Opportunities for technologically driven dialogical health communication for participatory interventions: Perspectives from male peer navigators in rural South Africa

There is increasing interest in the potential to deliver participatory dialogical HIV and intimate partner violence (IPV) prevention interventions via digital platforms, though the majority of mHealth interventions have been didactic in approach. We undertook 10 in-depth interviews with male Peer Navigators (PNs) who had been extensively trained and working on a larger intervention promoting young people's sexual and reproductive rights, in rural KwaZulu-Natal. Interviews focused on their, and their peers', use of technology in their everyday lives. Data were transcribed and translated, and subjected to thematic analysis. PNs described structural barriers to the use of technology, including poor connectivity, high data costs, and erratic electricity. They primarily used Facebook and WhatsApp for communication and highlighted how reading messages asynchronously was important to overcome connectivity challenges. PNs shared how groups were primarily for information sharing, they also discussed 'sensitive' issues online. Privacy was a concern, especially for conversations, and there was recognition of how confidentiality could be breached. It was also felt that WhatsApp could potentially support greater openness in discussions. We reflect on the potential for online interventions to support dialogical health communication, highlighting how dialogical health communication may be enabled through information provision, the asynchronous communication enhancing the potential for reflection, and greater participation in discussion by those who are shyer. Despite this potential there remain important risks around privacy of discussions and how to implement these approaches online

Distribution of Energy-Momentum in a Schwarzschild-Quintessence Space-time Geometry

An analysis of the energy-momentum localization for a four-dimensional\break Schwarzschild black hole surrounded by quintessence is presented in order to provide expressions for the distributions of energy and momentum. The calculations are performed by using the Landau-Lifshitz and Weinberg energy-momentum complexes. It is shown that all the momenta vanish, while the expression for the energy depends on the mass $M$ of the black hole, the state parameter $w_{q}$ and the normalization factor $c$. The special case of $w_{q}=-2/3$ is also studied, and two limiting cases are examined.Comment: 9 page

Adaptation and pre-test of a shortened Stepping Stones and Creating Futures intervention focused on HIV for young men in rural South Africa

This is the final version. Available on open access from Public Library of Science via the DOI in this recordData Availability: All data are available via the AHRI data repository: https://data.ahri.org/index.php/home with access based on their guidelines.Men’s engagement in HIV prevention and treatment is suboptimal, including in South Africa. We sought to address this through adapting an evidence-based intervention, Stepping Stones and Creating Futures (SSCF), to strengthen its HIV content and provide a more scalable (shorter) intervention in rural South Africa. We then conducted a mixed methods pre-test of the intervention among young men aged 18–35 years. To adapt SSCF, we reviewed the current evidence base and worked with male Peer Navigators to update the SSCF theory of change (ToC) and manual. The revised intervention was ~45 hours (9 sessions) as opposed to ~63 hours and included a greater focus on HIV prevention and treatment technologies. Overall, 64% (n = 60) of men approached agreed to participate in the intervention, uptake (attending one session) among those who agreed was n = 35(58%) and retention (attending 6 or more sessions) was n = 25(71%). Qualitative data emphasized the intervention was acceptable, with young men describing it as something they liked. The qualitative data also broadly supported the intervention ToC, including the normalization of HIV in men’s lives, and the importance of health for men in achieving their life goals. However, it also highlighted the need to focus more on HIV-related stigma and fear, and the importance of HIV self-testing kits in encouraging testing. We revised the ToC and manual in light of this data. The adapted SSCF is acceptable and supports the ToC. Next steps is an evaluation to look at effectiveness of the intervention.Medical Research Council (MRC)Wellcome TrustNational Institutes of Health (NIH)South African Medical Research Counci

Energy-momentum complexes in f(R) theories of gravity

Despite the fact that modified theories of gravity, in particular the f(R) gravity models have attracted much attention in the last years, the problem of the energy localization in the framework of these models has not been addressed. In the present work the concept of energy-momentum complexes is presented in this context. We generalize the Landau-Lifshitz prescription of calculating the energy-momentum complex to the framework of f(R) gravity. As an important special case, we explicitly calculate the energy-momentum complex for the Schwarzschild-de Sitter metric for a general f(R) theory as well as for a number of specific, popular choices of f(R).Comment: 11 pages, no figures, LaTeX; v2: 9 pages now, rearranged Sections, references added, no changes in physics and results, version to appear in CQ

TRAV1-2⁺ CD8⁺ T-cells including oligoconal expansions of MAIT cells are enriched in the airways in human tuberculosis

Mucosal-associated invariant T (MAIT) cells typically express a TRAV1-2+ semi-invariant TCRα that enables recognition of bacterial, mycobacterial, and fungal riboflavin metabolites presented by MR1. MAIT cells are associated with immune control of bacterial and mycobacterial infections in murine models. Here, we report that a population of pro-inflammatory TRAV1-2+ CD8+ T cells are present in the airways and lungs of healthy individuals and are enriched in bronchoalveolar fluid of patients with active pulmonary tuberculosis (TB). High-throughput T cell receptor analysis reveals oligoclonal expansions of canonical and donor-unique TRAV1-2+ MAIT-consistent TCRα sequences within this population. Some of these cells demonstrate MR1-restricted mycobacterial reactivity and phenotypes suggestive of MAIT cell identity. These findings demonstrate enrichment of TRAV1-2+ CD8+ T cells with MAIT or MAIT-like features in the airways during active TB and suggest a role for these cells in the human pulmonary immune response to Mycobacterium tuberculosis

A holistic review on life cycle energy of buildings : an analysis from 2009 to 2019

Energy consumption of buildings is at the forefront of the total energy consumption list, and its environmental impact is increasing, thus making construction industry as a key player in energy. A systematic and comprehensive life cycle perspective assessment of building energy is crucial for maintaining project sustainability. Building energy analysis from life cycle perspective has been increasingly favoured by scholars. However, the links and contents of many literatures have not been summarized and lacking systematic literature research. This review-based research used a holistic analysis approach as the framework. Bibliometrics method in the first stage was used to select 255 papers published during 2009–2019 related to life cycle energy of buildings (LCE-B). Scientometric analysis in the second stage was adopted for identifying the journal sources, scholars, regions and articles that have been fruitful and influential in LCE-B research, and keywords analysis was proposed to preliminarily explore the research topics in the domain (e.g. analysis of optimisation). Results showed that BIM and multi-objective optimisation have become research hotspots recently. An in-depth qualitative discussion in the last stage was conducted to achieve three main objectives: (1) summarise mainstream research topics (e.g. calculation and parameter determination of embodied energy); (2) discuss existing research gaps (e.g. the spatial heterogeneity of embodied energy); and (3) identify future research directions. This study provides a comprehensive knowledge framework combined with philosophical theories that links current research fields with future research trends, providing researchers with multi-disciplinary guidance to gain insight into the latest research on LCE-B