Polysaccharides─Important Constituents of Ice-Nucleating Particles of Marine Origin.

Remote marine regions are characterized by a high degree of cloud cover that greatly impacts Earth's radiative budget. It is highly relevant for climate projections to represent the ice formation in these clouds. Therefore, it is crucial to understand the sources of ice-nucleating particles (INPs) that enable primary ice formation.

"You always have a high sugar if you don't communicate": A qualitative secondary analysis of 'Diabetes Together' process evaluation data from couples in South Africa.

Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (T2D) can negatively impact relationships which may affect health and disease management. This can be moderated by positive communication between partners. Our aims were first, to identify ways in which couples' communication and T2D impact each other.

Exploring the workload of informal caregiving in the context of HIV/NCD multimorbidity in South Africa.

The importance of informal caregiving for chronic illness has been well established in African contexts but is underexplored in the context of HIV/NCD multimorbidity, particularly in South Africa. Building on treatment burden theories that investigate workload in the context of chronic illness, this paper explores how informal caregiving networks impact the capacity of people living with multimorbidity (PLWMM) in low-income settings in urban and rural South Africa. Qualitative semi-structured interviews were carried out with thirty people living with multimorbidity and sixteen informal caregivers between February and April 2021 in two settings, Cape Town (urban) and Bulungula (rural).

Strong synergistic and antagonistic effects of quinones and metal ions in oxidative potential (OP) determination by ascorbic acid (AA) assays.

A key challenge in oxidative potential (OP) assays is to accurately assess the cumulative impact of redox-active aerosol species rather than only their individual effects. This study investigates the OP of single and combined mixtures of 1,2-naphthoquinone (1,2-NQ), 1,4-naphthoquinone (1,4-NQ), 9,10-phenanthrenequinone (9,10-PQ), 1,4-benzoquinone (1,4-BQ), Cu, Fe, Mn, and Zn in standard ascorbic acid (OP) and the synthetic respiratory tract lining fluid (OP) assays. In both OP and OP, binary mixtures showed additive and synergistic effects in the presence of 1,2-NQ.

'We are in control of this thing, and we know what to do now': Pilot and process evaluation of 'Diabetes Together', a couples-focused intervention to support self-management of Type 2 Diabetes in South Africa.

We piloted the delivery of a prototype couples-focused intervention, 'Diabetes Together' with 14 people living with diabetes (PLWD) and their partners, in Cape Town, South Africa in 2022. We aimed to: assess feasibility of recruiting couples in this setting; explore acceptability of intervention materials and changes needed; and investigate whether our prespecified logic model captured how the intervention may work. We used questionnaires, interviews and focus groups after each workshop and after couples completed counselling.