Search Results (949)

To elucidate the mechanisms by which the rhizosphere microbial community influences cold tolerance in maize, this study employed the metagenomic technology to systematically analyze the community composition, functional characteristics, and their association with host cold tolerance in the rhizosphere of maize genotypes with different cold tolerance (cold-tolerant material B144 and cold-sensitive material Q319, among others) (n = 3 biological replicates per genotype). The results revealed that the rhizosphere microbial community of the cold-tolerant genotype B144 exhibited higher species diversity and more complex genomic features. LEfSe analysis indicated that the rhizosphere soil microbiota of B144 was significantly enriched in two major phyla, Firmicutes and Actinobacteria, as well as microbial taxa with stress tolerance potential, such as the Bacillus and Streptomyces. Further functional analysis revealed that the microbial community was specifically enriched in metabolic pathways related to glycan biosynthesis and metabolism, as well as coenzyme and vitamin metabolism. We hypothesize that the physiological stability of maize under low temperatures can be enhanced through mechanisms such as the synthesis of extracellular polysaccharides to reduce the freezing point and the provision of vitamins and antioxidant substances. In contrast, the rhizosphere microorganisms of the cold-sensitive material Q319 were more enriched in basic metabolic functions. The present study elucidates the pivotal mechanisms by which rhizosphere microorganisms facilitate maize resistance to low-temperature stress from a functional perspective. This provides theoretical support and new strategies for enhancing crop stress resistance by regulating the rhizosphere microbiome. Full article

Tourism and hospitality organisations in remote, highly seasonal Arctic and sub-Arctic destinations face persistent workforce instability, multicultural team dynamics, and well-being risks that threaten service reliability and organisational continuity. Previous research has focused mainly on destination- and community-level resilience, while giving less attention to how resilience is built within tourism organisations through everyday workforce-related practices. This study examines people-centred organisational resilience through a qualitative comparative design in two northern contexts: Iceland and Finnish Lapland. The empirical material comprised semi-structured interviews in Iceland and interviews, organisational documents, and field observations in Finnish Lapland, collected in autumn 2025. The data were analysed using thematic analysis. The findings identify four recurring resilience mechanisms: leadership under seasonal and environmental pressure; employee experience across employment phases; living conditions and belonging; and ethical governance. Here, “mechanisms” refers not simply to broad topics but to organisational processes through which recurring practices support resilience in remote, highly seasonal tourism settings. Together, these mechanisms show that resilience in remote tourism is built not only through operational flexibility or crisis response, but through people-centred organisational practices that support continuity, coordination, safety, and trust across seasons. The study contributes a workforce-centred extension of resilience theory in tourism and offers a comparative account of how these mechanisms operate across two northern tourism settings. Full article

This paper examines DisAbitanti, a participatory cultural initiative developed in Corigliano d’Otranto (Grecìa Salentina, Southern Italy) to explore how performative and community-based practices may contribute to sustainable and proximity tourism in small heritage towns. The study adopts an exploratory qualitative case study design, combining participatory action research and artistic research, drawing on participant observation, reflective field diaries, semi-structured interviews with local actors and participants, and analysis of project materials and relevant local planning documents. The analysis identifies a set of emerging patterns suggesting that the reactivation of abandoned or underused spaces through site-specific performances and collective storytelling is associated with forms of resident participation, reconfiguration of resident–visitor roles, and off-season cultural activation. These dynamics contribute to strengthening local identity and social cohesion, while highlighting the role of cultural practice in place-based governance processes. The analysis indicates that performative interventions can act as catalysts for the emergence of informal governance dynamics within the case study, connecting local associations, artists, residents, and cultural organizers. This claim is supported by empirically observed indications, including the number and diversity of actors involved and the emergence of new collaborative interactions. While the findings are not intended to be generalizable, they provide analytical insight into how performative practices may enable forms of place-based coordination around heritage use and spatial activation, linking heritage experience to habitability and spatial equity. The paper concludes that DisAbitanti offers a context-sensitive approach for translating sustainability principles—consistent with the UN 2030 Agenda—into situated tourism governance practices, with potential relevance for other small inner peripheral towns facing seasonality and spatial marginalization. Full article

Potentially toxic elements (PTEs) in mining-impacted wetlands can transfer from soil and water to forage and grazing livestock, resulting in dietary exposure for nearby communities. In this study, arsenic (As), lead (Pb), and cadmium (Cd) were quantified in key environmental matrices (soil, surface water, and forage) and in sheep tissues (liver, kidney, and muscle) from six georeferenced grazing sites in the Ite coastal wetland (Tacna, Peru) during the dry season. Samples were acid-digested following U.S. EPA protocols and analyzed by atomic absorption spectrometry (AAS) under QA/QC procedures (certified reference materials, blanks, duplicates, and matrix spikes); matrix-specific detection and quantification limits are reported. Arsenic dominated the contamination profile (forage: 428.6 mg kg⁻¹, dry weight; soil: 48.61 mg kg⁻¹; water: 0.97 mg L⁻¹) and was detected in sheep tissues (kidney: 0.1577 mg kg⁻¹; muscle: 0.1538 mg kg⁻¹; liver: 0.0644 mg kg⁻¹). Lead and cadmium were <LOQ in muscle and liver but were measurable in kidney (Pb: 0.0415 mg kg⁻¹; Cd: 0.0011 mg kg⁻¹). To support the interpretation of trophic transfer, screening transfer/bioaccumulation metrics (soil-to-forage, forage-to-tissue, and water-to-tissue) were calculated. Human dietary exposure was screened using estimated daily intake (EDI), hazard quotient (HQ), and margin of exposure (MOE). Because arsenic speciation was not measured, inorganic arsenic (iAs) risk was evaluated as a conservative upper bound (100% iAs) and through sensitivity scenarios (10–50% iAs). Under a high-meat-consumption scenario (300 g day⁻¹), the upper-bound assumption yielded HQ = 2.2 and MOE = 0.46; however, scenario analyses indicate that risk conclusions are highly dependent on the assumed iAs fraction. Overall, the results identify arsenic as a priority contaminant and support targeted grazing management, the provision of low-arsenic water sources, and remediation and monitoring actions to reduce exposure in vulnerable rural communities. Full article

Macrobrachium nipponense is one of the major economic species in freshwater aquaculture in China. As an important component of aquaculture ecosystem, microorganisms participate in key processes such as material cycling and water quality regulation, exerting significant impacts on the cultured organisms. In this study, high-throughput sequencing of the 16S rRNA, 18S rRNA, and ITS regions was employed to comparatively analyze the characteristics of microbial communities before and during the cultivation period, combined with correlation analysis of environmental factors. The results showed that the dominant microbial groups in the prawn pond water were Proteobacteria, Cyanobacteria, Ascomycota, Basidiomycota, Chlorophyta, and Arthropoda. The microbial community structure differed significantly between the pond water during the culture period and the pre-culture external river baseline: manifested as an increase in the relative abundances of Cyanobacteria, Chytridiomycota, and zooplankton, and a decrease in the abundances of Ascomycota, Basidiomycota, and Chlorophyta. Analysis of LEfSe revealed that the low-nitrogen pond was enriched with taxa such as Muribaculaceae; the high-nitrogen pond was enriched with taxa such as Cyanobium_PCC-6307; and the control pond was enriched with taxa such as CL500-29_marine_group. Functional prediction indicated that heterotrophic metabolism-related functions dominated the microbial communities. The abundance of fungal pathogens was significantly higher in the low-nitrogen group, while potential pathogenic bacteria were enriched in the high-nitrogen group. Ammonia nitrogen is a core environmental factor associated with differences in microbial community structure. The findings of this study can provide theoretical references and data support for water quality optimization and the construction of healthy aquaculture models in freshwater shrimp and crab farming waters. Full article

The human virome, comprising eukaryotic viruses, bacteriophages, and viral genetic material, is a dynamic component of the microbiome with growing relevance in infectious diseases. This narrative review is structured to: (i) summarize the general composition of the human virome and methodological challenges, including the fraction of unclassified viral “dark matter”; (ii) describe virome alterations in chronic infections; and (iii) explore site-specific virome dynamics across respiratory, intestinal, and genito-urinary tracts in both chronic and acute infections. In chronic viral infections such as HIV, HBV, HCV, and HPV, a recurrent feature is the expansion of Anelloviridae—particularly torque teno virus—reflecting impaired immune surveillance rather than direct pathogenicity, suggesting their potential as surrogate biomarkers of immune competence. Evidence on virome changes in chronic bacterial and parasitic infections remains limited, highlighting a critical knowledge gap. Acute infections are associated with compartment-specific shifts in eukaryotic viruses and bacteriophage communities, often paralleling changes in bacterial populations and inflammatory responses, with implications for disease severity. Despite advances in metagenomic approaches, a substantial proportion of viral sequences remains unclassified, limiting functional interpretation. Nevertheless, virome profiling provides an ecosystem-level perspective, offering insights beyond single-pathogen detection and supporting emerging applications in diagnostics, immune monitoring, prognosis, and infectious disease surveillance. Full article

Art therapy assessment benefits from analytical clarity while preserving non-directive, process-sensitive practice. Although the Expressive Therapies Continuum (ETC) is widely used to conceptualize sensory, affective, cognitive, and symbolic processes in art-making, ETC-informed assessment often relies on implicit clinical reasoning, limiting transparency and interdisciplinary communication. This article presents the developmental stage of a protocol-based Expressive Therapies Continuum Assessment Profile (ETC-AP) developed at Rīga Stradiņš University. The ETC-AP differentiates activation and inhibition patterns around integration midpoints and organizes observation in a defined five-step interpretive sequence without positioning the method as a psychometrically validated test. It combines (i) a uniform three-task, non-directive administration with a brief post-task inquiry; (ii) criteria-guided coding of observable features across three artworks and process notes; and (iii) 0–100 descriptive profile indicators to support within-case pattern description and professional dialogue. An illustrative case vignette shows how the ETC-AP can generate trauma-informed, regulation-oriented hypotheses about channel accessibility and cautious regulation-oriented sequencing, while remaining subordinate to clinical judgment and context. Key boundaries include incomplete operational coverage in some inhibition ranges, limits of static documentation for process-dependent markers, and the need for structured training materials and programmatic studies of reliability, feasibility, and sensitivity to change. Full article

COVID-19 was a prolonged public-health shock that disrupted mobility, access to services, and household spending. Although the official U.S. poverty rate declined to 11.1%, the Supplemental Poverty Measure rose to 12.9%, suggesting that material hardship persisted unevenly across places. This study asks whether pre-existing livelihood vulnerability and local epidemic burden translated into geographically concentrated consumption losses during 2020–2022. Because sustained consumption loss can erode households’ health-related spending, tracking where spending declines concentrate helps connect local social and environmental conditions to how communities withstand a health crisis. We analyze consumer expenditure, unlike prior research relying on aggregate retail sales, to capture fine-grained economic strains as a proxy for shock-absorption capacity. A Livelihood Vulnerability Index (LVI) was calculated for each U.S. county using 16 socio-economic variables, and counties were classified as high- or low-risk. A multilevel model then examined how socio-economic and COVID-19 factors at county and census tract levels shaped consumption changes. Higher-risk communities experienced greater consumption reductions. At the census tract level, the non-White ratio, vacancy rate, built year, per capita income, education level, and housing value were significant. At the county level, COVID-19 cases and deaths, crowding, public transportation use, and vehicle availability mattered most. These findings support place-targeted strategies that combine public-health response with socio-environmental interventions to reduce disparities rooted in pre-existing vulnerability. Full article

Global water scarcity has intensified over recent decades, with projections suggesting that nearly six billion people may face limited access to clean water by 2050. Water reuse has emerged as a viable strategy to alleviate pressure on freshwater resources, particularly for non-potable applications. However, safe implementation requires wastewater to be treated to meet fit-for-purpose quality standards established through regional and national regulatory frameworks. Despite high levels of basic sanitation coverage in high-income countries such as the United States, persistent gaps remain in affordable and equitable wastewater management, particularly in small and underserved communities. This review focused on current knowledge of sustainable low-cost materials, including plant-based, clay, and clay-based ceramics; animal-derived products; and industrial by-products, used to remove a broad range of contaminants, including heavy metals, dyes, nutrients, emerging contaminants, and pathogens, from wastewater. The mechanisms governing their performance, such as adsorption, coagulation–flocculation, and filtration, were examined alongside contaminant-specific performance. The review further highlights the emerging role of 3D printing in developing customizable, efficient, and scalable treatment units using low-cost or waste-derived materials. Life cycle assessment (LCA) studies were evaluated to highlight their role as a flexible framework for assessing environmental impacts across life-cycle stages and for guiding the selection of sustainable materials and treatment systems. Together, these perspectives provide a comprehensive foundation for developing decentralized, community-oriented wastewater treatment solutions that support safe and effective water reuse, especially in rural and small communities. Full article

Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) are widely applied as bioinoculants to enhance crop performance, yet their broader ecological effects on rhizosphere microbial assembly under field conditions remain insufficiently understood. Here, we evaluated the impact of a commercial AMF inoculant and its carrier material on lettuce performance and rhizosphere microbial communities in an open-field experiment. We hypothesized that both viable AMF propagules and formulation components contribute to shifts in rhizosphere processes. Active AMF inoculation significantly increased root colonization and fresh biomass at harvest, confirming successful establishment and enhanced plant performance under field conditions. Colonization levels in the heat-inactivated carrier treatment were comparable to the non-inoculated control, indicating that the carrier did not inhibit indigenous AMF activity or induce nutrient-mediated suppression of symbiosis. Plant physiological responses were stage-dependent, supporting the context-dependent nature of AMF effects in dynamic field environments. High-throughput sequencing revealed no significant treatment effects on bacterial or fungal alpha diversity. However, beta-diversity analyses demonstrated significant compositional restructuring of rhizosphere communities, particularly within the bacterial domain. A stable core microbiome persisted across treatments, yet relative abundances and community evenness were altered by both active inoculation and carrier application. These results suggest that AMF inoculation reorganizes microbial community structure predominantly via shifts in ecological niche occupation. Collectively, our results show that AMF inoculation functions not only as a symbiotic nutrient-acquisition strategy but also as a driver of rhizosphere microbial reorganization under field conditions. Integrating plant performance with microbiome dynamics provides a more comprehensive framework for understanding and optimizing microbial inoculants in sustainable agricultural systems. Full article

Background and Objectives: represents a major public health challenge in rapidly aging societies. While lifestyle behaviors are established modifiable risk factors for frailty, the longitudinal impact of composite lifestyle trajectories—particularly by sex—remains poorly understood. This study examined sex-stratified associations between Healthy Lifestyle Score Trajectories (HLSTs) and frailty among community-dwelling middle-aged and older adults in South Korea. Using 19 years of nationally representative panel data from the Korean Longitudinal Study of Aging (2006–2024), we analyzed 6603 participants (2684 males; 3919 females). Materials and Methods: Group-Based Trajectory Modeling was applied to Waves 1–6 to derive sex-specific HLSTs based on smoking, alcohol consumption, physical activity, and body mass index. Generalized Estimating Equations were used to assess longitudinal associations between HLSTs and Frailty Index (FI) scores across Waves 6–10, adjusting for sociodemographic covariates. Results: Five distinct HLSTs were identified in both sexes. In both males and females, persistently poor or deteriorating trajectories were independently associated with higher FI scores relative to the Favorable HLST reference group. The effect size for Poor HLST was more than twice as large in females (B = 0.039) than in males (B = 0.018), consistent with the sex-frailty paradox. Among females, the Improving HLST group did not demonstrate a statistically significant frailty benefit (B = 0.014, p = 0.091). Stratified analyses revealed that the lifestyle–frailty association among males was significant only in rural-dwelling participants, whereas in females the association was consistent across both urban and rural settings. Conclusions: Persistently unfavorable composite lifestyle trajectories were independently associated with higher frailty burden, with disproportionately greater impact in women. Late-life lifestyle improvement was not significantly associated with reduced frailty in women, reinforcing the importance of early and sustained behavioral maintenance. The rural-specific association in men highlights the role of structural disadvantage in amplifying lifestyle-related frailty risk. However, given the observational design of this study, the possibility of reverse causality cannot be excluded, and these findings should be interpreted as associative rather than causal. These findings support sex-sensitive, trajectory-based, and geographically tailored frailty prevention strategies. Full article

Background and Objectives: Poor sleep is common in community and primary-care settings, yet very brief sleep measures suitable for routine use remain limited. We developed and evaluated the five-item Promoting Evaluation and Awareness of Comfort in Sleep (PEACE) scale and examined its associations with well-being and fatigue. Materials and Methods: In a cross-sectional, clinician-mediated online survey, 312 community-dwelling adults in Italy who were not receiving active treatment for major diseases completed PEACE, the World Health Organization-Five Well-Being Index (WHO-5), and a short fatigue questionnaire. The sample was stratified and split into exploratory and confirmatory subsamples for factor analyses. Results: Factor analyses supported the use of a single total score and showed acceptable reliability. Results were broadly similar in women and men, with no evidence of item-level bias, although some model-comparison indices were mixed. Higher PEACE scores were associated with better well-being and lower fatigue. Adding PEACE to a model predicting well-being from body mass index and sex increased explained variance from 4.0% to 11.5%. Conclusions: PEACE is a brief sleep-quality measure with promising initial psychometric properties. In this sample, it was associated with well-being and fatigue and may add information beyond body mass index and sex in community and primary-care settings. Full article

The European Union aims to achieve climate neutrality by 2050, with biogas and biomethane expected to play an increasingly important role in the decarbonisation of the energy system. This study investigates the economic and social determinants shaping the development of biogas production in European countries and identifies an optimal investment strategy for new biogas plants under varying environmental conditions. An expert–mathematical method was applied to assess and hierarchise twenty economic and social factors influencing biogas production, based on evaluations provided by 71 experts from eleven European countries. Subsequently, individual choice criteria derived from game theory were used to determine the optimal strategy for biogas plant construction under conditions of uncertainty. The results indicate that six determinants—EU-level production support mechanisms, investment costs, national support instruments, process efficiency improvements, community involvement, and agricultural raw material prices—account for 52.9% of the total impact on biogas development potential. Among the analysed investment options, large-scale biogas plants with an installed capacity of 3 MW were identified as the optimal strategy, offering the lowest unit production costs and the lowest risk of cost overruns across diverse economic and social environments. These findings provide policy-relevant insights for supporting efficient and socially acceptable biogas deployment in Europe. Full article

This study focused on alfalfa (Medicago sativa cv. Xinmu No. 4) as the experimental material, and a two-year field plot controlled experiment was conducted to compare the effects of different co-application ratios of organic and chemical fertilizers on alfalfa yield, soil nutrient status, and soil biological characteristics. The six fertilization treatments were as follows: CM0 (100% cattle manure), CM1 (75% cattle manure + 25% chemical fertilizer), CM2 (50% cattle manure + 50% chemical fertilizer), CM3 (25% cattle manure + 75% chemical fertilizer), CM4 (100% chemical fertilizer), and CK (no fertilizer application). The results showed that alfalfa hay yield was highest under the CM3 treatment in both 2024 and 2025, representing increases of 38.03% and 40.85%, respectively, compared with the control (CK). Relative to the other treatments, CM3 significantly increased soil total nitrogen, alkali-hydrolyzable nitrogen, available phosphorus, readily available potassium, and organic matter contents. In addition, CM3 markedly enhanced the activities of soil nitrate reductase (NR), nitrite reductase (NiR), and the root enzymes glutamate synthase (GOGAT) and glutamine synthase (GS). The combined application of organic and chemical fertilizers significantly reshaped the soil bacterial community structure associated with alfalfa. Under the CM3 treatment, Chao1, Shannon, and ACE indices of soil bacterial diversity increased, whereas the Simpson index decreased. Moreover, the CM3 treatment was associated with higher relative abundances of several key bacterial phyla and genera. The 25% cattle manure plus 75% chemical fertilizer (CM3) treatment exhibited the strongest overall effects, significantly increasing total alfalfa hay yield, enhancing soil macronutrient availability and key enzyme activities, improving soil microbial α-diversity, and optimizing soil bacterial community structure. This treatment consistently outperformed the no-fertilizer control (CK) and all other organic–inorganic fertilizer combinations. Collectively, these findings provide robust scientific evidence supporting strategies to increase forage productivity, mitigate environmental impacts, and promote the sustainable development of the grassland industry. Full article

Extracellular vesicles (EVs) mediate intercellular communication by delivering proteins and RNAs, with their molecular cargo often reflecting the biological context of their source. Perinatal tissues are promising sources of EV-related biomaterials with potential dermatologic applications. In this study, we compared EV-related molecular cargo from two umbilical cord-associated sources, umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cell (UCMSC)-derived EVs and cord blood plasma (CBP), to investigate whether these materials exhibit distinct functional effects on melanogenesis. UCMSC-derived EVs were isolated from conditioned culture medium and characterized using nanoparticle tracking analysis (NTA), cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM), and canonical EV marker detection, while cord blood samples were processed to obtain plasma following centrifugation and filtration, containing EVs together with soluble plasma components. Functional assays in the murine melanocyte cell line B16F10 demonstrated that UCMSC-derived EVs suppressed melanin production, whereas CBP treatment enhanced melanogenesis. Integrative omics analyses combining microRNAs (miRNAs) microarray profiling and proteomic characterization revealed distinct molecular signatures between UCMSC-derived EVs and CBP samples. Functional validation using miRNA mimic assays showed that selected miRNAs, including miR-6862-5p, miR-3622b-5p, miR-7847-3p, miR-6774-5p, and miR-4685-5p, reduced melanin production, whereas others, including miR-203a-3p, miR-126-3p, miR-139-5p, and miR-15b-5p, increased melanin levels. Pathway analysis using Ingenuity Pathway Analysis (IPA) (QIAGEN Inc.) associated these miRNA subsets with signaling pathways involved in melanogenesis. Together, these findings indicate that UCMSC-derived EVs and CBP exhibit opposite functional effects on melanogenesis and possess distinct miRNA and protein cargo profiles, providing potential molecular targets for modulating pigmentation and supporting the development of EV-related therapeutic strategies for pigmentation disorders. Full article