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Land degradation and soil fertility deterioration are two of the main causes of agricultural production stagnation and decline in many parts of the world. The model of crop production based on mechanical soil tillage and exposed soils is typically accompanied by negative effects on the natural resource base of the farming environment, which can be so serious that they jeopardize agricultural productive potential in the future. This form of agriculture is destructive to soil health and accelerates the loss of soil by increasing its mineralization and erosion rates. Conservation agriculture, a system avoiding or minimizing soil mechanical disturbance (no-tillage) combined with soil cover and crop diversification, is considered a sustainable agro-ecological approach to resource-conserving agricultural production. A major objective of tillage is supposed to be weed control, and it does not require very specific knowledge because soil inversion controls (at least temporarily) most weeds mechanically (i.e., by way of burying them). However, repeated ploughing only changes the weed population, but does not control weeds in the long term. The same applies to the mechanical uprooting of weeds. While in the short term some tillage operations can control weeds on farms, tillage systems can increase and propagate weeds off-farm. The absence of tillage, under conservation agriculture, requires other measures of weed control. One of the ways in which this is realized is through herbicide application. However, environmental concerns, herbicide resistance and access to appropriate agro-chemicals on the part of resource-poor farmers, highlight the need for alternative weed control strategies that are effective and accessible for smallholders adopting conservation agriculture. Farmers in semi-arid regions contend with the additional challenge of low biomass production and, often, competition with livestock enterprises, which limit the potential weed-suppressing benefits of mulch and living cover crops. This paper reviews the applicability and efficacy of various mechanical, biological and integrated weed management strategies for the effective and sustainable management of weeds in smallholder conservation agriculture systems, including the role of appropriate equipment and prerequisites for smallholders within a sustainable intensification scenario.

This paper offers a critical assessment of the value and utility of the evolving City Region Food Systems (CRFS) approach to improve our insights into flows of resources—food, waste, people, and knowledge—from rural to peri-urban to urban and back again, and the policies and process needed to enable sustainability. This paper reflects on (1) CRFS merits compared to other approaches; (2) the operational potential of applying the CRFS approach to existing projects through case analysis; (3) how to make the CRFS approach more robust and ways to further operationalize the approach; and (4) the potential for the CRFS approach to address complex challenges including integrated governance, territorial development, metabolic flows, and climate change. The paper begins with the rationale for CRFS as both a conceptual framework and an integrative operational approach, as it helps to build increasingly coherent transformational food systems. CRFS is differentiated from existing approaches to understand the context and gaps in theory and practice. We then explore the strength of CRFS through the conceptual building blocks of ‘food systems’ and ‘city-regions’ as appropriate, or not, to address pressing complex challenges. As both a multi-stakeholder, sustainability-building approach and process, CRFS provides a collective voice for food actors across scales and could provide coherence across jurisdictions, policies, and scales, including the Milan Urban Food Policy Pact, the Sustainable Development Goals, the Habitat III New Urban Agenda, and the Conference of the Parties (COP) 21. CRFS responds directly to calls in the literature to provide a conceptual and practical framing for policy through wide engagement across sectors that enables the co-construction of a relevant policy frame that can be enacted through sufficiently integrated policies and programs that achieve increasingly sustainable food systems.

Using examples from the COVID-19 pandemic, this paper reviews the contribution a City Region Food Systems (CRFS) approach makes to regional sustainability and resilience for existing and future shocks including climate change. We include both explicit interventions under United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO-RUAF) led initiatives, as well as ad hoc efforts that engage with elements of the CRFS approach. To provide context, we begin with a literature review of the CRFS approach followed by an overview of the global food crisis, where we outline many of the challenges inherent to the industrial capital driven food system. Next, we elaborate three key entry points for the CRFS approach—multistakeholder engagement across urban rural spaces; the infrastructure needed to support more robust CRFS; system centered planning, and, the role of policy in enabling (or thwarting) food system sustainability. The pandemic raises questions and provides insights about how to foster more resilient food systems, and provides lessons for the future for the City Region Food System approach in the context of others shocks including climate change.

In the context of growing urbanisation, urban poverty, and climate change impacts, the importance of urban food security and urban food systems is increasingly recognised by both local and national governments, as well as international actors. There is also a growing understanding that urban development and food systems cannot be decoupled from rural development given the multiple impacts that urban areas have on their surroundings. In recent years the concept of City Region Food Systems (CRFS) has emerged as a promising approach to support local governments, policy makers, and multi-stakeholder bodies in making informed decisions to improve urban and regional food system sustainability and resilience, while taking into account a more integrated approach to territorial development across urban and rural areas. This paper is based on an ongoing FAO and RUAF programme of assessing and planning City Region Food Systems, currently implemented in eight city regions in Canada, Colombia, Ecuador, Senegal, Sri Lanka, The Netherlands, and Zambia. The paper analyses the content, definition and delimitations of the concept of City Region Food Systems by presenting two case studies from Latin America (Quito and Medellín), and discusses first advances in policy uptake and territorial food planning.

Maternal-offspring gut bacteriomes are closely linked to each other; however, the effects of the maternal diet have not been fully elucidated. This study aimed to determine the effect of administration of octanoate, a medium-chain fatty acid as a physiological regulator, on the fecal bacteriome and physiological indices of dams and their calves as a livestock animal model. Twelve Japanese Black cattle were randomly assigned to CON (without Ca-octanoate supplementation, n  = 6) or OCT (with Ca-octanoate supplementation, n  = 6), 60 days prior to the expected parturition date. A tendency towards enhanced feed efficiency was observed during the suckling period in OCT calves compared to CON calves, although the management of the calves was uniform from birth. Three types of machine learning algorithms computationally selected the feature factors of dams and their calves (30 d and 180 d of age). Based on the feature selection, causal inference estimated that feeding octanoate to dams would establish a positive association with the genus Bacteroides , a producer of short-chain fatty acids, at 30 d and a negative association with the genus Candidatus Stoquefichus , which is involved in colitis, at 180 d. These findings highlight that feeding octanoate to dams may influence the bacteriome of calves, thereby improving their feed efficiency.

Although mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) can be obtained from the fetal membrane (FM), little information is available regarding biological differences in MSCs derived from different layers of the FM or their therapeutic potential. Isolated MSCs from both amnion and chorion layers of FM showed similar morphological appearance, multipotency, and cell-surface antigen expression. Conditioned media obtained from amnion- and chorion-derived MSCs inhibited cell death caused by serum starvation or hypoxia in endothelial cells and cardiomyocytes. Amnion and chorion MSCs secreted significant amounts of angiogenic factors including HGF, IGF-1, VEGF, and bFGF, although differences in the cellular expression profile of these soluble factors were observed. Transplantation of human amnion or chorion MSCs significantly increased blood flow and capillary density in a murine hindlimb ischemia model. In addition, compared to human chorion MSCs, human amnion MSCs markedly reduced T-lymphocyte proliferation with the enhanced secretion of PGE2, and improved the pathological situation of a mouse model of acute graft-versus-host disease. Our results highlight that human amnion- and chorion-derived MSCs, which showed differences in their soluble factor secretion and angiogenic/immuno-suppressive function, could be ideal cell sources for regenerative medicine.

The tumor immune microenvironment is increasingly becoming a key consideration in developing treatment regimens for aggressive cancers, with evidence that regulatory T cells (Tregs) attenuate the antitumor response by interrupting cytotoxic T cells (CD8+). Here, we hypothesized the prognostic relevance of the proportions of Tregs (marked by forkhead box protein 3 [FOXP3]) and CD8+ cells in diffuse, non‐Epstein–Barr virus (EBV)/non‐microsatellite instability (MSI)‐high gastroesophageal adenocarcinomas (GEAs), which are clinically characterized as more aggressive, immunologically inactive tumors as compared with their intestinal counterparts. Cell‐count ratios of FOXP3+/CD8+ expression were calculated at the intratumoral region and invasive margin discretely on digital images from 303 chemo‐naive non‐EBV/non‐MSI‐high esophagogastric junction (EGJ) adenocarcinomas. A significant modifying prognostic effect of tumor histology was observed between 5‐year EGJ cancer‐specific survival and the FOXP3+/CD8+ ratio at the invasive margin in pStage I–III tumors (p for interaction = 0.022; hazard ratio [HR] = 8.47 and 95% confidence interval [CI], 2.04–35.19 for high ratio [vs. low] for diffuse; HR = 1.57 and 95% CI, 0.88–2.83 for high ratio [vs. low] for intestinal). A high FOXP3+/CD8+ ratio at the invasive margin was associated with RUNX3 methylation (p = 0.035) and poor prognosis in RUNX3‐methylated diffuse histological subtype (5‐year EGJ cancer‐specific survival, 52.3% for high and 100% for low, p = 0.015). Multiomics data from The Cancer Genome Atlas linked CCL28 with RUNX3‐suppressed diffuse histological subtypes of non‐EBV/non‐MSI‐high GEA. Our data suggest that a high FOXP3+/CD8+ ratio at the invasive margin might indicate tumor immune escape via CCL28, particularly in the RUNX3‐methylated diffuse histological subtype. Epstein–Barr virus (EBV)‐associated and microsatellite instability (MSI)‐high tumors evade antitumor immunity mainly by expressing programmed death‐ligand 1. However, little is known about the tumor immune microenvironment of non‐EBV/non‐MSI‐high tumors. Here, we show that the FOXP3+/CD8+ ratio differs by histology, with a high ratio at the invasive margin associated with an unfavorable prognosis in the diffuse histological subtype of non‐EBV/non‐MSI‐high esophagogastric junction adenocarcinoma. This is particularly evident in RUNX3−methylated tumors, which might be linked to CCL28 production.

Due to the poor prognosis of adult T-cell leukemia/lymphoma (ATL), new treatments are urgently needed, especially for elderly patients with aggressive ATL. The anti-CCR4 antibody drug mogamulizumab (MOG) has been approved for the treatment of untreated ATL. To analyze the impact of MOG on elderly patients, we conducted a retrospective analysis of patients aged 70 years and older with aggressive ATL diagnosed at our institution between 2015 and 2021. Among 32 patients, including those who received best supportive care, the median survival time (MST) and 2-year overall survival (OS) rate were 14.6 months (range, 0.0–83.7), and 34.7% [95% confidence interval (CI), 18.2–51.9], respectively, which were better than outcomes in our previous study. The MST and 2-year OS for patients treated with MOG-containing chemotherapy were 18.1 months (range, 4.0–83.7) and 45.0% (95%CI, 23.1–64.7), respectively, demonstrating clear improvement. Adverse events observed with MOG-containing treatment, such as myelosuppression and skin rash, were similar to those reported previously. Univariate analysis identified comorbidity as a predictor of poor outcomes, but not intensity of MOG-containing treatment, suggesting a different mechanism of action than that of classical chemotherapy. Our study suggests that MOG-containing treatments are an option for elderly patients with ATL.

The efficacy of azacitidine (AZA) on survival of lower risk (LR) ‐ myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) is controversial. To address this issue, we retrospectively evaluated the long‐term survival benefit of AZA for patients with LR‐MDS defined by International Prognostic Scoring System (IPSS). Using data from 489 patients with LR‐MDS in Nagasaki, hematologic responses according to International Working Group 2006 and overall survival (OS) were compared among patients that received best supportive care (BSC), immunosuppressive therapy (IST), erythropoiesis‐stimulating agents (ESA), and AZA. Patients treated with AZA showed complete remission (CR) rate at 11.3%, marrow CR at 1.9%, and any hematologic improvement at 34.0%, with transfusion independence (TI) of red blood cells in 27.3% of patients. and platelet in 20% of patients, respectively. Median OS for patients received IST, ESA, BSC, and AZA (not reached, 91 months, 58 months, and 29 months, respectively) differed significantly (P < .001). Infection‐related severe adverse events were observed in more than 20% of patients treated with AZA. Multivariate analysis showed age, sex, IPSS score at diagnosis, and transfusion dependence were significant for OS, but AZA treatment was not, which maintained even response to AZA, and IPSS risk status at AZA administration was added as factors. We could not find significant survival benefit of AZA treatment for LR‐MDS patients. Multivariate analysis showed age, sex, IPSS score at diagnosis, and transfusion dependence were significant for OS, but AZA treatment was not, which maintained even response to AZA, and IPSS risk status at AZA administration was added as factors. We could not find significant survival benefit of AZA treatment for LR‐MDS patients.

Patients with breast cancer undergoing chemotherapy experience significant adverse effects, including fatigue, nausea, and taste alterations, leading to malnutrition in 40% of patients. Traditional nutritional counseling has shown limited effectiveness in addressing these challenges during treatment. This study aimed to evaluate the impact of a structured meal kit intervention on quality of life and metabolomic profiles in patients with breast cancer during perioperative anthracycline and taxane-based chemotherapy. This single-center phase 2 randomized crossover trial will enroll 20 patients with breast cancer scheduled for perioperative chemotherapy at Jikei University Hospital between October 2024 and October 2025. Patients will be randomized 1:1 to receive a meal kit intervention either during the first or second 3-month period of chemotherapy. The intervention consists of weekly deliveries of preportioned ingredients with dietitian-designed recipes (one 2-serving meal kit during chemotherapy weeks, two during nonchemotherapy weeks). The primary endpoint is the change in the EORTC QLQ-C30 (European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer Quality of Life Questionnaire Core 30) \"appetite loss\" domain score. Secondary endpoints include changes in total EORTC QLQ-C30 score, plasma metabolome profiles, body composition, nutritional status, and chemotherapy completion rate. Data will be collected at baseline, crossover (12 wk), and study completion (24 wk). The study was funded in March 2024. Data collection began on March 26, 2025, and as of manuscript submission, 11 participants have been recruited out of the planned 20 participants. Data analysis has not yet commenced, and results are expected to be published in Spring 2026. This trial will provide evidence for the effectiveness of a meal kit intervention in supporting patients with breast cancer during chemotherapy. The findings may help establish evidence-based standards for nutritional support in oncology care.