A dissipative reaction network drives transient solid-liquid and liquid-liquid phase cycling of nanoparticles

Financial support for this work was provided by the University of St Andrews and EaStCHEM, and the Leverhulme Trust [Grant RPG-2019-155].Transient states maintained by energy dissipation are an essential feature of dynamic systems where structures and functions are regulated by fluxes of energy and matter through chemical reaction networks. Perfected in biology, chemically fueled dissipative networks incorporating nanoscale components allow the unique properties of nanomaterials to be bestowed with spatiotemporal adaptability and chemical responsiveness. We report the transient dispersion of gold nanoparticles in water, powered by dissipation of a chemical fuel. A dispersed state that is generated under nonequilibrium conditions permits fully reversible solid–liquid or liquid–liquid phase transfer. The molecular basis of the out-of-equilibrium process is reversible covalent modification of nanoparticle-bound ligands by a simple inorganic activator. Activator consumption by a coupled dissipative reaction network leads to autonomous cycling between phases. The out-of-equilibrium lifetime is tunable by adjusting pH, and reversible phase cycling is reproducible over several cycles.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

Multiple novel prostate cancer susceptibility signals identified by fine-mapping of known risk loci among Europeans

Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified numerous common prostate cancer (PrCa) susceptibility loci. We have fine-mapped 64 GWAS regions known at the conclusion of the iCOGS study using large-scale genotyping and imputation in 25 723 PrCa cases and 26 274 controls of European ancestry. We detected evidence for multiple independent signals at 16 regions, 12 of which contained additional newly identified significant associations. A single signal comprising a spectrum of correlated variation was observed at 39 regions; 35 of which are now described by a novel more significantly associated lead SNP, while the originally reported variant remained as the lead SNP only in 4 regions. We also confirmed two association signals in Europeans that had been previously reported only in East-Asian GWAS. Based on statistical evidence and linkage disequilibrium (LD) structure, we have curated and narrowed down the list of the most likely candidate causal variants for each region. Functional annotation using data from ENCODE filtered for PrCa cell lines and eQTL analysis demonstrated significant enrichment for overlap with bio-features within this set. By incorporating the novel risk variants identified here alongside the refined data for existing association signals, we estimate that these loci now explain ∼38.9% of the familial relative risk of PrCa, an 8.9% improvement over the previously reported GWAS tag SNPs. This suggests that a significant fraction of the heritability of PrCa may have been hidden during the discovery phase of GWAS, in particular due to the presence of multiple independent signals within the same regio

Social Constructionist Supervision or Supervision as Social Construction? Some Dilemmas

In teaching and supervising postmodern approaches to therapy we face a number of dilemmas. Supervisees and supervisors may be confronted with ethical issues which challenge their consistent application of postmodern therapies. These challenges have the potential to limit discursive options by drawing us into either defending or abandoning particular therapeutic and supervisory models. This paper identifies several ideas which help us move more fluidly between discourses in order to maintain a collaborative supervisory space with room for multiple perspectives regardless of the supervisee’s clinical model. These ideas include aligning with the concept of supervision as social construction; meta-positioning in order to deconstruct all aspects of our work; remaining aware of the inherent power imbalances in the construct of supervision; and exploring ethical ideas through multiple lenses

Counselling Deaf Clients: Politics, Practice and Process

The Deaf community in Australia comprises a small but diverse group of people with a rich, distinctive culture, unified by a common language and history. In recent times, there has been an increasing awareness among ‘hearing’ counsellors of the importance of understanding deafness and Deaf culture in order to more appropriately meet the needs of this client group. This paper will address political, practice, and research issues relevant to the improvement of counselling services provided by hearing therapists for clients from the Deaf community. Firstly, in regard to politics, the paper will highlight some of the tensions between medical and cultural models of deafness and how these frameworks can impact upon the understanding of deafness. Secondly, it will be proposed that constructionist counselling approaches, and narrative therapy in particular, may provide a more culturally and linguistically relevant approach for practice with both clients and interpreters. Lastly, some of the dilemmas of counselling research specific to this client group will be discussed, together with the author’s own work in these areas. The paper will benefit therapists working in cross-cultural settings, or working with interpreters, and those interested in the dilemmas of counselling research

Data underpinning Virginie Viseur's thesis

The data files are embargoed until 05/04/202