Transforming the practitioners: an exploration of the application of Threshold Concepts to a multidisciplinary professional development Masters course in Christian Leadership

[Extract] This case study details the impact of the application of a Threshold Concept approach (Cousins, 2010; Myers & Land, 2006) on the experience and performance of Practitioner-Students on a professional development Masters Program (The Masters in Christian Leadership in Education (MACLE)) offered by Mary Immaculate College, University of Limerick in 2010-2011). The students were professional educators and mostly Principals in second level education in Ireland

The effectiveness of digital technologies in Higher Education lectures

[Extract] There is increased pressure on University Lecturers to incorporate audio/visual digital technologies (e.g. podcasts) into their teaching. The existing small, but growing body of published research in is predominantly focused on: -Studies of perceived value -Usage of the technology -Podcasts as supplementary teaching materia

The effectiveness of MediaSite in higher education social psychology lectures

There is increased pressure on University Lecturers to incorporate audio/visual digital technologies (e.g. podcasts) into their teaching. The existing small, but growing body of published research in Higher Education is predominantly focussed on studies of perceived value, usage of the technology, and podcasts as supplementary teaching material (McGarr (2009); Baker (2008); Lazarus (2008)). The motivation for the current research was to evaluate the academic effectiveness of digitised lecture delivery in both Real Time (Live Streaming) and Delayed Time (Podcasts). Academic Effectiveness was operationally defined as the performance on tests designed to explore the degree of academic comprehension/retention of lecture material. The participants were first year Social Psychology students (n=157), randomly assigned to one of three conditions of lecture delivery. The three methods of delivery were live lecture (n=65), screened lecture in lecture theatre (n=69), and lecture delivered to individual work stations (n=23). The lecture was of 30 minutes duration, the topic chosen was unlikely to be familiar to the students and deemed to be conceptually difficult. Academic performance was tested using an MCQ test with both factual (3) and conceptual questions (2) administered following the lecture delivery. Student experience of the lecture was extracted from a Learning Experience Feedback Questionnaire (LEFQ). A Kruskal Wallis test indicated significant differences in academic performance across the three delivery methods (x2(2, N=157) =22.14, p<.001). Examination of the descriptive statistics suggested that those students at the screened lecture had poorer results on the MCQ test than those in the other lecture delivery conditions. The results of the study indicate that type of delivery can impact greatly on academic effectiveness. Factors to be controlled and/or manipulated in future studies include one/two way interaction with students, duration of digitised instruction, and repeat exposure

Genetic Structure of the Rice Blast Pathogen (Magnaporthe oryzae) over a Decade in North Central California Rice Fields.

Rice blast, caused by the ascomycete Magnaporthe oryzae, is one of the most destructive rice diseases worldwide. Even though the disease has been present in California since 1996, there is no data for the pathogen population biology in the state. Using amplified fragment length polymorphisms and mating-type markers, the M. oryzae population diversity was investigated using isolates collected when the disease was first established in California and isolates collected a decade later. While in the 1990 samples, a single multilocus genotype (MLG) was identified (MLG1), over a decade later, we found 14 additional MLGs in the 2000 isolates. Some of these MLGs were found to infect the only rice blast-resistant cultivar (M-208) available for commercial production in California. The same samples also had a significant decrease of MLG1. MLG1 was found infecting the resistant rice cultivar M-208 on one occasion whereas MLG7 was the most common genotype infecting the M-208. MLG7 was identified in the 2000 samples, and it was not present in the M. oryzae population a decade earlier. Our results demonstrate a significant increase in genotypic diversity over time with no evidence of sexual reproduction and suggest a recent introduction of new virulent race(s) of the pathogen. In addition, our data could provide information regarding the durability of the Pi-z resistance gene of the M-208. This information will be critical to plant breeders in developing strategies for deployment of other rice blast resistance genes/cultivars in the future

Designing core-shell 3D photonic crystal lattices for negative refraction

We use a plane wave expansion method to define parameters for the fabrication of 3-dimensional (3D) core-shell photonic crystals (PhCs) with lattice geometries that are capable of all-angle negative refraction (AANR) in the midinfrared centered around 8.0 μm. We discuss the dependence of the AANR frequency range on the volume fraction of solid within the lattice and on the ratio of the low index core material to the high index shell material. Following the constraints set by simulations, we fabricate two types of nanolattice PhCs: (1) polymer core-germanium shell and (2) amorphous carbon core-germanium shell to enable experimental observation of 3D negative refraction and related dispersion phenomena at infrared and eventually optical frequencies

Fabrication of ultra-thin si nanopillar arrays for polarization-independent spectral filters in the near-IR

Sub-wavelength arrays have garnered significant interest for many potential optoelectronics applications. We fabricated sub-wavelength silicon nanopillar arrays with a ratio of radius, r and a center-to-center distance, a, of r/a ≈ 0.2 that were fully embedded in SiO_2 for narrow stopband filters that are compact and straightforward to fabricate compared to conventional Bragg stack reflectors. These arrays are well-suited for hyperspectral filtering applications in the infrared. They are ultra-thin (<0.1λ), polarization-independent, and attain greater efficiencies enabled by low loss compared to plasmonic-based designs. The choice of Si as the nanopillar material stems from its low cost, high index of refraction, and a band gap of 1.1 eV near the edge of the visible. These arrays exhibit narrow near-unity reflectivity resonances that arise from coupling of an incident wave into a leaky waveguide mode via a grating vector that is subsequently reradiated, also known as guided mode resonances (GMRs). Simulations reveal reflectivities of >99% with full width at half maxima (FWHM) of ≈0.01 μm. We demonstrate a fabrication route for obtaining nanopillar arrays that exhibit these GMRs. We experimentally observed a GMR with an amplitude of ~0.8 for filter arrays fabricated on silicon on insulator (SOI) substrates, combined with Fabry-Perot interference that stems from the underlying silicon layer

Additive Manufacturing of High-Refractive-Index, Nanoarchitected Titanium Dioxide for 3D Dielectric Photonic Crystals

Additive manufacturing at small scales enables advances in micro- and nanoelectromechanical systems, micro-optics, and medical devices. Materials that lend themselves to AM at the nanoscale, especially for optical applications, are limited. State-of-the-art AM processes for high-refractive-index materials typically suffer from high porosity and poor repeatability and require complex experimental procedures. We developed an AM process to fabricate complex 3D architectures out of fully dense titanium dioxide (TiO₂) with a refractive index of 2.3 and nanosized critical dimensions. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) analysis proves this material to be rutile phase of nanocrystalline TiO₂, with an average grain size of 110 nm and <1% porosity. Proof-of-concept woodpile architectures with 300–600 nm beam dimensions exhibit a full photonic band gap centered at 1.8–2.9 μm, as revealed by Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and supported by plane wave expansion simulations. The developed AM process enables advances in 3D MEMS, micro-optics, and prototyping of 3D dielectric PhCs

\u3ci\u3eFamilies, Crime and Criminal Justice: Charting the Linkages\u3c/i\u3e

Contemporary Perspectives in Family Research is a series of volumes that features scholarly work on the frontiers of interdisciplinary research on families and family life. Volume 2, Families, Crime and Criminal Justice reflects this pioneering orientation by bringing together new empirical research that examines the various ways that families intersect with and are affected by crime and the criminal justice system. The interdisciplinary nature of the volume is reflected in the diversity of disciplines represented, including developmental psychopathology, criminology, sociology, family studies, psychology, social work and demography. The inclusion of qualitative studies based upon observational techniques and in-depth, long interviews as well as quantitative work using demographic and survey approaches demonstrates the wide methodological range employed by the authors. The topics examined include the involvement of children in crime, the patterns and impact of violence in the home, the impact of criminal involvement on parenting strategies and youth development, the experience of families of victims and perpetrators, and responses of the criminal justice system to the needs of families

\u3ci\u3eFamilies, Crime and Criminal Justice: Charting the Linkages\u3c/i\u3e

Chapter: Gender Differences in the Effect of Child Maltreatment on Criminal Activity over the Life Course, written by Ryan Spohn, UNO faculty member. Contemporary Perspectives in Family Research is a series of volumes that features scholarly work on the frontiers of interdisciplinary research on families and family life. Volume 2, Families, Crime and Criminal Justice reflects this pioneering orientation by bringing together new empirical research that examines the various ways that families intersect with and are affected by crime and the criminal justice system. The interdisciplinary nature of the volume is reflected in the diversity of disciplines represented, including developmental psychopathology, criminology, sociology, family studies, psychology, social work and demography. The inclusion of qualitative studies based upon observational techniques and in-depth, long interviews as well as quantitative work using demographic and survey approaches demonstrates the wide methodological range employed by the authors. The topics examined include the involvement of children in crime, the patterns and impact of violence in the home, the impact of criminal involvement on parenting strategies and youth development, the experience of families of victims and perpetrators, and responses of the criminal justice system to the needs of families.https://digitalcommons.unomaha.edu/facultybooks/1161/thumbnail.jp