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A novel water-based mechanochemical approach for surface modification of graphene platelets and their epoxy nanocomposites
No full textData source: Supporting information, https://doi.org/10.1002/pc.29020Graphene (nano) platelets (GPs) are cost-effective and possess high structural integrity, but their limited surface functional groups hinder their compatibility with polymers. In this study, an eco-friendly, water-based mechanochemical approach was developed to modify GPs with polyacrylamide (PAM), creating PAM graphene platelets (PAM-GPs) with a grafting ratio of approximately 15%. The platelet was measured to be a few nanometers in thickness, and the grafted PAM provides abundant functional groups, including amide groups, which enhance compatibility with polymers. A typical polymer, bisphenol-A epoxy, was compounded with PAM-GPs, resulting in a high degree of exfoliation and dispersion of PAM-GPs within the matrix. The resulting epoxy/PAM-GP composites exhibited significantly improved mechanical properties, including an 18% increase in Young's modulus and a substantial enhancement in fracture toughness, with a 71% increase at a low filler fraction of 0.5 wt%. These improvements are attributed to the effective interfacial interaction between the PAM-GPs and the epoxy matrix, facilitated by the grafted functional groups. This study highlights the potential of PAM-GPs as toughening fillers for epoxy composites, emphasizing their applicability in enhancing the durability and performance of structural components in industrial applications
Moisture-wicking fabric for radiation cooling
No full textProlonged exposure to hot weather and direct sunlight can lead to heat exhaustion and skin irritation, which reduces the productivity of outdoor workers and increases health risks. This study has developed a polylactic acid/boron nitride nanosheet composite fabric by electrospinning. Being selectively modified for hydrophilicity, the fabric has combined passive radiative cooling, thermal conductivity and directional sweat wicking to improve thermal comfort in outdoor environments. Compared to conventional cotton fabrics, the composite fibric exhibits excellent solar reflectance (96%) and infrared heat emissivity (93%), along with high thermal conductivity (0.38 Wm-1K-1). In outdoor experiments, the composite fabric lowers skin temperature by 2.0 degrees C under direct sunlight during the day and by 3.8 degrees C at night relative to bare skin. The composite fabric features a directional perspiration function and an impressive sweat evaporation rate of 1.67 gh-1, which can efficiently transport sweat and heat to the fiber membrane surface to keep the skin dry and cool. This work should advance human thermal management strategies for high-temperature outdoor environments
Engaging health and aged care workers in rural and remote Australia around factors impacting their access to and participation in dementia training
No full textObjective: To better understand barriers and enablers to uptake of dementia training in rural and remote areas using input from rural and remote aged and health care workers into how dementia training could be offered to better meet their needs.
Methods: Roundtable focus groups were conducted in six diverse rural and remote locations in four jurisdictions around Australia. Sixty-seven workers from predominantly nursing, allied health, and support worker roles involved in dementia care participated. Data were collected by site and used a mixture of face-to-face and virtual facilitated ‘roundtable’ discussions. Each group discussed barriers and enablers to participation in training and their preferences for how dementia training should be provided.
Results: Commonalities emerged in barriers for accessing dementia training. Participants emphasised the need for strong organisational support and locally relevant, interactive and flexible delivery methods to address rural challenges. Significant challenges related to staffing levels, time constraints, and competing priorities. Enablers of training uptake included support from employers covering time and costs of training, local collaboration, and training accessibility for all job roles rather than profession specific. Participants emphasised the importance of practical, local training relevant to their scope of practice delivered by experienced trainers. The need for culturally safe aged care practices was noted in all sites.
Discussion and Conclusions: Collaborative approaches across organisations and the aged care workforce and training relevant to local rural contexts were favoured. The opportunity to learn from external experts was greatly appreciated. Workers want training that enhances culturally safe practices. Organisational support is critical for training implementation
Implications of Altered Endosomal-Lysosomal Biogenesis in Melanoma Pathogenesis
No full textMelanoma exhibits inherent heterogeneity and a high metastatic propensity, posing significant challenges for diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment. There are recognized problems with the visual detection of melanoma, such as amelanocytic lesions, which indicate that melanogenesis is downstream of the critical pathogenesis. The endosome–lysosome system regulates trafficking to control melanogenesis, and endosome function/signaling is directly impacted by common melanoma mutations. The endosomal–lysosomal system is also integrally involved in the regulation of fundamental cellular processes that are associated with other key hallmarks of this cancer. This traditional narrative review explores the relationship between altered endosomal–lysosomal biogenesis, aberrant melanogenesis, and oncogenic function in melanoma, including the potential effects on proliferation, invasion, and metastasis. Elucidating the molecular mechanisms underpinning the altered endosomal–lysosomal biology in melanoma is important as this has the potential to define new diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers to improve patient management
Bourdieu's philosophical anthropologies: Exploring and Marxifying his framework for academic field research
No full textData source: supplemental material, https://doi.org/10.1080/00131857.2025.2459082Philosophical anthropologies (PAs)–ontological assumptions about human species-nature–have long faced Foucauldian post-structural rejection of their value and legitimacy in explaining sociological problematics. In this article I endorse Bourdieu’s resistance to a post-PA momentum, arguing that PAs need assuming in sociological research. In the process, I explore PAs within Bourdieu’s research framework, including how his key empirical-analytic concepts–‘habitus’, ‘field’, ‘illusio’ and ‘forms of capital’–echo the PAs he assumes. Yet I argue his conceptual framework would do better without a PA he sometimes explicitly invokes: a ‘libidinal’ drive to compete for power in ‘games’ of social-field labour. I then draw on data from a survey of Australian education academics, who comment on how workforce restructures negatively affect their research and teaching labours. From the data, I argue that assuming a power-competitive PA as a driver of field labours inhibits attention to ethically-motivated desire for better labour purposes, fuelling critically-reflexive capacities to challenge field-structured power games. In turn, I diagnose that Bourdieu’s conceptual framework needs, but lacks, Marxian assumption of a human-species impulse for labours to serve use-valued social purposes, and that commodification of labours generates emotional alienation. I therefore suggest a ‘Marxification’ of Bourdieu’s framework
Effects of exercise dose on psychological health outcomes in people diagnosed with cancer: a systematic review and meta-analysis
No full textData source: Supplementary materials, https://doi.org/10.1080/09638288.2024.2432919BackgroundEvaluate evidence for the effects of exercise on psychological health in adults diagnosed with cancer. Investigate the effects of different exercise frequencies, intensities, durations, and types on specific psychological health outcomes measuring depression, anxiety, mood, or quality of life.MethodsSix electronic databases searched from inception to May 2024. Randomised Control Trials (RCTs) evaluating effects of exercise on psychological health in adults diagnosed with cancer were included. A random-effects meta-analysis was completed to evaluate effect. Separate meta-analyses were conducted, with subgroups, to evalutate effect of exercise frequency, intensity, duration, and type.ResultsEighty-one studies were included, yielding 205 individual effect sizes across various psychological health outcomes. Exercise interventions demonstrated small to moderate positive effects on psychological health outcomes (combined effect size: d = 0.32, 95%CI 0.22; 0.42). Subgroup analysis revealed positive effects across specific outcomes (depression, anxiety, mood, quality of life). Notably, effect sizes varied between specific outcome measures and exercise variable subgroups.ConclusionTo achieve optimal positive outcomes for psychological health, exercise dosages should consider psychological symptom profile alongside patient characteristics and physical capacity. This meta-analysis provides robust evidence to support the effectiveness of various exercises dosages targeting specific psychological health conditions and symptoms among individuals diagnosed with cancer
Engaging adolescents in SRHR and family planning: from priorities to action
No full textPublished online 11 July 2025Background: Adolescents make up to 23% of Pakistan’s population, yet they face significant barriers to accessing sexual and reproductive health (SRH) knowledge and services. These challenges stem from systemic and individual factors, including cultural norms and low health literacy. This project aims to directly involve adolescents and key stakeholders in the co-development of a culturally relevant SRH toolkit to improve access to accurate information. By actively engaging adolescents, the project seeks to enhance their knowledge, participation, and decision-making in SRH care, supporting their healthy development. Methods: This project will co-design an SRH toolkit for young people aged 12–19 years from semi-urban communities in Pakistan, in collaboration with adolescents and other key stakeholders using three research components. First, a Priority Setting Partnership (PSP) involving surveys and workshops will identify priority SRH topics. Second, a Participatory Action Research (PAR) approach using focus groups and interviews with adolescents, with youth champions facilitating peer education sessions to help shape the toolkit content. Finally, an acceptability assessment will be conducted through workshops and surveys with stakeholders and young people to ensure the toolkit aligns with their needs and preferences. Expected outcome: The project will produce a user-friendly SRH toolkit tailored to the needs of adolescents in semi-urban Pakistan, covering key topics such as contraception, safe abortion, gender-based violence, and more. The toolkit will be developed collaboratively in English, Urdu, and Sindhi, and made accessible both online and in print. All materials will be reviewed by participants before finalization. Project findings will be disseminated through stakeholder workshops, community meetings, reports, peer-reviewed publications, conferences, media engagement, and policy briefs. Conclusion: Effective SRH initiatives require purposeful youth engagement, guided by their expressed needs. By centering adolescent voices in the co-creation of a SRH toolkit, this project promotes accessibility, agency and informed decision-making - ultimately strengthening SRH knowledge in young people in PakistanZohra S Lassi, Patience Castleton, Hina Najmi, Sana Hayat, Anny Dhanwani, Salima Meherali, and Zahid Memo
I watch SEM: continuous time dynamic models with N≥1 smart watch data
No full textData source: Supplementary material, https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/indhealth/63/4/63_2024-0186/_supplement/_download/63_2024-0186_1.pdfIn the theoretical part of this article, we provide a brief introduction to different types of repeated measure designs and methods to analyze repeatedly measured data, with a particular focus on continuous time modelling of intensive longitudinal data (ILD) with N >= 1 analysis. We built on the distinction between within-person versus between-person effects, and how this is addressed in static versus dynamic models. Further, we elaborate on the distinction between discrete time dynamic models versus continuous time dynamic models. In particular, we deal with continuous time structural equation models (CTSEM), and we provide a brief introduction into the underlying math. Since smart devices have become useful tools in monitoring health, we use the applied part of this article for explaining how to retrieve N=1 bivariate ILD from popular smart watches and how to prepare them for CTSEM (including N>1 multivariate extensions). We show how to specify a cross-lagged panel CTSEM using the R package ctsem, how to fit the specified model to the retrieved data, and how to interpret the results. Limitations of CTSEM are discussed, too. Monitoring and forecasting industrial health represent important issues for organizations
'First blood': the 1960s origins of the Australian sharpie youth culture
No full textThe sharpies were a uniquely Australian youth culture that lasted from the early 1960s into the 1980s and were a significant continuation of the trajectory of Australian, male-dominated, working-class, consumption-based, rowdy youth-cultural traditions, which include the bodgies and widgies of the 1950s and the larrikins of the 1860s to 1918. Sharpies are under-discussed in social narratives and academic texts. This article focuses on the life cycle of the original generation of sharpies. In addition to exploring the origins of sharpie culture, I explore why it provided an outlet for its bored suburban, working-class youths, present explanations for behavioural attitudes and offer some insight into its attraction. I also explore how the first generation of this youth culture came to its natural end, how it was picked up again by the next generation and why. In learning about the sharpies' activities and behaviours, from the egregious to the mundane, we open ourselves to learning something not just about suburban, working-class Australian youths but about all young people who take part in group-based youth cultures
University student learning strategies in English medium instruction: an exploratory study in Indonesia and Vietnam
No full textEnglish-medium instruction (EMI) is a particularly challenging experience for undergraduates in those Southeast Asian countries where English has had little historical presence and there are few support resources. It is therefore important that teachers recognize and are responsive to the strategies students engage to assist their EMI learning. However, while learning strategies are now a recognized topic in EMI research, little is known about what kinds of strategies students mostly use in such settings. We therefore reviewed strategies self-reported by students in previous Asia-Pacific studies, and used the 17 strategies thus identified in a short survey. This was first to identify student recognition and frequency of use, and then to seek pedagogically meaningfully categorization. 341 undergraduates in five Indonesian and Vietnamese universities reported using all 17 strategies “most of the time”, suggesting heavy reliance. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis indicated three factors at play, which we interpreted using a cultural-historical activity theory (CHAT) lens. Textual analysis led directly to identifying a student “action focus” on content, skills and help-seeking. Next, adopting a teacher agency perspective, within the local cultural-historical context of EMI, led to identifying three contextually feasible pedagogic actions – facilitating, teaching and supporting – which have implications for professional development