Sensitivity of Black Phosphorus to O2 and Atmosphere Measured by Macroscopic Four-Point Probe

Scientific interest in black phosphorus, a two-dimensional semiconducting allotrope of phosphorus, has increased in the last few years, since it was shown in 2014 to have very good properties for fieldeffect transistors. Unfortunately, practical use of the material is delayed because of its tendency to degrade into a phosphoric oxide when left in air. In this thesis I present the effects of atmospheric air and pure oxygen on the transport properties of bulk black phosphorus with and without light exposure. For continuous measurements carried out by millimeter-scale four-point probe, we see no change in the resistance of bulk samples exposed to air and oxygen, with or without light. I argue that even though we see an intensity shift in the Raman spectroscopy data, indicating oxidation of the black phosphorus samples, our measured resistances remain constant because the surface layers are nearly negligible in four-point measurements of bulk crystals. I then show an estimation for the upper bound of the number of layers affected by degradation as probed by this method, with a maximum of 900 out of 660,000 total probed layers, or about 0.1%

Security-first thinking and educational practices for young children in foster care in Sweden and England: A think piece

While the education of looked after children has attracted considerable policy attention in Europe and North America, and globally the early education of preschool aged children is the subject of substantial investment, the early education of young children in foster care is neglected in both research and policy. This paper is a cross-national think piece to stimulate research and debate about young children in foster care. We present findings from two studies, one in England and one in Sweden, exploring foster carers’ views and practices with young children. We argue that there is a perceived tension, in foster care policy and practice, between education and emotional wellbeing such that young children's attachment relationships and sense of security is privileged over their engagement in educational practices. Attachment relationships are a necessary but insufficient condition for optimal development of fostered children

Uncovering Shakespeare\u27s Sisters in Special Collections and College Archives, Musselman Library

Foreword by Professor Suzanne J. Flynn I have taught the first-year seminar, Shakespeare’s Sisters, several times, and over the years I have brought the seminar’s students to the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C. There, the wonderful librarians have treated the students to a special exhibit of early women’s manuscripts and first editions, beginning with letters written by Elizabeth I and proceeding through important works by seventeen and eighteenth-century women authors such as Aemelia Lanyer, Anne Finch, Aphra Behn, and Mary Wollstonecraft. This year I worked with Carolyn Sautter, the Director of Special Collections and College Archives, to give my 2018 seminar students the opportunity to produce a sequel to the Folger exhibit of early modern women writers. Special Collections houses an impressive array of first editions from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, many of them acquired from Thomas Y. Cooper, the former editor of the Hanover Evening Sun newspaper, who donated over 1600 items to Musselman Library in 1965. Working with Kerri Odess-Harnish, we chose first editions of eight significant works of literature written by American and British women from the mid-nineteenth through the mid-twentieth centuries. The students worked in pairs, researching a single book and producing a report that outlines important biographical facts about the author, the book’s publication and reception history, and finally the significance of the book in the years since its publication. We hope that our project will draw attention to the wealth of literary treasures housed in Special Collections at Musselman Library, but especially to these works by eight of “Shakespeare’s Sisters.

A fast radio burst with a low dispersion measure

Fast radio bursts (FRBs) are millisecond pulses of radio emission of seemingly extragalactic origin. More than 50 FRBs have now been detected, with only one seen to repeat. Here we present a new FRB discovery, FRB 110214, which was detected in the high latitude portion of the High Time Resolution Universe South survey at the Parkes telescope. FRB 110214 has one of the lowest dispersion measures of any known FRB (DM = 168.9$\pm$0.5 pc cm$^{-3}$), and was detected in two beams of the Parkes multi-beam receiver. A triangulation of the burst origin on the sky identified three possible regions in the beam pattern where it may have originated, all in sidelobes of the primary detection beam. Depending on the true location of the burst the intrinsic fluence is estimated to fall in the range of 50 -- 2000 Jy ms, making FRB 110214 one of the highest-fluence FRBs detected with the Parkes telescope. No repeating pulses were seen in almost 100 hours of follow-up observations with the Parkes telescope down to a limiting fluence of 0.3 Jy ms for a 2-ms pulse. Similar low-DM, ultra-bright FRBs may be detected in telescope sidelobes in the future, making careful modeling of multi-beam instrument beam patterns of utmost importance for upcoming FRB surveys.Comment: 8 pages, 3 figures, accepted for publication in MNRA

Learning Without Limits: Identifying the Barriers and Enablers to Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion in IS Education

Inclusion in Information Systems (IS) has received significant attention in recent years, but inclusion in IS curriculum design and delivery is comparatively underdeveloped. Understanding and working with diversity in IS student groups has implications for how we prepare students for a diverse workplace and the design and development of IS systems. Although progress has been made towards inclusive higher education, institutions have not transformed into multicultural diverse organizations. This paper showcases an initiative to apply principles of Universal Design in the particular context of an IS postgraduate programme in a leading Irish business school. This initiative is set within the context of two connected research projects seeking to identify barriers to inclusion experienced by students generally, and particularly by certain student groups, in the same school. The findings demonstrate the persistence of inclusion issues in higher education, including in IS, that Universal Design principles are effective in developing more inclusive teaching and learning practices, and that small actions can have a big impact in this regard. A set of key recommendations is provided; while not exhaustive, these contribute to the wider discourse on inclusion and offer practical suggestions to educators on the design and delivery of inclusive programmes at both undergraduate and postgraduate level

Social stigma and executive compensation

We document that executives working at firms perceived negatively in light of social norms, such as tobacco, gambling and alcohol, earn a significant compensation premium. The premium compensates for personal costs executives bear due to their employer’s negative public perception and include: (i) a reduced likelihood these CEOs will serve as directors on other firms’ boards, which associates with lower executives’ social status, and (ii) impaired job mobility as employers shun stigmatized executives. The compensation premium is not explained by higher managerial skill required in firms we investigate, higher employment contract risk, political capital, litigation risk, or differences in corporate governance quality, and robust to endogeneity concerns. Our results highlight the significant impact job-related social stigma has on executive compensation

A Systematic Review Comparing the Acceptability, Validity and Concordance of Discrete Choice Experiments and Best–Worst Scaling for Eliciting Preferences in Healthcare

Objective: The aim of this study was to compare the acceptability, validity and concordance of discrete choice experiment (DCE) and best–worst scaling (BWS) stated preference approaches in health. Methods: A systematic search of EMBASE, Medline, AMED, PubMed, CINAHL, Cochrane Library and EconLit databases was undertaken in October to December 2016 without date restriction. Studies were included if they were published in English, presented empirical data related to the administration or findings of traditional format DCE and object-, profile- or multiprofile-case BWS, and were related to health. Study quality was assessed using the PREFS checklist. Results: Fourteen articles describing 12 studies were included, comparing DCE with profile-case BWS (9 studies), DCE and multiprofile-case BWS (1 study), and profile- and multiprofile-case BWS (2 studies). Although limited and inconsistent, the balance of evidence suggests that preferences derived from DCE and profile-case BWS may not be concordant, regardless of the decision context. Preferences estimated from DCE and multiprofile-case BWS may be concordant (single study). Profile- and multiprofile-case BWS appear more statistically efficient than DCE, but no evidence is available to suggest they have a greater response efficiency. Little evidence suggests superior validity for one format over another. Participant acceptability may favour DCE, which had a lower self-reported task difficulty and was preferred over profile-case BWS in a priority setting but not necessarily in other decision contexts. Conclusion: DCE and profile-case BWS may be of equal validity but give different preference estimates regardless of the health context; thus, they may be measuring different constructs. Therefore, choice between methods is likely to be based on normative considerations related to coherence with theoretical frameworks and on pragmatic considerations related to ease of data collection