Purpose This article examines the contexts, challenges, and notion of women's entrepreneurship through an indigenous cultural and gender framework. The aim is to provide indigenous voices to the diversity of entrepreneurship research from non-Western perspectives. This approach enables us to highlight the experiences of indigenous women entrepreneurs in Nigeria. Design/methodology/approach This article uses a qualitative research approach to examine indigenous entrepreneurial practices. Data were collected through interviews with 15 Nigerian indigenous women entrepreneurs, who were purposively selected. In addition, focus groups were conducted to generate further data and validate participants' responses. Through thematic analysis, we developed an empirically derived framework for gender and indigenous entrepreneurship culture. Findings Inductive themes emerged from thematic analysis, revealing 7 Ms gender framework of indigenous women's entrepreneurship related to money, management, market, motherhood, meso-environment, macro-environment, and mobilisation of resources. Moreover, the findings reveal enabling elements of indigenous cultural entrepreneurship frameworks, such as the Ajo or Adeshe/Esusu traditional savings schemes, which promote “indigenous sources of capital,” and informal entrepreneurial learning that nurtures future entrepreneurial leaders. Research limitations/implications This study uses data from a single country, geographical area, and specific populations, which may limit the scope of the empirical findings. Future research could expand the parameters or combine qualitative and quantitative methods to provide a more in-depth analysis of different contexts and relationships. Originality/value Entrepreneurship research has been criticized for its non-inclusive theories, overreliance on Western philosophies, and failure to integrate indigenous knowledge from the Global South. This article makes an original contribution to knowledge by exploring the relationship among indigenous culture, gender, and entrepreneurship in a non-Western context.

This article analyzes the media as a territory of symbolic and political disputes, where identities and power relations are reconfigured. Using the concepts of mediatization (Braga, 2006) and bios mediatic (Sodré, 2006), it discusses how media logics transform social life, influencing perceptions and interactions. Rancière's philosophy (2000) is mobilized to understand the division and forms of contestation of the established order. In dialogue with decolonial thought, the text examines the resistance of Indigenous peoples through Indigenous media, exemplified by initiatives such as Indigenous documentaries and the Arandu Arakuaa band. These initiatives challenge stereotypes and claim narrative autonomy, even while facing obstacles such as the difficulty of reaching non-Indigenous audiences. It concludes that the appropriation of media by Indigenous peoples is a political act of decolonization, expanding spaces for representation and resistance.

Traditional agricultural systems are rooted in the local management, selection, and conservation of agrobiodiversity. Understanding the socioecological dynamics that sustain these systems is essential for developing sustainable practices that ensure food security and sovereignty in the territories of traditional and Indigenous peoples. This study assessed the role of seed exchange networks in on-farm agrobiodiversity conservation in quilombola communities in Brazil that face environmental and political threats. We emphasize the role of socioecological networks and socio-agronomic variables in shaping how agrobiodiversity is maintained, shared, and regenerated across time and space. We conducted semi-structured interviews, free listing, participant observation, and guided tours with 48 agrobiodiversity management units (AMUs) from five communities, documenting socio-agronomic variables and ethnovariety richness with botanical identification in the field and literature. We recorded all ethnovarieties shared among internal AMUS - living in the quilombola communities, and external AMUs - outside the territory. We then sorted 15 ethnovarieties per internal AMUs to collect data on seed exchange interactions. Further, we registered data on socio-agronomic variables, ethnovarieties richness, and seed flows (donation and reception) to analyse the properties of AMUs (nodes in the network) and seed exchange patterns in the network, and assess their potential for conserving agrobiodiversity. We documented a total of 359 ethnovarieties. The complete and open network was formed by 185 AMUs - 48 internal and 137 external - which realized 424 events of seed exchanges. Agro-environmental diversity, cultivated area, and the period living in the community were positively associated with AMUs' richness and its centrality in the network, highlighting their role as agrobiodiversity guardians and network bridges. The seed exchange network displayed low nestedness, low connectance, and high modularity, indicating the formation of cohesive subgroups of AMUs with strong exchanges among specific partners and limited intergroup seed flows. These findings reflect social segregation and reveal vulnerabilities, as varieties unevenly distributed across modules may not circulate widely, reducing agrobiodiversity resilience. We argue that historical and material conditions are critical for sustaining on-farm agrobiodiversity conservation in quilombola territories. Land tenure security and territorial rights are essential for maintaining traditional agroecosystems that integrate ecological knowledge, cultural heritage, and biodiversity management. Strengthening seed exchange connectivity, fostering collaboration across groups - from inside and outside territories - are urgent actions to enhance resilience, safeguard traditional knowledge, and ensure long-term biocultural justice.

Introduction: Guam, the largest U.S. territory in Micronesia, plays a central role in surgical care for the local indigenous community and surrounding Pacific Island nations, yet remains underrepresented in surgical systems research. Methods: We conducted a mixed-methods study. Quantitative data were collected on operating volume, personnel, infrastructure, and surgical services at Guam Memorial Hospital (GMH) and Guam Regional Medical City (GRMC). Semi-structured interviews with hospital leadership and surgical providers captured qualitative insights on strengths, challenges, and future plans. Results: GMH and GRMC collectively provide general emergency, obstetric, and basic pediatric surgery, although advanced subspecialty and oncologic care remain limited. Although surgeons are highly adaptable with broad-practice capability, challenges, including resource limitations, aging facilities, advanced presentation, and subspecialty recruitment, limit the cases that are operable on Guam, resulting in expensive medical transfer. Anticipated stressors such as oncologic and non-communicable disease burden may further strain the system, emphasizing the necessity for modernized facilities and targeted recruitment of surgeons with regional ties. Conclusion: Strengthening Guam’s surgical capacity is essential for the provision of oncologic care and the advancement of health equity across the Pacific region, emphasizing an urgent need for investment in infrastructure, locally relevant workforce training, and regional policy development.

ABSTRACT Since the early 2000s, civil society participation in the United Nations has greatly intensified, as evidenced by the surge in applications for UN consultative status. This form of international recognition, which confers permanent accreditation on non-governmental organisations, is increasingly sought by Indigenous organisations, largely due to the access and contribution rights it confers at the UN. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork in so-called ‘French’ Guiana, or Guyane, where I have been collaborating with an Indigenous organisation applying for UN consultative status, this article traces the tensions associated with the UN accreditation application. I show that the application was a transformative process for my Indigenous collaborators, changing not only the scale of their claims, but also the nature and framework of their activities. From language issues to the obligation to translate Indigenous practices into bureaucratic terminology, the UN imposes a rigid model of scalability on Indigenous organisations, limiting their ability to scale up on their own terms. The findings build on my collaborators’ concept of ‘being present’, offering new insights into how Indigenous people articulate distinct modes of scalability to navigate across scales.

This research paper discusses First Indian on the Moon (1993) by Sherman Alexie, with the elements of mimicry and ambivalence on the creation of Indigenous identity. Being a hybrid literary text that incorporates poetry, narrative prose and some characteristics of oral storytelling, the text represents the nuances of the Indigenous cultural expression in the profile of a postcolonial setting. Though the works of Alexie have been talked extensively in context of identity, trauma, and reservation life, there is a gap in understanding how the postcolonial concepts of mimicry and ambivalence are manifested in the formation of Indigenous identity as relates to the current work. Thus, this paper aims at examining how these concepts operate in the text to mediate over cultural identity and question the pre-eminent colonial discourses. The study follows a qualitative approach to research, which entails a close examination of the texts and thematic analysis. The analytical terms based on the postcolonial views which inform the study include the formulated ideas of mimicry and ambivalence by Homi K. Bhabha. The analysis explores the ways in which the text interacts with Euro-American literary traditions and renews them both in terms of Indigenous thinking and narration practices. The results suggest that the mimicry in the text functions as a strategic act where hegemonic forms of culture are reproduced but twisted to allow the Indigenous voices to interfere with the established literary and institutional practice. Meanwhile, the ambivalence represents the tension and contradictions that Indigenous people may face as they move between colonization and cultural preservation. Through these dynamics, it becomes evident that Indigenous identity in the text is non-fixed but fluid, and a hybrid and is in a state of constant negotiation. This paper concludes that First Indian on the Moon is a creation of Indigenous identity based on the dialectical nature of mimicry and ambivalence, the identity is performative, resilient and historical. The research adds to Indigenous literary studies and postcolonial theory by highlighting these processes and proving that the cultural offensive through literary hybridity to survive, resist, and make official self is the strategy focused on survival and self-representation.

Metagenomics enables detailed profiling of genes encoding antimicrobial resistance. However, most studies focus exclusively on antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs), excluding those associated with non-antibiotic antimicrobials (metals, biocides), and often rely on methods with low-sensitivity and low-specificity. Furthermore, they rarely examine populations exposed to minimal anthropogenic pollution. We analyzed fecal resistomes of 95 Wayampi individuals, an Indigenous community in remote French Guiana, using a targeted metagenomic capture platform covering 8667 genes, including ARGs, metal resistance genes (MRGs) and biocide resistance genes (BRGs) (PMID: 29335005). Resistome profiles were compared with those of Europeans to assess population-level differences. ARG richness was similar between groups (259 in Wayampi vs. 264 in Europeans, 159 shared), but MRGs + BRGs gene richness was significantly higher in Wayampi (11,930 vs. 7419). Most genes appeared in a minority of individuals (mean 5% for ARGs, 2% for MRGs + BRGs), but several ARGs for tetracyclines [tet(32), tet(40), tet(O), tet(Q), tet(W), tet(X), tetAB(P)], aminoglycosides (ant6'-I, aph3-III), macrolides (ermB, ermF, mefA), and sulfonamides (sul2) were present in all individuals. Tetracycline resistance genes predominated overall, while beta-lactam resistance genes were more common in Wayampi, and genes conferring resistance to aminoglycosides, amphenicols, and folate inhibitors were more frequent in Europeans. Among MRGs, copper and arsenic resistance genes prevailed in both groups, followed by those for zinc, iron, cobalt, and nickel. Up to 76% of Wayampiis carried acquired MRGs for copper (pcoABCDRS and tcrB), silver (silACFPRS), arsenic (ars), and mercury (mer) detoxification. Shannon diversity indices were similar for ARGs, MRGs, and BRGs, but composition and evenness differed significantly. UMAP and ADONIS analyses distinguished cohorts based on ARG profiles (p < 0.001), but not on MRGs or BRGs. Correlation analysis revealed conserved gene-sharing networks and introgression of acquired ARGs and MRGs within both gut microbiomes. The diverse and balanced Wayampi resistome reflects a less perturbed microbiome compared to industrialized populations, and reveals a background of "core" and "shell" acquired ARGs and MRGs, consistent with the "robust-yet-fragile" architecture of scale-free networks. The patchy yet resilient gene distribution suggests varying levels of conserved gene sharing highways among populations, likely shaped by long-term microbial-human evolution, and supports a broader view on acquired antimicrobial resistance. Video Abstract.

Abstract For many people around the world, especially in Indigenous communities, seasonal changes affect the availability and desirability of different types of food. Assessing the relationship between seasonality, sociocultural preferences and hunting patterns is vital for understanding how these populations harness seasonal food production dynamics to create dietary resilience. In Madagascar's Makira Protected Area, local residents rely on hunting wild animals for nutrition. However, many of the species that they hunt are threatened due to a combination of pressures, including from hunting, habitat loss and climate change. To protect these species and meet the needs of local people, understanding the drivers of hunting practices is critical. Building on social–ecological systems theory and a biocultural calendar framework, we combined multiple data sources to analyse the interplay between wild animal population dynamics, availability of food resources for animals, hunting effort and catch and people's stated taste preferences among wildlife species by season throughout the year. We found no significant correlation between the estimated density of species and hunting success. However, we found that peak snare hunting effort occurred in April, several months after maximum fruit availability and coinciding with the period when local people reported that frugivorous lemurs tasted the best. Hunting success for frugivorous lemurs also showed a strong seasonal trend, peaking in April. Catch rates of animals with other diet types exhibited less seasonality, but respondents still indicated a preference for eating various species during April–May. Survey data indicate a clear taste preference for frugivorous lemurs over animals with other diet types (such as omnivores, carnivores, or folivores). Human taste preferences for frugivorous lemurs also showed the strongest seasonality. Our findings support the hypothesis that hunters pursue frugivorous lemurs when catch success may be more likely, which coincides with the time when they taste best, possibly due to the animals' recent fruit consumption. This highlights the complex relationships between ecological dynamics, human preferences and hunting practices in the Makira Protected Area. Understanding these interactions, while also considering alternative explanations, can inform effective conservation and food security strategies that consider both wildlife protection and the nutritional needs of local communities. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.

This review demonstrates how the theory landscape memory can be used in anthropological research within local communities. This case study analyzes how Sami reindeer herders gain and use their professional skills and reindeer terminology and how their skills develop into landscape memory. The case study is based on field work done in Jávrrešduottár, a Sami community in northern Finland. Landscape memory is at the core of the reindeer Sami cultural knowledge system and it includes a community’s history, language, values, livelihood patterns and cultural ways of perceiving the landscape. The study challenges the idea of Indigenous Ecological Knowledge as a suitable method for studying indigenous peoples and emphasises the local humanenvironmental relationship as a basis for understanding local culture. The study wants to raise into theoretical discussion the idea of landscapememory as method for studying environmental relations. The study suggests, that although new technologies and vehicles have changed reindeer herding towards a more market oriented approach, the basic function of reindeer herding has stayed the same. Reindeer herding in the research area has maintained its cultural core within changing environmental, economic andbureaucratic processes. For the future of reindeer herding it is important that herders see reindeer herding as a way of life.

Indigenous Food Systems (IFS) are deeply rooted in cultural identity, ecological balance, and traditional knowledge. However, these systems are increasingly vulnerable to climate change, colonial legacies, and the imposition of market-based food models that disrupt traditional practices, resulting in food insecurity, health disparities, and knowledge erosion. This research explores how braided approaches—integrating Indigenous knowledge and Western scientific methods—combined with systems thinking and community-based participatory research (CBPR), can strengthen food sovereignty and security in northern Indigenous communities. Objectives include: 1) Identifying contributions of braiding approaches (e.g., citizen science, photovoice) and CBPR to IFS enhancement, and 2) Developing assessment criteria for these approaches using systems modelling conventions. A multi-faceted methodology integrates systems theory to analyze IFS complexities, Indigenous research methodologies like Two-Eyed Seeing for cultural relevance, and outcome harvesting to evaluate intervention impacts. We will adapt criteria-based systems modelling conventions to assess braiding approaches within IFS contexts. Outcomes to address practical, culturally resonant braiding approaches that strengthen IFS by integrating Indigenous and scientific knowledge. The research will yield validated assessment criteria for these strategies. Conclusions will emphasize a roadmap for co-produced knowledge and community-led sustainable food systems. Theoretically, this research advances systems thinking and decolonial methodologies in IFS studies. This research has significant implications for communities, policymakers, and researchers to revitalize IFS, promote food sovereignty, and build resilience. Findings will support collaborative, equitable partnerships for sustainable Indigenous food futures.

ABSTRACT Living heritage remains a crucial part of South Africa’s identity and collective memory. Living heritage in the context of the current study refers to oral traditions, indigenous knowledge systems, cultural expressions, and community practices. The purpose of this study was to explore the effectiveness of public programming initiatives in promoting living heritage archives through social media in South Africa. The study adopted a qualitative research approach informed by an interpretivism worldview. Semi-structured interviews, observation and document analysis were used to collect data at the National Heritage Council in South Africa. Qualitative data was analyzed thematically guided by research objectives. The study revealed that the public programming initiatives employed by the NHC have not effectively promoted living heritage archives on social media platforms. The study recommends a framework for the promotion of living heritage archives through social media. This will help provide a foundation and insight into how heritage institutions may implement their public programming initiatives toward effective awareness and usage of the living heritage archives.

Health sector Standards in Aotearoa New Zealand, Australia and Canada increasingly acknowledge the importance of culturally appropriate care for Indigenous populations. Despite this, inequities persist. This review explores how national health Standards intersect with Indigenous health, focusing on Cultural Safety, Indigenous-led governance, Indigenous knowledge, and anti-racism. A scoping review methodology was employed to map the breadth of literature across Aotearoa New Zealand, Australia and Canada. Guided by a six-stage framework and the PRISMA-ScR protocol, the review used the qualitative variant-Population/Problem, Interest, Context (PICo) approach-to structure inclusion criteria and search strategies. Literature was sourced from five major databases and supplemented by grey literature. Data from 36 records were charted, synthesised, and analysed through narrative synthesis and stakeholder engagement. Cultural Safety was consistently identified as more impactful than cultural competency alone, yet most Standards fall short of indicating how Cultural Safety will be measured. Across records, 75% highlighted the need to address social determinants of health, and 67% advocated anti-racism and structural reform. Indigenous-led governance and self-determination were linked to improved health outcomes in 50% of the records, though practical implementation was uneven. Integration of Indigenous knowledge and holistic approaches was supported in 47% of records, but limited by weak policy infrastructure. Racism, both systemic and interpersonal, was identified in all studies as a persistent barrier to equity. National Standards often lack the enforcement mechanisms to address these issues meaningfully. This review identified significant gaps between the intent and implementation of health sector Standards across Aotearoa New Zealand, Australia, and Canada in relation to Indigenous health. Despite formal commitments to culturally appropriate care, systemic barriers, rooted in colonisation and policy-practice disconnects, continue to undermine equitable outcomes. The findings highlight the need for Indigenous-led evaluation, stronger accountability, and the embedding of Cultural Safety, Indigenous leadership, and holistic health approaches to drive meaningful and lasting change.

ABSTRACT International Expositions or so-called ‘World’s Fairs’ have for over 150 years served as the most prominent stage in which nations have represented themselves at the world’s largest gatherings. Osaka is unique in having hosted two such events: once in 1970 and again in 2025, providing Australia with two unique platforms to reach millions of Japanese citizens through its presentations in their national pavilion. Over this 55-year period, how Australia has presented itself to a Japanese audience has changed significantly, from the projection of a modern, advanced, surf-loving White Australia in 1970, to a nation that recognizes and learns from 65,000 years of Indigenous culture and knowledge systems. These shifts run alongside the changing dynamic of Australia-Japan relations, moving from economic partnerships to a closer alliance and mutual friendship and the deepening of cross-cultural understandings. This article critically examines how Australia’s self-representation at these two expos has shifted over time and what the form and content of Australia’s country pavilions have offered the Japanese spectator/participant. This study also investigates how these shifts reflect Australia’s increasing desire to position itself in Asia as a reliable partner with Japan, rather than as a Western, colonial outlier nation floating in the Pacific.

ABSTRACT In recent years, there have been global shifts toward recognising and protecting Indigenous cultural and intellectual property of biological resources (including medicinal plants) through global instruments, protocols, and treaties, including the Nagoya Protocol. The establishment of these instruments has occurred in step with a growing interest among Indigenous peoples in Australia in exploring the commercial potential of their traditional medicine plants. However, the regulatory body that assesses medicines in Australia has not yet approved an Indigenous medicine on the basis of traditional knowledge, despite outlining a pathway for doing this in its guidelines. In this paper, we draw on ethnographic research undertaken to support the aspirations of Nyikina people of Australia’s Kimberley region to commercialise a medicine plant to investigate how regulatory recognition may be simultaneously enabling and constraining. Building avenues for recognising Indigenous traditional knowledges into regulatory pathways emerges as a possible ‘disruption’ (Foster, 2012, ‘Patents, Biopolitics, and Feminisms: Locating Patent Law Struggles over Breast Cancer Genes and the Hoodia Plant.’ International Journal of Cultural Property 19 (3): 371–400. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0940739112000215) to the status quo of Western science, law, and epistemology. However, regulatory recognition provokes a set of complex questions. We explore the potential for anthropology and anthropologists to contribute meaningfully in this space as part of a post-conventional anthropology’s contribution to a broader social contract (Kearney, 2025. ‘Post-conventional anthroplogy: A paradigm for cultivating pluralism and confidence in uncertainty.’ HAU: Journal of Ethnographic Theory 15 (2): 242–256. https://doi.org/10.1086/735868). Along with other papers in this Special Issue on Public and Post-Conventional Anthropologies, we interrogate what it means to do anthropology that is explicitly interventionist and argue that such scholarship can be simultaneously compromised and vital.

Biodiversity is declining in many parts of the world. Biological diversity measurement and monitoring are fundamental to the assessment of the causes and consequences of environmental changes, identification of key areas for the protection of biodiversity or ecosystem services, determining the effectiveness of actions, and the creation of decision-support tools critical to maintaining a sustainable planet. Biodiversity measurement is rapidly changing due to advances in citizen science, image recognition, acoustic monitoring, environmental DNA, genomics, remote sensing, and AI. In this perspective, we outline the exciting opportunities these developments offer but also consider the challenges. Our key recommendations are to 1) Capitalize on the ability of novel technology to integrate data sources 2) agree to standard methods for data collection 3) ensure new technologies are calibrated with existing data; 4) fill data gaps by using emerging technologies and increasing capacity, especially in the tropics; 5) create living safeguarded databases of trusted information to reduce the risk of poisoning by AI hallucinated, or false, information; 6) ensure data generation is valued; 7) ensure respectful incorporation of Indigenous Knowledge; 8) ensure measurements enable the quantification of effectiveness of actions, and 9) increase the resilience of global datasets to technical and societal change. Radical new collaborations are needed between computer scientists, engineers, molecular biologists, data scientists, field ecologists, citizen scientists, Indigenous peoples, policymakers, and local communities to create the rigorous, resilient, accessible biodiversity information systems required to underpin policies and practices that ensure the maintenance and restoration of ecological systems.

A suite of plants, the Eastern Agricultural Complex (EAC), was domesticated in North America beginning around 4000 YBP by Indigenous peoples. At the time of European colonization, another plant, the sunchoke (Helianthus tuberosus), was in wide cultivation. It is unknown whether this sunflower species was intentionally moved around the continent along with the EAC plants or if instead sunchoke was already widespread and experienced separate and independent cases of local husbandry and cultivation. Evidence of a sunchoke range expansion coincident with the timing of the EAC would support a hypothesis of intentional anthropogenic movement. For plants like H. tuberosus, genome complexity makes direct inferences of historical demography from plant genetic data difficult. Therefore, we use a specialist insect parasite of sunchoke, the fly Strauzia longitudinalis (Loew), to test a hypothesis of sunchoke range expansion. Using reduced-representation sequencing data, demographic models suggest S. longitudinalis from western sites split from flies in the Ohio Valley and further east approximately 6850-2700 YBP, overlapping the timing of the EAC. Further, several metrics of genetic diversity and differentiation implicate the Ohio Valley as a pre-cultivation range for sunchoke. These findings are consistent with a hypothesis of anthropogenic range expansion for sunchoke in North America.

This study looks at the inclusion of Indigenous Knowledge (IK) in Higher Education curricula with a case study of Busitema University in Uganda and it objectively focused on investigating the current practices and existing curricula IK incorporation challenges. The study employed qualitative case study approach, conducting semi-structured interviews while interacting with teaching faculty, students, and university administrators and results were interpreted and analyzed thematically. The findings indicated that IK integration is limited but starting to grow. This growth is hindered by slow changes at the institution, a lack of faculty knowledge, and no clear policies. The study suggests that effectively incorporating IK requires inclusive curriculum frameworks, training for academic staff, and working together with indigenous communities. Recommendations focus on creating policies, developing faculty programs, and forming partnerships to improve culturally relevant education. This study adds to the ongoing discussion about decolonizing curricula and endorsing indigenous ways of knowing in Uganda and similar educational settings.

Indigenous high-altitude populations maintain relatively normal brain function despite chronic hypoxia, yet the underlying neurophysiological mechanisms and the potential role of gut-brain interaction remain unclear. This study combined 16S rRNA gut microbiota profiling in 211 high-altitude indigenous populations at 2, 3, and 4 km altitudes with resting-state and task-based electroencephalography recordings in 135 of them. Residents at 4 km showed enhanced delta (1-4 Hz) power across most brain regions along with increased frontal-occipital functional connectivity (FC) during resting state. During a cognitive oddball task, the 4 km group exhibited elevated P3 amplitude in response to oddball stimuli, together with larger parietal delta power. In parallel, the 4 km group displayed higher species richness and an elevated abundance of short-chain fatty acid-producing genera such as Roseburia, Blautia, and Coprococcus. Furthermore, the abundance of Blautia was positively associated with resting-state FC, a relationship that may further influence anxiety and sleep quality. Our findings demonstrate a coordinated gut-brain interaction adaptation to high altitude, highlighting the homeostatic role of microbial pathways.IMPORTANCEIndigenous high-altitude populations maintain normal cognitive function under chronic hypoxia, a process potentially involving the gut microbiota. Our study added evidence that the neural activity patterns and gut microbiota structure may work in coordination to assist the host in adapting to extreme environments.

Abstract We examined whether physical presence at the workplace contributed to racial disparities in COVID-19 mortality among working-age Californians. Using a case-control design, we compared all COVID-19 deaths (n=4,838) and non-COVID-19 deaths (n=21,453) in California between January 2020 and March 2021, among decedents aged 18–64 confirmed to be working based on employment records. Workplace presence was defined by occupation using a job-exposure matrix. Logistic regression assessed links between racial/ethnic identity, workplace presence, and COVID-19 mortality. These associations were also evaluated in a population-based cohort using Current Population Survey data. Mediation analysis was conducted using the CAUSALMED procedure. Black, Indigenous, and other People of Color (BIPOC) had 39% higher odds of working in roles requiring physical presence compared to white workers (OR=1.39, 95% CI: 1.30–1.49), and over four times higher odds of dying from COVID-19 (OR=4.34, 95% CI: 3.93–4.79). Physical presence increased COVID-19 mortality risk (OR=1.22, 95% CI: 1.11–1.33) but did not meaningfully mediate the relationship between BIPOC status and mortality (Natural Direct Effect: OR=4.29, 95% CI: 3.87–4.73; Natural Indirect Effect: OR=1.01, 95% CI: 1.00–1.02). Findings highlight occupational segregation and the elevated risks faced by essential workers but suggest that racial disparities in mortality are largely driven by structural factors beyond exposure opportunities associated with physical presence at the workplace.

Background: The Temporomandibular Joint Ankylosis Quality of Life Questionnaire (TMJAQoL) is a disease-specific instrument designed to assess quality of life in patients with temporomandibular joint (TMJ) ankylosis. No validated Turkish version of this scale existed prior to this study. The aim of this study was to translate, culturally adapt, and evaluate the Turkish version of the TMJAQoL (TMJAQoL-TR) in patients with severe temporomandibular disorders, including a predefined ankylosis subgroup. Materials and Methods: A total of 120 patients with temporomandibular complaints were included. Test–retest reliability was evaluated in a clinically stable subsample of 72 participants with a one-week interval. Following forward–backward translation and cultural adaptation procedures, the TMJAQoL-TR was administered together with the Oral Health Impact Profile Short Form-14 (OHIP-14), the Short Form-36 (SF-36), and Visual Analog Scale (VAS) pain scores. Reliability was assessed using Cronbach’s α, item-level Weighted Cohen’s Kappa, and test–retest Intraclass Correlation Coefficients (ICC), supported by measurement error indices (Standard Error of Measurement [SEM] and Minimal Detectable Change at 95% confidence [MDC95]). Construct validity was examined using Spearman correlation coefficients. Structural validity was investigated through exploratory factor analysis, followed by a confirmatory structural model in AMOS to evaluate preliminary model consistency. Floor and ceiling effects were analyzed using the 15% criterion. Results: The TMJAQoL-TR demonstrated excellent internal consistency (Cronbach’s α = 0.879) and very high test–retest reliability (ICC = 0.995; 95% CI: 0.992–0.997). Strong correlations were observed with OHIP-14 (r = 0.772, p &lt; 0.01), and moderate correlations with VAS pain scores (r = 0.312, p &lt; 0.01). No significant floor or ceiling effects were detected. A weak but significant negative correlation with the SF-36 physical role subscale suggests that TMJ-related quality of life impairment is associated with role limitations in daily activities, although the magnitude of this association was modest. Exploratory factor analysis supported a clinically coherent two-factor structure, and the AMOS structural model demonstrated acceptable consistency with this framework. Conclusions: The TMJAQoL-TR appears to be a valid and reliable instrument for assessing quality of life in patients with severe TMJ-related functional limitations. Findings from the ankylosis subgroup support potential applicability within the instrument’s original target population; however, further validation in larger ankylosis-specific samples is warranted.