Being an academic:Perceptions of expatriate academics

The focus of this thesis is to explore how expatriate academics perceive the meaning of being an academic in higher education. In this study, I sought to contribute to the extant literature on expatriate academics and the construction of their academic identities, which has been under-researched, particularly in relation to how multiple contributing factors such as the motivations to expatriate and the experiences of academics influence the development of the identities of expatriate academics. An interpretive approach to research guided the design of the study. In order to answer the research questions, a qualitative study was undertaken, and the data was generated using semi-structured interviews with 18 expatriate academics at a higher education institution in Oman. Thematic analysis was used to analyse the data. The findings of this study show that the expatriate academics reflected four core identities of the meaning of being an academic: traditional teacher, integrated academic, academic freelancer and academic leader. The findings draw attention to the complex nature of academic identities and that the academics expressed a wider range of academic identities such as academic freelancer (practitioner/vocational) and academic leader (leadership) in addition to being a teacher or a researcher. This thesis contributes to original knowledge by relating the influences of motivations to expatriate and the experiences of expatriation on the development of the core academic identities of expatriate academics. This thesis argues that the expatriate academics’ perception of being an academic has been evolving over time and the academics were seen as building on and extending their core academic identity influenced by their past experiences, considering their present and likely future experiences. The findings revealed that the expatriate academics were able to construct positive and agentive narratives of academic identity development within the higher education environment in Oman taking into account the diversity of the academic profession and context. The findings have implications for policy makers and managements of HEIs as a better understanding of how the expatriate academics perceive the meaning of being an academic, will enable them to reimagine the HE environment in their institutions and countries so that the expatriate academics are offered opportunities and space to develop their academic identities and future identity trajectories. This will enable the academics to develop and thrive in the academic profession. The findings also have implications for academics globally that have expatriated or are considering expatriation to understand what to expect when deciding to expatriate and the related experiences

Endocrine disruptor, dibutyltin is an antagonist for PPAR-alpha in reporter gene assay

Tese (doutorado)—Universidade de Brasília, Curso de Ciências Farmacêuticas, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Ciências Farmacêuticas, 2015.A exposição a poluentes ambientais está se tornando uma séria ameaça para os seres humanos, bem como para os animais. Estes poluentes apresentam perfis toxicológicos elevados, estruturas diversas e bloqueiam vários mecanismos de sinalização. Compostos organoestânicos são categorizados como desreguladores endócrinos devido à sua capacidade de perturbar a função endócrina. Estes compostos têm como alvo a membrana plasmática, enzimas, mitocôndrias, vários receptores nucleares ou induzem modificações epigenéticas. Compostos de diorganoestanho são a das classes mais importantes dos compostos organoestânicos. Dilaurato de dibutilestanho e dicloreto de dibutilestanho são derivados de compostos de dibutilestanho, que são utilizados como estabilizadores de PVC, catalizadores e agentes de desparasitação. Compostos de dibutilestanho têm sido detectados no sangue humano e no fígado. Diversas evidências indicam que os compostos de butilestanho induzem esteatose hepática, obesidade, imposex, adipogênese e inibem a osteogênese entre outras. A atividade agonista dos compostos organoestânicos nos PPARs tem sido extensivamente estudada, no entanto ainda não há evidências suficientes documentando a atividade antagonista em PPAR. Nesse estudo, pela primeira vez, demonstramos que o dilaurato de dibutilestanho, dicloreto de dibutilestanho atuam como antagonistas de PPARα no ensaio de transativação de gene repórter. Os resultados indicam que o dilaurato de dibutilestanho atua como um antagonista fraco, com um valor de IC50 de 4.1μM, enquanto que o dicloreto de dibutilestanho atua como um antagonista potente do PPARα, com um valor de IC50de 0.26μM.Environmental pollutant exposure is becoming a serious threat to humans as well as animals. These pollutants are having high toxicological profiles, diverse structures and they disrupt various signaling mechanisms. Organotin compounds are categorized as endocrine disrupting chemicals due to their capability to perturb the endocrine function. These compounds target plasma membrane, enzymes, mitochondria, various nuclear receptors or induce epigenetic modifications. Diorganotin compounds are one of the most important class of organotin compounds. Dibutyltindilaurate and dilaurate dichloride are the derivatives of dibutyltin compounds, which are used as PVC stabilizers, catalytic and as deworming agents. Dibutyltin compounds have been detected in human blood and liver. Accumulating and emerging evidence indicate that butyltin compounds induce hepatic steatosis, obesity, imposex, adipogenesis and inhibit oesteogenesis etc. The agonistic activity of organotin compounds on PPARs has been studied extensively, while there are not enough evidences documented about its antagonistic activity. In the present study, for the first time, we demonstrated that dibutyltindilaurate and dibutyltin dichloride act as PPARα antagonist in the transactivation assay. The results indicate that dibutyltindilaurate acts as a weak antagonist with an IC50 value of 4.1μM, while dibutyltin dichloride acts as a potent PPARα antagonist with an IC50 value of 0.26μM

Interrupted HTTP/TCP Connections in Web-Based video streaming on Mobile Phones

The explosive growth of the World Wide Web (WWW) in recent years has caused a significant shift in the Internet traffic. Web browsing is the most well-known and popular activity with increasing share in inter-domain traffic. This popularity is mainly due to video on the web. The combination of TCP/HTTP protocols on web traffic carries different types of information. Analyzing the termination of TCP connections give an indication to extract user behavior. In this thesis work, systematic tests are performed to investigate the generation of TCP resets in the case of web-based video streaming on smart phones. The aim is to differentiate between the user generated resets from the client side resets. Since the criterion presented in [8] do not identify the user-generated resets for video content on the web, an attempt has been made to propose an improved criterion based on our testing that produces more precise results

Photophysical and electron transfer studies of a stable carbocation

Photophysical and electron transfer properties of the stable trioxatriangulenium carbocation (1) are reported. Photophysical studies include absorption, fluorescence and phosphorescence spectra, singlet and triplet state quantum yields and lifetimes. Both the singlet and triplet excited states of 1 can accept an electron from donor molecules leading to the formation of the donor radical cation and the radical of 1. In aqueous solution, 1 can photo-oxidize DNA nucleosides such as guanosine and adenosine indicating that 1 may have potential use as a DNA cleaving agent

Photoinduced electron transfer in azatriangulenium salts

Fluorescence quenching and laser flash photolysis studies of stable azatriangulenium ions 2⊕-4⊕ are reported. The fluorescence quenching rate constants were correlated to Δ G0values. The results suggest that 2⊕ is an excited state electron acceptor and 4⊕ is an excited state electron donor. 3⊕, on the other hand, can act as an acceptor or donor in photoinduced electron transfer (PET) reactions. Laser flash photolysis studies also supported these observations. These cations thus present an interesting case, where replacement of oxygen atoms by N-alkyl groups leads to a gradual shift of photoinduced electron transfer property from an acceptor to that of a donor

Photophysical and singlet oxygen generation studies of a few water soluble triazatriangulenium salts

1047-1055The photophysical and singlet oxygen generation studies of a few water-soluble triazatriangulenium cations (TATA) are reported. The photophysical studies include absorption spectrum, fluorescence spectrum, fluorescence quantum yield, fluorescence lifetime, triplet life time, triplet quantum yield and phosphorescence spectrum. The singlet and triplet energy levels of the compounds were determined. The triplet state properties have been characterized using nanosecond laser flash photolysis studies. The singlet oxygen generation has been estimated using chemical actinometry using disodium-9,10-anthracenedipropionic acid in water and 1,3-diphenylisobenzofuran in acetonitrile as the chemical actinometers and rose bengal was used as reference

Influence of molecular shape on magnetic field effect on photo-induced geminate radical pair in SDS micellar medium

The magnetic field effects (MFEs) on the dynamics of the two radical pairs (RPs), one generated by photo-excitation of phenyl pyrilium ion (PP+) in the presence of SDS micelles and an electron donor, biphenyl, and the other similarly generated from a SDS micellar solution of biphenyl and trioxotriangulenium carbocation (OXO+), have been compared. At zero field, the RP (PP·/BP·+) has much higher recombination rate, but much lower escape rate in comparison to the RP (OXO· /BP·+). The field-dependent yields and lifetimes show saturation early ( <0.1 T) in case of the latter, but in case of the former, the saturation does not occur, not even at a field of 5 T. The results have been interpreted in terms of relaxation mechanism (RM) for MFE and expected differences in the location of the guest in the micellar host, which affects the ratio of the rate of recombination to the rate of escape