CHOOSING IT AS A CAREER: EXPLORING THE ROLE OF SELF-EFFICACY AND PERCEIVED IMPORTANCE OF IT SKILLS

Understanding the factors which shape students’ IT career choices will allow educators to design recruitment and retention strategies to tackle the enrolment challenges. The objective of this research-in-progress is to explore the effects of two such factors, i.e., IT skills Self-efficacy (SE) and IT Skills Importance, on students’ attraction to IT careers. A survey methodology was used to achieve the aforementioned objective. Undergraduate students enrolled in IT courses at two large U.S. public universities were surveyed. This study makes a contribution to the field of IT education in multiple ways. First it develops scales for two beliefs which are crucial in capturing students’ attraction to IT careers. Second, it provides insights into students’ perceptions regarding the importance of various IT skills. Third, it posits a preliminary model which helps in our understanding of how students’ personal perceptions regarding the importance of IT skills affect SE beliefs and career intentions

Millennials and Masculinity: A Shifting Tide of Gender Typing of ICT?

The question of a possible shift in Millennials’ perceptions about gender and ICT resulted from a survey of gender stereotyping of ICT skills among college age Millennials in the USA. The results identify three clusters of skills: masculine (includes computer programming, database and networking); feminine (includes communication, working in teams, ethics, global and cultural awareness, and openness to new experiences) and gender neutral (includes initiative, ability to work under pressure, critical thinking and problem solving). These findings suggest a possible shift of gender stereotypes about ICT skills among Millennials. Nevertheless, the gender stereotyping of the more technical skills in the IT profession as masculine argues for continued interventions to alter these perceptions and expand the gender neutral space in order to broaden the participation of women in the IT field

Co, Ni-free ultrathick free-standing dry electrodes for sustainable lithium-ion batteries

The conventional method of manufacturing lithium-ion battery electrodes employs a complex slurry casting process with solvents that are not environmentally friendly and process parameters that are often difficult to control. This study explores a solvent-free dry electrode fabrication process of Co- and Ni-free LiMn2O4 (LMO) cathodes using a fibrillated polymer, polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE). A thick, dry electrode (265-368 μm, 30-64 mg cm-2) of LMO cathode was prepared successfully for the first time. Altering the conductive additives in the LMO dry electrode revealed multiwalled carbon nanotubes (CNTs) as the best conducting agent for dry electrode formulation in terms of conductivity and rate performance. Additionally, an all-dry electrode full cell consisting of both a dry electrode cathode (LMO) and an anode (LTO) delivered a stable cycling performance with a capacity retention of 82.8% after 200 cycles, demonstrating the scope for all-dry electrode full cells for future applications

Line Defects in Molybdenum Disulfide Layers

Layered molecular materials and especially MoS2 are already accepted as promising candidates for nanoelectronics. In contrast to the bulk material, the observed electron mobility in single-layer MoS2 is unexpectedly low. Here we reveal the occurrence of intrinsic defects in MoS2 layers, known as inversion domains, where the layer changes its direction through a line defect. The line defects are observed experimentally by atomic resolution TEM. The structures were modeled and the stability and electronic properties of the defects were calculated using quantum-mechanical calculations based on the Density-Functional Tight-Binding method. The results of these calculations indicate the occurrence of new states within the band gap of the semiconducting MoS2. The most stable non-stoichiometric defect structures are observed experimentally, one of which contains metallic Mo-Mo bonds and another one bridging S atoms

Effects of Ebola epidemic on obstetrical emergencies and outcomes in the region of Kindia, Guinea

Background: Maternal mortality is still high in Guinea despite a decline from 724 to 550 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births between 2012 and 2018. The proportion of births attended by skilled personnel is estimated at 45%. The objective of this study was to assess the effect of Ebola virus disease (EVD) epidemic on the frequency of absolute maternal indications, as well as the outcomes of these interventions for mother and child in the region of Kindia.Methods: This was a longitudinal study using 20 months of retrospective data collected in the pre-Ebola (March to December 2012 and March to December 2013) and intra-Ebola (March to December 2014 and March to December 2015) periods. The proportions of maternal health indicators in both study periods were compared using a significance level of 0.05.Results: A total of 1747 women were included in this study. The proportion of women who received a major obstetric procedure in Kindia regional hospital was 85% in each pre and post Ebola periods. Ebola, however, contributed to a significant increase in maternal deaths.Conclusions: The Ebola epidemic has contributed to a significant increase in maternal deaths in health facilities. Measures encouraging health workers to manage obstetric emergencies during critical periods would be necessary

Microstructure of conductive binder domain for electrical conduction in next‐generation lithium‐ion batteries

The purpose of this work is to investigate the structure and mechanism of long‐range electronic contacts which are formed by wet mixing and their interaction and relationship with the structure responsible for ion‐transfer within the conductive binder domain of next‐generation LiNi0.6Mn0.2Co0.2O2 lithium‐ion batteries. This paper introduces a novel concept involving an efficient adapted structure model, which includes a bridge structure with two “nested” small and large pore systems, and an effective electrode conduction mechanism involving two “nested” percolation systems. The paper also highlights a limitation in the improvement of the battery performance by percolation systems for electron transfer, which is restricted by pore systems for ion transfer through the ratio of electrical conductivity (σ) and ionic conductivity (κ) as σ/κ = 10. The findings of this paper may provide valuable insight for formulation design and manufacturing of an optimal structure of the conductive binder domain for next‐generation lithium‐ion batteries.This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.</jats:p

Plasmonic nanofillers-enabled solar membrane crystallization for mineral recovery

Recently, the excitation of localized surface plasmon resonances in metal nanoparticles (NPs) has been exploited in membrane science (especially, membrane distillation) to overcome temperature polarization. However, the prohibitive costs of state-of-the-art plasmonic NPs such as Ag and Au have opened the quest of alternative materials. Here, we show that nanoscale photothermal effects activated by light irradiation on nanocomposite membranes made of a thin microporous coating of polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) loaded with NiSe or CoSe NPs supported on polyvinylidene fluoride might be exploited to achieve crystallization of dissolved salts in brines. Explicitly, we demonstrate that the embodiment of the plasmonic NiSe and CoSe NPs is capable to originate an increase of the vaporization of the water from brine once the nanocomposite membranes are irradiated with sunlight, with the possibility to reach the supersaturation conditions, with the subsequent heterogeneous nucleation and crystallization of dissolved salts. © 2023Ministry of Science and Technology, MOST; Ministero degli Affari Esteri e della Cooperazione Internazionale, MAECIAP and MBS acknowledge the IVANHOE project funded by the Ministero degli Affari Esteri e della Cooperazione Internazionale (MAECI) for Italy and Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) for Israel. DWB acknowledges research funding from Jiangsu Innovative and Entrepreneurial Talents Project

Capture the growth kinetics of CVD growth of two-dimensional MoS 2

Understanding the microscopic mechanism is fundamental for function-oriented controlled chemical vapor deposition growth of two-dimensional (2D) materials. In this work, we reveal the growth kinetics of 2D MoS2 by capturing the nucleation seeds, evolving morphology, edge structure, and edge terminations at the atomic scale during chemical vapor deposition growth using the transmission electron microscopy and scanning transmission electron microscopy. The direct growth of few-layer and mono-layer MoS2 onto graphene-based transmission electron microscopy grids helped us to perform the subsequent transmission electron microscopy characterization without any solution-based transfer. Two seeding centers are observed: (i) Mo-oxysulfide (MoO x S2−y ) nanoparticles either in multi-shelled fullerene-like structures or as compact nanocrystals for the growth of fewer-layer MoS2; (ii) Mo-S atomic clusters. In the early stage growth, irregular polygons with two primary edge terminations, S-Mo Klein edges and Mo zigzag edges, appear approximately in equal numbers. The morphology evolves into a near-triangle shape in which Mo zigzag edges predominate. Results from density-functional theory calculations are consistent with the inferred growth kinetics, and thus support the growth mechanism we proposed. In general, the growth mechanisms found here should also be applicable in other 2D materials, such as MoSe2, WS2 and WSe2

Deconstructing the Intercultural Learning of a Doctoral Group Undertaking Qualitative Research—Or How Not to Do a ‘White PhD'

This article looks at the intellectual and linguistic dilemmas of an international doctoral group and juxtaposes these with some of the existential challenges the group faces. The intention is to offer a kind of ‘dialectical tacking’ between doctoral thinking and doctoral experiences more broadly. The overall aim of the piece is to think in front of each other while developing a sense of ‘equality’ in relation to group contributions. Each of the excursions into research in this article enacts different approaches to research thinking – comparative, inductive, deductive, dialectical and deconstructive. In this piece, the voices of the tutors (Stronach and Frankham) are mostly dominant, but further publication will shift that balance significantly towards the voice of the doctoral student. We begin with an empirical detail that highlights the nature of some of the problems of cultural and linguistic translation

Enhanced Long-Path Electrical Conduction in ZnO Nanowire Array Devices Grown via Defect-Driven Nucleation

Vertical arrays of nanostructures have been widely used as major components in some of the most ground-breaking modern research-based devices, and ZnO nanowires have received particular attention because of their favorable electronic properties. Using a local multiprobe technique to measure the properties of individual ZnO nanowires in vertical arrays, we show for the first time that for metal-catalyzed ZnO nanowire growth the electrical contribution of individual wires to a device is highly dependent on the fate of the catalyst nanoparticle during growth. To overcome the limitations of metal-catalyzed growth, nanowires grown from a defect-driven nucleation process are shown to provide high-quality device structures with excellent long-path electrical conduction