China’s agriculture has long faced three major problems: excessive chemical fertilizer application, residual mulch film pollution, and low utilization rates of livestock and poultry manure. Excessive fertilizer input leads to soil acidification and compaction, and nutrient use efficiency continues to decline. Traditional polyethylene (PE) mulch film is difficult to degrade, and its year-by-year accumulation forms microplastic pollution, damaging soil microbial communities and arable land health. At the same time, livestock waste such as cow manure is large in volume and widely distributed, but its resource utilization pathways are limited, and crop-livestock cycling is not smooth. The green transformation of agriculture urgently needs integrated technologies that simultaneously ensure stable yields, reduce fertilizer use, reduce plastic pollution, and improve soil fertility.

Rima Kaddurah-Daouk, PhD, has been named the inaugural chair of the Department of Precision Behavioral Health, the first department established at the UTHealth Houston School of Behavioral Health Sciences, the university’s newest school.  

MIT researchers developed a handheld device that can gently collect living cells from specific locations to test for ovarian and other cancers. The technique could be used to catch cancers earlier and more effectively, and to create personalized treatments.

Emerging adults with an average age of 19 who experienced four or more adverse childhood experiences had substantially higher rates of depression, suicidal ideation, hard drug use, and interpersonal violence than those who reported no childhood adversity.