A Teacher/Mother’s Journey Toward Liberation: An Autoethnographic Account

Through my first professional decade as an educator, I simultaneously raised a daughter with special needs. The journey into motherhood challenged what I thought I knew about teaching and learning. This compelled me to move inwards and (re)connect with my body through Yoga. This way of being shifted my ontology and epistemology from positivist into a more interpretive critical standpoint. Researching this shift, I was drawn to autoethnography. It allowed me to understand the socio-cultural context of education in a deeper, more nuanced manner. Weaving the personal and the professional ultimately allowed me to understand the impact of these shifts on my professional identity and classroom practice. Using Freire (1970) and hooks (1994), I draw closer to the potential for liberation in education by placing my own liberation at the center of my practice. My intention in this research is to move more deeply into liberation and to offer my experiences towards the possibility of collective benefit

A qualitative, participatory study of the process of becoming an advocate for nonhuman animals

This thesis begins with an overview of some published works concerning oppression, its alleviation and the interconnectedness of its various forms, as they relate to the diverse area which is loosely referred to as ‘animal rights’. In general terms, the ultimate goal of choosing to do this thesis in the area of animal rights is to further the defence of nonhuman animals. The purpose of this specific project is to document, compare, and contrast a range of examples of the process of changing relationships and becoming an advocate for other animals. These examples, the experiences and life stories of five members of an animal rights group were shared through in-depth, semi-structured, conversational-style interviews. Because animal advocates come from all walks of life, yet are so often stereotyped, this project does not involve a representative sample from which one expects findings that can be generalized to the larger population (e.g., the ‘typical’ animal advocate). On the contrary, the focus is particular, diverse examples. The project was carried out in collaboration with members of an informal, local-level animal rights group to which I belong. All interview participants were also Research Advisory Committee (RAC) members and were involved in guiding this project from its earliest beginnings of choosing a topic within the area of animal rights. While the experiences and process of change were unique to each individual, similarities were found regarding the direction and on-going nature of change, and its positive, pervasive impact on their lives. Many benefits were derived from the participants’ efforts to recall and reflect on their own life stories, suggesting that such a formal undertaking might benefit others as well. I conclude the thesis with a discussion of some relevant works from the literature and an outline of plans for utilization of the findings

Editorial : Poverty and mobility in England, 1600–1850

Within these pages you will find a ‘jovial crew’: rogues and vagabonds, the ‘mad’ and insane, gypsies, peddlers, poets, playwrights, pilgrims, rioters, convicts, constables, thieves, beggars, landed gentlemen, magistrates, and historians. When parliamentarians and projectors set out to proscribe mobility and legislate poverty in early modernity, a list of untrustworthy trades and professions not at all unlike this one frequently found its way into print and the statute book. The punishment for crimes of vagrancy could be severe, but thankfully ‘historians’ were not counted among the undeserving and mobile, nor would you find magistrates and landed gentlemen taken up, imprisoned, and whipped for a crime of movement. However, all three groups may well deserve some of John Locke's brand of draconian ‘improvement’; historians in particular have taken little account of the lived experiences of the mobile poor until relatively recently. Once we finally took a hard look at our inherited, literature-driven typologies of ‘rogues’ and ‘beggars’, they disappeared in ‘a storm of dust and lies.’ However, the literary, visualised vagabond still has much to tell us, and interdisciplinary approaches to vagrancy in the past have emerged as the strongest method yet of reconstructing the character, history, and cultural perception of the mobile poor. These are methods which the articles in this collection use to full effect

The Need for a New Generation of Substructure Searching Software

Advances in synthetic chemistry mean that the molecules now synthesized include increasingly complex entities with mechanical bonds or extensive frameworks. For these complex molecular and supramolecular species, single-crystal X-ray crystallography has proved to be the optimal technique for determining full three-dimensional structures in the solid state. These structures are curated and placed in structural databases, the most comprehensive of which (for organic and metallo-organic structures) is the Cambridge Structural Database (CSD). A question of increasing importance is how users can search such databases effectively for these structures. In this Opinion we highlight some of the classes of complex molecules and supramolecules and the challenges associated with searching for them. We develop the idea of substructure searches that involve topological searches as well as searches for molecular fragments, and propose significant enhancements to substructure-search programs that are both achievable and highly beneficial for both the database user community and the broader chemistry community

Supramolecular Assembly Through Intermolecular n → π* Interactions through a Coordinated Perrhenate Formed via Superoxidation of Re(I) to Re(VII) in the Formation of Substituted Re(CO)3 Complexes Bearing Diimine Ligands

We report the structural, spectroscopic, and computational studies of two new Re(I) tricarbonyl complexes bearing 2,3,6,7-tetraphenyl-1,4,5,8-tetraazaphenanthrene (Ph4TAP) and 4,5-diazafluoren-9-one (Dafone) having a coordinated perrhenate group obtained via in situ superoxidation of Re(I) to Re(VII); intramolecular and intermolecular n→π* interactions are dominant and stabilize the molecular geometry and crystal packing

The impact of hydrogen bonding on 100% photo-switching in solid-state nitro-nitrito linkage isomers

Two crystal systems: [Pd(Et4dien)(NO2)]OTf [1] and [Pt(Et4dien)(NO2)]OTf [2] (Et4dien = N,N,N′,N′-tetraethyldiethylene-triamine, OTf = trifluoromethanesulfonate) are investigated by steady-state photocrystallographic methods. Both structures contain intermolecular hydrogen bonds to the ground state nitro-(η1-NO2) isomer, which are previously shown to limit the achievable level of nitro → nitrito photo-conversion. Irradiation at 100 K induces a mixture of endo-ONO and exo-ONO isomers in 1 and 2, with overall incomplete photo-activation. In contrast, irradiation at higher temperatures leads to much higher conversion, with 100% excitation in 1 at 150 K. The results show that the detrimental effects of hydrogen bonding on the photo-reaction are overcome at higher temperature, adding a new dimension of control to the isomerisation process

Prior Likelihoods and Space-Group Preferences of Solvates

For a range of organic solvents, the likelihood of the solvent forming solvates has been estimated using the recrystallization solvent (RS) data in the Cambridge Structural Database (CSD). Although RS data are viewed with caution by some crystallographers, most of the likelihood estimates are shown to have good precision. Strong trends are apparent in the results. For example, high likelihoods are found for aromatic solvents with electron-withdrawing substituents and low likelihoods for acyclic aliphatic hydrocarbons. Results for different CSD subsets, such as organic and metalloorganic, are highly correlated. The likelihood that a solvent will form solvates is almost always higher when the solvent is part of a mixture than when it is pure. The likelihood of two solvents forming a heterosolvate (i.e., both solvents in the structure) can be well estimated by the product of the likelihoods of the solvents forming normal solvates (i.e., only one solvent in the structure). The space-group preferences of solvates vary significantly with the nature of the cocrystallized solvent. Those of nonsolvates vary significantly with the solvent(s) from which they were crystallized. Solvents with inversion centers favor solvate crystallization in centrosymmetric space groups, and solvents with 2-fold rotational symmetry promote crystallization in space groups with 2-fold proper rotational axes. The inclusion of cyclohexane and carbon tetrachloride in a lattice can facilitate crystallization in trigonal and tetragonal space groups, respectively. Our results can: (a) guide solvent selection when solvates are undesired; (b) assist in predicting solvate formation, e.g., using Bayesian algorithms; (c) assist in the choice of space groups for solvate crystal structure prediction; and (d) suggest ways in which solvent incorporation can be used to influence space groups.</p

Zeolites fit for a crown:Studying organic-framework host-guest interactions through thermogravimetric techniques

Every year millions of tons of zeolites are produced, being used as molecular sieves, hydrocracking catalysts, gas-capture materials and for emerging novel applications. There is a demand to synthesise new zeolites with bespoke frameworks, which are tailor-made for a chosen application. To achieve these ‘designer zeolites’ it is crucial to fully understand the host-guest interactions between organic additives and zeolitic frameworks. Here we have studied four different zeolites, synthesised with the same organic additive, 18-crown-6 ether, which show observable differences in the host-guest interactions. We demonstrate that the framework geometry dominates the decomposition temperature, enthalpy and mechanism. The zeolites show unique decomposition features, emphasising experimental differences in how the organic additive and framework interact.</p