Photoreceptor death accounts for approximately 50% of all cases of irreversible vision loss, contributing to both inherited retinal degenerations and age related macular degeneration. Photoreceptor integrity is maintained by a multitude of functions performed by the retinal pigment epithelium. Genetic, environmental, toxic and age changes affect various functions of the retinal pigment epithelium and in turn these changes can cause photoreceptor dysfunction and death. There are many laboratory and non-laboratory animals with mutations that affect RPE function. A great deal has been learned about diseases affecting photoreceptors from detailed analysis of structural and functional changes that occur in rodents and larger mammals that carry spontaneous mutations affecting RPE function. In addition transgenic laboratory animals have played a critical role in enhancing our understanding of RPE disease. In this chapter, we provide an overview of how genetic, environmental and ageing effects influence RPE function in laboratory and non-laboratory animals and how this in turn leads to retinal pathology.

In this discussion paper, we argue the need to decolonise curricula in our educational institutions and outline practical steps to do this to acknowledge, respect, empower and elevate Indigenous voices. As an example of colonised curriculum, Australian children previously learned about remembrance of war service days, such as Anzac Day and Remembrance Day, through teaching resources that tended to focus on the service of military personnel in wars external to Australia, for example, WWI and WWII. Less emphasis has been placed on other wars, and despite a century of conflict on homelands, even scarcer mention is being made of Australia's Frontier Wars. We explore an exemplar that aimed to address this gap, but despite meritorious intentions, the authors did not ensure that Indigenous authors were part of the process, thereby recolonising curricula. After practising reflexivity, we recommend better ways forward for future projects, by embracing truth-telling that empowers Australian Indigenous voices. This will be of interest to researchers, educators, curriculum designers and policymakers.

Introduction: Childhood maltreatment (CM) and depression are serious global issues with high prevalence and lifelong impacts on physical and mental health. CM has been proposed as a modifiable risk factor for depression that, if prevented, may contribute to a reduction in the global incidence of depressive disorders. Despite this, there is a paucity of reviews examining the strength of the association between these variables. The aim of this systematic review and meta-analysis was to evaluate the empirical evidence and determine if CM is supported as a preventable risk factor for depression.

Methods: A search was performed in July 2024 for all peer-reviewed journal articles written in English examining the relationship between CM and adult depression in the electronic databases EBSCOhost, Proquest, and Embase. Studies were included in this review if they measured maltreatment before 18 years of age as the independent variable and adult depression as the dependent variable. Studies were excluded if the outcome variable was grouped with comorbidity and if they did not report primary quantitative data. A total of 77 studies with 516,302 participants met the inclusion criteria for review.

Results: A random-effects meta-analysis was used to generate a pooled odds ratio from 87 effect estimates and demonstrated that individuals with a history of any CM are 2.5 times more likely to experience adult depression (OR=2.49 [95% CI: 2.25–2.76]). This increase in odds remained regardless of how the primary studies screened for depression.

Conclusions: These findings confirmed the strong association between the experience of CM and adult depression. High heterogeneity in the meta-analytic results also suggested that further research is required that applies consistent adjustments for comorbidities and confounding factors and examines the temporal relationship between the variables to establish causality.

Democratic practices of the Philippines, Asia's oldest democracy and the second most populous country in the ASEAN region, have been a puzzle to many scholars and observers of democracy. While vibrant in terms of voter turnout, civic engagement, and institutional protections, there are widespread flaws in Philippine democratic processes—illustrated by persistent pernicious elite politics, continued institutional weakness, and widespread abuse of public office.₁