Articles

Psychiatry is burdened by a much larger black box than several other medical practices. Some practitioners have chosen fields where mechanical interventions address a patient’s disability and so the black box is small. 

The challenge of developing a unified, mathematically rigorous framework for consciousness remains central to neuroscience. Hereby two recent papers are discussed that advance the Human Language-based Consciousness (HLbC) model as a novel, testable alternative to existing theories. 

Neurodevelopmental disorders (NDDs) such as autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are increasingly prevalent in children globally, including Cameroon. Emerging evidence suggests that early-life exposure to environmental neurotoxins, particularly mycotoxins, may disrupt brain development and contribute to these disorders.

Emotion has traditionally been understood as a subjective experience intrinsic to individual agents. However, the emergence of multi-agent systems, including artificial intelligence, calls for a reconceptualization of emotion as a dynamic process grounded in interaction. This paper proposes the Interacting Processual Information-based Emotive Model (IPIEM), a formal framework that defines emotion not as an intrinsic qualia within a single agent—which is philosophically treated here as an empty set—but as a set-theoretic phenomenon emergent through inter-agent information exchange and social realization. 

Protein kinases are at the core of cellular communication, and they essentially control cell survival, metabolism, immune activation, and proliferation, among other things, through reversible phosphorylation. The dysregulation of kinase signaling has been identified as a key driver at the molecular level of cancer, autoimmune diseases, chronic inflammations, cardiovascular diseases, and infectious pathogenesis.

To investigate if intraovarian autologous platelet-rich plasma (PRP) infusion improve ovarian reserve markers and fertility outcomes in women with diminished ovarian reserve (DOR). 

Nontreatment-seeking individuals with cocaine use disorder (CUD) have been found to exhibit decision-making on laboratory tasks that is risky but also sensitive to monetary incentive, relative to controls. Objective: The purpose of this study was to replicate these findings in treatment-seeking individuals and explore their relationships with voucher-based treatment outcome and striatal dopamine (DA) release.

Autism spectrum disorder is a multifactorial neurodevelopmental disorder with increasing prevalence worldwide. Given the heterogeneity of autism, it is highly unlikely to have a single effective therapy for autism. Adversities associated with current pharma-therapies in treating autism have prompted the emergence of alternative therapies including variety of behavioral and music interventions. Autistic children, who tend to show a strong preference for music, makes music therapy a promising intervention for autism. 

Chronic kidney disease (CKD) constitutes a significant global health burden due to its association with kidney failure, cardiovascular morbidity, and premature mortality. Despite incremental advancements in nephrology, technological innovation has progressed more slowly than in other clinical fields. 

Exercise is increasingly being recognized as an important part of cancer treatment, as it has been shown to alleviate treatment- and disease-related side effects and improve quality of life of patients with cancer. Furthermore, exercise has been linked to a reduced risk of cancer recurrence, particularly in cases of breast and colorectal cancer. In recent years, the question has come to the forefront: “How?” does exercise influences cancer survival, and with it the interest in the underlying physiological mechanisms. 

Despite major advances in molecular oncology and cancer therapeutics, early detection remains a critical limitation for many malignancies. Current screening approaches rely largely on anatomical or morphological changes, highlighting a persistent gap between modern biological understanding of cancer and its clinical application. This article examines the evolution of cancer biology and explores why these advances have not yet translated into effective early detection strategies.

Small cell neuroendocrine carcinoma of the cervix (SCNECC) is a rare and clinically aggressive subtype of cervical cancer associated with a poor prognosis. To investigate its underlying pathological mechanisms and identify potential therapeutic targets, researchers have increasingly employed single-omics or multi-omics integrated analysis, including single-cell transcriptome sequencing, proteomics, whole-exome sequencing, and genomics.

Molds are ubiquitous, they grow optimally under high humidity, inadequate ventilation, and poor lighting, especially indoors. Components of molds (i.e., β-glucans from the cell wall of spores and hyphal fragments) and toxic metabolites they produce (e.g., mycotoxins and microbial volatile organic compounds, mVOCs) are known to cause adverse health effects in humans. Indoors, components of molds easily reach unsafe levels.

We are living in what future historians will call the invisible century of toxic exposures—an era in which the most dangerous poisons are no longer the ones we can see, smell, or even detect with routine diagnostics. Instead, they emerge silently from synthetic chemistry labs, global supply chains, industrial waste streams, micro-environments, household products, online marketplaces, and, increasingly, from the hands of those who synthesize psychoactive compounds faster than regulators can name them. 

The term “non-toxic” is widely used in consumer product labeling despite the absence of a formal scientific or regulatory definition. Contemporary toxicology recognizes that adverse biological effects depend on dose, duration of exposure, route of entry, genetic variability, and underlying molecular mechanisms.

Cervical cancer remains a leading cause of preventable death among women. Around 660,000 new cases and 350,000 deaths were reported in 2022. Most of these cases and deaths occurred in low- and middle-income countries. Persistent infection with oncogenic human papillomavirus (HPV) genotypes is an important cause of almost all cervical cancers.

Increasing the test-per-case ratio was recommended to reduce the number of cases and deaths per capita. In particular, due to a synchronous increase in the number of tests alongside the rise in new cases and very high levels of the tests-per-case ratio, the COVID-19 pandemic in New Zealand was largely controlled before October 2021. After February 2022, an abrupt decline in the tests-to-case ratio led to a record number of cases and deaths at a relatively high vaccination level.

Women and girls continue to experience disproportionate HIV vulnerability across regions marked by deep-rooted gender inequality and economic insecurity. While biomedical advances have expanded prevention options, the structural determinants particularly poverty, economic dependence and limited financial autonomy remain under-addressed drivers of HIV risk.

Cell signaling represents a highly coordinated molecular dialogue that governs cellular behavior and tissue homeostasis. Among its many facets, redox signaling has emerged as a pivotal mechanism, transforming our understanding of reactive oxygen species (ROS) from mere metabolic byproducts to essential messengers [1]. Historically associated with oxidative stress and cellular damage, ROS are now recognized as regulators of physiological processes through reversible oxidation of cysteine residues in proteins.

Low-frequency somatic mutations accumulate in normal tissues throughout life and contribute to cancer initiation, yet their detection is limited by the sensitivity of conventional sequencing methods. We describe CarcSeq, an error-corrected, targeted next-generation sequencing platform developed to quantify rare cancer driver mutations (CDMs) at variant allele frequencies as low as ~10^-4. CarcSeq integrates high-fidelity amplification, unique molecular identifiers, and single-strand consensus sequencing to accurately measure mutant frequency (MF) across a curated panel of sequences encompassing recurrent oncogene and tumor suppressor hotspots.