diseases, revolutionizing personalized medicine. However, challenges such as standardization, scalability, and regulatory approval need addressing for successful clinical translation. Overall, EVs represent a dynamic frontier in biomedical research with vast potential for diagnostics, therapeutics, and personalized medicine.

Visual Analysis of Research Hotspots on Near Miss in the Nursing Field

Objective To analyze the current research status, hot spots and dynamic frontiers of literature related to near misses in nursing using visual knowledge mapping, in order to provide a reference for the future development of near misses in nursing. Methods The literature related to near misses in nursing was searched in the Web of Science core collection from its establishment to August 2022, and visualized and analyzed in terms of the number of articles, journals and keywords. Results A total of 289 papers were included, and the annual publication volume showed a trend of year-on-year growth, with the United States taking the first place in terms of publication volume and the initial formation of a core author team, and the hotspots of proximity research in the nursing field were mainly focused on patient safety, safety management, and identification reporting. Conclusion The research related to proximity errors in nursing started late, and the current research on proximity errors is not comprehensive enough. Since the occurrence of proximity errors can have adverse effects on patients, nursing staff and medical institutions, it is suggested that nursing managers should increase the importance of this issue, pay attention to the frontier development, and conduct in-depth related research.

‘Security’ and private governance in São Paulo’s corporate centrality frontier

In the last half-century, the ‘centre–periphery’ model has become insufficient to describe the increasingly fragmented and multicentric Latin American metropolises. Frontiers between central and peripheral areas are shifting, in part, due to the emergence of new corporate centralities, usually located outside historical city centres and heavily equipped with private ‘security’ agents and devices. By examining the evolving governing practices taking place in and around the dynamic frontier of a business centrality in São Paulo, Brazil, this article discusses the connections between the transformation in centre–periphery relations and the reworking of prior forms of socio-spatial control since the ‘security’ turn of the 1990s. More specifically, it explores the effects of the production of securitised corporate centralities on the racialised differential governance of urban space. For this purpose, the article draws from empirical work involving fieldwork, interviews with public and private ‘security’ agents, the observation of meetings of the local Public Security Community Council (CONSEG), and the analysis of police statistics. In sum, the argument presented here is that the evolution of segregation mechanisms and governing practices in Latin-American metropolises reproduces centre–periphery relations under new spatial configurations, and increases the capacity of private agents to subject urban space to their own rules and regulations.

A Review on Innovative Drug Delivery Platforms

In recent years, the field of drug delivery has undergone a transformative shift with the introduction of innovative platforms that transcend conventional methods, providing accurate and efficient means for delivering therapeutic agents. This exploration delves into the distinctive features and potential impacts of these pioneering platforms, charting a course for the future of pharmaceutical interventions. In this review article, the advancements regarding the nanotechnology-enabled delivery, lipid-based drug delivery systems, targeted drug delivery, implantable drug delivery systems, 3D printing in drug delivery, stimuli-responsive delivery systems, mRNA and gene delivery platforms and microfluidic - based delivery systems were discussed. These innovative drug delivery platforms represent a dynamic frontier in pharmaceutical research and development. They afford unprecedented control over drug properties, release kinetics and targeting strategies. As research continues to push the boundaries of drug delivery science, these innovations hold the potential to revolutionize the treatment of various diseases, ushering in safer, more effective and patient-centric therapeutic solutions.

Resistant starch and the gut microbiome: Exploring beneficial interactions and dietary impacts

The intricate relationship between resistant starch (RS) and the gut microbiome presents a dynamic frontier in nutrition science. This review synthesizes current understandings of how RS, an indigestible form of starch found naturally in certain foods and also enhanced through various modification methods, interacts with the gut microbiome. We particularly focus on how RS fermentation in the colon contributes to the production of beneficial volatile fatty acids (VFAs) such as butyrate, acetate, and propionate. These VFAs have been recognized for their vital roles in maintaining gut barrier integrity, modulating inflammation, and potentially influencing systemic health. Additionally, we discuss the dietary implications of consuming foods rich in RS, both in terms of gut health and broader metabolic outcomes. By consolidating these insights, we emphasize the significance of RS in the context of dietary strategies aimed at harnessing the gut microbiome's potential to impact human health.

Generative Artificial Intelligence in Education, Part One: the Dynamic Frontier

Generative Artificial Intelligence in Education, Part One: the Dynamic Frontier

Attosecond Science: an emerging field brought to light by the Physics Nobel Prize

The 2023 Nobel Prize in Physics has been awarded to Anne L’Huillier, Pierre Agostini and Ferenc Krausz “for experimental methods that generate attosecond pulses of light for the study of electron dynamics in matter”. In this article, we contextualize their seminal works and their central roles that led to the emergence of a global ultrafast community exploring the frontiers of electron dynamics in dilute and condensed matter.

Anu Mänd and Marek Tamm. Making Livonia: Actors and Networks in the Medieval and Early Modern Baltic Sea Region

Anu Mänd and Marek Tamm. <i>Making Livonia: Actors and Networks in the Medieval and Early Modern Baltic Sea Region</i>

Gray Gold: Lead Mining and Its Impact on the Natural and Cultural Environment, 1700–1840

Gray Gold: Lead Mining and Its Impact on the Natural and Cultural Environment, 1700–1840

An Unmanned Underwater Vehicle Torpedoes Attack Behavior Autonomous Decision-Making Method Based on Model Fusion

The autonomous technology of unmanned platforms is the most dynamic frontier among fields of technology and, inevitably, is trending towards future development. Aiming at the dual requirements of reliable and real-time autonomous decision-making of unmanned underwater vehicles in complex and unfamiliar environments, this article proposes an intelligent decision-making method of attack behavior based on model fusion. The experimental dataset is generated through simulation modeling, and an appropriate amount of noise is added to simulate the observation error in a real situation. The threshold of weapon-hit probability is set according to the requirements of combat missions, and the decision-making of attack behavior is transformed into the problem of imbalanced sample classification with noisy data. Through theoretical analysis and experimental testing, the classification effects of algorithms such as Logistic Regression (LR), K-nearest neighbor (KNN), support vector machine (SVM), multilayer perceptron (MLP), decision tree (DT), and ensemble learning are compared. On this basis, the intelligent decision model is constructed by using synthetic minority oversampling technique resampling and three model fusion methods of voting, stacking, and blending. The experimental results show that compared with traditional simulation decision-making and common classification algorithms, the proposed method has higher accuracy, recall rate, area-under-the-curve value, and model generalization ability. It can not only effectively identify the impact of noise data on attack-behavior decision-making, but also ensures the decision-making speed through offline training, and provides references for the research in the field of equipment development and intelligent decision-making in the future.

Modeling and Analysis of FBV Movements for Automotive Driveshafts in the PPR Region

This research’s goal is to model and analyze the forced bending vibrating (FBV) movements for the elements of an automotive driveshaft using a perturbation technique, the asymptotic method approach (AMA), in the region of principal parametric resonance (PPR). The PPR region was chosen because the principal parametric resonance region is one of the essential resonance regions. The model of FBV movements for the automotive driveshaft (AD) considers the aspects of the following phenomena: geometric nonuniformity of the AD elements and shock excitation due to the road. To overcome the equations for the FBV movements of the AD elements, all inertia characteristics were reduced to the longitudinal ax of the midshaft using the variation of the geometric moments of inertia with the concurrent axis and Stener’s theorem. The midshaft of the AD was considered a Timoshenko simply supported beam with a concentrated mass at both ends and springs and dampers for linear and rotational movements at both ends. To determine the equations describing the FBV movements of the AD elements, Hamilton’s principle was used. After establishing the equations of motion for each AD element coupled with the specific boundary conditions, the amplitude and the phase angle were computed for stationary and nonstationary motion in the PPR region using the first order of the AMA, and the dynamic instability frontiers were determined based on the same equations. The dynamic behavior of the AD was investigated concerning the variation of the damping ratio and the variation of the parametric excitation coefficient. The AMA coupled with the model of FBV movements for the AD exhibits the future research directions for analyzing FBV movements for the AD in the regions of superharmonic resonances, subharmonic resonances, combination resonances, internal resonances, and simultaneous resonances. Additionally, the AMA can predict the endurance of the AD and design control of car damping systems.

MANGROVE RESTORATION IN NE BRAZIL: A UNIFIED CONTRIBUTION TO ADAPTING TO GLOBAL CLIMATE CHANGE

The decade 2021-2030 was defined by the UN as the decade of ‘Ecosystem Restoration’ and of ‘Ocean Science for Sustainable Development’, aiming to restore ecosystems and protect the Oceans. Among target ecosystems, mangroves are fundamental wetlands, since they support a lively, biologically dynamic frontier between land and sea, furnishing many goods and services in relation to their extension, like fisheries, timber, biodiversity conservation and climate change mitigation, among others. Regarding climate change, mangrove restoration helps mitigate GHG emissions, by sequestering carbon in biomass and sediments for long periods of time and increases shore protection facing sea level rise and extreme climate events. The possibilities and conditions for mangrove restoration are many, and their rehabilitation/restoration is possible as provided by evidence form many experiments worldwide. Notwithstanding, there are still many steps in methodology and governance decisions to place mangrove restoration as a globally effective mitigation and adaptation measure to climate change.&#x0D; &#x0D; Keywords: global changes, ecosystem services, ecological rehabilitation, mitigation.

Exploration and practice of blended teaching of cell biology experiments during the COVID-19 epidemic.

Since 2019, new coronavirus pneumonia has been widespread worldwide and has had a direct impact on human life. Meanwhile, it also has a huge impact on teaching in universities and hospitals, especially in experimental courses. Cell biology is not only an important part of biology but also one of the most dynamic frontier branches of modern life science, which is also a science based on experiments. It is necessary to promote the online and offline teaching during this special period. To explore and evaluate the blended teaching modes during the COVID-19 epidemic, we changed the previous single teaching mode of “teaching + experiment” and published courseware and learning requirements online before class, this kind of mode takes “theory + virtual demonstration experiment” in class as the main body and the reviewing and thinking after class as the summary. We also carried out offline practice on a small scale when the epidemic allowed and actively explored the comprehensive online and offline teaching modes, in and out of class. Through the hybrid teaching, the percentage distribution of students in high and moderate scores ranges were greatly increased, the blended teaching mode also greatly improves students’ subjective initiative and highlights the development of students’ personalized thinking and scientific research ability. The practice of this model not only ensures the health of teachers and students during the epidemic but also provides a new teaching exploration model and thinking for the development of experimental courses during the epidemic.

A dynamic stochastic frontier approach with persistent and transient inefficiency and unobserved heterogeneity

AbstractThis article introduces a dynamic stochastic frontier analysis (SFA) framework with unobserved heterogeneity, persistent and transient inefficiency effects, based on recent advances in the SFA literature. The newly developed dynamic frontier model is applied on a sample of French crop‐livestock farms. The estimates provide useful insights for the estimation of the technical efficiency scores as well as for the analysis of the associations of contextual drivers, such as public subsidies and indebtedness, with technical efficiency.

Dissipative Equation of Motion for Electromagnetic Radiation in Quantum Dynamics.

The dynamical description of the radiative decay of an electronically excited state in realistic many-particle systems is an unresolved challenge. In the present investigation electromagnetic radiation of the charge density is approximated as the power dissipated by a classical dipole, to cast the emission in closed form as a unitary single-electron theory. This results in a formalism of unprecedented efficiency, critical for abinitio modeling, which exhibits at the same time remarkable properties: it quantitatively predicts decay rates, natural broadening, and absorption intensities. Exquisitely accurate excitation lifetimes are obtained from time-dependent DFT simulations for C^{2+}, B^{+}, and Be, of 0.565, 0.831, and 1.97ns, respectively, in accord with experimental values of 0.57±0.02, 0.86±0.07, and 1.77-2.5ns. Hence, the present development expands the frontiers of quantum dynamics, bringing within reach first-principles simulations of a wealth of photophysical phenomena, from fluorescence to time-resolved spectroscopies.

Diffusion of Soil Pollution in an Agricultural Economy: The Emergence of Regions, Frontiers and Spatial Patterns

The Status of the World's Soil Resources Report identi_ed in 2015 soil pollution as a major threat to all the services provided by soils (FAO and ITPS, 2015). This paper develops a spatial growth model for an agricultural economy where pollution di_uses in the soil. In order to produce, the economy needs fertile soil, which is naturally bounded by the amount of available land. Although production entails pollution, locations can protect their soil investing in abatement. Once a location reaches its maximum of fer- tile land, the economy is split into a fertile region and a polluted region, separated by a dynamic frontier which follows the spatial evolution of pollution. After providing the optimal trajectories for consumption and fertile land, we prove that heterogenous steady states can emerge even in homogeneous economies, and that a polluted region can stag- nate forever in an environmental poverty trap. Our results are numerically illustrated, including examples of the economy's resilience to pollution shocks.

Hedging strategies and performance of the US financial holding companies: a dynamic frontier analysis

Globalisation led to dynamic developments in the area of financial innovation. The main object of this study is to shed light into the relationship between hedging strategies and operational performance. We initially employed a dynamic data envelopment analysis model to incorporate carry-over items in order to assess the long-term operating performance of the top 50 US financial holding companies (FHCs) over the period 2005-2009. We then evaluated the operating performance under four different hedging measures and eight sub-industries. Findings show that significant differences exist among sub-industries on the overall mean operating performance of the US FHCs, as the financial situation changes over time. Empirically, we also provide evidence that the choice of an appropriate hedging strategy matters when it comes to operating performance. Overall, we support that choosing a suitable hedging strategy is crucial for FHCs even after a series of structural reforms following the latest global financial crisis.

Modern surgery; dynamic frontiers and blurring boundaries

No abstract available