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This article examines how medical secrecy, family silence, and nascent activism produce distinct spatial-cultural regimes that shape health outcomes, care pathways, and health inequities for intersex people in Chile. It contributes a spatial-analytic framework to medical anthropology debates on clinical secrecy, contested diagnostic nomenclature, and epistemic injustice in healthcare. Multi-sited reflexive ethnography was conducted in Chile between October 2020 and December 2023, primarily in Santiago. The study draws on 30 semi-structured interviews-14 with intersex individuals (aged 19-45), of whom one additionally provided a life history interview; 5 specialist physicians, 7 parents/guardians, 2 academic researchers, 1 government official, and 1 international activist-supplemented by approximately 340 h of participant observation across virtual, institutional, domestic, and café-based settings. Analysis followed a constructivist grounded theory approach. Medical institutions, families, and activist organizations produce distinct 'geographies of secrecy' that render intersex bodies selectively visible and impose specific health consequences: clinical spaces generate epistemic injustice through information hoarding and paternalistic consent practices; family spaces enforce silence that isolates individuals from diagnosis, community, and healthcare; activist spaces offer collective recognition while simultaneously producing new exclusions. The concept of 'calibrated disclosure' captures how intersex people strategically manage visibility across spatial contexts with direct implications for healthcare access and wellbeing. The article introduces 'embodied accountability' as a methodological principle for reflexive research with small, geographically concentrated marginalized communities. Findings highlight the need for healthcare systems to address not only clinical protocols but the spatial-institutional conditions that produce epistemic injustice and impede informed consent for intersex people.

Human DNA, the capacity for self-awareness or for symbolic language, a sense of mortality, plasticity and adaptability, the disposition to pray, being created in the image of God. These are only a few of the answers that science, philosophy, (philosophical) anthropology, psychology, and theology have offered to the question of what makes us human. The relevance of the question contrasts sharply with the difficulty of understanding what exactly we are asking.

Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is prevalent in Nepal, with many seeking primary care through Ayurveda, a widely practiced traditional system. However, concerns exist about suboptimal care and variability in clinical practice among Ayurvedic practitioners. No evidence-based clinical practice guideline (EB-CPG) is available for managing T2DM. Therefore, an EB-CPG was developed, and a feasibility study was conducted to inform a future cluster randomized controlled trial (RCT) assessing whether EB-CPG improves T2DM management compared with usual practice. A two-arm feasibility cluster RCT was conducted in Ayurveda centers. Centers were randomized (1:1) by an independent statistician. Adults with newly diagnosed, treatment-na&#xef;ve T2DM and glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c) of 6.5%-<&#x2009;9% were recruited. Data collectors and the analyst were blinded to group allocation. Fourteen Ayurveda centers were approached, all recruited (seven/group) and completed the study. One center withdrew and did not enroll participants. Of 151 potential participants, 121 (80%) were recruited (60 in intervention and 61 in control). Of those, 84% were followed up to 6 months (51/group). The median adherence score to EB-CPG among practitioners was 1-2 (partial to adequate adherence). The median (interquartile range) number of EB-CPG-recommended medicines not consumed by participants and days without consumption was 0 (0-10) and 0 (0-2.5), respectively. No serious adverse events occurred. Preliminary estimates suggest EB-CPG's beneficial effects on HbA1c, fasting plasma glucose, and health-related quality-of-life, though not statistically significant. This feasibility trial demonstrated successful recruitment, follow-up, and intervention adherence. A definitive trial is feasible to evaluate the intervention's effectiveness in T2DM management. ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT05259735; first posted on March 02, 2022.

This paper offers an active inference narrative that considers discriminatory behaviour in relation to the cognitive concept of zones of bounded surprisal (ZBS). It is argued that narrow ZBS band-widths characterise the discriminatory minds of people who see themselves as an in-group. They tend not to be indignant or outspoken, but acquiescent when they witness poor behaviour of those whom otherwise they regard as members of their in-group. When such behaviour harms other people, its perpetrators have a very narrow ZBS band-width: one that likely is a characteristic of dehumanising minds. Because such perpetrators see themselves as members of an in-group with entitlement to control aspects of society, they humiliate or abuse out-groups to which they assign others, and have no compunction about violating their dignity or human rights. We briefly consider policies that could lessen the unwelcome social repercussions of the behaviour of people with discriminatory and dehumanising minds.

While the drug-related risks and harms associated with being unhoused have been previously identified, little is known about the drug-related impacts of displacement from housing. This qualitative and community-based participatory research study explores drug use patterns and risks among people living with HIV (PLHIV) displaced from housing in the West End and the Downtown Eastside neighbourhoods of Vancouver, British Columbia. Between May 2023 and June 2024, semi-structured interviews (n = 29) and participant observations (n = 6) were conducted with PLHIV who use drugs displaced within the last six months from housing in the West End and/or the Downtown Eastside. Data were analyzed thematically and interpreted by drawing on the intersectional risk environment framework. Two illustrative cases that exemplified broader themes across the data were selected to better contextualize participants' experiences of displacement and drug use. Participants positioned drug use as critical to managing their health and survival needs, which were amplified by displacement. Coupled with increased drug use, participants experienced reduced access to safer environments for drug use and changes to their risk environment in ways that exacerbated their post-displacement overdose risk. Cases rendered visible how this was particularly true for participants experiencing intersecting oppressions based on race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, and class. This study advances our understanding of displacement and its impacts on drug use patterns and risks across and within diverse communities of PLHIV. Our findings underscore the urgent need for housing and urban policies to complement harm reduction efforts. We call for participatory planning approaches that foster genuine collaboration between policymakers and marginalized communities to co-create housing and urban policies that are responsive to the needs of those most affected.

Despite the common belief that horizontal stripes in clothes make someone look wider, behavioral studies show that horizontally striped stimuli are perceived as thinner compared to equally wide non-striped stimuli. In the present study, we examined the extent to which participants' beliefs regarding the thinning or widening effect of horizontal stripes were related to their visual perception of horizontally striped versus neutral stimuli in a behavioral task. Data were collected across three countries to explore possible cross-cultural generalizability of the phenomenon. In Experiment 1 (n&#x2009;=&#x2009;316; Greece, Netherlands), we measured participants' beliefs regarding the effect of horizontal stripes in clothes, verifying the popular belief that horizontal stripes are, indeed, thought to have a widening effect regardless of country. In Experiment 2 (n&#x2009;=&#x2009;419; Greece, Netherlands, Taiwan), participants self-reported their beliefs regarding the effect of horizontal stripes and, also, completed a behavioral task comparing the width of a striped and non-striped dress. The results showed that (a) in line with previous research, the horizontally striped dress was perceived as thinner compared to the non-striped dress, and (b) the more participants believed that horizontal stripes make someone look thin, the more they perceived the striped dress as thinner. However, the relation between beliefs and size perception was non-significant for participants who believed that horizontal stripes make someone look wider. No cross-cultural differences were found for this asymmetrical effect, highlighting the universality of the findings.

Aging and increased life expectancy generate growing challenges for end-of-life care in old age, particularly in rural contexts marked by territorial and health inequalities. From the perspective of gerontological geography and the notions of autonomy and agency of older adults, this study aims to generate an understanding of end-of-life as a lived experience from the subjective worlds of and with the people involved. To this end, a qualitative study, with an ethnographic approach and case study strategy, was conducted in the Los Lagos Region of Chile between 2022 and 2023. This included semi-structured interviews and ethnographic observation of rural older adults in the end-of-life stages, their caregivers, and rural health teams. The results show that remaining at home is a central desire and organizes care, sustained primarily by feminized family networks and rural primary care. The home becomes a space of care, and health teams play a key role in providing clinical and relational support at the end-of-life. It is concluded that end-of-life care in rural areas requires territorial approaches that recognize autonomy in old age and the structural inequalities of these processes. El envejecimiento y aumento de la esperanza de vida generan desaf&#xed;os crecientes para los cuidados de fin de vida en la vejez, particularmente en contextos rurales marcados por desigualdades territoriales y sanitarias. Desde la geograf&#xed;a gerontol&#xf3;gica, y las nociones de autonom&#xed;a y agencia de las personas mayores, este estudio se propone generar una comprensi&#xf3;n del fin de vida como experiencia vital desde los mundos subjetivos de y con las personas implicadas. Para ello, se realiz&#xf3; un estudio cualitativo, de enfoque etnogr&#xe1;fico y estrategia de estudio de caso, en la Regi&#xf3;n de Los Lagos, Chile, entre 2022 y 2023, que incluy&#xf3; entrevistas semiestructuradas y observaci&#xf3;n etnogr&#xe1;fica a personas mayores rurales en etapas de fin de vida, las personas cuidadoras y los equipos de salud rural. Los resultados muestran que la permanencia en el hogar constituye un deseo central y organiza los cuidados, sostenidos principalmente por redes familiares feminizadas y por la atenci&#xf3;n primaria rural. El hogar se transforma en un espacio de cuidado y los equipos de salud cumplen un rol clave en acompa&#xf1;amiento cl&#xed;nico y relacional del fin de vida. Se concluye que los cuidados de fin de vida en la ruralidad requieren enfoques territoriales que reconozcan autonom&#xed;a en la vejez y las desigualdades estructurales de estos procesos.

Facial approximation aids identification of unknown individuals in forensic and anthropological contexts. Digital approximation methods estimate Facial Soft&#x2011;Tissue Thickness (FSTT) and facial shape from virtual skulls, which are meant to lower subjectivity. Yet substantial variability persists in predicted outcomes, particularly in the nasal and lower facial regions. AFA3D (Anthropological Facial Approximation in Three Dimensions), developed by Guyomarc'h et&#xa0;al. (2014) from French data, generates facial predictions using statistical shape modelling, FSTT&#x2011;based warping, and iterative algorithms. Earlier studies reported moderate error in the mouth and smaller errors in nasal and orbital areas, but its broader performance remains insufficiently evaluated. This study assesses AFA3D by comparing approximated faces with original facial meshes from 40 CT-scans, 10 each from Czech, Slovak, Egyptian, and French samples. Geometric morphometric comparison was conducted using Morphome3cs&#xa0;II. Across samples, 75.9-84.2% of facial surfaces fell within &#xb1;2.5&#x202f;mm deviation. Systematic regional errors were observed in the nose, lips, chin, cheeks, and upper face, with males generally showing greater localised discrepancies than females. These patterns correspond to anatomical regions with limited skeletal constraint and to sex&#x2011;linked cranial structural differences, as observed in previous approximation validations. Overall, AFA3D produces predictions with consistent regional error patterns, underscoring the need for more detailed mapping of local deviations, better modelling of posture&#x2011;related influences, and continued refinement of automated approximation methods to strengthen forensic reliability.

Although adverse ontogenetic environments are associated with potential impairments in children's memory, recent research suggests that individuals can develop specialized skills to navigate such settings. We conducted a study on short-term memory (STM) and working memory (WM) among 357 children (176 females, Mage&#xa0;=&#xa0;8.23 years, SDage&#xa0;=&#xa0;1.49 years) from two environments in Naples (Italy): Scampia, a neighborhood characterized by chronic socioeconomic hardship, and Pozzuoli, a comparatively lower-stress area. In Part 1, which used conventional abstract stimuli, Scampia children performed similarly to the Pozzuoli control group. In Part 2, which used social stimuli, Scampia children outperformed Pozzuoli peers in both STM and WM. These findings highlight the complexity of memory development, showing that children from high-stress environments can exhibit intact or even enhanced skills that are functionally relevant to the challenges of their surroundings.

This work aimed to translate the Perinatal Anxiety Screening Scale into Chinese and test its validity and reliability. Anxiety symptoms are common in the perinatal period and negatively affect maternal and fetal outcomes. However, a sensitive anxiety screening tool specific to perinatal women, including a broad range of problematic anxiety symptoms, is not available in the Chinese language. Based on the translation, adaptation and validation of instruments or scale guideline, the Chinese version of the Perinatal Anxiety Screening Scale was developed by translation, synthesis, back-translation, pilot testing and psychometric testing. By convenience sampling, 350 perinatal women participated in this study from a tertiary hospital in Guangzhou, China. The Chinese version of the Perinatal Anxiety Screening Scale comprised four dimensions with 31 items and demonstrated good internal consistency (Cronbach's &#x3b1;: 0.94) and acceptable test-retest reliability within a two-week interval (intraclass correlation coefficient: 0.81). An expert panel evaluated that the average Scale-Content Validity Index (S-CVI/Ave) was 0.96, and the Item Content Validity Index (I-CVI) ranged from 0.89 to 1.00. As expected, the PASS significantly correlated with the Pregnancy-specific Anxiety Questionnaire and Self-Rating Anxiety Scale (r&#x2009;=&#x2009;0.74, p&#x2009;<&#x2009;0.001; r&#x2009;=&#x2009;0.67, p&#x2009;<&#x2009;0.001). In exploratory factor analysis, the cumulative contribution rate of the four common factors was 66.19%. The PASS-C was rigorously developed following the translation, adaptation and validation guidelines. The PASS-C was evaluated to have good reliability and validity. Additionally, it was verified to be easy and fast to assess the severity of anxiety symptoms in perinatal women for clinicians in China. We therefore advise that the PASS-C be introduced into clinical practice as a rapid screening instrument of anxiety disorders in antenatal and postnatal women. This enables nurses or clinicians to initiate timely, evidence-based interventions, such as psychological support or referrals to mental health specialists, thereby improving maternal and infant outcomes.

Detection and tracking of animals is an important first step for automated behavioral studies using videos. Animal tracking is currently done mostly using deep learning frameworks based on keypoints, which show remarkable results in lab settings with fixed cameras, backgrounds, and lighting. However, multi-animal tracking in the wild presents several challenges such as high variability in background and lighting conditions, complex motion, and occlusion. We propose PriMAT, an approach for tracking nonhuman primates in the wild. PriMAT learns to detect and track primates and other objects of interest from labeled videos or single images using bounding boxes instead of keypoints. Using bounding boxes significantly facilitates data annotation and robustness. Our one-stage model is conceptually simple but highly flexible, and we add a classification branch that allows us to train individual identification. To evaluate the performance of our approach, we applied it in two case studies with Assamese macaques (Macaca assamensis) and redfronted lemurs (Eulemur rufifrons) in the wild. Additionally, we show transfer to other settings and species, particularly, Barbary macaques (Macaca sylvanus), Guinea baboons (Papio papio), chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes), and gorillas (Gorilla spp.). We show that with only a few hundred frames labeled with bounding boxes, we can achieve robust tracking results. Combining these results with the classification branch for the lemur videos, the lemur identification model shows an accuracy of 84% in predicting identities. Our approach presents a promising solution for accurately tracking and identifying animals in the wild, offering researchers a tool to study animal behavior in their natural habitats. Our code, models, training images, and evaluation video sequences are publicly available at https://github.com/ecker-lab/PriMAT-tracking, facilitating their use for animal behavior analyses and future research in this field.

Zoonoses are among the greatest threats to human health, with many zoonotic pathogens believed to have emerged following the Neolithic transition. Palaeomicrobiological investigations of the zooarchaeological record hold potential to uncover the reservoirs, host ranges, and host adaptations of zoonotic pathogens in the past, but face challenges in identifying promising specimens and pathogen DNA preservation. We perform palaeopathological and genetic examinations of 346 skeletal elements from domesticated and wild animals collected from 34 Eurasian sites dating across the last six millennia. We identify 116 signatures of 29 ancient (opportunistic) pathogens and find support that palaeopathological lesions provide guidance for specimen selection. For two pathogen species, Erysipelothrix rhusiopathiae and Streptococcus lutetiensis, we confirm their ancient authenticity using phylogenetics, showcasing an approach to explore the relationship between ancient low-coverage genomes and their modern-day relatives. Our work presents a pathway to understanding prehistoric zoonotic diseases by integrating zooarchaeological, palaeopathological, and genetic data.

Chinese herbal medicine recommendations are a core part of personalized traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) diagnosis and treatment. However, the complexity of the multidimensional relationships in syndrome differentiation and treatment, herbal compatibility, and dosage selection poses significant challenges to clinical decision-making. Although artificial intelligence technology has made remarkable progress in TCM auxiliary diagnosis, a systematic review of Chinese herbal medicine recommendation methods remains lacking. This review aims to address this gap by systematically reviewing Chinese herbal medicine generation methods grounded in knowledge graph-based recommendations, deep learning-based recommendations, and hybrid model-based recommendations from 2016 to 2025. Major TCM databases that serve as foundational data sources, including traditional Chinese medicine systems, pharmacology database, and analysis platform, symptom mapping database, High-throughput Experimental and Reference Database, and Traditional Chinese Medicine Information Database, which are crucial for training these recommendation models. It further analyses their evolutionary technical patterns and clinical applicability, providing critical references for developing theoretically robust and clinically interpretable artificial intelligence models for TCM practice. Existing research focuses on constructing knowledge graph-driven Chinese herbal medicine recommendation models, which enhance the interpretability of recommendations by structuring the relationships among symptoms, Chinese herbal medicines, and diseases. Meanwhile, a clinical data-driven framework is introduced to discover potential patterns from real-world diagnosis and treatment scenarios. Deep learning-driven methods are adopted to achieve end-to-end feature learning for TCM knowledge reasoning. To improve the clinical applicability of Chinese herbal medicine recommendation models, a few studies have reported evaluation methods by experienced clinical doctors using herbal effectiveness and herbal compatibility scores to assess the reliability of the models and the accuracy of the recommendation results. Forming a comprehensive evaluation system may be the development trend of the evaluation system for clinical decision-support systems. This review outlines a theory-data-clinical ternary evaluation framework for Chinese herbal medicine recommendation models, providing a methodological innovation for developing intelligent systems that meet the standards of evidence-based medicine.

Cooperation is the cornerstone of human societies, and its emergence is firmly linked to enhanced tolerance and egalitarianism. However, evidence of profuse cooperation in less tolerant and despotic societies challenges this predominant view. The overarching interdependency hypothesis may resolve the conundrum. It posits that group-level interdependencies, like strength in numbers in colonially nesting species or allomaternal care in cooperatively breeding species, promote indiscriminate cooperation through enhanced tolerance. Crucially, this hypothesis also predicts that dyadic interdependence like friendships, nepotistic biases, or coalitions, selectively enhance tolerance, fostering discriminate cooperation in despotic species. Species belonging to Macaca, which have a similar social organization, yet remarkable variation in tolerance, hierarchy steepness, nepotistic biases, and coalitionary tendencies, provide an opportunity for testing the interdependency hypothesis. In social group settings, we experimentally study cooperation, prosociality, and tolerance in six macaque species spanning a tolerance gradient. Our findings reveal high dyadic cooperation in despotic societies, yet this cooperation is restricted to a few partners. Dyadic prosociality, kinship, and tolerance positively predict cooperation. Further, our agent-based models demonstrate that despotic societies have fewer but more stable bonds and, thus, higher dyadic interdependencies than in egalitarian societies. Our results suggest that interdependencies facilitate the emergence and maintenance of cooperation.

Hypertension remains a leading global health challenge, particularly in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), where limited health care infrastructure and resources restrict effective management. Community health workers (CHWs) are critical in delivering care in these settings, and when equipped with mobile health (mHealth) apps, they can greatly enhance chronic disease management. Involving CHWs in the design and development at all stages is essential for the success of such programs. However, relatively little research discusses CHW feedback on mHealth interventions. This study aims to evaluate CHW feedback on a hypertension program using a novel tablet-based mHealth tool designed for CHW hypertension diagnosis and management in rural Guatemala. We conducted a mixed-methods analysis as part of a pilot study in San Lucas Tolim&#xe1;n, Guatemala, involving 6 CHWs over a 6-month period. Quantitative data were collected using the System Usability Scale and Likert-scale surveys before and after study completion. Qualitative data were gathered through written surveys and focus group interviews conducted in Spanish by bilingual team members. These methods assessed the app's ease of use, workflow integration, and cultural appropriateness. CHWs provided detailed perspectives on technical challenges, training adequacy, and patient engagement, which guided iterative refinements to both the mHealth app and the hypertension management program. The mHealth app was generally well-received. Average System Usability Scale scores exceeded 70, surpassing established usability thresholds. Likert scale data revealed CHWs found the app to be useful and easy to use, but identified training protocols as areas for improvement. Qualitative analysis of focus groups and written surveys revealed 3 dominant themes. First, CHWs identified practical short-term needs, including slower and more comprehensive training sessions, simplified medication dosing regimens to reduce pill burden, and streamlined survey questions to shorten patient visit times. Second, CHWs raised larger structural concerns, including retention challenges related to financial compensation and misalignment between required clinical data collection and the cultural appropriateness of certain app questions. Third, CHWs highlighted program benefits, including improved patient care and hypertension management, empowerment through educational tools, and increased pride and community trust associated with the program. Our findings suggest that iteratively integrating user feedback into the development of mHealth interventions is key to improve usability, cultural appropriateness, and overall effectiveness of chronic disease management in resource-constrained settings. Due to the small number of CHW participants, as well as a reliance on self-reported perceptions, these findings should be interpreted as exploratory and hypothesis-generating rather than generalizable. This study contributes to the growing literature on mHealth apps for noncommunicable diseases in LMICs and provides insights into CHW experiences. Addressing the technical barriers and systemic challenges identified in this study can help improve future implementations of mHealth-enabled chronic disease programs in LMICs.

While there has been growing attention to research on structural racism and health inequities and the importance of naming structural racism as a driver of population health inequities, research focusing on structural racism and intimate partner violence (IPV) in United States (US)-based immigrant communities of color is lacking. This scoping review examined existing literature that names, operationalizes, and attributes structural racism as a determinant of IPV, and/or its health and social consequences among immigrant communities of color in the US. A search of eight databases (e.g., Medline, CINHAL) to identify studies related to IPV, structural racism, and immigrant communities retrieved 1896 articles. After independent reviewers screened papers for relevance, 32 articles were included in the scoping review. Articles were categorized into two categories for inclusion: Tier 1: Explicitly names structural racism as a driving factor of IPV and directly attributes IPV experiences or consequences to structural racism (articles that met all of our initial eligibility criteria); and Tier 2: Does not explicitly name structural racism as a driving factor of IPV experiences or consequences, but attributes IPV experiences or consequences to structural factors of oppression that align with themes of structural racism. Only one paper was identified that named and attributed IPV experiences to structural racism among US-based immigrants of color. Major research gaps in operationalizing, examining, attributing, and naming structural racism as a driver of IPV and sequelae in US-based immigrants of color persist. Findings serve as a call to action for scholars to move beyond solely traditional individual, cultural, and gender approaches and explicitly name and integrate structural racism into IPV research efforts among immigrant communities of color.

Rhubarb (Rheum spp.), a traditional herbal medicine, has attracted growing interest due to its anti-renal fibrosis effects in chronic kidney disease (CKD). This review systematically evaluates Rhubarb's botanical features, global distribution, and diverse processing methods, which influence its chemical composition and bioactivity. Major bioactive constituents, including anthraquinones, stilbenes, and polyphenols, are cataloged, and their potential roles in renal protection are elucidated. Traditional applications in nephropathy management are critically assessed alongside contemporary pharmacological evidence demonstrating Rhubarb's ability to attenuate renal fibrosis. Notably, this review highlights that multiple bioactive components in Rhubarb exert potent anti-fibrotic effects through complex, interactive modulation of multiple signaling pathways. Despite promising preclinical data, clinical translation remains limited by insufficient understanding of pharmacokinetics and potential herb-drug interactions. This synthesis identifies key research gaps, advocating for interdisciplinary studies to decipher multi-target mechanisms, refine pharmacokinetic profiles to enhance bioavailability, and translate preclinical findings into randomized controlled trials (RCTs). By integrating ethnopharmacological knowledge with modern drug discovery frameworks, this review underscores Rhubarb's potential as a multifaceted anti-fibrotic agent while calling for methodologically rigorous research to validate its therapeutic integration into CKD management protocols.

The ability of bacterial pathogens to colonise indwelling medical devices, particularly urinary catheters, and to establish drug-resistant biofilms accounts for approximately 60 % of all nosocomial infections, underscoring the urgent need for effective strategies to mitigate biofilm development on catheter surfaces. In this study, we developed a multilayer nano-composite coating for urinary catheters, assembled via sequential deposition of bioadhesive catechol-functionalised chitosan (catCS), hyaluronic acid (HA), and antimicrobial aminated lignin nanoparticles (N-LigNPs). Sono-enzymatically phenolated, aminated, and formulated lignin nanoparticles (NPs) served as both structural and functional components within the coatings, whose assembly was monitored in real time using a quartz crystal microbalance with dissipation. Atomic force microscopy was employed to characterise the coating topography, complemented by surface zeta potential measurements and lubricity analysis. Cross-linking of N-LigNPs with catCS, catalysed by the oxidative enzyme laccase, increased the mechanical integrity of the coating beyond that afforded by electrostatic interactions alone. This translated into durable antimicrobial and antibiofilm performance of the functionalised catheters over 7 days in a hydrodynamic model simulating a catheterised human bladder, reducing S. aureus and E. coli biofilm formation by more than 60 %, while exhibiting no cytotoxic effects on mammalian cells. Moreover, the clinical, histological, and microbiological data obtained from in vivo studies in a rabbit model demonstrated that the coating was biocompatible and effectively prevented catheter-associated urinary tract infections during a 10-day indwelling period. STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE: Catheter-associated urinary tract infections (CAUTIs) remain a major clinical challenge due to biofilm formation and rising antimicrobial resistance. This study presents a bio-based, multilayer nanocomposite coating for urinary catheters that combines catechol-functionalised chitosan, hyaluronic acid, and aminated lignin nanoparticles, stabilised through laccase-mediated cross-linking. Unlike conventional electrostatic coatings, this enzymatically reinforced system exhibits enhanced mechanical durability, sustained antimicrobial and antibiofilm activity under physiologically relevant hydrodynamic conditions, and biocompatibility. Importantly, its efficacy is demonstrated both in vitro and in vivo. This work highlights a sustainable, antibiotic-sparing strategy with strong translational potential for preventing CAUTIs and could be extended to other biofilm-prone medical devices.

Linguistic structures show uneven global distributions, but it remains unknown to what extent such distributions are driven by human population history at a global scale. Here, we track population history through population genetics and show that, adjusting for geography, phylogeny, and environment, genetic diversity (in terms of local homozygosity modeled across individuals) is inversely correlated with linguistic diversity (in terms of local entropy of structural features modeled across languages). This inverse correlation arises from the parallel impact of isolation vs. contact on both genomic and structural linguistic diversity: Isolation leads to low genetic diversity and promotes structural linguistic diversification, while contact and migration yield higher genetic diversity and promote linguistic homogenization. The extent of the correlation varies across world regions and aspects of language, but its overall global robustness highlights how hotspots of linguistic diversity can serve as a compelling example of the flexibility of human language, since they have been less affected by the increase of contact and migration that occurred over recent millennia and homogenized linguistic structures.