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Peer review is crucial for academic communities to ensure high-quality research, but yields relatively limited formal rewards for the individuals who perform it. Drawing on 39 semi-structured interviews, I study how reviewers for three publishing outlets in psychology experience the tension between community responsibility and various priorities of a more individual kind. Peer review functions as a gift economy, in which authors are expected to repay the work reviewers have invested in their submission by providing peer review for others. This gift economy is embedded in other economies, which are based on the accumulation of various types of capital (recognition, visibility, money etc.). If not kept in check, the competitive dynamics of accumulation tend to undermine the sense of reciprocity required for the continued functioning of peer review. One of the journals studied here is particularly prestigious and operates with a traditional format of pre-publication peer review. The model effectively exploits the tensions between gift giving and accumulation. It exposes reviewers to various undesirable submission practices characteristic of high impact publishing, but compensates them with a share of its reputation that reviewers can use to advance their own careers. The other two publishing outlets are based on not-for-profit business models and feature elements such as open peer review, portable reviews, and registered reports. Reviewers can thereby more easily see their work as something akin to co-authorship. This alleviates tensions between gift giving and the various encompassing economies, contributing to the sustainability of the respective peer review systems.
This study describes the process of older adults creating a legacy of values (e.g., legacy letter), which promotes generativity by communicating emotional and supportive instruction (e.g., values and life lessons) to others. We conducted semi-structured interviews with community-dwelling older adults (n = 16, mean age 72.3 years) who had previously created a legacy of values. Following an interpretive descriptive framework, we integrated deductive and inductive coding, identified patterns through constant comparative analysis, and generated categories describing the essential (i.e., Motivation, Selecting Audience and Format, Selecting Content, and Sharing) and ancillary (i.e., procedural) elements of the process. Creation was a non-linear, iterative, and individualized process that helped participants communicate what matters most. Participants tailored the contents and format to the intended recipients, revised their document over time, and recommended the process to others. Our findings indicate that creating a legacy of values in a self-directed way is an accessible, appealing and individualized process.
This reflection explores the experience of aphasia following a severe stroke and the subsequent loss of a professional identity as a practicing psychologist. Through the process of relearning language, reading, and writing fiction, the author reflects on questions of identity, recovery, and the unfinished nature of medicine, psychology, and human lives. Memories of the author's father, a rural country physician, provide a framework for understanding that healing is not about completing another person's story, but participating in it. Writing serves not as an endpoint but as a continuing process of meaning-making, listening, and beginning again.
Cheek teeth are filled to the cusp with information about mammalian evolution. Studying the evolution of mammalian cheek tooth crown complexity has benefited our understanding of mammalian evolution in developmental, morphological, and ecological contexts. Most work is focused on individual cheek tooth loci as opposed to considering the premolars and molars as serial homologues. This focus on individual tooth loci has left the exploration of inter-regional phenomena understudied. One such phenomenon is the molarization of premolars across hoofed mammals; some have simple unicuspid premolars while others have premolar crowns that are equal in complexity to their molars. Many developmental models have been proposed to understand cheek tooth evolution, but minimal work has been done to synthesize these models into a holistic understanding of cheek tooth crown complexity evolution. We investigated if applying a synergized theoretical framework of the inhibitory and patterning cascade model to artiodactyl and perissodactyl taxa could be used to study the evolution of molarization in hoofed mammals. We applied an existing 2D landmarking scheme for the upper and lower premolar molar boundaries of hoofed mammals to capture the morphology across this important identity boundary. Shape data were analyzed through phylogenetically informed modularity analyses to capture the covariation structure at the upper and lower premolar-molar boundaries. A-priori modularity hypotheses were proposed based on developmental models including the patterning cascade model and the inhibitory cascade model. Both artiodactyl and perissodactyl results showed support for modularity across the upper and lower premolar molar boundary but showed more variation in the upper premolar molar boundary. Artiodactyls show consistency in support for modularity hypotheses between upper and lower premolar molar boundaries where perissodactyls show significant differences in support for modularity hypotheses between upper and lower premolar molar boundaries. Our results illustrate that the covariation structure at the premolar molar boundary has convergent and divergent elements that both have consequences for our understanding of the evolution of molarization within and between artiodactyls and perissodactyls.
Genome-wide association studies (GWASs) are commonly used to investigate the genetic basis of complex traits. However, to be adequately powered, they typically require large sample sizes to provide precise inferences. To address this challenge, this article introduces genomic informational field theory (GIFT), a novel data-analytic method that enhances the power of genetic analyses, enabling the use of smaller datasets without compromising precision. In a small cohort of 157 ponies, GIFT was applied to examine the complex trait of "height at withers," comparing its performance to traditional GWAS. GIFT enabled the identification of genetic loci linked to insulin physiology, validating, in turn, a long-standing hypothesis that "height at withers" is associated with insulin physiology in equids, potentially promoting equine metabolic syndrome (EMS). By redefining correlations between single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), GIFT provides new insights into linkage disequilibrium and reveals underlying gene network structures. This, in turn, enables the distinction between core and peripheral genes within these networks. By reducing the time and cost associated with large-scale genotype-phenotype mapping studies without sacrificing statistical robustness, GIFT broadens access to quantitative genetic research, allowing smaller-scale studies to investigate the genetic architecture of complex traits with greater resolution.NEW & NOTEWORTHY Inferring genotype-phenotype associations typically requires large sample sizes, limiting many genetic studies. Genomic informational field theory (GIFT), a novel data-analytic tool, overcomes this by enabling accurate association mapping in small datasets. We further show how GIFT's extended framework infers linkage disequilibrium and gene networks, distinguishing core from peripheral genes involved in complex traits. This advancement enhances understanding of biological architecture and enables high-resolution genetic research in limited cohorts, offering a powerful, cost-effective alternative to traditional large-scale approaches.
Surgical repair of the Achilles tendon (AT) requires high failure load while limiting elongation. Midsubstance repairs are particularly reliant on suture techniques and typically use either a whip stitch or a locking stitch, such as the Krackow. Enhancements to the Krackow, such as the gift box, epitendinous, or alternative locking stitch techniques, aim to simplify surgical processes and improve biomechanics. The purpose of this study was to evaluate biomechanical properties of 3 enhanced techniques for midsubstance AT repair. We hypothesized that locking stitch constructs would demonstrate improved biomechanical performance compared with nonlocking constructs by minimizing elongation and increasing failure load. A total of 30 cadaveric lower leg specimens with simulated midsubstance AT ruptures were divided into 3 repair groups: whip stitch with gift box (WG), locking whip stitch with gift box (LG), Krackow stitch with epitendinous baseball (KB) stitch. Samples were preconditioned and then loaded from 20 to 100 N for 1000 cycles, followed by load to failure. Elongation, stiffness, failure load, survival, failure mode, and suture weight (burden) were compared. KB had the significantly lowest cyclic elongation, whereas LG had the significantly highest failure load. LG failure load increase was achieved while using less suture material than KB. All samples survived the cyclic loading protocol, and all whip stitch groups failed from tissue pull-through, whereas LG and KB failed only 40% from pull-through. This study presents 2 stitch techniques that can improve AT repair failure load (LG) and limit elongation (KB). Locking stitch techniques LG and KB demonstrated a significant improvement in biomechanical performance compared with nonlocking WG. Inferences should be limited to the 3 tested constructs rather than individual technical variables in isolation. The locking whip stitch gift box and Krackow epitendinous baseball stitch techniques are both viable methods for Achilles tendon repair. Nonlocking whip stitch gift box does not provide sufficient fixation.
Tobacco marketing shapes consumer perceptions, particularly among young people. Despite regulatory restrictions, subtle tactics may continue to mislead youth and young adults. This study examines how specific features in cigarette and e-cigarette ads affect perceived harm and addictiveness among 18-20-year-olds. We recruited 1,708 U.S. participants aged 18-20 across two survey waves (2022-2023). Participants viewed randomized cigarette and e-cigarette ads and rated perceived harm and addictiveness. Ads (n = 221) were coded for youth-relevant features. Mixed-effects logistic regression assessed associations between ad features and perceptions, adjusting for demographics, tobacco use, brand familiarity, and wave. For e-cigarette ads, flavors and gift promotions were associated with a lower likelihood of inaccurate harm perceptions, while sweepstakes, social media engagement, and socialization themes were linked to a higher likelihood of inaccurate harm perceptions. In cigarette ads, use cues and pleasure claims were linked to a lower likelihood of inaccurate harm perceptions, whereas gift promotions were linked to a higher likelihood of misperceptions. Regarding addiction, price promotions and use cues in e-cigarette ads were associated with a lower likelihood of inaccurate addiction perceptions, while sweepstakes, social media engagement, and socialization themes were linked to a higher likelihood of inaccurate addiction perceptions. For cigarette ads, only use cues predicted a lower likelihood of inaccurate addiction perceptions. Advertising features can influence young adults' misperceptions of nicotine and tobacco product risks. Specifically, sweepstakes, social media engagement, and youth-oriented socialization themes may obscure harm and addictiveness, especially for e-cigarettes. Findings support comprehensive regulation to address misleading marketing.
In the US, low-income children have poorer dietary behaviors than high-income children and suffer disproportionately from nutrition-related chronic diseases. A growing literature examines whether food environments contribute to nutritional inequality, given evidence that low-income families differentially concentrate in neighborhoods characterized by limited access to healthy foods. Here we use a rigorous, randomized controlled trial (RCT) of poverty reduction among 901 low-income families to test whether improvements in the food environment mediate a demonstrated effect of cash transfers on children's diet. We first replicate prior work on the RCT showing a protective effect of treatment-i.e., assignment to a "high-cash" gift group (in which mothers received $333/month), relative to a "low-cash" gift group ($20/month)-on age-2 fruit and vegetable consumption. We then apply inverse odds ratio weighting (IORW) mediation methods to decompose the total effect of cash transfers into direct and indirect effects operating through changes in four food environment measures: 1) food deserts (census tract); 2) number of SNAP outlets (1-mile buffer); 3) Modified Retail Food Environment Index (mRFEI; census tract); and 4) supermarket proximity (straight-line distance). The proportion of the total effect explained by each food environment mediator ranged from 11% (mRFEI: β = 0.019, CI: -0.066, 0.104) to 14% (supermarket proximity: β = 0.025, CI: -0.057, 0.107) with all confidence intervals including zero, providing no evidence of mediation. Results suggest that changes in neighborhood food environments do not explain the effect of a poverty reduction trial on dietary improvements in early childhood.
Interactions between physicians and pharmaceutical companies are common for mutual exchange of medical knowledge; pediatric field is no exception. However, vested commercial interests could encourage irrational prescribing behavior. The pharmaceutical industry can offer free drug samples, gifts, travel expenses and honoraria to physicians in addition to sponsorship for academic events, access to medical softwares or academic activities in return for promoting and endorsing their products. Given that pediatricians care for a particularly vulnerable population, they bear an added responsibility to uphold the highest standards of ethical professional conduct. Financial transparency, protection of data confidentiality, stricter framework by the journal editors in evaluating possible gift authorships and industry-facilitated research and careful vigil by professional bodies (Academies/Societies/Associations) are a few solutions that could ensure that their members adhere to ethical standards and regulatory guidelines.
In Greek mythology, Tithonus was the husband of Eos, the goddess of dawn. Granted immortality without the gift of eternal youth, Tithonus became an illustration of senescence without physical or cognitive wellbeing, characterised by not only physical but also cognitive decline - this is one of the earliest literary representations of dementia in Western civilisation. As myths mirror the values and concerns of a society, the depictions of Tithonus across the eras are an interesting window into how the Ancient Greek society dealt with the process of ageing and cognitive decline. In this paper, we discuss what the myth of Tithonus reveals about senescence and its challenges in the classical world. Remarkably, we conclude that many of the contemporary views and burdens of old age and dementia date from Antiquity, suggesting that ageing and its burdens are inherent human concerns, not merely products of the modern context.
To assess physician acceptance of a Virtual Reality Brain Death Determination Tool (VRBDDT) as an educational modality and its impact on physician knowledge and confidence in brain death determination and communication with patient families. Prospective pilot study using surveys administered pretraining and post-training. One hundred twenty-six acute care hospitals within the Gift of Life Donor Program's Donor Service Area. Physicians responsible for performing brain death determination. Participants completed a novel, virtual reality-based training program consisting of eLearning modules integrated with virtual reality simulations of brain death determination procedures and family communication. Of 142 enrolled participants, 69 completed both pretraining and post-training assessments consisting of a 14-item questionnaire. Median scores significantly improved from 73.2% pretraining to 91.1% post-training (p < 0.001). Participants demonstrated the largest improvements in knowledge about clinical examination procedures and family communication skills. Self-reported confidence significantly increased post-training, with high satisfaction and acceptance ratings reported by participants. The VRBDDT was accepted by physicians and significantly enhanced knowledge and confidence related to brain death determination and family communication.
The sural nerve is a superficial sensory nerve of the posterior leg that innervates the lateral foot. Anatomical variations in its course are clinically relevant, as they may affect surgical procedures, nerve blocks, and the risk of iatrogenic injury. This case report describes a rare variant in which the sural nerve pierces between the two heads of the gastrocnemius muscle, a course infrequently reported in the literature and important for surgical awareness. During routine lower-extremity dissection by first-year medical students at William Carey College of Osteopathic Medicine, Hattiesburg, USA, a rare sural nerve variant was identified in a 72-year-old Caucasian female cadaver obtained from the University of South Alabama Anatomical Gift Program, with dementia listed as the cause of death. The right sural nerve pierced both the medial and lateral heads of the gastrocnemius muscle approximately 11.43 cm inferior to the center of the popliteal fossa, deviating from its typical superficial course. After traversing the muscle, the nerve continued normally along the posterior leg. Adjacent structures, including the popliteal artery, popliteal vein, and tibial nerve, were unremarkable. Intact muscle fibers and the absence of fibrosis support this finding as a benign anatomical variation. While sural nerve variations are well-documented, instances of the nerve piercing the gastrocnemius muscle are exceedingly rare. Damage to the sural nerve can result in sensory deficits affecting the lateral foot and lower leg, which may impair recovery and quality of life. Awareness of such variations is vital for clinicians to prevent inadvertent nerve injury during surgeries or nerve blocks.
Streptococcus agalactiae is an important bacterial pathogen of farmed tilapia; however, practical oral vaccines with stable protective efficacy remain limited because of poor antigen stability and low intestinal delivery efficiency. In this study, three immunodominant epitopes derived from the S. agalactiae surface immunogenic protein Sip, C5a peptidase ScpB, and leucine-rich repeat protein LrrG, as well as a multi-epitope fusion antigen (MEFA) constructed from these epitopes, were individually expressed in Chlorella sorokiniana, thereby establishing a microalgae-based oral vaccine system. Absolute quantitative qPCR and Western blot analyses confirmed that Sip, ScpB, LrrG, and MEFA were all stably expressed in the recombinant microalgae. A 28-day feeding trial in GIFT Nile tilapia showed that the recombinant algal biomass did not affect fish growth performance, while oral immunization significantly increased serum peroxidase, catalase, acid phosphatase, and alkaline phosphatase activities and induced antigen-specific IgM responses. Immune gene analysis further showed that different antigens induced distinct tissue-specific and time-dependent response patterns: Sip tended to induce an early pro-inflammatory and humoral immune activation; ScpB and LrrG were more closely associated with cellular immunity and mucosal antigen presentation; and MEFA induced a more durable and balanced immune response during the middle and late stages of immunization. Following S. agalactiae challenge, the MEFA group showed the highest relative percent survival (RPS) of 87.5%, with alleviated clinical symptoms, reduced gill and intestinal tissue damage, and decreased transcription levels of multiple bacterial virulence-related genes in host tissues. These results indicate that recombinant Chlorella can serve as both an antigen expression vehicle and a natural delivery carrier, and that bioencapsulated MEFA is a promising oral vaccine candidate for the control of streptococcosis in tilapia.
Over 70% of people experiencing homelessness report current cigarette smoking. We conducted a randomized controlled trial of an extended (6-month) contingency management (CM) intervention for smoking cessation among adults experiencing homelessness and who were engaged in primary care. We examined experiences and perspectives on cessation among a subset of participants in the trial. The CM group received escalating incentives in the form of gift cards contingent on carbon monoxide-verified abstinence; the control group received fixed incentives for attending visits, not contingent on abstinence. All participants received cessation care through their primary care clinics. At one‑year follow‑up, we invited a convenience sample (N = 31) from both study arms to complete in‑depth interviews. We conducted thematic analysis and mapped themes to Social Cognitive Theory constructs of reciprocal determinism, reinforcements, behavioral capability, self-efficacy, observational learning, and outcome expectancies. Smoking was a reciprocal interaction among personal, environmental, and behavioral factors, with many participants ascribing their use to ongoing mental health and substance use. Participants in the CM and control groups reported that financial incentives reinforced smoking cessation and supported daily expenses. Incentives increased behavioral capability for cessation by increasing motivation and self-efficacy to quit. Participants reported that friends and family modeled smoking cessation, promoting observational learning. Outcome expectancies for smoking cessation included improvements in one's own, friends', and family's health and improved quality of life. Participants experiencing homelessness viewed financial incentives as reinforcing smoking cessation and contributing to improved quality of life.
Is the live birth rate higher for cleavage stage embryos compared to blastocysts in patients with a single zygote following oocyte fertilization using IVF or ICSI? Among patients with only a single zygote, transfer at cleavage stage was observed to result in a higher live birth rate than transfer at blastocyst stage. Existing evidence suggests that blastocyst transfer is superior to cleavage stage in terms of live birth rate per embryo transfer, cumulative live birth rate, and time to pregnancy with three or more zygotes. However, whether these findings generalize to cohorts with less than three zygotes remains unclear. This target trial emulation, with live birth as the primary outcome, involved a retrospective analysis of 11 163 nulliparous patients who undertook ART in Australia and New Zealand between 2009 and 2022. Participants were included in the study if they were undergoing their first-ever stimulated ART cycle resulting in a single zygote following fertilization using IVF or ICSI. In this cohort, there were 6505 patients who received a cleavage stage transfer, 2216 who received a blastocyst stage transfer, and 2442 who had no embryo available for transfer following embryo culture, with the intended day of transfer unknown for these patients. We modelled a comparison of intended transfer of a cleavage or blastocyst using g-computation within the target trial emulation framework. This involved fitting models that estimated the chance that embryo would survive to cleavage or blastocyst stage based on patient characteristics, and if it did so, the chance of a live birth when it is transferred. These models were used to simulate an idealized randomized controlled trial (target trial) on our retrospective cohort. We found that compared to blastocyst transfers, cleavage stage transfers were associated with a higher live birth rate per couple in this cohort (12.5% vs 10.1%), with an adjusted relative risk of 1.24 (95% CI: 1.15-1.50). This effect increased with female age from 35 years, with a relative risk of 1.34 (95% CI: 1.15-1.57) in a 35-year-old and 1.51 (95% CI: 1.25-1.80) in a 40-year-old woman. This is likely due to the high rate of embryo attrition between the cleavage and blastocyst stages; our models predict that on average 92.0% of zygotes would survive to cleavage stage, compared to 58.9% and 49.9% surviving to the blastocyst stage at ages 35 and 40 years. The originally intended/planned day of embryo transfer, i.e. cleavage stage or blastocyst, is not recorded in the data source, only the actual day of transfer. This required utilization of a multinomial mixture model that estimates the cleavage and blastocyst embryo development rates as a sub-model, using the year of treatment as an external source of variation (in additional to patient factors) for predicting the intended treatment group. As with any causal analysis using retrospectively collected observational data, the results are dependent on the accuracy of our modelling assumptions which cannot be verified. Additionally, the potential confounder of embryo quality on the day of transfer was not available. These results highlight the role target trial emulation can play in filling evidence gaps for patient cohorts excluded from existing RCTs, and where the prospect for future RCTs is limited due to sample size constraints or ethical considerations. Further, the assessment of new ART technologies and procedures needs to be stratified by markers of patient prognosis (in this case, female age and number of available zygotes), and there should be caution in generalizing the findings to a different group. This study was funded by the 2024 Ferring Australia Reproductive Medicine Research Grant Scheme. O.F., G.M.C., and L.R. are the listed investigators on this grant paid to UNSW Sydney. Ferring had no role in designing, analysing, interpreting, or reviewing the study. W.L. declares that they are a Human Reproduction Deputy Editor. L.R. declares consulting fees from Besins, Merck, and Organon, speaker's fees from Besins, travel support from Gedeon Richter, and shares in Monash IVF Group (ASX: MVF). C.V. declares receipt of gift vouchers as honorarium for consumer input to the study as part of their membership of UNSW YourIVFSuccess/National Perinatal Epidemiology and the Statistics Unit Consumer Advisory Group. The remaining authors have no conflicts of interest to declare. N/A.
How did a philosopher who celebrated eccentricity, eroticism, and excess come to embrace the starkest of normative concepts, the imperative? This essay explores this productive tension in the work and life of Alphonso Lingis (1933-2025), drawing on a philosophical exchange and friendship spanning more than three decades. Lingis adapted Kant's concept of the imperative to argue that we are summoned, before and beyond reason, to accompany the dying, to respond to the elemental forces of nature, and to honour the singular gift of our lives by dedicating ourselves to the task that calls to us. Lingis's thinking resonates with Emmanuel Levinas's grounding of ethics in the vulnerability of the face of the Other, yet he anchored his imperative in deeply personal encounters with strangers who risked everything to save him. This personal and philosophical tribute traces how his extraordinary, unconventional life exemplified his insistence that we are all under an imperative to live fully.
The prevalence of gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) diagnosis among infants in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) is high and varies across USA NICUs. GERD diagnosis is challenging as symptoms can be physiological and association is difficult to determine without objective testing methods. Precision diagnostics using 24-hour pH-impedance (pH-Imp) studies with symptom correlation to reflux events have been developed and validated for this population. Current empiric-based, non-standardized GERD management practices are highly variable and are widely untested for safety and efficacy in high-risk NICU infants. The rationale for this randomized controlled trial (RCT) is to compare the efficacy and safety of three widely used interventions for infants that meet the criteria for acid-mediated GERD, objectively diagnosed by 24-hour pH-Imp. This is a prospective, single-center RCT aiming to enroll convalescing NICU infants between 35- and 47-weeks postmenstrual age with objectively diagnosed GERD using a unique parallel 3-arm design comparing the short-term effects of three common management strategies: natural maturation vs. proton pump inhibitors (PPI) vs. added rice starch (AR) formula. Using established 24-hour pH-Imp inclusion criteria, subjects will be randomized to one of the three arms for a 4-week treatment course allocated 1:1:1, stratified by acid reflux index (ARI) (3-7% and > 7%) and feeding method at inception (full oral versus any tube feeds). Primary outcome measures include maintenance or improvement in oral feeding and symptom improvement measured at 4 weeks or discharge whichever is sooner. A second pH-Imp study will be done on treatment to examine treatment efficacy on GERD metrics. The primary clinical endpoints are oral feeding improvement and absence of troublesome symptoms. The mechanistic hypotheses that pH-Imp mechanisms are distinct between assigned therapies, and between clinical success and failure will also be tested. The goal of this study is to refine novel diagnostic pH-Imp criteria for infant GERD diagnosis and compare the efficacy of the three unproven therapies, examine pathophysiological mechanisms for clinical outcomes, define duration of therapy, and assess consequences of interventions. ClinicalTrials.gov. Brief Title: GERD Infant Feeding Therapeutics Trial (GIFT Trial). NCT Number: NCT06114836. Unique Protocol ID: STUDY00003300.
The cerebellum has been implicated in schizophrenia-related structural and functional deficits, with posterior Crus I and II most consistently affected. Source-based morphometry (SBM) involves applying independent component analysis to gray matter volume to identify spatially distinct structural networks that covary across individuals. We applied SBM and voxel-based morphometry (VBM) to cerebellar structural imaging data to identify patterns of gray matter differences across individuals with schizophrenia (SZ), bipolar disorder with psychotic features (BDwP), and healthy controls (HC). Data were drawn from the Psychosis Human Connectome Project (P-HCP) and included 168 participants: 85 with SZ, 36 with BDwP, and 47 HC. T1-weighted images were processed using the ENIGMA Cerebellum Volumetrics Pipeline, and ICA decompositions were performed using the SBM module of the GIFT Toolbox. One independent component (IC) showed a significant diagnostic group effect (p < 0.05, Bonferroni-corrected), differentiating SZ from HC and BDwP. This cerebellar network included vermis VIIIa, bilateral Crus I, and right lobule IX with positive loadings, and bilateral Crus I and lobule IX with negative loadings. Voxel-based morphometry showed reduced GM volume in negatively loaded regions in SZ. Composite cognitive performance correlated with GM volume (r = 0.27, p < 0.001) and network loadings (r = -0.29, p < 0.001). Mediation analyses showed a strong direct diagnostic effect on IC loadings (-0.42), with small, nonsignificant indirect effects via cognition. These findings identify a cerebellar structural network that differentiates schizophrenia from bipolar disorder and controls, underscoring the cerebellum's unique contribution to the neurobiology of schizophrenia.
Self-inflicted cutting, a common form of nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI), has emerged as a significant clinical and pastoral concern in contemporary psychiatry. Clinically, cutting serves multiple psychological functions: regulation of intense affect, relief of overwhelming distress, externalization of emotional pain, self-punishment, indirect communication of suffering, induction of dissociative states, or generation of physiological arousal. These functions underscore the complexity of the behavior. From a Catholic theological perspective, these psychological mechanisms may be situated within a broader account of the human person. Catholic anthropology holds that the human being, created in the image of God (imago Dei), is ordered towards communion with God and others. Flowing from this orientation is a capacity for self-gift, by which suffering may be united to Christ's once-for-all redemptive sacrifice. Suffering is not salvific in itself; it becomes spiritually fruitful only insofar as it participates in Christ's redemptive act, sacramentally mediated through the Eucharist and the Sacrament of Reconciliation. Cutting can therefore be interpreted as a tragic misdirection of the human longing for communion and restoration. Pain, severed from relational participation in Christ's sacrifice, turns inward and becomes destructive rather than transformative. This essay examines cutting through an interdisciplinary lens integrating psychiatry, biblical theology, Catholic anthropology, and medical history to argue that authentic healing requires both rigorous psychiatric care and pastoral accompaniment that reorients suffering toward communion. Cutting is examined through psychiatry and Catholic theology as a misdirected attempt to relieve suffering.
As one of the most serious global public health concerns, malaria is highly prevalent in Africa and has severely hindered local social and economic developments. Anti-malaria aid underpinned by artemisinin has emerged as an iconic practice of China's engagement in global health governance in the context of evolving global health governance, which continuously exerts its distinctive impact. The Artemisinin Anti-Malaria Team at Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine is dedicated to safeguarding global health, committed to transforming artemisinin, a precious gift of traditional Chinese medicine to the world, into tangible impetus for malaria elimination. At the convergence of the China-Africa Year of People-to-People Exchanges and World Malaria Day, a review of China-Africa health cooperation is of specific significance. Based on the practices of international anti-malaria projects led by the Artemisinin Anti-Malaria Team at Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine, this paper systematically summarizes the theoretical innovations, practical values and humanistic core of China's anti-malaria approaches, and analyzes the core challenges in global malaria elimination programmes in the new era. ［摘要］ 疟疾是全球最严重的公共卫生问题之一, 在非洲地区高发, 严重阻碍当地社会经济发展。在全球卫生治理变革背景下, 以青蒿素为载体的抗疟援助作为中国参与全球卫生治理的标志性实践, 正持续发挥其独特影响力。广州中医药大学青蒿抗疟团队矢志守护全球健康, 致力于将青蒿素这一中医药献给世界的礼物转化为消除疟疾的现实生产力。在中非人文交流年与世界防治疟疾日交汇之际, 回顾与审视中非卫生健康合作具有特殊意义。本文从广州中医药大学青蒿抗疟团队的国际抗疟项目实践出发, 系统评述中国抗疟方案的理论创新、实践价值与人文内核, 并分析新时代全球抗疟事业面临的核心挑战。.