28 research outputs found
Lifestyle Coaching for Mental Health Difficulties: Scoping Review
Purpose: UK mental health strategy calls for interventions that empower people to selfmanage their condition. In lifestyle coaching, coach and client work collaboratively on positive behaviour change to improve client health. There is debate about the appropriateness of coaching for mental health, yet claims have not been supported with evidence. Therefore, this study sought to explore the nature and scope of existing research literature in this field. Design/methodology/approach: Scoping review. Findings: The growing evidence-base shows positive outcomes of coaching; for instance symptom reduction, enhanced self-management and achievement of personal goals. Research limitations/implications: The evidence-base is small and of variable quality, offering insights that warrant further exploration. Practical implications: Coaching not only supports better self-management but also addresses further mental health strategy priorities (such as improved physical health and social functioning). Coaches need not be mental health experts; therefore coaching may be a cost-effective intervention. Social implications: As mental ill-health prevalence continues to rise despite widespread use of IAPT and medication, there is a need to explore how novel approaches such as coaching might be integrated into mental healthcare. Originality/value: This was the first study to collate the evidence on mental health coaching, highlighting its extensive potential, which should be further explored in research and practic
Donning the ‘slow professor’: A feminist action research project
Corporatization of Higher Education has introduced new performance measurements as well as an acceleration of academic tasks creating working environments characterised by speed, pressure and stress. This paper discusses findings from a qualitative, feminist participatory action research (PAR) study undertaken by an interdisciplinary team of women academics at a modern, corporate university in England. The study illuminates how corporatized HE erodes faculty autonomy, degrades learning environments, damages professional satisfaction and health. Strategies for resistance and liberation developed through the PAR process are discussed
Loaded dice: Games playing and the gendered barriers of the academy
This paper explores the perceptions and experiences of women academics in the UK, participating in a small-scale qualitative study exploring career progression and encountered institutional obstacles. The accounts are considered in terms of both disadvantageous institutional strategies as well as interpersonal ones governing day-to-day working relationships. The findings contribute to a growing body of international research on gender constructions in the academy, where here both inhibiting and exclusionary barriers are examined in focus group discussions in terms of gendered constructions that are perceived to impact upon the career opportunities of women academics. Analysis of data encouraged the employment of a ludic construction in this critical exploration of games playing and ‘gamesmanship’ (a masculinised term); these being themes raised in the focus group discussions as representing blocks and challenges to women’s academic careers
‘Welcome to the Machine!’ Resisting isomorphic, masculinised corporatisation of Higher Education through feminist scholarship
This paper discusses the synthesised findings from two interdisciplinary, feminist studies conducted under the auspices of the non-corporate nexus, the Women’s Academic Network at Bournemouth University, UK, of which the main author is a co-convenor and co-founder. These qualitative studies focus on academic women’s experiences of managing careers in the work culture of corporate Institutions of Higher Education (HEI) in a modern UK university. The background to this work draws from a body of international research into the slower career progression rates of women academics in comparison to male counterparts and gendered barriers the former encounter. While there has encouragement within Higher Education bodies across the EU to balance out the current gendered inequities within academia, our findings indicate that these are woven into the institutional fabric of enacted daily academic practices serving to disadvantage women scholars
Probing the viability of oxo-coupling pathways in iridium-catalyzed oxygen evolution
[Image: see text] A series of Cp*Ir(III) dimers have been synthesized to elucidate the mechanistic viability of radical oxo-coupling pathways in iridium-catalyzed O(2) evolution. The oxidative stability of the precursors toward nanoparticle formation and their oxygen evolution activity have been investigated and compared to suitable monomeric analogues. We found that precursors bearing monodentate NHC ligands degraded to form nanoparticles (NPs), and accordingly their O(2) evolution rates were not significantly influenced by their nuclearity or distance between the two metals in the dimeric precursors. A doubly chelating bis-pyridine–pyrazolide ligand provided an oxidation-resistant ligand framework that allowed a more meaningful comparison of catalytic performance of dimers with their corresponding monomers. With sodium periodate (NaIO(4)) as the oxidant, the dimers provided significantly lower O(2) evolution rates per [Ir] than the monomer, suggesting a negative interaction instead of cooperativity in the catalytic cycle. Electrochemical analysis of the dimers further substantiates the notion that no radical oxyl-coupling pathways are accessible. We thus conclude that the alternative path, nucleophilic attack of water on high-valent Ir-oxo species, may be the preferred mechanistic pathway of water oxidation with these catalysts, and bimolecular oxo-coupling is not a valid mechanistic alternative as in the related ruthenium chemistry, at least in the present system
Cp* versus Bis-carbonyl Iridium Precursors as CH Oxidation Precatalysts
We
previously reported a dimeric Ir<sup>IV</sup>-oxo species as
the active water oxidation catalyst formed from a Cp*Ir(pyalc)Cl {pyalc
= 2-(2′-pyridyl)-2-propanoate} precursor, where the Cp* is
lost to oxidative degradation during catalyst activation; this system
can also oxidize unactivated CH bonds. We now show that the same Cp*Ir(pyalc)Cl
precursor leads to two distinct active catalysts for CH oxidation.
In the presence of external CH substrate, the Cp* remains ligated
to the Ir center during catalysis; the active specieslikely
a high-valent Cp*Ir(pyalc) specieswill oxidize the substrate
instead of its own Cp*. If there is no external CH substrate in the
reaction mixture, the Cp* will be oxidized and lost, and the active
species is then an iridium-μ-oxo dimer. Additionally, the recently
reported Ir(CO)<sub>2</sub>(pyalc) water oxidation precatalyst is
now found to be an efficient, stereoretentive CH oxidation precursor.
We compare the reactivity of Ir(CO)<sub>2</sub>(pyalc) and Cp*Ir(pyalc)Cl
precursors and show that both can lose their placeholder ligands,
CO or Cp*, to form substantially similar dimeric Ir<sup>IV</sup>-oxo
catalyst resting states. The more efficient activation of the bis-carbonyl
precursor makes it less inhibited by obligatory byproducts formed
from Cp* degradation, and therefore the dicarbonyl is our preferred
precatalyst for oxidation catalysis
New Ir Bis-Carbonyl Precursor for Water Oxidation Catalysis
This paper introduces Ir<sup>I</sup>(CO)<sub>2</sub>(pyalc) (pyalc = (2-pyridyl)-2-propanoate) as an
atom-efficient precursor for Ir-based homogeneous oxidation catalysis.
This compound was chosen to simplify analysis of the water oxidation catalyst species formed
by the previously reported Cp*Ir<sup>III</sup>(pyalc)OH water oxidation
precatalyst. Here, we present a comparative study on the chemical
and catalytic properties of these two precursors. Previous studies
show that oxidative activation of Cp*Ir-based precursors with NaIO<sub>4</sub> results in formation of a blue Ir<sup>IV</sup> species. This
activation is concomitant with the loss of the placeholder Cp* ligand
which oxidatively degrades to form acetic acid, iodate, and other
obligatory byproducts. The activation process requires substantial
amounts of primary oxidant, and the degradation products complicate
analysis of the resulting Ir<sup>IV</sup> species. The species formed
from oxidation of the Ir(CO)<sub>2</sub>(pyalc) precursor, on the
other hand, lacks these degradation products (the CO ligands are easily
lost upon oxidation) which allows for more detailed examination of
the resulting Ir(pyalc) active species both catalytically and spectroscopically,
although complete structural analysis is still elusive. Once Ir(CO)<sub>2</sub>(pyalc) is activated, the system requires acetic acid or acetate
to prevent the formation of nanoparticles. Investigation of the activated
bis-carbonyl complex also suggests several Ir(pyalc) isomers may exist
in solution. By <sup>1</sup>H NMR, activated Ir(CO)<sub>2</sub>(pyalc)
has fewer isomers than activated Cp*Ir complexes, allowing for advanced
characterization. Future research in this direction is expected to
contribute to a better structural understanding of the active species.
A diol crystallization agent was needed for the structure determination
of <b>3</b>
Probing the Viability of Oxo-Coupling Pathways in Iridium-Catalyzed Oxygen Evolution
A series
of Cp*Ir<sup>III</sup> dimers have been synthesized to elucidate the
mechanistic viability of radical oxo-coupling pathways in iridium-catalyzed
O<sub>2</sub> evolution. The oxidative stability of the precursors
toward nanoparticle formation and their oxygen evolution activity
have been investigated and compared to suitable monomeric analogues.
We found that precursors bearing monodentate NHC ligands degraded
to form nanoparticles (NPs), and accordingly their O<sub>2</sub> evolution
rates were not significantly influenced by their nuclearity or distance
between the two metals in the dimeric precursors. A doubly chelating
bis-pyridine–pyrazolide ligand provided an oxidation-resistant
ligand framework that allowed a more meaningful comparison of catalytic
performance of dimers with their corresponding monomers. With sodium
periodate (NaIO<sub>4</sub>) as the oxidant, the dimers provided significantly
lower O<sub>2</sub> evolution rates per [Ir] than the monomer, suggesting
a negative interaction instead of cooperativity in the catalytic cycle.
Electrochemical analysis of the dimers further substantiates the notion
that no radical oxyl-coupling pathways are accessible. We thus conclude
that the alternative path, nucleophilic attack of water on high-valent
Ir-oxo species, may be the preferred mechanistic pathway of water
oxidation with these catalysts, and bimolecular oxo-coupling is not
a valid mechanistic alternative as in the related ruthenium chemistry,
at least in the present system