Divalent ansa-Octaphenyllanthanocenes: Synthesis, Structures, and EuII Luminescence

Reductive dimerization of fulvenes using low-valent metal precursors is a straightforward one-step approach to access ethylene-bridged metallocenes. This process has so far mainly been employed with fulvenes carrying one or two substituents in the exocyclic position. In this work, a new synthesis of the unsubstituted exocyclic 1,2,3,4-tetraphenylfulvene (1), its full structural characterization by NMR spectroscopy and single-crystal X-ray diffraction, as well as some photophysical properties and its first use in reductive dimerization are described. This fulvene reacted with different lanthanoid metals in thf to provide the divalent ansa-octaphenylmetallocenes [Ln(C5Ph4CH2)2(thf)n] (Ln = Sm, n = 2 (2); Ln = Eu, n = 2 (3); and Ln = Yb, n = 1 (4)). These complexes were characterized by X-ray diffraction, laser desorption/ionization time of flight mass spectrometry, and, in the case of Sm and Yb, multinuclear NMR spectroscopy, showing the influence of the ansa-bridge on solution and solid-state structures compared to previously reported unbridged metallocenes. Furthermore, the luminescence properties of the Eu ansa complex 3 were studied in solution and the solid state, revealing significant differences with the known octa- and deca-phenyleuropocenes, [Eu(C5Ph4H)2(dme)] and [Eu(C5Ph5)2]

Doing research with busy people: Enacting rapid walking methodologies with teachers in a primary school

Teachers are busy people. How do we, as researchers, address the challenges of doing research with busy people—especially if we wish to enact ethical, more radical futures? How do we adhere to the pressures of fast-paced urban life when research, especially interviews, takes away people's time? This paper presents a novel method for doing research with busy people, combining the ‘walking interview’ method with a ‘free listing technique.’ The interviews were carried out with teachers at a north Queensland primary school in a rapidly urbanising neighbourhood, and formed part of a larger project exploring the barriers and opportunities of incorporating community gardens (as important green spaces) into schools. The method itself yielded important findings and this paper is a reflective analysis of how simple factors such as the weather, noise, and interruptions shaped 20 min of a teacher's day. We extend these ideas to explore how conditioned and situational temporalities, along with more-than-human influences, affect the knowledge produced in rapid walking interviews. Keeping track of these affections can yield important data relevant to the project. The research will be invaluable for other researchers struggling with ethical and other issues shaping access to stakeholders in a diverse range of urban environments

Assessing the conservation status of mangroves in Rakhine, Myanmar

Ecosystem degradation is a key challenge that human society faces, as ecosystems provide services that are tied to human well-being. Particularly, mangrove ecosystems provide important services to communities but are suffering heavy degradation, loss and potential collapse due to anthropogenic activities. The IUCN Red List of Ecosystems is a transparent and consistent framework for assessing ecosystems' risk of collapse and is increasingly used to inform legislation and ecosystem management globally. Satellite data have become increasingly common in environmental monitoring due to their extensive spatial and temporal coverage. Here, recent advances in analyses using satellite-derived data were implemented to reassess the conservation status of the ‘Rakhine mangrove forest on mud’, an important intertidal ecosystem in Myanmar, extending a previous national Red List assessment that assessed the ecosystem as Critically Endangered. By incorporating additional data sources and analyses, the extended assessment produced more robust results and reduced the uncertainty in the previous assessment. Overall, the ecosystem was assessed as Critically Endangered (range: Vulnerable to Critically Endangered) as a result of historical mangrove extent loss. Recent losses and biotic disruptions were also observed, which would have led to the ecosystem being assessed as Vulnerable. While the final outcome of the Red List assessment remained at Critically Endangered due to the historical state of the mangroves pre-dating the temporal coverage from satellite data, the uncertainty of the ecosystem's status was reduced, and the reassessment highlighted the recent areal changes and mangrove degradation that has occurred. The importance of conducting reassessments when new data become available is discussed, and a template for future mangrove Red List assessments that use satellite data as their primary source of information to improve the robustness of their results is presented

Recent developments in targets for ischemic foot disease

Diabetes is a key risk factor for ischaemic foot disease, which causes pain, tissue loss, hospital admission, and major amputation. Currently, treatment focuses on revascularisation, but many patients are unsuitable for surgery and revascularisation is frequently unsuccessful. The authors describe recent research in animal models and clinical trials investigating novel medical targets for ischaemia, including theories about impaired wound healing, animal models for limb ischaemia and recent randomised controlled trials testing novel medical therapies. Novel targets identified in animal models included stimulating mobilisation of CD34+ progenitor cells through upregulating oncostatin M or microRNA-181, downregulating tumour necrosis factor superfamily member 14, or activating the Wingless pathway. Within the ischaemic limb vasculature, upregulation of apolipoprotein L domain containing 1, microRNA-130b or long noncoding RNA that enhances endothelial nitric oxide synthase expression promoted limb blood supply recovery, angiogenesis, and arteriogenesis. Similarly, administration of soluble guanylate cyclase stimulators riociguat or praliciguat or 3-ketoacyl-CoA thiolase inhibitor trimetazidine promoted blood flow recovery. Translating pre-clinical findings to patients has been challenging, mainly due to limitations in clinically translatable animal models of human disease. Promising results have been reported for administering plasmids encoding hepatocyte growth factor or intra-arterial injection of bone marrow derived cells in small clinical trials. It remains to be seen whether these high resource therapies can be developed to be widely applicable. In conclusion, an ever-expanding list of potential targets for medical revascularisation is being identified. It is hoped that through ongoing research and further larger clinical trials, these will translate into new broadly applicable therapies to improve outcomes

Prawn Morphometrics and Weight Estimation from Images using Deep Learning for Landmark Localization

Accurate morphometric analyses and weight estimation are useful in aquaculture for optimizing feeding, predicting harvest yields, identifying desirable traits for selective breeding, grading processes, and monitoring the health status of production animals. However, the collection of phenotypic data through traditional manual approaches at industrial scales and in real-time is time-consuming, labour-intensive, and prone to errors. Digital imaging of individuals and subsequent training of prediction models using Deep Learning (DL) has the potential to rapidly and accurately acquire phenotypic data from aquaculture species. In this study, we applied a novel DL approach to automate morphometric analysis and weight estimation using the black tiger prawn (Penaeus monodon) as a model crustacean. The DL approach comprises two main components: a feature extraction module that efficiently combines low-level and high-level features using the Kronecker product operation; followed by a landmark localization module that then uses these features to predict the coordinates of key morphological points (landmarks) on the prawn body. Once these landmarks were extracted, weight was estimated using a weight regression module based on the extracted landmarks using a fully connected network. For morphometric analyses, we utilized the detected landmarks to derive five important prawn traits. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) was also used to identify landmark-derived distances, which were found to be highly correlated with shape features such as body length, and width. We evaluated our approach on a large dataset of 8164 images of the Black tiger prawn (Penaeus monodon) collected from Australian farms. Our experimental results demonstrate that the novel DL approach outperforms existing DL methods in terms of accuracy, robustness, and efficiency

Enabling workplace thriving: A multilevel model of positive affect, team cohesion, and task interdependence

This research advances the workplace thriving literature by offering a multilevel view regarding the impact of positive affective resources on employee and team thriving. We conducted our study with 285 employees from 62 teams to examine a multilevel model involving the relationship between high-activated positive affect (HAPA) and thriving at individual and team levels. Results demonstrated that team HAPA triggered team cohesion, which in turn enhanced team thriving, and that individual HAPA promoted individual thriving. While task interdependence did not moderate the effects of team HAPA on team cohesion or, in turn, on team thriving, cross-level moderation showed that task interdependence strengthened the relationship between individual HAPA and individual thriving. These findings extend the knowledge regarding the relationship between positive affect and thriving by confirming the role of affect activation, identifying a team-level mechanism, and clarifying a boundary condition

Strategies to integrate culturally and linguistically diverse nurses into foreign healthcare systems: It's everybody's business

Kamau et al’s. (1) study focused on integration strategies and models to support CALD nurses noting strategies that support CALD nurses vary worldwide (1,2,3). Kamau et al’s findings demonstrate integration strategies and models to support CALD nurses can be aligned with the theory of organizational socialization. (1,4,) Saks and Gruman (5) advocate a shift in research and practice regarding organizational socialization arguing that it alone is insufficient when on-boarding new staff. They propose the concept of positive organizational behaviour (POB) may offer a neoteric approach to organizational socialization and suggest socialization processes should aim to develop the psychological capital of newcomers, and POB should be an integral part to any onboarding support strategy (5) regardless of people’s backgrounds (6). Overall, the evidence suggests a multifaceted approach that combines strategies, is most effective in supporting the transition and adaptation of CALD nurses into healthcare environments. (1,5,6). The establishment of a supportive and inclusive workplace culture is crucial for the professional growth, collaboration, and satisfaction of CALD nurses and their colleagues. Respectful, culturally safe, positive workplaces are critical for the satisfaction and retention of all nurses. Such a culture contributes to safe nursing care, improved nurse fulfilment, and better patient outcomes. The responsibility for a diverse and educated nurse workforce lies with educational, regulatory, and employing bodies in healthcare settings and jurisdictions. Healthcare organisations must prioritize promoting diversity and multiculturalism at all levels of the healthcare workforce, including employment, promotion, leadership, and fostering a culture of inclusion and respect. This is critical to meet the demand and expectations of healthcare professionals and the populations they serve, both now and into the future

WALLAX: A memristor-based Gaussian random number generator

Generating Gaussian random numbers is essential in many applications such as cryptography, games, and computer simulations. Although software Gaussian Random Number Generators (GRNG) are widely used, hardware designs have been explored for their faster speed and lower computational cost. However, hardware GRNGs usually occupy large silicon areas when implemented in Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor (CMOS) technology, especially for their essential Uniform Random Number Generator (URNG) part. Here, we present a memristor-based GRNG, named WALLAX, conceived from the Wallace method to generate random numbers iteratively. This GRNG circuit benefits not only from the fully parallel analog-based Vector Matrix Multiplication (VMM) feature of memristive crossbars but also harness the intrinsic stochastic switching behaviour of the memristive devices to efficiently produce truly random numbers. The vector-matrix multiplication of WALLAX is implemented on the memristive crossbar, while its random fetching step is realized by a URNG based on the stochastic switching nature of memristors. WALLAX successfully passes all the tests in the NIST 800-22 randomness test suite with numbers generated and five goodness-of-fit tests with various pool sizes and effectively reduces the power and area consumption by 68.78% and 70.0% compared to digital implementations of the same GRNG method. The impact brought by memristor non-idealities is investigated by simulating the proposed structure with 1000 pools under various scenarios. Wire resistance and the stuck of state, each result in a 2.2% and 12.3% reduction in test pass rate within the tested range, respectively

Sustainability criterion implied externality pricing for resource extraction

A dynamic model is constructed that generalises the Hartwick and Van Long (2020) endogenous discounting setup by introducing externalities and asks what implications this has for optimal natural resource extraction with constant consumption. It is shown that a modified form of the Hotelling and Hartwick rule holds in which the externality component of price is a specific function of the instantaneous user costs and cross price elasticities. It is demonstrated that the externality adjusted marginal user cost of remaining natural reserves is equal to the marginal user cost of extracted resources invested in human-made reproducible capital. This lends itself to a discrete form with a readily intuitive economic interpretation that illuminates the stepwise impact of externality pricing on optimal extraction schedules

Earliest known funerary rites in Wallacea after the last glacial maximum

The insular region of Wallacea has become a focal point for studying Pleistocene human ecological and cultural adaptations in island environments, however, little is understood about early burial traditions during the Pleistocene. Here we investigate maritime interactions and burial practices at Ratu Mali 2, an elevated coastal cave site on the small island of Kisar in the Lesser Sunda Islands of eastern Indonesia dated to 15,500–3700 cal. BP. This multidisciplinary study demonstrates extreme marine dietary adaptations, engagement with an extensive exchange network across open seas, and early mortuary practices. A flexed male and a female, interred in a single grave with abundant shellfish and obsidian at Ratu Mali 2 by 14.7 ka are the oldest known human burials in Wallacea with established funerary rites. These findings highlight the impressive flexibility of our species in marginal environments and provide insight into the earliest known ritualised treatment of the dead in Wallacea