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Producing food through animal agriculture is resource-intensive and environmentally damaging. Livestock use nearly 80% of all agricultural land while providing less than 20% of global calories and about one-third of global protein. Animal farming drives deforestation, methane emissions, water pollution, and biodiversity loss, while also increasing the spread of zoonotic diseases and the rise of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Systems labeled as sustainable, such as pasture-raised or grass-fed livestock, can even have higher environmental costs per kilogram of meat because of slower growth and greater land demand. There is also increasing public concern over animal welfare, which shows a clear gap between what consumers value and how food is produced. Emerging alternative proteins, including plant-based foods, precision-fermented ingredients, and cultivated meat, show how scientific and traditional food principles can create more sustainable, nutritious, and affordable food systems. Plant-based foods build on long-established whole food nutrition, while precision fermentation and cultivated meat use modern biology to produce familiar proteins without relying on animal farming. Understanding how proteins, fats, and other molecules shape flavor, texture, and nutrition allows scientists to replicate or improve these qualities without using animals. These innovations include meat, dairy, and egg substitutes. Together, they can substantially reduce global climate and disease risks and shift human diets toward a healthier and ethical future.

El presente artículo estudia un texto de la carta de Pablo a los Filipenses conside- rando en ella, principalmente, la persona de Epafrodito. En esta lectura se focaliza sobre la concepción de cuerpo presente en la carta. Se destaca en esta carta la idea de cuerpo como algo comunitario, interconectado entre diferentes cuerpos. Se conside- ran, para este abordaje, algunas teorías médicas del primer siglo, así como también la concepción de cuerpo presente en el pueblo originario Qom, del norte de Argentina.

Data mining and artificial intelligence algorithms can estimate the probability of future occurrences with defined precision. Yet, the prediction of infectious disease outbreaks remains a complex and difficult task. This is demonstrated by the limited accuracy and sensitivity of current models in predicting the emergence of previously unknown pathogens such as Zika, Chikungunya, and SARS-CoV-2, and the resurgence of Mpox, along with their impacts on global health, trade, and security. Comprehensive analysis of infectious disease risk profiles, vulnerabilities, and mitigation capacities, along with their spatiotemporal dynamics at the international level, is essential for preventing their transnational propagation. However, annual indexes about the impact of infectious diseases provide a low level of granularity to allow stakeholders to craft better mitigation strategies. A quantitative risk assessment by analytical platforms requires billions of near real-time data points from heterogeneous sources, integrating and analyzing univariable or multivariable data with different levels of complexity and latency that, in most cases, overwhelm human cognitive capabilities. Autonomous biosurveillance can open the possibility for near real-time, risk- and evidence-based policymaking and operational decision support.

Abstract Cannabis sativa is a globally significant seed-oil, fiber, and drug-producing plant species. However, a century of prohibition has severely restricted legal breeding and germplasm resource development, leaving potential hemp-based nutritional and fiber applications unrealized. Existing cultivars are highly heterozygous and lack competitiveness in the overall fiber and grain markets, relegating hemp to less than 200,000 hectares globally1. The relaxation of drug laws in recent decades has generated widespread interest in expanding and reincorporating cannabis into agricultural systems, but progress has been impeded by the limited understanding of genomics and breeding potential. No studies to date have examined the genomic diversity and evolution of cannabis populations using haplotype-resolved, chromosome-scale assemblies from publicly available germplasm. Here we present a cannabis pangenome, constructed with 181 new and 12 previously released genomes from a total of 156 biological samples from both male (XY) and female (XX) plants, including 42 trio phased and 36 haplotype-resolved, chromosome-scale assemblies. We discovered widespread regions of the cannabis pangenome that are surprisingly diverse for a single species, with high levels of genetic and structural variation, and propose a novel population structure and hybridization history. Conversely, the cannabinoid synthase genes contain very low levels of diversity, despite being embedded within a variable region containing multiple pseudogenized paralogs and distinct transposable element arrangements. Additionally, we identified variants of acyl-lipid thioesterase (ALT) genes2 that are associated with fatty acid chain length variation and the production of the rare cannabinoids, tetrahydrocannabinol varin (THCV) and cannabidiol varin (CBDV). We conclude the Cannabis sativa gene pool has only been partially characterized, and that the existence of wild relatives in Asia remains likely, while its potential as a crop species remains largely unrealized.

Opioid analgesics are mu-opioid agonists used in practice for pain management which pose significant health risks including, but not limited to, abuse, dependence, respiratory depression, overdose, and death. Medical devices such as spinal cord stimulators (SCS) – which fall under the category of neurostimulators – may offer an alternative method for pain management. Four searches were conducted on PubMed and the Cochrane Trials database to assess the effects neurostimulation has on opioid consumption. Sixty-two (62) unique results originally populated, and six studies out of the 62 results met inclusion criteria. One result was a neurophysiological study which found transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) decreased mu-opioid receptor availability (P < 0.001), thereby suggesting TMS may activate the release of endogenous opioids. Five results were clinical studies utilizing SCS for chronic pain. These five studies cumulatively enrolled 330 participants, 57 of which were withdrawn and 139 of which were using opioids at the time of enrollment. Following neurostimulation, 41% of participants discontinued opioid use altogether, 26.6% of participants decreased opioid use, 26.6% of participants remained on the same opioid dose, and 5.8% of participants increased opioid use. Overall opioid use decreased by an estimated 45.6% ± 13 following SCS. The median trial duration was 1 year, and the median sample size was 23 participants. Although the results unanimously showed effectiveness for pain control and opioid dose reductions, the studies in this review were small, and none were placebo-controlled. The statistical fallbacks of the five SCS studies make it difficult to draw concrete conclusions. More research is needed to ascertain the risk-benefit profiles of neurostimulators in chronic pain patients.

Textiles, though not generally well preserved in the archaeological record compared to lithics and ceramics, carry significant insight into social functions and behaviour. Archaeological textiles offer an important window into the past with all the potential complexities of human societies and their processes: technology, trade relations, wealth, group complexity, decoration preferences, likely status, etc. All materials, be they of animal or plant source, were procured from the environment, either directly or through trade. Production of textiles, just as stone tools, pottery, or even horticulture, developed in different ways in the Old World and the New World, which resulted in different timelines. Archaeologists refer to textile materials be they of fibrous or animal hair and skins of animal origin, as perishable materials. Under the right circumstances, the organic portions of the textile or fibres can be preserved by mineralization or carbonization. Most plant fibres require some preparation after they are collected.

Micropropagation is a valuable production tool for the cultivation of hemp ( Cannabis sativa) , and development of optimal protocols is ongoing. The goal of this study was to evaluate a novel growing medium combination, consisting of Driver and Kuniyuki Walnut (DKW) medium as the nutrient source and glucose as the carbon source, and to investigate the link between in vitro and in vivo (i.e., greenhouse) plant performance. Among 10 accessions intended to represent a range of heterozygosity levels and various essential oil chemotypes, the DKW–glucose growing medium generally produced the most vigorous plantlets by all parameters evaluated in vitro (height, biomass, canopy area, vegetative growth rate, and regeneration rate). Across four growing media treatments, all of which included meta-topolin as the sole plant growth regulator, poor to no rooting was observed in vitro. Hybrids were more vigorous than nonhybrid selections in vitro, but not in vivo. No correlation was observed between in vitro and in vivo vigor, indicating that, with these media, plant performance in vitro is not predictive of that in vivo.

Powdery mildew is among the most common diseases of both hemp- and marijuana-type cultivated Cannabis sativa. Despite its prevalence, no documented studies have characterized sources of natural genetic resistance in this pathosystem. Here we provide evidence for the first resistance (R) gene in C. sativa, represented by a single dominant locus that confers complete resistance to an isolate of the powdery mildew pathogen Golovinomyces ambrosiae, found in the Pacific Northwest of the United States. Linkage mapping with nearly 10,000 single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers revealed that this R gene (designated PM1) is located on the distal end of the long arm of one of the largest chromosomes in the C. sativa genome. According to reference whole genome sequences and Sanger sequencing, the marker was tentatively placed in a cluster of R genes of the nucleotide-binding site (NBS) and leucine-rich repeat (LRR) protein type. PM1's dominant behavior, qualitative penetrance, and a co-segregating qPCR marker to track its inheritance were confirmed in two separate genetic backgrounds totaling 185 recombinant F1 plants. The goal of this study is to provide a foundation for the discovery and characterization of additional sources of genetic resistance to pathogens that infect C. sativa.