Browse Articles

Redefining and advancing tree disease diagnosis through VOC emission measurements

Stoica et al. | Mar 27, 2025

Redefining and advancing tree disease diagnosis through VOC emission measurements

Here the authors investigated the use of an affordable gas sensor to detect volatile organic compound (VOC) emissions as an early indicator of tree disease, finding statistically significant differences in VOCs between diseased and non-diseased ash, beech, and maple trees. They suggest this sensor has potential for widespread early disease detection, but call for further research with larger sample sizes and diverse locations.

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Tomato disease identification with shallow convolutional neural networks

Trinh et al. | Mar 03, 2023

Tomato disease identification with shallow convolutional neural networks

Plant diseases can cause up to 50% crop yield loss for the popular tomato plant. A mobile device-based method to identify diseases from photos of symptomatic leaves via computer vision can be more effective due to its convenience and accessibility. To enable a practical mobile solution, a “shallow” convolutional neural networks (CNNs) with few layers, and thus low computational requirement but with high accuracy similar to the deep CNNs is needed. In this work, we explored if such a model was possible.

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Effects of plant-derived smoke water on germination and growth in stressed plants

Ge et al. | Apr 08, 2026

Effects of plant-derived smoke water on germination and growth in stressed plants

Here the authors investigated the potential of plant-derived smoke water to mitigate the negative impacts of abiotic stressors, such as heat, salinity, and water fluctuations, on the germination and growth of various agricultural crops. Their findings suggest that smoke water, specifically from buckwheat, pea, and radish, significantly improves plant resilience against drought and excessive water stress, offering a viable strategy to bolster food security in the face of climate change.

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VISTA inhibitor CA170 combined with KRAS vaccine enhances immune response in lung cancer

Giglio et al. | Mar 16, 2026

VISTA inhibitor CA170 combined with <i>KRAS</i> vaccine enhances immune response in lung cancer
Image credit: Robina Weermeijer

Here the authors investigated a combination therapy to target the Kirsten rat sarcoma viral oncogene homolog mutation in lung cancer, by analyzing publicly available data. Their findings indicate that the combination therapy of CA170 and Kvax enhances helper T cell function and improves cytotoxic T lymphocyte infiltration, while Kvax alone drives plasma and memory B cell proliferation.

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