Shaping your department's success: an audit tool for language departments in higher education

Shaping a successful future for languages means shaping a successful future for language departments. This audit is designed to help staff form a holistic view of the strengths and weaknesses of their department with particular attention to 1) Institutional context and strategy, 2) Research, 3) Teaching and learning, 4) Curriculum, 5) Public engagement and 6) Staff roles and staff development. The tool helps to identify where action is needed and assists in developing an action plan to address weaknesses and consolidate existing strengths. The audit can be used by individuals as a managerial tool, but it is better suited to being used a discussion document in a group exercis

The UK Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF) as an illustration of Baudrillard's hyperreality

This article examines the 'Teaching Excellence Framework' (TEF) for UK universities through the lens of Jean Baudrillard's concept of hyperreality. I argue that the TEF is a hyperreal simulacrum, a sign which has no traceable genealogy to the practice of learning and teaching

Controlled fabrication of tunable delay using compound phase shifted resonators

Fine tuned, narrowband group delay (“slow light”) is obtained using a compound phase shifted grating and superposing resonances. Both simulation and experiments are reported

New theory of femtosecond induced changes and nanopore formation

Recent results confirm the presence of molecular oxygen proving that recombination of dissociated silica bonds does not occur. This combined with the observation of nanopores within the nanograting structure in silica, leads to a new interpretation of femtosecond processing based on the unusual characteristics of quenching of tetrahedral silica compared to other glasses. This new approach suggests very different directions and implications for devices, including sensors, based on femtosecond laser processing of glasses.Comment: Submitted to 3rd Asia Pacific Optical Sensors Conference, Sydney, Australi

Response Fibre Bragg Grating (FBG) strain sensors embedded at different locations through the thickness around a delamination in a composite lamina

A few FBG strain sensors were embedded at a vicinity of delamination of a laminated composite plate. Reflected spectra of FBG sensors which located in the same layer as the delamination and one layer above the delamination were investigated in order to understand the change of the reflected spectra due to stress concentrations at the delamination. The reflected waveforms of sensors were broadened with the increase of loading, as expected. A considerable difference in the response of two sensors was observed during both uniaxial and flexural loading. These differences show that the FBG sensors are capable of capturing the precise nature of the delamination under various loading conditions. Further, these observations provide evidence of the feasibility of using FBG sensor responses obtained from various locations allows the location of the delamination to be determined. This paper details some new and interesting findings of the use of spectral shapes and strain measurements from embedded FBG sensors in damage detection

Alien Registration- Canning, John R. (Portland, Cumberland County)

https://digitalmaine.com/alien_docs/24289/thumbnail.jp

Mechanical strength of silica fiber splices after exposure to extreme temperatures

By using a combination of type-I and regenerated gratings, the mechanical strength of optical fiber splices after exposure to temperatures over 1300 C was characterized. Splice strength was found to decrease with temperature with a secondorder polynomial dependence after exposure to environments hotter than 500 C. Splices exposed to temperatures above 1300 C were 80% more fragile than non-exposed splices. The lack of optical attenuation and the narrowing distribution of breaking strengths for higher temperatures suggest surface damage mechanisms, such as hydrolysis, play a key role in weakening post-heating and that damage mechanisms dominate over strengthening induced by crack melting