Generationing development

The articles in this special issue present a persuasive case for accounts of development to recognise the integral and fundamental roles played by age and generation. While the past two decades have witnessed a burgeoning of literature demonstrating that children and youth are impacted by development, and that they can and do participate in development, the literature has tended to portray young people as a special group whose perspectives should not be forgotten. By contrast, the articles collected here make the case that age and generation, as relational constructs, cannot be ignored. Appropriating the term ‘generationing’, the editors argue that a variety of types of age relations profoundly structure the ways in which societies are transformed through development – both immanent processes of neoliberal modernisation and the interventions of development agencies that both respond and contribute to these. Drawing on the seven empirical articles, I attempt to draw some of the ideas together into a narrative that further argues the case for ‘generationing’ but also identifies gaps, questions and implications for further research

Interpersonal functioning in obsessive-compulsive personality disorder

The core symptoms of obsessive-compulsive personality disorder (OCPD) often lead to interpersonal difficulties. However, little research has explored interpersonal functioning in OCPD. This study examined interpersonal problems, interpersonal sensitivities, empathy, and systemizing, the drive to analyze and derive underlying rules for systems, in a sample of 25 OCPD individuals, 25 individuals with comorbid OCPD and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), and 25 healthy controls. We found that OCPD individuals reported hostile-dominant interpersonal problems and sensitivities with warm-dominant behavior by others, whereas OCPD+OCD individuals reported submissive interpersonal problems and sensitivities with warm-submissive behavior by others. Individuals with OCPD, with and without OCD, reported less empathic perspective taking relative to healthy controls. Finally, we found that OCPD males reported a higher drive to analyze and derive rules for systems than OCPD females. Overall, results suggest that there are interpersonal deficits associated with OCPD and the clinical implications of these deficits are discussed

Childhood and the politics of scale: Descaling children's geographies?

This is the post-print version of the final published paper that is available from the link below. Copyright @ 2008 SAGE Publications.The past decade has witnessed a resurgence of interest in the geographies of children's lives, and particularly in engaging the voices and activities of young people in geographical research. Much of this growing body of scholarship is characterized by a very parochial locus of interest — the neighbourhood, playground, shopping mall or journey to school. In this paper I explore some of the roots of children's geographies' preoccupation with the micro-scale and argue that it limits the relevance of research, both politically and to other areas of geography. In order to widen the scope of children's geographies, some scholars have engaged with developments in the theorization of scale. I present these arguments but also point to their limitations. As an alternative, I propose that the notion of a flat ontology might help overcome some difficulties around scalar thinking, and provide a useful means of conceptualizing sociospatiality in material and non-hierarchical terms. Bringing together flat ontology and work in children's geographies on embodied subjectivity, I argue that it is important to examine the nature and limits of children's spaces of perception and action. While these spaces are not simply `local', they seldom afford children opportunities to comment on, or intervene in, the events, processes and decisions that shape their own lives. The implications for the substance and method of children's geographies and for geographical work on scale are considered

Novel (N-heterocyclic carbene)-palladium(0) complexes as catalysts in element-element bond additions to unsaturated moieties

The focus of this thesis is the synthesis of novel palladium(0) complexes bearing the ligand 1,3,4,5-tetramethylimidazol-2-ylidene (ITMe), a small percentage buried volume N-heterocyclic carbene. These complexes have been assessed as mediators for the 1,2-additions of hetero element-element bonds to unsaturated organic moieties. In particular, Si-Si, Si-B and B-B bond additions to alkynes and azobenzenes were chosen as reactions of interest due to their challenging nature. Chapter 1 introduces the concept of transition metal mediated element-element additions to alkynes and includes a thorough review on the current literature state. Chapter 2 describes the first solution based synthesis of [Pd(ITMe)2] and its in situ reactivity with Me3SiSiMe3 under mild conditions to form the novel complex cis-[Pd(ITMe)2(SiMe3)2], the first NHC-bearing complex resulting from the oxidative addition of hexamethyldisilane to a palladium centre. The use of this complex as a pre-catalyst for the bis(silyl)ation of electronically and sterically challenging internal acetylenes using non-activated disilanes is reported. A series of novel 1,2-disilylstilbenes were synthesized in high yield and with 100% Z-stereoselectivity. Chapter 3 details the use of [Pd(ITMe)2(PhC≡CPh)], the first bis(N-heterocyclic carbene)Pd(0)-alkyne complex, as a highly reactive pre-catalyst in the silaboration of terminal and internal alkynes to yield a number of known and novel 1-silyl-2-boryl alkenes. Unprecedented mild reaction temperatures for terminal alkynes, short reaction times and low catalytic loadings are reported. During mechanistic studies, cis-[Pd(ITMe)2(SiMe2Ph)(Bpin)] was directly synthesized by oxidative addition of PhMe2SiBpin to [Pd(ITMe)2(PhC≡CPh)]. This represents a very rare example of a (silyl)(boryl)palladium complex. A plausible catalyst decomposition route was also examined. In Chapter 4, [Pd(ITMe)2(PhC≡CPh)] acts as a highly reactive pre-catalyst in the unprecedented homogeneous catalyzed diboration of terminal and internal alkynes, yielding a number of novel and known syn-1,2-diborylalkenes in a 100% stereoselective manner. DFT calculations conducted by our collaborators suggest that a similar reaction pathway to that proposed for platinum phosphine analogues is followed, and that destabilization of key intermediates by ITMe is vital to the overall success for the palladium-catalyzed B-B addition to alkynes. Chapter 5 reports the use of [Pd(ITMe)2(PhC≡CPh)] as a highly active pre-catalyst in the diboration and silaboration of azobenzenes to synthesize a series of novel functionalized hydrazines. The reactions proceed using commercially available diboranes and silaboranes under mild reaction conditions. Preliminary investigations into further reactivity of [Pd(ITMe)2(PhC≡CPh)], [Pd(ITMe)2] and cis-[Pd(ITMe)2(SiR3)2] (SiR3 = SiMe2Ph or SiMe3) are reported in Chapter 6. This includes the oxidative cleavage of Me3GeGeMe3 by [Pd(ITMe)2(PhC≡CPh)] to form the novel cis-[Pd(ITMe)2(GeMe3)2] and an initial study into the catalytic alkyne digermylations. The hydrogenation of diphenylacetylene to form Z-stilbene using an amine-borane and catalytic quantities of [Pd(ITMe)2(PhC≡CPh)] was also investigated. Finally, the stoichiometric reactions of allyl bromides with cis-[Pd(ITMe)2(SiR3)2] to form the novel complexes trans-[Pd(ITMe)2(SiR3)(Br)] are detailed

Electrically controllable exchange bias via interface magnetoelectric effect

Exchange bias is a unidirectional magnetic anisotropy that often arise from interfacial interaction of a ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic layers. In this article, we show that a metallic layer with spin-orbit coupling can induces an exchange bias via an interface magnetoelectric effect. In linear response regime, the interface magnetoelectric effect is induced by spin-orbit couplings that arises from the broken symmetry of the system. Furthermore, we demonstrate that the exchange bias can be controlled by electric field.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, presented on Intermag 202

Personality heterogeneity in female adolescent inpatients with features of eating disorders

Objective: This study examined evidence for personality variability in adolescents with eating disorder features in light of previous evidence that personality variability in adult women with eating disorder symptoms carries important clinical implications. Method: Millon Adolescent Clinical Inventory personality data from adolescent girls with disturbed eating who were psychiatrically hospitalized were cluster analyzed, and resulting groups were compared in eating and comorbid psychopathology. Results: Three subgroups were identified among the 153 patients with eating disorder features: high functioning, internalizing, and externalizing. The internalizing group was marked by eating-related and mood dysfunction; the externalizing group by elevated eating and mood psychopathology as well as impulsivity, aggression, and substance use; and the high-functioning group by lower levels of psychopathology and relatively high self-esteem. Conclusions: These findings converge with previous research using different personality models in adult samples and highlight the clinical use of considering personality heterogeneity among adolescent and adult women with disturbed eating

Singular-phase nanooptics: towards label-free single molecule detection

Non-trivial topology of phase is crucial for many important physics phenomena such as, for example, the Aharonov-Bohm effect 1 and the Berry phase 2. Light phase allows one to create "twisted" photons 3, 4 , vortex knots 5, dislocations 6 which has led to an emerging field of singular optics relying on abrupt phase changes 7. Here we demonstrate the feasibility of singular visible-light nanooptics which exploits the benefits of both plasmonic field enhancement and non-trivial topology of light phase. We show that properly designed plasmonic nanomaterials exhibit topologically protected singular phase behaviour which can be employed to radically improve sensitivity of detectors based on plasmon resonances. By using reversible hydrogenation of graphene 8 and a streptavidin-biotin test 9, we demonstrate areal mass sensitivity at a level of femto-grams per mm2 and detection of individual biomolecules, respectively. Our proof-of-concept results offer a way towards simple and scalable single-molecular label-free biosensing technologies.Comment: 19 pages, 4 figure

Evaluating complementary networks of restoration plantings for landscape-scale occurrence of temporally dynamic species

Multibillion dollar investments in land restoration make it critical that conservation goals are achieved cost-effectively. Approaches developed for systematic conservation planning offer opportunities to evaluate landscape-scale, temporally dynamic biodiversity outcomes from restoration and improve on traditional approaches that focus on the most species-rich plantings. We investigated whether it is possible to apply a complementarity-based approach to evaluate the extent to which an existing network of restoration plantings meets representation targets. Using a case study of woodland birds of conservation concern in southeastern Australia, we compared complementarity-based selections of plantings based on temporally dynamic species occurrences with selections based on static species occurrences and selections based on ranking plantings by species richness. The dynamic complementarity approach, which incorporated species occurrences over 5 years, resulted in higher species occurrences and proportion of targets met compared with the static complementarity approach, in which species occurrences were taken at a single point in time. For equivalent cost, the dynamic complementarity approach also always resulted in higher average minimum percent occurrence of species maintained through time and a higher proportion of the bird community meeting representation targets compared with the species-richness approach. Plantings selected under the complementarity approaches represented the full range of planting attributes, whereas those selected under the species-richness approach were larger in size. Our results suggest that future restoration policy should not attempt to achieve all conservation goals within individual plantings, but should instead capitalize on restoration opportunities as they arise to achieve collective value of multiple plantings across the landscape. Networks of restoration plantings with complementary attributes of age, size, vegetation structure, and landscape context lead to considerably better outcomes than conventional restoration objectives of site-scale species richness and are crucial for allocating restoration investment wisely to reach desired conservation goals.We thank the Australian Research Council, the Murrayand Riverina Local Land Services, and the Caring for OurCountry Program for funding for this project

Optimal discrete stopping times for reliability growth tests

Often, the duration of a reliability growth development test is specified in advance and the decision to terminate or continue testing is conducted at discrete time intervals. These features are normally not captured by reliability growth models. This paper adapts a standard reliability growth model to determine the optimal time for which to plan to terminate testing. The underlying stochastic process is developed from an Order Statistic argument with Bayesian inference used to estimate the number of faults within the design and classical inference procedures used to assess the rate of fault detection. Inference procedures within this framework are explored where it is shown the Maximum Likelihood Estimators possess a small bias and converges to the Minimum Variance Unbiased Estimator after few tests for designs with moderate number of faults. It is shown that the Likelihood function can be bimodal when there is conflict between the observed rate of fault detection and the prior distribution describing the number of faults in the design. An illustrative example is provided