Instead of reaching for a pill, more people should switch to the recommended ‘first line’ for insomnia – the non-drug option.

After exhaustive studies, the specially designed Cognitive Behavioural Therapy for insomnia (or ‘CBTi’) has been rated the most effective long-term solution for the common sleep condition – and Flinders University experts are calling for more GPs and psychologists to help roll it out in Australia.

The book Thinking, Fast and Slow, by Daniel Kahneman, put forward the idea that we reason using not one but two systems, System 1 and System 2, which are fast and slow, respectively. According to Kahneman’s model, we use System 1 when stress is very low or very high and we use System 2 when stress is moderate. Studies that explore how we use these systems for decision-making in various stressful conditions have recently been summarized in a systematic review that asks three questions: What experimental protocols should be used? How should physiological responses to stress be measured? How can physiological measurements be used to represent stress quantitatively? The open access review article, titled “Measurement and Quantification of Stress in the Decision Process: A Model-Based Systematic Review”, was published Sep. 18 in Intelligent Computing, a Science Partner Journal.

Esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) is a highly aggressive malignancy with poor prognosis, and understanding the molecular mechanisms underlying its progression is crucial for developing effective therapies. A recent study has uncovered a critical role of the BOLA3 gene and its exon 3 inclusion, which is promoted by the heterogeneous nuclear ribonucleoprotein C (HNRNPC), in accelerating ESCC progression. This discovery provides new insights into the molecular pathology of ESCC and may have implications for the development of targeted therapies.