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Abstract Detection and remediation of stress in crops is vital to ensure agricultural productivity. Conventional forms of assessing stress in plants are limited by feasibility, delayed phenotypic responses, inadequate specificity, and lack of sensitivity during initial phases of stress. While mass spectrometry is remarkably precise and achieves high-resolution, complex samples, such as plant tissues, require time-consuming and biased depletion strategies to effectively identify low-abundant stress biomarkers. Here, we bypassed these reduction methods via a nano-omics approach, where gold nanoparticles were used to enrich time- and temperature-dependent stress-related proteins through biomolecular corona formation that were subsequently analyzed by ultra-high performance liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (UHPLC-MS/MS). This nano-omic approach was more effective than a conventional proteomic analysis using UHPLC- MS/MS for resolving biotic-stress induced responses at early stages of pathogen infection inArabidopsis thaliana, well before the development of visible phenotypic symptoms, as well as in distal tissues of pathogen infected plants at early timepoints. The enhanced sensitivity of this nano-omic approach enables the identification of stress-related proteins at early critical timepoints, providing a more nuanced understanding of plant-pathogen interactions that can be leveraged for the development of early intervention strategies for sustainable agriculture. 

The purpose of the study was to examine the “after-effects” of a leadership training program on university students. Data were collected using both cross-sectional and case study methods, and by interviewing students. The data were tabulated and analyzed using descriptive statistics and analyses. The participants included both male and female students; most of them were in their early twenties; juniors, and held department-wide, college-wide, or university-wide positions. Moreover, the majority of participants indicated that they participated in the workshops offered because they wanted to improve their leadership skills. They also indicated that they learned one new thing; for instance, leadership skills; teamwork; managing people, and grant writing. Furthermore, they all indicated that they have used, at least some of the information that they received from the workshops, such as information on voluntary organizations; leadership skills; financial management; grant writing; how to network; and dealing with different types of persons in organizations. Also, all the respondents mentioned that they were doing one thing differently, such as flexibility in leading; how to prioritize activities and tasks; using conflict resolution information; paying more attention to team members; sharing information with networks; and encouraging colleagues to provide or contribute ideas in team meetings. The students made suggestions for future workshops, such as including students from other colleges; more role-playing in the delivery of the workshops, and starting workshops early. The study has provided additional knowledge as to what university students think about the after-effects of a leadership training program. 

Abstract Lipid nanoparticles (LNPs) are the most clinically advanced nonviral RNA-delivery vehicles, though challenges remain in fully understanding how LNPs interact with biological systems.In vivo, proteins form an associated corona on LNPs that redefines their physicochemical properties and influences delivery outcomes. Despite its importance, the LNP protein corona is challenging to study owing to the technical difficulty of selectively recovering soft nanoparticles from biological samples. Herein, we developed a quantitative, label-free mass spectrometry-based proteomics approach to characterize the protein corona on LNPs. Critically, this protein corona isolation workflow avoids artifacts introduced by the presence of endogenous nanoparticles in human biofluids. We applied continuous density gradient ultracentrifugation for protein-LNP complex isolation, with mass spectrometry for protein identification normalized to protein composition in the biofluid alone. With this approach, we quantify proteins consistently enriched in the LNP corona including vitronectin, C-reactive protein, and alpha-2-macroglobulin. We explore the impact of these corona proteins on cell uptake and mRNA expression in HepG2 human liver cells, and find that, surprisingly, increased levels of cell uptake do not correlate with increased mRNA expression in part likely due to protein corona-induced lysosomal trafficking of LNPs. Our results underscore the need to consider the protein corona in the design of LNP-based therapeutics. Abstract Figure 

Molecular dynamics simulations have been used to investigate the structural changes in confined liquids. The density distribution functions for weakly and strongly interacting liquids were determined and compared to those of a non-interacting system in order to assess the impact of the entropic forces on the equilibrium state of the systems. The effect of the entropic forces was assessed by quantifying the layering on the liquid structure upon confinement. The more pronounced layering obtained for weakly interacting and non-interacting systems indicated that entropic forces are more effective in these systems where an increase in the multiplicity of states does not require a prohibitively high cost in energy. 

Different factors may impact participation in leadership programs for university students. However, not many studies have been conducted on this issue. Therefore, this study analyzed the impact of selected factors on the participation status of university students in a leadership training program. Regarding study participants, there were more female participants than male participants. Also, more of the recruited students did not participate in the training compared to those who participated, and more of the participants were in the immediate incentive group compared to the delayed incentive group. Further, regarding the receipt of incentives, a very high proportion of the recruited students received their incentives. In terms of class classification of participants, there were more sophomores in the trainee groups. The regression results revealed that for model 1, only the incentive classification had a statistically significant effect on student participation, and for model 2, gender, incentive classification, and receipt of incentives had statistically significant effects on student participation. It may be that gender, incentive classification, and receipt of incentives are important factors in university students’ leadership training. However, incentive classification may be the paramount factor. 

The study assessed the relationships between socioeconomic factors and reflective thinking of college students. The data were collected from a purposive sample of college students in a leadership training program and analyzed using descriptive statistics and correlation analysis. The results show that the proportions of strongly disagreed or disagreed responses were generally higher than the proportions of the strongly agreed or agreed responses at the low level of the Critical Thinking Development Model (CTDM). However, the proportions of strongly agreed or agreed responses were generally higher than the proportions of the strongly disagreed or disagreed responses at the middle and high levels of the CTDM. The correlations reveal that, overall, there were more positive than negative relationships between the selected socioeconomic factors and reflective thinking. The results further revealed that there were two positive and significant relationships (coefficients); specifically, the ones between “sometimes try to recognize the need to practice reflecting on issues” and the intent to hold a college leadership position, and “sometimes have good habits reflecting on issues” and gender. It may be that the intent to hold a college leadership position and gender matter in reflective thinking.