In this study, an environmentally friendly, highly selective, and sensitive electrochemical sensor was developed for the simultaneous determination of antibiotic metronidazole (MTR) and pesticide nitenpyram (NTP) using a calcium zirconate@attapulgite-modified glassy carbon electrode (CaZrO3@ATP/GCE). The hybrid nanocomposite was synthesized by a hydrothermal and simple sonochemical route that enabled the uniform deposition of CaZrO3 nanoparticles on the fibrous attapulgite (ATP) porous structures to form a highly conductive and electroactive nanocomposite. The hybrid nanocomposite was suggesting the CaZrO3 and ATP network exhibit synergistic and highly surface catalytic activity. Using differential pulse voltammetry (DPV), the sensor exhibited high selectivity and strong sensitivity (MTR: 0.7398 μA μM-1 cm-1 & NTP: 0.4869 μA μM-1 cm-1) with detection ranges of MTR: 0.1 to 1525.1 μM (detection limit of 0.033 μM) and NTP: 0.2-945 μM (detection limit of 0.065 μM). The fabricated electrodes were interference-free during simultaneous detection of relevant compounds, high reproducibility and stability, suggesting those systems were ready for practical, portable applications in environmental monitoring. Real-sample validation of sediment water, pond water, human serum, and urine are reported, with exceptional recovery values (∼96.7-100.8%) and the HPLC method also showed satisfactory recoveries (98.9-101%) representing sensor reliability vis-a-vis complex matrices. This work represents the first demonstration of a CaZrO3@ATP hybrid nanocomposite as a platform for the provision of electrochemical sensing, premium, inexpensive, and scalable strategies for multi-residue ranging from environmental immunology to human biofluids, bridging fundamental gaps in the environmental-health surveillance and food safety nexus.

This review integrates recent evidence on the associations between major plant-based food groups and cardiovascular disease (CVD), the biological plausibility of the proposed mechanisms, certainty-of-evidence assessments, and recurrent methodological limitations. PubMed and Web of Science were searched for English-language publications from 2020 to July 2026, with earlier studies included when evidence was sparse. Association evidence was derived primarily from umbrella reviews and systematic reviews of observational studies, supplemented by prospective cohort studies where review-level evidence was limited. Mechanistic evidence from human intervention studies, animal models, and in vitro investigations was synthesized using a three-tier framework. Higher intakes of whole grains, legumes or pulses, fruits and vegetables, and nuts and seeds were generally associated with lower risks of CVD outcomes. However, the magnitude and consistency of associations varied across food groups and outcomes. Human trials most consistently showed reductions in low-density lipoprotein cholesterol with cereal bran, oat β-glucan, legumes, and nuts relative to comparators, together with modest improvements in lipid profiles following fruit and vegetable interventions. Evidence for other proposed effects was more limited or heterogeneous and, for several pathways, derived mainly from preclinical models. Certainty-of-evidence assessments varied and several limitations recurred across the literature. Higher consumption of major plant-based food groups is generally associated with lower risks of several cardiovascular outcomes. However, the observational nature of the epidemiological evidence limits causal inference. Moreover, heterogeneity in findings and recurrent methodological limitations across the included sources warrant caution in drawing firm conclusions. Future research should standardize food-group definitions and dietary assessment methods and strengthen the integration of epidemiological and mechanistic evidence.

Environmental aging alters the physicochemical properties of micro/nanoplastics (MNPs) and may modify their biological effects; however, the cardiac developmental toxicity of aged MNPs remains poorly understood. In this study, ultraviolet-aged polystyrene nanoplastics (aged PSNPs) were prepared as a laboratory model of photoaged nanoplastics, and zebrafish embryos were exposed to pristine or aged PSNPs for 7 days to evaluate developmental cardiotoxicity and mitochondrial mechanisms. UV aging increased surface roughness and cracks, reduced particle diameter from 93.43 nm to 87.5 nm, shifted zeta potential from -33.3 mV to -21.8 mV, and increased oxygen-containing functional groups. Both pristine and aged PSNPs disrupted early development, including accelerated hatching at 3 dpf, reduced final hatching rate, increased mortality, and elevated cardiac malformation. Cardiac defects were mainly characterized by pericardial edema and cardiac enlargement. PSNP exposure increased heart rate and blood flow velocity while reducing BA-SV distance, with aged PSNPs inducing stronger effects. Mechanistically, both pristine and aged PSNPs decreased ATP levels, whereas aged PSNPs caused greater ROS accumulation and calcium overload. Aged PSNPs also broadly suppressed mitochondrial function related genes and disrupted cardiac developmental signaling, as indicated by altered Notch/Wnt-related and myocardial maturation gene expression. These findings demonstrate that aged PSNPs exert stronger developmental cardiotoxicity than pristine PSNPs and suggest that mitochondrial dysfunction may represent a potential mechanistic contributor associated with impaired early cardiac development.

Redox signaling regulates neuronal function, yet how acute cell-specific hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) elevation affects hippocampal network oscillations remains unclear. Using a chemogenetic approach in mouse hippocampal slices and in vivo, we induced controlled intracellular H2O2 production selectively in pyramidal cells or interneurons and examined the effects on sharp-wave ripples (SPW-Rs) and gamma oscillations. Pyramidal-cell H2O2 reduced SPW-R amplitude, propagation success, and CA3-CA1 synchrony, accompanied by a reversible 25% reduction in EPSC amplitude without affecting IPSCs or paired-pulse ratios, indicating a postsynaptic mechanism. Interneuron-specific H2O2 reduced SPW-R frequency and propagation success without altering propagation velocity. In striking contrast, gamma oscillations, whether evoked optogenetically in slices or recorded spontaneously in vivo, were resistant to H2O2 elevation regardless of cell type targeted. These findings reveal that SPW-Rs and gamma oscillations exhibit differential sensitivity to acute H2O2, with cell-type-specific effects on ripples but universal resistance of gamma activity. Because the two rhythms support distinct cognitive operations, this dissociation suggests that transient redox signals may selectively constrain memory consolidation while leaving active encoding-related processing intact, and that the cellular source of H2O2 determines which network state is affected.

Rare earth tailings soil retains high residual NH4+-N after in-situ leaching with ammonium sulfate, creating coupled risks of nitrogen loss and poor revegetation. The substrate and microbial pathways that reopen ammonia oxidation and mediate nitrification restart in this ammonium rich rare earth tailings soil remain unclear. To address this gap, a microcosm incubation over time compared an unamended soil, MgO, and manure, integrating nitrogen transformations, net mineralization, enzymes, qPCR, and shotgun metagenomics. Under OM, extractable NH4+-N declined by 88.3 % from its initial value, while oxidized inorganic N accumulated. Three related functional patterns were observed under OM. First, an early apparent net N mineralization pulse occurred under DCD inhibition, peaking at 15.45 mg N kg-1 d-1, alongside evidence of peptide cleavage and amino sugar turnover. Second, ammonia oxidation was reactivated, as indicated by enrichment of amoABC and hao and increases of 2.8 to 15-fold in archaeal and bacterial amoA. Third, manure enhanced functional network integration between nitrogen cycling and substrate metabolism genes, with functional coupling associated with inorganic N, CEC, and SOM. These findings suggest a role for biological functional reconstruction in restoring nitrogen cycling in ammonium rich rare earth tailings soil.

Heart rate variability (HRV) and electroencephalography (EEG) are reflective of cardiac autonomic modulation/emotional regulation and cortical brain activity/psychopathology, respectively. This study aimed to determine the key HRV/prefrontal EEG classifiers of healthy controls (HC) versus patients with psychiatric disorders (PT) and to identify the subtypes of these features. A simultaneous 5-min-long acquisition of earlobe photoplethysmography and resting-state prefrontal EEG signals was performed in 147 HC and 123 PT [major depressive disorder (MDD; N = 107) and panic disorder (N = 16)]. A mixed graphical model (MGM) was constructed using the 9 HRV-related features, 11 prefrontal EEG-related features, depressive symptoms and anxiety, and psychiatric diagnosis by licensed psychiatrists. Top 12%-ranked nodes in regards of the betweenness centrality or expected influence were defined as hubs to be employed in the eXtreme Gradient Boosting (XGBoost) classifier model and the latent profile analysis (LPA): 2 HRV-related features [total power (TP), absolute power in low frequency band (LF)], 4 prefrontal EEG-related features [relative powers in frequencies of theta (THETA), low-alpha (L_ALPHA), low-beta (L_BETA), middle-beta (M_BETA)], and anxiety. The XGBoost model had an accuracy of 74.9 ± 5.6%. The SHapley Additive explanation values demonstrated that lower anxiety and M_BETA were indicative of a higher probability of being a HC. A lower LF indicated a greater possibility of being a PT. The LPA identified 3 PT subgroups of (1) hyperarousal [severe depression and moderate anxiety; higher M_BETA and lowered HRV], (2) relatively stable [minimal depressive symptoms and anxiety; no marked frontal EEG deviation and lowered HRV], and (3) frontal EEG slowing [moderate depression and mild anxiety; higher THETA and markedly lowered HRV in TP and LF]. Future studies to determine the results of risk indicators for patients with psychiatric disorders using HRV and prefrontal EEG features derived by the combined use of network-based feature selection, machine learning-based classifiers, and latent class subtyping in diverse populations are warranted. TRIAL REGISTRATION: N/A.

Abnormal interoception may be a hallmark of medically-unexplained symptoms (MUS), although its underlying mechanisms remain unclear. We investigated whether MUS are associated with enhanced interoceptive learning, potentially facilitated by post-learning stress. From 177 volunteers providing self-reports on MUS, 22 individuals were recruited from the upper and 26 from the lower quartile (high/HSR and low symptom reporters/LSR) and randomly assigned to a stress or a control condition (LSR-stress/n = 12; LSR + stress/n = 14; HSR-stress/n = 11; HSR + stress/n = 11). Participants underwent a heartbeat perception training as interoceptive perceptual learning task, followed by a socially-evaluated cold pressor stress or a control intervention. Interoceptive accuracy was measured using the heartbeat counting and discrimination task at baseline (T₁), 30 min. (T₂) and 24 h (T₃) after the stress/control intervention. Sympatho-adreno-medullary (SAM) and hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axes were measured in terms of heart rate, blood pressure (SBP/DBP) and salivary cortisol reflected reactivity. The stress test induced a robust increase of SBP/DBP in both stress groups, and a cortisol increase in the LSR + stress group only. Post-learning stress induced an increase of interoceptive accuracy (heartbeat discrimination) the HSR + stress group only. Correlation/regression analyses showed a positive association between changes in interoceptive accuracy (heartbeat discrimination) from T1 to T2 with MUS, and changes from T2 to T3 with SAM and HPA axis responsiveness. Post-learning stress may enhance interoceptive learning in MUS, which may explain why benign body sensations are perceived as symptoms. While MUS-specific heightened attention to body sensations may be responsible for early effects, physiological stress axes may explain late effects of interoceptive learning, including overnight consolidation.