Investigating humor in social interaction in people with intellectual disabilities: A systematic review of the literature

Humor, both producing and appreciating, underpins positive social interactions. It acts as a facilitator of communication. There are clear links to wellbeing that go along with this form of social engagement. However, humor appears to be a seldom studied, cross-disciplinary area of investigation when applied to people with an intellectual disability. This review collates the current state of knowledge regarding the role of humor behavior in the social interactions of people with intellectual disabilities and their carers

Margarita de Sossa, Sixteenth-Century Puebla de los Ángeles, New Spain (Mexico)

Margarita de Sossa’s freedom journey was defiant and entrepreneurial. In her early twenties, still enslaved in Portugal, she took possession of her body; after refusing to endure her owner’s sexual demands, he sold her, and she was transported to Mexico. There, she purchased her freedom with money earned as a healer and then conducted an enviable business as an innkeeper. Sossa’s biography provides striking insights into how she conceptualized freedom in terms that included – but was not limited to – legal manumission. Her transatlantic biography offers a rare insight into the life of a free black woman (and former slave) in late sixteenth-century Puebla, who sought to establish various degrees of freedom for herself. Whether she was refusing to acquiesce to an abusive owner, embracing entrepreneurship, marrying, purchasing her own slave property, or later using the courts to petition for divorce. Sossa continued to advocate on her own behalf. Her biography shows that obtaining legal manumission was not always equivalent to independence and autonomy, particularly if married to an abusive husband, or if financial successes inspired the envy of neighbors

Tools to accelerate falciparum malaria elimination in Cambodia: a meeting report

Cambodia targets malaria elimination by 2025. Rapid elimination will depend on successfully identifying and clearing malaria foci linked to forests. Expanding and maintaining universal access to early diagnosis and effective treatment remains the key to malaria control and ultimately malaria elimination in the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS) in the foreseeable future. Mass Drug Administration (MDA) holds some promise in the rapid reduction of&nbsp;Plasmodium falciparum&nbsp;infections, but requires considerable investment of resources and time to mobilize the target communities. Furthermore, the most practical drug regimen for MDA in the GMS&mdash;three rounds of DHA/piperaquine&mdash;has lost some of its efficacy. Mass screening and treatment benefits asymptomatic&nbsp;P. falciparum&nbsp;carriers by clearing chronic infections, but in its current form holds little promise for malaria elimination. Hopes that &ldquo;highly sensitive&rdquo; diagnostic tests would provide substantial advances in screen and treat programmes have been shown to be misplaced. To reduce the burden on&nbsp;P. falciparum&nbsp;and&nbsp;Plasmodium vivax&nbsp;infections in people working in forested areas novel approaches to the use of malaria prophylaxis in forest workers should be explored. During an October 2019 workshop in Phnom Penh researchers and policymakers reviewed evidence of acceptability, feasibility and effectiveness of interventions to target malaria foci and interrupt&nbsp;P. falciparum&nbsp;transmission and discussed operational requirements and conditions for programmatic implementation.</p