R|S Atlas: Identifying existing cohort study data resources to accelerate epidemiological research on the influence of religion and spirituality on human health.

Objective: Many studies have documented significant associations between religion and spirituality (R/S) and health, but relatively few prospective analyses exist that can support causal inferences. To date, there has been no systematic analysis of R/S survey items collected in US cohort studies. We conducted a systematic content analysis of all surveys ever fielded in 20 diverse US cohort studies funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to identify all R/S-related items collected from each cohort's baseline survey through 2014.

Associations of preschoolers' dietary patterns with eating behaviors and parental feeding practices at a 12-month follow-up of obesity treatment.

Although dietary patterns are key to the management of childhood obesity, they are rarely assessed and thus poorly understood. This study examines preschoolers' dietary patterns and correlates 12 months after the start of obesity treatment (n = 99, mean age 5.2 years, 52% girls).

"The Study on Stress, Spirituality, and Health (SSSH): Psychometric Evaluation and Initial Validation of the SSSH Baseline Spirituality Survey".

This paper describes the development and initial psychometric testing of the baseline Spirituality Survey (SS-1) from the Study on Stress, Spirituality, and Health (SSSH) which contained a mixture of items selected from validated existing scales and new items generated to measure important constructs not captured by existing instruments. The purpose was to establish the validity of new and existing measures in our racially/ethnically diverse sample. Psychometric properties of the SS-1 were evaluated using standard psychometric analyses in 4,634 SSSH participants.

Local experience of using traditional medicine in northern Rwanda: a qualitative study.

Background: The popular use of traditional medicine in low-income settings has previously been attributed to poverty, lack of education, and insufficient accessibility to conventional health service. However, in many countries, including in Rwanda, the use of traditional medicine is still popular despite the good accessibility and availability of conventional health services. This study aims to explore why traditional medicine is popularly used in Rwanda where it has achieved universal health coverage.

A multi-country test of brief reappraisal interventions on emotions during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The COVID-19 pandemic has increased negative emotions and decreased positive emotions globally. Left unchecked, these emotional changes might have a wide array of adverse impacts. To reduce negative emotions and increase positive emotions, we tested the effectiveness of reappraisal, an emotion-regulation strategy that modifies how one thinks about a situation.

Making Childhood Obesity a Priority: A Qualitative Study of Healthcare Professionals' Perspectives on Facilitating Communication and Improving Treatment.

In Romania, one in four children has excess weight. Because childhood obesity is a sensitive topic, many healthcare professionals find it difficult to discuss children's excess weight with parents. This study aims to identify barriers and facilitators in childhood obesity-related communication, as perceived by healthcare professionals in Romania.

Improving the Quality of Life of Patients with an Underactive Thyroid Through mHealth: A Patient-Centered Approach.

Three hundred fifty million people worldwide suffer from underactive thyroid conditions, which can lead to infertility, obesity, heart disease, and impaired mental health when poorly managed. Although mobile health (mHealth) applications can be a useful solution for self-managing one's condition, the impact of digital solutions for improving the health of thyroid patients remains unknown. We used a mixed methods analysis to assess the ways in which a digital approach might benefit thyroid patients.

Intuitive Dualism and Afterlife Beliefs: A Cross-Cultural Study.

It is widely held that intuitive dualism-an implicit default mode of thought that takes minds to be separable from bodies and capable of independent existence-is a human universal. Among the findings taken to support universal intuitive dualism is a pattern of evidence in which "psychological" traits (knowledge, desires) are judged more likely to continue after death than bodily or "biological" traits (perceptual, physiological, and bodily states). Here, we present cross-cultural evidence from six study populations, including non-Western societies with diverse belief systems, that shows that while this pattern exists, the overall pattern of responses nonetheless does not support intuitive dualism in afterlife beliefs.

Reflection on the enactment and impact of safety laws for regenerative medicine in Japan.

Japan's Act on the Safety of Regenerative Medicine (ASRM) created an innovative regulatory framework intended to safely promote the clinical development of stem cell-based interventions (SCBIs) while subjecting commercialized unproven SCBIs to greater scrutiny and accountability. This article reviews ASRM's origins, explains its unprecedented scope, and assesses how it envisions the regulation of SCBIs. This analysis is used to highlight three key insights that are pertinent to the current revision of the ASRM: clarifying how the concept of safety should be defined and assessed in research and clinical care settings; revisiting risk criteria for review of SCBIs; and taking stronger measures to support the transition from unproven interventions to evidence-based therapies.

Recognizing Indigenous peoples' and local communities' rights and agency in the post-2020 Biodiversity Agenda.

The Convention on Biological Diversity is defining the goals that will frame future global biodiversity policy in a context of rapid biodiversity decline and under pressure to make transformative change. Drawing on the work of Indigenous and non-Indigenous scholars, we argue that transformative change requires the foregrounding of Indigenous peoples' and local communities' rights and agency in biodiversity policy. We support this argument with four key points.

Social Enterprise as a Model to Improve Live Release and Euthanasia Rates in Animal Shelters.

This paper explored the role that social entrepreneurship may play in helping to improve euthanasia and live release rates in animal shelters. This paper used a qualitative, comparative ethnographic study that included semi-structured interviews, participant observation, and archival research. It compared two large animal shelters from the U.

Mixed Methods Lot Quality Assurance Sampling: A novel, rapid methodology to inform equity focused maternal health programming in rural Rajasthan, India.

India has experienced a significant increase in facility-based delivery (FBD) coverage and reduction in maternal mortality. Nevertheless, India continues to have high levels of maternal health inequity. Improving equity requires data collection methods that can produce a better contextual understanding of how vulnerable populations access and interact with the health care system at a local level.

Material Environments and the Shaping of Anorexic Embodiment: Towards A Materialist Account of Eating Disorders.

Anorexia nervosa is a paradoxical disorder, regarded across disciplines as a body project and yet also an illness of disembodied subjectivity. This overlooks the role that material environments-including objects and spaces-play in producing embodied experiences of anorexia both within and outside treatment. To address this gap, this paper draws together two ethnographic studies of anorexia to explore the shared themes unearthed by research participants' engagements with objects that move across boundaries between treatment spaces and everyday lives.

Divergence-time estimates for hominins provide insight into encephalization and body mass trends in human evolution.

Quantifying speciation times during human evolution is fundamental as it provides a timescale to test for the correlation between key evolutionary transitions and extrinsic factors such as climatic or environmental change. Here, we applied a total evidence dating approach to a hominin phylogeny to estimate divergence times under different topological hypotheses. The time-scaled phylogenies were subsequently used to perform ancestral state reconstructions of body mass and phylogenetic encephalization quotient (PEQ).

Childhood memories of food and eating in lower-income families in the United States: a qualitative study.

Background: Childhood obesity prevention initiatives emphasize healthy eating within the family. However, family-focused initiatives may not benefit children whose families lack economic and/or social resources for home cooking and shared meals. The aim of this paper is to examine how adults talk about and make sense of childhood memories of food and eating, with particular attention to understandings of family life and socioeconomic conditions.

Hybrid mosquitoes? Evidence from rural Tanzania on how local communities conceptualize and respond to modified mosquitoes as a tool for malaria control.

Background: Different forms of mosquito modifications are being considered as potential high-impact and low-cost tools for future malaria control in Africa. Although still under evaluation, the eventual success of these technologies will require high-level public acceptance. Understanding prevailing community perceptions of mosquito modification is, therefore, crucial for effective design and implementation of these interventions.

Addressing key gaps in implementation of mosquito larviciding to accelerate malaria vector control in southern Tanzania: results of a stakeholder engagement process in local district councils.

Background: Larval source management was historically one of the most effective malaria control methods but is now widely deprioritized in Africa, where insecticide-treated nets (ITNs) and indoor residual spraying (IRS) are preferred. However, in Tanzania, following initial successes in urban Dar-es-Salaam starting early-2000s, the government now encourages larviciding in both rural and urban councils nationwide to complement other efforts; and a biolarvicide production-plant has been established outside the commercial capital. This study investigated key obstacles and opportunities relevant to effective rollout of larviciding for malaria control, with a focus on the meso-endemic region of Morogoro, southern Tanzania.

Cultural change beyond adoption dynamics: Evolutionary approaches to the discontinuation of contraception.

Numerous evolutionary mechanisms have been proposed for the origins, spread and maintenance of low fertility. Such scholarship has focused on explaining the adoption of fertility-reducing behaviour, especially the use of contraceptive methods. However, this work has yet to engage fully with the dynamics of contraceptive behaviour at the individual level.

Plasma protein expression profiles, cardiovascular disease, and religious struggles among South Asians in the MASALA study.

Blood protein concentrations are clinically useful, predictive biomarkers of cardiovascular disease (CVD). Despite a higher burden of CVD among U.S.

A geroscience approach for Parkinson's disease: Conceptual framework and design of PROPAG-AGEING project.

Advanced age is the major risk factor for idiopathic Parkinson's disease (PD), but to date the biological relationship between PD and ageing remains elusive. Here we describe the rationale and the design of the H2020 funded project "PROPAG-AGEING", whose aim is to characterize the contribution of the ageing process to PD development. We summarize current evidences that support the existence of a continuum between ageing and PD and justify the use of a Geroscience approach to study PD.