Reflections on the Formation and Growth of the SURE Network: a National Disciplinary Network to Enhance Undergraduate Research in the Sciences

The Science Undergraduate Research Experience (SURE) Network is an academic network comprised of nine Higher Education Institutions (HEI) in Ireland that seeks to enhance the profile of, and practices in, undergraduate research in the Sciences within the Technological Higher Education Sector. This paper presents the reflections of the network\u27s leaders on the formation and growth of the network over the period from 2015, just prior to its establishment, to 2020 when the network hosted its seventh undergraduate research conference, published its second undergraduate journal issue, and initiated a coordinated community of practice in response to the Covid-19 crisis. The paper presents the motivations of the leaders for establishing and joining the SURE network, their interpretation of how involvement in the network enhances practice in their own HEI, their reflections on how their own personal development was enhanced, their interpretation of the factors that have contributed to the success of the network, and the direction in which they see the network going in the future. The collective reflections of the leaders of the SURE Network, as presented in this paper, provide importance guidance for those seeking to establish similar academic networks, both in the area of undergraduate research and elsewhere

Preparation and solid state characterisation of chlorothiazide sodium intermolecular self assembly suprastructure

Chlorothiazide (CTZ), unlike other thiazide diuretics, can form salts. An injectable formulation containing the sodium salt is available; however neither the physicochemical characteristics of the salt nor its solid state form have been previously reported. This work reports on the crystal structure of chlorothiazide sodium. The structure was investigated by single crystal X-ray and nuclear magnetic spectroscopy (NMR) analyses and compared to chlorothiazide, while the solid state characteristics were assessed by thermal analysis, powder X-ray diffraction, infrared spectroscopy, dynamic moisture sorption and solubility analysis. The crystal structure of chlorothiazide sodium was determined to be triclinic; the crystal space group type was P-1. Chlorothiazide sodium presented a self-assembly polymeric-type suprastucture, where the unit cell comprised two chlorothiazide molecules bonded together with sodium cations through the water bridges. The coordinate centre comprised the following: (CTZ)3?(H2O)?Na(H2O)2Na?(H2O)?(CTZ)3. The crystalline material was determined to be a monosodium dihydrate, stable in the range of 10-90% relative humidity (RH) at 25 ?C. Additional processing of the salt resulted in a crystalline anhydrous form which was stable in the range 0-20% RH at 25 ?C. The aqueous solubility of the chlorothiazide sodium dihydrate at 37 ?C was found to be approximately 400-fold higher than that of chlorothiazide, which may present biopharmaceutical advantages for the salt compared to the non-salt form

Preparation and characterisation of novel chlorothiazide potassium solid-state salt forms: intermolecular self assembly suprastructures

Chlorothiazide (CTZ) is a poorly soluble diuretic agent. The aim of the present work was to produce and characterise a potassium salt form of chlorothiazide which has the potential advantages of improved aqueous solubility and potassium supplementation. A number of novel potassium salt forms of CTZ (CTZK) were prepared: CTZK monohydrate (form I), CTZK dihydrate (form II), anhydrous CTZK (form III), CTZK monohydrate hemiethanolate (form IV) and a desolvate of CTZK monohydrate hemiethanolate (form V). These salt forms were characterised by thermal analysis, PXRD, NMR, elemental analysis, FTIR, Karl Fisher titrimetry, ICP-MS and GC-MS. The ethanol-free CTZK forms were also characterised by dynamic vapour sorption analysis (DVS). CTZK form I was stable (in the DVS) over the range 0% to 60% RH. The dihydrate form of the salt was stable (in the DVS) over a broader range of relative humidities, 10 to 90%RH at 25?C. CTZK form II was less hygroscopic at high humidities (70-90% RH) than the previously reported CTZNa dihydrate. Single crystal X-ray analysis indicated that chlorothiazide potassium, crystallised from water or water/acetone mixture, formed a dihydrated polymeric-like intermolecular self-assembly (ISA) suprastructure. The ISA coordination was determined to be: (CTZ)3?K?(H2O)2(CTZ)2?(H2O)2?K?(CTZ)3 (monoclinic, space group: C2/c, single crystal cell parameters: a = 18.328(4) ?, b = 7.3662(16) ?, c = 19.993(5) ?, ?= 90?, ?= 99.729(3)?, ? = 90?). When CTZK was crystallised from ethanol, a monohydrate hemiethanolate ISA was formed, described as (CTZ)3?K?CTZ?(H2O)2?CTZ?K?(CTZ)2 (triclinic, space group: P-1, single crystal cell parameters: a = 7.078(3) ?, b = 9.842(5) ?, c = 21.994(11) ?, ? = 87.522(13)?, ?= 84.064(14)?, ?= 78.822(12)?). The aqueous solubility of CTZK dihydrate, was determined to be 78.71 ? 1.82 mg/ml, approximately 400-fold higher than chlorothiazide, indicating a biopharmaceutical advantage associated with the potassium salt form

Soil Fungi Associated with Overwinter Seed Survival in Big Sagebrush (\u3cem\u3eArtemisia tridentata\u3c/em\u3e)

Seed banks are essential to the persistence of many plant populations, allowing germination timing to coincide with suitable climate or disturbance conditions in variable environments. Big sagebrush, a native Idaho plant species, is declining across its historic range due to climate change, changing fire frequencies, and invasive species. Sagebrush seeds develop in fall and overwinter at the soil or snow surface, before germinating the following spring. In a past experiment, we determined that soil microbes have a negative effect on overwinter sagebrush seed viability. Using amplicon sequencing and the results of our past germination study, we asked: 1) Which pathogens or agents of decomposition are associated with overwinter mortality of big sagebrush seeds in the soil seed bank? 2) Do sagebrush populations vary in their interactions with these soil microbes? We extracted DNA from each soil sample used in our field experiment for amplicon sequencing, targeting the ITS region to identify relative abundances of fungal taxa. We fit binomial generalized linear mixed models to identify significant correlations between the rarefied relative abundances of fungal genera and the probability of seed survival in R. After correcting for multiple comparisons, our results indicated that the relative abundance of fungal genera Curvibasidium, Exophiala, Microdochium, Pseudolophiotrema, and Pyrenophora were associated with declines in the probability of overwinter seed survival, with significant variation in these correlations between sagebrush populations. This exploratory analysis identifies correlations between fungal taxa and seed survival, but cannot isolate whether genera cause seed mortality. Further, sequencing data captures relative abundances of fungi, and the taxa identified here may be correlated with soil inocula that contained greater absolute abundances of other fungi with negative impacts on seeds. Our results will inform follow-up experiments to identify the impacts of fungi cultured from infested seeds, using laboratory inoculations. Understanding the drivers of sagebrush seed viability is essential to improving seeding efforts that aim to restore sagebrush populations across the Great Basin