The use of fertilizers is associated with an increase in soil degradation, which is predicted to lead to a decrease in crop production within the next decade. Thus, it is critical to find solutions to support crop production to sustain the robust global population. In this study, the authors investigate how probiotic bacteria, like Rhizobium leguminosarum, Bacillus subtilis and Pseudomonas fluorescens, can impact the growth of Arabidopsis thaliana when applied to the seeds.They hypothesized that solutions with multiple bacterial species compared to those with only a single bacterial species would promote seed germination more effectively.
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Characterizing Quorum Sensing-Induced Bioluminescence in Variable Volumes With Vibrio fischeri Using Computer Processing Methods
Understanding how bacteria respond to other bacteria could facilitate their ability to initiate and maintain their infectiousness. The phenomenon by which bacteria signal to each other via chemical signals is called quorum sensing, which could be targeted to deter bacterial infection in some cases if better understood. In this article, the authors study how a bacterium called V. fischeri uses quorum sensing to change bioluminescence, an easy readout that facilitates studying quorum sensing in this strain.
Read More...Giving Teens a Voice: Sources of Stress for High School Students
The authors investigate the negative effects stress has on teen mental and physical health. Through a survey, they give Virginia teens a voice in revising the Health and Physical Education curriculum to include a standards of learning (SOL). Notably they identify factors contributing to stress levels including homework level, amount of free and sleep time, parental pressure and family encouragement.
Read More...TGFβ1 Codon 10 Polymorphism and its Association with the Prevalence of Low Myopia
The goal of this project was to assess the relationships among low myopia, behavioral and demographic factors, and a single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) in the TGFβ1 gene.
Read More...Characterization of Inflammatory Cytokine Gene Expression in a Family with a History of Psoriasis
Psoriasis is a heritable autoimmune disorder characterized by abnormal red and itchy skin patches. The authors study the family of a man with psoriasis. They explore whether the man's children, who do not show any symptoms of psoriasis, demonstrate gene expression consistent with the disease.
Read More...The Effects of L-glutamate, L-glutamine, and L-aspartic Acid on the Amylase Production of E. coli Transformed With pAmylase
Human amylase is important to digestion and has broad applications for therapeutic use in patients with pancreatic insufficiency. The authors present a method to increase amylase production in E. coli by adding the amino acids L-glutamate and L-glutamine.
Read More...Epileptic seizure detection using machine learning on electroencephalogram data
The authors use machine learning and electroencephalogram data to propose a method for improving epilepsy diagnosis.
Read More...Drosophila melanogaster: A model to observe behavioral effects of mutated Foxp
The authors looked at the effects of different treatments using flies with neurodevelopmental disorders.
Read More...The influence of implicit social pressure on prosocial behavior of adolescents
In this study the authors sought to understand the influence of implicit social pressure on prosocial behavior (voluntary acts that benefit someone else) in adolescents age 12–19. They considered how participants divided money between themselves and four teammate they did a school project with. Despite being shown examples of how to divide money (social pressure), their results showed that both boys and girls were unaffected by prosocial, neutral, and antisocial pressures.
Read More...The impact of visual attention on visual working memory
The authors looked at how the focus of someone's attention impacted what information was retained in their working memory.
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