Female genital schistosomiasis (FGS) is a chronic disease manifestation of the waterborne parasitic infection Schistosoma haematobium that affects up to 56 million women and girls, predominantly in sub-Saharan Africa. Starting from early childhood, this stigmatizing gynaecological condition is caused by the presence of Schistosoma eggs and associated toxins within the genital tract. Schistosoma haematobium typically causes debilitating urogenital symptoms, mostly as a consequence of inflammation, which includes bleeding, discharge and lower abdominal pelvic pain. Chronic complications of FGS include adverse sexual and reproductive health and rights outcomes such as infertility, ectopic pregnancy and miscarriage. FGS is associated with prevalent human immunodeficiency virus and may increase the susceptibility of women to high-risk human papillomavirus infection. Across SSA, and even in clinics outside endemic areas, the lack of awareness and available resources among both healthcare professionals and the public means FGS is underreported, misdiagnosed and inadequately treated. Several studies have highlighted research needs and priorities in FGS, including better training, accessible and accurate diagnostic tools, and treatment guidelines. On 6 September, 2024, LifeArc, the Global Schistosomiasis Alliance and partners from the BILGENSA Research Network (Genital Bilharzia in Southern Africa) convened a consultative, collaborative and translational workshop: ‘Female Genital Schistosomiasis: Translational Challenges and Opportunities’. Its ambition was to identify practical solutions that could address these research needs and drive appropriate actions towards progress in tackling FGS. Here, we present the outcomes of that workshop – a series of discrete translational actions to better galvanize the community and research funders.

Since the 1950s, the United Nations (UN) has designated days (e.g., World Wetland Day), years (e.g., Year of the Gorilla) and decades (e.g., Decade on Biodiversity) with a commonly stated goal to raise awareness and funding for conservation-oriented initiatives, and these Days, Years and Decades of ‘…’ (hereafter ‘DYDOs’) continue. However, the effectiveness of these initiatives to achieve their stated objectives and to contribute to positive conservation outcomes is unclear. Here we used a binary analysis change model to evaluate the effectiveness of UN conservation-oriented DYDOs observed between 1974 and 2020. We also examined four case studies to understand the different strategies employed to meet specified conservation goals. We found that DYDOs apparently contributed to positive conservation outcomes when they were tied to social media campaigns and/or when they were strategically situated in current events or global discourse. Although the outcomes of DYDOs were varied, those with longer timescales and those that engaged local communities were more likely to be successful. We suggest that DYDO organizers should identify all possible paths of action through the lens of the change model outlined in this paper to strengthen the value and effectiveness of these initiatives in the future. Using this approach could help ensure that resources are used efficiently and effectively, and that initiatives yield positive conservation outcomes that benefit people and nature.

Awareness of courts has long been theorized to engender enhanced support for judicial independence, but this is a logic that works only under the best of circumstances. We argue that interbranch politics influences what aware citizens know and learn about their court, and we theorize how awareness interacts with individual-level and context-dependent factors to bolster public endorsement of judicial independence in previously unappreciated ways. We fielded surveys in the United States (US), Germany, Poland, and Hungary, countries which diverge in the extent to which the environments are hospitable or hostile to high courts, and whose publics vary greatly in both their awareness of courts and perceptions of executive influence with the judiciary. We suggest that in hospitable contexts, awareness correlates with support for judicial independence, but said association depends on perceptions of executive influence. In hostile contexts where executive interference is common, more aware citizens are more apt to perceive this meddling, and although it might undermine trust in the judicial authority, it does not diminish their demand for judicial independence. Together, these findings underscore that public awareness and support for judicial independence are greatly informed by the political environment in which high courts reside.

Is it possible to acquire a sensitivity to a regularity in language without intending to and without awareness of what it is? In this conceptual replication and extension of an earlier study (Williams, 2005) participants were trained on a semiartificial language in which determiner choice was dependent on noun animacy. Participants who did not report awareness or recognition of this rule were nevertheless above chance at selecting the correct determiner in novel contexts. However, further analyses based on trial-by-trial subjective judgments and item similarity statistics were consistent with the possibility that responses were based on conscious feelings of familiarity or analogy to trained items rather than unconscious knowledge of a semantic generalization. The results are discussed in terms of instance-based approaches to memory and language, and the implications for the concept of “learning without awareness” are considered.

Poor menstrual health literacy is a factor that contributes to females not seeking medical help for abnormal menstrual symptoms that may impact their mental, social, and physical health(1). Few studies have focused on testing baseline functional knowledge of the menstrual cycle (MC) outside the context of pregnancy and menopause. The primary objective of this study was to investigate MC knowledge levels of physically active females residing in New Zealand. A secondary objective was to understand where females get their MC information from, what sources they consider to be trustworthy and what information on the MC they would like to know more about. A MC knowledge questionnaire was developed by the research team (n = 3), and reviewed by academics (n = 4), medical experts (n = 4), sporting organisation staff (n = 5), and target population (n = 10) to ensure content validity. Active females (n = 203) between the ages of 16-40 years completed an online questionnaire. The questionnaire included a total of 25 knowledge questions and was split into four categories: menstrual cycle (Q = 9), menstruation (Q = 7), symptoms (Q = 5), and health outcomes (Q = 6). Responses (single and multiple answer multi-choice questions) were analysed using descriptive statistics which were presented as mean, SD and frequency (%). The overall knowledge score was 51.8% (22.8 ± 3.4). The highest knowledge scores were noted for symptoms (80.5%), followed by menstruation (79.8%), and the menstrual cycle (64.2%). Females scored poorly when asked about health outcomes related to the MC (20.4%). 61.5% of participants (n = 123) identified the internet as their main source of MC information. Friends (n = 82, 41%), school sex education (n = 73, 36.5%) and social media (n = 73, 36.5%) were the next most common sources of MC information. The most trustworthy sources of information were doctors/GPs (n = 96, 48%) and healthcare professionals (n = 70, 35%). The most common topics that females wanted to know more about were diet and the MC (n = 115, 57.5%), training and the MC (n = 115, 57.5%), MC tracking (n = 78, 39%), MC and mood (n = 75, 37.5%) and RED-S/LEA/Female athlete triad (n = 71, 35.5%). Overall functional knowledge levels of the MC and associated health outcomes is low in active females. Healthcare professionals and doctors are the most trustworthy sources of information; however, they are not the most common sources of information that females will engage with. Developing online educational resources on the MC, associated health outcomes and lifestyle factors (diet, physical activity) with medical and healthcare professionals may be considered in future female health education.

La qualité des soins apportés aux personnes vivant avec la maladie d’Alzheimer (MA) dépend en partie de la capacité des professionnels à déterminer le degré de conscience de la maladie chez les patients. La présente recherche s’est intéressée aux représentations des soignants concernant la conscience des troubles chez les résidents d’établissements de soins de longue durée présentant un diagnostic de MA. Le pouvoir prédicteur de l’anosognosie sur le fardeau soignant a également été examiné. L’anosognosie des troubles de la construction (r = 0,40, p = 0,0164) et de l’initiation (r = 0,32, p = 0,052) était corrélée au fardeau soignant. Les professionnels se représentaient les résidents comme ayant une conscience altérée de leurs capacités, même en l’absence d’anosognosie. Les scores réels d’anosognosie ne prédisaient pas les estimations soignantes, hormis le score global sous forme de tendance (χ2 = 3,38, p = 0,066). Les soignants surestimaient pourtant les performances cognitives des résidents, telles que mesurées au moyen du protocole Misawareness (prédictions aidants/performances réelles : DC = 12,32, p < 0,0001).