Background: Emerging parasites pose increasing challenges at the interface of human, animal, and ecosystem health. Among these, Trichobilharzia spp., schistosomatid of migratory and resident waterfowl, can cause cercarial dermatitis (CD) when its larval stage (cercaria) accidentally penetrate human skin. While this parasite has been documented in several European countries, its presence in Portugal has remained unreported, leaving a critical gap in understanding potential zoonotic risks in local freshwater ecosystems. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the presence of Trichobilharzia spp. in freshwater snails from Lake Alqueva, providing the first insights into its potential ecological and public health implications in Portugal.

Methods: Fieldwork was carried out on Lake Alqueva, considered the largest artificial reservoir in Western Europe, with ecological and public health relevance. Freshwater snails from shore locations in Lake Alqueva were examined for cercarial shedding, and molecular identification was performed by PCR amplification of the cytochrome c oxidase subunit 1 (COX1) gene and internal transcribed spacer (ITS) regions.

Results: Morphological and genetic analyses confirmed Trichobilharzia franki from Radix auricularia, showing high homology with European and Asian lineages. Moreover, human infections compatible with CD were also reported in the region.

Conclusions: These findings highlight the need for continued malacological surveillance, particularly in recreational freshwater bodies, to assess risk areas and implement mitigation strategies. Furthermore, this study expands the known geographical distribution of T. franki in Europe and underscores the importance of integrating ecological and public health approaches to monitor emerging zoonotic parasites.

The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region faces considerable challenges from ticks and tick-borne diseases (TBDs), exacerbated by climate change and its impact on human and animal health, as well as overall productivity. To address these interconnected issues, the United Arab Emirates University, located in Al Ain, Abu Dhabi Emirate, United Arab Emirates (UAE), hosted a multinational, transdisciplinary One Health symposium on climate change, ticks, and tick-borne diseases. The event brought together experts from across the region and beyond, featuring seven invited speakers who explored a wide range of topics, including climate change, TBDs of humans and animals, tick research in the UAE, and the One Health approach. The symposium highlighted major knowledge and research gaps, particularly in underexplored areas such as acaricide resistance, tick vaccine development, tick–pathogen interactions, wildlife–livestock interfaces, and the circulation and movement of tick-borne pathogens across the region. Discussions underscored the heavy burden of ticks and TBDs in the MENA region and their complex economic and public health implications. Participants emphasized the need for regional collaboration, enhanced tick surveillance, pathogen detection, and integrated management strategies. The symposium also encouraged the establishment of future alliances and partnerships among universities, government departments, and research institutions to foster joint research projects, resource sharing, and knowledge exchange. Within the One Health paradigm, participants concluded that regional priorities should focus on identifying and understanding tick-related problems, strengthening cross-sectoral cooperation, utilizing regional expertise and infrastructure, and engaging all stakeholders including the public in sustainable tick and TBD management. This collaborative approach is essential to mitigate the multifaceted challenges posed by ticks, tick-borne pathogens, and a changing climate in the MENA region.

Background

Ticks are key vectors of zoonotic diseases in the Northern Hemisphere, including China, yet surveillance and public awareness remain limited. While global studies address risk perception, similar research in China, especially with spatial or longitudinal detail, is scarce. This study assesses tick-borne disease risk perception, influencing factors, and spatial variation in Northeast China and Nei Mongol Zizhiqu (also known as Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region) to inform targeted interventions.

Methods

In 2019, a cross-sectional questionnaire surveyed 4000 adults in Heilongjiang, Jilin, Liaoning, and Nei Mongol Zizhiqu using multi-stage sampling. Knowledge was assessed in four domains: tick biology/ecology, bite treatment, tick-borne diseases, and bite prevention, alongside socio-demographic and behavioral data. Descriptive statistics and multiple logistic regression identified knowledge levels and associated factors.

Results

Knowledge of tick biology was relatively high (1830/4000, 45.8% with high knowledge), but awareness of bite treatment, diseases, and especially prevention was low (31.5% with high tick-borne disease knowledge; 21.6% with high prevention knowledge), even among high-risk groups. Urban residents had higher knowledge than those in rural or remote areas. Frequent woodland visits and prior tick bites increased knowledge of tick biology (regression coefficients: 0.311 and 0.387, both P < 0.001) but not prevention. Education and outdoor activity showed mixed associations with knowledge domains.

Conclusion

Major gaps exist in public knowledge of tick-borne diseases, particularly regarding prevention, with notable disparities across regions and risk groups. Targeted, region-specific interventions are urgently needed to improve awareness and protection, especially in high-risk and low-awareness areas.

Existing swirling combustion technology, which relies on faulty coal, is unable to meet deep peak shaving demands without auxiliary methods. This paper developed a deep peak regulation burner (DPRB) to achieve stable combustion at 15%–30% of the boiler’s rated load without auxiliary support. Gas-particle tests, industrial trials, and transient numerical simulations were conducted to evaluate the burner’s performance. At full rated load, the DPRB formed a central recirculation zone (RZ) with a length of 1.5d and a diameter of 0.58d (where d represents the outlet diameter). At 40%, 20%, and 15% rated loads, the RZ became annular, with diameters of 0.30d, 0.40d, and 0.39d, respectively, with a length of 1.0d. At 20% and 15% rated loads, the recirculation peak and the range of particle volume flux were comparable to those at 40% rated load. The prototype burner demonstrated that, without oil support, the gas temperature within 0 to 1.8 m from the primary air outlet remained below 609 °C, insufficient to ignite faulty coal. As the load rate increased from 20% to 30%, the prototype’s central region temperature remained low, with a maximum of 750 °C between 0 and 2.0 m. In contrast, the DPRB’s central region temperature reached 750 °C at around 0.65–0.70 m. At a 3%·min−1 load-up rate, when the load increased from 20% to 30%, the prototype burner extinguished after 30 s. However, the DPRB maintained stable combustion throughout the process.

Proton exchange membrane (PEM) electrolyzer (EL) is regarded as a promising technology for hydrogen generation, offering load flexibility for electric grids (EGs), especially those with a high penetration of renewable energy (RE) sources. This paper proposes a PEM-focused economic dispatch strategy for EG integrated with wind-electrolysis systems. Existing strategies commonly assume a constant efficiency coefficient to model the EL, while the proposed strategy incorporates a bottom-up PEM EL model characterized by a part-load efficiency curve, which accurately represents the nonlinear hydrogen production performance, capturing efficiency variations at different loads. To model this, it first establishes a 0D electrochemical model to derive the polarization curve. Next, it accounts for the hydrogen and oxygen crossover phenomena, represented by the Faraday efficiency, to correct the stack efficiency curve. Finally, it includes the power consumption of ancillary equipment to obtain the nonlinear part-load system efficiency. This strategy is validated using the PJM-5 bus test system with coal-fired generators (CFGs) and is compared with a simple EL model using constant efficiency under three scenarios. The results show that the EL modeling method significantly influences both the dispatch outcome and the economic performance. Sensitivity analyses on coal and hydrogen prices indicate that, for this case study, the proposed strategy is economically advantageous when the coal price is below 121.6 $/tonne. Additionally, the difference in total annual operating cost between using the efficiency curve anda constant efficiency to model becomes apparent when the hydrogen price ranges from 2.9 to 5.4 $/kg.

Integrated wearable thermal management technologies have greatly enhanced human adaptability to complex environments. However, conventional thermal management strategies, which lack environmental risk perception and stable human–machine interaction, are increasingly inadequate for ensuring personal health. Here, we introduce a hierarchical modular design strategy to develop a wearable intelligent thermal management film with robust electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding capabilities. A sensitive biomimetic serpentine dual-mode temperature–humidity sensing module is coupled with a low-power electro-/photothermal conversion module to enable intelligent thermal regulation. The resulting thermal management system offers stable and sensitive front-end temperature–humidity monitoring, alongside low-power electrothermal (51.79 °C at 1.5 V) and photothermal (56.38 °C at 45.51 mW cm⁻²) temperature regulation capabilities. Additionally, the system exhibits outstanding EMI shielding performance, with an EMI SE/t value of 1600 dB mm^–1 at a thickness of just 35 μm, ensuring stable signal transmission. The hierarchical modular design enables functional allocation with higher, thereby optimizing material performance while enhancing the decoupling and synergistic effects between different functionalities. These findings provide a scalable and practical pathway for the multifunctional integration and performance optimization of next-generation flexible wearable electronic composites.

Metal–nitrogen–carbon catalysts have emerged as promising alternatives to costly platinum group catalysts in fuel cells and metal–air batteries; however, further enhancement of their activity in both alkaline and acidic media is still required. Here, we present a FeMg–N–C dual-atom catalyst that demonstrates excellent oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) performance, achieving notably high half-wave potentials (E_1/2) of 1.004 V in alkaline media and 0.881 V in acidic media. Additionally, the FeMg–N–C catalyst delivers peak power densities of 530.1 mW cm⁻² in Zn–air cells and 1.06 W cm⁻² in H₂–O₂ fuel cells. Experimental and theoretical analyses reveal that the enhanced ORR activity arises from the spin state transition of Fe sites from low spin to medium spin, induced by adjacent Mg sites. This medium-spin Fe site exhibits strong adsorption of *O₂ and weak adsorption of *OH, effectively facilitating the initial ORR step and the removal of *OH. This work paves a novel pathway to design and construct well-performing electrocatalysts via the spin regulation strategy.

Monolithic microcavity-metalens interfaces offer a promising strategy for realizing high-performance quantum light sources. By integrating quantum-dot-micropillars with ultra-thin metalenses, this platform delivers single-photon sources with high brightness, high purity, and near-unity indistinguishability, together with flexible control over radiation divergence, emission directionality, polarization, and orbital angular momentum (OAM). It also enables the generation of polarization-OAM entanglement and single-photon skyrmions with topologically robustness. The study points to new possibilities for integrated quantum photonics and meta-optics.