Search Results (60)

The construction industry accounts for a significant share of CO₂ emissions in Europe and Denmark. Renovation can reduce these emissions since it is significantly less carbon-intensive than new construction. Denmark uses life-cycle assessment (LCA) to evaluate the climate impact of construction, but lacks standard mandates for renovation, leading to inconsistent LCA approaches. This research examines LCA methodologies for building renovations in Denmark, developing a tailored approach that draws on existing approaches outlined in the Danish Building Regulations and various reports from both private and public entities. It assesses different renovation depths (minor, moderate, deep) and preservation interventions. A case study of an actual renovation project in Denmark is used to analyse the energy and environmental impacts. The results indicate that LCAs for minor renovations are not methodologically viable due to their limited scope. In contrast, LCAs of moderate and extensive renovations yield meaningful insights, showing potential reductions of over 50% in energy use and 20–50% variations in overall CO₂ emissions across scenarios. In addition, it is observed that energy renovations (i.e., adopting measures to improve the energy efficiency of buildings, especially in moderate and deep renovations) can reach a point at which further improvements do not significantly reduce emissions. Future research should expand LCA applications to a broader range of renovation cases and refine standardised methodologies. Additionally, studies should investigate climate benchmarks and incorporate social and economic factors shaping renovation decisions. Full article

A strong body of evidence indicates that social determinants impact health. While this research has identified a range of risk factors for health, health equity goals require recalibration further “upstream” towards structural drivers of health and aging inequities. Recognizing how systems of power and chronic exposures are embodied and facilitate differential risks and opportunities is important for expanding research at the gender–race–age nexus. Specifically, adopting a structural aging approach can help contextualize health outcomes for older Black women. Drawing from previous research, we explore how structural drivers shape health, examine their impact on Black women’s life experiences, stress exposures, and present a model for interpreting social trajectories of oppression, resistance, and marginalization (i.e., the STORM model) across the lifespan. Extending research on strength, resistance, resilience, and coping may open new opportunities to reframe and understand older Black women’s health. Importantly, developing structural competence can facilitate “seeing structures” and advocating for structural interventions leading to critically minded theory, practice, and policy that properly situate aging processes within broader, intersectional contexts. Full article

Background/Objectives: Type 2 diabetes and obesity present escalating global health and economic challenges, highlighting the need for therapies that can effectively manage glycemic levels and reduce excess adiposity. Semaglutide, a glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor (GLP-1R) agonist available in subcutaneous or oral formulation, has quickly evolved from a theoretical concept to a crucial component of modern metabolic care. This review explores the comprehensive development journey of semaglutide, drawing on evidence from medicinal chemistry, animal studies, initial human trials, the pivotal SUSTAIN and STEP programs, and real-world post-marketing surveillance. Methods: We conducted a detailed analysis of preclinical data sets, Phase I–III clinical trials, regulatory documents, and pharmaco-epidemiological studies published between 2008 and 2025. Results: Through strategic molecular modifications, such as specific amino-acid substitutions and the addition of a C18 fatty-diacid side chain to enhance albumin binding, the half-life of the peptide was extended to approximately 160 h, allowing for weekly dosing. Studies in rodents and non-human primates showed that semaglutide effectively lowered blood glucose levels, reduced body weight, and preserved β-cells while maintaining a favorable safety profile. Phase I trials confirmed consistent pharmacokinetics and tolerability, while Phase II trials identified 0.5 mg and 1.0 mg once weekly as the most effective doses. The extensive SUSTAIN program validated significant reductions in HbA1c levels and weight loss compared to other treatments, as well as a 26% decrease in the relative risk of major adverse cardiovascular events (SUSTAIN-6). Subsequent STEP trials expanded the use of semaglutide to chronic weight management, revealing that nearly two-thirds of patients experienced a body weight reduction of at least 15%. Regulatory approvals from the FDA, EMA, and other regulatory agencies were obtained between 2017 and 2021, with ongoing research focusing on metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis, cardiovascular events, and chronic kidney disease. Conclusions: The trajectory of semaglutide exemplifies how intentional peptide design, iterative translational research, and outcome-driven clinical trial design can lead to groundbreaking therapies for complex metabolic disorders. Full article

Humans form deep attachments to some nonhuman animals, yet these attachments are unequally distributed across the tree of life. Drawing on evolutionary biology, comparative cognition, neuroscience, and cultural anthropology, this narrative review explains why empathy and affective preference are typically stronger for phylogenetically closer species—especially mammals—than for distant taxa such as reptiles, fish, or arthropods. We synthesize evidence that signal recognizability (faces, gaze, vocal formants, biological motion) and predictive social cognition facilitate mind attribution to mammals; conserved neuroendocrine systems (e.g., oxytocin) further amplify affiliative exchange, particularly in domesticated dyads (e.g., dog–human). Ontogenetic learning and media narratives magnify these effects, while fear modules and disgust shape responses to some distant taxa. Notwithstanding this average gradient, boundary cases—cephalopods, cetaceans, parrots—show that perceived agency, sociality, and communicative transparency can overcome phylogenetic distance. We discuss measurement (behavioral, psychophysiological, neuroimaging), computational accounts in predictive-processing terms, and implications for animal welfare and conservation. Pragmatically, calibrated anthropomorphism, hands-on education, and messaging that highlights agency, parental care, or ecological function reliably broaden concern for under-represented taxa. Recognizing both evolved priors and cultural plasticity enables more equitable and effective science communication and policy. Expanding empathy beyond its ancestral anchors is not only an ethical imperative but a One Health necessity: safeguarding all species means safeguarding the integrity of our shared planetary life. Full article

Microplastic pollution is an escalating environmental and public health issue. Defined as plastic particles less than 5 mm in size, microplastics have been found in oceans, rivers, food, drinking water, air, and even human tissues. While scientific research on microplastics has expanded significantly, public understanding and behavioral change remain limited. This literature scan synthesizes global findings on public awareness, perceptions, and responses to microplastics, drawing from surveys, focus groups, and online behavioral data collected by existing studies. It explores the following: (1) general knowledge and perceived environmental and health risks; (2) trust in scientific and governmental sources; (3) willingness to adopt behavioral changes; (4) attitudes toward policy and corporate responsibility. Public concern is high, especially regarding marine life and food safety, but varies across populations based on education, socioeconomic status, and media exposure. Despite growing concern, psychological distance and persistent knowledge gaps hinder meaningful action. Communication strategies such as school programs, media campaigns, and eco-labels show mixed success, while regulatory interventions like plastic bags or microbead bans are more effective when supported by clear public messaging. This literature scan highlights the need for interdisciplinary collaboration to close the knowledge–behavior–policy gap and strengthen public engagement, particularly in urban settings where consumption and waste generation are concentrated. Full article

Compulsive fantasy, often called “maladaptive daydreaming,” involves frequent engagement with immersive fantasies that can sometimes interfere with everyday life and cause distress. This paper expands on Christoff and colleagues’ Dynamic Framework of Thought (DFT) to offer a process-based analysis of compulsive fantasy as it relates to other mental phenomena such as daydreaming and creative thought. Drawing on the existing literature and posts on online forums by self-identified maladaptive daydreamers, we also propose an account of how compulsive fantasy episodes may unfold in terms of the oscillating dynamics of various constraints on thought, and how these dynamics may be related to a perceived struggle with agency. Automatic constraints, including affective salience and mental habits, may bring about a fantasy episode. During a fantasy episode, automatic constraints may be relatively high throughout, whereas deliberate constraints may be intermittently engaged to influence the fantasy. Our analysis supports the use of “compulsive fantasy” as a more accurate designation than “maladaptive daydreaming” for this phenomenon: compulsive fantasies are not daydreams, because they are more constrained in their mental dynamics. We show that fantasy and daydreaming are not inherently harmful but can become so when they are accompanied by relatively strong and sustained automatic constraints on thought. Full article

While pregnancy and anticipation of the birth of the first child may be a stressful experience for women, it may also provide an opportunity for personal growth. The literature shows that stress is a prerequisite for growth. However, studies rarely distinguish between different sources of stress. This study therefore sought to increase the theoretical understanding of personal growth by examining the contribution of different stress sources (exposure to pregnancy-related stressors, experiencing pregnancy stress, stress associated with life events during pregnancy, COVID-19-related anxiety over possible economic damage, and COVID-19-related anxiety over the health of the fetus). In addition, drawing on the Broaden and Build Theory, the contribution of dispositional gratitude to personal growth was examined. The sample consisted of 1378 women expecting their first child, who were recruited through social media. Results show that dispositional gratitude has a significant contribution to personal growth (p < 0.001) and that all stress sources except for pregnancy stress, contributed significantly to personal growth (p < 0.05). The study expands the theoretical knowledge and lends support to the need for a theoretical and methodological distinction between different sources of stress. Full article

Luo Weizhang’s novel Under the Sun centers on a fictionalized writer who reconstructs the life of protagonist Huang Xiaoyang through encounters with his literary remains and the memories of those who knew him personally. Set against the backdrop of the WWII Japanese bombings of Chongqing, the novel challenges dominant historical narratives by using the genre of historiographic metafiction and employing narrative strategies of counter-memory and postmemory. This paper reads Under the Sun as a literary performance of ethical remembrance: one that interrogates conventional notions of subjectivity, the fragile responsibility of narrating trauma, and the psychological toll of bearing witness across generations. Drawing on the framework of critical humanism, with its emphasis on relationality and ethical openness to the other, I argue that Luo’s novel reveals both the moral necessity and the psychic cost of engaging with histories of violence. In reframing the Chongqing bombings—long marginalized in global WWII memory—Under the Sun demonstrates how Chinese literature can expand the geography of remembrance and contribute to transnational debates on trauma, justice, and historical responsibility. Full article

Famed lawyer Clarence Darrow (1857–1938) argued strongly for an early-life public health approach to crime prevention, one that focused on education, poverty reduction, and equity of resources. Due to his defense of marginalized persons and his positions that were often at odds with his legal colleagues and public opinion, he was known as the Big Minority Man. He argued that the assumption of free will—humans as free moral agents—justifies systems of inequity, retributive punishment, and “unadulterated brutality.” Here, the authors revisit Darrow’s views and expand upon them via contemporary research. We examine increasingly louder argumentation—from scholars across multiple disciplines—contending that prescientific notions of willpower, free will, blameworthiness, and moral responsibility, are contributing to social harms. We draw from biopsychosocial perspectives and recent scientific consensus papers calling for the dismantling of folk psychology ideas of willpower and blameworthiness in obesity. We scrutinize how the status quo of the legal system is justified and argue that outdated notions of ‘moral fiber’ need to be addressed at the root. The authors examine recent arguments for one of Darrow’s ideas—a public health quarantine model of public safety and carceral care that considers the ‘causes of the causes’ and risk assessments through a public health lens. In our view, public health needs to vigorously scrutinize the prescientific “normative” underpinnings of the criminal justice system. Full article

This article examines the theological trajectories of Watchman Nee (1903–1972) and Witness Lee (1905–1997) on sanctification, union with Christ, and deification, situating their contributions within recent reappraisals of the doctrine of theosis in the academy. Though deification was universally affirmed by the early church and retained in various forms in medieval and early Protestant theology, post-Reformation Western Christianity marginalized this theme in favor of juridical and forensic soteriological categories. Against this backdrop, Nee and Lee offer a theologically rich, biblically grounded, and experientially oriented articulation of deification that warrants greater scholarly attention. Drawing from the Keswick Holiness tradition, patristic sources, and Christian mysticism, Nee developed a soteriology that integrates justification, sanctification, and glorification within an organic model of progressive union with God. Though he does not explicitly use the term “deification”, the language he employs regarding union and participation closely mirrors classical expressions of Christian theosis. For Nee, sanctification is not merely moral improvement but the transformative increase of the divine life, culminating in conformity to Christ’s image. Lee builds upon and expands Nee’s participatory soteriology into a comprehensive theology of deification, explicitly referring to it as “the high peak of the divine revelation” in the Holy Scriptures. For Lee, humans become God “in life and nature but not in the Godhead”. By employing the phrase “not in the Godhead”, Lee upholds the Creator–creature distinction—i.e., humans never participate in the ontological Trinity or God’s incommunicable attributes. Yet, in the first portion of his description, he affirms that human beings undergo an organic, transformative process by which they become God in deeply significant ways. His framework structures sanctification as a seven-stage process, culminating in the believer’s transformation and incorporation into the Body of Christ to become a constituent of a corporate God-man. This corporate dimension—often overlooked in Western accounts—lies at the heart of Lee’s ecclesiology, which he sees as being consummated in the eschatological New Jerusalem. Ultimately, this study argues that Nee and Lee provide a coherent, non-speculative model of deification that integrates biblical exegesis, theological tradition, and practical spirituality, and thus, present a compelling alternative to individualistic and forensic soteriologies while also highlighting the need for deeper engagement across global theological discourse on sanctification, union with Christ, and the Triune God. Full article

While poetry has long relied on musical and visual elements for its communicative power, numerous contemporary poets are drawing so dramatically on the resources of the visual arts and on elements of musical scoring that their poems become inter-arts hybrids. The interdisciplinary character of environmental writing and its attachment to material conditions of planetary life particularly invite the use of visual and/or audio technologies as documentation or as prompts toward multisensory attention that may shift readers’ perceptions of the more-than-human world. This essay examines four recent works of ecopoetry from the US to explore some of the diverse ways in which, by integrating into volumes of poetry their own visual and musical art, poets are expanding the environmental imagination and enhancing their environmental messaging. The visual and musical elements, I argue, offer fresh perceptual lenses that help break down cognitive habits bolstering separations of Western humans from more-than-human realms or dampening awareness of social and cultural norms that foster environmental degradation and violations of environmental justice. The multi-modal works discussed are Jennifer Scappettone’s The Republic of Exit 43, JJJJJerome Ellis’s Aster of Ceremonies, Danielle Vogel’s Edges & Fray, and Jonathan Skinner’s “Blackbird Stanzas.” Full article

Background/Objectives: End-of-life (EOL) HIV cure research, which studies HIV persistence through pre- and post-mortem tissue collection, has focused primarily on people living with HIV (PLWH) with a prognosis of six months or less. However, the perspectives of long-term survivors (LTS) diagnosed before the advent of effective antiretroviral treatment (ART) remain underexplored. Understanding their motivations and concerns about EOL cure research is essential for creating inclusive and ethical research frameworks. Methods: Between 2023 and 2024, we conducted in-depth qualitative interviews with 16 PLWH aged 60 and older from diverse backgrounds across the United States, recruited through community-based organizations and HIV networks. We used inductive thematic analysis to explore LTS’ perspectives on EOL HIV research. Results: Participants included cisgender men (56.25%) and women (43.75%) with diverse racial identities. While participants supported EOL HIV cure research, their willingness to participate varied, influenced by awareness, logistics, and ethical concerns. Altruism-motivated participation, but misconceptions about procedures and concerns over bodily integrity represented potential barriers. Some viewed blood draws and leukaphereses as routine, while others expressed hesitancy with biopsies and post-mortem tissue retrieval. HIV stigma, historical mistrust, and cultural beliefs also played a role in willingness to participate. LTS emphasized the need for decentralized research sites, travel support, and financial safeguards. Conclusions: To include LTS in EOL HIV cure research, a community-driven approach is needed, focusing on clear communication, ethical considerations, logistical support, and linkages to EOL care. Addressing misconceptions and building trust, particularly within groups traditionally underrepresented in research, is essential to expanding participation. Full article

The rapid integration of the Internet of Medical Things (IoMT) is transforming healthcare through real-time monitoring, AI-driven diagnostics, and remote treatment. However, the growing reliance on IoMT devices, such as robotic surgical systems, life-support equipment, and wearable health monitors, has expanded the attack surface, exposing healthcare systems to cybersecurity risks like data breaches, device manipulation, and potentially life-threatening disruptions. While 6G networks offer significant benefits for healthcare, such as ultra-low latency, extensive connectivity, and AI-native capabilities, as highlighted in the ITU 6G (IMT-2030) framework, they are expected to introduce new and potentially more severe security challenges. These advancements put critical medical systems at greater risk, highlighting the need for more robust security measures. This study leverages AI techniques to systematically identify security vulnerabilities within 6G-enabled healthcare environments. Additionally, the proposed approach strengthens AI-driven security through use of multiple XAI techniques cross-validated against each other. Drawing on the insights provided by XAI, we tailor our mitigation strategies to the ITU-defined 6G usage scenarios, with a focus on their applicability to medical IoT networks. We propose that these strategies will effectively address potential vulnerabilities and enhance the security of medical systems leveraging IoT and 6G networks. Full article

Although there has been an increasing focus on religious and spiritual experience in literary studies within the context of post-critical and post-secular movements, much of the research is framed around the idea of “upward transcendence” in redemption narratives. This focus tends to overlook the negative aspects of life, such as absurdity, meaninglessness, and existential anxiety. Furthermore, it frequently resonates with capitalist ideals that champion a “seamless existence” while dismissing the unrefined essence of materiality. This article engages in two main tasks: First, it emphasizes the negative dimensions of religious and spiritual experience, drawing on Slavoj Žižek’s interpretation of theological and non-theological literature. Second, it expands the definition and scope of religious and spiritual experience, proposing an alternative paradigm based on absurdity and meaninglessness. This paradigm, “downward transcendence,” rejects the redemptive promise of “ascension” and redefines the sacred by engaging with the disruptive and unsettling fabric of existence, reconstructing the coordinates of the sacred within the fissures of reality. Through the case study of Sartre’s Nausea, the article explores how existential absurdity and meaninglessness can reconfigure the sacred, particularly through marginality and the transformative potential of negative experiences. It ultimately proposes downward transcendence as a radical reimagining of spiritual and existential freedom. Full article

The urban–rural fringe, serving as a frontier space and protective barrier for urban–rural factor circulation, is a complex area marked by significant human–land conflicts. Therefore, scientifically identifying and dynamically monitoring the urban–rural fringe is crucial for its integrated development and spatial governance. In this context, this paper constructs an information entropy model using land use data, combined with the central gravitational agglomeration method, to accurately identify the evolution of Harbin’s urban–rural fringe over the past 40 years. The research reveals that Harbin’s urban–rural fringe exhibits a distinct circling pattern, with spatial morphology changes characterized as “low-speed spreading—jumping expansion—internal dissimilarity”, allowing for improved identification of its three types: stable, expanding, and degrading. The study also tracks the scale of the urban–rural fringe in Harbin with three types of stable, expanding, and degrading urban–rural fringe. Drawing on previous research, we visualize the fringe area’s functional spatial positioning, showing its dominant function shifting from a production–ecological composite to a production–life–ecological coordinated function. Concurrently, the study’s findings, alongside Harbin’s socioeconomic development, indicate that the urban–rural fringe’s evolution is driven by economic, policy, and environmental factors. Based on the multi-dimensional research outcomes, we conclude that the evolution of Harbin’s urban–rural fringe can be divided into three stages: a slow gestation period (1980–1990), a rapid development period (1990–2010), and a stable reconstruction phase (2010–2020). In the initial phase, urban and rural development is minimal; during the second phase, the trend of urban expansion is significant, and the urban–rural fringe is rapidly shifted to the city; and in the latter stage, urban and rural elements are stabilized and coordinated, and urban and rural areas are realized to be developed and reconstructed as one. This paper provides a scientific basis for understanding the dynamic evolution of the urban–rural fringe in Harbin City and is an important reference for future territorial spatial planning and development. Full article