Power to participants: methodological and ethical reflections from a decade of adolescent advisory groups in South Africa

Whilst the HIV response has made significant progress in increasing representation of adults affected by HIV, the meaningful inclusion of children and adolescents has lagged. But this may be a pivotal moment of change. We report on a decade of conducting adolescent advisory groups in South Africa, to reflect on youth advisory processes. Data was collected from 2008 to 2018 from adolescent advisors (n = 60) and researchers (n = 25), and included feedback sessions, social media, anonymous “post-boxes” and interviews. Findings include the value of adolescent involvement in multiple stages of research co-creation and engagement in policy processes, the need for a safe environment and supporting adolescents living in extreme vulnerability. We also discuss the reconfiguring of power and personal relationships, and logistical and financial needs of adolescent advisory groups. Findings suggest that adolescent co-creation of research is feasible, even with very vulnerable adolescents, although ethical considerations need to be carefully addressed. Benefits include increased methodological rigour, enhanced adolescent acceptability of research and the recalibration of research dynamics for the empowerment of their target beneficiaries. Future studies could benefit from meaningfully involving adolescents through youth advisory groups

The effect of temperature, gradient and load carriage on oxygen consumption, posture and gait characteristics

Purpose The purpose of this experiment was to evaluate the effect of load carriage in a range of temperatures to establish the interaction between cold exposure, the magnitude of change from unloaded to loaded walking and gradient. Methods Eleven participants (19-27 years) provided written informed consent before performing six randomly ordered walking trials in six temperatures (20°C, 10°C, 5°C, 0°C, -5°C and -10°C). Trials involved two unloaded walking bouts before and after loaded walking (18.2 kg) at 4 km.hr⁻¹, on 0% and 10% gradients in 4 minute bouts. Results The change in absolute oxygen consumption (V̇O₂) from the first unloaded bout to loaded walking was similar across all six temperatures. When repeating the second unloaded bout, V̇O₂ at both -5°C and-10°C was greater compared to the first. At -10°C, V̇O₂ was increased from 1.60 ± 0.30 L.min⁻¹ to 1.89 ± 0.51 L.min⁻¹. Regardless of temperature, gradient had a greater effect on V̇O₂ and heart rate (HR) than backpack load. HR was unaffected by temperature. Stride length (SL) decreased with decreasing temperature but trunk forward lean was greater during cold exposure. Conclusion Decreased ambient temperature did not influence the magnitude of change in V̇O₂ from unloaded to loaded walking. However, in cold temperatures, V̇O₂ was significantly higher than in warm conditions. The increased V̇O₂ in colder temperatures at the same exercise intensity is predicted to ultimately lead to earlier onset of fatigue and cessation of exercise. These results highlight the need to consider both appropriate clothing and fitness during cold exposure

Petiole hyponasty: an ethylene-driven, adaptive response to changes in the environment

Hyponastic (upwardly bending) growth by leaves is a response of numerous plant species to adverse environmental conditions. This review summarises current knowledge on hyponasty with a particular focus on the role of ethylene in regulating this phenomenon and its possible adaptive significance

Reducing child abuse amongst adolescents in low- and middle-income countries:A pre-post trial in South Africa

Background: No known studies have tested the effectiveness of child abuse prevention programmes for adolescents in low- or middle-income countries. ‘Parenting for Lifelong Health’ (http://tiny.cc/whoPLH) is a collaborative project to develop and rigorously test abuse-prevention parenting programmes for free use in low-resource contexts. Research aims of this first pre-post trial in South Africa were: i) to identify indicative effects of the programme on child abuse and related outcomes; ii) to investigate programme safety for testing in a future randomised trial, and iii) to identify potential adaptations. Methods: 230 participants (adolescents and their primary caregivers) were recruited from schools, welfare services and community-sampling in rural, high-poverty South Africa (no exclusion criteria). All participated in a 12-week parenting programme, implemented by local NGO childcare workers to ensure real-world external validity. Standardised pre-post measures with adolescents and caregivers were used, and paired t-tests were conducted for primary outcomes: abuse (physical, emotional and neglect), adolescent behaviour problems and parenting (positive and involved parenting, poor monitoring and inconsistent discipline), and secondary outcomes: mental health, social support and substance use. Results: Participants reported high levels of socio-economic deprivation, e.g. 60% of adolescents had either an HIV-positive caregiver or were orphaned by AIDS, and 50% of caregivers experienced intimate partner violence. i) indicative effects: Primary outcomes comparing pre-test and post-test assessments showed reductions reported by adolescents and caregivers in child abuse (adolescent report 63.0% pre-test to 29.5% post-test, caregiver report 75.5% pre-test to 36.5% post-test, both p<0.001) poor monitoring/inconsistent discipline (p<.001), adolescent delinquency/ aggressive behaviour (both p<.001), and improvements in positive/involved parenting (p<.01 adolescent report, p<.001 caregiver report). Secondary outcomes showed improved social support (p<.001 adolescent and caregiver reports), reduced parental and adolescent depression (both p<.001), parenting stress (p<.001 caregiver report) and caregiver substance use (p<.002 caregiver report). There were no changes in adolescent substance use. No negative effects were detected. ii) Programme acceptability and attendance was high. There was unanticipated programme diffusion within some study villages, with families initiating parenting groups in churches, and diffusion through school assemblies and religious sermons. iii) potential adaptations identified included the need to strengthen components on adolescent substance use and to consider how to support spontaneous programme diffusion with fidelity. Conclusions: The programme showed no signs of harm and initial evidence of reductions in child abuse and improved caregiver and adolescent outcomes. It showed high acceptability and unexpected community-level diffusion. Findings indicate needs for adaptations, and suitability for the next research step of more rigorous testing in randomised trials, using cluster randomization to allow for diffusion effects

The magnetic moment of the first-excited 2+ state in 18O

The magnetic decoupling method, applied to highly ionized nuclear-excited 18O atoms, has yielded for the 198 MeV 2+ state the value |g| = 0.35 ± 0.04. In conjunction with the recently determined negative sign, this value agrees well with weak j-j coupling predictions