Sociocultural factors and perceptions associated with type 2 diabetes among sub-Saharan African migrants in Melbourne, Victoria

Aim: To explore how non-diabetic sub-Saharan African migrants residing in Melbourne, construct and interpret type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and its risk factors and to provide an evidence-based theoretical framework to inform community-based prevention programs. Methods: Seven focus group discussions (two with women only, two with men only and three of mixed gender) were carried out among Ghanaian, Zimbabwean, Sudanese and Burundian migrants living in Melbourne (n = 61; age range: 18 to 61 years). Results: Three distinct themes emerged: not paying much attention to the threat of T2DM and othering; T2DM being outside the individuals' control; and entrapment within rich industrialised culture and lifestyle. Participants perceived T2DM to be a disease of the wealthy caused by intake of too much sugar and sedentary behaviour, which were particularly compounded by lifestyle-related changes upon migration to an industrialised country. However, they also perceived T2DM to be associated with bad luck. Conclusions: Culturally competent prevention and education programs are needed to increase health literacy and dispel religious and cultural myths about T2DM among sub-Saharan African migrants.

Differentiating sub-groups of online depression-related communities using textual cues

Depression is a highly prevalent mental illness and is a comorbidity of other mental and behavioural disorders. The Internet allows individuals who are depressed or caring for those who are depressed, to connect with others via online communities; however, the characteristics of these online conversations and the language styles of those interested in depression have not yet been fully explored. This work aims to explore the textual cues of online communities interested in depression. A random sample of 5,000 blog posts was crawled. Five groupings were identified: depression, bipolar, self-harm, grief, and suicide. Independent variables included psycholinguistic processes and content topics extracted from the posts. Machine learning techniques were used to discriminate messages posted in the depression sub-group from the others.Good predictive validity in depression classification using topics and psycholinguistic clues as features was found. Clear discrimination between writing styles and content, with good predictive power is an important step in understanding social media and its use in mental health.

Interações magnéticas e magnetoresistencia em Co/sub 10/ Cu/sub 90/

Foram investigados os efeitos de tratamentos térmicos nas propriedades estruturais, magnéticas e de magnetotransporte eletrônico de fitas de Co10Cu90 rapidamente resfriadas (“melt-spun”) enfatizando o estudo de possíveis relações entre as interações magnéticas entre grãos, camadas e cristais presentes nestes materiais e a magnetoresistência. A análise combinada da evolução estrutural e da intensidade das interações entre os grãos magnéticos mostra claramente o papel de alguns parâmetros estruturais (tamanho e densidade de partículas, distância entre partículas) e da própria intensidade das interações entre as partículas nas propriedades de transporte eletrônico em presença de um campo magnético.