“What matters to someone who matters to me”: using media campaigns with young people to prevent interpersonal violence and abuse

Background: While media campaigns are increasingly advocated as a strategy for preventing interpersonal violence and abuse, there is little evidence available regarding their effectiveness. Setting and design: Consultation with experts and young people was used as part of a UK scoping review to capture current thinking and practice on the use of media campaigns to address interpersonal violence and abuse among young people. Three focus groups and 16 interviews were undertaken with UK and international experts, and three focus groups were held with young people. Main results: Participants argued that, although campaigns initially needed to target whole populations of young people, subsequently, messages should be “granulated” for subgroups including young people already exposed to interpersonal violence and lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender young people. It was suggested that boys, as the most likely perpetrators of interpersonal violence and abuse, should be the primary target for campaigns. Young people and experts emphasized that drama and narrative could be used to evoke an emotional response that assisted learning. Authenticity emerged as important for young people and could be achieved by delivering messages through familiar characters and relevant stories. Involving young people themselves in creating and delivering campaigns strengthened authenticity. Conclusions: Practice is developing rapidly, and robust research is required to identify the key conditions for effective campaigns in this field. The emotional impact of campaigns in this field appears to be as important as the transmission of learning

Indonesian Christian Young People Resisting the Dominant Discourses of Men as Desiring/Dangerous and Women as Non-sexual/Vulnerable

Contemporary feminist studies have demonstrated how the binary constitution of men as desiring/dangerous and women as non-sexual/vulnerable has enabled, normalised, and sustained intimate partner sexual violence against women. Such binary positioning has given rise to gendered religious and sexual subjectivities that severely constrain women’s sexual agency. However, only a few studies have explored the ways this binary might be contested in one’s becoming of a sexual subject, particularly the identification of alternative discourses one’s may draw upon to challenge the dominant one. Seeking to fill this gap, this chapter presents four vignettes of resistance which might rework this gendered positioning among young Indonesian Christians vis-à-vis intimate partner sexual violence. The analysis revealed that these young participants drew on various alternative discourses to which they have access – from feminist, religious, to same-sex sexuality – to give new meanings to men and women as sexual subjects and resist the normalisation of intimate partner sexual violence

Modeling of Primary Freeze Drying Phase of Lyophilization of Ebola Virus Disease Vaccine

Lyophilization, or freeze-drying, is a commonly used technique to extend the shelf life and increase the stability of various pharmaceuticals by removing excess water from the product. The process can be energy and time-intensive, but it is often required for approval of widely used pharmaceuticals, including the Ebola Virus Disease vaccine. The process can be broken down into three phases: freezing, primary drying (sublimation), and secondary drying. The focus of this model was on the primary drying phase, which is the longest and most critical of the three stages. The success of the lyophilization process largely depends on the result of the primary drying phase, making it crucial to optimize key parameters that characterize this stage. Therefore, the main objectives of this study were to develop a model to form a better understanding of the sublimation reaction that occurs during primary drying and to optimize key process parameters to increase the efficiency of the process. COMSOL Multiphysics was used to develop a computational model of the lyophilization process to achieve these objectives. A 2-D axi-symmetric geometry was used to construct the vial in which the pharmaceutical product was placed during lyophilization. Three different COMSOL physics interfaces were chosen to model the primary drying phase for a duration of 20 hours for the Ebola virus disease vaccine. Whereas most prior models use a moving sublimation boundary, this model employed a non-equilibrium sublimation front formulation to simulate the behavior. From our sensitivity analysis, it was determined that permeability is a critical factor affecting sublimation. Increasing permeability not only increased the amount of sublimation but also allowed for sublimation to occur more evenly throughout the domain. This was due to the increased vapor flow throughout the domain, driving the pressure gradient powering sublimation. Other parameters, including the heat transfer coefficient, chamber pressure, and sublimation reaction constant, primarily affected sublimation at the boundary rather than throughout the entire domain. Increasing the heat transfer coefficient and sublimation reaction constant while decreasing the lyophilization chamber pressure increased sublimation at the vial edge. This model elucidated key insights into the sublimation process. Pressure buildup into the vial was specifically identified as the main limiting factor of sublimation, and this can be improved in future studies by adjusting various parameters including those analyzed in a sensitivity analysis. This key finding provides further insight into the physics and mechanism that drives the phase change and provides a foundation for further research and optimization. Furthermore, while this study focused on the Ebola Virus Disease vaccine, this computational model can be customized with the properties and process parameters for other vaccines of interest, making it a valuable tool for many pharmaceutical manufacturers

Factors influencing attitudes to violence against women

Attitudes toward men\u27s violence against women shape both the perpetration of violence against women and responses to this violence by the victim and others around her. For these reasons, attitudes are the target of violence-prevention campaigns. To improve understanding of the determinants of violence against women and to aid the development of violence-prevention efforts, this article reviews the factors that shape attitudes toward violence against women. It offers a framework with which to comprehend the complex array of influences on attitudes toward violent behavior perpetrated by men against women. Two clusters of factors, associated with gender and culture, have an influence at multiple levels of the social order on attitudes regarding violence. Further factors operate at individual, organizational, communal, or societal levels in particular, although their influence may overlap across multiple levels. This article concludes with recommendations regarding efforts to improve attitudes toward violence against women.<br /