Freshwater mussels are widely used as bioindicators of aquatic contamination due to their high filtration capacity and ability to accumulate trace elements. However, their potential role in contaminant sequestration and environmental remediation remains poorly explored under natural exposure conditions. In this study, we investigated trace element bioaccumulation dynamics in the freshwater mussel Unio elongatulus (Pfeiffer, 18...

Resting-state network topology may provide a powerful framework for understanding how large-scale brain organisation supports cognitive functions. However, the topological correlates of social cognition remain poorly characterised. This study examined whether individual differences in social cognition are associated with the global topology of the resting-state functional connectome derived from high-density EEG across canonic...

Unsupervised serious video games on the SmartMe&You home telemonitoring platform may enable the assessment of cognitive fluctuations in older individuals, with or without cognitive deficits. Here, we tested their validity in cognitively unimpaired older adults (Healthy) and patients with mild cognitive impairment and mild to moderate dementia due to Parkinson’s disease (PDCD). Such validity was assessed using Mini-Mental State...

Background Physical frailty is a prevalent geriatric syndrome associated with reduced physiological resilience and adverse outcomes. Beyond classical inflammaging, age-related changes in immune regulation and tissue repair may contribute to frailty pathophysiology. Biomarkers involved in adaptive immune responses and remodeling pathways, such as IL-17 and TGF-β1, may help characterize the inflammatory-regenerative milieu assoc...

Freshwater lakes are increasingly affected by interacting ecological, infrastructural and socio-economic pressures, yet research on regulated deep lake systems has mainly focused on biophysical processes, with comparatively limited attention to how local stakeholders perceive ecological change and sustainability transitions. This study addresses this gap by examining how stakeholders interpret environmental change, water gover...

Sedentary behavior is a recognized and modifiable risk factor for cognitive decline and dementia across neurodegenerative conditions. This study used a smartwatch-based telemonitoring procedure combined with ecological cognitive assessment to examine whether step counts can capture sedentary behavior and its association with cognitive functioning in patients with mild cognitive impairment (ADMCI) and dementia (ADD) due to Alzh...

European Union (EU) legislation supports the conservation of endangered freshwater species through the Habitats Directive (HD, 92/43/EEC) and the Water Framework Directive (WFD, 2000/60/EC), and the eradication of Invasive Alien Species (IAS) through the Regulation 1143/2014. Periodic monitoring and reporting on the species listed in these regulations are mandatory for EU Member States. Quantitative PCR environmental DNA (qPCR...

The full extent of the ecological threat posed by non-native invasive leguminous N-fixing trees to Italian ecosystems has not been thoroughly documented at the national level. This study, conducted by the Working Group on Alien Species of the Italian Botanical Society, aims to develop a comprehensive dataset that provides information on invaded and non-invaded areas, supporting multi-scale ecological analyses on the impact of...

Lewy body disease (LBD) and Alzheimer’s disease (AD) are the most common causes of cognitive decline and dementia and are associated with characteristic alterations in resting-state electroencephalographic (rsEEG) activity. This multicenter exploratory study investigated periodic and aperiodic rsEEG features in patients with cognitive decline due to Lewy body disease (LBCD) and Alzheimer’s disease (ADCD), compared with cogniti...

Clinical implementation of neurofilament light chain (NfL), a biomarker of neurodegeneration, remains challenging due to absence of reliable cutoffs and influence of confounding factors, particularly age. We aimed to develop an age-adjusted, two-threshold classification framework to support clinical interpretation of NfL in the neurodegenerative dementia diagnosis. We retrospectively enrolled subjects with cognitive/behavioral...

Balancing electron donors and acceptors is crucial for bacterial cell to control both anabolism and catabolism rates and to keep at minimum ROS production and the resulting oxidative stress. Efficiency of nutrients uptake and assimilation is therefore linked to the availability of electron acceptors, to finally re-cycle reduced intracellular electron shuttles belonging to catabolism via respiratory chain. In case of excess red...