Promoting women's wellbeing through the Niska (Goose) Harvesting Program in subarctic Ontario, Canada.

Introduction: Geese harvesting is a longstanding cultural tradition deeply ingrained among the Omushkego Cree in Fort Albany First Nation, embodying a holistic approach to health that integrates Indigenous knowledge, community wellbeing, and resilience. Despite historical disruptions stemming from colonization and assimilation policies, women have played a pivotal role in preserving and passing down traditional practices. The significance of goose harvesting extends beyond providing a nutrient-rich and cost-effective food source; it serves as a vehicle for cultural preservation and education, particularly fostering language acquisition among children.

Do metastable polymorphs always grow faster? Measuring and comparing growth kinetics of three polymorphs of tolfenamic acid.

The phenomenon of molecular crystal polymorphism is of central importance for all those industries that rely on crystallisation for the manufacturing of their products. Computational methods for the evaluation of thermodynamic properties of polymorphs have become incredibly accurate and prediction of crystal structures is becoming routine. The computational study and prediction of the kinetics of crystallisation impacting polymorphism, however, have received considerably less attention despite their crucial role in directing crystallisation outcomes.

Indigenous land-based approaches to well-being: The (River) program in subarctic Ontario, Canada.

The Albany River system holds a special significance for the Omushkego Cree of subarctic Ontario, Canada, embodying their cultural roots, history, and the Cree way of life and worldviews. Through the Sibi program, youth learned traditional fishing practices from Elders and on-the-land experts, gaining valuable knowledge on the land and river. The program addressed barriers to being on the land, while also creating a space for the transfer of Indigenous knowledge and revitalising community social networks.

Indigenous Land-Based Approaches to Well-Being: The (Goose) Harvesting Program in Subarctic Ontario, Canada.

Historically, goose harvesting provided a source of culturally significant, safe, and nutritious food for the Cree of subarctic Ontario, Canada. Disruptions stemming from colonization and climate change have led to a decrease in harvesting, resulting in higher rates of food insecurity. The aim of the program was to reconnect Elders and youth to revitalize goose harvesting activities and associated Indigenous knowledge within the community.

Complex Growth of Benzamide Form I: Effect of Additives, Solution Flow, and Surface Rugosity.

Understanding crystal growth kinetics is of great importance for the development and manufacturing of crystalline molecular materials. In this work, the impact of additives on the growth kinetics of benzamide form I (BZM-I) crystals has been studied. Using our newly developed crystal growth setup for the measurement of facet-specific crystal growth rates under flow, BZM-I growth rates were measured in the presence of various additives previously reported to induce morphological changes.

Indigenous Land-Based Approaches to Well-Being: The (Beaver) Harvesting Program in Subarctic Ontario, Canada.

The act of decolonizing knowledge systems involves recovering and renewing traditional, non-commodified cultural patterns, such as the sustenance of intergenerational relationships and traditional practices. A decline in beaver harvesting, which was once an integral part of the Cree culture, has resulted in an overabundance of beavers and dams, which has negatively affected communities by increasing the local flooding events and impacting the water quality. The aim of the (beaver) program was to reconnect the Elders and youth to revitalize traditional on-the-land activities and, in the present case, beaver harvesting and associated activities within the community.

Two-Eyed Seeing and developmental origins of health and disease studies with indigenous partners.

Globally, mortality of Indigenous persons is greater than that of their non-Indigenous counterparts, which has been shown to be disproportionately attributable to non-communicable diseases. The historically subordinate position that Indigenous Knowledge (IK) held in comparison to Western science has shifted over the last several decades, with the credibility and importance of IK now being internationally recognized. Herein, we examine how Marsahall's (2014) Two-Eyed Seeing can foster collaborative and culturally relevant Developmental Origins of Health and Disease (DOHaD) studies for health and well-being by using '.

Can molecular flexibility control crystallization? The case of substituted benzoic acids.

Despite the technological importance of crystallization from solutions almost nothing is known about the relationship between the kinetic process of nucleation and the molecular and crystal structures of a crystallizing solute. Nowhere is this more apparent than in our attempts to understand the behavior of increasingly large, flexible molecules developed as active components in the pharmaceutical arena. In our current contribution we develop a general protocol involving a combination of computation (conformation analysis, lattice energy), and experiment (measurement of nucleation rates), and show how significant advances can be made.

Harvest Programs in First Nations of Subarctic Canada: The Benefits Go Beyond Addressing Food Security and Environmental Sustainability Issues.

By breaking down barriers that impacted the ability of subarctic First Nations people to harvest waterfowl, the Sharing-the-Harvest program provided a safe, nutritious, and culturally appropriate food (i.e., geese) to James Bay Cree communities while also helping to protect the environment by harvesting overabundant geese.

Open questions in organic crystal polymorphism.

Polymorphs, crystals with different structure and properties but the same molecular composition, arise from the subtle interplay between thermodynamics and kinetics during crystallisation. In this opinion piece, the authors review the latest developments in the field of polymorphism and discuss standing open questions.

Transforming Computed Energy Landscapes into Experimental Realities: The Role of Structural Rugosity.

We exploit the possible link between structural surface roughness and difficulty of crystallisation. Polymorphs with smooth surfaces may nucleate and crystallise more readily than polymorphs with rough surfaces. The concept is applied to crystal structure prediction landscapes and reveals a promising complementary way of ranking putative crystal structures.

Concerning Elusive Crystal Forms: The Case of Paracetamol.

Increasing commercial application of state of the art crystal structure prediction to aid solid form discovery of new molecular entities allows the experimentalist to target the polymorphs with desired properties. Here we remind ourselves that in this field the gap between such prediction and experimentation can be vast, the latter depending strongly on kinetic processes not accounted for in the computations. Nowhere is this gap more evident than in examples of so-called "elusive" polymorphs, forms that have been found difficult to crystallize, sometimes taking years to appear or sometimes disappearing altogether.

The importance of configurational disorder in crystal structure prediction: the case of loratadine.

Loratadine, an over-the-counter antihistamine medication, has two known monotropically related polymorphs, both of which feature disorder. A combined experimental and computational approach using variable temperature single crystal X-ray diffraction (VT-SCXRD) analysis and dispersion corrected density functional theory (DFT-D) reveals that the nature of the disorder in each form is markedly different and cannot be described by a simple isolated-site model with thermally populated conformations in either of the two cases. In Form I, the ethyl carbamate functionality adopts two different configurations, with adjacent moieties interacting along one-dimensional chains.

Aromatic stacking - a key step in nucleation.

Crystal nucleation from solution is of central importance in the chemical and biological sciences. Linking nucleation kinetics to the properties of solutes and solvents remains a grand-challenge in physical chemistry. Through a unique dataset of compounds able to self-assemble via both hydrogen-bonds and aromatic stacking, we are able to compare the importance of these two types of interaction in driving the nucleation process.

Crystallisation from a Water-in-Oil Emulsion as a Route to Enantiomer Separation: The Case of DL-Threonine.

The use of crystalliation as a means of separating enantiomers is well known. The utility of commonly applied seeding approaches is limited by the ultimate crystallisation of the antipode. Here we demonstrate how the combination of colloid science and crystal chemistry can lead to an emulsion based process yielding robust separation of a purified solid and impure liquid phases with ultimate product ee of up to 90 %.

Crystal nucleation from solutions--transition states, rate determining steps and complexity.

This introductory paper offers a contemporary view of crystal nucleation. We begin with a molecular interpretation of the transition state and then revisit the use of classical nucleation theory as a means of obtaining molecular scale information from kinetic data. Traditional physical organic chemistry has always utilised the combination of kinetics and thermodynamics in order to gain insight over reaction pathways.

Proton transfer and hydrogen bonding in the organic solid state: a combined XRD/XPS/ssNMR study of 17 organic acid-base complexes.

The properties of nitrogen centres acting either as hydrogen-bond or Brønsted acceptors in solid molecular acid-base complexes have been probed by N 1s X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) as well as (15)N solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance (ssNMR) spectroscopy and are interpreted with reference to local crystallographic structure information provided by X-ray diffraction (XRD). We have previously shown that the strong chemical shift of the N 1s binding energy associated with the protonation of nitrogen centres unequivocally distinguishes protonated (salt) from hydrogen-bonded (co-crystal) nitrogen species. This result is further supported by significant ssNMR shifts to low frequency, which occur with proton transfer from the acid to the base component.

Nucleation of organic crystals--a molecular perspective.

The outcome of synthetic procedures for crystalline organic materials strongly depends on the first steps along the molecular self-assembly pathway, a process we know as crystal nucleation. New experimental techniques and computational methodologies have spurred significant interest in understanding the detailed molecular mechanisms by which nuclei form and develop into macroscopic crystals. Although classical nucleation theory (CNT) has served well in describing the kinetics of the processes involved, new proposed nucleation mechanisms are additionally concerned with the evolution of structure and the competing nature of crystallization in polymorphic systems.

The isolation of a metastable conglomerate using a combined computational and controlled crystallization approach.

While the use of additives to control the crystallization of polymorphs is well known, similar methodology to promote the crystallization of a metastable conglomerate over a stable racemic compound in enantiomeric systems has not been reported. Here we demonstrate this phenomenon in the case of 2-chloromandelic acid.

Crystallography aided by atomic core-level binding energies: proton transfer versus hydrogen bonding in organic crystal structures.

Ionic bond or hydrogen bridge? Brønsted proton transfer to nitrogen acceptors in organic crystals causes strong N1s core-level binding energy shifts. A study of 15 organic cocrystal and salt systems shows that standard X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) can be used as a complementary method to X-ray crystallography for distinguishing proton transfer from H-bonding in organic condensed matter.

Solubility, metastable zone width measurement and crystal growth of the 1:1 benzoic acid/isonicotinamide cocrystal in solutions of variable stoichiometry.

The solubility and crystal growth of the 1:1 cocrystal between benzoic acid and isonicotinamide from 95% ethanol was studied through the creation of a ternary phase diagram at differing temperatures and turbidity measurements. From the solubility measurements thermodynamic properties of the system were evaluated, which indicate little solution binding of the two components supported by in situ FT-IR spectra. Cooling crystallisation from solutions of differing composition suggests differing crystal growth characteristics.

Acceleration of crystal growth rates: an unexpected effect of tailor-made additives.

The importance of relative growth rates in the preponderance of alpha- over gamma-glycine during solution crystallisation has been confirmed. Most surprisingly tailor-made additives drastically accelerated the growth of gamma-glycine--an unexpected and key factor in the polymorphic outcome of glycine crystallisation.