Cultivating capacities in community-based researchers in low-resource settings: Lessons from a participatory study on violence and mental health in Sri Lanka

Participatory methods, which rely heavily on community-based data collectors, are growing in popularity to deliver much-needed evidence on violence and mental health in low- and middle-income countries. These settings, along with local researchers, encounter the highest burden of violence and mental ill-health, with the fewest resources to respond. Despite increased focus on wellbeing for research participants and, to a lesser degree, professional researchers in such studies, the role-specific needs of community-based researchers receive scant attention. This co-produced paper draws insights from one group’s experience to identify rewards, challenges, and recommendations for supporting wellbeing and development of community-based researchers in sensitive participatory projects in low-resource settings. Twenty-one community-based researchers supporting a mixed-methods study on youth, violence and mental health in Sri Lanka submitted 63 reflexive structured journal entries across three rounds of data collection. We applied Attride-Stirling’s method for thematic analysis to explore peer researchers’ learning about research, violence and mental health; personal-professional boundaries; challenges in sensitive research; and experiences of support from the core team. Sri Lanka’s first study capturing experiences of diverse community-based researchers aims to inform the growing number of global health and development actors relying on such talent to deliver sensitive and emotionally difficult work in resource-limited and potentially volatile settings. Viewing participatory research as an opportunity for mutual learning among both community-based and professional researchers, we identify practice gaps and opportunities to foster respectful team dynamics and create generative and safe co-production projects for all parties. Intentional choices around communication, training, human and consumable resources, project design, and navigating instable research conditions can strengthen numerous personal and professional capacities across teams. Such individual and collective growth holds potential to benefit short- and long-term quality of evidence and inform action on critical issues, including violence and mental health, facing high-burden, low-resource contexts

Green synthesis of silver nanoparticles using sustainable bio-fertilizer (Panchakavyam) for the selective oxidation of propylene glycol and veratryl alcohol

This study demonstrates the selective oxidation of propylene glycol and veratryl alcohol utilizing silver oxide nanoparticles. This work adopted employing Panchakavyam, a medicinally rich bio-fertilizer for synthesizing silver oxide nanoparticles. In the present study, panchakavyam was prepared as a supporting material for the synthesis of silver oxide nanoparticles (Ag2O NPs). The traditional source of panchakavyam makes it cost effective, eco-friendly and the positive alteration of structure and shape of the catalyst enabled to deliver high yield of value added products. The synthesized silver oxide nanoparticle’s structure, shape, reactivity, stability, nature of the catalyst, thermal behaviour were studied and analysed through standard catalyst characterization techniques. Post synthesis of nanoparticles, selective oxidation reaction was carried out by confining the silver oxide nanoparticles as a nano catalyst. The tert-butyl hydroperoxide was chosen as the solvent for the oxidation studies of propylene glycol and veratryl alcohol. This study was performed by varying the reaction parameters such as temperature, pressure, time, WHSV−1 etc., to obtain the maximum yield of most desired product. The study involving conversion of propylene glycol(PG) to hydroxy acetone(HA) showed a conversion and selectivity of 100 and 99%, respectively. Similarly conversion of veratryl alcohol(VAOL) to veratraldehyde(VAL) showed a conversion and selectivity of 100 and 97.8%, respectively. The result of the study provides a path to explore the adoption of sustainable catalyst in the conversion of propylene glycol and veratryl alcohol to an industrially important products

Selective oxidation of cyclohexene over the mesoporous H-Beta zeolite on copper/nickel bimetal catalyst in continuous reactor

The copper/nickel–metal on commercial H-Beta zeolite supports was synthesized with different wt % (Ni) of 5, 10, 15, and 20, and was used in the cyclohexene epoxidation process. The synthesized catalyst has been used in a continuous reactor for the cyclohexene epoxidation process, with mild conditions and H2O2 as an oxidant. The catalytic performance was ascertained by adjusting parameters such as the temperature, pressure, WHSV, reaction time, and solvents. The catalytic performance showed the resulting yield in both cyclohexene conversion and selectivity was more than 98.5%. The catalyst’s textural attributes, morphology, chemical composition, and stability were determined using FT-IR, XRD, BET, HR-SEM, and TPD. The most active catalyst among those that were synthesized was evaluated, and the reaction parameters were selected to optimize yield and conversion. The H-Beta/Cu/Ni (15%) catalyst has the best conversion (98.5%) and selectivity (100%) for cyclohexene among the catalysts examined. Cu and Ni(15%) metals were successfully added to the H-Beta zeolite, causing little damage to the crystalline structure and resulting in good reusability over five cycles, as well as little loss of catalytic selectivity. Acetonitrile was the solvent that provided the highest conversion and selectivity among the others. These findings show that H-Beta/Cu/Ni bimetallic catalysts have the potential to be effective epoxidation catalysts. Because of their outstanding conversion and selectivity, the continuous reaction technique used in this work makes them appropriate for industrial production-level applications.<br/