The impact of broadband in schools

The report reviews evidence for the impact of broadband in English schools, exploring; Variations in provision in level of broadband connectivity; Links between the level of broadband activity and nationally accessible performance data; Aspects of broadband connectivity and the school environment that contribute to better outcomes for pupils and teachers; Academic and motivational benefits associated with educational uses of this technology

Live imaging of cellular internalization of single colloidal particle by combined label-free and fluorescence total internal reflection microscopy

In this work we utilise the combination of label-free total internal reflection microscopy and total internal reflectance fluorescence (TIRM/TIRF) microscopy to achieve a simultaneous, live imaging of single, label-free colloidal particle endocytosis by individual cells. The TIRM arm of the microscope enables label free imaging of the colloid and cell membrane features, while the TIRF arm images the dynamics of fluorescent-labelled clathrin (protein involved in endocytosis via clathrin pathway), expressed in transfected 3T3 fibroblasts cells. Using a model polymeric colloid and cells with a fluorescently-tagged clathrin endocytosis pathway, we demonstrate that wide field TIRM/TIRF co-imaging enables live visualization of the process of colloidal particle interaction with the labelled cell structure, which is valuable for discerning the membrane events and route of colloid internalization by the cell. We further show that 500 nm model polystyrene colloid associates with clathrin, prior to and during its cellular internalisation. This association is not apparent with larger, 1 μm colloid, indicating an upper particle size limit for clathrin-mediated endocytosis

Spatial Modulation Microscopy for Real-Time Imaging of Plasmonic Nanoparticles and Cells

Spatial modulation microscopy is a technique originally developed for quantitative spectroscopy of individual nano-objects. Here, a parallel implementation of the spatial modulation microscopy technique is demonstrated based on a line detector capable of demodulation at kHz frequencies. The capabilities of the imaging system are shown using an array of plasmonic nanoantennas and dendritic cells incubated with gold nanoparticles.Comment: 3 pages, 4 figure

Hadamard upper bound on optimum joint decoding capacity of Wyner Gaussian cellular MAC

This article presents an original analytical expression for an upper bound on the optimum joint decoding capacity of Wyner circular Gaussian cellular multiple access channel (C-GCMAC) for uniformly distributed mobile terminals (MTs). This upper bound is referred to as Hadamard upper bound (HUB) and is a novel application of the Hadamard inequality established by exploiting the Hadamard operation between the channel fading matrix G and the channel path gain matrix Ω. This article demonstrates that the actual capacity converges to the theoretical upper bound under the constraints like low signal-to-noise ratios and limiting channel path gain among the MTs and the respective base station of interest. In order to determine the usefulness of the HUB, the behavior of the theoretical upper bound is critically observed specially when the inter-cell and the intra-cell time sharing schemes are employed. In this context, we derive an analytical form of HUB by employing an approximation approach based on the estimation of probability density function of trace of Hadamard product of two matrices, i.e., G and Ω. A closed form of expression has been derived to capture the effect of the MT distribution on the optimum joint decoding capacity of C-GCMAC. This article demonstrates that the analytical HUB based on the proposed approximation approach converges to the theoretical upper bound results in the medium to high signal to noise ratio regime and shows a reasonably tighter bound on optimum joint decoding capacity of Wyner GCMAC

Comparison of Zn_{1-x}Mn_xTe/ZnTe multiple-quantum wells and quantum dots by below-bandgap photomodulated reflectivity

Large-area high density patterns of quantum dots with a diameter of 200 nm have been prepared from a series of four Zn_{0.93}Mn_{0.07}Te/ZnTe multiple quantum well structures of different well width (4 nm, 6 nm, 8 nm and 10 nm) by electron beam lithography followed by Ar+ ion beam etching. Below-bandgap photomodulated reflectivity spectra of the quantum dot samples and the parent heterostructures were then recorded at 10 K and the spectra were fitted to extract the linewidths and the energy positions of the excitonic transitions in each sample. The fitted results are compared to calculations of the transition energies in which the different strain states in the samples are taken into account. We show that the main effect of the nanofabrication process is a change in the strain state of the quantum dot samples compared to the parent heterostructures. The quantum dot pillars turn out to be freestanding, whereas the heterostructures are in a good approximation strained to the ZnTe lattice constant. The lateral size of the dots is such that extra confinement effects are not expected or observed.Comment: 23 pages, LaTeX2e (amsmath, epsfig), 7 EPS figure

Prevention and contrast of child abuse and neglect in the practice of European paediatricians: a multi-national pilot study

Background: Child abuse and neglect, or maltreatment, is a serious public health problem, which may cause long-term effects on children's health and wellbeing and expose them to further adulthood vulnerabilities. Studies on child maltreatment performed in Europe are scarce, and the number of participants enrolled relatively small. The aim of this multi-national European pilot study, was to evaluate the level of understanding and perception of the concepts of child abuse and neglect by European paediatricians working in different medical settings, and the attitude toward these forms of maltreatment in their practice. Methods: The study was performed by a cross-sectional, descriptive, online survey, made available online to European paediatricians members of 50 national paediatric, who belonged to four different medical settings: hospital, family care, university centres and private practice. The questionnaire, designed as a multiple choice questions survey, with a single answer option consisted of 22 questions/statements. Frequency analyses were applied. Most of the data were described using univariate analysis and Chi-squared tests were used to compare the respondents and answers and a significance level of p ≤ 0.05 applied. Results: Findings show that European paediatricians consider the training on child maltreatment currently provided by medical school curricula and paediatric residency courses to be largely insufficient and continuing education courses were considered of great importance to cover educational gaps. Physical violence was recognized by paediatricians mostly during occasional visits with a significant correlation between detecting abuse during an occasional visit and being a primary care paediatrician. Results also showed a reluctance by paediatricians to report cases of maltreatment to the competent judicial authorities. Conclusions: Data of this study may provide useful contribution to the current limited knowledge about the familiarity of European paediatricians with child maltreatment and their skills to recognize, manage and contrast abusive childhood experiences in their practice. Finally, they could provide local legislators and health authorities with information useful to further improve public health approaches and rules able to effectively address shared risk and protective factors, which could prevent child abuse and neglect from ever occurring

Reframing China’s heritage conservation discourse. Learning by testing civic engagement tools in a historic rural village

Urban heritage conservation in China has been subject to severe criticism, although there is now a sense of paradigm shift. Charters, declarations and agendas had the merit of filtering down the international discourse on heritage, while more innovative approaches were arising. The UNESCO Historic Urban Landscape recommendation, offers a new angle from which to observe this process of change. The underlying argument of this article is that HUL can provide a platform to achieve greater sustainability in transforming historic sites in China, particularly in rural areas, overcoming, at the same time, the easy shortcut of the East–West discourse of difference in respect to heritage conservation. This is primarily due to the shifting focus from the materiality of heritage to its role in sustainable development with increasing attention on the role played by local communities. By presenting the proposal for the protection of the historic rural village of Shuang Wan in the Jiangsu Province, this paper aims to reflect on this shift showing its advantages but also some of the risks. These are inherent in a discourse of heritage in danger of legitimising mere pro-growth development approaches, if not accompanied by participatory practices considerate of the specific social reality of China

Ethics of Engagement and Insider-Outsider Perspectives: Issues and Dilemmas in Cross-Cultural Interpretation

This article offers insights into the ethics of engagement and methodological issues and dilemmas in cross-cultural interpretation for researchers who are positioned at different points of the insider-outsider spectrum. The discussion uses examples from qualitative research with Sikh families in Britain and focuses on the design of the methodology and co-interpretation of data from in-depth interviews, both during the interactive data gathering phase and the post-interview analysis and interpretation phase. The researchers represent differing degrees of insider-outsiderness in relation to the British Sikh community; one is a cultural insider (a Sikh) whilst the other is an outsider (non-Sikh). In other respects they share a number of characteristics, including gender, a history of migration, bilingualism and living and teaching in superdiverse communities which all impact on the nature of their engagement with the research participants and with each other as co-researchers. Our reflexive analysis shows that established binary distinctions and polarities in research practice, such as insider/outsider, are inadequate for conceptualising the fluidity and complexity of the ethics of engagement in co-researching. We argue that both theoretically and empirically a more nuanced conceptualisation reflects the realities of multiple researcher positionalities, interpretations and power relations

Rapid wide-field heterodyne interferometry with custom 2D CMOS camera

© The Institution of Engineering and Technology 2015. A wide-field pseudo-heterodyne interference contrast microscope is described, which employs a complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) phase-sensitive camera. The use of multiple wells in the camera enables extremely rapid measurement of a full phase field at high resolution and the modulation frequency is not limited by the camera frame rate. The high data acquisition frequency allows the effects of microphonics to be frozen to mitigate the effect of lowfrequency disturbance

Collaborative action research through technologically mediated agoras.

ABSTRACT: The study presented in this article forms part of a wider project promoting collaboration between junior researchers from different universities with the objective of rethinking and improving teaching practice in relation to the use of technology. The article describes research carried out during the 2012/13 academic year aimed at developing collaborative action research through technologically mediated agoras involving students from three Spanish universities. The main results of this study show that junior researchers improved their teaching practice through technologically mediated inside and outside agoras. In addition, the transformation of university classrooms into agoras enabled the negotiated reconstruction of knowledge for the analysis of good practice in the use of technology. Likewise, these agoras helped reduce limitations by breaking down the barriers of time, distance and resources for sharing findings and limitations between junior researchers. Furthermore, they pave the way for improvements and their implementation in learning processes during initial teacher training