Tag: Academic research

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Surf Therapy: A Powerful Low-Intensity Approach in Global Youth Mental Health Care

By Mai El Shoush, Partnerships Campaign Manager, Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF) Global Center for Child and Adolescent Mental Health at the Child Mind Institute

In Conversation with Waves for Change

The world’s oceans have long been profound forces that shape coastlines, cultures, and scientific discovery. And today, through targeted programs, they also serve as therapeutic environments transforming youth mental health worldwide.

As global health systems continue to explore solutions that minimize resource constraints while addressing child and adolescent mental health demands, innovative approaches like surf therapy are demonstrating remarkable effectiveness as low-intensity initiatives. From the beaches of California to the coastal communities of South Africa, Australia, Hawai’i, the United Kingdom, and Senegal, these programs are creating accessible entry points for young people.

Wave for Change (W4C) — a South Africa-based organization and valued implementation partner of the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF) Global Center at the Child Mind Institute — has developed an evidence-based Surf Therapy program for youth in underserved communities. We spoke with their chief development officer Paula Yarrow and senior grant manager Jill Sloan about the award-winning program. As a highly regarded Cape Town‑based NGO that uses surfing as a therapeutic tool to support youth mental health, W4C offers safe spaces, evidence‑based emotional regulation tools, community mentorship, and a pathway to resilience for young people growing up in challenging environments.

The partnership includes the identification of workforce gaps and training needs for frontline workers such as NGOs, to further expand evidence-based support and brief interventions through culturally appropriate, low-intensity psychological therapy approaches. The context-specific training materials are expected to be piloted later in the year in South Africa and are intended to improve access to quality mental health care for young people.

W4C launched Surf Therapy in 2009, which has since helped more than 10,000 adolescents experiencing high-stress environments gain valuable coping skills across its hubs in the Western and Eastern Cape as well as Cape Town. Participants learn how to build positive social networks and develop self-regulation skills to support healthy emotional and behavioral responses to stress, with coaches themselves aged between 18-25. The program creates a fun, culturally relevant environment through the Take 5 model — a framework W4C has designed to be adapted for a range of sports, arts, and cultural initiatives. The model has been utilized by several leading global organizations, including UNICEF.

Waves for Change also played a key role in the founding of the International Surf Therapy Organization (ISTO), connecting practitioners, clinicians, and researchers to advance science research, raise awareness, and support surf therapy.

Catching a wave at Surf Therapy – Image Nelson Rosier Coulhan

How does Waves for Change use evidence-based Surf Therapy and capacity building as a solution to fill the gap in youth mental health care?

Approximately 90 percent of the world’s adolescents live in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). In the most underserved communities, adolescents may experience repeated exposure to violence, unmet basic needs, and limited access to safe spaces or trusted caregivers. Typically, there are very few mental health services that are accessible to such youth.

The more Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) a child or adolescent has whilst growing up, the more likely they are to develop toxic stress — an ongoing stress state without respite. This can often lead to mental health conditions such as anxiety, depression, substance misuse, and cognitive impairment. This can also result in the development of physical health conditions such as heart disease as they grow into adulthood.

The main problem we’ve identified is that there aren’t enough trained workforces (e.g., sports coaches, youth facilitators) that are able to deliver simple, fun, structured play-based sessions with consistency at scale. Our work provides a response to this issue within the adolescent mental health promotion and illness prevention arena. Additionally, our initiatives significantly increase the number of individuals — coaches, teachers, mentors or others — who are already in contact with young adolescents and can provide them with mental health support to foster their immediate and longer-term mental health.

How has Waves for Change adapted the organization’s Surf Therapy program to develop the Take 5 model?

Waves for Change’s Take 5 training model has been incubated, tested, and rigorously evaluated within W4C’s award-winning Surf Therapy program. Take 5 distils the key components of our Surf Therapy program, providing coaches with the essential skills they need to build and sustain caring relationships with children. And it uses a simple teaching routine that creates consistently engaging, fun, structured programs for children and adolescents that suit their language, culture, and context.

Take 5 is low intensity and cost-effective — tailored for high-stress environments and the unique mental wellness needs of adolescents living in multidimensional poverty, conflict, or crisis.

How has partnering with young people to research and co-develop programs made the work more impactful?

In research studies we’ve conducted, adolescent participants (ages 10-16) reported experiencing between 6-8 adverse events every year, including violence and abuse. When asked what sorts of spaces they wanted to see at Waves for Change, the adolescents identified core components such as access to a safe space where they could have fun, be heard, and learn skills to cope. These components now form the bedrock of our Surf Therapy program. We initially worked with 9-12-year-olds and have since developed the follow-on programme for adolescents up to age 16 who have graduated the Surf Therapy programme. This is called Surf Club and is available to all Surf Therapy graduates.

Waves for Change also conducts pre- and post-intervention surveys with participants to monitor the impact of our work. Our coaches (ages 18-25) are at the frontline of delivering our services. A key role they play is to listen with care and respect to the adolescents’ concerns, and to share them with our Child Protection team for review and follow-up when needed.

Surf Therapy at Hout Bay – Photo credit Waves for Change

What makes your partnership with the SNF Global Center at the Child Mind Institute unique?

Working with the Child Mind Institute allows Waves for Change to collaborate with and learn from colleagues doing similar work in the adolescent mental health space across South Africa, the United Kingdom, and Brazil. The partnership offers an opportunity to learn about approaches that have been successful in other health systems. It has also allowed Waves for Change to share detailed information about the training and supervision protocol used to develop key competencies in the coach workforce that leads Surf Therapy in South Africa. This has helped the Child Mind Institute to develop a comprehensive guide for other similar workforces.

Can you expand on the importance of partnerships in strengthening youth mental health care and community empowerment?

Partnerships allow for the consolidation of skills and resources so that a greater impact can be achieved. For example, at Waves for Change, we work with over 70 referral partners every year to identify young adolescents who can benefit from our Surf Therapy program. We are also partnering with the Department of Cultural Affairs and Sport to use our Take 5 model to train MOD and YearBeyond coaches and mentors, who are already reaching large numbers of children and young adolescents through their work. And we’re contributing to building the broader ecosystem of mental health support for adolescents and children by training large national NGOs, government agencies, and humanitarian organizations with our Take 5 model.

How can non-profits further help foster strong peer networks and inclusive safe spaces?

Some of the key lessons we have learnt are the following:

  • In the field of youth mental health, make youth the leaders on program implementation
  • Provide youth with skills, opportunities, supervision, and support so that they can grow and develop further
  • Maintain a strong culture of protection, respect, and communication so that all participants feel safe, welcome, accepted, and heard

Read more about W4C’s Surf Therapy from Youth Liaison Officer, Azola Sibanda and Training Manager Jamie-Lee Davids

The post Surf Therapy: A Powerful Low-Intensity Approach in Global Youth Mental Health Care appeared first on Child Mind Institute.

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Innovation abounds in device charging

The changes may be less perceptible than in smartphones, tablets, or wearables, but chargers have also been quietly reinvented over the last decade. At one time a bulky mix of tangled cables and connectors, slow to perform and prone to overheating, they’re now smaller, safer, and faster, thanks to a slew of technological advances.

These advances include a switch to gallium nitride (GaN), which has now usurped silicon as the preferred semiconductor, capable of handling higher voltages, faster switches, and more efficient conduction. Multi-port chargers, coupled with an industry-wide shift toward USB-C standardization, mean a single charger can handle multiple devices. And early smart chargers are also trickling onto the market, able to dynamically distribute power and carry out autonomous safety checks.

Combined, these have repositioned chargers as differentiated standalone devices, rather than peripheral accessories.

But, manufacturers say there is much further to go if chargers are to accommodate the demands of a connected ecosystem now made up of an estimated 20 billion devices, according to IoT Analytics.

“Charging products are undergoing a fundamental identity shift—from accessory to primary component,” says Mario Wu, general manager for North America at Anker Innovations. “This is not simply a functional upgrade; It is a repositioning of charging’s role within the broader digital lifestyle ecosystem. As charging becomes normalized, the charger is no longer an appendage to your devices—it is the infrastructure underlying every digital experience.”

Pillars of performance

If this vision for the future of charging sounds ambitious, there are concrete advancements to back it up. Newly refined semiconductors are already bolstering power and performance, building on the gains delivered by GaN with some sweeping changes to systems architecture.

To take advantage of the fast-moving technology, Anker launched GaNPrime 2.0, which combines GaN materials with higher-frequency controllers and other power devices, achieving higher power output and lower heat generation, explains Wu. For example, the addition of a multi-level buck converter converts voltage from a binary on/off pattern, to multiple, smaller steps that create smoother transitions and reduce stress on components. Combined with Anker’s proprietary control algorithm, this simultaneously achieves a more compact product design and reduced energy loss.

Changes such as this mean secondary-stage power conversion now reaches over 99.5%, says Wu, and some products can maintain 140 watts on a single port without falling below optimal levels. “In traditional setups, you might use three separate chargers—adding up to roughly 210 watts combined,” says Wu. “But Anker’s Prime 160W Charger with PowerIQ 5.0 can charge those same three devices in roughly the same time because it dynamically reallocates unused capacity instead of locking it in place.”

But if GaNPrime 2.0 represents where the architecture stands today, it’s by no means the end point. Says Wu, “The next phase of GaN development focuses on higher frequency switching: When paired with breakthroughs in materials and control technology, higher switching frequency enables lower energy loss, improved conversion efficiency, and even more compact designs.”

Other third-generation semiconductors like silicon carbide (SiC) will also have a role to play. Already deployed at scale in EV inverters and industrial power systems, Wu explains that SiC can deliver “exceptional, high-temperature stability and reliable support for high-voltage, high-power applications.” Improving circuit design using SiC to make it compact and cost-effective for smaller devices has proven a stumbling block until now, but Wu is hopeful that as manufacturing scales up, the material will become “an increasingly credible direction.”

Without constraints

Consumers also demand portability in their device charger. They want chargers without the spatial constraints of wires or surface-to-surface connection—or what’s known as imperceptible charging.

Wireless charging innovations today go part of the way, but they’re based on the principle of magnetic coupling—i.e., only when transmitter and receiver coils are aligned is energy transfer efficient and stable. That means devices must be in contact with the charging pad surface.

But research into technologies that use magnetic resonance and infrared are moving the dial. Best known for creating non-invasive imaging in health care via MRIs, magnetic resonance uses magnetic fields to allow energy transfer over greater distances by tuning transmitter and receiver coils to the same resonant frequency. Transmitters emit an oscillating magnetic field from which the receiver can extract energy even if coils are not perfectly aligned. This “significantly relaxes placement requirements for users, [but currently] the trade-off is reduced transmission efficiency,” says Wu.

Infrared wireless charging also represents a meaningful area ripe for exploration, Wu adds. This sees infrared beams deliver energy to photovoltaic receivers on devices, with transmitters installable at any location so long as there is clear line-of-sight to the device. This enables wireless power delivery across meters rather than centimetres. He explains, “The core challenge it currently faces is further increasing power levels, and related research is ongoing.”

Wu says Anker is engaged in technical exchanges with both universities and industry associations to find workarounds for these trade-offs. “Our strategy is to remain at the forefront: continuously tracking, conducting in-depth evaluations, and delivering the next generation of wireless charging technology to users the moment it matures and becomes viable.”

Levelling up intelligence

If the power, performance, and portability of chargers have made incremental gains in the last decade, though, then imbuing devices with smart capabilities is arguably more of a step change in what users might expect.

Wu defines smart charging as “the shift from passive power delivery to active, adaptive energy management.” In short, if conventional chargers supply fixed current, then smart chargers can read device signals, monitor conditions, and adjust their output accordingly to optimize speed, safety, and efficiency.

Some products on the market already hint at these possibilities.

Next-gen chargers already deliver dynamic power allocation, for example, recognizing individual device IDs to adapt the distribution of power to multiple devices simultaneously. But in 10 years’ time, the goal is to create chargers that go much further, says Wu, capable of autonomously managing energy across multiple connected devices, communicating with users, and adaptively optimizing performance.

“Smart charging will feel less like a feature and more like an invisible service—one where the system knows your devices better than you do: anticipating needs, intervening before battery degradation sets in, and managing the full energy picture across everything you own,” he summarizes.

These future charging systems will understand each device’s specific needs and deliver the right charge, at the right moment, balancing longevity with performance, without the current trade-offs. A single device will serve an entire household, Wu believes, working imperceptibly in the background to balance multiple devices without spatial restraints. And they’ll proactively engage with users, too, providing feedback and updates via personable interfaces.

That may sound highly conceptual, but it’s a far closer technological reality than you’d think, Wu insists. “The transition [to smart charging] is actively underway” and chargers will soon join the ranks of devices deemed indispensable for day-to-day life, albeit as understated as ever.

This content was produced by Insights, the custom content arm of MIT Technology Review. It was not written by MIT Technology Review’s editorial staff. It was researched, designed, and written by human writers, editors, analysts, and illustrators. This includes the writing of surveys and collection of data for surveys. AI tools that may have been used were limited to secondary production processes that passed thorough human review.

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Exploring the neuroprotective potential of ligustrazine: a preclinical meta-analysis and machine learning perspective on cerebral ischemia-reperfusion injury

ObjectiveThis study aimed to assess the efficacy of ligustrazine in treating cerebral ischemia-reperfusion (I/R) injury and construct a preclinical evidence framework by meta-analysis and machine learning.MethodsA systematic search was conducted for preclinical studies published in PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, and the Cochrane Library up to June 25, 2024. The inclusion criteria encompassed preclinical animal studies pertinent to the topic. Data extraction was performed independently by two individuals, Stata 17.0 software was used for quantitative analysis, R (version 4.3.3) and Python (version 3.11.4) were used for machine learning with neurological function score as the dependent variable.ResultsA total of 23 articles were included, involving 381 animals in the meta-analysis and 321 animals in the machine learning component. Ligustrazine significantly improved neurofunctional scores (NFS) [Longa criteria, SMD = −1.59, 95%CI (−2.16, −1.01), P < 0.001; mNSS criteria, SMD = −1.67, 95%CI (−2.36, −0.97), P < 0.001], cerebral infarct volume (%) [SMD = −2.56, 95%CI (−3.03, −2.09), P < 0.001], and BBB [SMD = −3.06, 95%CI (−4.53, −1.59), P < 0.001]. Furthermore, machine learning analyses, with NFS as the dependent variable, identified the time of first dose, duration, and dose as key determinants of neurofunctional improvement with ligustrazine. Notably, model interpretation suggested that greater improvements were more likely to occur when the initial administration of ligustrazine occurred within 24 h prior to (or 2.21 h post) the ischemic event, at a dosage of 23.53–34.69 mg/kg/day (or 45.71 to 75.65 mg/kg/day), and with an administration duration exceeding 71.43 h.ConclusionThe combination of meta-analysis and machine learning in this study not only confirms that ligustrazine is effective in reducing cerebral I/R injury, but also provides a framework for elucidating the preclinical intervention variables, thus offering novel insights for optimizing preclinical strategies of ligustrazine in cerebral I/R injury.
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Exercise as a multiscale recalibration of stress-related homeostatic balance

Chronic stress disrupts homeostasis in the brain and body, leading to anxiety, depression, and cardiovascular and metabolic dysfunction. Although exercise can counter these effects, the mechanisms are scattered across fields and not yet integrated. This review proposes a multi-scale framework. Exercise is not only stress-relieving; it is also a controllable challenge that can recalibrate the system when repeated bouts are matched by sufficient recovery and bioenergetic support. We propose that repeated exercise engages a stress response–adaptation–recovery cycle, in which peripheral signals from skeletal muscles, liver, adipose tissue and gut convey body metabolic state to the brain and are consolidated into durable plasticity only when mitochondrial capacity, substrate availability, and redox balance permit recovery. These signals pass through the blood-brain barrier and engage plasticity switches, including neurotrophic signals, epigenetic modification and metabolic coupling, thus stabilizing the neural circuits of threat appraisal, reward processing and contextual memory. By integrating these dimensions, we clarify how exercise can transform short-term physical stress into lasting resilience and provide direction for future research.
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Task-aligned outcome learning in psychiatry: reducing endpoint dilution

Psychiatric research relies on well-defined outcomes for standardization, comparability, and replication, yet investigators often fix broad endpoints before knowing which symptom domains carry task-relevant signal. Even when psychometrically sound and clinically useful, composite measures can dilute predictive information and attenuate treatment effects when predictability or responsiveness concentrates in only a subset of symptoms—thus making studies appear negative despite meaningful change. This Perspective proposes a task-aligned, two-stage machine-learning framework for learning the appropriate outcome. In the first stage, constrained discovery derives a clinically interpretable outcome from a prespecified item pool. In the second, confirmatory evaluation tests the prespecified hypothesis either on a fixed learned outcome, when the aim is to assess a previously derived endpoint in a closely matched study, or on a relearned outcome generated by the same prespecified procedure, when the aim is to test whether that procedure can recover a task-aligned endpoint across different studies. The framework complements psychometrics and open-science practices, shifting focus from broad unsupervised composites to empirically supported targets, with safeguards to keep results interpretable and rigorous.
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The correlation between phubbing and depression anxiety stress of first-year medical students: the mediating role of sedentary behavior

BackgroundFreshmen often experience challenges when adjusting from high school to college, which may elevate levels of depression, anxiety, and stress. This phenomenon is particularly pronounced in medical schools, where the overall academic atmosphere is widely regarded as exceptionally demanding and stressful.ObjectivesTo examine the indirect effect of sedentary behavior on the relationship between phubbing and depression anxiety stress of first-year medical students.MethodsThis study conducted a cross-sectional survey with 795 first-year medical students from Soochow University in China from October 2024 to November 2024 by using electronic questionnaire. The instruments were Depression Anxiety Stress Scale-21 (DASS-21), Generic Scale of Phubbing (GSP), and Adolescent Sedentary Activity Questionnaire (ASAQ).ResultsThe findings indicate that first-year medical students’ phubbing and sedentary behavior positively affects their depression anxiety stress (r = 0.120 ~ 0.815, both p < 0.01), and phubbing positively impacts medical students’ sedentary behavior (r = 0.128, p < 0.01). Additionally, sedentary behavior acts as a significant mediator between phubbing and depression, anxiety, and stress. The indirect effect contributes to 1.9%~2.5% of the total effect.ConclusionThese findings indicate that reducing depression anxiety stress in first-year medical students can be achieved not only through direct improvements in phubbing but also through the indirect effects of reducing sedentary behavior.
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Autonomic nervous system reactions to secondary exposure to disaster-related imagery

AimThis study investigated how disaster-related imagery affects emotional and autonomic nervous system (ANS) responses, using heart rate (HR) and heart rate variability (HRV), in individuals with indirect exposure to the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake (GEJE).MethodsThirty-six healthy adults who had experienced strong ground shaking during the GEJE, but not the tsunami directly, viewed four types of videos: natural scenery (neutral), earthquake scenes, tsunami footage, and promotional videos repeatedly broadcast after the disaster. Subjective emotional responses (State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, Positive and Negative Affect Schedule), HR, and HRV indices were measured before, during, and after each video.ResultsCompared to the neutral video, disaster-related videos significantly decreased HR and HRV during viewing, indicating an orienting or freeze-type ANS response. Earthquake footage, likely to evoke autobiographic fear, predominantly suppressed parasympathetic indices, while tsunami footage, associated with vicarious fear, predominantly suppressed sympathetic activity. Immediately after viewing, sympathetic activation increased significantly, consistent with a rebound active defense pattern. Notably, promotional videos did not induce subjective distress but still altered HR and HRV indices, suggesting unconscious physiological reactivity.ConclusionDisaster-related imagery evokes distinct ANS responses depending on the emotional content and the viewer’s trauma history. Autobiographic and vicarious fear may differentially affect sympathetic and parasympathetic suppression, respectively. Furthermore, this cross-sectional evaluation demonstrates that even seemingly non-invasive media exposure years after a disaster can trigger autonomic changes. These findings underscore the urgent need for appropriate media broadcasting guidelines to protect public health following both seismic and climatic catastrophes.
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Joint latent profiles of death anxiety and treatment adherence in HCC patients

BackgroundHepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), one of the leading contributors to the global cancer burden, often places patients in a dual predicament of pronounced death anxiety and suboptimal treatment adherence. Prior research has largely treated death anxiety and adherence as independent, homogeneous constructs, thereby overlooking potential within-population heterogeneity and their co-occurring patterns. This study adopted a person-centered approach to identify joint latent profiles of death anxiety and treatment adherence among patients with HCC and to examine factors associated with profile membership.MethodsA cross-sectional design was employed. From October to November 2025, 586 patients with HCC were recruited via convenience sampling from five tertiary general hospitals in Shenzhen, Beijing and Lhasa, China. Data were collected using the Death Anxiety Scale (DAS), General Medication Adherence Scale (GMAS), Health Literacy Scale Short-Form (HLS-SF), and Fear of Progression Questionnaire–Short Form (FoP-Q-SF).ResultsLatent profile analysis identified three qualitatively distinct subgroups: low death anxiety–high treatment adherence, moderate death anxiety–moderate treatment adherence, and high death anxiety–low treatment adherence. Across profiles, death anxiety and treatment adherence exhibited a clear inverse co-variation pattern. Multinomial logistic regression indicated that health literacy and fear of disease progression were key psychosocial factors differentiating profile membership. In addition, demographic and disease-related variables showed varying predictive effects on profile assignment.ConclusionsPatients in the high death anxiety–low treatment adherence profile may represent a clinically important high-risk subgroup for targeted screening and supportive care. Clinical practice should emphasize assessment of health literacy and profile-specific psychosocial needs when planning stratified interventions. However, because of the cross-sectional design, the observed associations should not be interpreted causally, and longitudinal studies are needed to examine temporal transitions between profiles and their effects on subsequent treatment outcomes.
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Endometriosis May Increase Risk of Birth Defects

Women with endometriosis have a small but significant increased risk for having babies with birth defects, such as those affecting the heart, gastric, genital, or musculoskeletal system, compared with women without the condition.

As reported in the Canadian Medical Association Journal, 6.3% of infants born to women with endometriosis included in the study had a congenital anomaly, compared with 5.4% of infants born to those without the condition.

Notably, only around 11% of the increased risk could be attributed to fertility treatment meaning that the condition itself is likely responsible for the small increase in risk. It suggests that endometriosis itself, likely through inflammatory pathways, oxidative stress, or epigenetic mechanisms, may directly disrupt fetal organogenesis.

Endometriosis is a chronic condition where tissue similar to the uterine lining grows outside the uterus, causing severe pelvic pain, painful periods, and often infertility. It affects an estimated 6.5 million women in the U.S., though many go undiagnosed for years.

“Endometriosis can trigger inflammation and oxidative stress, which have been linked to abnormal organogenesis in offspring. This disruption in organogenesis can lead to functional or structural anomalies that occur in utero, which typically develop in the first trimester of gestation,” write lead author Bailey Milne, Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario, and colleagues.

“Some studies have reported an increased risk of genital defects among infants born to women with endometriosis; however, data are lacking on the risk of other congenital anomalies.”

To investigate this further, Milne and team conducted a large population-based cohort study using Ontario health administrative data, examining over 1.46 million births between 2006 and 2021. The aim was to quantify the risk of congenital anomalies in infants born to women with a pre-existing diagnosis of endometriosis.

Overall, 33,619 (2.3%) women included in the study had endometriosis. Women with endometriosis had a 16% increase in risk for having a baby with a congenital birth defect compared with women without the condition and 89% of this risk could be attributed to the presence of endometriosis and not possible confounding factors like fertility treatment. The most common associated defects were cleft palate, male genitourinary malformations, and cardiovascular abnormalities.

“Although this study contributes to accumulating data on a potential increased risk of birth defects for infants born to patients with endometriosis, the specific mechanistic pathways remain largely unknown,” write Milne and coauthors.

“A theorized mechanism by which endometriosis might increase risk of any congenital anomaly is through inflammatory pathways. The existing literature suggests a need for more comprehensive models that integrate genetic, epigenetic, and environmental factors to better understand this.”

The post Endometriosis May Increase Risk of Birth Defects appeared first on Inside Precision Medicine.

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Calming Minds Study

Conditions: Anxiety; Anxiety Depression; Worry; Depression; Rumination – Thoughts

Interventions: Behavioral: Be Specific; Behavioral: Be Kind; Behavioral: Be Present; Behavioral: Break Habit; Behavioral: Psychoeducation

Sponsors: University of California, Los Angeles; University of Exeter

Not yet recruiting