Developing sexual competence? Exploring strategies for the provision of effective sexualities and relationships education

School-based sexualities and relationships education (SRE) offers one of the most promising means of improving young people's sexual health through developing 'sexual competence'. In the absence of evidence on whether the term holds the same meanings for young people and adults (e.g. teachers, researchers, policy-makers), the paper explores 'adult' notions of sexual competence as construed in research data and alluded to in UK Government guidance on SRE, then draws on empirical research with young people on factors that affect the contexts, motivations and outcomes of sexual encounters, and therefore have implications for sexual competence. These data from young people also challenge more traditional approaches to sexualities education in highlighting disjunctions between the content of school-based input and their reported sexual experience. The paper concludes by considering the implications of these insights for developing a shared notion of what SRE is trying to achieve and suggestions for recognition in the content and approaches to SRE.</p

Synthesis of nitrogen-substituted cycloparaphenylenes

Bottom-up synthesis is increasingly becoming the method of choice for assembling and studying novel nanomaterials. Whereas more traditional top-down methods may lead to mixtures of products and suffer from reproducibility issues, bottom-up approaches offer atomistic control over the material's structure. Bottom-up synthesis can also produce materials that would otherwise be unobtainable with top-down methodologies. Finite substructures of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are one such example. The work encompassed in this thesis details the study of two related classes of CNT substructures: the cycloparaphenylenes (CPPs) and [5.7]ncyclacenes. Cycloparaphenylenes are a class of graphitic material with many unique properties that make them intriguing candidates for study in a variety of electronic applications. Chapter 1 describes the current state of CPP research, from preliminary synthesis to fundamental understanding of their properties. To optimize device performance, carbon materials are often doped with heteroatoms. Towards this end, the synthesis of a series of nitrogen-doped [8]CPPs (N-[8]CPPs) are detailed in Chapter 2. Nitrogen is incorporated into the CPP structure by way of the reductive aromatization strategy used for the all carbon CPPs, replacing 1,4-dibromobenzene with 2,5-dibromopyridine. The synthesis utilizes oxidatively masked benzenes to assemble less strained, macrocyclic precursors. Through the divergent nature of the synthesis, macrocycles containing up to three nitrogen atoms at precise locations are prepared. Macrocycles are aromatized via a single electron reduction to reveal the final N-CPP structures. Chapter 3 details the full characterization of the properties of the novel N-[8]CPPs. The differences between the N-[8]CPPs and [8]CPP are rationalized in the context of DFT studies. Finally, the study of 1N-[8]CPP and [8]CPP as novel electrode materials in supercapacitor cells is presented. Preliminary results show that the CPP electrodes are more conductive than the activated carbon control group, but the specific capacitances are found to be low. Finally, Chapter 4 describes the computational study of a novel family of macrocycle: [5.7]ncyclacenes. [5.7]ncyclacenes are isomers of the sought after [n]cyclacenes. Unlike their isomeric cousins, DFT studies show that [5.7]ncyclacenes have stable, closed-shell singlet ground states with relatively low strain energies. NICS values also show the molecules to be non-aromatic. These results suggest that with proper synthetic design, the [5.7]ncyclacenes should be accessible synthetically

Deformation and chaining of flexible shells in a nematic solvent

A micrometer-scale elastic shell immersed in a nematic liquid crystal may be deformed by the host if the cost of deformation is comparable to the cost of elastic deformation of the nematic. Moreover, such inclusions interact and form chains due to quadrupolar distortions induced in the host. A continuum theory model using finite elements is developed for this system, using mesh regularization and dynamic refinement to ensure quality of the numerical representation even for large deformations. From this model, we determine the influence of the shell elasticity, nematic elasticity and anchoring condition on the shape of the shell and hence extract parameter values from an experimental realization. Extending the model to multi-body interactions, we predict the alignment angle of the chain with respect to the host nematic as a function of aspect ratio, which is found to be in excellent agreement with experiments and greatly improves upon previous theoretical predictions.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figure

Heat transfer to a resonant pulsating air stream in a pipe

The effect on convective heat transfer of resonant, longitudinal oscillations superimposed on a turbulent mean flow in a pipe has been investigated relative to the equivalent steady flow. Theoretically it is shown that the effect of acoustic streaming velocities is negligible for the range of pulsation parameters, but that the oscillating velocity can generate changes in the time-mean flow diffusivity - the change in mean diffusivity can only be predicted if quasi-steady pulsations are assumed. Heat transfer coefficients for the mean flow are evaluated from the Energy equation, for fully established conditions, assuming quasi-steady oscillations. It is proposed that a frequency factor can be derived to relate experimental heat transfer to the quasi-steady predictions, and that the factor would be a function of Strouhal number only. Local heat transfer coefficients were measured for a constant heat flux supply to an oscillating air flow in a pipe. The pulsations were generated by a siren. It was shown that the centre-line velocity amplitudes could be predicted from inviscid flow theory using a mean velocity of sound. The range of the major parameters was: Diraensionless pulsation velocity 0.3 < B < 5 Strouhal number 0.5 < S < 10 Reynolds number 14,300 < Red < 31,250. For fully developed flow, the experimental results were related to the corresponding quasi-steady predictions by a function of Strouhal number. It was shown that the changes in heat transfer were due to changes in the mean diffusivity generated by the acoustic velocity. For a defined range of pulsation parameters, it is possible to predict local heat transfer coefficients under fully established conditions for a pulsating flow from the empirical frequency correction factor applied to the theoretical quasi-steady predictions

Exchange Narrowing Effects in the EPR Linewidth of Gd Diluted in Ce Compounds

Anomalous thermal behavior on the EPR linewidths of Gd impurities diluted in Ce compounds has been observed. In metals, the local magnetic moment EPR linewidth, \Delta H, is expected to increase linearly with the temperature. In contrast, in Ce_{x}La_{1-x}Os_{2} the Gd EPR spectra show a nonlinear increase. In this work, the mechanisms that are responsible for the thermal behavior of the EPR lines in Ce_{x}La_{1-x}Os_{2} are examined. We show that the exchange interaction between the local magnetic moments and the conduction electrons are responsible for the narrowing of the spectra at low temperatures. At high temperatures, the contribution to the linewidth of the exchange interaction between the local magnetic moments and the $Ce$ ions has an exponential dependence on the excitation energy of the intermediate valent ions. A complete fitting of the EPR spectra for powdered samples is obtained.Comment: 11 pages, 1 figur

An analysis of the long-term variation in stream water quality for three upland catchments at Loch Dee (Galloway, S.W. Scotland) under contrasting land management

International audienceA long term record of water chemistry, consisting of twenty years of weekly spot samples, from three sub-catchments draining into a loch and the loch outflow in Galloway, S.W. Scotland have been analysed. The analysis undertaken consisted of a three component statistical trend model. The technique allows the identification of long-term, seasonal and short-term trends, as well as differentiation between base flow and high flow responses. The land usage in the three sub-catchments is moorland, forest and forest plus lime. The results show that, since the mid-1980s, there has been a gradual decline in stream-water sulphate of the same order as reductions in the deposition of non-marine sulphate. Superimposed on this trend are somewhat random but considerable perturbations to this decline, caused by sea-salt deposition. There is no evidence of changes in surface water nitrate concentrations. The influence of different land management is evident in the sulphate, nitrate and pH data, whilst variations in calcium concentrations are also a product of differences in hydrological routing and the impact of sea-salt episodes. Keywords: trend analysis, acid deposition, land management, water quality, sea-salts, Galloway, S.W. Scotlan

ciliaFA : a research tool for automated, high-throughput measurement of ciliary beat frequency using freely available software

Background: Analysis of ciliary function for assessment of patients suspected of primary ciliary dyskinesia (PCD) and for research studies of respiratory and ependymal cilia requires assessment of both ciliary beat pattern and beat frequency. While direct measurement of beat frequency from high-speed video recordings is the most accurate and reproducible technique it is extremely time consuming. The aim of this study was to develop a freely available automated method of ciliary beat frequency analysis from digital video (AVI) files that runs on open-source software (ImageJ) coupled to Microsoft Excel, and to validate this by comparison to the direct measuring high-speed video recordings of respiratory and ependymal cilia. These models allowed comparison to cilia beating between 3 and 52 Hz. Methods: Digital video files of motile ciliated ependymal (frequency range 34 to 52 Hz) and respiratory epithelial cells (frequency 3 to 18 Hz) were captured using a high-speed digital video recorder. To cover the range above between 18 and 37 Hz the frequency of ependymal cilia were slowed by the addition of the pneumococcal toxin pneumolysin. Measurements made directly by timing a given number of individual ciliary beat cycles were compared with those obtained using the automated ciliaFA system. Results: The overall mean difference (± SD) between the ciliaFA and direct measurement high-speed digital imaging methods was −0.05 ± 1.25 Hz, the correlation coefficient was shown to be 0.991 and the Bland-Altman limits of agreement were from −1.99 to 1.49 Hz for respiratory and from −2.55 to 3.25 Hz for ependymal cilia. Conclusions: A plugin for ImageJ was developed that extracts pixel intensities and performs fast Fourier transformation (FFT) using Microsoft Excel. The ciliaFA software allowed automated, high throughput measurement of respiratory and ependymal ciliary beat frequency (range 3 to 52 Hz) and avoids operator error due to selection bias. We have included free access to the ciliaFA plugin and installation instructions in Additional file 1 accompanying this manuscript that other researchers may use