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The lead (Pb) contamination is a serious risk to the agricultural productiveness and food security by affecting the metabolism of plants, halting photosynthesis, and causing oxidative stress. This research examined how the rhizospheric fungus Aspergillus terreus (isolate F2) could minimize the adverse effects of Pb phytotoxicity on the growth and physiology of red bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) under greenhouse conditions. The plants were cultivated in soil with 25 and 75 ppm of lead acetate and inoculated with a suspension of A. terreus spores in a completely randomized block trial (three replicas). Lead stress caused significant retardation of plant growth, with reductions of up to 43% in shoot length and up to 37% in dry weight at the higher Pb concentration (75 ppm), while root length and fresh weight declined by up to 24% and 34%, respectively. The photosynthetic pigments-chlorophyll a, chlorophyll b, carotenoids, and xanthophylls-declined by approximately 24-58% under Pb stress, with the greatest reductions observed for chlorophyll b and carotenoids at 75 ppm Pb. Increase in secondary metabolites (flavonoids and phenolics) was a form of stress response, and soluble sugars became considerably reduced. Lipid and proline levels were high in the Pb stress, proving oxidative damage and osmoregulatory processes. Inoculation of A. terreus considerably reverted these effects, and growth parameters, pigment levels, and metabolic balance were returned. Lactophenol cotton blue staining and light microscopy were used to confirm that the root sections were colonized by fungi. The isolate was molecularly determined through ITS rDNA sequencing and phylogenetic analysis using MEGA-11. Multivariate techniques [principal component analysis (PCA), hierarchical clustering, Pearson correlation, and treatment profile radar charting] verified the total treatment group separation of all 15 measured variables with PC1 and PC2 explaining 73.3% of total variance; chlorophyll a, fresh weight, and soluble sugars were the best distinguishing variables. These results reveal that A. terreus is an ideal bioinoculant in the reduction of Pb phytotoxicity and a viable and environmentally friendly approach to bioremediation of heavy metal-contaminated farm soils. These results indicate that A. terreus is an effective bioinoculant for alleviating Pb-induced physiological and biochemical stress in Phaseolus vulgaris L.; however, as Pb concentrations in plant tissue and soil were not measured, direct evidence of Pb immobilization or removal remains to be established in future studies.

Large-scale disturbances can profoundly alter aquatic ecosystems by modifying water chemistry, sediment dynamics, and biodiversity across connected freshwater and marine environments. The 2015 Fundão Dam collapse in Brazil provides an unprecedented context to evaluate how multiple aquatic communities respond to intense and prolonged contamination, revealing key mechanisms of community reorganization under chronic anthropogenic impacts. By a multi-taxa monitoring dataset collected from 62 freshwater and marine sites, we analyzed how different communities, comprising phytoplankton, zooplankton, macroinvertebrates, and fish, responded along a gradient of mining tailing exposure. Applying threshold indicator taxa analysis (TITAN), we identified critical environmental variables, capturing tipping points for positive and negative biotic responses to tailing-related environmental gradients. Our results showed that mining-related contaminants, combined with hydrogeochemical alterations triggered by the dam collapse, have driven long-term changes in biodiversity, reshaping ecosystem functioning. The same stressors that caused widespread negative responses in community structure also promoted localized increases in opportunistic, mainly planktonic taxa, indicating a multidirectional community reorganization. In general, small increases in metals and hydrogeochemical alterations (such as turbidity up to 17 NTU in riverine systems and 2 NTU in the marine sites), resulting from the dam collapse have driven persistent changes in biodiversity, ultimately reshaping ecosystem functioning. Integrating community-level thresholds should represent a critical approach to improve the detection of regime shifts and to support the development of habitat-specific recovery strategies for riverine and marine ecosystems affected by mining disturbances.

Context: We theoretically demonstrated the thermal decomposition mechanisms of the ICM-107 and ICM-107/HTPB systems over the temperature range of 1000-3250 K. The results confirmed that the introduction of HTPB promoted the initial decomposition of ICM-107 molecules at lower temperatures, owing to hydrogen radicals generated during HTPB decomposition, but extended the time required for complete decomposition. In the ICM-107 system, the initial decomposition mechanisms involved the coupling of two ICM-107 molecules to form larger clusters, intermolecular hydrogen transfer, and ring-opening reactions. Furthermore, Arrhenius fitting confirmed that HTPB incorporation reduced the activation energy for the initial decomposition of ICM-107 molecules from 202.99 to 170.61 kJ/mol.

Methods: With the help of CP2K package, the self-consistent charge density functional tight-binding (SCC-DFTB) method was employed to perform calculations. The Broyden-Fletcher-Goldfarb-Shanno (BFGS) method was selected to perform the cell and geometry optimization. To improve the accuracy in describing the van der Waals forces, the DFT-D3 method was adopted. Molecular dynamics (MD) simulations were performed in the NVT ensemble using the canonical sampling through velocity rescaling (CSVR) thermostat. Meanwhile, the post-processing analysis of molecular dynamics trajectories was performed using ReaxTools to establish the initial decomposition pathways of the ICM-107 and ICM-107/HTPB systems.

As children spend many hours outdoors for play, learning, and physical activity, the thermal quality of schoolyards has become an increasingly critical concern for public health and educational design, particularly under exposure to thermal extremes and climate change. This systematic review analyzes 35 peer-reviewed studies published between 2015 and 2025, identified through five online databases, to synthesize the current state of knowledge on outdoor thermal comfort (OTC) in K-12 schools. Findings show a strong focus on mitigating summer heat stress, particularly in primary schools within Mediterranean and humid subtropical climates. Most studies rely on field measurements combined with numerical simulations, typically using objective indices, while increasingly incorporating subjective measures such as behavioral adaptation. Across climates, vegetation and shading consistently emerge as the most effective mitigation strategies. By identifying research gaps, methodological trends, and dominant interventions, this review underscores the need for more comprehensive research on schoolyard thermal environments. It also provides practical guidance for architects, urban planners, and school administrators by outlining climate-responsive intervention priorities. Overall, this review highlights that improving outdoor thermal comfort in school settings is not merely an environmental design challenge but a cross-disciplinary issue at the intersection of public health, education, and climate adaptation. It calls for a shift from purely technical approaches toward integrated, participatory, and policy-oriented frameworks that position thermal comfort as a core component of school infrastructure.

Chronic atrophic gastritis (CAG) is a precancerous lesion characterized by epithelial injury, glandular atrophy, and impaired gastric function. Molecular targets linking epithelial alterations with potential traditional Chinese medicine-derived compounds remain unclear. GEO bulk transcriptomic datasets were analyzed to identify differentially expressed genes (DEGs), which were intersected with CAG-related genes for enrichment analysis. Protein-protein interaction (PPI) network analysis and reverse network pharmacology were used to identify key targets and construct a drug-component-target network. Single-cell RNA sequencing, virtual knockout, molecular docking, CCK-8 assay, and RT-qPCR in 1‑Methyl‑3‑nitro‑1‑nitrosoguanidine (MNNG)-treated GES-1 cells were then integrated to prioritize and evaluate FOS. A total of 502 DEGs and 54 intersected CAG-related genes were identified, with enrichment in wound healing, epithelial junction organization, tight junctions, cAMP signaling, gastric cancer, and digestive or secretory pathways. Five key genes-APOA1, CFTR, FOS, HMOX1, and VIM-were identified, all with AUCs above 0.80. Among 21,679 single cells, FOS was the only key gene predominantly enriched in gastric epithelial cells. Virtual knockout predicted associations between FOS-network perturbation and five genes involved in hormone processing and gastric secretory pathways. Docking generated candidate fisetin-FOS and kaempferol-FOS poses for preliminary compound prioritization. MNNG reduced GES-1 cell viability and significantly increased FOS mRNA expression. Integrated computational analyses highlighted FOS as an epithelial-associated candidate gene in CAG and suggested exploratory associations with gastric secretory pathways. These findings support further functional and compound-intervention studies of the FOS/AP-1 axis.

Edwardsiella piscicida is an intracellular bacterial pathogen that causes edwardsiellosis in Japanese flounder and poses a serious threat to aquaculture. Surface-localized glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH) has been implicated in bacterial adhesion and immune recognition, making it a promising antigenic target for infection control. In this study, we generated shark-derived variable domains of immunoglobulin novel antigen receptors (VNARs) targeting recombinant GAPDH from E. piscicida and evaluated their potential as antibody-based agents for controlling edwardsiellosis. A banded houndshark (Triakis scyllium) was immunized with recombinant GAPDH, and anti-GAPDH VNARs were subsequently isolated from the spleen using a combination screening method. Three VNAR clones, designated 2 - 1, 3 - 2, and 4-11, exhibited concentration-dependent binding to recombinant GAPDH and retained their binding activity after exposure to high temperatures or acidic conditions. Epitope binning indicated that the three clones recognized non-overlapping epitopes. Among the tested fish-pathogenic bacteria, clones 2 - 1 and 4-11 preferentially bound Edwardsiella species, including E. piscicida and E. anguillarum. In GAPDH activity assays, the combination of clones 2 - 1 and 4-11 showed the strongest inhibition of recombinant GAPDH activity, with an IC50 of 9.5 ng/ml. The same combination also most effectively inhibited E. piscicida growth in vitro, with an IC50 of 13.6 µg/ml. In a Japanese flounder challenge test, combined administration of clones 2 - 1 and 4-11 resulted in a final survival rate of 91.7%. These findings suggest that anti-GAPDH VNARs may provide a promising antibody-based strategy for the control of edwardsiellosis in aquaculture.

In this study, the potential and limitations of iNaturalist for monitoring mosses in Poland (2019-2025) were assessed using 17,451 verified "Research Grade" records. Rarefaction enabled diversity pattern analysis while accounting for sampling effort differences. Observational activity peaked in early-spring (March) and autumn (October). Analysis revealed extreme asymmetry in research effort (G_users = 0.89): the 12 most active users contributed 65.5% of national records, creating a "super-user effect." Rarefaction corrected this bias, identifying the Pomeranian Voivodeship as having the highest standardized diversity (S_rar = 80.9). Citizen science effectively supports specific moss monitoring aspects. Observers documented 151 unique records of the alien moss Campylopus introflexus, representing over 60% of sites recorded during 30 years of traditional floristic research. Despite the "microscope barrier" restricting the database largely to visually identifiable bryophytes (e.g., reducing nearly the entire genus Hypnum to H. cupressiforme; G_taxa = 0.76), iNaturalist serves as a crucial early-warning system. Ultimately, large-scale citizen scientists datasets provide valuable guidance for identifying priority areas for future bryological research.

Zhi-Bai-Di-Huang-Wan (ZBDHW) is a traditional Chinese medicine formula clinically used for precocious puberty, but its molecular basis remains unclear. Earlier age at menarche (AAM) reflects advanced female pubertal timing and provides a genetically tractable endpoint relevant to precocious puberty. This study aimed to identify ZBDHW-associated molecular targets relevant to pubertal timing by integrating target prediction, Mendelian randomization-based methylation-expression-protein analyses, Bayesian colocalization, network analysis, and granulosa-cell experiments. ZBDHW ingredients and candidate targets were retrieved from BATMAN-TCM 2.0. Summary data-based Mendelian randomization and Bayesian colocalization integrated methylation, expression, and protein quantitative trait loci with the largest European AAM genome-wide association study. Protein-protein interaction analysis assessed network connectivity. KGN human granulosa cells were treated with dauricine or oleanolic acid, and CASP3 mRNA expression was measured by quantitative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction. CASP3 was the only ZBDHW-associated target showing convergent evidence across gene expression and protein abundance levels, with supportive methylation evidence at cg06796944. Higher genetically predicted CASP3 expression and protein abundance were associated with later AAM, and CASP3 was a central node in the ZBDHW-related protein-protein interaction network. In KGN cells, dauricine increased CASP3 mRNA at 40 and 80 µM, whereas oleanolic acid increased CASP3 mRNA at 200 µM. These findings support a CASP3-centered methylation-expression-protein target axis as a candidate mechanism linking ZBDHW-associated compounds to female pubertal timing, providing genetically informed multi-omics evidence and preliminary granulosa-cell support relevant to the adjunctive use of ZBDHW in precocious puberty.

Silver–silver oxide (Ag/AgO) and Ag/AgO:Au core–shell nanoparticles were synthesized by a hybrid pulsed laser ablation–plasma jet technique, in contrast to a dual plasma jet methodology. We employed X-ray diffraction (XRD), field-emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), ultraviolet-visible near-infrared spectroscopy (UV-Vis-NIR), and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) to investigate the structure, shape, and optical properties of the nanoparticles. X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis confirms that the prepared nanoparticles belong to the face-centered cubic structure. The FESEM results showed that well-dispersed spherical and agglomerated core-shell nanostructures could be produced with sizes ranging from 19 to 100 nm. The prepared nanoparticles absorbance spectra show a strong peak at 517 nm. TEM analysis clearly revealed a core–shell morphology, confirming that the synthesis routes were effective. The cytotoxic efficacy of the synthesized nanoparticles was assessed in vitro against MDA-MB-231 breast cancer cells and REF-52 normal fibroblast cells. These methods showed selective anticancer activity. The plasma jet method inhibited cancer cell growth by up to 63.3% after 48 h, while exhibiting relatively low toxicity towards normal cells (<21%). The hybrid laser-plasma technique demonstrated a more favorable therapeutic index, exhibiting significant anticancer efficacy (~51.6% inhibition) alongside diminished cytotoxicity towards normal cells (<15%). These results underscore the potential of Ag/AgO: Au core–shell nanoparticles, synthesized via plasma-based hybrid methods, as viable candidates for safe and effective nanomedicine in cancer treatment.