Fostering Professional Learning Communities Beyond School Boundaries

During 2008-2009 while participating in a mathematics professional learning study, fifteen teachers, from seven different Australian primary schools, met as a group on five occasions to share their experiences and reflections on their teaching of mathematics. At each meeting, they discussed their goals, action plans and progress. To contextualise their experiences, each shared one or two 60-second snippets of digitally recorded video of their own classroom practice with the group. Audio-recordings of these five focus group meetings were analysed through a process of content analysis using a list of elements derived from the literature on professional learning communities. In essence, a framework of the key characteristics of the literature for professional learning communities was developed, tested and supported by a small-scale study. Three limitations of the findings are the number of participants, the possibility that the participants’ engagement levels were due to the Hawthorne effect, and the self-report nature of the data. Nevertheless, we argue that our results are robust enough to give new insights into a rarely acknowledged context for a professional learning community – one that crosses school boundaries

A Meta-study on the Thermal Properties of Carbon Nanotubes in Thermal Interface Materials

Computer Integrated Circuit (IC) microprocessors are becoming more powerful and densely packed while cooling mechanisms are seeing an equivalent improvement to compensate. A significant limit to cooling performance is thermal transfer between die and heatsink. In this meta study we evaluate carbon nanotube (CNT) thermal interface materials (TIMs) in order to determine how to maximise thermal transfer efficiency. We gathered information from over 15 articles focused on the thermodynamic parameters of CNT TIMs from databases such as Scopus, IEEE Xplore and ScienceDirect. Articles were filtered by key words including ‘carbon nanotubes’ and ‘thermal interface materials’ to identify scientific articles relevant to our research on TIMs. From our meta study we have found that enhancing CNTs will provide the best improvement in TIMs. The parameters analysed to determine TIM performance included thermal resistance, thermal conductivity and the effect of CNT concentration on computer operation time. Through our investigation we understood that increasing the concentration of CNT from 0 to 2 wt % increases the operation time from 75 seconds at 66°C to 200s at 63°C as well as increasing the thermal conductivity by 1.82 times for the AS5 thermal paste with 2 wt % CNT. Furthermore, CNT TIM pastes with less thickness have a lower thermal resistance of 0.4 K/W. However not all these parameters have been tested with computer chips. This means that in order to increase current heat transfer efficiency limit, we must integrate these parameters into experimental models. Keywords: Thermal Interface Material; Thermal Paste; Carbon Nanotubes; Thermal Transfer Efficiency; Integrated Circuit; Heat Sink; Heat Dissipation

Optically pure heterobimetallic helicates from self-assembly and click strategies

Single diastereomer, diamagnetic, octahedral Fe(II) tris chelate complexes are synthesised that contain three pendant pyridine proligands pre-organised for coordination to a second metal. They bind Cu(I) and Ag(I) with coordination geometry depending on the identity of the metal and the detail of the ligand structure, but for example homohelical (ΔFe,ΔCu) configured systems with unusual trigonal planar Cu cations are formed exclusively in solution as shown by VT-NMR and supported by DFT calculations. Similar heterobimetallic tris(triazole) complexes are synthesised via clean CuAAC reactions at a tris(alkynyl) complex, although here the configurations of the two metals differ (ΔFe,ΛCu), leading to the first optically pure heterohelicates. A second series of Fe complexes perform less well in either strategy as a result of lack of preorganisation

The Effects of Omitting-Then-Revealing Product Attribute Information: an Information Revelation Effect

Three experiments investigate the evaluative effect of revealing previously omitted information. In short, attributes were weighed more heavily when omitted-then-revealed (versus not omitted). Additionally, this revelation effect was mediated by changes in affect toward the product and bounded to those open (versus resistant) to change. The implications are discussed

The influence of maternal health factors including multimorbidity on child oral health:A scoping review and evidence gap map protocol

Read the latest article version by Faith Campbell, Scott McGregor, Louise Marryat, Ryan Stewart, Jan Clarkson, Heather Cassie at Wellcome Open Researc

The influence of maternal health factors including multimorbidity on child oral health:A scoping review and evidence gap map protocol

Read the latest article version by Faith Campbell, Scott McGregor, Louise Marryat, Ryan Stewart, Jan Clarkson, Heather Cassie at Wellcome Open Researc

Promoting potential through purposeful inclusive assessment for distance learners.

The number of students with disabilities, which covers a range of conditions including physical and cognitive impairments, is on the rise. Further and higher education institutions are obliged to ensure that teaching and assessment is inclusive. This is particularly pertinent since the pandemic as many students have missed social opportunities that may have offered academic capital. We conducted a systematic review of relevant United Kingdom literature on how assessment for distance education in further education and higher education can be made inclusive in practical and purposeful ways. Assessment is the fundamental way that we measure students’ understanding and progress; it is only through demonstrating knowledge against the set criteria and learning outcomes that students can pass assessments and earn credits toward completion of their degree. We found three key themes in promoting student potential: (a) purposeful and accessible feedback, (b) online group work opportunities, (c) student agency over assessment format

Audit and feedback with or without training in-practice targeting antibiotic prescribing (TiPTAP):a study protocol of a cluster randomised trial in dental primary care

Acknowledgements The authors would like to thank all the dentists and dental team members who are participating in the TiPTAP Trial, as well as the wider QliPT who will ensure the delivery of the intervention. Sponsorship NHS Education for Scotland is the sponsor for the study. NHS Education Scotland will have no role in the design, conduct and analysis of the trial. Funding The study is funded by NHS Education for Scotland.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Characterising encapsulated nuclear waste using cosmic-ray muon tomography

Tomographic imaging techniques using the Coulomb scattering of cosmic-ray muons have been shown previously to successfully identify and characterise low- and high-Z materials within an air matrix using a prototype scintillating-fibre tracker system. Those studies were performed as the first in a series to assess the feasibility of this technology and image reconstruction techniques in characterising the potential high-Z contents of legacy nuclear waste containers for the UK Nuclear Industry. The present work continues the feasibility study and presents the first images reconstructed from experimental data collected using this small-scale prototype system of low- and high-Z materials encapsulated within a concrete-filled stainless-steel container. Clear discrimination is observed between the thick steel casing, the concrete matrix and the sample materials assayed. These reconstructed objects are presented and discussed in detail alongside the implications for future industrial scenarios.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figure