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The fire ban implemented during burning seasons in the Brazilian Amazon helped reduce the number of fires in 2019 but proved largely ineffective in 2020 and 2021, according to an analysis of observed fires activity and model simulations of expected fires in the absence of a ban over 2019–2021.

Long non-coding RNAs are identified as non-invasive biomarkers predicting homologous recombination deficiency and PARP inhibitor sensitivity in high-grade serous ovarian cancer, enabling improved precision oncology approaches.

The advantage of living in cities compared with rural areas with respect to height and BMI in children and adolescents has generally become smaller globally from 1990 to 2020, except in sub-Saharan Africa.

Analysis of individual-level patient records from Brazil reveals that the extensive shocks in COVID-19 mortality rates are associated with pre-pandemic geographic inequities as well as shortages in healthcare capacity during the pandemic.

Artificial intelligence (AI) system is known to improve dermatologists’ diagnostic accuracy for melanoma. This group applies the eye-tracking technology on dermatologists when diagnosing dermoscopic images of melanomas and reports improved balanced diagnostic accuracy when using an X(explainable) AI system comparing to the standard one.

Estimates from the Global Dietary Database indicated that 2.2 million new type 2 diabetes and 1.2 million new cardiovascular disease cases were attributable to sugar-sweetened beverages worldwide in 2020, with the highest burdens in sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean.

Elimination of hunger will require shifts in crop usage by 2030. Calories will need to be obtained from crops currently harvested for purposes other than direct food consumption. Sub-Saharan Africa, however, will likely fall short even if all harvested calories are used directly as food.

The transfer of public funds between governments within a country based on ecological indicators is an emerging tool in environmental policy. A review of extant and proposed schemes identifies challenges and opportunities to expand the use of this instrument.

Microhomology-mediated end-joining (MMEJ) is a poorly defined mutagenic DNA break repair pathway. Here the authors show that the helicase HELQ is essential for polymerase theta-independent MMEJ, single-strand annealing and homologous recombination through synthesis dependent strand annealing in C. elegans.

Agricultural crops are closely linked to the climate in which they grow, but the extent to which variability in weather influences yield is not well characterized. Here, Ray et al. find that climatic variation explains around a third of the variation in global crop yields, with important regional variations.

The second Global Amphibian Assessment finds that the status of amphibians is continuing to deteriorate globally, driven predominantly by climate change, disease and habitat loss.

Double-blinded studies show that paper-based diagnostic tests and a companion portable device designed for use in low-resource settings perform well for the diagnosis of the Zika and chikungunya viruses in serum samples.

Human Langerhans cells express CD1a, but those in mice do not, which makes determination of its function on these cells challenging in vivo. Through the use of a transgenic mouse that expresses CD1a, Winau and colleagues demonstrate that Langerhans cells use CD1a to present contact allergens and self lipid antigens and thereby worsen inflammatory skin conditions.

An analysis based on data from the Global Dietary Database shows mean animal-sourced food intakes among children and adolescents increased modestly from 1990 to two portions per day in 2018, but remain low in sub-Saharan Africa, India and Bangladesh.

Recent estimates of sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) intake are generally unavailable. Here the authors show a global SSBs intake of 2.7 servings/week in 2018 in adults (range: 0.7 South Asia, 7.8 Latin America/Caribbean); intakes were higher among males, younger, more educated, and urban adults.

Wood density is an important plant trait. Data from 1.1 million forest inventory plots and 10,703 tree species show a latitudinal gradient in wood density, with temperature and soil moisture explaining variation at the global scale and disturbance also having a role at the local level.

The authors analyse tree responses to an extreme heat and drought event across South America to understand long-term climate resistance. While no more sensitive to this than previous lesser events, forests in drier climates showed the greatest impacts and thus vulnerability to climate extremes.

Artificial intelligence has become popular as a cancer classification tool, but there is distrust of such systems due to their lack of transparency. Here, the authors develop an explainable AI system which produces text- and region-based explanations alongside its classifications which was assessed using clinicians’ diagnostic accuracy, diagnostic confidence, and their trust in the system.

Dietary quality is reported at the global, regional and national level across 185 countries. Though diet quality increased modestly since 1990 at the global level, in South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa it did not improve. In some regions, children’s dietary quality is lower than that of adults.

Alternative stable states in forests have implications for the biosphere. Here, the authors combine forest biodiversity observations and simulations revealing that leaf types across temperate regions of the NH follow a bimodal distribution suggesting signatures of alternative forest states.

The glycosyltransferase C1GalT1 directs a key step in protein O-glycosylation important for the expression of the cancer-associated Tn and T antigens. Here, the authors provide molecular insights into the function of C1GalT1 by solving the crystal structure of the Drosophila enzyme-substrate complex.

Nitrous oxide (N₂O) emissions are continuously increasing owing to human activities. This Review discusses the temporal and spatial variability of N₂O sources, N₂O production pathways, and the potential of biogeoengineering strategies in agricultural soils and terrestrial water bodies to mitigate emissions.

New global datasets of upper canopy vegetation respiration have become available and their impact on global carbon cycle models is unclear. Here, the authors show the implications of these parameterisations with a global gridded land model and report significantly higher global plant respiration estimates.

Modeling analysis from the Global Dietary Database estimated that 70% of new global cases of type 2 diabetes are attributable to suboptimal intake of 11 dietary factors, with substantial differences in dietary risks across world regions and nations.

From 1980 to 2018, the levels of total and non-high-density lipoprotein cholesterol increased in low- and middle-income countries, especially in east and southeast Asia, and decreased in high-income western countries, especially those in northwestern Europe, and in central and eastern Europe.

Analysis of ground-sourced and satellite-derived models reveals a global forest carbon potential of 226 Gt outside agricultural and urban lands, with a difference of only 12% across these modelling approaches.

As cervical tumours become more invasive, levels of episomal human papillomavirus paradoxically tend to decrease. Here the authors identify a network of antiviral and cell cycle genes that is amplified by chromosomal aberrations and promotes cervical tumour progression.

The CMS Collaboration reports evidence for off-shell Higgs boson contributions in the production of Z boson pairs, and measures the width of the Higgs boson, which is inversely related to its lifetime.

The CMS Collaboration reports the study of three simultaneous hard interactions between quarks and gluons in proton–proton collisions. This manifests through the concurrent production of three J/ψ mesons, which consist of a charm-quark–antiquark pair.