Risk Factors of Kidney Stones in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan: A Descriptive Cross-Sectional Study.

Introduction Renal calculi, commonly known as kidney stones, affect approximately 12% of the global population, often resulting in mild to severe pain and complications such as infection and renal failure. The causes are multifactorial, involving lifestyle factors, genetic predisposition, and various medical conditions. Despite advancements in treatment, the incidence of kidney stones is on the rise, especially in regions like Asia's stone belt, which includes Pakistan as well.

Coping with antagonistic predation risks: Predator-dependent unique responses are dominant in Ceriodaphnia cornuta.

Inducible defences of prey are evolved under diverse and variable predation risks. However, during the co-evolution of prey and multiple predators, the responses of prey to antagonistic predation risks, which may put the prey into a dilemma of responding to predators, remain unclear. Based on antagonistic predation pressure from an invertebrate (Chaoborus larvae) and a vertebrate (Rhodeus ocellatus) predator, we studied the responses of multiple traits and transcriptomes of the freshwater crustacean Ceriodaphnia cornuta under multiple predation risks.

Disentangling Diet- and Medium-Associated Microbes in Shaping Daphnia Gut Microbiome.

Host genotype and environment are considered crucial factors in shaping Daphnia gut microbiome composition. Among the environmental factors, diet is an important factor that regulates Daphnia microbiome. Most of the studies only focused on the use of axenic diet and non-sterile medium to investigate their effects on Daphnia microbiome.

The thermal regime modifies the response of aquatic keystone species Daphnia to microplastics: Evidence from population fitness, accumulation, histopathological analysis and candidate gene expression.

The water bodies are greatly influenced by chemical contamination and global increasing temperature. As an emerging pollutant, microplastics are widely distributed in the freshwater environment, raising concerns regarding their potential toxicity to organisms. Especially for zooplankton filter feeders, many of microplastics are in similar size as their food.

Insight into chronic exposure effects of nanosized titanium dioxide on Typha angustifolia leaf litter decomposition.

Advancement in nanotechnology has increased production of nanoparticles which initiates concerns for freshwater ecosystems. Nanosized TiO is one of the most used materials and its ecotoxicity has been extensively studied. Here, a freshwater microcosm experiment was performed to investigate the effects of nanosized (10, 60, and 100 nm) and bulk TiO at 1 g L on the alteration in community structure of fungal decomposers and the consequences on litter decomposition of Typha angustifolia leaves.

Molecular characterization of thioredoxin reductase in waterflea Daphnia magna and its expression regulation by polystyrene microplastics.

Global scale concerns regarding rise in microplastics pollution in the environment have recently aroused. Ingestion of microplastics by biota, including freshwater zooplankton has been well studied, however, despite keystone species in freshwater food webs, the molecular response (e.g.

Temperature-dependent elimination efficiency on Phaeocystis globosa by different initial population sizes of rotifer Brachionus plicatilis.

Due to sea water eutrophication and global warming, the harmful Phaeocystis blooms outbreak frequently in coastal waters, which cause a serious threat to marine ecosystem. The application of rotifer to control the harmful alga is a promising way. To investigate the influence of initial rotifer density and temperature on the ability of rotifer Brachionus plicatilis to eliminate Phaeocystis globosa population, we cultured P.

Understanding interactive inducible defenses of Daphnia and its phytoplankton prey.

Cyanobacterial and zooplankton inducible defenses are important but understudied process that regulate the trophic interactions of freshwater ecosystem. Daphnia due to its large size is considered an important zooplankton with the high potential to control cyanobacterial blooms. It has been shown that Daphnia through maternal induction transfer tolerance to their next generation against Microcystis toxicity.

The importance of calcium in improving resistance of Daphnia to Microcystis.

Changing environmental calcium (Ca) and rising cyanobacterial blooms in lake habitats could strongly reduce Daphnia growth and survival. Here, we assessed the effects of maternal Ca in Daphnia on transfer of resistance to their offspring against Microcystis aeruginosa PCC7806 (M. aeruginosa).

Effect of heavy metals combined stress on growth and metals accumulation of three Salix species with different cutting position.

This study aimed to compare growth performance and heavy metal (HM) accumulation at different cutting positions of Salix species grown in multi-metal culture. Three Salix species stems cut at different positions (apical to basal) were grown hydroponically for four weeks. The plants were then treated for three weeks with 0, 5, 10, and 20 μM Cd, Cu, Pb, and Zn, resulting in total metal concentrations of 0, 20, 40, and 80 μM.