Search Results (1,405)

Cadmium (Cd) contamination in paddy soils threatens food security by accumulating in rice grains. This study aimed to elucidate Cd-accumulation mechanisms using major japonica cultivars from Liaoning Province, a key northern Chinese rice-producing region where systematic comparisons remain limited. Four Liaoning japonica varieties (low-Cd: YF47, SN9903; high-Cd: QTXT, TJ) were analyzed for Cd accumulation, physiological responses, including malondialdehyde (MDA), superoxide dismutase (SOD), peroxidase (POD) and catalase (CAT), and expression of Cd-related transporter genes under Cd stress. Cd distribution in rice plants followed the following order: root > stems and leaves > grain. Varietal differences were attributed to root-to-shoot transport rather than root uptake, as low-Cd varieties exhibited lower transport coefficients and higher root Cd retention. Low-Cd varieties showed smaller MDA increases and significantly higher SOD and CAT activities under Cd stress. Notably, OsLCD was significantly down-regulated in low-Cd varieties but up-regulated in high-Cd varieties, an opposite regulation pattern that clearly distinguishes the two groups. The root-to-shoot translocation process and the OsLCD expression pattern are key determinants differentiating low- from high-Cd japonica varieties. These findings provide region-specific mechanistic insights and screening indicators for breeding low-Cd rice in northern China. Full article

Background and Objectives: Treatment-resistant depression (TRD) is a major clinical challenge in the management of major depressive disorder (MDD). While pharmacogenetics has been suggested to be clinically useful in guiding antidepressant treatment, few studies have explored if and how pharmacogenes can be involved in TRD pathophysiology and its clinical outcomes. Material amd Methods: We explored the role of differences in metabolizer phenotypes, gene expression levels, and microRNAs of three key pharmacogenes (CYP2D6, CYP2C19, CYP2B6) in TRD pathophysiology and antidepressant response in a cohort of 300 patients with MDD from the PROMPT consortium. Results: CYP2D6 phenotype distribution did not differ significantly between TRD and non-TRD groups, but mRNA expression was significantly upregulated in TRD. Hsa-miR-26b-5p, a microRNA predicted to regulate CYP2D6, was significantly downregulated in TRD. For CYP2C19, intermediate metabolizers (IMs) were underrepresented in TRD versus non-TRD (IMs vs. normal metabolizers (NMs): χ² = 6.07, p = 0.019). microRNA hsa-let-7d-5p and hsa-miR-27a-3p, predicted to regulate CYP2C19, were significantly downregulated in TRD. No significant differences were found for CYP2B6. Conclusions: This study contributes valuable insights to the PROMPT project on how pharmacokinetic gene variants and their expression and regulatory mechanisms may influence antidepressant response and resistance in MDD. Full article

Regulated cell death is essential for development, tissue homeostasis, host defense, and disease. Beyond apoptosis, it is now clear that other forms of cell death, including ferroptosis, pyroptosis, and necroptosis, also contribute to pathology, often in interconnected rather than isolated ways. Within this broader framework, the transcriptional intermediary factor 1 (TIF1) family, comprising TRIM24, TRIM28, TRIM33, and TRIM66, has emerged as an important group of regulators linking stress adaptation, cell-state control, and cell death susceptibility. Although these proteins belong to the same family, they influence cell death through distinct and context-dependent mechanisms. Across the TIF1 family, apoptosis is by far the most extensively studied cell death phenotype, whereas links to ferroptosis, pyroptosis, and necroptosis remain more limited, more context dependent, and more unevenly distributed across individual members. Cell death often becomes evident when TIF1-dependent stress-buffering programs are disrupted, highlighting both their biological importance and potential therapeutic relevance. At the same time, family-level differences are emerging, while the underlying mechanisms remain incompletely understood, and recent advances in this field have not been synthesized. This review summarizes how TIF1 family members intersect with different cell death programs, discusses emerging translational opportunities and challenges, and highlights key mechanistic questions for future study. Full article

Nature-based solutions (NBS) are increasingly promoted in environmental management to address water, climate, biodiversity, and pollution challenges while delivering social and economic co-benefits. Yet decision-makers still face uncertainty about what works where, for whom, and how reliably over time. This narrative review synthesizes cross-cutting, peer-reviewed evidence on three decision-critical domains: NBS effectiveness for key environmental management objectives; co-benefits, trade-offs, and equity (including distributional risks across groups and places); and monitoring and evaluation (M&E). This review is not a systematic review, not a semi-systematic review with a fixed, protocol-driven study inventory, and not a meta-analysis; “comprehensiveness” refers to breadth of themes and management objectives addressed, not to exhaustive capture of all published sources. A distinguishing contribution is an intervention–pathway–endpoint typology oriented to measurement and M&E: it links broad NBS categories to dominant biophysical mechanisms and to concrete indicator families. Unlike criteria-first verification frameworks, this typology is organized around measurement logic (what to monitor, and how endpoints chain from processes to management decisions). It complements criteria- and process-oriented NbS quality frameworks (e.g., the IUCN Global Standard’s criteria and indicators for verification, design, and scaling) by foregrounding an explicit indicator logic chain for appraisal, monitoring, and cross-project comparability. The review assesses effectiveness for water quality, flood and flow regulation, heat mitigation, biodiversity, and carbon/climate mitigation; consolidates social, economic, and ecological co-benefits; reviews recurring M&E weaknesses; proposes a pragmatic minimum indicator set and feasible evaluation designs; and outlines an implementation-oriented NBS environmental management cycle. The aim is to strengthen transparent, climate-aware, evidence-based, and equity-aware environmental management. Full article

Coastal waters of eastern Guangdong are important fishing grounds and ecologically sensitive areas in the northern South China Sea, where nekton communities are increasingly affected by environmental heterogeneity and human activities. However, systematic studies on the spatial differentiation and driving mechanisms of nekton communities in this region remain insufficient. This study aimed to clarify the community structure, diversity distribution characteristics, and key driving environmental factors of nekton in the coastal waters of eastern Guangdong, and thereby provide scientific support for an ecological health assessment and sustainable utilization of fishery resources in this region. Based on bottom-trawl survey data from 19 stations in the coastal waters of eastern Guangdong, northern South China Sea, this study systematically analyzed the species composition, dominant species, and diversity distribution pattern of nekton and their correlations with environmental factors using methods including the Index of Relative Importance, Alpha diversity indices, Beta diversity indices, and redundancy analysis. A total of 119 nekton species belonging to three phyla, four classes, 14 orders, and 56 families were collected. Among them, there were 79 fish species (accounting for 66.39%), 36 crustacean species (30.25%), and four cephalopod species (3.36%). The dominant species were Trachypenaeus curvirostris and Portunus sanguinolentus (IRI ≥ 1000). Wilcoxon’s test showed that there were significant differences in the Shannon–Wiener index, Gini–Simpson index, and Pielou’s evenness between the nearshore and offshore groups, while no significant regional difference was observed in the richness index. Cluster analysis, based on the Bray–Curtis distance, divided the 19 stations into five clusters, with significant differentiation in species composition and functional structure within the nearshore group. RDA results indicated that environmental factors collectively explained 99.66% of the variation in community structure. Particulate Inorganic Carbon (PIC), Phosphate (PO₄³⁻), Distance to Port, Summer Maximum Chlorophyll-a (Chl-a), and Total Suspended Matter (TSM) were identified as the key driving factors. The coastal waters of eastern Guangdong boast rich nekton species, with significant differences in community structure between nearshore and offshore areas. The heterogeneity of the natural environment and human activity disturbances jointly shape the nekton diversity pattern in this region. The research results can provide a theoretical basis for regional marine ecological protection and fishery resource management. Full article

Background/Objectives: Sleep continuity is a key determinant of daytime functioning; however, accessible and well-tolerated interventions remain limited. We investigated whether Bacillus coagulans IDCC 1201 improves objective sleep continuity and subjective sleep quality in adults with sleep disturbance. Methods: In this 4-week, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial, 80 adults (aged 19–65 years) received B. coagulans IDCC 1201 (5.0 × 10⁹ CFU/day) or a placebo; 78 participants completed the study. The primary endpoint was the change in polysomnography-derived sleep efficiency from baseline to week 4. Results: Compared with the placebo, B. coagulans IDCC 1201 significantly improved sleep efficiency (Δ +13.71 ± 21.14 vs. −0.15 ± 13.35%; p = 0.002) and increased sleep duration (total sleep time: Δ +49.56 ± 76.33 vs. −0.50 ± 48.02 min; p = 0.002), accompanied by reduced nocturnal wakefulness (wake after sleep onset: Δ −44.40 ± 72.32 vs. +1.88 ± 44.36 min; p = 0.003; and total wake time: Δ −12.28 ± 20.22 vs. +0.53 ± 12.32 min; p = 0.004). Sleep-stage distribution also favored B. coagulans IDCC 1201, with greater increases in stage 2 and REM duration compared with the placebo (between-group p = 0.008 and 0.032, respectively). Subjective sleep quality showed greater improvement with B. coagulans IDCC 1201 (Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index change: Δ −3.67 ± 3.37 vs. −1.64 ± 2.83; p = 0.036), yielding lower week 4 scores (5.87 ± 2.26 vs. 8.28 ± 3.62; p = 0.001). No significant safety concerns were identified. Conclusions: These findings indicate that strain-defined probiotic could be used as a nutritional approach for sleep health, particularly for targeting sleep fragmentation and maintenance. Full article

Fatigue seriously affects work efficiency and brings potential safety hazards, and electroencephalogram (EEG) serves as a valuable physiological indicator for fatigue monitoring, as it directly reflects underlying brain neural activity. A key characteristic in EEG fatigue research is that the feature spaces of pre-fatigue and post-fatigue EEG signals exhibit obvious spatial separation—this separation is caused by significant changes in brain electrical activity when the human body transitions from a normal awake state to a fatigue state. Existing EEG-based fatigue judgment methods mostly focus on binary classification, which fails to fully leverage the inherent spatial separation characteristic of pre-fatigue and post-fatigue feature spaces, making it difficult to achieve simple, efficient, and accurate fatigue judgment. To address this problem, this paper proposes an EEG fatigue judgment method based on feature space spatial separation and Approximate Nearest Neighbor Search (ANNS). The 16-channel pre-fatigue (Group A) and post-fatigue (Group B) EEG signals acquired from seven subjects are segmented and subjected to feature extraction, projecting the signals into a unified feature space. An ANNS index is constructed using feature vectors from both Group A and Group B, with each vector annotated by its corresponding class label. A separate test set (Group C) is utilized, and the k-nearest neighbors of each test feature vector are retrieved from the built ANNS index. The mental fatigue state is then identified via majority voting according to the class labels of the k-nearest neighbors. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method can effectively exploit the spatial separation between pre-fatigue and post-fatigue feature distributions, yielding an average single-subject classification accuracy of approximately 90%. Full article

Background/Objectives: There is an abundance of evidence to support the associations of allergic sensitization with asthma. Reducing exposure to allergens can help prevent the progression of asthma. Given the significant regional variations in allergen distribution patterns, our objective was to characterize the sensitization patterns of common childhood aeroallergens in a large, hospital-based pediatric cohort from West China through epidemiological surveys, thereby providing region-specific key data to guide the development of targeted prevention strategies and clinical management protocols. Methods: We analyzed data from 30,565 multiple allergosorbent tests collected by our hospital from 2024 to 2025. We additionally collected sex and age. If the level of an aeroallergen was 0.35 IU/mL or more, the test result for that aeroallergen was defined as positive, and positive cases were defined as those where one aeroallergen was positive. The positive rates for aeroallergens were calculated using the total number of tested children in each category (such as season, gender or age group). Results: A total of 30,565 children in West China were surveyed, with an overall allergen sIgE positive rate of 37.7%. Autumn had the highest positive rate (41.2%), which was significantly higher than those of the other seasons (p < 0.01). Indoor allergens had higher positive rates than outdoor ones. The top indoor allergens were Dermatophagoides pteronyssinus (30.18%), Dermatophagoides farinae (27.13%), and house dust (22.99%); the top outdoor allergens were Cupressus (10.22%), Betula platyphylla (5.01%), and Sycamore (4.24%). The positive rate increased with age: 18.49% in infants and toddlers, 38.58% in preschool children, and 45.96% in school-aged children (all p < 0.01). Males (39.76%) had a higher total positive rate than females (34.90%) (p < 0.01), with significant gender differences in five allergens, including Dermatophagoides farinae, Dermatophagoides pteronyssinus, house dust, Alternaria, and Sycamore. Conclusions: This study provides detailed epidemiological data on aeroallergen sensitization patterns among children, including seasonal, age-related, and sex-related differences. These findings may help inform region-specific preventive strategies and guide future research on allergen avoidance. Full article

Background: Metallic and metal oxide nanoparticles are increasingly explored as antimicrobial biomaterials in endodontics due to their multi-target mechanisms of action, largely mediated by metal ion release (e.g., Ag⁺, Cu⁺). However, bacterial metal resistance systems, particularly efflux-related proteins, may influence their antimicrobial performance. This study aimed to analyze the prevalence and distribution of metal resistance-associated proteins in bacteria involved in endodontic infections using a bioinformatic approach. Methods: An in silico, cross-sectional bioinformatic analysis was conducted using publicly available genomes from the Bacterial and Viral Bioinformatics Resource Center (BV-BRC). Bacterial species associated with acute apical abscess (AAA), symptomatic apical periodontitis (SAP), asymptomatic apical periodontitis (AAP), and post-treatment apical periodontitis (PTAP) were included. The presence of selected metal resistance-related proteins (CutC, CopA, CzcA, CusA, SilA, P-type ATPase, and PA3920) was assessed using a binary presence/absence framework. Prevalence, group comparisons (Fisher’s exact test), and co-occurrence patterns (Phi coefficient) were analyzed. Results: Metal resistance-associated proteins were widely distributed across all infection types, with prevalence ranging from 70.0% to 82.9% and no significant differences between groups (p > 0.05). CutC was the most prevalent protein, followed by CopA and CzcA, whereas SilA and PA3920 were not detected. Correlation analysis revealed consistent co-occurrence patterns among key taxa, including Porphyromonas gingivalis, Fusobacterium nucleatum, and Prevotella spp. Conclusions: Metal resistance-related proteins are broadly distributed in endodontic microbiota, indicating a conserved genetic capacity for metal tolerance. These findings suggest that microbial resistance determinants may influence, but do not directly determine, the antimicrobial performance of nanoparticle-based biomaterials. This study provides a hypothesis-generating, bioinformatic framework to support the design and optimization of antimicrobial biomaterials, highlighting the need for experimental validation and integration of phenotypic and biofilm-based analyses. Full article

Background/Objectives: Laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma exhibits marked heterogeneity in clinical behavior, which cannot be fully explained by conventional histopathological parameters alone. Increasing evidence highlights the pivotal role of the tumor immune microenvironment in modulating tumor progression and patient prognosis. Methods: The study group had 82 patients with laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma. A panel of immunohistochemical markers was chosen to identify and quantify key immune cell populations and immune-related components within the tumor immune microenvironment. Semiquantitative evaluation of immune infiltrates was conducted, with particular emphasis on their density and relative distribution across intratumoral and stromal compartments. Results: Based on the resulting immunophenotypic profiles, cases were categorized into three distinct immune patterns: an active immune type, defined by a prominent and dense inflammatory infiltrate; a mixed type, exhibiting intermediate and heterogeneous immune characteristics; and an immunosuppressive type, characterized by reduced effector immune cell infiltration and a predominance of immunoregulatory elements. Statistical analysis demonstrated significant correlations between these immune patterns and patient survival outcomes. Conclusions: The present study aimed to characterize the immune landscape of laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma using immunohistochemical markers and to evaluate its prognostic significance. Full article

Chronic low-grade inflammation is a key feature of obesity-associated dysglycemia, yet substantial heterogeneity exists in inflammatory responses among individuals with normoglycemia, prediabetes, and type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). Whether circulating inflammatory protein profiles define distinct patient phenotypes beyond conventional glycemic classification remains incompletely understood. In this cross-sectional analysis of 142 individuals with severe obesity, plasma inflammatory proteins were quantified using Olink proximity extension assay technology. Subjects were stratified by glycemic status (noDM, normoglycemia; PreDM, prediabetes and T2DM) while maintaining comparable distributions of metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease. Differential expression analyses were performed across glycemic groups, and unsupervised topological data analysis (TDA) was applied to identify inflammatory protein-based patient subgroups. Several inflammatory proteins were significantly upregulated in T2DM and PreDM compared with noDM, with interleukin-8 (IL-8), Fms-relatedlike tyrosine kinase 3 ligand (Flt3L), and CUB domain containing protein (CDCP1) showing the largest significant differences. NPX distributions of these proteins exhibited gradual increases across glycemic stages with substantial inter-individual variability. TDA identified seven clusters defined by distinct inflammatory protein signatures. One cluster was enriched for individuals with T2DM and characterized by coordinated upregulation of IL-8, Flt3L, CDCP1, and additional immune- and cytokine-related proteins, whereas other clusters displayed alternative inflammatory profiles that were not explained by glycemic status alone. Inflammatory proteomic profiling in severe obesity reveals both glycemia-associated protein changes and distinct inflammatory phenotypes that transcend conventional clinical classification. Integration of differential expression analysis with TDA highlights heterogeneity in inflammatory states, supporting a hypothesis-generating framework for future studies aimed at validating these proteomic patterns and clarifying their longitudinal relevance in obesity-related dysglycemia. Full article

The BRICS countries are playing an increasingly significant role in shaping a multipolar model of global science. This study aims to assess the academic influence of economic journals published in BRICS countries from the following key perspectives: academic standing, relevance, influence sustainability, internationalization, and external institutional recognition (lack of isolation). The methods of bibliometric, comparative, and cluster analysis were used. The study revealed that the BRICS countries have significantly increased their presence in the Scopus database. However, their scientific publishing landscape is highly heterogeneous. Russia and India exhibit the highest publication volumes among the BRICS countries, albeit with relatively low citation rates and a low level of internationalization. Meanwhile, Chinese, South African, and Indonesian journals have the highest citation rates and strongest integration into the global discourse. Cluster analysis identified five groups of journals with a range of academic influence levels, from peripheral contributors to international leaders. Additionally, country-specific features of their distribution were determined. The present research provides insights into the pivotal role of national journals in overcoming peripherality and strengthening the academic influence of nationwide science. The research methodology can be used to develop strategies that promote nations to become part of the global research community. Full article

Body weight variation within a breed may be associated with meat flavor in chickens, but its relationship with flavor-related precursor composition across developmental stages remains unclear. Here, integrated lipidomics and metabolomics were applied to compare breast muscle from Beijing-You chickens sampled from the same cohort at 90, 110, 130, and 150 d in a stage-wise design. At each stage, higher-body-weight (HBW) and lower-body-weight (LBW) groups were independently defined from the upper and lower tails of the body weight distribution at that age. A total of 440, 259, 161, and 324 differential lipids, as well as 491, 257, 291, and 402 differential metabolites, were identified at the four stages, respectively. However, only 23 lipids and 3 metabolites were shared across all stages, indicating that metabolic differences between the HBW and LBW groups varied markedly across developmental stages. Differential lipids were mainly distributed among phosphatidylcholine, phosphatidylethanolamine, and phosphatidylserine, while glycerophospholipid metabolism was consistently identified in both lipidomic and metabolomic analyses. Notably, a key transition was observed between 110 and 130 d, during which the predominant direction of PUFA-like differential lipids shifted from HBW to LBW predominance. Representative differential metabolites included N-acetyl-L-methionine, N-methyl-L-glutamic acid, and γ-glutamyl-5-hydroxytryptophan, suggesting alterations in amino acid- and peptide-related metabolism. Overall, these findings provide insight into stage-dependent variation in flavor-related precursor composition within a breed across developmental stages. However, their direct contribution to flavor remains to be validated. Full article

Mycosporine-like amino acids (MAAs), a class of secondary metabolites characterized by a cyclohexenone or cyclohexenimine ring structure bound to amino acid residues, are widely distributed in algae. These compounds exhibit strong ultraviolet-absorbing and antioxidant activities, making them attractive candidates for natural sunscreen formulations. However, the low productivity of MAAs in microalgae severely hampers commercial viability. Asterarcys sp., a fast-growing, heat- and light-tolerant microalga, has recently been demonstrated to produce high levels of MAAs under UV irradiation. In this study, phosphorus limitation was found to stimulate rapid MAAs accumulation in Asterarcys sp. SCSIO-46548. After eight days of cultivation, microalgal cells grown in phosphorus-free medium (0 mg L⁻¹) showed a sixfold higher MAAs content (1.08% DW) compared to the group supplied with 5.60 mg L⁻¹ phosphorus (0.18% DW). However, the accumulation of MAAs began to plateau under phosphorus deprivation. Based on integrated homology alignment with cyanobacteria and functional domain validation, a putative biosynthetic pathway for mycosporine-serine in Asterarcys sp. SCSIO-46548 was proposed. Importantly, the gene expression of desmethyl-4-deoxygadusol synthase (DDGS) exhibited a 2.75-fold upregulation under phosphorus limitation. Complementary bioinformatic analyses further characterized the subcellular localization and major physicochemical properties of the candidate enzymes involved. In conclusion, phosphorus limitation is an effective strategy to enhance MAAs production in Asterarcys sp. SCSIO-46548 by upregulating the expression of key biosynthetic genes, such as DDGS. This finding provides an effective solution to the low MAAs productivity in microalgae cultivation. Full article

China’s rural public open spaces (POS) are largely governed as common-pool resources through self-organized collective arrangements, often regarded as a viable pathway to sustainable commons management. Yet, in practice, these systems remain prone to overuse and under-maintenance, reflecting collective action failures associated with the tragedy of the commons. The governance of rural POS therefore constitutes a complex social–ecological problem shaped by the interplay of institutional rules, biophysical conditions, and user–stakeholder interactions. Taking Taigu District in Shanxi Province—characterized by heterogeneous social–ecological contexts and collective action dilemmas—as the empirical case, this study develops a meso-level baseline model to identify the key conditions (design principles) for sustainable rural POS governance. Adopting an expert-based epistemological approach, 24 specialists in rural governance (scholars, planners, and local administrators) were engaged. Grounded in commons and collective action theories within the Social–Ecological Systems (SES) framework and informed by Transaction Cost Economics (TCE), the study operationalizes a Delphic Hierarchy Process (DHP), combining three rounds of Delphi to establish consensus on governance conditions with the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) to derive their relative weights. The model specifies 14 governance conditions across four interrelated dimensions: ecological (e.g., clearly defined resource boundaries and congruence between resource characteristics and user needs), institutional (e.g., simple and enforceable rules, accessible conflict-resolution mechanisms, accountable monitoring, and calibrated external support), social (e.g., social capital, leadership capacity, clearly defined user boundaries, and group interdependence), and interactional (e.g., resource dependence, equity in benefit distribution, and supply–demand alignment). It further clarifies their relative importance and systemic interdependencies. By operationalizing commons design principles within a meso-level analytical framework, the study advances their empirical application in rural planning and offers five targeted managerial implications to strengthen institutional robustness and the long-term sustainability of self-governed rural POS. Full article