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Objectives: In early 2021, Western Sydney school principals expressed heightened concern about rising e-cigarette usage among high school students. This prompted us to assess knowledge, attitudes and perceptions surrounding adolescent vaping in students, school staff and parents, and their preferred strategies to effectively communicate prevention messages. Design: Exploratory qualitative study. Setting: Participants included students (aged 12-16 years), school staff and parents from government high schools in Greater Western Sydney, Australia. Methods: We held research workshops with 162 students, 133 school staff and 29 parents across seven schools. We used interactive activities which included individual written responses, small-group brainstorming and open group discussions. Data analysis was undertaken by two researchers using Framework Analysis. Results: Findings demonstrated differing perceptions among students, staff and parents regarding reasons why adolescents vape. Although common motives emerged, such as the perception that vaping differs from smoking, social normalisation, peer pressure and mental health considerations, there were important differences in emphasis. Students were concerned about dependency and vaping to cope, staff were concerned about the impact of vaping on students' learning and behaviour, and parents were concerned about being ill-equipped to support their children. Strategies to tackle vaping also differed, with an emphasis on education and engagement over surveillance and consequences. Conclusion: Adolescent vaping is a pressing concern within Australian school communities, necessitating a comprehensive, holistic approach supported by strong partnerships between the health and education sectors. Addressing this issue effectively demands heightened education and engagement among students, staff and parents.

Objective: The objectives of this study were to (1) measure the acceptability of Students As LifeStyle Activists (SALSA) Youth Voices (SYV) programme, (2) determine the skills gained by peer leaders from their participation in SYV and (3) determine whether peer leaders were able to design and implement an action to promote healthy eating and physical activity in their school. Design: Process evaluation. Setting: Peer leaders (aged 15-16 years) from high schools in Western Sydney, Australia. Method: We conducted a process evaluation to determine the reasons why students participated in SYV, which workshop activities they enjoyed, the skills they gained from participating in SYV and whether the actions were designed and implemented. Peer leaders completed an online survey at the end of the Leadership Day. The peer leaders then presented their actions at an SYV Action Day event and completed a further online survey. Results: Eighty-four peer leaders from seven high schools in Western Sydney participated in SYV. Peer leaders reported their involvement with the SYV programme as positive, with 68% rating it as 'very valuable'. Skills gained by the peer leaders included teamwork (90%), communication (85%), leadership (77%) and confidence (65%). Peer leaders planned and devised actions, which included installing water refill stations, fitting the school gymnasium with new equipment, redesigning girls' sports shorts, and other strategies to engage girls in physical activity. Students from all seven schools presented their actions to receive feedback and expressed confidence that their actions were sustainable. Conclusion: The SYV programme showed that providing peer leaders with ownership of their actions was successful in creating healthy school environments, while building leadership, teamwork, communication skills and confidence in adolescents.

Surface ozone monitoring sites in the tropics are limited, despite the risk that surface ozone poses to human health, tropical forest, and crop productivity. Atmospheric chemistry models allow us to assess ozone exposure in unmonitored locations and evaluate the potential influence of changing policies and climate on air quality, human health, and ecosystem integrity. Here, we utilise in situ ozone measurements from ground-based stations in the pan-tropics to evaluate ozone from the UK Earth system model, UKESM1, with a focus on remote sites. The study includes ozone data from areas with limited previous data, notably Tropical South America, central Africa, and tropical North Australia. Evaluating UKESM1 against observations beginning in 1987 onwards, we show that UKESM1 is able to capture changes in surface ozone concentration at different temporal resolutions, albeit with a systematic high bias of 18.1 nmol mol-1 on average. We use the Diurnal Ozone Range (DOR) as a metric for evaluation and find that UKESM1 captures the observed DOR (mean bias of 2.7 nmol mol-1 and RMSE of 7.1 nmol mol-1) and the trend in DOR with location and season. Results from this study demonstrate the applicability of hourly output from UKESM1 for human and ecosystem health-based impact assessments, increase confidence in model projections, and highlight areas that would benefit from further observations. Indeed, hourly surface ozone data has been crucial to this study, and we encourage other modelling groups to include hourly surface ozone output as a default. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this project, narrative was constructed by Grade 5 students using learning technologies (cameras, computers and multimedia software) through three-dimensional cartoon animations, or "claymation", and the creativity that emerged was at times startling. Narrative need not be interpreted narrowly and monomodally. It emerged that narrative can be constructed with far more than words. When narrative text produced by students used multiple modes of representation, including images, animations and sounds, many things changed. There is some evidence from previous studies that indicates that creativity is enhanced with the crossing from one representational mode to another, and the current project also found that to be true. In addition, it became clear that the experience of constructing the animations enhanced the way that the students understood the nuances of multimodal texts and made the producers more critical consumers. (Contains 2 figures.)

Objective: The postnatal period can be both a rewarding and challenging time. Research has found that experiences of motherhood that are less positive than expected are associated with depressive symptoms, however, no known study to date has examined expectations across the separate domains of motherhood and how they impact on attachment. The aim of this cross‐sectional study was to investigate whether discrepancies in a mother's expectations regarding their infant, levels of support, and sense of self and their actual experiences post birth impact on maternal feelings of attachment and depression in the postnatal period. Method: Two hundred and thirty‐eight mothers in Australia (aged 19–44) who had given birth in the last 12 months voluntarily completed an online survey. Results: As predicted, results revealed that postnatal experiences that were less positive than expected regarding support and sense of self were associated with higher levels of depression and lower levels of attachment. Regarding infant expectations, experiences that were less positive than expected were associated with lower levels of attachment; however, experiences that were more positive than expected were, unexpectedly, associated with higher levels of depression. Conclusion: These findings highlight the importance of providing realistic expectations of motherhood through prenatal education and media messages to promote greater wellbeing and bond between mothers and infants which may maximise the chances of positive infant development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tetragonula carbonaria, Tetragonula davenporti, Tetragonula hockingsi and Tetragonula mellipes comprise a species complex of Australian stingless bee species known as the 'Carbonaria' group. The species are difficult to distinguish morphologically and the major species-defining characters relate to comb architecture and nest entrance ornamentation. The taxonomy of the group is further complicated by likely nuclear mitochondrial pseudogenes (numts) and inter-specific hybrids. Here we demonstrate the existence of COI numts and isolate and characterize the 'true' mt-COI gene in T. carbonaria and T. hockingsi. Numts were isolated from enriched-nuclear DNA extraction followed by PCR amplification and Sanger sequencing, and were recognized by the presence of deletions and/or premature stop codons in the translated sequences. The mt-COI sequences were obtained from NGS sequencing using purified mtDNA. In T. carbonaria, two numts (numt1 and numt2) were identified and a third (numt3) was identified in T. hockingsi. Numt2 and numt3 are similar (1.2% sequence divergence), indicating a recent common origin. The genetic distance between the mt-COI of the two Tetragonula species was higher than might be expected for closely related species, 16.5%, corroborating previous studies in which T. carbonaria and T. hockingsi were regarded as separate species. The three numts are more similar to the COI of other stingless bee species, including Australian Austroplebia australis and South American Melipona bicolor (81.7–83.9%) than to the mt-COI of their own species (70–71.4%). This is because the mt-COI of T. carbonaria and T. hockingsi differ greatly from other Meliponinae. Our findings explain some formerly puzzling aspects of Carbonaria biogeography, and misinterpreted amplifications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Phytophthora ramorum is an invasive plant pathogen and the cause of considerable and widespread damage in nurseries, gardens and natural woodland ecosystems of the USA and Europe. It is considered to be a significant plant disease as it could cause biodiversity loss and severe economic losses in plant industries in areas where it is not yet known to exist, such as Australasia. Foliar susceptibility and sporulation potential were tested using detached-leaf assays for 70 Australian native plant species sourced from established gardens and arboreta in California using a NA2 isolate of P. ramorum. Correa'Sister Dawn', Eucalyptus regnans, Isopogon cuneatus, I. formosus, Leptospermum scoparium, L. lanigerum and Melaleuca squamea were identified as potentially highly susceptible host species. Hedycarya angustifolia, Olearia argophylla, Phyllocladus aspleniifolius, Pittosporum undulatum and Podocarpus lawrencei were identified as potentially resistant. All 70 species were able to be infected with P. ramorum, as confirmed by reisolation. Putative sporulating hosts include five members of the Myrtaceae, Agonis flexuosa, Corymbia ficifolia, Eucalyptus haemastoma, E. delegatensis and E. viminalis. As a part of a precautionary strategy, the potentially highly susceptible species found in this study are suitable candidates for targeted surveillance programmes in high-risk incursion areas of Australia and within the global horticultural trade. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Susceptibility to branch dieback caused by Phytophthora ramorum was tested using a detached branch assay for 66 Australian native plant species sourced from established gardens and arboreta in California. Six of these species were further tested for their susceptibility to bole cankers caused by P. ramorum using a sealed log assay. Isopogon formosus and Eucalyptus denticulata were identified as potentially highly susceptible Australian branch dieback hosts. Thirteen potentially tolerant Australian host species included Banksia attenuata, B. marginata, E. haemastoma, E. regnans, Pittosporum undulatum and Billardiera heterophylla. Eucalyptus regnans was identified as a potentially highly susceptible bole canker host, while E. diversicolor and E. viminalis were considered potentially tolerant species to bole cankers caused by P. ramorum. Phytophthora ramorum was able to infect all 66 species, as confirmed by reisolation. These results extend the known potential host range for P. ramorum, confirm it as a possible threat to Australian plant industries and ecosystems and highlight additional associated hosts that are important in the global horticultural trade, native forests and plantation forestry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]