Search Results (4,980)

High-altitude hypoxia is associated with sleep disruption, affective fluctuation, and changes in cognitive performance, yet prior findings remain markedly heterogeneous in both direction and magnitude. To clarify this variability, this structured narrative review synthesizes evidence from systematic reviews, meta-analyses, and key empirical studies on psychological and cognitive adaptation to high-altitude hypoxia, with a particular focus on personality and related traits. The review is organized along three axes: exposure context and characterization (real-altitude field/residential exposure, hypobaric chambers, normobaric hypoxia, expedition settings, and dose alignment), exposure duration and time course, and outcome domains spanning sleep/fatigue, affective adaptation, and cognitive performance. Across the literature, cognitive effects appear domain-specific and strongly conditioned by exposure dose, temporal stage, and task characteristics, whereas sleep disturbance during the early acclimatization period emerges as one of the more consistent findings and appears closely intertwined with anxiety-related responses. Although direct personality-related evidence remains limited and uneven, the available findings can be organized into a testable trait–process–outcome framework that distinguishes candidate associations with relatively more direct evidence from mechanism-informed hypotheses. Neuroticism/emotional stability and anxiety-related traits have received comparatively more direct empirical investigation than other personality domains, but the available evidence is insufficient to regard them as established predictors of high-altitude adaptation. The roles of conscientiousness, resilience/hardiness, extraversion, agreeableness, and openness remain more tentative and are better treated as targets for prospective testing. We therefore propose that personality-related dispositions may influence adaptation-relevant outcomes through candidate processes involving threat appraisal, coping, resource regulation, and social interaction. We conclude that future research should strengthen exposure dose characterization, specify the boundary conditions for generalizing across real-altitude, hypobaric-chamber, normobaric hypoxia, and expedition settings, and adopt longitudinal, multilevel, and ecologically valid designs to test personality-related pathways more rigorously. Full article

Cadmium (Cd), a highly toxic and mobile heavy metal, has emerged as a severe environmental concern in global agroecosystems, posing a substantial threat to human health. Although prior studies have established that ZAT6 and ZAT10 positively regulate Arabidopsis tolerance to Cd toxicity, the underlying molecular mechanisms remain largely elusive. The present study provides evidence that a class I TCP transcription factor, TCP9, significantly enhances Arabidopsis tolerance to Cd toxicity through the direct activation of ZAT6 and ZAT10 expression. The real-time quantitative PCR (RT-qPCR) analysis indicates that the expression of TCP9 was induced under Cd toxicity. Meanwhile, the tcp9 mutant exhibited heightened sensitivity to Cd toxicity, accompanied by elevated Cd accumulation in both shoots and roots. Notably, the complemented lines exhibited phenotypic characteristics analogous to those observed in the wild-type (WT) plants. Further physiological and biochemical analyses revealed that, in comparison to WT, the tcp9 mutant displayed elevated hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂) accumulation and reduced contents of catalase (CAT), ascorbate peroxidase (APX), and peroxidase (POD) under Cd toxicity. Furthermore, TCP9 directly interacted with the promoters of ZAT6 and ZAT10 in vitro, facilitating their transcription and consequently enhancing plant tolerance to Cd toxicity. Overall, our findings showed that TCP9 enhances Cd tolerance via modulating ZAT6 and ZAT10, thereby identifying TCP9 as a potential key target for improving plant tolerance to Cd toxicity. Full article

Healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) caused by multidrug-resistant Klebsiella spp. represent a critical and escalating global public health threat. Carbapenem-resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae (CRKP) has been designated a critical-priority pathogen by the World Health Organization, and in the 2024 WHO Bacterial Priority Pathogens List, it was the top-ranked pathogen overall. The convergence of carbapenem resistance with hypervirulence in emerging strains has further complicated therapeutic decision-making. This review provides a narrative synthesis of the evidence published between 2020 and 2025 on the prevalence, resistance mechanisms, molecular epidemiology, clinical outcomes, and therapeutic strategies for Klebsiella pneumoniae infections acquired in healthcare settings, with particular attention to the Eastern European and Romanian context. PubMed/MEDLINE, Embase, Web of Science, and the Cochrane Library were searched for relevant publications from January 2020 to June 2025, supplemented by WHO and ECDC surveillance reports. Studies were selected narratively for their relevance to the themes addressed. No new quantitative pooling was undertaken; all summary estimates reported below are cited from the published meta-analyses and surveillance reports that generated them. In the most recent global meta-analysis of hospital-acquired CRKP infection, which pooled 61 studies and 513,307 patients from 14 countries, the global prevalence of CRKP among nosocomial K. pneumoniae infections was 28.69% (95% CI: 26.53–30.86%), with pronounced regional variation from 14.29% in high-income North America to 66.04% in South Asia, and 42.05% in Western Europe. Pooled mortality among patients infected with CRKP has been estimated in a separate meta-analysis at 42.14%, compared with 21.16% among patients infected with carbapenem-susceptible strains, rising to 54.30% in bloodstream infections. Surveillance data place Romania third in Europe for carbapenem resistance among invasive K. pneumoniae isolates, at 50.30%, with a distinctive predominance of NDM plus OXA-48-like co-producers. Ceftazidime-avibactam is recommended for KPC- and OXA-48-producing strains, whereas metallo-beta-lactamase producers require aztreonam-containing combinations. CRKP in HAIs constitutes a global epidemiological emergency characterised by marked regional heterogeneity in carbapenemase distribution, high attributable mortality and rapidly evolving molecular profiles. Locally adapted surveillance, rapid molecular diagnostics, and stewardship programmes are required since empirical therapy cannot be standardised across regions. Full article

Background: Candidozyma auris (C. auris) is an emerging multidrug-resistant yeast that has become an important cause of healthcare-associated outbreaks, particularly in intensive care units (ICUs). Colonization frequently precedes invasive infection, yet the epidemiology, progression to candidemia, and mortality among critically ill patients remain incompletely characterized. Methods: We conducted a narrative review of published studies evaluating C. auris colonization and infection in ICU populations. Studies reporting colonization rates, progression to invasive infection, and mortality were synthesized. Descriptive pooled proportions were calculated from aggregated data across eligible observational studies. Results: Colonization rates varied widely according to local epidemiology, ranging from 0.2 to 0.4% in routine surveillance studies to over 50% during outbreaks. Across 17 observational studies including 1879 colonized ICU patients, 616 developed invasive infection, yielding a descriptive pooled incidence of 32.8% (95% CI, 30.7–34.9%), predominantly candidemia. The median interval from ICU admission to candidemia was 25.8 days. Among 13 studies including 1354 colonized and/or infected ICU patients, the descriptive pooled 30-day in-hospital mortality was 36.4% (95% CI, 33.8–39.0%). In 12 studies comprising 396 patients with C. auris candidemia, the descriptive pooled 30-day mortality was 45.9% (95% CI, 41.0–50.8%), significantly higher than that observed in mixed colonized/infected ICU populations. Conclusions: C. auris represents a major threat in ICUs because of its ability to establish persistent colonization, progress to invasive candidemia, and cause high mortality among critically ill patients. Early identification of colonized patients, rigorous infection prevention measures, and prompt antifungal management are essential to reduce transmission and improve clinical outcomes. Full article

The co-occurrence of microplastics (MPs) and heavy metals in agricultural ecosystems poses emerging threats, yet their combined ecotoxicological effects on crop plants remain poorly understood. To address this gap, a hydroponic exposure experiment was conducted to evaluate the individual and combined effects of 50 mg·L⁻¹ polystyrene (PS) microplastics, lead (Pb, 35 mg·L⁻¹), and cadmium (Cd, 20 mg·L⁻¹) on the phenotypic growth, biomass accumulation, and peroxidase (POD) activity of rice seedlings. The results indicated that: (1) Individual polystyrene microplastics (PS-MPs) treatment did not induce morphological inhibition; rather, it exhibited a growth-promoting trend, with a significant increase in fresh weight and a non-significant increasing trend in dry weight compared to the control. (2) The phenotypic impact of PS-MPs on the toxicity of heavy metals was element-specific. In the PS + Cd co-exposure system, microplastics significantly alleviated Cd-induced inhibition of fresh weight relative to the single Cd treatment, although this recovery effect was not observed in dry weight. Conversely, in the PS + Pb system, microplastics aggravated the phenotypic toxicity of Pb, with biomass showing a numerical decrease relative to the single Pb treatment, though the difference did not reach statistical significance. (3) The plant antioxidant system exhibited organ-specific responses to the combined stresses. Under PS + Pb co-exposure, root POD activity was significantly up-regulated while shoot POD activity was notably suppressed, revealing an asynchrony in physiological responses between roots and shoots. In contrast, the decrease in root POD activity under the PS + Cd system was consistent with phenotypic recovery in fresh weight. In conclusion, PS-MPs can significantly alter the phenotypic and physiological responses of rice seedlings to heavy metals, with the direction of modulation being element-specific. While the underlying mechanisms require further elucidation, this study provides a phenotypic and physiological basis for assessing the early ecological risks associated with the co-exposure of microplastics and heavy metals. Full article

The global emergence of multidrug-resistant fungal pathogens, including Candida auris, Candida albicans, Aspergillus fumigatus, Cryptococcus neoformans, and Pneumocystis jirovecii, poses a growing threat to public health, particularly among immunocompromised individuals. The limited number of available antifungal drug classes and the rapid evolution of resistance mechanisms, including target-site mutations, efflux pump activation, biofilm formation, metabolic adaptation, and stress-response signaling, have substantially reduced treatment efficacy. This review provides a comprehensive overview of current antifungal therapies, their limitations, and emerging molecular targets for next-generation antifungal drug discovery. We highlight promising targets involved in fungal cell wall biosynthesis, membrane integrity, mitochondrial metabolism, virulence regulation, and host–pathogen interactions, emphasizing their interconnected roles within adaptive resistance networks. Attention is given to small-molecule isothiazolone-based inhibitors, including phosphoglucomutase-targeting compounds, as novel candidates capable of disrupting multiple fungal survival pathways. We further discuss advances in combination therapies, anti-virulence approaches, nanotechnology-based delivery systems, and artificial intelligence-driven drug discovery pipelines that integrate multi-omics data, structural modeling, molecular docking, and virtual screening to accelerate therapeutic development. These advances support a transition from conventional single-target strategies toward systems-level, precision-guided antifungal therapies, providing a framework for overcoming multidrug resistance and improving clinical outcomes in invasive fungal infections. Full article

Real-time detection of chemical warfare agents (CWAs) and toxic industrial chemicals underpins military protection, counter-terrorism, and emergency response. Yet field instruments usually fail for a reason unrelated to sensitivity: they cannot identify agents that are not already in their reference libraries, such as novel analogs, mixtures, and degradation products. We argue that this unknown-agent problem is a structural limitation of single-modality sensing, because any one class of information (molecular bonds, ion mobility, elemental composition, or chemical reactivity) is rarely sufficient to resolve an unfamiliar threat. We review the dominant field modalities, including FTIR, Raman/SERS, ion mobility and field-asymmetric ion mobility spectrometry, laser- and spark-induced plasma spectroscopy, metal-oxide sensor arrays, and portable mass spectrometry, and show that their weaknesses are largely complementary. We then set out the principle of orthogonal multimodal sensing, in which complementary information axes are combined by machine learning with anomaly and open-set detection so that unfamiliar agents are recognized as such rather than misidentified. Four hybrid architectures are critically compared, and we examine spark-induced decomposition diagnostics, consumable-free self-decontaminating field systems with edge AI, and the open challenges of standardized datasets, calibration transfer, and validation, before outlining a roadmap toward field-relevant recognition of unidentified chemical threats. Full article

Togaviridae represents a candidate family for emerging public health emergencies of international concern. Among them, chikungunya virus (CHKIV) has caused recurrent epidemics in the temperate zone of most continents and represents a threat to the safety of blood supplies. The global expansion of vectors (i.e., Aedes mosquitoes) and increasing international travel have contributed to the growing epidemiological importance of this pathogen. In fact, CHIKV has been reported in more than 110 countries across the following four continents: Africa, Asia, Americas, and Europe. Consequently, public health authorities have emphasized the importance of surveillance, vector control programs, outbreak preparedness, and blood safety measures. The aim of this review was to summarize the current knowledge of CHIKV considering virology, molecular epidemiology, transmission mechanisms, clinical features, preventive strategies, and blood safety implications, with particular attention to issues relevant to transfusion services. Full article

The rapid diffusion of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) tools such as ChatGPT has unsettled established academic practices related to assessment, authorship, integrity, and disciplinary knowledge production. This qualitative repeated cross-sectional study examines how faculty and staff at a large public research university understood these changes in 2023 and 2024. The analysis draws on responses to the same open-ended survey question collected from independent respondent groups in 2023 (n = 104) and 2024 (n = 313). Responses were analyzed inductively through thematic analysis and subsequently interpreted using Disruptive Innovation Theory and Complex Adaptive Systems Theory. The analysis identified both continuity and change across the two datasets. Responses in 2023 emphasized uncertainty, threats to academic integrity, and defensive assessment redesign. Responses in 2024 more frequently described pedagogical experimentation, process-oriented assessment, and AI literacy as emerging academic and professional competencies. Concerns about authorship, equity, reliability, and inconsistent institutional guidance persisted across both years. The findings suggest that faculty and staff discourse shifted from primarily containing GenAI-related risks toward selectively integrating the technology into teaching and professional practice. However, because the study used independent cross-sectional samples, it does not establish individual change over time. The study contributes a theoretically informed account of institutional sensemaking during the first two years following ChatGPT’s public release and identifies strategies for balancing innovation, integrity, equity, and the human purposes of higher education. Full article

The Old City of Sana’a, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, remains morphologically unclassified at the urban block scale, with understanding still grounded in descriptive narrative rather than quantitative data—leaving conservation decisions without a measurable, reproducible spatial evidence base. This study introduces a numerical taxonomy of 115 historic urban blocks built from four standardized morphometric indicators—area, compactness, elongation, and rectangularity—together with axially encoded orientation, reduced through Principal Component Analysis (74.7% variance, three components) and partitioned by K-means into five morphologically distinct block types ($n=36,29,19,16,15$). Kruskal–Wallis tests confirmed significant differentiation across all types for every rankable indicator (all $p<0.001$; Dunn’s post-hoc: 28 of 50 pairwise contrasts significant). Qibla deviation—a culturally specific measure of angular proximity to Mecca, deliberately withheld from clustering—emerged as the strongest discriminator between types (${\eta }_H^2=0.714$), showing that shape and orientation alone recover a coherent pattern in which one type’s mean orientation axis falls within $4.5^{\circ }$ of the Qibla axis. However, this statistical discriminator reflects the distinctiveness of a single type rather than a universal cultural organizing principle across the fabric. Types are distributed across all three historic zones rather than clustering spatially, and shape regularity shows no association with distance from the Great Mosque. Building on these signatures, a percentile-based screening instrument offers a reproducible, block-level morphometric baseline to help prioritize this UNESCO-listed site’s conservation under active conflict-related threat. Full article

The decline in groundwater storage (GWS) poses a critical threat to water security in semi-arid regions where increasing agricultural water demand and climate variability are increasing pressure on aquifers. This study presents a novel hybrid modeling framework integrating multi-source satellite and climate data (GRACE, GLDAS, TerraClimate, and MODIS) with machine learning and explanatory artificial intelligence techniques for the long-term assessment and interpretation of GWS anomalies in the data-poor Iğdır Basin. Three different modeling approaches were developed: XGBoost, Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) networks, and their combined model, and interpreted using the Shapley Additive Explanations (SHAP) method. The results showed a significant long-term decreasing trend in groundwater storage anomalies at a rate of −0.87 mm per month during the 2002–2016 period, indicating continuous depletion. The LSTM model demonstrated the best performance with R² of 0.59, RMSE of 19.5 mm, and MAE of 15.1 mm, revealing the dominant role of temporal dependencies in groundwater systems. SHAP analysis identified lagged groundwater anomalies (especially GWS_lag3) as the most effective predictors; this may reflect the memory effect and lagged response specific to semi-arid aquifer systems, but this interpretation needs to be validated in different study areas. Snow water equivalent and total water storage anomalies also emerged as significant determinants, while the direct effect of instantaneous precipitation was found to be limited. This study addresses significant gaps in the literature by combining sequence-based modeling with model interpretability in a semi-arid closed basin. The findings highlight the necessity of using system memory and explainable artificial intelligence together for reliable groundwater prediction. While the proposed hybrid approach has the potential for application in other semi-arid regions, its broader usability needs to be supported by independent validation studies under different hydrogeological and climatic conditions. Full article

Severe decline and death of young table grapevines (1 to 2 years old) have been observed recurrently in commercial vineyards in Peru since 2022. Affected plants developed rapid shoot wilting associated with extensive necrotic lesions at the rootstock collar below the graft union, leading to plant death within days of symptom onset. A Cylindrocarpon-like fungus was consistently isolated from symptomatic collar tissues. Morphological characterization, cardinal temperature assays, and phylogenetic analyses based on the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region and histone H3 (his3) gene identified the pathogen as a member of the genus Pleiocarpon. Bayesian inference of concatenated sequences resolved the Peruvian isolates as a lineage sister to P. strelitziae (posterior probability = 1.00). Greenhouse pathogenicity tests with two representative isolates on cv. Red Globe grafted onto Salt Creek rootstock reproduced collar lesions and shoot wilting, fulfilling Koch’s postulates. Optimal mycelial growth was estimated at 28.7–29.3 °C, with maximum colony growth recorded at 30 °C, consistent with the warm conditions that prevail during vineyard establishment in coastal Peru. Designated here as collar rot, the syndrome represents an atypically severe form of black foot disease, characterized by extensive belowground collar necrosis and rapid vine collapse soon after planting. Its recurrence across regions and seasons, together with the near-exclusive deployment of a single rootstock (Salt Creek), indicates that Pleiocarpon-associated collar rot is an emerging threat to young table grape plantings in Peru, underscoring the need for early diagnosis, pathogen-free nursery material, and preventive management during vineyard establishment. Full article

Plastic contamination (plastamination) has become a pervasive environmental threat with growing implications for human health. Among plastic-derived contaminants, micro- and nano-plastics (MNPs) are of particular concern due to their persistence, widespread distribution, and capacity to interact with biological systems. Humans are exposed to MNPs through ingestion, inhalation, dermal contact, and maternal transfer, and these particles can cross biological barriers, including the blood–brain barrier, reaching the central nervous system. MNPs disrupt cellular homeostasis by inducing oxidative stress, mitochondrial dysfunction, and inflammation. In the brain, these processes drive glial activation and chronic neuroinflammation, which are closely associated with neuronal damage and neurological disorders, including Parkinson’s disease (PD). MNPs can also affect systemic pathways such as the gut–brain axis (GBA) and neuroendocrine regulation, suggesting broader physiological consequences. This narrative review synthesizes current evidence on the neurotoxic and pro-inflammatory potential of MNPs. Since MNPs may promote the aggregation of proteins implicated in neurodegeneration, such as alpha-synuclein, their possible role in PD is discussed. Despite several knowledge gaps, MNPs may be emerging environmental risk factors for brain health and neurodegenerative diseases such as PD. Nevertheless, there is a need for further studies in the field, standardized methodologies and longitudinal studies to implement effective mitigation strategies. Full article

Highly pathogenic RNA viruses, such as Ebola, SARS-CoV-2, and influenza, cause severe disease in humans. High mutation rates, which enable RNA viruses to evade immunity and escape antivirals, and their ability to spread from animals to humans and cause pandemics and outbreaks, make RNA viruses significant threats to public health. Diseases caused by Ebola, SARS-CoV-2, and influenza are prevented and treated with only a limited number of approved antiviral drugs, the effectiveness of which is limited by mutations in the viral targets. It is crucial to understand the structural determinants, molecular mechanisms, and host interactions of pathogenic RNA viruses to develop effective antiviral strategies. In this review, we discuss selected RNA viruses, focusing on the structure of their RNA polymerases and interactions with host factors during the different stages of the viral lifecycle, as well as the traditional antivirals targeting these structures and pathways. Furthermore, emerging concepts such as liquid–liquid phase separation and biomolecular condensates, and novel promising antiviral strategies are discussed. Understanding shared and distinct structures, molecular mechanisms, and host interactions across highly pathogenic RNA viruses enables the discovery of new and more effective antiviral strategies, ultimately improving clinical outcomes against evolving RNA viruses. Full article

Nosema ceranae infection represents one of the major health threats to honey bees (Apis mellifera), contributing to colony weakening, oxidative stress, immune suppression, and increased mortality. Due to restrictions on the use of fumagillin and the growing demand for natural alternatives, this pilot study evaluated the potential of grape pomace (GP) extract (at a concentration of 200 μg/g) as a dietary supplement for improving honey bee health and controlling Nosema ceranae infection. Newly emerged worker bees were experimentally infected with N. ceranae and maintained under laboratory cage conditions for 15 days. Bees were supplemented with GP extract either preventively, simultaneously with infection, or after infection. Survival, spore loads, and expression of immune-, antioxidant-, and detoxification-related genes were evaluated. Results showed that N. ceranae infection significantly reduced bee survival and induced strong oxidative and immune stress responses. Supplementation with GP extract significantly improved survival and reduced spore loads in infected bees, particularly when administered preventively or at the onset of infection. The extract also modulated the expression of antioxidant-related genes, including CAT, Cu/ZnSOD, GST, and MnSOD, indicating attenuation of infection-associated oxidative stress. In non-infected bees, GP supplementation stimulated the expression of immune-related genes, especially defensin and hymenoptaecin, while such immunostimulatory effects were not fully maintained in infected groups. The findings suggest that grape pomace extract acts primarily through antioxidant and gut health-associated mechanisms rather than direct immune protection during infection. Overall, grape pomace extract demonstrated promising potential as a natural dietary supplement for improving honey bee resilience and reducing the impact of Nosema ceranae infection. Further studies with more concentrations and temporal dynamics need to be evaluated. Full article