A 20-year field experiment in western Hungary compared conservation tillage with conventional ploughing across six crops and contrasting weather conditions. Researchers identified four stages, Transitional, Adapted 1, Steady and Adapted 2, showing that benefits developed gradually and required continued management. Although yields and profits initially declined, later improvements in equipment and farming practices reversed the trend. Over 20 years, conservation tillage raised average yields by 3.9%, reduced operating costs by 9.8% and increased profit by 13.0%, equivalent to almost €200 per hectare annually. The authors conclude it can be economically worthwhile, but farmers should expect a transition period rather than immediate returns.

A team of researchers from Yemen and Saudi Arabia analyzed and compared health security performance (HSP) between Gulf Cooperation Council and non-Gulf Cooperation Council countries within the Eastern Mediterranean Region (EMR) for 2019 and 2021, recognizing the critical role of health security in managing global health threats. The study utilized data from the Global Health Security Index (GHSI) for 2019 and 2021. Key health security priorities were identified using the entropy objective weighting method. The VIKOR (VIseKriterijumska Optimizacija I Kompromisno Resenje) method was employed to rank countries based on overall performance. K-means clustering was applied to group countries with similar health security profiles. Pearson’s and Spearman’s rank correlation coefficients were used to assess relationships between independent HSP indicators and overall performance scores. A significant shift in health security priorities within the EMR was observed between 2019 and 2021, with prevention gaining prominence. Gulf Cooperation Council countries emphasized detection and reporting, while non-Gulf Cooperation Council countries prioritized health systems and prevention. Gulf Cooperation Council countries, particularly Qatar and Saudi Arabia, consistently demonstrated strong HSP. Conversely, non-Gulf Cooperation Council countries facing conflict and instability, such as Yemen, Somalia, and Syria, exhibited weaker performance. Health system capacity, prevention, detection and reporting, and risk environment showed robust correlations with overall HSP. This study underscores the necessity for tailored, adaptive policies to address HSP disparities across regions, highlighting investment in prevention, detection, and reporting. It stresses international collaboration, improved policy implementation, and ongoing research to enhance global health security systems across diverse contexts.

Researchers from Zhejiang University and The Chinese University of Hong Kong have discovered that silk sericin—long considered a mere glue coating silk fibers—actively orchestrates the self-assembly of silk fibroin into ordered nanofibrils. Published in Science Bulletin, the study shows that sericin drives liquid-liquid phase separation to create dynamic micro-compartments that concentrate, stabilize, and guide fibroin proteins through a multi-stage maturation process. The findings provide a new mechanistic framework for silk fiber formation and offer design principles for bioinspired programmable materials.

Low thermal conductivity of β-Ga₂O₃ can restrict power density and accelerate device degradation of β-Ga₂O₃-based power electronics. To alleviate the thermal management problem, researchers developed a Ga-assisted strategy to realize high-quality β-Ga₂O₃ film epitaxy on diamond. The constructed β-Ga₂O₃/Diamond heterostructure presents superior thermal boundary conductance (165.4 MW⋅m⁻²⋅K⁻¹) and ultra-high interfacial fracture strength (> 2.09 GPa). The identified new interfacial phonon mode at ~60 meV can significantly enhance the phonon transport between diamond and β-Ga₂O₃.

It has been a challenge that Dirac points in topological acoustics are typically pinned in reciprocal space, restricting versatile applications for wave steering and manipulation. Now, an article shows that Dirac points can be moved arbitrarily across the Brillouin zone by independently adjusting coupling strengths in a 2D sonic crystal. This enables a full-space scanning topological antenna and an acoustic heterostructure for fully angle-tunable Klein tunneling. Both passive devices surmount the angle-tuning barrier, offering a new paradigm for classical wave control.