Non-Binary in Higher Education Survey Findings Report and Recommendations

This report contains the findings from the Non-Binary in Higher Education: Lived Experiences, Imagined Futures project survey conducted in 2019. It also makes recommendations based on the findings

Crystallographic and Modelling Studies of Industrially Relevant Metal Complexes

Increasing the efficacy of ligands is crucial to many industrial processes and products. The design of new organic reagents which might find applications in automotive lubrication and extractive metallurgy are reported. Force-field based molecular modelling has been used in chapters 2 and 3 to investigate the structure of complexes of malonic acids and benzohydroxamic acids formed on binding to iron(III) oxide surfaces for which both have shown high affinity. Models were constructed in which the ligands were docked to planes in the lepidocrocite crystal structure to simulate their interaction with steel engine surfaces. The Cambridge Structural Database has been used to elucidate the structures of polynuclear complexes of carboxylic acids to define appropriate geometries for malonate complex models. The most plausible modes of surface binding involving malonic acid were modelled to establish which would show the most favourable ligand-surface and ligand-ligand secondary bonding. Modelling of hydroxamate surface binding was guided by structural motifs observed in a mononuclear trishydroxamato iron(III) complexes in a dinuclear complex [Fe2L2(μ2L)2Br2] where LH = benzohydroxamic acid. The resulting model predicted the surface activity of a range of hydroxamic acid derivatives which have been confirmed by measurements of adsorption isotherms carried out on high surface area goethite. The structures of square planar copper(II) complexes of 3-substituted salicylaldoxime ligands which are closely related to systems used in industrial hydrometallurgical processes have been investigated (chapter 4) to ascertain whether there are correlations between the solid state structures and the relative strengths of the ligands as copper extractants. It was expected that electronegative groups would enhance hydrogen bonding between ligands, pulling them towards one another with a consequent decrease in the binding cavity presented by the donor atoms. In practice the structures were found to be influenced by interactions present in the solid state. In particular, axial interactions were found to influence the inner coordination sphere geometry and these were also investigated (chapter 5) using high pressure X-ray crystal structures. Contrary to expectation, application of pressure was found to increase axial bond lengths in order to improve molecular packing efficiency so that the cell volume could decrease

Effect of folic acid supplementation in pregnancy on preeclampsia: The folic acid clinical trial study

Copyright © 2013 Shi Wu Wen 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.Preeclampsia (PE) is hypertension with proteinuria that develops during pregnancy and affects at least 5% of pregnancies. The Effect of Folic Acid Supplementation in Pregnancy on Preeclampsia: the Folic Acid Clinical Trial (FACT) aims to recruit 3,656 high risk women to evaluate a new prevention strategy for PE: supplementation of folic acid throughout pregnancy. Pregnant women with increased risk of developing PE presenting to a trial participating center between 80/7 and 166/7 weeks of gestation are randomized in a 1: 1 ratio to folic acid 4.0 mg or placebo after written consent is obtained. Intent-to-treat population will be analyzed. The FACT study was funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research in 2009, and regulatory approval from Health Canada was obtained in 2010. A web-based randomization system and electronic data collection system provide the platform for participating centers to randomize their eligible participants and enter data in real time. To date we have twenty participating Canadian centers, of which eighteen are actively recruiting, and seven participating Australian centers, of which two are actively recruiting. Recruitment in Argentina, UK, Netherlands, Brazil, West Indies, and United States is expected to begin by the second or third quarter of 2013. This trial is registered with NCT01355159. © 2013 Shi Wu Wen et al.The Canadian Institutes of Healt

Salicylaldehyde hydrazones: buttressing of outer sphere hydrogen-bonding and copper-extraction properties

Salicylaldehyde hydrazones are weaker copper extractants than their oxime derivatives, which are used in hydrometallurgical processes to recover ~20 % of the world’s copper. Their strength, based on the extraction equilibrium constant Ke, can be increased by nearly three orders of magnitude by incorporating electron-withdrawing or hydrogen-bond acceptor groups (X) ortho to the phenolic OH group of the salicylaldehyde unit. Density functional theory calculations suggest that the effects of the 3-X substituents arise from a combination of their influence on the acidity of the phenol in the pH-dependent equilibrium, Cu2+ + 2Lorg ⇌ [Cu(L–H)2]org + 2H+, and on their ability to ‘buttress’ interligand hydrogen bonding by interacting with the hydrazone N–H donor group. X-ray crystal structure determination and computed structures indicate that in both the solid state and the gas phase, coordinated hydrazone groups are less planar than coordinated oximes and this has an adverse effect on intramolecular hydrogen-bond formation to the neighbouring phenolate oxygen atoms

The Potential of Different Forage Combinations for Green-Chop Silage

On the Canterbury Plains of New Zealand (NZ) there is an opportunity on cropping farms, between summer harvest and autumn/winter sowing, to grow forage crops to make high quality silage. Recently, cereal cultivars have been specifically bred for forage production and suitability for whole-crop silage (de Ruiter et al. 2002), and also high legume (e.g. sulla) content forage mixes have resulted in high quality silages with high lactic acid and soluble carbohydrate content (Niezen et al. 1998). This trial aimed to determine the yield potential of various cereal/legume forage mixtures summer sown and harvested for silage in autumn

Supplementing Dairy Cows in Late Lactation With High Quality Silages

Agriculture on the Canterbury Plains of New Zealand is a mixture of integrated cropping and pastoral enterprises. Cropping farmers often provide supplementary feed for dairy farmers by growing forages for high quality silage. Such silages can improve milk production by increasing dry matter (DM) intake and/or by alleviating deficiencies of either soluble carbohydrate or protein in pasture (Woodward et al., 2002). Legumes and/or cereals have potential to make large quantities of high quality silage (de Ruiter et al., 2002). This trial aimed to determine milk production and composition differences between three silages fed during late lactation

Tracer concentration profiles measured in central London as part of the REPARTEE campaign

There have been relatively few tracer experiments carried out that have looked at vertical plume spread in urban areas. In this paper we present results from two tracer (cyclic perfluorocarbon) experiments carried out in 2006 and 2007 in central London centred on the BT Tower as part of the REPARTEE (Regent’s Park and Tower Environmental Experiment) campaign. The height of the tower gives a unique opportunity to study vertical dispersion profiles and transport times in central London. Vertical gradients are contrasted with the relevant Pasquill stability classes. Estimation of lateral advection and vertical mixing times are made and compared with previous measurements. Data are then compared with a simple operational dispersion model and contrasted with data taken in central London as part of the DAPPLE campaign. This correlates dosage with non-dimensionalised distance from source. Such analyses illustrate the feasibility of the use of these empirical correlations over these prescribed distances in central London

Getting beyond peeing and pronouns: living non-binary gender in higher education

Non-binary people make up just over half the UK trans population and younger people are more likely to identify as non-binary than those over 35. Despite this increasing recognition, non-binary identities and experiences continue to be widely misunderstood. Similarly, if university trans inclusion policies focus solely on models of binary or medical transition, they will not fully address the needs of non-binary students. In the context of an increased focus on the participation and success of marginalized social groups in higher education, and a social and political backlash against equality, diversity and inclusion work, questions of how non-binary students thrive in universities are pressing. Non-binary inclusion and experiences in higher education have received little dedicated attention. This article draws on data from the largest survey to date of non-binary students in the United Kingdom and begins to fill those gaps. We highlight the prominence in the survey of issues around ‘peeing’ and ‘pronouns’ in the lived experiences of non-binary students and demonstrate the detrimental impact of the lack of recognition on students’ learning and lives at university. We conclude universities must get beyond ‘peeing and pronouns’ to reimagine higher education as an accessible and inclusive space