Crossing the date-line: Perspectives of Canadian students studying education in an Australian university

The research reported here aims to develop understandings around the expectations and perceptions of Canadian students entering a Graduate Diploma of Education program in an Australian university. The study align well with the theme of "crossing borders", as the study focuses on international students "crossing borders" to achieve their accreditation goals in another country. The particular context of this research is a sizeable cohort (90-100 annually) of Canadian students who attend an Australian regional university to gain a teaching qualification. Based on the theoretical perspective of interpretivism, the study employed qualitative methods to understand the expectations and perspectives of the students early in, and during their progress through the program. Data were collected using semi-structured interviews: researchers conducted three interviews with each participant across the first six months of the students" year long stay. The "moments" of each interview were: (i) prior to attending their first week of lectures; (ii) after they had completed the first lecture series of four courses; and (iii) after participants completed their first block of practical experience in an Australian school. The data was then analysed using constant interrogation and context theory. This report is based on the initial findings of these interviews and identifies the themes and understandings expressed by the Canadian students who have "crossed the date line". The findings will be presented in four main themes that have emerged from the data: personal growth; cultural experiences; development of teacher identity; and the implications for university programs. Collectively the data highlight the concepts of global perspectives, the internationalization of university programs, and the issues of teacher identity. As the participants developed their ideas and understandings about themselves within the program, further confirmation was gained to suggest that participants entered the program with this perspective. Participants also demonstrated an intention to develop a clearly independent personal and professional identity for themselves and saw the year of study abroad as an opportunity to explore their own personal strengths and weaknesses. This corresponds with Geijsel and Meijers (2005) definition of identity and the implications of the development of identity seen through the data. Finally the initial findings indicate that universities accepting international students into their programs have a broad range of professional and ethical responsibilities in the development of global teachers with a global perspective. With regard to the case study university, the findings suggest that Australian universities which invite international students tend to rely on individual students developing a global perspective rather than adding to or enhancing this perspective

Near-surface distribution of pollutants in coastal waters as assessed by novel polyethylene passive samplers

We report a novel and inexpensive method to provide high resolution vertical measurements of temporally integrated organic contaminants in surface and sub-surface waters in polluted coastal environments. It employs a strip of polyethylene deployed as a passive sampler. Verifications are confirmed via conventional spot sample analyses and against Performance Reference Compound (PRC) calibration methods. Analytes targeted include 16 Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons, 15 personal care products, 8 organophosphorus flame retardants, 4 antifouling ‘booster’ biocides and 15 n-alkanes. Whilst all contaminants typically revealed homogeneous concentrations from 10 cm to 3 m depth in the selected harbour (< 30% variations), many increased sharply at the air-sea interface. The passive sampler was shown to afford better resolution than could be achieved using conventional analytical techniques at the surface microlayer (SML). Whilst hydrophobicity appeared to be a key factor for the enrichment of many determinants, less correlation was found for the emerging contaminants. © 2017 Elsevier Lt

Calibration and response of an agarose gel based passive sampler to record short pulses of aquatic organic pollutants

publisher: Elsevier articletitle: Calibration and response of an agarose gel based passive sampler to record short pulses of aquatic organic pollutants journaltitle: Talanta articlelink: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.talanta.2016.12.010 content_type: article copyright: © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved

Editorial - David Bowie

The death of David Bowie, paradoxically, brings his ontic status into sharp relief, and, in turn, throws light on the construction of the figure of the artist – a spectre – the ‘creative practitioner’. An ontology of Bowie entails an interrogation of presence, absence and the historiographic portrait of the artist as a dead rock star (or not)

Molecular Screening for Terahertz Detection with Machine-Learning-Based Methods

The molecular requirements are explored for achieving efficient signal up-conversion in a recently developed technique for terahertz (THz) detection based on molecular optomechanics. We discuss which molecular and spectroscopic properties are most important for predicting efficient THz detection and outline a computational approach based on quantum-chemistry and machine-learning methods for calculating these properties. We validate this approach by bulk and surface-enhanced Raman scattering and infrared absorption measurements. We develop a virtual screening methodology performed on databases of millions of commercially available compounds. Quantum-chemistry calculations for about 3000 compounds are complemented by machine-learning methods to predict applicability of 93 000 organic molecules for detection. Training is performed on vibrational spectroscopic properties based on absorption and Raman scattering intensities. Our top molecules have conversion intensity two orders of magnitude higher than an average molecule from the database. We also discuss how other properties like molecular shape and self-assembling properties influence the detection efficiency. We identify molecular moieties whose presence in the molecules indicates high activity for THz detection and show an example where a simple modification of a frequently used self-assembling compound can enhance activity 85-fold. The capabilities of our screening method are demonstrated on narrow-band and broadband detection examples, and its possible applications in surface-enhanced spectroscopy are also discussed

Oculomotor atypicalities in motor neurone disease: a systematic review

Introduction: Cognitive dysfunction is commonplace in Motor Neurone Disease (MND). However, due to the prominent motor symptoms in MND, assessing patients’ cognitive function through traditional cognitive assessments, which oftentimes require motoric responses, may become increasingly challenging as the disease progresses. Oculomotor pathways are apparently resistant to pathological degeneration in MND. As such, abnormalities in oculomotor functions, largely driven by cognitive processes such as saccades and smooth pursuit eye movement, may be reflective of frontotemporal cognitive deficits in MND. Thus, saccadic and smooth pursuit eye movements may prove to be ideal mechanistic markers of cognitive function in MND. Methods: To ascertain the utility of saccadic and smooth pursuit eye movements as markers of cognitive function in MND, this review summarizes the literature concerning saccadic and smooth pursuit eye movement task performance in people with MND. Results and discussion: Of the 22 studies identified, noticeable patterns suggest that people with MND can be differentiated from controls based on antisaccade and smooth pursuit task performance, and thus the antisaccade task and smooth pursuit task may be potential candidates for markers of cognition in MND. However, further studies which ascertain the concordance between eye tracking measures and traditional measures of cognition are required before this assumption is extrapolated, and clinical recommendations are made. Systematic review registration: https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/prospero/display_record.php?RecordID=376620, identifier CRD42023376620

Palaeomagnetic secular variation curves extending back to 13,400 years B.P. recorded by sediments deposited in Lac de Joux, Switzerland

Palaeosecular variation records have been obtained from three cores from Lac de Joux, Switzerland ( 46°37' N, 6°16' E) on which a parallel biostratigraphy has been constructed. All three cores show a well developed Late-glacial sequence which extends to beyond 13,400 years B.P. and the recorded palaeomagnetic declination and inclination variations can be correlated between these cores. The longer core (no. 3) also shows a well developed Post-glacial sequence and the declination and inclination records can be correlated in detail with the independently dated United Kingdom records which extend back to about 10,000 years B.P. Ages along Lac de Joux core 3, obtained by palaeomagnetic correlation with U.K. cores, are compared with ages based on the local palynology and thus a timescale has been attached to the Lac de Joux record back to beyond 13,400 years B.P. during which time there is no evidence of any geomagnetic excursion or short event. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; ARK: https://n2t.net/ark:/88439/y079999 Permalink: https://geophysicsjournal.com/article/247 &nbsp

Effect of nuclear motion on the critical nuclear charge for two-electron atoms

A variational method for calculating the critical nuclear charge, Zc, required for the binding of a nucleus to two electrons is reported. The method is very effective and performs well compared to the traditional variational principle for calculating energy. The critical nuclear charge, which corresponds to the minimum charge required for the atomic system to have at least one bound state, has been calculated for helium-like systems both with infinite and finite nuclear masses. The value of $Z_C=$ 0.911 028 2(3) is in very good agreement with recent values in the literature for two-electron atoms with an infinite nuclear mass. When nuclear motion is considered, the value for Zc varies from 0.911 030 3(2) for that with a nuclear mass of Ne (the largest heliogenic system considered) to 0.921 802 4(4) for a system with the nuclear mass of a positron. In all cases the energy varies smoothly as $Z \rightarrow 0$. It is found that for the finite nuclear mass case, in agreement with previous work for the fixed nucleus mass system, the outer electron remains localised near the nucleus at Z = Zc. Additionally, the electron probability distribution is calculated to determine the behaviour of the electrons at low Z

Mechanistic study of an immobilized molecular electrocatalyst by in situ gap-plasmon-assisted spectro-electrochemistry

Immobilized first-row transition metal complexes are potential low-cost electrocatalysts for selective CO2 conversion in the production of renewable fuels. Mechanistic understanding of their function is vital for the development of next-generation catalysts, although the poor surface sensitivity of many techniques makes this challenging. Here, a nickel bis(terpyridine) complex is introduced as a CO2 reduction electrocatalyst in a unique electrode geometry, sandwiched by thiol-anchoring moieties between two gold surfaces. Gap-plasmon-assisted surface-enhanced Raman scattering spectroscopy coupled with density functional theory calculations reveals that the nature of the anchoring group plays a pivotal role in the catalytic mechanism. Our in situ spectro-electrochemical measurement enables the detection of as few as eight molecules undergoing redox transformations in individual plasmonic hotspots, together with the calibration of electrical fields via vibrational Stark effects. This advance allows rapid exploration of non-resonant redox reactions at the few-molecule level and provides scope for future mechanistic studies of single molecules