End-on cyanate or end-to-end thiocyanate bridged dinuclear copper(II) complexes with a tridentate Schiff base blocking ligand: Synthesis, structure and magnetic studies

Two dinuclear copper(II) complexes, [Cu2(L)2(1,1-NCO)2] (1) and [Cu2(L)2(1,3-NCS)2]H2ODMF (2) have been synthesized using a tridentate N2O donor Schiff base ligand (HL) [1((2-(ethylamino)ethylimino)methyl)naphthalen-2-ol] and characterized by elemental analysis, spectral study and X-ray crystallography. Both complexes are centrosymmetric dimers in which square pyramidal copper(II) centres are connected by pseudo-halides; end-on cyanate in 1 and end-to-end (EE) thiocyanate in 2. Variable temperature (2–300 K) magnetic susceptibility measurements indicate the presence of ferromagnetic exchange coupling between copper(II) centres in complex 1 (J = 0.97 cm-1), and antiferromagnetic exchange coupling in 2 (J = - 0.6 cm–1)

Collpas: Activity hotspots for frugivorous bats (Phyllostomidae) in the Peruvian Amazon

In the SE Peruvian Amazon, large numbers of frugivorous bats regularly visit natural forest clearings known locally as collpas (which are also referred to as clay licks or mineral licks). Bats arrive at collpas to drink water that has accumulated in depressions created by larger geophagous mammals that consume exposed soil. Although collpa visitation is common, little is known about its causes and its ecological implications for the bat community. We compared patterns of use of collpas and non-collpa forest sites by bats in SE Peru. We mist netted bats at collpas and non-collpa sites during the dry season and compared abundance, species richness, species composition, sex ratio, and reproductive condition. More species were captured at collpas than at non-collpa sites, and collpas were visited almost exclusively by frugivores. Overall, bat-capture frequency and combined frugivorous bat-capture frequency were higher at collpas than at non-collpa sites, although some species of frugivorous bats were captured more frequently at non-collpa sites than at collpas (e.g., Carollia spp.). Irrespective of capture site, more female bats were pregnant or lactating than not, but there was a distinct female sex bias in bats that visited collpas: 70 percent of bats captured at collpas were female, whereas 44 percent of bats captured away from collpas were female. These patterns suggest that collpas may provide important resources for frugivorous bats in SE Peru, just as they are thought to provide important resources to the vertebrates that consume collpa soils. Accordingly, collpas are important conservation targets in the region. © 2008 The Author(s)

Exploring learning goals and assessment approaches for Indigenous health education : a qualitative study in Australia and New Zealand

In higher education, assessment is key to student learning. Assessments which promote critical thinking necessary for sustained learning beyond university are highly valued. However, the design of assessment tasks to achieve these types of thinking skills and dispositions to act in professional practice has received little attention. This research examines how academics design assessment to achieve these learning goals in Indigenous health education. Indigenous health education is an important area of learning for health practitioners to help address worldwide patterns of health inequities that exist for Indigenous people. We used a constructivist qualitative methodology to (i) explore learning goals and assessment strategies used in Indigenous health tertiary education and (ii) examine how they relate to higher education assessment ideals. Forty-one academics (from nine health disciplines) involved in teaching Indigenous health content participated in a semi-structured interview. Thematic analysis revealed learning goals to transform students’ perspectives and capacities to think critically and creatively about their role in Indigenous health. In contrast, assessment tasks encouraged more narrowly bounded thinking to analyse information about historical and socio-cultural factors contributing to Indigenous health. To transform students to be critical health practitioners capable of working and collaborating with Indigenous people to advance their health and well-being, the findings suggest that assessment may need to be nested across many aspects of the curriculum using a programmatic approach, and with a focus on learning to think and act for future practice. These findings accord with more recent calls for transformation of learning and assessment in health education. © 2017, Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht

Exploring learning goals and assessment approaches for Indigenous health education : a qualitative study in Australia and New Zealand

In higher education, assessment is key to student learning. Assessments which promote critical thinking necessary for sustained learning beyond university are highly valued. However, the design of assessment tasks to achieve these types of thinking skills and dispositions to act in professional practice has received little attention. This research examines how academics design assessment to achieve these learning goals in Indigenous health education. Indigenous health education is an important area of learning for health practitioners to help address worldwide patterns of health inequities that exist for Indigenous people. We used a constructivist qualitative methodology to (i) explore learning goals and assessment strategies used in Indigenous health tertiary education and (ii) examine how they relate to higher education assessment ideals. Forty-one academics (from nine health disciplines) involved in teaching Indigenous health content participated in a semi-structured interview. Thematic analysis revealed learning goals to transform students’ perspectives and capacities to think critically and creatively about their role in Indigenous health. In contrast, assessment tasks encouraged more narrowly bounded thinking to analyse information about historical and socio-cultural factors contributing to Indigenous health. To transform students to be critical health practitioners capable of working and collaborating with Indigenous people to advance their health and well-being, the findings suggest that assessment may need to be nested across many aspects of the curriculum using a programmatic approach, and with a focus on learning to think and act for future practice. These findings accord with more recent calls for transformation of learning and assessment in health education. © 2017, Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht

Distress and satisfaction with research participation: Impact on retention in longitudinal disaster research

© 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/BY-NC-ND/4.0/).Previous studies of the impact of post-trauma research participation indicate that while the research experience may be emotional, it can still be valued by participants. This paper describes participant experiences of the Australian post-bushfire research study–Beyond Bushfires. It examines the relationships between distress during research participation, probable mental health conditions, and satisfaction with the research experience over time. A range of strategies was incorporated into the study, including a distress and risk assessment and referral protocol, to minimise any risk of harm for people who had experienced the 2009 bushfires and their aftermath. Participants included 1056 respondents (Wave 1) interviewed via telephone and web-based survey between December 2011 through January 2013, and 736 (76.1%) of the participants were re-surveyed between July and November 2014 (Wave 2). Research impact was monitored through two questions about survey experience on each occasion. Reported distress at completing the survey was generally low, while overall satisfaction was relatively high. Participants’ reported satisfaction was not associated with their reported level of distress as a result of the survey; and reported participation distress at Wave 1 did not predict whether a respondent would return to complete the survey at Wave 2. Fire-related Posttraumatic stress symptoms were associated with increased satisfaction and likelihood to return at Wave 2. These findings suggest that for Beyond Bushfires survey respondents the perceived benefits outweighed the costs of participation over time

Insights into the regulation of DMSP synthesis in the diatom Thalassiosira pseudonana through APR activity, proteomics and gene expression analyses on cells acclimating to changes in salinity, light and nitrogen

Despite the importance of dimethylsulphoniopropionate (DMSP) in the global sulphur cycle and climate regulation, the biological pathways underpinning its synthesis in marine phytoplankton remain poorly understood. The intracellular concentration of DMSP increases with increased salinity, increased light intensity and nitrogen starvation in the diatom Thalassiosira pseudonana. We used these conditions to investigate DMSP synthesis at the cellular level via analysis of enzyme activity, gene expression and proteome comparison. The activity of the key sulphur assimilatory enzyme, adenosine 5′- phosphosulphate reductase was not coordinated with increasing intracellular DMSP concentration. Under all three treatments coordination in the expression of sulphur assimilation genes was limited to increases in sulphite reductase transcripts. Similarly, proteomic 2D gel analysis only revealed an increase in phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase following increases in DMSP concentration. Our findings suggest that increased sulphur assimilation might not be required for increased DMSP synthesis, instead the availability of carbon and nitrogen substrates may be important in the regulation of this pathway. This contrasts with the regulation of sulphur metabolism in higher plants, which generally involves upregulation of several sulphur assimilatory enzymes. In T. pseudonana changes relating to sulphur metabolism were specific to the individual treatments and, given that little coordination was seen in transcript and protein responses across the three growth conditions, different patterns of regulation might be responsible for the increase in DMSP concentration seen under each treatment

The use of phylogeny to interpret cross-cultural patterns in plant use and guide medicinal plant discovery: an example from Pterocarpus (Leguminosae)

The study of traditional knowledge of medicinal plants has led to discoveries that have helped combat diseases and improve healthcare. However, the development of quantitative measures that can assist our quest for new medicinal plants has not greatly advanced in recent years. Phylogenetic tools have entered many scientific fields in the last two decades to provide explanatory power, but have been overlooked in ethnomedicinal studies. Several studies show that medicinal properties are not randomly distributed in plant phylogenies, suggesting that phylogeny shapes ethnobotanical use. Nevertheless, empirical studies that explicitly combine ethnobotanical and phylogenetic information are scarce.In this study, we borrowed tools from community ecology phylogenetics to quantify significance of phylogenetic signal in medicinal properties in plants and identify nodes on phylogenies with high bioscreening potential. To do this, we produced an ethnomedicinal review from extensive literature research and a multi-locus phylogenetic hypothesis for the pantropical genus Pterocarpus (Leguminosae: Papilionoideae). We demonstrate that species used to treat a certain conditions, such as malaria, are significantly phylogenetically clumped and we highlight nodes in the phylogeny that are significantly overabundant in species used to treat certain conditions. These cross-cultural patterns in ethnomedicinal usage in Pterocarpus are interpreted in the light of phylogenetic relationships.This study provides techniques that enable the application of phylogenies in bioscreening, but also sheds light on the processes that shape cross-cultural ethnomedicinal patterns. This community phylogenetic approach demonstrates that similar ethnobotanical uses can arise in parallel in different areas where related plants are available. With a vast amount of ethnomedicinal and phylogenetic information available, we predict that this field, after further refinement of the techniques, will expand into similar research areas, such as pest management or the search for bioactive plant-based compounds

Ethical Use and Impact of Participatory Approaches to Research in Post-Disaster Environments: An Australian Bushfire Case Study

Copyright © 2018 L. Gibbs et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.This paper presents a case study of Beyond Bushfires, a large, multisite, mixed method study of the psychosocial impacts of major bushfires in Victoria, Australia. A participatory approach was employed throughout the study which was led by a team of academic investigators in partnership with service providers and government representatives and used on-site visits and multiple methods of communication with communities across the state to inform decision-making throughout the study. The ethics and impacts of conducting and adapting the approach within a post-disaster context will be discussed in reference to theories and models of participatory health research. The challenges of balancing local interests with state-wide implications will also be explored in the description of the methods of engagement and the study processes and outcomes. Beyond Bushfires demonstrates the feasibility of incorporating participatory methods in large, post-disaster research studies and achieving rigorous findings and multilevel impacts, while recognising the potential for some of the empowering aspects of the participatory experience to be reduced by the scaled-up approach

Are Compression Stockings an Effective Treatment for Orthostatic Presyncope?

Syncope, or fainting, affects approximately 6.2% of the population, and is associated with significant comorbidity. Many syncopal events occur secondary to excessive venous pooling and capillary filtration in the lower limbs when upright. As such, a common approach to the management of syncope is the use of compression stockings. However, research confirming their efficacy is lacking. We aimed to investigate the effect of graded calf compression stockings on orthostatic tolerance