The Framing of the Common Core State Standards in the New York Times and Chicago Tribune from 2014-2015

A narrative of optimism abounds in dominant U.S. culture regarding education as the “great equalizer” of society. As a result, the experience of the disenfranchised such as those with learning differences, English language learners, and racial minorities often go unnoticed or misrepresented. Other factors such as the role of big business and standardized testing in funding school districts avoid critical analysis, including in the mainstream media. In a content analysis of 120 articles from the New York Times and the Chicago Tribune covering Common Core State Standards from 2014-2015, this study discovers both newspapers fail to make significant mention of the aforementioned elements in their framing of this education policy. The framing of any significant topic in the mass media is important because many individuals tend to form their opinions about it through this outlet. This study adds nuance to what contributes or comprises inequitable education in the public eye

Fabrication and characterisation of copper diffusion barrier layers for future interconnect applications

The focus of this thesis is the fabrication and characterisation of ultra-thin self-forming Cu diffusion barrier layers for future interconnect technologies. These barrier layers form by the chemical interaction of an expelled metal from a copper alloy with the surface of a dielectric material to form a stable chemical species suitable for integration into future interconnect fabrication strategies. Studies of both manganese and aluminium as the alloying elements were undertaken and the characterisation techniques included x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) and secondary ion mass spectroscopy (SIMS). Electrical characterisation measurements used to establish the effectiveness of the barrier layers at preventing copper diffusion were performed on fabricated metal-oxide-semiconductor (MOS) structures. A novel approach involving interface chemistry studies and MOS device fabrication on the same dielectric substrate was successfully demonstrated. Barrier formation on a range of prototype low-k dielectric materials with different carbon concentrations and porosities were undertaken and surface chemical modifications prior to barrier layer formation were also investigated. The results show that both Mn and Al are effective at preventing copper diffusion into SiO2, but the inherent porous structure of low-k dielectrics present significant challenges to barrier layer formation, particularly at the dimensional range required for future technology nodes

GlobalCom

The objective of this developed application is to provide a company with a means of communicating with its employees no matter where they are physically located and what communication resources they may have at any particular time. The core focus of this application is to provide a Unified Messaging System using synchronous and asynchronous forms

Light-modulated ion binding: towards calibrationless sensors

Emerging technologies create new application fields but few of them require that we completely rethink our approach in preparation and characterization of sensors. The vision of internet scale wireless sensor networks (WSNs) requires the deployment of enormous numbers of sensors. This necessarily means that the cost of each sensor must be brought down significantly if this vision is to be realized. An ideal solution for this problem would be a sensor that does not interact with its environment in any way until there is a need for measurement. Upon the measurement, the sensor’s surface is completely regenerated and returned into the state as before the measurement. This step is critical as it ensures that the measurement did not any effect on the sensor hence no calibration is necessary. In our work, we use compounds that indeed can be switched between the active and passive state using light. Most commonly used compounds are so called spiropyrans (SP) and spirooxazines (SO). Here we show the recent advance in preparation of reversible, light-modulated sensors using surface immobilised SP/SO derivatives. A further attractive property of these materials is that they are inherently self-indicating through striking colour changes that enable the state to be easily determined (active vs. passive), and the presence of a bound guest to be detected. These spectral changes enable a range of self-diagnostic tests to be incorporated that enable binding events to be controlled at the surface interface, and for real binding events to be distinguished from artefacts arsing from changes in light intensity, or photobleaching of the active component. We have identified most notable problems for utilization of these compounds in “calibrationless” sensors such as relatively weak binding constants, photodegradation, and unfavourable kinetics of switching between the active and passive state and we demonstrate our approach in solving these problems

Consistency of Academic Performance in Higher Education: A Study of an Irish Business Degree Programme

This study examines the level of consistency of the academic performance of business students, both as a whole and within two fields of study- accounting and human resource management (HRM). The examination results of 177 students are ranked at different stages and compared with the rank of final year exam results. By utilising Spearman\u27s (1 904) coefficient of rank order correlations rather than absolute marks, this paper hopes to facilitate the process of comparison. The research found that the level of consistency increases substantially once students enter the degree irrespective of their field of study

Blended Learning - What Practitioners Can Learn From MOOCs

The rapid increase in the use of information technologies in third level education is changing the way courses are provided. Online multimedia have helped reduce the difficulties teachers face with a diversity of student profiles and a large number of students in a classroom. Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) present an extreme with regard to student groups in relation to size and diversity and, therefore, many techniques and methods of overcoming the difficulties that this can present have been developed. Much of these methods can apply to online courses generally and to blended teaching environments. This study identifies four key areas where practitioners can learn from the large data set research provided by MOOCs. These are: methods of delivering content, dealing with the diversity of the group, providing for different learning preferences and assessment methods. Findings include the need for personalisation of the online environment, improving the use of peer assessment, the creation of more accessible learning content, and tailoring of the online environment to the pedagogical approach

Photochromic spiropyran monolithic polymers: Molecular photo-controllable electroosmotic pumps for micro-fluidic devices

A novel photo-controllable micro-fluidic electroosmotic pump based on spiropyran monolithic polymers is presented here for the first time. Photochromic monolithic scaffolds have been synthesised within poly(tetrafluoroethylene) coated fused silica capillaries. These monoliths have a photochromic spiropyran monomer incorporated in the bulk by thermally induced copolymerisation with a cross-linking agent (divinylbenzene) and were encased in micro-fluidic devices to function as photo-controllable electroosmotic pumps (EOPs). Due to the presence of the spiropyran the monolith can exist in two forms: a zwitterionic merocyanine (MC) form and an uncharged spiropyran (SP). As both forms bare a net overall zero charge, an acidic electrolyte was used to produce a stable anodic electroosmotic flow (EOF), while still retaining the ability to switch between the SP and the MC forms, which exhibit different charge distributions. It was confirmed that visible light, which produces the SP form, caused an increase in EOF while UV light, which generates the MC form, caused a decrease in EOF. In this way the EOF from the chip was modified by light and not by changing the electric field, temperature or buffer pH, some of the more common methods of altering the EOF