Challenges of nurse tutors’ classroom and clinical performance when teaching

INTRODUCTION: Nursing is a dual profession that involves teaching both in class and at the clinical area. Nurse tutors meet a lot of challenges in their profession through their cognitive, affective and psychomotor nursing performance. The aim of this paper is to determine the challenges of nurse tutor clinical affective, cognitive and psychomotor performance in Malawi. METHODS: Mixed methods design was employed. Quantitatively, 129 students and 82 nurse tutors randomly selected were involved for the five ranked Likert Scale questionnaire, and 42 nurse tutors were involved in in-depth. While 8 focus group discussions were conducted in 8 nursing colleges. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used quantitatively for predictive variable of nurse tutor work experience and student study experience to compare with the dependent variables from the 39 cognitive, affective and psychomotor attributes. RESULTS: Both nurse tutors and students are not impressed with nurse tutors cognitive, affective and psychomotor performance during teaching. There is inadequate clinical orientation to students [OR ≤ 0.302; 95%CI (0.096 ± 2.955); p ≥ 0.042] and inadequate funding from college administration [OR ≤ 1.013; 95%CI (0.271 ± 3.793); p ≥ 0.985] as a result it creates much pressure on teaching. CONCLUSION: There is a need to develop an effective teaching strategy that would be conducive and easy to use for the limited resource environments in Malawi

Evaluation available encapsulation materials for low-cost long-life silicon photovoltaic arrays

Experimental evaluation of selected encapsulation designs and materials based on an earlier study which have potential for use in low cost, long-life photovoltaic arrays are reported. The performance of candidate materials and encapsulated cells were evaluated principally for three types of encapsulation designs based on their potentially low materials and processing costs: (1) polymeric coatings, transparent conformal coatings over the cell with a structural-support substrate; (2) polymeric film lamination, cells laminated between two films or sheets of polymeric materials; and (3) glass-covered systems, cells adhesively bonded to a glass cover (superstrate) with a polymeric pottant and a glass or other substrate material. Several other design types, including those utilizing polymer sheet and pottant materials, were also included in the investigation

Pitting and porous layer formation on n-InP anodes

Surface pitting occurs when InP electrodes are anodized in KOH electrolytes at concentrations in the range 2 - 5 mol dm-3. The process has been investigated using atomic force microscopy (AFM) and the results correlated with cross-sectional transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and electroanalytical measurements. AFM measurements show that pitting of the surface occurs and the density of pits is observed to increase with time under both potentiodynamic and potentiostatic conditions. This indicates a progressive pit nucleation process and implies that the development of porous domains beneath the surface is also progressive in nature. Evidence for this is seen in plan view TEM images in which individual domains are seen to be at different stages of development. Analysis of the cyclic voltammograms of InP electrodes in 5 mol dm-3 KOH indicates that, above a critical potential for pit formation, the anodic current is predominantly time dependent and there is little differential dependence of the current on potential. Thus, pores continue to grow with time when the potential is high enough to maintain depletion layer breakdown conditions

Thermo-visual feature fusion for object tracking using multiple spatiogram trackers

In this paper, we propose a framework that can efficiently combine features for robust tracking based on fusing the outputs of multiple spatiogram trackers. This is achieved without the exponential increase in storage and processing that other multimodal tracking approaches suffer from. The framework allows the features to be split arbitrarily between the trackers, as well as providing the flexibility to add, remove or dynamically weight features. We derive a mean-shift type algorithm for the framework that allows efficient object tracking with very low computational overhead. We especially target the fusion of thermal infrared and visible spectrum features as the most useful features for automated surveillance applications. Results are shown on multimodal video sequences clearly illustrating the benefits of combining multiple features using our framework

Tuning magnetic hysteresis of electrodeposited Fe 3 O 4

We demonstrate that changes in electrolyte composition and applied potential during aqueous electrodeposition can be used to tune the magnetic hysteresis response of thin-film Fe3O4 (magnetite) on polycrystalline metal substrates. X-ray diffraction data confirmed that magnetite formation in electrolytes containing KCH3COO (0.04–2.0 M) and Fe(SO4)2(NH4)2 (0.01M) required temperatures between 60 and 85 °C, and deposition potentials between −0.300 and −0.575 V or galvanostatic current densities between 50 and 88 μA/cm2. Scanning electron microscopy studies show that magnetite crystallites tend to adopt different habits depending on the electrolyte composition. Room-temperature magnetic hysteresis responses (squareness and coercivity) are dependent upon the crystal habit of deposits, implying that the electrolyte’s acetate concentration influences the magnetic domain structure of the resulting magnetite deposits. Magnetite crystallites grown from electrolytes with low acetate concentrations showed pseudo-single-domain magnetic response, while magnetite grown from acetate-enriched electrolytes showed multidomain magnetic response

A mechanistic study of anodic formation of porous InP

When porous InP is anodically formed in KOH electrolytes, a thin layer ~40 nm in thickness, close to the surface, appears to be unmodified. We have investigated the earlier stages of the anodic formation of porous InP in 5 mol dm-3 KOH. TEM clearly shows individual porous domains which appear triangular in cross-section and square in plan view. The crosssections also show that the domains are separated from the surface by a ~40 nm thick, dense InP layer. It is concluded that the porous domains have a square-based pyramidal shape and that each one develops from an individual surface pit which forms a channel through this near-surface layer. We suggest that the pyramidal structure arises as a result of preferential pore propagation along the directions. AFM measurements show that the density of surface pits increases with time. Each of these pits acts as a source for a pyramidal porous domain, and these domains eventually form a continuous porous layer. This implies that the development of porous domains beneath the surface is also progressive in nature. Evidence for this was seen in plan view TEM images. Merging of domains continues to occur at potentials more anodic than the peak potential, where the current is observed to decrease. When the domains grow, the current density increases correspondingly. Eventually, domains meet, the interface between the porous and bulk InP becomes relatively flat and its total effective surface area decreases resulting in a decrease in the current density. Quantitative models of this process are being developed

Multiparticle Quantum Superposition and Stimulated Entanglement by Parity Selective Amplification of Entangled States

A multiparticle quantum superposition state has been generated by a novel phase-selective parametric amplifier of an entangled two-photon state. This realization is expected to open a new field of investigations on the persistence of the validity of the standard quantum theory for systems of increasing complexity, in a quasi decoherence-free environment. Because of its nonlocal structure the new system is expected to play a relevant role in the modern endeavor on quantum information and in the basic physics of entanglement.Comment: 13 pages and 3 figure

Extinction coefficients retrieved in deep tropical ice clouds from lidar observations using a CALIPSO-like algorithm compared to in-situ measurements from the Cloud Integrated Nephelometer during CRYSTAL-FACE

International audienceThis paper presents a comparison of lidar ratios and volume extinction coefficients in tropical ice clouds, retrieved using observations from two instruments: the 532-nm Cloud Physics Lidar (CPL), and the in-situ Cloud Integrating Nephelometer (CIN) probe. Both instruments were mounted on airborne platforms during the CRYSTAL-FACE campaign and took measurements up to 17 km. Coincident observations from two cases of ice clouds located on top of deep convective systems are compared. First, lidar ratios are retrieved from CPL observations of attenuated backscatter, using a retrieval algorithm for opaque cloud similar to one used in the soon-to-be launched CALIPSO mission, and compared to results from the regular CPL algorithm. These lidar ratios are used to retrieve extinction coefficient profiles, which are compared to actual observations from the CIN in-situ probe, putting the emphasis on their vertical variability. When observations coincide, retrievals from both instruments are very similar. Differences are generally variations around the average profiles, and general trends on larger spatial scales are usually well reproduced. The two instruments agree well, with an average difference of less than 11% on optical depth retrievals. Results suggest the CALIPSO Deep Convection algorithm can be trusted to deliver realistic estimates of the lidar ratio, leading to good retrievals of extinction coefficients

The CHARA Array resolves the long-period Wolf-Rayet binaries WR 137 and WR 138

We report on interferometric observations with the CHARA Array of two classical Wolf-Rayet stars in suspected binary systems, namely WR 137 and WR 138. In both cases, we resolve the component stars to be separated by a few milliarcseconds. The data were collected in the H-band, and provide a measure of the fractional flux for both stars in each system. We find that the WR star is the dominant H-band light source in both systems ($f_{\rm WR, 137} = 0.59\pm0.04$; $f_{\rm WR, 138} = 0.67\pm0.01$), which is confirmed through both comparisons with estimated fundamental parameters for WR stars and O dwarfs, as well as through spectral modeling of each system. Our spectral modeling also provides fundamental parameters for the stars and winds in these systems. The results on WR 138 provide evidence that it is a binary system which may have gone through a previous mass-transfer episode to create the WR star. The separation and position of the stars in the WR 137 system together with previous results from the IOTA interferometer provides evidence that the binary is seen nearly edge-on. The possible edge-on orbit of WR 137 aligns well with the dust production site imaged by the Hubble Space Telescope during a previous periastron passage, showing that the dust production may be concentrated in the orbital plane.Comment: 11 pages, 4 tables, 7 figures, accepted to MNRA