Can the return of rural labor improve the physical health of left-behind parents-evidence from rural China

Objectively In objective terms, the return of rural labor force shortens the spatial distance with parents, leading to changes in caregiving support, emotional support, and financial support for parents, thereby affecting the health status of parents. This article, using data from the Chinese Family Panel Studies, analyzes the characteristics of the health status of parents with and without returning migrant children. By employing multiple linear regression models, PSM models, and IV-2SLS methods to address endogeneity bias, the study preliminarily explores the impact of rural labor force return on parental health. The results show that: (1) among the 5,760 older adult individuals, 1866 of them have returning migrant chil-dren, while the remaining 3,894 do not have returning migrant children. (2) Parents' health status generally follows a normal distribution, with a small proportion of parents having very poor or very good health. The proportions of parents with relatively poor, fair, and relatively good health status range between 20 and 40%. Among parents with returning chil-dren, 40.12% have relatively poor health status, 45.01% have fair health status, and a small proportion have very poor or very good health status. In contrast, among parents without returning children, the proportions of parents with relatively poor, fair, and rela-tively good health status are 21.69, 33.21, and 38.45%, respectively. When parents tran-sition from not having returning children to having returning children, their health status decreases by 0.541 levels, indicating a negative impact of rural labor force return on par-ents' health. Based on the analysis results, this article provides policy recommendations from three aspects: how to increase the income of returning labor force, improve the rural pension system, and enhance the concept of children supporting their parents.

Exploring Food and Nutrition Programming for People Living With HIV/AIDS: Interviews With Service Providers in Nova Scotia, Canada

There is a lack of nutritional programming and resources available for people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) in Nova Scotia, Canada. This is problematic for several reasons, including that adequate food and nutrition knowledge is integrated to effective medical therapy and wellness for PLWHA. The aim of this research was to explore and describe the beliefs, values, and experiences of HIV-service providers involved programming for PLWHA in Nova Scotia. Using a post-structuralist lens, semi-structured interviews were conducted with nine service providers. Thematic analysis of interview transcripts identified four main themes: (1) recognizing the social determinants of health, (2) acknowledging and disrupting layered stigma, (3) understanding the commensality, and (4) navigating and utilizing networks of care. These findings suggest that those developing, delivering, and evaluating food and nutrition-related programming must engage in community-inclusive approaches that recognize the varied social determinants of health that shape the lived of PLWHA, leverage existing networks and resources, and actively disrupt layered stigma. Also, in agreement with existing evidence, participants stressed the value of communicating and supporting the practice of eating together (commensality) and cultivating networks of care.

Reproductive justice in the Colombian armed conflict

This study explores the impacts of armed conflict on women's sexual and reproductive health in Colombia, building on a reproductive justice perspective to analyse original interviews with stakeholders in healthcare, women's rights, and peacebuilding. The analysis reveals that war affects women's sexual and reproductive health in three ways, through violent politicisation, collateral damage, and intersectional dimensions. First, multiple armed actors have used women's health as an instrument in politically motivated strategies to increase their power, assigning political meaning to sexuality and reproduction within the context of war. Second, women's health has also suffered from secondary damage of conflict resulting from a decay in healthcare service provision and an unmet need for healthcare services among those affected by sexual and reproductive violence. Third, marginalised women have been particularly affected by a discriminatory nexus of poverty, ethnicity, and geographic inequality. The paper concludes with a reflection on the opportunities for reproductive justice in Colombia.

Ethical Issues in Sperm, Egg and Embryo Donation: Islamic Shia Perspectives

Assisted Reproductive Technologies (ARTs) have been practiced in Islamic societies within married couples since their introduction. However, there are divergent views over the issue of third-party donation among Sunni and Shia scholars. This paper illustrates the different perspectives of Shia Muslims surrounding, sperm, egg, and embryo donation and ethical aspects thereof. The study reveals that there are different views regarding sperm, egg, and embryo donation among the Shia religious leaders around the world. Many Shia religious scholars, including the Iranian supreme religious leader Ali Hussein Khamenei allow sperm, egg, and embryo donation with certain conditions. However, the conditions stipulated by Shia religious scholars contradict the ethical and legal practices of sperm, egg, and embryo donation. Regarding sperm and egg donation, they declared that the donor child would inherit from a third-party donor and the commissioning parents would be adoptive parents. Thus, according to them, donor anonymity is impossible. Moreover, the Iranian act on embryo donation did not stipulate the right and responsibilities of the donor child and recipient couples and did not clarify the nature and number of embryos that can be donated and implanted. The paper argues that the lack of laws and guidelines on sperm, egg, and embryo donation raises many ethical problems. Based only on religious rulings, third-party donation has been practiced without foreseeing the well-being and safety of donor children, donors, and recipient couples.

The woman is the active agent: General practitioners and the agentive displacement of abortion in Ireland

After the legalization of abortion in 2018, Ireland needed clinicians to become abortion providers and make this political win a medical reality. Yet Irish doctors had next-to-no training in abortion care, and barriers ranging from stigma to economic pressures in the healthcare system impacted doctors' desire to volunteer. How did hundreds of Irish doctors make the shift from family doctor to abortion provider? Drawing on ethnographic research conducted between 2017 and 2020, this article explores the process by which Irish general practitioners became abortion providers, attending to the material impact of medical technologies on that journey. Drawing from medical anthropologists who have examined similar themes of agency, pharmaceuticals, and medico-legal frameworks within the topic of assisted dying, I build on Anita Hannig's idea of "agentive displacement" to frame the productive impact of abortion pills on this transition.

Fast-Speech-Induced Hypoarticulation Does Not Considerably Affect the Diachronic Reversal of Complementary Length in Central Bavarian

This study investigated a sound change in progress by which the Central Bavarian dialect feature of complementary length between consonant and the preceding vowel is giving way to the unrestricted combination possibility of long (Vː) and short (V) vowels with following longer fortis (Cː) and shorter lenis (C) stops, respectively. This 2 × 2 system is also found in the standard variety of German. While previous studies have regarded any such findings of convergence toward Standard German as being a result of language contact, the present study specifically tested the possibility of fast-speech-induced hypoarticulation being a system-internal driver of this change. The focus of this study was on acoustic cues to the postvocalic stop. Following the apparent-time paradigm, acoustic analyses of 10 younger and 10 older dialect speakers revealed that (1) younger dialect speakers produced both VC and VːCː (both formerly illegal in the dialect), but (2) older dialect speakers produced only VːCː sequences with duration patterns similar to those of the control group of 10 Standard German speakers. Analyses of various dependent variables further showed (3) the (apparently) delayed emergence of aspiration as an additional cue to the fortis-lenis contrast in Western Central Bavarian particularly in younger dialect speakers, (4) no considerable effect of speech rate on the dispersion of and overlap between any of the four vowel-plus-stop combinations, and (5) the irregular spread of this change that appears to be gradual. As such, the findings support a model of linguistic change that also accounts for gradual changes in dialect borrowing.

Integration of selective sweeps across the sheep genome: understanding the relationship between production and adaptation traits

BACKGROUND

Livestock populations are under constant selective pressure for higher productivity levels for different selective purposes. This pressure results in the selection of animals with unique adaptive and production traits. The study of genomic regions associated with these unique characteristics has the potential to improve biological knowledge regarding the adaptive process and how it is connected to production levels and resilience, which is the ability of an animal to adapt to stress or an imbalance in homeostasis. Sheep is a species that has been subjected to several natural and artificial selective pressures during its history, resulting in a highly specialized species for production and adaptation to challenging environments. Here, the data from multiple studies that aim at mapping selective sweeps across the sheep genome associated with production and adaptation traits were integrated to identify confirmed selective sweeps (CSS).

RESULTS

In total, 37 studies were used to identify 518 CSS across the sheep genome, which were classified as production (147 prodCSS) and adaptation (219 adapCSS) CSS based on the frequency of each type of associated study. The genes within the CSS were associated with relevant biological processes for adaptation and production. For example, for adapCSS, the associated genes were related to the control of seasonality, circadian rhythm, and thermoregulation. On the other hand, genes associated with prodCSS were related to the control of feeding behaviour, reproduction, and cellular differentiation. In addition, genes harbouring both prodCSS and adapCSS showed an interesting association with lipid metabolism, suggesting a potential role of this process in the regulation of pleiotropic effects between these classes of traits.

CONCLUSIONS

The findings of this study contribute to a deeper understanding of the genetic link between productivity and adaptability in sheep breeds. This information may provide insights into the genetic mechanisms that underlie undesirable genetic correlations between these two groups of traits and pave the way for a better understanding of resilience as a positive ability to respond to environmental stressors, where the negative effects on production level are minimized.

Pregnancy and 'the Other': Nausea and Accommodation in Manila

Pregnancy is a processual dialectic that involves continual acts of tactical, responsive, and creative accommodation by pregnant women. This article is a phenomenological investigation of pregnancy experience of working-class women in Manila. In it, I provide an outline of "accommodation:" acts which vary according to the political ecology of procreation in which they are enmeshed, and which are particularly evident in unexpected or unplanned pregnancies. Accommodation constitutes the core act in which the mother-to-be is engaged as the protagonist of procreation, transforming the character of unexpected pregnancy from uncertain and troubled to stable and even joyous as acts of accommodation restore bodily integrity.

Postmenopausal endometriosis: a challenging condition beyond menopause

IMPORTANCE AND OBJECTIVE

Postmenopausal endometriosis is a complex condition that challenges the conventional belief that endometriosis resolves with menopause. Despite the cessation of menstruation, a subset of women continues to experience or develop endometriosis-related symptoms during the postmenopausal period. Thus, this review aimed to shed light on postmenopausal endometriosis, exploring its clinical features, diagnostic considerations, management approaches, and the potential impact on women's health.

METHODS

PubMed/Medline, Scopus, and Web of Science databases were used for the research, with only articles in English language, using the following terms: "postmenopausal endometriosis," "menopause," "management," "treatment," and "quality of life," from inception to 2023.

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION

The clinical features of postmenopausal endometriosis include persistent or recurrent pelvic pain, dyspareunia, bowel, or urinary symptoms and, occasionally, abnormal vaginal bleeding. The absence of menstrual cycles presents a diagnostic challenge, as the traditional diagnostic criteria for endometriosis rely on menstrual patterns. Visual cues may be less evident, and the symptoms often overlap with other gynecological conditions, necessitating a thorough evaluation to differentiate postmenopausal endometriosis from other potential causes. Management approaches for postmenopausal endometriosis encompass surgical intervention, hormonal therapies, pain management, and individualized care. Postmenopausal endometriosis significantly impacts the quality of life, sexual health, and long-term well-being of women. Understanding the clinical features, diagnostic challenges, and management approaches of postmenopausal endometriosis is crucial for healthcare professionals to provide effective care and to improve the quality of life of women affected by this condition.

Epistemic Exclusion and Invisibility in Sex Research: Revisiting the WEIRD Dichotomy

In our article titled, "How WEIRD and androcentric is sex research? Global inequities in study populations," we showed that the published sex research is dominated by male and WEIRD (Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic) samples. The commentary on our article by Sakaluk and Daniel critiqued the dichotomous coding of WEIRD and non-WEIRD contexts. After acknowledging how the androcentric bias finding was disregarded in the whole discussion, we used this critique as an opportunity to expand our argument about the epistemic exclusion and invisibility of researchers and samples from the majority of the world in sex research. We think having this debate between two groups of researchers located at Western universities is at odds with our intention. Thus, we invited researchers from Global South countries to join the debate via a short survey, and expanded our recommendations from the original paper with the help of these voices.

Dental biomechanics of root-analog implants in different bone types

STATEMENT OF PROBLEM

When implants are applied to restore oral function, the masticatory load on the crown will lead to stress development in all parts of the crown-abutment-implant-bone system. An optimal design of the whole system will be important for sustained function.

PURPOSE

The purpose of this 3-dimensional (3D) finite element analysis (FEA) study was to evaluate the influence of the root-analog implant (RAI) design in molar rehabilitation and bone type.

MATERIAL AND METHODS

Twelve 3D models of single posterior implant-supported restorations were created according to the zirconia implant design (monotype, 2-piece, or RAI) and bone type (D1, D2, D3, and D4, according to the Misch classification). The models were composed of cortical bone, cancellous bone, implant, cement layers, and a monolithic ceramic crown. For the 2-piece zirconia implant model, the titanium base, prosthetic screw, and framework were also designed. All materials were assumed to behave elastically throughout the entire analysis. The bone was fixed, and an axial loading of 600 N was applied to the contacts on the occlusal surface of the crowns. Results for the crown and implant were obtained in maximum principal stress, as well as the von Mises stress for the model and bone microstrain.

RESULTS

High stress concentration was observed at the intaglio surface of the crowns near the loading region. Regardless of the design, the stress trend in the implant was similar, increasing proportionally to the bone type (D1>D2>D3>D4). RAI showed a homogeneous stress field near the values calculated for the conventional designs, but with lower magnitudes. The 2-piece zirconia model showed the highest stress magnitude regardless of the bone type and, therefore, the highest failure risk. All models showed a higher strain in the cortical bone than in the cancellous bone, located predominantly in the cervical region. A strain analysis showed that both conventional implant models presented similar behavior for D1 and D2 bone types, with an increasing difference for D3 and D4. RAI showed the lowest strain regardless of the bone type.

CONCLUSIONS

Root-analog zirconia implants present a promising biomechanical behavior for dissipating the masticatory load in comparison with conventional screw-shaped implants.

Longitudinal Analysis of Latvian Child Growth: Anthropometric Parameters Dynamics from Birth to Adolescence

This study provides a comprehensive analysis of the physical development patterns from birth to adolescence, utilizing a longitudinal dataset of 70 children monitored from birth until 17 years of age. The research focuses on the variability of growth trajectories, emphasizing the role of genetic and environmental factors in influencing these patterns. Key findings indicate that most children undergo one or two periods of accelerated growth, with significant variability in the timing and magnitude of these growth spurts. The study also highlights the adaptive nature of growth changes over generations, influenced by ecological, nutritional, and socio-economic conditions. The longitudinal approach reveals critical insights into the timing of peak growth velocities, demonstrating that girls reach their growth peak approximately one year earlier than boys. The analysis of intergenerational growth patterns suggests a significant increase in average height over the century, attributed to genetic diversity and changes in lifestyle and nutrition. This study's findings emphasize the importance of updating physical development standards regularly to reflect the changing genetic and environmental landscape. The variability in growth patterns and their correlation with health outcomes in later life highlights the need for targeted public health strategies that address the underlying socio-economic and environmental determinants of health. This research contributes to the understanding of physical development trajectories and provides a foundation for future studies aimed at optimizing health outcomes from early childhood through adolescence. The primary objective of this article is to meticulously analyze the dynamics of height growth and accurately identify the periods of accelerated bodily development within the context of longitudinal research.

"Mentally you don't function the same": a Qualitative Examination of the Normalization, Embodiment, and Psychological Impact of Everyday Racism

Everyday racism consists of covert and oppressive practices that uphold systems of power and reproduce White supremacy through subtle forms of repetitive and normalized discriminatory actions. While attention to the material and physical damage everyday racism evokes upon Black Americans is receiving increased attention, inconsistencies regarding its conceptualization and operationalization are impeding our understanding of the impact of everyday racism. Utilizing critical race theory (CRT) as an analytical framework, this article intends to respond to gaps in the literature and deepen the understanding of the psychological burden experiences of everyday racism places upon a sample of (n = 40) Black Americans. We engaged with the racial realism and Whiteness as property tenets to analyze individual in-depth interviews and (1) enhance our interrogation of micro/macro-level interactions and (2) aid in the conceptualization of everyday racism. Three themes emerged from the data: hypervigilance and the normalization of everyday racism, mental preparation for navigating White spaces, and the mental health impact of everyday racism. Participant narratives reveal how the normalization of everyday racism impacts them on a psychological and corporeal (i.e., bodily) level. Their accounts also spoke to how Whiteness operates as a property right that exacerbates everyday racism and places invisible boundaries upon how they navigate space. This study provides conceptual clarity about the realities of racism, deeper awareness of structural and individual measures, and an in-depth understanding of how often taken for granted and assumed "normal" forms of racism generate pathways to negative mental health outcomes.

Configuring the Professional Touch in Physical Examinations in Chinese Outpatient Clinical Interaction: Talk, Touch, Professional Vision, and Intersubjectivity

Touch is a fundamental resource mobilized by clinicians in physical examinations in outpatient clinical consultations. However, few studies have been conducted to explore the sequential organization of touch in the interactional process of physical examinations where clinicians' touch is launched and responded to in Chinese medical settings. Based on a collection of video recordings of naturally occurring clinician-patient interaction in an orthopedic outpatient clinic in China, we observed four types of clinicians' touch in the physical examination framework: the guiding touch, the diagnostic touch, the demonstrative touch, and the therapeutic touch. Together with clinical expertise, the sensorial knowledge obtained through touch enables clinicians to professionally evaluate patients' physical conditions and diagnose their illnesses. We also demonstrated that patients do not merely put themselves into clinicians' hands as clinical objects for inspection and defer to clinicians' medical authority. Instead, they actively and agentively participate in physical examinations to jointly accomplish social actions and activities through the temporal and sequential mobilization of their multimodal resources. This study not only adds to an emerging body of research on touch in medical settings but also sheds some light on the understanding of the clinician-patient interaction in Chinese outpatient clinics.

Implied Claims in Drug Advertising: A Review of Recent Literature and Regulatory Actions

Federal agencies and self-regulatory bodies help to ensure prescription and nonprescription drug promotion contains accurate information; however, false or misleading claims may cause people to have inaccurate perceptions of a drug and inhibit their ability to make informed decisions. We conducted a systematic review assessing evidence from 2012-2021 on how consumers and healthcare providers (HCPs) interpret claims made indirectly or through inference (implied or implicit claims) as well as synthesizing prescription and nonprescription drug advertising claims that have been the subject of regulatory actions from 2017-2021. Our search identified 16 studies from the peer-reviewed literature and 26 letters or case reports issued by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) or National Advertising Division (NAD). Results from peer-reviewed studies suggest that implied claims can result in inferences that may not be warranted by the material facts about the drug. Perceptions of a drug's efficacy and, to a lesser extent, risk, are influenced by implied and explicitly false claims in prescription drug promotion. Claims related to implied superiority and overstatement of efficacy were the most prevalent claims flagged for review and examined in the literature. These types of claims were also the subject of many of the compliance actions by the FDA and case reports from the NAD. More research is needed to understand how people interpret varying types of implied claims and the impact of such claims on key outcomes. From a policy standpoint, understanding how people interpret implied claims can inform how the FDA approaches these claims in the marketplace.

Return Migration and Fertility: French Overseas Emigrants, Returnees, and Nonmigrants at Origin and Destination

Although growing research has emphasized the critical importance of studying returns for understanding various aspects of migration processes, knowledge regarding return migrants' fertility behaviors remains limited. This study addresses this knowledge gap by comparing rates of first births and completed fertility among three groups: nonmigrants (at origin), migrants, and return migrants. Using extensive data collected both in the home regions and at destination, we analyze female migration from Martinique, Guadeloupe, French Guiana, and Réunion Island to metropolitan France (European France). We find intermediate fertility behaviors for return migrants relative to nonmigrants and migrants: on average, completed fertility levels are lower among return migrants than nonmigrants but slightly higher among return migrants than migrants. Some of these differences can be attributed to selection into migration and return, although significant gaps persist among women with similar socioeconomic characteristics. Our findings highlight three key observations. First, when migrants return before beginning childbearing, their transition to motherhood closely resembles that of nonmigrants with similar characteristics. Second, the lower fertility rates among prospective return migrants indicate an anticipation of disruption effects. Finally, reduced fertility while residing in metropolitan France translates into lower completed fertility rates for return migrants.

Variation in diurnal cortisol patterns among the Indigenous Shuar of Amazonian Ecuador

OBJECTIVES

The hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis and its primary end product, the glucocorticoid cortisol, are major components of the evolved human stress response. However, most studies have examined these systems among populations in high-income settings, which differ from the high pathogen and limited resource contexts in which the HPA axis functioned for most of human evolution.

METHODS

We investigated variability in diurnal salivary cortisol patterns among 298 Indigenous Shuar from Amazonian Ecuador (147 males, 151 females; age 2-86 years), focusing on the effects of age, biological sex, and body mass index (BMI) in shaping differences in diurnal cortisol production. Saliva samples were collected three times daily (waking, 30 minutes post-waking, evening) for three consecutive days to measure key cortisol parameters: levels at waking, the cortisol awakening response, the diurnal slope, and total daily output.

RESULTS

Age was positively associated with waking levels and total daily output, with Shuar juveniles and adolescents displaying significantly lower levels than adults (p < .05). Sex was not a significant predictor of cortisol levels (p > .05), as Shuar males and females displayed similar patterns of diurnal cortisol production across the life course. Moreover, age, sex, and BMI significantly interacted to moderate the rate of diurnal cortisol decline (p = .027). Overall, Shuar demonstrated relatively lower cortisol concentrations than high-income populations.

CONCLUSIONS

This study expands the documented range of global variation in HPA axis activity and diurnal cortisol production and provides important insights into the plasticity of human stress physiology across diverse developmental and socioecological settings.

Forgetting how we ate: personalised nutrition and the strategic uses of history

Personalised nutrition (PN) has emerged over the past twenty years as a promising area of research in the postgenomic era and has been popularized as the new big thing out of molecular biology. Advocates of PN claim that previous approaches to nutrition sought general and universal guidance that applied to all people. In contrast, they contend that PN operates with the principle that "one size does not fit all" when it comes to dietary guidance. While the molecular mechanisms studied within PN are new, the notion of a personal dietary regime guided by medical advice has a much longer history that can be traced back to Galen's "On Food and Diet" or Ibn Sina's (westernized as Avicenna) "Canon of Medicine". Yet this history is either wholly ignored or misleadingly appropriated by PN proponents. This (mis)use of history, we argue helps to sustain the hype of the novelty of the proposed field and potential commodification of molecular advice that undermines longer histories of food management in premodern and non-Western cultures. Moreover, it elides how the longer history of nutritional advice always happened in a heavily moralized, gendered, and racialized context deeply entwined with collective technologies of power, not just individual advice. This article aims at offering a wider appreciation of this longer history to nuance the hype and exceptionalism surrounding contemporary claims.

The deep trabecular structure of first metacarpals in extant hominids

OBJECTIVES

Recent studies have associated subarticular trabecular bone distribution in the extant hominid first metacarpal (Mc1) with observed thumb use, to infer fossil hominin thumb use. Here, we analyze the entire Mc1 to test for interspecific differences in: (1) the absolute volume of trabecular volume fraction, (2) the distribution of the deeper trabecular network, and (3) the distribution of trabeculae in the medullary cavity, especially beneath the Mc1 disto-radial flange.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Trabecular bone was imaged using micro-computed tomography in a sample of Homo sapiens (n = 11), Pan paniscus (n = 10), Pan troglodytes (n = 11), Gorilla gorilla (n = 10) and Pongo sp., (n = 7). Using Canonical Holistic Morphometric Analysis (cHMA), we tested for interspecific differences in the trabecular bone volume fraction (BV/TV) and its relative distribution (rBV/TV) throughout the Mc1, including within the head, medullary cavity, and base.

RESULTS

P. paniscus had the highest, and H. sapiens the lowest, BV/TV relative to other species. rBV/TV distribution statistically distinguished the radial concentrations and lack of medullary trabecular bone in the H. sapiens Mc1 from all other hominids. H. sapiens and, to a lesser extent, G. gorilla also had a significantly higher trabecular volume beneath the disto-radial flange relative to other hominids.

DISCUSSION

These results are consistent with differences in observed thumb use in these species and may also reflect systemic differences in bone volume fraction. The trabecular bone extension into the medullary cavity and concentrations beneath the disto-radial flange may represent crucial biomechanical signals that will aid in the inference of fossil hominin thumb use.

Accuracy of sex estimation by morphometric evaluation of foramen magnum using computed tomography - a systematic review and meta-analysis

The objective of this study is to determine whether the morphometric evaluation of the foramen magnum using computed tomography can be used as an accurate tool in estimating the sex of an individual. An extensive search of the databases, PubMed, ProQuest, Google Scholar, and Scopus, was carried out to procure articles that fulfilled the inclusion criteria. The AQUA tool was used to assess the quality of the included studies. A random effects model was used for the meta-analysis of the eligible studies using the STATA software, version 16, 2019 at 95% CI and p ≤ 0.05. Eleven eligible articles that measured the transverse and sagittal diameters of the foramen magnum using computed tomography were included in this study. The sagittal diameter of the foramen magnum was greater than the transverse diameter, and both the diameters were greater in males than in females. Meta-analysis revealed that both transverse and sagittal diameters were more reliable for male sex estimation. Since there is a dimensional variation between the male and female foramen magnum, it can be used for initial sex identification and also as an auxiliary to other advanced methods of sex estimation.

Estimating the cardiac signals of chimpanzees using a digital camera: validation and application of a novel non-invasive method for primate research

Cardiac measures such as heart rate measurements are important indicators of both physiological and psychological states. However, despite their extraordinary potential, their use is restricted in comparative psychology because traditionally cardiac measures involved the attachment of sensors to the participant's body, which, in the case of undomesticated animals such as nonhuman primates, is usually only possible during anesthesia or after extensive training. Here, we validate and apply a camera-based system that enables contact-free detection of animals' heart rates. The system automatically detects and estimates the cardiac signals from cyclic change in the hue of the facial area of a chimpanzee. In Study 1, we recorded the heart rate of chimpanzees using the new technology, while simultaneously measuring heart rate using classic PPG (photoplethysmography) finger sensors. We found that both methods were in good agreement. In Study 2, we applied our new method to measure chimpanzees' heart rate in response to seeing different types of video scenes (groupmates in an agonistic interaction, conspecific strangers feeding, nature videos, etc.). Heart rates changed during video presentation, depending on the video content: Agonistic interactions and conspecific strangers feeding lead to accelerated heart rate relative to baseline, indicating increased emotional arousal. Nature videos lead to decelerated heart rate relative to baseline, indicating a relaxing effect or heightened attention caused by these stimuli. Our results show that the new contact-free technology can reliably assess the heart rate of unrestrained chimpanzees, and most likely other primates. Furthermore, our technique opens up new avenues of research within comparative psychology and facilitates the health management of captive individuals.

The analysis of gestural and verbal pragmatic markers produced by Mild Cognitive Impaired participants during longitudinal and autobiographical interviews

CONTEXT

This corpus-based study presents a multimodal analysis of verbal pragmatic markers and non-verbal pragmatic markers in elderly people with Mild Cognitive Impairment aged over 75 years.

METHODS

The corpus collection and analysis methodology has been described in the Belgian CorpAGEst transversal study and the French VintAGE longitudinal and transversal oriented pilot studies. The protocols are available online in both English and French.

RESULTS & CONCLUSION

Our general findings indicate that with ageing, verbal pragmatic markers acquire an interactive function that allows people with MCI to maintain intersubjective relationships with their interlocutor. Furthermore, at the non-verbal level, gestural manifestations are increasingly used over time with a preference for non-verbal pragmatic markers with a referential function and an adaptive function. We aim to show the benefits of linguistic and interactional scientific investigation methods through cognitive impaired ageing for clinicians and family caregivers.

A community psychology for migrant justice: Critically examining border violence and resistance during the COVID-19 syndemic

This article explores the magnifying lenses of the COVID-19 syndemic to highlight how people racialized as migrants and refugees have been-and continue to be-disproportionally harmed. We use empirical evidence collected in our scholarly/activist work in Europe, Africa, South Asia, and the United States to examine migrant injustice as being produced by a combination of power structures and relations working to maintain colonial global orders and inequalities. This is what has been defined as "border imperialism." Our data, complemented by evidence from transnational solidarity groups, show that border imperialism has further intersected with the hygienic-sanitary logics of social control at play during the COVID-19 period. This intersection has resulted in increasingly coercive methods of restraining people on the move, as well as in increased-and new-forms of degradation of their lives, that is, an overall multiplication of border violences. At the same time, however, COVID-19 has provided a unique opportunity for grassroot solidarity initiatives and resistance led by people on the move to be amplified and extended. We conclude by emphasizing the need for community psychologists to take a more vigorous stance against oppressive border imperialist regimes and the related forms of violence they re/enact.

The human biology of spaceflight

To expand the human exploration footprint and reach Mars in the 2030s, we must explore how humans survive and thrive in demanding, unusual, and novel ecologies (i.e., extreme environments). In the extreme conditions encountered during human spaceflight, there is a need to understand human functioning and response in a more rigorous theoretically informed way. Current models of human performance in space-relevant environments and human space science are often operationally focused, with emphasis on acute physiological or behavioral outcomes. However, integrating current perspectives in human biology allows for a more holistic and complete understanding of how humans function over a range of time in an extreme environment. Here, we show how the use of evolution-informed frameworks (i.e., models of life history theory to organize the adaptive pressures of spaceflight and biocultural perspectives) coupled with the use of mixed-methodological toolkits can shape models that better encompass the scope of biobehavioral human adjustment to long-duration space travel and extra-terrestrial habitation. Further, we discuss how we can marry human biology perspectives with the rigorous programmatic structures developed for spaceflight to model other unknown and nascent extremes.

Women's subsistence strategies predict fertility across cultures, but context matters

While it is commonly assumed that farmers have higher, and foragers lower, fertility compared to populations practicing other forms of subsistence, robust supportive evidence is lacking. We tested whether subsistence activities-incorporating market integration-are associated with fertility in 10,250 women from 27 small-scale societies and found considerable variation in fertility. This variation did not align with group-level subsistence typologies. Societies labeled as "farmers" did not have higher fertility than others, while "foragers" did not have lower fertility. However, at the individual level, we found strong evidence that fertility was positively associated with farming and moderate evidence of a negative relationship between foraging and fertility. Markers of market integration were strongly negatively correlated with fertility. Despite strong cross-cultural evidence, these relationships were not consistent in all populations, highlighting the importance of the socioecological context, which likely influences the diverse mechanisms driving the relationship between fertility and subsistence.

Cultural evolution: A review of theoretical challenges

The rapid growth of cultural evolutionary science, its expansion into numerous fields, its use of diverse methods, and several conceptual problems have outpaced corollary developments in theory and philosophy of science. This has led to concern, exemplified in results from a recent survey conducted with members of the Cultural Evolution Society, that the field lacks 'knowledge synthesis', is poorly supported by 'theory', has an ambiguous relation to biological evolution and uses key terms (e.g. 'culture', 'social learning', 'cumulative culture') in ways that hamper operationalization in models, experiments and field studies. Although numerous review papers in the field represent and categorize its empirical findings, the field's theoretical challenges receive less critical attention even though challenges of a theoretical or conceptual nature underlie most of the problems identified by Cultural Evolution Society members. Guided by the heterogeneous 'grand challenges' emergent in this survey, this paper restates those challenges and adopts an organizational style requisite to discussion of them. The paper's goal is to contribute to increasing conceptual clarity and theoretical discernment around the most pressing challenges facing the field of cultural evolutionary science. It will be of most interest to cultural evolutionary scientists, theoreticians, philosophers of science and interdisciplinary researchers.

Menarche at Amarna: Timing and the further implications

OBJECTIVE

This article examines skeletal development in non-elite individuals from Amarna to identify the age of menarche.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

The total sample (n = 267; 65 female, 39 male, 163 indeterminate) was examined for six variables indicative of the pubertal stage (mineralization of the mandibular canine root [n = 46], distal radius fusion [n = 227], proximal ulna fusion [n = 220], distal humerus fusion [n = 237], presence of the iliac crest epiphysis [n = 24], iliac crest fusion [n = 199]). Age and sex estimates are based on standard criteria for dental development and eruption, cranial and pelvic morphology, and post-cranial metric analysis.

RESULTS

The iliac crest epiphysis is rarely present before age 15 years. Beginning fusion of the distal radius and iliac crest suggests that by age 19, most individuals have entered the maturation phase, providing book ends for the timing of menarche. Variables elucidating the peak height velocity (proximal ulna and distal humerus fusion) narrow that span and suggest menarche is achieved around 15-17 years for most individuals, with a broader estimate of 14-19 years encompassing the known diversity in timing of menarche.

DISCUSSION

Menarche is commonly cited as an indicator of adult status. The observed later entrance into this life stage, and the associated reduced fertility, has broader implications for understanding of economic, social, biological, and demographic patterns observed at Amarna and among different social groups in the ancient city, as well as individual life histories.

Barriers and Facilitators to Engaging Mothers and Fathers in Family-Based Interventions: A Qualitative Systematic Review

The current systematic review examined the similarities and differences between mothers' and fathers' reported barriers and facilitators to engaging in family-based interventions for child and adolescent behavioural problems (aged 2-17 years). Systematic searches of six electronic databases and grey literature alongside a two-way screening process identified twenty eligible qualitative studies from 2004 to 2019. A thematic meta-synthesis identified similarities in major themes of psychological, situational, knowledge/awareness, programme/intervention, co-parenting, practitioner, and beliefs/attitudes factors, alongside group experiences and stages of engagement. However, differences emerged in subthemes related to parental, treatment, and service delivery factors that included individual ideologies of parenting, parental roles, and treatment participation; the role of mothers in facilitating engagement; and individual preferences for treatment content and delivery. Overall, findings suggest that while mothers and fathers experience similar challenges to engagement, they can also experience distinct challenges which need to be addressed at the treatment outset to maximise engagement.

Everything Seems So Illogical: Constructing Missingness Between Life and Death in Israel

This paper discusses the case of missing persons in Israel, to show how the category of "missingness" is constructed by the people who have been left behind, and how this may threaten the life-death dichotomy assumption. The field of missing persons in Israel is characterized not only by high uncertainty, but also by the absence of relevant cultural scripts. Based on a narrative ethnography of missingness in Israel, I claim that a new and subversive social category of "missingness" can be constructed following the absence of cultural scripts. The left-behinds fluctuate not only between different assumptions about the missing person's fate; they also fluctuate between acceptance of the life-death dichotomy, thus yearning for a solution to a temporary in-between state, and blurring this dichotomy, and thus constructing "missingness" as a new stable and subversive ontological category. Under this category, new rites of passage are also negotiated and constructed.

Could care giving have altered the evolution of human immune strategies?

Life history theory indicates that individuals/species with a slow pace of life invest more in acquired than innate immunity. Factors that decrease the pace of life and predict greater investment in acquired immunity include increased nutritional resources, increased pathogen exposure and decreased risk of extrinsic mortality. Common care behaviors given to sick individuals produce exactly these effects: provisioning increases nutritional resources; hygiene assistance increases disease exposure of carers; and protection can reduce the risk of extrinsic mortality to sick individuals. This study, therefore, investigated under what conditions care giving behaviors might impact immune strategy and pace of life. The study employed an agent-based model approach that simulated populations with varying levels of care giving, disease mortality, disease transmissibility, and extrinsic mortality, enabling measurements of how the immune strategy and age structure of the populations changed over evolutionary time. We used multiple regressions to examine the effects of these variables on immune strategy and the age structure of the population. The findings supported our predictions that care was selected for an acquired immunity. However, the pace of life did not slow as expected. Instead, the population shifted to a faster, but also more cost-intensive reproductive strategy in which care improved child survival by subsidizing the development of acquired immune responses.

What does climbing mean exactly? Assessing spatiotemporal gait characteristics of inclined locomotion in parrots

At what inclination does climbing begin? In this paper, we investigate the transition from walking to climbing in two species of parrot (Agapornis roseicollis and Nymphicus hollandicus) that are known to incorporate both their tail and their craniocervical system into the gait cycle during vertical climbing. Locomotor behaviors ranging in inclination were observed at angles between 0° and 90° for A. roseicollis, and 45°-85° degrees for N. hollandicus. Use of the tail in both species was observed at 45° inclination, and was joined at higher inclinations (> 65°) by use of the craniocervical system. Additionally, as inclination approached (but remained below) 90°, locomotor speeds were reduced while gaits were characterized by higher duty factors and lower stride frequency. These gait changes are consistent with those thought to increase stability. At 90°, A. roseicollis significantly increased its stride length, resulting in higher overall locomotor speed. Collectively these data demonstrate that the transition between horizontal walking and vertical climbing is gradual, incrementally altering several components of gait as inclinations increase. Such data underscore the need for further investigation into how exactly "climbing" is defined and the specific locomotor characteristics that differentiate this behavior from level walking.

'We don't openly discuss these things': Cultural complexities in teaching about sexuality and HIV in South Africa

It is well documented that rates of HIV infection in South Africa are alarmingly high, with approximately 7.5 million people living with HIV in 2021. This study aimed to explore how culture in the form of the values, practices, norms and beliefs prevalent in society influences teaching about sexuality and HIV in South Africa. The study adopted a qualitative, narrative approach and drew on findings from a purposive sample of six further education and training life orientation teachers from six schools in the province of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. Data were analysed using thematic analysis and cultural diamond principles. Socio-cultural complexities were found to shape discussion of sexuality and HIV. Five key themes were developed from an analysis of participants' responses: school guidelines, culture of silence, personal experiences, cultural taboos, and language as a barrier. Findings signal the value of an integrated whole-school approach to the design and delivery of the curriculum involving key stakeholders and the perspectives of parents and religious leaders about the teaching of sexuality and HIV. The national departments of education and health in South Africa should also provide resources and guidelines detailing best practices to assist life orientation teachers.

Lay Misperceptions of Culture as "Biological" and Suggestions for Reducing Them

Culture is typically studied as socialized and learned. Yet lay intuitions may hold that culture is associated with biology via perceptions of race, presenting a problem for those who study culture: There may be a mismatch between how psychologists study culture and how their research is interpreted by lay audiences. This article is a call to researchers to recognize this mismatch as a problem and to critically evaluate the way we study culture. We first describe evidence that laypeople tend to associate culture with notions of folk biology. Next, we propose three suggestions for researchers: explicitly address whether biological processes are, or are not, relevant for studying culture in their work; consider using multiple methods because different methods for studying culture may come with assumptions about culture as more tied to socialization or biology; and represent all people as cultural by studying multiple forms of culture and by contextualizing all psychological research. Last, we provide an example for how researchers can implement these suggestions to encourage more accurate interpretations of findings.

Different adverse childhood experiences and adolescents' altruism: The mediating role of life history strategy

INTRODUCTION

The present study sought to investigate whether the relationship between childhood trauma, childhood socioeconomic (SES), and adolescents' altruism were mediated by their life history strategies and different adverse childhood experiences may function diversely on altruism, with two waves of data collected 6 months apart in a longitudinal design among Chinese adolescents.

METHODS

A total of 658 adolescents (Mage  = 13.51, SD = 0.73 at T1) were recruited and completed the online survey; their life history strategies were measured by the Mini-K, the Delayed of Gratification Questionnaire (DOG), and the Chinese version of the Adolescent Risk-Taking Questionnaire (ARQ-RB) together, and their altruism was collected again after six months.

RESULTS

After controlling for gender and their altruism at T1, the results showed that childhood trauma (i.e., emotional maltreatment, physical maltreatment), as well as low SES and fast life history strategy, were significantly negatively correlated with adolescents' altruism at T2. Importantly, life history strategy at T1 mediated the relationship between T1 emotional maltreatment, T1 low SES, and adolescents' altruism at T2. However, the effect of physical maltreatment on altruism was not mediated by life history strategy.

CONCLUSIONS

This study indicated that emotional maltreatment and low SES can affect adolescents' altruism by influencing the formation of adolescents' life history strategies. The findings revealed the different influences of adverse childhood experiences on adolescents' altruism, which supplied new empirical evidence for the life history theory and provided certain reference values for cultivating adolescents' altruism.

Global public health policies: gathering public health associations' perspectives

BACKGROUND

Advocacy is one of the core functions of public health and is a key tool for achieving Sustainable Development Goals. Public health associations play a key role in advocating for the development and implementation of strategies to prevent diseases and promote health and well-being.

OBJECTIVE

This study aims to map out the focus of public health advocacy carried out by selected national public health associations over 4 years, between 2018 and 2021, in order to identify gaps and strengths and support associations and professionals in their advocacy efforts.

METHODS

Twelve national public health associations participated in the study. Official policy documents produced between 2018 and 2021 were collected and analysed. The title and summary of the policy documents were examined line by line and coded into the main subject categories and themes. A qualitative thematic analysis was conducted. Policies were assessed from global and regional perspectives.

RESULTS

A total of 220 policy documents were analysed. Overall, the largest number of policy documents came from high-income countries and dealt with environmental health and communicable diseases, including COVID-19, with, however, important differences among regions. In the African region, public health advocacy focused mainly on strengthening health systems; Europe and South America were mostly concerned with communicable diseases and pandemic management; and North America and the Western Pacific regions focused primarily on climate change. Limited attention was paid to international health and health as a human right in all regions.

CONCLUSION

Our study showed that, especially in high-income countries, public health associations actively engage in advocacy; however, more effort needs to be devoted to implementing a more international and intersectoral approach at the global level, anchored in health as a human right and aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals.

"They don't care about people; they only care about the money": the effects of border enforcement, commodification and migration industries on the mobility of migrants in transit through Mexico

How does border enforcement affect the mobility of migrants and refugees in countries of transit? What impact does it have on migrants' bodily experiences of mobility and their reliance on actors of the migration industry? While the externalization of borders affects undocumented people by increasing their vulnerability to violence during transit, the impact of the migration regime on the social construction of inequalities in every-day interactions and its relationship to the capacity for mobility has not been studied in depth. This article intends to bridge this gap: based on ethnographic fieldwork I conducted between 2013 and 2019, this article analyzes the relation between immigration enforcement and the mobility strategies of migrants and refugees, particularly women. It focuses on the intertwining of border enforcement and violence and their impact on people's bodily mobility experiences in transit through Mexico along intersecting lines of inequality such as race, class, gender and nationality. First, I analyze how border enforcement contributes to internal bordering, thereby increasing the vulnerability and dependence of migrants on brokers for mobility; second, it looks at the bodily experiences of women in transit and the ways in which internal bordering shapes gendered power hierarchies among actors in the field of mobility. The analysis shows how women negotiate mobility and bodily integrity in social interactions with different actors and how they face constraints resulting from the gendered hierarchies to mobility on routes of transit. Furthermore, it demonstrates how women's bodies have become a privileged site for the construction of a 'body politic' exploitable by others, since border enforcement has contributed to weakening the possibilities of negotiating mobility and bodily integrity in transit.

Selection and adaptation in human migration

This article reviews the ways migration shapes human biology. This includes the physiological and genetic, but also socio-cultural aspects such as organization, behavior, and culture. Across disciplines I highlight the multiple levels of cultural and genetic selection whereby individuals and groups adapt to pressures along a migration timeline: the origin, transit, and destination. Generally, the evidence suggests that selective pressures and adaptations occur at the individual, family, and community levels. Consequently, across levels there are negotiations, interactions, and feedbacks that shape migration outcomes and the trajectory of evolutionary change. The rise and persistence of migration-relevant adaptations emerges as a central question, including the maintenance of cumulative culture adaptations, the persistence of "cultures of migration," as well as the individual-level physiological and cognitive adaptations applied to successful transit and settlement in novel environments.

Do contrasting socio-ecological conditions bring difference in premenstrual syndrome and its concomitants? A sedente-migrant comparative study from Eastern India

OBJECTIVES

We asked in our research whether the premenstrual syndrome (PMS) and its concomitants, differ between "sedente" and "migrant" populations hailing from the same ethnic group, owing to their living in contrasting socio-ecological conditions.

METHODS

A total of 501 Oraon adolescents (sedente: 200, migrant: 301) were studied. Data on PMS was reported retrospectively using a list of 29 standard symptoms. Principal component analysis (PCA) was applied on PMS. PCA, which resulted in six principal components (PC1 to PC6) were loaded with "behavioral and cognitive," "negative mood," "pain and fluid retention," "vestibular and breast tenderness," and "fatigue," and/or "gastrointestinal" symptoms. Step-wise hierarchical regression was applied using migration status (step 1), socio-demographic (step 2), menstrual (step 3), and nutritional and lifestyle variables (step 4) as concomitants for each principal component.

RESULTS

Significantly, a greater number of migrants reported PMS but of milder intensity, unlike the sedentes. Significant sedente-migrant differences were found in the concomitants for PMS. Multivariate analyses showed differential socio-demographic (occupational, educational and wealth status, religion), nutritional (dietary carbohydrate protein and fat, tea intake, body mass index, percent body fat, waist hip ratio, fat mass index), menstrual (age at menarche, cycle length, dysmenorrhoea) and anemic status of the sedentes and the migrants were significantly associated with PMS.

CONCLUSIONS

Sedente and migrant participants, despite hailing from the same ethnic group, sharply differed in the prevalence of PMS and its concomitants owing to their living in contrasting socio-ecological conditions.

Primates and pandemics: A biocultural approach to understanding disease transmission in human and nonhuman primates

Investigations into zoonotic disease outbreaks have been largely epidemiological and microbiological, with the primary focus being one of disease control and management. Increasingly though, the human-animal interface has proven to be an important driver for the acquisition and transmission of pathogens in humans, and this requires syncretic bio-socio-cultural enquiries into the origins of disease emergence, for more efficacious interventions. A biocultural lens is imperative for the examination of primate-related zoonoses, for the human-primate interface is broad and multitudinous, involving both physical and indirect interactions that occur due to shared spaces and ecologies. I use the case example of a viral zoonotic epidemic that is currently endemic to India, the Kysanaur Forest Disease, to show how biocultural anthropology provides a broad and integrative perspective into infectious disease ecology and presents new insights into the determinants of disease outbreaks. Drawing on insights from epidemiology, political ecology, primate behavioral ecology and ethnoprimatology, this paper demonstrates how human-primate interactions and shared ecologies impact infectious disease spread between human and nonhuman primate groups.

The face as folded object: Race and the problems with 'progress' in forensic DNA phenotyping

Forensic DNA phenotyping (FDP) encompasses a set of technologies aimed at predicting phenotypic characteristics from genotypes. Advocates of FDP present it as the future of forensics, with an ultimate goal of producing complete, individualised facial composites based on DNA. With a focus on individuals and promised advances in technology comes the assumption that modern methods are steadily moving away from racial science. Yet in the quantification of physical differences, FDP builds upon some nineteenth- and twentieth-century scientific practices that measured and categorised human variation in terms of race. In this article I complicate the linear temporal approach to scientific progress by building on the notion of the folded object. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork conducted in various genetic laboratories, I show how nineteenth- and early twentieth-century anthropological measuring and data-collection practices and statistical averaging techniques are folded into the ordering of measurements of skin color data taken with a spectrophotometer, the analysis of facial shape based on computational landmarks and the collection of iris photographs. Attending to the historicity of FDP facial renderings, I bring into focus how race comes about as a consequence of temporal folds.

Pathways that determine the fertility of sedente and migrant Oraon populations of Eastern India: a structural equation modelling approach

Within local socio-ecological context, the fertility determinants of a population are mediated through complex interrelated physiological and behavioural pathways. We aimed to find out the direct and indirect determinants of fertility of sedente and migrant Oraon populations using Structural Equation Model (SEM). Bivariate analysis showed significant (p ≤ 0.05) sedente-migrant differences in socio-demographic, reproductive, contraceptive, and reproductive and sexual decision-making variables. Results of SEM showed migration status, age at first conception, contraceptive preference and reproductive and sexual decision making have direct but negative association (p ≤ 0.05), and age of the participants, under-five mortality and preference for male child have direct but positive association with fertility (p ≤ 0.05). These variables are also associated with fertility through certain mediated pathways (p ≤ 0.05) like ages at first conception with contraceptive preferences, reproductive and sexual decision-making ability (positive), under-five mortality and desired family size (negative). Educational status of the spouses showed indirect association (p ≤ 0.05) with fertility through four pathways: (i) contraceptive preferences; (ii) reproductive and sexual decision-making ability; (iii) ages at first conception (positive); and (iv) desired family size (negative). Hence, sedente and migrant participants reflected a sharp difference in the determinants of fertility owing to differential local socio-ecological attributes.

Perceiving those who are gone: Cultural research on post-bereavement perception or hallucination of the deceased

Experiencing the continued presence of the deceased is common among the bereaved, whether as a sensory perception or as a felt presence. This phenomenon has been researched from psychological and psychiatric perspectives during the last five decades. Such experiences have been also documented in the ethnographic literature but, despite the extensive cross-cultural research in the area, anthropological data has generally not been considered in the psychological literature about this phenomenon. This paper provides an overview aimed at bridging these two areas of knowledge, and approaches the post-bereavement perception or hallucination of the deceased in cultural context. Ongoing debates are addressed from the vantage point of ethnographic and clinical case study research focusing on the cultural repertoires (in constant flux as cultures change) from which these experiences are labelled as desirable and normal, on the one hand, or as dangerous and pathological, on the other.

The pursuit of clinical recognition: Aesthetics, care, and music therapy in North American hospitals

This article examines the making of clinical care by tracing how music therapists integrate their work within North American hospitals. Situated on the margins of the clinic, music therapists are in pursuit of clinical recognition-to be perceived and understood as valuable to biomedicine. The pursuit of clinical recognition illustrates how the configuration of care is an aesthetic concern, negotiated not only through processes of reasoning and rationalization but also through sensory-affective experiences. Music therapists cultivate a clinical aesthetic to their care by demonstrating clinical efficacy to their medical colleagues and self-fashioning clinical subjectivities through participation in medical rounds and charting. While clinical recognition creates conditions of possibility for music therapists to provide care in biomedical institutions, recognition is perpetually elusive for hospital music therapists. By cultivating sonic atmospheres and connections, music therapists disrupt and exceed a normative clinical aesthetic, illustrating ways of caring in the clinic beyond biomedical scripts.

The Association Between Child Abuse and Aggressive Behavior: A Three-Level Meta-Analysis

Child abuse is considered to be an essential factor in the development of aggressive behavior. The intensity of the positive relations between child abuse and aggressive behavior differed considerably among researches despite the fact that abundant studies have observed this relation. According to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) approach, a three-level meta-analysis was employed to obtain reliable estimates for the sizes of effects and investigate some potential moderators of the relation between child abuse and aggressive behavior. The present study obtained 51 studies (30,566 participants; 680 effect sizes) through performing the detailed literature search. It was found that child abuse was positively associated with aggressive behavior in the current study. In addition, the present meta-analysis observed significant moderating effects for type of child abuse, culture, measurement of child abuse, and publication year in the association between child abuse and aggressive behavior. This study suggests that child abuse is a predictor for the development of aggressive behavior in humans. Moreover, child abuse is an important aspect for consideration in efforts toward strengthening of interventions targeting individuals' aggressive behavior.

On the persistence of race: Unique skulls and average tissue depths in the practice of forensic craniofacial depiction

The (re-)surfacing of race in forensic practices has received plenty of attention from STS scholars, especially in connection with modern forensic genetic technologies. In this article, I describe the making of facial depictions based on the skulls of unknown deceased individuals. Based on ethnographic research in the field of craniofacial identification and forensic art, I present a material-semiotic analysis of how race comes to matter in the face-making process. The analysis sheds light on how race as a translation device enables oscillation between the individual skull and population data, and allows for slippage between categories that otherwise do not neatly map on to one another. The subsuming logic of race is ingrained - in that it sits at the bases of standard choices and tools - in methods and technologies. However, the skull does not easily let itself be reduced to a racial type. Moreover, the careful efforts of practitioners to articulate the individual characteristics of each skull provide clues for how similarities and differences can be done without the effect of producing race. Such methods value the skull itself as an object of interest, rather than treat it as a vehicle for practicing race science. I argue that efforts to undo the persistence of race in forensic anthropology should focus critical attention on the socio-material configuration of methods and technologies, including data practices and reference standards.

Forensic DNA phenotyping and its politics of legitimation and contestation: Views of forensic geneticists in Europe

Forensic DNA Phenotyping (FDP) is a set of techniques that aim to infer externally visible characteristics in humans - such as eye, hair and skin color - and biogeographical ancestry of an unknown person, based on biological material. FDP has been applied in various jurisdictions in a limited number of high-profile cases to provide intelligence for criminal investigations. There are on-going controversies about the reliability and validity of FDP, which come together with debates about the ethical challenges emerging from the use of this technology in the criminal justice system. Our study explores how, in the context of complex politics of legitimation of and contestation over the use of FDP, forensic geneticists in Europe perceive this technology's potential applications, utility and risks. Forensic geneticists perform several forms of discursive boundary work, making distinctions between science and the criminal justice system, experts and non-experts, and good and bad science. Such forms of boundary work reconstruct the complex positioning vis-à-vis legal and scientific realities. In particular, while mobilizing interest in FDP, forensic geneticists simultaneously carve out notions of risk, accountability and scientific conduct that perform distance from FDP' implications in the criminal justice system.

The Dreamwork of the Symptom: Reading Structural Racism and Family History in a Drug Addiction

A key tenet of critical health research is that individual symptoms must be considered in light of the social and political contexts that shape or, in some cases, produce them. Precisely how oppressive social forces give rise to individual symptoms, however, remains challenging to theorize. This article contributes to debates over the interpretation of symptoms through a close reading of the case of Leon, an African American man struggling with an addiction to crack cocaine. Leon presented a complex illness narrative in which his addiction was clearly a product of structural racism, but also the result of dynamics within his family. Drawing on critical reevaluations of Freud's concept of the dreamwork, I call attention to the surface elements of Leon's narrative-what I term the surface of the symptom-and to the formal mechanisms by which latent contents (such as the social, the political, and the personal) are transformed into the manifest form of his symptom. This formal mode of reading offers a productive way of approaching questions of demystification and interpretation, one that holds in tension the register of social causation with the singularities of individuals and their symptoms.

Time in the State of Dementia Caregiving in South Korea: When Care Becomes (Non-)Waiting

Exploring how time emerges as a central problem for lone family caregivers of people with dementia, this article draws attention to care as a way of being in time with others. In addition to active doings that are oriented toward achieving goods that have drawn much attention in recent anthropological discussion on care, care of an intimate other often entails the state of being for the caregiver on which another person's way of being in the present heavily relies. Examining how time is experienced among caregivers who strive to live in the dyadic world of home-based dementia care in South Korea, I consider care as (non-)waiting both in the long term, anticipating the end of the state of caregiving, and in everyday life anticipating small and large fluctuations and interruptions. In the state of caregiving, time is experienced as tense, repetitive, and chronic, which needs to be endured in order for an intimate other to be within the family. Lone caregivers' accounts of the overwhelming weight of care-time both allow and demand us to consider care as a way of being in time with the other, and attend to the experiences of lived time constituted by the difficult intersubjective relationship and its effects on the possibility of having a sense of the near future. This article calls for attention to caregiving as a state in which temporalization becomes challenging, if not impossible.

Prenatal maternal stress is associated with site-specific and age acceleration changes in maternal and newborn DNA methylation

Prenatal maternal stress has a negative impact on child health but the mechanisms through which maternal stress affects child health are unclear. Epigenetic variation, such as DNA methylation, is a likely mechanistic candidate as DNA methylation is sensitive to environmental insults and can regulate long-term changes in gene expression. We recruited 155 mother-newborn dyads in the Democratic Republic of Congo to investigate the effects of maternal stress on DNA methylation in mothers and newborns. We used four measures of maternal stress to capture a range of stressful experiences: general trauma, sexual trauma, war trauma, and chronic stress. We identified differentially methylated positions (DMPs) associated with general trauma, sexual trauma, and war trauma in both mothers and newborns. No DMPs were associated with chronic stress. Sexual trauma was positively associated with epigenetic age acceleration across several epigenetic clocks in mothers. General trauma and war trauma were positively associated with newborn epigenetic age acceleration using the extrinsic epigenetic age clock. We tested the top DMPs for enrichment of DNase I hypersensitive sites (DHS) and found no enrichment in mothers. In newborns, top DMPs associated with war trauma were enriched for DHS in embryonic and foetal cell types. Finally, one of the top DMPs associated with war trauma in newborns also predicted birthweight, completing the cycle from maternal stress to DNA methylation to newborn health outcome. Our results indicate that maternal stress is associated with site-specific changes in DNAm and epigenetic age acceleration in both mothers and newborns.

A Comparative Perspective on the Cerebello-Cerebral System and Its Link to Cognition

The longstanding idea that the cerebral cortex is the main neural correlate of human cognition can be elaborated by comparative analyses along the vertebrate phylogenetic tree that support the view that the cerebello-cerebral system is suited to support non-motor functions more generally. In humans, diverse accounts have illustrated cerebellar involvement in cognitive functions. Although the neocortex, and its transmodal association cortices such as the prefrontal cortex, have become disproportionately large over primate evolution specifically, human neocortical volume does not appear to be exceptional relative to the variability within primates. Rather, several lines of evidence indicate that the exceptional volumetric increase of the lateral cerebellum in conjunction with its connectivity with the cerebral cortical system may be linked to non-motor functions and mental operation in primates. This idea is supported by diverging cerebello-cerebral adaptations that potentially coevolve with cognitive abilities across other vertebrates such as dolphins, parrots, and elephants. Modular adaptations upon the vertebrate cerebello-cerebral system may thus help better understand the neuroevolutionary trajectory of the primate brain and its relation to cognition in humans. Lateral cerebellar lobules crura I-II and their reciprocal connections to the cerebral cortical association areas appear to have substantially expanded in great apes, and humans. This, along with the notable increase in the ventral portions of the dentate nucleus and a shift to increased relative prefrontal-cerebellar connectivity, suggests that modular cerebellar adaptations support cognitive functions in humans. In sum, we show how comparative neuroscience provides new avenues to broaden our understanding of cerebellar and cerebello-cerebral functions in the context of cognition.