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The purpose of this study was to design a community-based, needs-sensitive, and culturally appropriate parenting education program that is effective for rural Malawian caregivers. With the use of the five-stage model, qualitative methods and procedures were used for developing the program. The presented program emphasized securing sustainability and community empowerment by listening to the voices of Malawian mothers, community leaders, and Malawian facilitators who are also parents. In order to ensure the cultural appropriateness and feasibility of the program, contents were provided in both English and Chichewa, and utilized Malawian folklore, well-known Malawian songs, and children's play during the home visit sessions. In the process of developing and implementing the parenting education program, Malawian caregivers' prior knowledge, cultural assets, needs and wants were honored and actively reflected, in order to make the program locally relevant and meaningful.

An important cause of stunting is limited consumption of complementary foods, in terms of both quantities and nutrients. Although existing studies show a positive association between fathers' engagement and children's diet, programmes designed to improve complementary feeding practices often only target mothers. In response to this, maternal behaviour change communication (BCC), paternal BCC and food voucher programmes were designed and implemented in Ethiopia using a clustered randomized controlled trial design. The paternal BCC programme included gender‐equal messages to increase fathers' participation in childcare, household labour and decision making. The research reported in this paper is an examination of the BCC programmes, characterizing the behavioural, normative and control beliefs of both mothers and fathers in BCC households compared to those in control households. In this study, a total of 40 participants were included, with 13 mother–father pairs in the BCC + food voucher group, and seven pairs in the control group. Each participant was interviewed separately. We found that BCC mothers showed more gender‐equal tendencies than the control mothers despite being more rural in location. By contrast, the beliefs of BCC and control fathers were similar overall, suggesting men are more resistant to gender‐equal BCC. More work is needed to develop and test effective methods for changing fathers' beliefs and practices. Key messages: Mothers in behaviour change communication (BCC) group mothers held more gender‐equal beliefs than control mothers, while BCC and control fathers shared similar views, suggesting a male resistance to gender equality.Mothers found fathers' involvement in childcare socially acceptable but often perceived them as inexperienced, which limited their participation.Control mothers' traditional view on household chores maintained the conventional labour division, influencing fathers' involvement.Fathers typically resisted maternal control of resources; however, they agreed that the more knowledgeable should lead decision‐making. BCC mothers showed greater confidence in making household decisions as effectively as fathers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Molecular orientation of conjugated polymers plays a key role in exciton generation/separation and charge transport, and thus significantly influence photovoltaic devices. Herein, we fabricated fiber-based organic solar cells and investigated the photovoltaic parameters with different diameters of fibers and PCBM diffusion. The open-circuit voltage that varies with molecular orientation whether it is face-on or edge-on was observed to differ. The investigation of the open-circuit voltage dependence reveals that thick fibers have core/shell like structures with different orientations. Thick fibers have face-on in the core and edge-on orientations in the shell. The face-on orientations are not preferentially formed in thin fibers, but the PCBM diffusion can induce face-on orientations that exist within the intermixed phase. Our results may shed a light on better understanding on fiber-based solar cells and suggest a way toward improving photovoltaic efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Quasi-2D Perovskites: Controlling Spatial Crystallization Uniformity and Phase Orientation of Quasi-2D Perovskite-Based Light-Emitting Diodes Using Lewis Bases (Adv. The stability of intermediate complexes formed by the addition of Lewis bases is a key factor in modulating orientation of quasi-2D perovskites as well as enhancing spatial uniformity of crystallization. Crystallization, intermediate complex, light-emitting diodes, orientation, quasi-2D perovskite. [Extracted from the article]

Crystallographic orientation has a significant impact on the optoelectronic properties of films of quasi‐2D perovskite quantum wells. Here, oxygen‐bearing Lewis bases are employed as additives to explore their ability to modulate spatial uniformity of crystallization and orientation of crystal phases. Different Lewis bases added into the precursor solutions incorporating the large organic ammonium cation, phenethylammonium (PEA+), lead to different crystallization kinetics, which are attributed to the varying stability of intermediate complexes. The microscopic photoluminescence heterogeneity and 2D X‐ray diffraction patterns of the thin films reveal that inclusion of Lewis bases can lead to spatially more uniform crystallization and random orientation, resulting in an enhancement in light‐emitting diode performance. In contrast, quasi‐2D phases formed without Lewis bases show poorer uniformity and preferentially vertical orientation. Comparing the Lewis base properties such as Mayer order unsaturation and polarizability suggests that the ability to weakly coordinate with lead and strongly interact with the large organic ammonium is a key factor in controlling the phase composition favorably toward highly luminescent light‐emitting diodes. This work may be of help to provide insight of what kinds of Lewis bases can be helpful to realize the desired phase composition for high performance of optoelectronic applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Adding food vouchers or paternal nutrition behavior change communication (BCC) activities to maternal BCC may improve child diets and household food security but their effect is unknown., Objectives: We assessed whether maternal BCC, maternal and paternal BCC, maternal BCC and a food voucher, or maternal and paternal BCC and a food voucher improved nutrition knowledge, child diet diversity scores (CDDS), and household food security., Methods: We implemented a cluster randomized control trial in 92 Ethiopian villages. Treatments were as follows: maternal (M) BCC only; maternal BCC and paternal BCC (M+P); maternal BCC and food vouchers (M+V); and maternal BCC, food vouchers, and paternal BCC (M+V+P). Effects were assessed using generalized estimating equations., Results: Maternal BCC and paternal BCC increased the maternal and paternal knowledge of optimal infant and young child feeding practices by 4.2-6.8 percentage points (P < 0.05) and by 8.3-8.4 percentage points (P < 0.01), respectively. Combining maternal BCC with either paternal BCC or the food voucher increased CDDS by 21.0%-23.1% (P < 0.05). The treatments M, M+V, and M+P increased the proportion of children who met minimum acceptable diet standards by 14.5, 12.8, and 20.1 percentage points, respectively (P < 0.01). Adding paternal BCC to the maternal BCC treatment or to the maternal BCC and voucher treatment did not lead to a larger increase in CDDS., Conclusions: Increased paternal involvement does not necessarily translate into improvements in child feeding outcomes. Understanding the intrahousehold decision-making dynamics that underlie this is an important area for future research. This study was registered at clinicaltrials.gov as NCT03229629., (Copyright © 2022 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)