It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Thursday, November 27, 2025
Global burden and mortality of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and other motor neuron diseases in 204 countries and territories, 1990–2021
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and other motor neuron diseases (MNDs) are major global causes of death. However, their global incidence, mortality, and disability-adjusted life years remain largely unknown, despite their importance for disease prevention and resource allocation. We therefore examined the global epidemiology of ALS/MNDs.
Methods
This study analyzed data from the Global Burden of Disease 2021 database for 204 regions (1990–2021), focusing on ALS/MNDs. Data from the world, China, and the G8 countries were analyzed separately. Age-standardized incidence rates were reported for the 1990s, 2000s, 2010s, and 2020s.
Result
A rising global burden of ALS/MNDs, with significant variations across regions and levels of the social development index, was observed in the Global Burden of Disease database. A significant overlap of etiology between neurological diseases and ALS was also identified. Among the G8 countries and China, China and the USA exhibited the highest prevalence rates in the 1990s, 2000s, 2010s, and 2020s, with China showing 3.3 per 10,000 and the USA 4.0 per 10,000 in the 2020s.
Conclusions
This burden exhibits significant variations across different regions and at different stages of social and demographic development, with numerous and diverse factors contributing to these diseases. Through in-depth and comprehensive analysis of the GBD database and related studies, it has been found that there is a high degree of overlap in ALS/MNDs. This discovery lays an important foundation for further research into neurological diseases, particularly the pathogenesis of ALS. In the coming period, research efforts on neurological diseases need to be strengthened further, medical resources optimized, and the increasingly heavy burden of neurological diseases effectively addressed.
Exploratory Research and Hypothesis in Medicine (ERHM) publishes original exploratory research articles and state-of-the-art reviews that focus on novel findings and the most recent scientific advances that support new hypotheses in medicine. The journal accepts a wide range of topics, including innovative diagnostic and therapeutic modalities as well as insightful theories related to the practice of medicine. The exploratory research published in ERHM does not necessarily need to be comprehensive and conclusive, but the study design must be solid, the methodologies must be reliable, the results must be true, and the hypothesis must be rational and justifiable with evidence.
Global Burden and Mortality of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis and Other Motor Neuron Diseases in 204 Countries and Territories, 1990–2021: A Systematic Analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2021
The seamounts of Cape Verde: a biodiversity hotspot and a priority for marine conservation in the central-eastern Atlantic
The study involved more than 40 researchers from 20 institutions in Europe, Africa and America
The seamounts of Cape Verde support exceptional biodiversity, ranging from microorganisms to communities of deep-sea corals and sponges, as well as sharks, turtles, seabirds and cetaceans.
An international team led by Covadonga Orejas, a researcher at the Gijón Oceanographic Centre of the Spanish Institute of Oceanography (IEO-CSIC); Veerle Huvenne, a researcher at the UK National Oceanography Centre (NOC); and Jacob González-Solís, professor at the Faculty of Biology of the University of Barcelona, has published the first comprehensive study on the seamounts of the Cape Verde archipelago, their biodiversity, ecological functionality and socio-economic relevance in the journal Progress in Oceanography.
These volcanic formations — at least 14 large mountains and numerous smaller elevations — act as veritable oases of life in the deep ocean, concentrating nutrients and modifying the circulation of underwater currents. This supports exceptional biodiversity, ranging from microorganisms to communities of deep-sea corals and sponges, as well as sharks, turtles, seabirds and cetaceans. Their position between the temperate waters of the North Atlantic and the tropical waters of the South, further enhances their productivity and ecological connectivity.
“The seamounts of Cape Verde are essential refuges for many species, and this study highlights the importance of a multidisciplinary approach to understanding the relationships between geology, oceanography, biology and socio-economic aspects,” explains Covadonga Orejas.
“Understanding how seamounts work is key to planning their protection and ensuring the sustainable use of their marine resources,” adds Veerle Huvenne.
“From the perspective of a civil society organization, knowledge about seamounts is crucial for improving marine spatial management and promoting the conservation of Cape Verde’s natural resources,” says Herculano A. Dinis, executive director of the Projecto Vitó Association in the African country. “These deep ecosystems act as key biodiversity areas and provide strategic information to guide public policy and marine spatial planning. In a country like Cape Verde, where marine protected areas are concentrated exclusively in coastal zones, the study of seamounts paves the way to more integrated and holistic conservation strategies that also include ocean waters,” he says.
The article analyses not only the biological richness of these ecosystems, but also the associated human uses, especially artisanal and industrial fishing, as well as the emerging risks linked to maritime traffic and the potential expansion of deep-sea mining.
“These mountains are fundamental to the health and well-being of the oceans and Cape Verdean society. Their cultural and economic importance is reflected in strong community support for their conservation, underscoring the need for the Cape Verdean Government to move towards developing a sustainable blue economy,” says Gillian Ainsworth, postdoctoral researcher at the EqualSea-CRETUS Lab at the University of Santiago de Compostela.
The seamounts of Cape Verde represent enclaves of enormous ecological and strategic value for marine conservation. In this context, the study emphasizes the importance of incorporating them into the country’s marine spatial planning and its network of marine protected areas. Several studies have shown that many of Cape Verde’s seamounts meet international criteria for recognition as vulnerable marine ecosystems (VMEs) and ecologically or biologically significant areas (EBSAs) due to their key role in productivity, ecological connectivity and the maintenance of ocean biodiversity.
“As a State Party to the 30×30 biodiversity commitment and the Commitment for Biodiversity and the High Seas Treaty, Cape Verde has the opportunity to designate these seamounts as priority areas for conservation and sustainable management, thereby strengthening its regional leadership in marine protection and contributing to the achievement of international biodiversity conservation and sustainable development goals,” says Jacob González-Solís, senior author of the publication, who is a member of the Department of Evolutionary Biology, Ecology and Environmental Sciences and the Biodiversity Research Institute (IRBio) of the University of Barcelona.
The study involved more than 40 researchers from 20 institutions in Europe, Africa and America, as well as funding from numerous agencies. The IEO-CSIC, which coordinated the work, received financial support mainly from the European iAtlantic projects, which ended last year in 2024. Many of the authors of the review paper received funding from the European REDUCE project, which is now in its second year. The Hanse Wissenschaftskolleg Institute for Advanced Study, thanks to the study group led by Covadonga Orejas and Veerle Huvenne, also contributed to the completion of this study.
The seamounts of Cape Verde are essential refuges for many species.
Credit
Autun Purser
The study emphasizes the importance of incorporating them into the country’s marine spatial planning and its network of marine protected areas.
The presence of robots in schools is no longer surprising. How do elementary school children treat humanoid robots? Are they polite to them, and willing to attribute human-like qualities to them? Researchers from SWPS University have shown that in most cases, children treat robots politely, and younger children and girls are more likely to perceive them as possessing human-like qualities.
The fourth edition of the international HumanTech Summit, organized at SWPS by the HumanTech Center, took place in Warsaw on November 20-22, 2025. Interactions with robots were among the topics discussed during the event.
Social robots, ones that support people in everyday life, are increasingly finding roles in educational settings. We already know that robots and virtual assistants can support constructive educational outcomes and healthy social development in children. It also turns out that they can increase children's engagement in learning.
Robots in education can be programmed in a variety of ways. For example, they can adapt teaching methods to individual students' needs, boost students' motivation and engagement through fun, or provide immediate feedback. However, it is important to remember that interactions with robots also raise certain concerns, such as whether prolonged contact with them will negatively impact children's social behaviour, emphasises Konrad Maj, PhD, first author of the study, a social psychologist and head of the HumanTech Center for Social and Technological Innovation.
In the study, the researchers used a 120-centimeter tall humanoid robot Pepper (created by SoftBank Robotics) with a child-like appearance. Designed for social engagement, the device is equipped with sensors, cameras, and microphones. These features enable Pepper to recognize speech, gestures, and some emotional cues. The study participants included 251 children aged 7-12.
The researchers considered two aspects: the robot's communicative style toward humans (polite or commanding) and its "gender" (female or male), which they determined by giving the robot a name (Adam or Ada). They chose these variables because they directly influence how children interpret the robot’s intentions, warmth, and authority, which affects both engagement and academic performance. This could be important in the future design of social robots.
The researchers wondered, among other things, whether children treated politely by a robot would also be polite to it. They also wanted to find out whether younger children would be more inclined to anthropomorphise the robot (attribute human-like qualities to it) than older children, and whether girls would be more likely to do so than boys.
During the study, children were introduced to a robot that imitated animals for them, observed its reaction to an attempt to take its photo (either polite or with a firm message not to do so), to which they were instructed to respond. They then answered questions about Pepper. They were asked, for example, whether they thought the robot could be happy, whether it could dream or imagine things.
How will children imitate a robot that politely asks requests or commands?
It turned out that children interacting with a polite robot almost always responded to it politely. Those addressed by the robot in a commanding manner also responded politely in most cases, rather than imitating its authoritarian communication style, indicating that in this case, established social norms prevailed over imitation.
Younger children and girls were significantly more likely to anthropomorphise the robot. It also turned out that polite robots were more likely to be attributed human-like qualities than commanding ones, especially when their tone matched gender expectations. Anthropomorphisation was most likely to occur when the robot was programmed to be polite and female.
Our results suggest that social cues in interactions between children and robots in education are particularly important. Adapting the robot's communication style to children's developmental level and their social expectations can increase student engagement and potentially support positive learning outcomes, Maj believes.
He adds that as robots increasingly enter classrooms, understanding how children perceive and respond to them will be critical to ensuring that in the future they become effective learning partners.
HumanTech Summit 2025
Interactions with robots were among the topics of the international HumanTech Summit 2025 conference (November 20-22, 2025) that took place for the fourth time in Warsaw and online.
One of the speakers was Professor Emily Cross (ETH Zürich, Switzerland), an expert in the neurocognitive foundations of human-robot interaction. Her research focuses on how we learn from others, how embodied experiences (such as dance, movement, and interaction with robots) shape social perception, and how humans interact with social robots and artificial intelligence systems. Another speaker, Jessica M. Szczuka, PhD, from the University of Duisburg-Essen, investigates how digital technologies (artificial intelligence, chatbots, robots, VR) are transforming intimacy, sexuality, and interpersonal relationships, with a particular focus on synthetic relationships and the ethics of digitalized intimacy.
Peng Liu, PhD, (Zhejiang University, China) also attended the conference. His research focuses on machine psychology and human-AI collaboration, particularly in the context of automated vehicles, decision support systems, and generative AI.
At the HumanTech Summit 2025, experts discussed the social and psychological aspects of new technologies, including human-AI relations, artificial intelligence in the workplace, the impact of new technologies on employment policies and the labour market, and the psychological aspects of technology. The event was organized by the HumanTech Center for Social and Technological Innovation at the SWPS University.
