Structural factors controlling the transition between columnar hexagonal and helical mesophase in triphenylene liquid crystals.

A series of novel triphenylenes has been synthesised by a combination of palladium catalysed coupling, oxidative cyclisation, bromination and nucleophilic aromatic substitution. The new derivatives are designed to have structures which are intermediate between the known symmetrical materials hexakis(hexyloxy)triphenylene and hexakis(hexylthio)triphenylene. The compounds having four hexyloxy and two hexylthio substituents form only Colh mesophases. Triphenylenes having four hexylthio and two hexyloxy substituents also give Colh mesophases but 3,6-bis(hexyloxy)-2,7,10,11-tetrakis(hexylthio)triphenylene 5 is unique in that it cools into a stable, more ordered phase. The low temperature phase, which appears to be indefinitely stable at ambient temperature, is assumed to be helical based on transition enthalpy data

Roles and responsibilities of the student nurse mentor: an update.

Facilitating the learning of student nurses in the workplace is an integral role of the registered nurse. This article aims to provide an overview of the role and responsibilities of the mentor in supporting pre-registration nursing students in clinical practice. The professional obligations for the mentor to meet the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) standards (NMC, 2008a) will be explored, including the ongoing requirements to keep up to date in mentoring practices. Some of the challenges within the role will be identified, including the importance of recognizing and supporting the failing student. Recent changes to the preparation requirements for sign-off mentors will be discussed. The article concludes by presenting the potential benefits to both the individual and the practice placement provider

Creativity and innovation in science and technology: Bridging the gap between secondary and tertiary levels of education

Purpose: This paper stems from a study which was conducted as a means to first, find out whether there is a gap between the secondary and tertiary education levels, second identify any existing gap in Science and Technology education, and third, examine the impact of the above upon students’ creativity and innovativeness at university level. The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach: As such, a group of teachers and students at both secondary and tertiary levels were selected as the sample of the study. Questionnaires were administered to trained secondary school teachers and to university students. Interviews were also conducted to triangulate data. These enabled an analysis of the current situation in terms of students’ engagement/creativity/innovativeness in Science and Technology at secondary and tertiary levels. Findings: The findings reveal a problematic situation arising with respect to beliefs and what truly prevails in the education sector at secondary and tertiary levels. This study has revealed a number of salient issues related to the gap existing between the secondary and tertiary levels of education in Mauritius, with special bearing on creativity and innovation in Science and Technology. Research limitations/implications: Only three institutions were involved, with a small sample of students, so that the findings cannot be generalised. Moreover, gender is a variable that has not been taken into consideration. Practical implications: The study has proposed a number of recommendations to enable Mauritian students (at secondary and tertiary levels) to develop creativity and hopefully become innovators. This leads us to believe that the recommendations emerging from this study will be beneficial to various stakeholders who wish to understand the gap existing between secondary and tertiary education in Science and Technology education. Originality/value: This study takes a case study approach adopting a mixture of interviews, surveys and observations to understand the research problems with regards to the younger generations need to be equipped with scientific and technological advances in acquiring knowledge, new sets of skills and values. Therefore, this study endeavours to document the perceptions of learners and faculty staff

Artist Statement: Tutorial on Radiance

Tutorials on Radiance explores a queerness beyond the physical body and extends to the lived environments of queer people. I am particularly focused on Anglophone Caribbean cultures of queerness. I will be looking specifically at the boundaries of the 2D image in relation to queerness, portraiture and visibility

Impacted mandibular third molars: the efficacy of prophylactic antibiotics and chlorhexidine mouthwash in preventing postoperative infections

Degree of Master of Science in Dentistry by coursework and research report A Research Report submitted to the Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Dentistry. Johannesburg, 2016Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate: 1) The efficacy of a prophylactic antibiotic regimen compared to a chlorhexidine mouthwash in reducing postoperative infections in mandibular third molar surgery. 2) The pattern of presentation and the indication for extraction of mandibular third molars. Study Design and Method: A total of 100 patients were randomly assigned to two groups (group 1, 15 ml of chlorhexidine mouthwash for 1 minute before surgery; group 2, 2g amoxicillin orally 1 hour before surgery). The outcome which included surgical site infection and other complications was assessed 7 days postoperatively. Data collected included patients’ age, gender, type of impaction, indication for extraction and surgical morbidity (postoperative complications). The data were then analysed using the statistical package STATA 13.1 for Windows. Results: Of the 100 patients, 4 patients in group 1 and 3 patients in group 2 presented with surgical wound infection. The infection rate was 8% for group 1 and 6% for group 2 while the overall infection rate was 7%. No statistically significant difference in surgical wound infection was found between the 2 groups. The ages ranged from 18 to 46 years with a mean of 27.75(+/- 5.79). There were 48 males and 52 females, the male to female ratio being 1:1.08. Mesioangular impaction was the most common type of impaction recorded (46; 46%), while the most prevalent indication for extraction was pericoronitis (39; 39%). Conclusion: In terms of efficacy, this study failed to show that amoxicillin prophylaxis is more effective than a preoperative chlorhexidine mouthrinse for reducing postoperative infections in third molar surgery. Hence, antibiotic prophylaxis must not be routinely administered in non-immunocompromised patients for such procedures. Patients that presented for mandibular third molar extraction were generally young with an almost equal distribution in gender. The pattern of presentation as well as the indication for extraction of mandibular third molars seem to correlate with those found in literature.MT 201

Digital Inequality: The Internet in Mauritius

The research explores the existence of and factors relating to the experience of Digital Inequality in the context of a small island developing state, Mauritius. It investigates the dimensions of Digital Inequality and its socio-economic determinants among Mauritian Internet users. This is achieved through a combination of analysis of existing literature, a survey of users, and interviews with key local Internet stakeholders. The outcome provides a holistic insight into these phenomena in such milieu

Qualitative analyses of verbal fluency performance in persons with right hemisphere damage

In the context of ongoing debates on the arguable role of right hemisphere in lexico-semantic processing, we investigated the clustering, switching, and time-course of lexical retrieval in right hemisphere damage (PwRHD). “Clustering refers to the production of words within the semantic or phonemic subcategories and switching refers to the ability to shift between the clusters” (Troyer, Moscovitch, & Winocur, 1997, p. 140). Time course analysis permits variation in retrieval process with passage of time. Previously, Beausoleil, Fortin, Le Blanc, and Joanette (2003) investigated the time course of lexical retrieval in people with RHD and reported that their participants retrieved maximum words at the beginning of the trial, a pattern similar to that exhibited by people with left hemisphere damage and non-brain damaged groups of their study. However, the clustering and switching remain to be investigated in people with right hemisphere damage

The nurse as a lifelong learner: an exploration of nurses' perceptions of lifelong learning within nursing, and of nurses as lifelong learners

The arrival of lifelong learning within nursing constitutes a major conceptual shift that every qualified nurse is expected to adopt to be able to function as a Registered Nurse (RN) throughout their career. In the 1990s, lifelong learning had been appearing sporadically within nursing literature as a fait accompli, and with a seemingly general assumption that there was a shared understanding and acceptance of the concept amongst all nurses. The literature review revealed that lifelong learning is closely linked to the evolving nature of healthcare delivery in the National Health Service (NHS), and that it comprises of a number of related components. However, there was a dearth of empirical literature with regards to its application to day-to-day nursing practice at the time this study started. The study focused on examining the assumptions that seemed extant at the time and the areas that were not documented in the literature. It sought to ascertain the nature of RNs' perceptions of lifelong learning, and took into consideration the underlying philosophy, principles and practicalities of the concept. It also sought to identify both the formal structures required for effective implementation of lifelong learning as well as the day-to-day factors that might facilitate uptake and continuation of learning. Furthermore, the study endeavoured to ascertain the current and likely future impact of lifelong learning on nursing. To explore these issues, the study involved collecting, analysing and interpreting data from twenty-six individual interviews and two focus group discussions along with a comprehensive documentary analysis. The findings revealed that there are positive perceptions as well as reservations about lifelong learning amongst RNs, the latter mainly because mandatory continuous professional development (CPD) is resented by a number of nurses. This could be due to their lack of experience and apprehension related to studying in a university. The study found that structural mechanisms could be more firmly anchored and equitably available. Numerous day-to-day factors such as profession-based and personal networks tend to influence levels of engagement in formal learning. For instance, CPD in the form of workbased formal and informal learning is relatively widely utilised. Additionally, the impact of attitude change towards continuing development of own knowledge and competence yields favourable outcomes for the RN and for patient care

Crosslinguistic Generalization of Semantic Treatment in Aphasia: Evidence from the Indian Context

The last two decades witnessed several novel treatment approaches to aphasia therapy. Semantic feature-based therapy is one of such treatment approaches that gained considerable research attention (Boyle & Coelho, 1995). More importantly, this treatment approach has been found effective in bilingual persons with aphasia. For instance, Edmonds and Kiran (2006) administered semantic feature based therapy in Spanish-English bilingual persons with aphasia and reported of crosslinguistic generalization of treatment effect to untreated language. This promising research, however, needs to be replicated and extended to novel language pairs. Research on crosslinguistic generalization of treatment effects is of paramount importance to multilingual countries like India. For instance, with several hundreds of languages and dialects spoken across India and with the pervasive use of English as second language, speech language pathologists (SLPs) in the country are often baffled on the selection of language for treatment in bilingual persons with aphasia. Empirical evidence from Indian languages would add confidence to the SLPs while selecting language for treatment in person with aphasia. In this context, the current study aimed to replicate and extend the earlier findings on crosslinguistic generalization of treatment effects in bilingual persons with aphasia to the Indian context

Improving effectiveness of honeypots: predicting targeted destination port numbers during attacks using J48 algorithm

During recent years, there has been an increase in cyber-crime and cybercriminal activities around the world and as countermeasures, effective attack prevention and detection mechanisms are needed. A popular tool to augment existing attack detection mechanisms is the Honeypot. It serves as a decoy for luring attackers, with the purpose to accumulate essential details about the intruder and techniques used to compromise systems. In this endeavor, such tools need to effectively listen and keep track of ports on hosts such as servers and computers within networks. This paper investigates, analyzes and predicts destination port numbers targeted by attackers in order to improve the effectiveness of honeypots. To achieve the purpose of this paper, the J48 decision tree classifier was applied on a database containing information on cyber-attacks. Results revealed insightful information on key destination port numbers targeted by attackers, in addition to how these targeted ports vary within different regions around the world