Do 18-month-olds really attribute mental states to others? A critical test

In the research reported here, we investigated whether 18-month-olds would use their own past experience of visual access to attribute perception and consequent beliefs to other people. Infants in this study wore either opaque blindfolds (opaque condition) or trick blindfolds that looked opaque but were actually transparent (trick condition). Then both groups of infants observed an actor wearing one of the same blindfolds that they themselves had experienced, while a puppet removed an object from its location. Anticipatory eye movements revealed that infants who had experienced opaque blindfolds expected the actor to behave in accordance with a false belief about the object's location, but that infants who had experienced trick blindfolds did not exhibit that expectation. Our results suggest that 18-month-olds used self-experience with the blindfolds to assess the actor's visual access and to update her belief state accordingly. These data constitute compelling evidence that 18-month-olds infer perceptual access and appreciate its causal role in altering the epistemic states of other people

Using Computers to Develop Phonemic Awareness in the Early Primary Classroom

The aim of this project is to determine whether a computer application can be used to develop phonemic awareness in the early primary classroom, which is a key component of phonics. This thesis explores the evolution of the strategy for teaching literacy in the UK which shows phonics to be a key component of that strategy. However, government reports which inform the direction of the literacy strategy call for more empirical study in all areas of literacy teaching; this thesis documents such an empirical study. This research project creates a phonics based computer application designed specifically for young children aged 5 to 6 years (year 1 in UK primary schools). The timing and level of content presented by the computer application activities are grounded in appropriate academic theory. A significant component of the work is the development of interface design guidelines for children’s applications. These guidelines are then used to inform the development of the phonics-based computer application. A Randomised Controlled Trial (RCT) is designed to determine the application’s effectiveness in developing the phonemic awareness skills of young children in a classroom setting. In order to control experimental bias resulting from problems with the usability of the computer interface, the usability of the application’s interface is evaluated in the classroom by year 1 children before the application is used in a pragmatic RCT. The results of the final usability evaluation found no usability issues and the application was wholly intuitive to the children in the evaluation groups. The results from the RCT (N=266) show no statistically significant improvement in the learning rate of phonemic awareness by the intervention group using the computer program compared to the traditional teacher-delivered paper-based method used with the control group, even though the computer program was designed carefully for this age range. The results did suggest however, that the intervention group developed at the same rate as the control group which implies that the computer program could be used to support teachers by reducing the amount of resource-intensive phonics tuition required by children in this age range

Hydropyrolysis of high molecular weight organic matter in Murchison

Hydropyrolysis of the Murchison macromolecular material releases polyaromatic compounds including phenanthrene, carbazole, fluoranthene, pyrene, chrysene, perylene, benzoperylene and coronene units with varying degrees of alklyation

NMR shim coil design utilising a rapid spherical harmonic calculation method

A rapid spherical harmonic calculation method is used for the design of Nuclear Magnetic Resonance shim coils. The aim is to design each shim such that it generates a field described purely by a single spherical harmonic. By applying simulated annealing techniques, coil arrangements are produced through the optimal positioning of current-carrying circular arc conductors of rectangular cross-section. This involves minimizing the undesirable harmonies in relation to a target harmonic. The design method is flexible enough to be applied for the production of coil arrangements that generate fields consisting significantly of either zonal or tesseral harmonics. Results are presented for several coil designs which generate tesseral harmonics of degree one

Comparison of microscale sealed vessel pyrolysis (MSSVpy) and hydropyrolysis (Hypy) for the characterisation of extant and sedimentary organic matter

Microscale sealed vessel pyrolysis (MSSVpy) and catalytic hydropyrolysis (Hypy) combined with gas chromatography-mass spectrometry have emerged in recent years as useful and versatile organic analytical and characterisation methods. Both now commercially available, these pyrolysis methods complement traditional flash pyrolysis analysis which can be limited by excessive degradation or inadequate chromatographic resolution of pyrolysates of high structural polarity. To assess the versatility and merits of these two pyrolysis methods they were separately applied to several organic samples reflecting different thermal maturities. This comparison revealed many product similarities, but also several important features unique to each

The significance of 24-norcholestanes, 4-methylsteranes and dinosteranes in oils and source-rocks from East Sirte Basin (Libya)

The present paper involves a detailed evaluation of specific steroid biomarkers by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) and GC-metastable reaction monitoring (MRM) analyses of several crude oils and source rocks from the East Sirte Basin. 24-Norcholestanes, dinosteranes, 4a-methyl-24-ethylcholestanes and triaromatic steroids have been identified in both source-rocks and crude oils of the East Sirte Basin. Diatoms, dinoflagellates (including those potentially associated with corals) and/or their direct ancestors are amongst the proposed sources of these biomarkers. These biomarker parameters have been used to establish a Mesozoic oil-source correlation of the East Sirte Basin. Hydropyrolysis of an extant coral extract revealed a similar distribution (although immature) of dinosteranes and 4a-methyl-24-ethylcholestanes also observed in the Sirte oils and source-rocks. This is consistent with the presence of dinoflagellates present during the deposition of the Mesozoic aged East Sirte Basin Formations.A good data correlation for the rock extracts revealed a similar distribution of 3,24-dimethyl triaromatic steroids, 3-methyl-24-ethylcholestanes, 4-methyl-24-ethylcholestanes and 2-methyl-24-ethylcholestanes observed in one of the oil families and associated source-rocks for the East Sirte Basin