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On Widening Participation in Higher Education: A National Examination of Equity Initiatives in Australian Secondary Schools
No full textDespite historic efforts to improve rates of higher education participation for educationally disadvantaged students, equity students remain under-represented in Australian universities. University-run equity or ?outreach? programs which target secondary students are one way to encourage higher education access and participation of equity students. However, there have been few national assessments of these equity initiatives. Using a representative sample of Australian schools from the GENERATION survey of Australian youth, this research examined the characteristics and targeting of university-run equity initiatives in schools during 2022. Analysis showed that approximately one-quarter of secondary schools in Australia reported receiving an equity initiative. Programs mostly focused on increasing aspirations for higher education among low socioeconomic, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander, and rural and regional students. However, our findings indicated that these programs did not effectively target disadvantaged or regional schools. Moreover, programs may be implemented too late to impact students? career and educational aspirations.Peer-reviewe
XFEL-Detected Peroxide Formation From the S<sub>3</sub> State Supports the Low Oxidation State over the High Oxidation State Paradigm in Photosystem II
No full textThe mechanism of O–O bond formation in PSII is still debated. Although it is generally accepted to occur during the S3 → [S4] → S0 transition, some studies suggest it may already begin in the S3 state. Notably, the 2017 XFEL study by Suga et al. supports this hypothesis by reporting structural features consistent with a peroxide intermediate formed from the S3 state. Here, we present DFT calculations showing that, in the high oxidation state (HOS) model, O–O coupling starting from the S3 state with the hydroxo–oxo configuration is kinetically feasible, forming a peroxide intermediate via a modest activation energy of 19.5 kcal/mol. However, in the HOS model, the resulting peroxide would be readily converted to O2 with ΔG‡ = 11 kcal mol−1, inconsistent with experimental observations that O2 release proceeds only after reaching the [S4] state. In contrast, we show that if peroxide forms from the S3 state, its persistence is more plausibly explained by the low oxidation state (LOS) model, where further conversion to superoxide or O2 is energetically unfavorable. This distinction between these two models stems from the greater oxidizing power of Mn(IV) in the HOS paradigm relative to Mn(III) in the LOS paradigm in promoting peroxide-to-O2 conversion.Peer-reviewe
The attribution of human health outcomes to climate change: transdisciplinary practical guidance
No full textFor over 30 years, detection and attribution (D&A) studies have informed key conclusions in international and national assessments of climate science, providing compelling evidence for the reality and seriousness of anthropogenic effects on the global climate. In the early twenty-first century, D&A methods were adapted to assess the contribution of climate change to longer-term trends in earth system processes and extreme weather events. More recently, attribution research quantified the health and economic impacts of climate change. Here we provide practical guidance to inform transdisciplinary collaboration among health, climate, and other relevant scientific disciplines and interested parties in designing, conducting, interpreting, and reporting robust and policy-relevant attribution analyses of human health outcomes. This guidance resulted from discussions among experts in health and climate science. Recommended steps include co-developing the research questions across disciplines; establishing a transdisciplinary analytic team with fundamental grounding in the core disciplines; engaging meaningfully with relevant interested parties and decision-makers to define an appropriate study design and analytic process, including defining the exposure event or trend; identifying, visualizing, and describing linkages in the causal pathway from exposure to weather/climate variables to the health outcome(s) of interest; choosing appropriate counterfactual climate data, and where applicable, to evaluate the skill of the climate and health impact model(s) used in D&A research; quantifying the attributable changes in climate variables; quantifying the attributable health impacts within the context of other determinants of exposure and vulnerability; and reporting key results, including a description of how recommendations were incorporated into the analytical plan. Implementation of guidance would benefit diverse interested parties including researchers, research funders, policymakers, and climate litigation by harmonizing methods and increasing confidence in findings.Peer-reviewe
Selective Sequestration of Palladium(II) Cations Using a Supramolecular Polymer Approach
No full textThe selective sequestration of aqueous palladium from waste is an attractive option for metal recovery. However, achieving good metal specificity remains a difficult problem. In this study, we present the synthesis of a metallo-supramolecular system based on a 2-pyridyl-1,2,3-triazole chelating ligand group. Excellent selectivity for Pd(II) ions over Pt(II), Ni(II), Fe(II), Co(II), and Zn(II) from a mixed-metal solution was demonstrated through ESI-MS and 1H NMR spectroscopic studies of a model ligand system. Following this, a water-soluble copolymer system containing 2-pyridyl-1,2,3-triazole functional groups was prepared. This polymer was shown to exhibit the same specificity for Pd(II) in a mixed-metal solution, quantitatively supported by dialysis and ICP-MS experiments. These findings demonstrate the potential of metallo-supramolecular polymers in selective metal recovery.The authors thank Dr Brett Knowles, Ms Hahjung Chin, and Dr Yang Wu from the ICP-MS research facility, ANU Research School of Earth Sciences, for their assistance with ICP-MS data collection. The authors also thank Dr\u00A0Doug\u00A0Lawes and Dr Michael Gardiner from the ANU Magnetic Resonance and X-ray Diffraction facilities, respectively. The authors further acknowledge the Australian National University and the Research School of Chemistry for funding and support. Jason S. Buchanan, Peidong Shen, and Brett L. Pollard acknowledge the Australian Research Council for their RTP scholarships and funding. Dan Preston and Luke A. Connal acknowledge the Australian Research Council for a Future Fellowship (FT230100126) and Industry fellowship (IM230100090), respectively. The authors thank Dr Brett Knowles, Ms Hahjung Chin, and Dr Yang Wu from the ICP\u2010MS research facility, ANU Research School of Earth Sciences, for their assistance with ICP\u2010MS data collection. The authors also thank Dr Doug Lawes and Dr Michael Gardiner from the ANU Magnetic Resonance and X\u2010ray Diffraction facilities, respectively. The authors further acknowledge the Australian National University and the Research School of Chemistry for funding and support. Jason S. Buchanan, Peidong Shen, and Brett L. Pollard acknowledge the Australian Research Council for their RTP scholarships and funding. Dan Preston and Luke A. Connal acknowledge the Australian Research Council for a Future Fellowship (FT230100126) and Industry fellowship (IM230100090), respectively.Peer-reviewe
Subversion of publishing comes to a boil: is it time to lance it?
No full textRecent changes instituted by the US government pose a sinister threat to the integrity of science worldwide. We roundly refute the many contrived assertions that have been unfairly levelled against scientists and their natural philosophy and implore them to champion the apodictic principles of science.We acknowledge the assistance of SuperScript Writing and Editing for professional proofreading. We are grateful to the Agency for Clinical Innovation (ACI), New South Wales Health Neonatal Intensive and Special Care Units (NICUS) Data Registry for providing access to the data used for this project and to the staff at ACI-NICUS for their assistance. The findings, conclusions, opinions, views or recommendations expressed in this paper are strictly those of the author(s). They do not necessarily represent or reflect the views of ACI, NSW Health. The authors thank the Directors, the NICUS members and the audit officers of all tertiary units supporting this collaborative study. We also thank the babies and their families, and the nursing, midwifery, obstetric and medical record staff of the obstetric and children's hospitals in New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory, The authors attest that AI was not used in the writing of the manuscript.Peer-reviewe
Effect of the LifeSpan suicide prevention model on self-harm and suicide in four communities in New South Wales, Australia: a stepped-wedge, cluster randomised controlled trial
No full textBackground There have been few rigorous evaluations of population, multi-strategy, suicide prevention programmes, despite increasing global recognition that such approaches are needed to reduce suicide.
Objective To examine the effects of a multi-strategy suicide prevention model on age-standardised rates of hospital presenting self-harm and suicide after 24 months of implementation.
Methods A stepped-wedge cluster randomised trial was conducted in four sites across New South Wales (NSW), Australia, from 2016 to 2020. Sites were randomised to a starting order and implemented the same set of interventions over a 24-month period. Changes in rates of hospital presenting self-harm and suicide deaths were measured using linked administrative health data sets of persons aged 10 or older.
Results Negative binomial regression models adjusted for linear trends and seasonality showed that LifeSpan was associated with a 13 8% (incident response rate 0.86; 95% CI 0.79 to 0.94) reduction in hospital-presenting self-harm rates over the intervention period, compared with preintervention. These effects were not observed in the rest of NSW. There were statistically non-significant changes in suicide death rates during the intervention across all sites.
Conclusions Locally implementing a multi-strategy suicide prevention model can reduce rates of hospital presentations for self-harm, but longer implementation and evaluation periods may be required to realise the full impacts of interventions for suicide, as a more intractable outcome.
Clinical implications Our findings can inform policy at all levels of government to invest in actions that may build cross-sectoral capacity in local communities to detect and respond to suicide risk.LifeSpan is the result of tireless work of many hands. We would like to thank the LifeSpan implementation team, Michael Cook, Eve Stamate, Agatha Mossakowska, Jo Riley and Nathan Meteoro, and the site coordinators, Katie McGill, Tegan Cotterill, Alex Hains, Emma Patterson, Liz Hammond, Sharnie Everton, Deborah Howe, Jenna Roberts, Seryn Adams and Maja Asmus for their tremendous efforts. We also acknowledge and thank the members of the regional suicide prevention collaboratives, of whom there were many, as well as the New South Wales Department of Education, the New South Wales Department of Health, MindFrame and Roses in the Ocean for implementation support and advisory support. This study was supported by an A14.76 million grant from the Paul Ramsay Foundation to the Black Dog Institute (grant/award number: not applicable). HCh, MT, PJB, ALC were supported by National Health and Medical Research Council Fellowship Grants 1155614, 1138710, 1158707 and 1173146, respectively.Peer-reviewe
Computational Insights into the Effect of Ligand Redox Properties on Reductive Elimination from Au(III), Pd(II), and Pt(II) Complexes
No full textWe computationally investigated the Ar-Ar reductive elimination process in a series of biaryl Au(III), Pd(II), and Pt(II) complexes to explore the factors that govern the activation free energy associated with C-C coupling (Delta G double dagger). Contrary to conventional beliefs that emphasize metal-Ar bond strength as the primary determinant for the ease of reductive elimination, our density functional theory (DFT) calculations reveal that the key factor is the oxidation susceptibility of the Ar ligands in their anionic forms: the easier the oxidation of Ar-, the lower the activation free energy (Delta G double dagger). Indeed, we found that Delta G double dagger strongly correlates with the reduction potential for the reaction Ar center dot + e- -> Ar- (E degrees(Ar)). We further demonstrate that variations in complex net charge and metal center significantly influence the electron-accepting ability of the metal center in the transition state, thereby affecting the ease of reductive elimination. Notably, the effects of these factors (net charge and metal center) on the activation barrier were found to be largely independent of the nature of the Ar ligands.We gratefully acknowledge the generous allocation of computing time from the Australian National Computational Infrastructure.Peer-reviewe
Deep Extragalactic VIsible Legacy Survey (DEVILS): the size–mass relation of galaxies and their components in HST-COSMOS over the last 8 billion years
No full textWe present the evolution of the size–mass relation since z=1 in the COSMOS region of the Deep Extragalactic VIsible Legacy Survey (DEVILS). We combine structural decomposition measurements with stellar mass estimates from fitting spectral energy distributions to multiwavelength photometry. We implement a novel technique to fit 2D light profiles to repeated observations, removing the requirement to co-add images, which maximises the effective signal-to-noise ratio and avoids issues arising when averaging point spread functions. The sample is then separated into distinct morphological classifications, which reveals that the size–mass relation of disc-dominated galaxies shows an overall flattened slope with very little redshift evolution over 0.3 < z < 1.0. In contrast, spheroid-dominated morphologies show a much steeper relation and are generally more compact at a given stellar mass. The size–mass relations of bulge and disc components are also examined revealing that diffuse bulges occupy a similar region to disc structures, in stark contrast to the size–mass relation of compact bulges. Furthermore, the size–mass relation of discs becomes steeper in the presence of a compact bulge, whereas the relation for discs hosting a diffuse bulge is identical to that of pure-discs. The lack of evolution in disc-dominated galaxies (i.e. Reff ∝ (1+z)-0.13±0.02) is inherent to their self-similar assembly. In contrast, the size–mass relation of spheroid-dominated morphologies is rapidly evolving despite minimal growth in the individual compact bulge components, with average sizes increasing at a pace of Reff ∝ (1 + z)-3.0±0.2 and a slope that flattens with time as d log 10(Reff /d log 10(M✬) ∝ (1 + z)2.8±0.2.We sincerely thank the referee for their insights and constructive feedback throughout the review process, which has helped to improve the clarity and quality of this work. DEVILS is an Australian project based around a spectroscopic campaign using the AAT. The DEVILS input catalogue is generated from data taken as part of the ESO VISTA-VIDEO (Jarvis et al. 2013) and UltraVISTA (McCracken et al. 2012) surveys. DEVILS is part funded via Discovery Programs by the Australian Research Council and the participating institutions. The DEVILS website is https://devilsurvey.org. The DEVILS data is hosted and provided by AAO Data Central (https://datacentral.org.au/). MS has been supported by the Polish National Agency for Academic Exchange (Bekker grant BPN/BEK/2021/1/00298/DEC/1), the European Union\u2019s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation programme under the Maria Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement (no. 754510). This work made use of PYTHON, specifically the following packages: ASTROPY (Astropy Collaboration 2022); MATPLOTLIB (Hunter 2007); NUMPY (van der Walt, Colbert & Varoquaux 2011; Harris et al. 2020); SCIPY (Virtanen et al. 2020). MS has been supported by the Polish National Agency for Academic Exchange (Bekker grant BPN/BEK/2021/1/00298/DEC/1), the European Union\u2019s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation programme under the Maria Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement (no. 754510).Peer-reviewe
Insiders and outsiders in politically sensitive Pacific research
No full textAs a Fijian and an Australian, we have been working since 2021 on a politically sensitive research project investigating aspects of the parliament of Fiji related to gender equality, undertaking some parts of this project together and some separately. In this In Brief, we explore our divergent positionalities, and the strength each has brought to different aspects of this political research.Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trad
Developing and Validating a Multi-Domain Risk Attitudes Scale in the Multi-Ethnic Asian Population in Singapore
No full textMaladaptive risk attitudes, such as extreme risk seeking and risk aversion, are closely linked to psychopathology such as psychopathy and anxiety. Having culturally appropriate assessments of risk attitudes is essential for the research of psychology and psychopathology of responses to risk in a target population. We aimed to develop and validate the multi-domain risk tolerance (MDRT) scale for the multi-ethnic Singaporean population. Initial items were constructed from revising the item pool used in the previous study via interviews with Singaporean community-dwelling adults (N = 31). The candidate items of the MDRT were then tested and selected via a subsequent survey study (N = 882). A second longitudinal study (N = 1003) with two time-point measurements was conducted to validate the MDRT scale. The results suggested that the scale had satisfactory structural validity, criterion validity, internal consistency, and test-retest reliability. The MDRT scale also demonstrated scalar measurement invariance across genders and age groups. The results further highlighted the importance of cultural adaptation of measures in risk attitudes and continuing improvement of assessment and understanding of risk attitudes across populations.The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This work was funded by the Humanities & Social Sciences Seed Fund (1/2023).Peer-reviewe