It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Monday, August 17, 2026
Pesticides make ants go crazy
Expect behavioral changes with chemical treatments
Don’t assume an uptick in ant activity after setting out pesticide traps means the treatment failed. New UC Riverside research shows their behavior changes as chemicals make their way through a colony.
The research from the laboratory of UCR entomology professor Dong Hwan Choe was recently published in the Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute’s journal Insects. It focused on the ways invasive Argentine ants, the ones most commonly found in homes and gardens in Southern California, respond to two common insecticides used in ant baits: thiamethoxam and boric acid.
While both treatments kill most of the worker ants in the colony, they do so at different rates. Thiamethoxam killed all the workers within about seven days, while boric acid killed roughly 90% within about two weeks. The ants’ behavior also varied widely in the days immediately following exposure.
“During a previous study, we saw the ants behaving strangely on the first or second day after introducing a thiamethoxam bait, and it made us wonder if the behavior was related to the toxic effects of the insecticide,” Choe said.
Thiamethoxam is a neonicotinoid, known to be highly effective against various types of insects. Because it is also deadly for bees, there are more restrictions for using it; it cannot be sprayed on plants during flowering season. However, using it in stationary baits reduces the likelihood it will harm insects that aren’t the intended targets.
Choe and his students constructed transparent colonies in the laboratory to give them a clear view of the ants’ activity both inside and outside their nesting sites.
In healthy colonies, Argentine ants spread themselves throughout the available nesting space. Most remain inside caring for the queen, young ants, and other colony members, while some workers venture outside to search for food.
After exposure to thiamethoxam, many more ants became much more active outside the nest, roaming through the foraging area before eventually dying. Because the chemical targets the nervous system, Choe suspects the extra activity may result from neurological effects. “It’s like they’re all high on nicotine,” Choe said. “Their nervous systems have been compromised by the insecticide.”
Thiamethoxam mimics some of nicotine’s effects on the insect nervous system, overstimulating it and eventually causing paralysis. Boric acid produced nearly the opposite behavioral response. Rather than roaming outside the nest, affected ants stopped foraging altogether and gathered tightly inside the nesting space, especially near any sources of water.
Some people choose boric acid because it is less toxic for non-target insects. It affects multiple parts of the ants’ bodies, particularly the lining of the midgut, which plays an important role in digestion and nutrient absorption. In some ants, boric acid is also known to damage their excretory organ, which plays central roles in water regulation and waste removal. Choe said these effects could help explain why poisoned ants congregate near water, though more research is required to prove that idea.
Understanding these differences could help pest control professionals and consumers better interpret what they see after putting out ant bait.
For example, when ants stop foraging after encountering boric acid, it might appear that a colony has been quickly eliminated. But surviving ants could later reappear. With thiamethoxam, the opposite can happen. Poisoned workers may wander into visible places like sinks, garages or windowsills for a day or two before dying, making an infestation appear to be getting worse.
The findings could also inform how manufacturers formulate ant baits. Workers share food throughout a colony, which can dilute the amount of insecticide individual ants receive. Choe said lower doses of thiamethoxam could potentially prolong the unusual roaming behavior.
Another note of caution: while there are no known cases of insecticide resistance developing in ants, they are notoriously challenging to control. As noted above, both chemicals kill most of the workers in an ant colony. However, the treatments may not always be effective in killing the queen. Therefore, a single application of bait often produces temporary relief from the pests because another invasion can occur when the queen hatches a new brood.
This project took more than two years to complete and included significant contributions from students working in Choe’s lab. Beyond revealing what happens inside a poisoned ant colony, Choe hopes the findings will help people recognize that unusual activity after bait application does not necessarily mean the treatment has failed.
“Though these treatments don’t work immediately, you can see by the ants’ behavior that they’re affected,” he said.
Credit: Jianping Fan, Fangfang Li, Qingkong Chen, Peiwen Zeng, Yanlin Li, Wei Chen, Qiangbin Yang & Hong Yang
A naturally formed water repellent coating on hydrochar could play an overlooked role in protecting carbon from chemical degradation, according to a new study examining hydrochar made from several common plant leaves. The findings suggest that hydrophobic alkyl carbon derived from plant waxes and cutin can act as a protective surface layer, potentially improving the ability of hydrochar to retain carbon in soil.
“The hydrophobic alkyl carbon coating may strengthen hydrochar stability in soil, which is expected to promote its capacity for soil carbon sequestration,” the authors concluded.
Hydrochar is a carbon rich material produced by heating biomass in water under elevated temperature and pressure. Because this hydrothermal carbonization process can handle wet biomass without energy intensive drying, hydrochar is increasingly being explored for soil remediation, pollution control, and carbon sequestration. However, its long term environmental value depends strongly on how resistant its carbon is to degradation.
Researchers led by Jianping Fan and Fangfang Li investigated an often overlooked feature of hydrochar: a hydrophobic coating that can form on its surface during hydrothermal carbonization. They produced hydrochar from corn leaves, lotus leaves, palm leaves, and pine needles, then examined the chemical composition, surface characteristics, thermal behavior, and resistance to chemical oxidation before and after removing the coating.
The researchers found that the coating was closely linked to the natural cuticle that covers plant leaves. Lotus leaf hydrochar had the most hydrophobic coating, dominated by nonacosane-4,10-diol originating mainly from leaf wax. In contrast, coatings on hydrochar made from corn leaves, palm leaves, and pine needles were dominated by palmitic acid or 16-hydroxypalmitic acid, compounds associated with the breakdown of cutin.
Importantly, greater coating hydrophobicity was associated with higher levels of alkyl carbon in the hydrochar. When the coating was removed with acetone, alkyl carbon content declined while previously covered pores became exposed, increasing the material's accessible surface area.
Removing the coating produced a surprising contrast between thermal and chemical stability. Overall thermal stability changed little, because increases in the energy required for thermal decomposition were counterbalanced by increases in molecular reaction frequency.
Chemical stability told a different story. The coating acted as a physical and chemical barrier, covering reactive sites, blocking pores, and limiting contact between oxidizing agents and the underlying carbon. After the coating was removed, the carbon loss of lotus leaf, palm leaf, and pine needle hydrochars during chemical oxidation increased by 10.13% to 16.01%. The lotus leaf hydrochar, which had the strongest hydrophobic coating, showed the greatest loss of protection after coating removal.
The results also challenge the idea that bulk properties such as aromatic carbon content alone are sufficient to predict hydrochar stability. Surface coatings and their chemical composition can substantially influence how hydrochar responds to environmental oxidation.
The study provides new insight into how the original biological structures of plant materials can continue to influence carbon stability even after hydrothermal processing. Understanding these surface effects could help researchers select suitable biomass feedstocks and design more stable hydrochars for long term soil carbon storage and environmental applications.
===
Journal reference: Fan J, Li F, Chen Q, Zeng P, Li Y, et al. 2026. Alkyl carbon in a hydrophobic coating enhances the chemical stability of hydrochar. Environmental and Biogeochemical Processes 2: e016 doi: 10.48130/ebp-0026-0012
Environmental and Biogeochemical Processes (e-ISSN 3070-1708) is a multidisciplinary platform for communicating advances in fundamental and applied research on the interactions and processes involving the cycling of elements and compounds between the biological, geological, and chemical components of the environment.
Credit: Qun Rong, Siting Lu, Jingyun Huang, Junrong Wei, Zengyu Zhang, Shu Yang, Chaolan Zhang & Xiaofeng Li
Acidic soils can make it difficult for crops to obtain nutrients and thrive. Now, researchers have developed a small, carefully selected community of native soil bacteria that can reduce acid stress while helping plants access essential nutrients.
“Instead of introducing microorganisms that may struggle to survive in a new environment, we wanted to use native bacteria that are already adapted to the challenging conditions of acidic, nutrient-poor soils,” said Xiaofeng Li, corresponding author of the study. “Our results show that these microorganisms can work together to improve the soil environment and promote plant growth through several complementary biological processes.”
Soil acidification is a major challenge for agriculture. Low soil pH can reduce nutrient availability, disrupt microbial communities, and interfere with the biological processes that support healthy crops. Conventional approaches can improve acidic soils, but the researchers investigated whether naturally adapted microorganisms could provide another sustainable tool.
The team collected microorganisms from the rhizosphere, the narrow zone of soil surrounding plant roots, in strongly acidic red soil in Guangxi, China. By gradually reducing the amount of available carbon during laboratory enrichment, they selected microorganisms capable of surviving under both acidic and carbon-limited conditions.
Two promising strains, Paracoccus communis C4 and C5, were combined to form a synthetic microbial community, or SynCom. The community showed strong acid tolerance and produced alkaline substances as well as indole-3-acetic acid, or IAA, a plant hormone associated with root development. In laboratory cultures, the SynCom reached a pH of 8.3 and produced 35.53 mg/L of IAA.
To help the bacteria survive after application to soil, the researchers used filter mud, an organic byproduct of sugarcane processing, as a microbial carrier. They then tested the resulting microbial amendment in greenhouse pots planted with lettuce.
After treatment, the SynCom successfully colonized the rhizosphere and increased rhizosphere soil pH from 4.73 to 5.50. Lettuce plants also showed marked improvements. Compared with untreated plants, those receiving the SynCom treatment had 120.60% greater height, 527.83% higher fresh weight, and 33.80% higher chlorophyll content.
The benefits extended below ground. The treatment promoted lateral root development, increased root length and surface area, and improved the availability of nutrients, including nitrogen.
Metagenomic analysis revealed another important effect. The SynCom reshaped microbial functions involved in carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus cycling. The abundance of cbbL, a gene associated with microbial carbon fixation, increased approximately 25-fold compared with the untreated control. Genes linked to nitrogen fixation, ammonium production, phosphorus solubilization, and phosphorus transport were also enhanced.
Together, these changes suggest that the microbial community does more than simply neutralize acidity. It can help create a more biologically active rhizosphere where carbon sequestration, nutrient cycling, and plant growth reinforce one another.
The findings offer a potential framework for developing microbial biofertilizers tailored to acidic and nutrient-deficient farmland. Because the approach uses native microorganisms and an agricultural byproduct as a carrier, it may also support more resource-efficient soil management.
The researchers note that the current results come from controlled pot experiments. Future studies will evaluate how well the SynCom performs under real field conditions and determine its broader potential for sustainable agricultural production.
===
Journal Reference: Rong Q, Lu S, Huang J, Wei J, Zhang Z, et al. 2026. Mechanism of synthetic communities in improving acidic soil and promoting crop growth. Agricultural Ecology and Environment 2: e020 doi: 10.48130/aee-0026-0018
Agricultural Ecology and Environment (e-ISSN 3070-0639) is a multidisciplinary platform for communicating advances in fundamental and applied research on the agroecological environment, focusing on the interactions between agroecosystems and the environment. It is dedicated to advancing the understanding of the complex interactions between agricultural practices and ecological systems. The journal aims to provide a comprehensive and cutting-edge forum for researchers, practitioners, policymakers, and stakeholders from diverse fields such as agronomy, ecology, environmental science, soil science, and sustainable development.
Elemental composition-based prediction of persistent free radicals concentration and g-Factor in lignocellulose-derived biochar combining interpretable machine learning and experimental analysis
A new study combines interpretable machine learning with laboratory experiments to uncover how the elemental composition of biochar influences persistent free radicals, offering a potential tool for predicting biochar reactivity and environmental risks.
Biochar, a carbon-rich material produced by heating biomass under oxygen-limited conditions, is widely studied for applications ranging from soil improvement to pollution control. Yet biochar can also contain persistent free radicals, or PFRs, which may remain stable for days or months. These radicals can help generate reactive oxygen species that break down pollutants, but they may also contribute to oxidative stress in living organisms.
Understanding what controls these radicals is therefore important for designing biochar that is both effective and environmentally responsible.
Researchers from Kunming University of Science & Technology analyzed published data using six machine-learning approaches, including XGBoost, gradient boosting, support vector regression, a shallow neural network, random forest, and ensemble learning. They then used interpretable machine-learning tools to determine which elemental properties most strongly influenced PFR concentration and radical type.
The analysis identified the hydrogen-to-carbon ratio, or H/C, and oxygen content as the most important descriptors of PFR concentration. Oxygen content and the oxygen-to-carbon ratio, or O/C, were the strongest predictors of the g-Factor, a measurement used to distinguish different types of free radicals.
"Our results show that relatively simple elemental information can provide valuable clues about the behavior of persistent free radicals in biochar," said Wenmei Tao, corresponding author of the study. "Combining interpretable machine learning with experimental validation may help us better understand how these radicals form and ultimately support more informed biochar design and environmental risk assessment."
The researchers assembled 263 paired records of PFR concentration and g-Factor from previously published studies. The best-performing models achieved test R² values of 0.7797 for PFR concentration and 0.7647 for g-Factor. The models were also highly effective at distinguishing samples with relatively high and low values, with ROC-AUC values exceeding 0.96.
Interpretable analyses provided further insight into the relationships behind those predictions. Lower H/C values and lower oxygen content were generally associated with higher PFR concentrations. In contrast, increasing oxygen content and O/C tended to increase the g-Factor, indicating a shift toward oxygen-centered radicals.
These patterns suggest that changes in elemental composition during biomass pyrolysis are closely connected to both the amount and type of persistent free radicals formed in biochar.
To test whether the machine-learning findings held up experimentally, the researchers produced biochars from cellulose, lignin, peanut hull, rice straw, and pine sawdust at different pyrolysis temperatures. Independent measurements supported the major trends predicted by the models. Spearman correlation analysis confirmed that H/C and oxygen content were most strongly associated with PFR concentration, while oxygen content and O/C showed the strongest relationships with g-Factor.
The researchers also found that when O/C values were similar, higher hydrogen content was associated with a higher g-Factor, revealing an additional interaction that would be difficult to identify using simple linear relationships alone.
The study provides a data-driven framework for linking readily measurable elemental properties to the behavior of persistent free radicals in lignocellulose-derived biochar. The findings could help researchers better evaluate PFR-related environmental risks and guide the development of biochars with properties tailored for environmental remediation.
===
Journal reference: Gao L, Xu C, Li M, Xu Z, Tao W. 2026. Elemental composition-based prediction of persistent free radicals concentration and g-Factor in lignocellulose-derived biochar combining interpretable machine learning and experimental analysis. Biochar X 2: e022 doi: 10.48130/bchax-0026-0020
Biochar X(e-ISSN: 3070-1686)is an open access, online-only journal aims to transcend traditional disciplinary boundaries by providing a multidisciplinary platform for the exchange of cutting-edge research in both fundamental and applied aspects of biochar. The journal is dedicated to supporting the global biochar research community by offering an innovative, efficient, and professional outlet for sharing new findings and perspectives. Its core focus lies in the discovery of novel insights and the development of emerging applications in the rapidly growing field of biochar science.
Elemental composition-based prediction of persistent free radicals concentration and g-Factor in lignocellulose-derived biochar combining interpretable machine learning and experimental analysis
Article Publication Date
17-Aug-2026
Experts say cuts to AHRQ threaten the future of health care quality and patient safety in the US
American College of Physicians
Below please find summaries of new articles that will be published in the next issue of Annals of Internal Medicine. The summaries are not intended to substitute for the full articles as a source of information. This information is under strict embargo and by taking it into possession, media representatives are committing to theterms of the embargo not only on their own behalf, but also on behalf of the organization they represent. ----------------------------
Experts say cuts to AHRQ threaten the future of health care quality and patient safety in the U.S.
In a commentary published in Annals of Internal Medicine, Aaron E. Carroll, MD, MS and David Atkins, MD, MPH, a former Scientific Director of the US Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) and Chief Medical Officer at the Center for Outcome and Evidence at Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), say that Trump administration cuts to AHRQ threaten the future of health care quality and patient safety in the United States. In their article, Drs. Carroll and Atkins explain how recent staffing cuts, funding disruptions, and organizational changes affect the AHRQ. They point out that the Trump administration’s actions have led to the cancellation of at least 115 approved research projects, raising concerns about the future of research that helps improve patient safety, health care quality, and medical decision-making in the United States. The authors argue that the loss of AHRQ could have far-reaching consequences for clinicians and patients by disrupting studies on diagnostic errors, maternal health, primary care, and other issues that no other federal agency is specifically tasked with addressing. They outline actions that Congress should take to mitigate the effects of the recent cuts to AHRQ, including urging the agency to resume regular meetings of the United States Preventative Services Task Force.
Media contacts: For an embargoed PDF, please contact Gabby Macrina at gmacrina@acponline.org. To contact corresponding authors David Atkins, MD, MPH and Aaron E Carroll, MD, MS, please email david.atkins.1958@gmail.com and aaron.carroll@academy-health.org.
----------------------------
Also in this issue:
Randomized Quality Improvement Trials: An Overview and Proposed Framework for Ethical Oversight
Mark J. Pletcher, MD, MPH; Bernard Lo, MD; and Deborah Grady, MD
Tuberculosis (TB) is responsible for about a quarter of all AIDS deaths. In 2024, it was also the leading cause of death among people with HIV. This is despite TB being a preventable and curable disease.
Although clinical trials have shown the benefit of TB preventive treatment in people with HIV, implementation in program settings was slow until a major commitment by the U.S. President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) in 2018. Since then, over 13 million people living with HIV worldwide have received TB preventive treatment.
A new study led by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Division of Global HIV and Tuberculosis and Emory University’s Rollins School of Public Health evaluated the real-world impact of TB preventive treatment in six countries with high TB and HIV rates (Haiti, Kenya, Nigeria, Uganda, Ukraine, and Zimbabwe). Findings were published today in The Lancet HIV.
What They Found
TB preventive treatment works in real-world settings. Providing TB preventive treatment, mainly with 6 months of isoniazid, lowered the occurrence of TB and deaths in people who received the treatment. This was true across a wide range of country settings, health conditions, and risk groups.
TB preventive treatment works best when it is started early in HIV care. Within the first two weeks is ideal but it is still effective when started within eight weeks of entering HIV care.
Advancements in HIV detection, treatment, and care should go hand in hand with TB preventive treatment as a vital aspect of HIV programs.
“What is powerful about these findings is that they come from routine HIV programs, not from a controlled clinical trial,” said Anand Date, chief of CDC’s Global TB Branch. “This is program data showing what happens when countries deliver TB preventive treatment at scale.”
TB and HIV Prevention at a Global Level
TB is the leading cause of infectious disease death in the world. More than 10.7 million people were sick with TB and 1.2 million people died from it in 2024. Anyone can get TB, and certain groups are more vulnerable to the disease than others, including older adults, children, and people with weakened immune systems (such as those with HIV or cancer).
The highly contagious infectious disease appears in every country in the world, including the United States, where it occurs in all 50 states.
An estimated 13 million Americans are living with latent TB infection, representing the reservoir of possible future active TB disease.
TB preventive treatment when taken correctly can halt the progression to active TB disease.
Newer treatment options in the U.S. are shorter and can be completed in three months or even one month, including for people with HIV.
Global HIV and TB prevention and treatment efforts have faced setbacks in the past year with freezes on U.S. foreign aid, the dissolution of USAID, and disruptions to PEPFAR funding. Reducing funding for TB programs is projected to result in more than half a million additional deaths from TB and increased catastrophic costs for families.
“Taken together, the findings support the critical role of tuberculosis preventive treatment in HIV care programs,” says Sarita Shah, MD, MPH, professor of epidemiology and global health at Rollins. “This is important in the current context of reduced funding for global health programs to ensure that gains made in HIV care over the last two decades are sustained.”
Programmatic effectiveness of tuberculosis preventive treatment for people with HIV in six high-tuberculosis-burden countries (PROTECT): a prospective cohort study and meta-analysis
