Academic Dishonesty: A Mixed-method Study of Rational Choice among Students at the College of Basic Education in Kuwait

The research herein used a sequential mixed methods design to investigate why academic dishonesty is widespread among the students at the College of Basic Education in Kuwait. Qualitative interviews were conducted to generate research hypotheses. Then, using questionnaire survey, the research hypotheses were quantitatively tested. The findings suggested that academic dishonesty is widespread among the students at the College of Basic Education because the benefits of academic dishonesty are high, whereas the certainty of detection and severity of the sanctions are relatively low. Keywords: academic dishonesty, rational choice theory, sequential mixed methods desig

OPTN recruitment to a Golgi-proximal compartment regulates immune signalling and cytokine secretion

Optineurin (OPTN) is a multifunctional protein involved in autophagy, secretion as well as NF-κB and IRF3 signalling and OPTN mutations are associated with several human diseases. Here we show that, in response to viral RNA, OPTN translocates to foci in the perinuclear region, where it negatively regulates NF-κB and IRF3 signalling pathways and downstream pro-inflammatory cytokine secretion. These OPTN foci consist of a tight cluster of small membrane vesicles, which are positive for ATG9A. Disease mutations linked to POAG cause aberrant foci formation in the absence of stimuli, which correlates with the ability of OPTN to inhibit signalling. Using proximity labelling proteomics, we identify the LUBAC complex, CYLD and TBK1 as part of the OPTN interactome and show that these proteins are recruited to this OPTN-positive perinuclear compartment. Our work uncovers a crucial role for OPTN in dampening NF-κB and IRF3 signalling through the sequestration of LUBAC and other positive regulators in this viral RNA-induced compartment leading to altered pro-inflammatory cytokine secretion

Refractive index and scattering of porous TiO 2 films

Porous titanium dioxide (TiO2) films are essential components of dye sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) as well as perovskite solar cells (PSCs). Unfortunately, porosity, refractive index, and scattering properties of these films are only roughly known. This induces uncertainties in modelling and understanding of these solar cells. Since the literature provides only descriptions of the optical properties of the porous TiO2 layers with unclear relevance to these solar cells, we investigate porous TiO2 films really used in DSSCs and potentially usable in PSCs. The effective refractive index and the film porosity for different nanostructures that were fabricated from solution-based techniques were determined. The found values are 1.7982 ± 0.005 for the effective refractive index of one kind of TiO2 films and 1.62 ± 0.002 for another one. These values lead to porosities of 53.5% and 65%, respectively. The scattering of the films can be described by a wavelength-independent effective scattering parameter for one film type and by effective scattering particles with a diameter of 46.5 nm for the other film type. The determined porosities are also of relevance for the ionic transport which is functionally crucial in DSSCs and a disturbance in PSCs

Hydrodynamics of fringing-field induced defects in nematic liquid crystals

Consumer demand for high resolution and high refresh-rate displays has naturally led to the fabrication of liquid crystal displays with ever smaller pixels. As a consequence, fringing fields between adjacent pixels grow in magnitude, leading to abrupt changes in orientation. Electric field strengths above some threshold can lead to order melting and, in turn, disclinations. This paper presents accurate modeling of disclinations induced by fringing fields due to interdigitated electrodes in a nematic liquid crystal calculated by means of the Landau–de Gennes theory. Disclination paths are determined while taking into account the flow of the liquid crystal. Making use of interdigitated electrodes, precise electrical control over the creation and positioning of defects is demonstrated for homeotropic, planar, hybrid, and in-plane surface alignments

Gender and Tahrir Square: contesting the state and imagining a new nation

This article argues that the concepts of ‘State’ and ‘Nation’ should be treated as separate from one another, hence, more than one image of the nation is possible at one given time. During the early days of the January 2011 Egyptian revolution, a contestation emerged between Mubarak’s state and the protesters in Tahrir Square over the image and notion of the Egyptian nation. Both the state and the protesters attempted to exclude one another from their respective discourse of the Egyptian nation. While reflecting back on a number of women’s voices who joined the early days of the Tahrir Square protests and using qualitative fieldwork interviews with Cairo-based feminist and political activists, this article points to the complexity of a newly forged image of Egyptian nationhood. In Tahrir Square, this image appeared to be largely framed within gendered criteria where notions of manhood and hyper visible gender equality were intrinsically linked to the broader objective of removing Mubarak and his regime. This raises the question of whether new gender paradigms of equality can continue to exist beyond Tahrir Square’s imagination of a ‘new’ nation

Encapsulated papillary carcinoma of the breast: does it have a native basement membrane?

Background: Encapsulated papillary carcinoma (EPC) is surrounded by a thick fibrous capsule‐like structure, which is interpreted as a thickened basement membrane (BM). This study aimed to describe the geometric characteristics of the EPC capsule and to refine whether it is an expansion of the BM or a stromal reactive process. Material and Methods: In all, 100 cases were divided into four groups: EPC, ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS), normal breast tissue and invasive tumours, with an additional encapsulated papillary thyroid carcinoma (EPTC) control group. Representative slides from each case were stained with picrosirius red (PSR) stain and examined using polarised microscopy. Images were analysed using ImageJ, CT‐FIRE, and Curve align image analysis programmes. Results: Compared to the normal and DCIS BM, the EPC group showed a significant increase of collagen fibre width, straightness, and density, and a decrease of fibre length. The EPC capsule showed less alignment of fibres with a more perpendicular arrangement, and it was enriched with disorganised collagen type I (stromal collagen) fibres. Compared to other groups, the EPC capsule showed significant variation in the thickness, evenness, distribution of collagen fibres, and significant intracapsular heterogeneity. Compared to BM‐like material in the invasive group, the EPC capsule showed a higher density of collagen fibres with longer, straighter, and more aligned fibres, but there was no difference in the distribution of both collagen types I and III. Conversely, compared to EPTC, there were no differences between both EPC and EPTC capsules except that the fibres in the EPC capsule were straighter. Although differences between normal ducts and lobules and DCIS BM collagen fibre density, straightness, orientation, and alignment were detected, both were significantly different from EPC capsule. Conclusion: This study provided evidence that the EPC capsule is a reactive process rather than a thickened native BM characteristic of normal and in situ lesions, which provides further evidence that EPC is an indolent invasive carcinoma based on capsule characteristics

Reconfigurable surfaces using fringing electric fields from nanostructured electrodes in nematic liquid crystals

Liquid crystals with a varying phase profile enable reconfigurable and intelligent devices to be designed, which are capable of manipulating incident electromagnetic fields in display, telecommunications as well as wearable applications. The active control of defects in these devices is becoming more important, especially since the electrodes used to manipulate them are shrinking to nanometer length scales. In this paper, a simple subwavelength, 1D, interdigitated metal electrode structure that can be reconfigured using nematic liquid crystals aligned in the homeotropic, planar, and hybrid methods are demonstrated. Accurate electro‐optic modeling of the directors and the defects are shown, which are induced by the fringing electric fields. Applied voltages result in liquid crystal reorientation near the bottom surface, such that defects are induced between the electrodes. The height of the electrodes does not affect the lateral position of these defects. Rather, this can be achieved by increasing the biasing voltage on the top electrode, which also leads to greater splay‐bend in the bulk of the material. These results therefore aim to generalize the control of defects in complex anisotropic nematic liquid crystals using simple interdigitated structures for a range of reconfigurable intelligent surface applications

Urban evictions, public housing, and the gendered rationalisation of Kampung life in Jakarta

The dispossession of urban communities across class and racial lines is a global phenomenon linked to the expansion of international investment in the development of ‘exemplary’ city space. However, city evictions are also historically-informed and gendered processes which are continuous with past colonial and postcolonial urban rationalisation projects. Drawing on testimonies of women evictees in Jakarta, as well as interviews with public housing managers, this article details the gendered nature of the rationalisation of urban life in the context of a contemporary evictions regime. We argue that the rationalisation of urban space serves to sharpen the gender order by placing material constraints on women’s roles, limiting their economic activities, and defining them as hygiene-responsible housewives. Further, and in turn, the limited provision of ‘rusunawa’ public housing, which we show to be a gendered spatial and social transition informed by state doctrine on the family, provides the state with justification for dispossession itself. Finally, women’s everyday acts of refusal and resistance show not only that kampung forms of social life continue to be preserved in Jakarta, but also that rationalisation itself is a negotiated and contingent process

Improved Efficiency of Brewer’s Spent Grain Arabinoxylans by Ultrasound-Assisted Extraction

Arabinoxylan (AX) rich extracts from brewer’s spent grain (BSG) were produced by the application of ultrasound-assisted extraction (UAE) and conventional alkaline extraction (AKE). UAE and AKE were optimised for the production of the highest yield of ethanol insoluble material using response surface methodology (RSM). The efficiency of UAE was established by the significant reduction of time (7h to 25 min) and energy when compared to AKE, to recover similar amount of AX (60%) from BSG, leading to the production of starch-free AX-rich extracts