3,175 research outputs found
Authentic Inclusion in Two Secondary Schools: It’s the Full Meal Deal. It’s Not Just in the Class. It’s Everywhere.
Inclusive educational practices vary across Canada, and perhaps most especially in secondary schools. Researchers use the term authentic inclusion to describe exemplary inclusive educational institutions. Using an appreciative inquiry framework, two such high schools were identified and profiled within the Canadian province of Saskatchewan. Students with and without disabilities, parents and/or guardians, teachers, educational assistants, and other school-based personnel were interviewed using semi- structured protocols. Data were analyzed and two main interrelated themes emerged; the first, authentic inclusion: “the full meal deal—it’s everywhere”; and the second, inclusive pedagogies. Several sub-themes provide greater detail, namely: a) a broad and infused inclusive vision, (b) leadership: implementing the vision, (c) pushing all students beyond comfort zones, (d) no to the new exclusion, and lastly, (d) rejection of false dichotomies: specialized care vs. social inclusion. In the final section, the notion of hope is taken up, as it hearkens back to the appreciative methodology, and more generally, to the promise of authentic inclusive education. We explore the notion of hope-filled schools, and students’ hopes for the future. Hope may be a critical element in the practice of authentic inclusion for students with disabilities
Graded-bandgap AlGaAs solar cells for AlGaAs/Ge cascade cells
Some p/n graded-bandgap Al(x)Ga(1-x)As solar cells were fabricated and show AMO conversion efficiencies in excess of 15 percent without antireflection (AR) coatings. The emitters of these cells are graded between 0.008 is less than or equal to x is less than or equal to 0.02 during growth of 0.25 to 0.30 micron thick layers. The keys to achieving this performance were careful selection of organometallic sources and scrubbing oxygen and water vapor from the AsH3 source. Source selection and growth were optimized using time-resolved photoluminescence. Preliminary radiation-resistance measurements show AlGaAs cells degraded less than GaAs cells at high 1 MeV electron fluences, and AlGaAs cells grown on GaAs and Ge substrates degrade comparably
Enhanced compatibility between coconut fibers/PP via chemical modification for 3D printing
Aiming to produce high-quality bio-based 3D printed products, in this work, coconut fibers were chemical modified using caprolactone. Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and nuclear magnetic reasonance (NMR) confirmed the grafting of the hydroxyl groups present on the surface of the fibers with caprolactone units. Furthermore, from contact angle (CA) analyses, the higher hydrophobicity of fibers after chemical treatment was confirmed, which improved its affinity with PP. The enhanced filler/matrix compatibility was reflected on the mechanical performance and processability of the ensuing composites. The modified fibers derived composites showed higher stiffness and higher melting flow index (MFI), when compared to the untreated counterparts. The composites were used to produce 3D printed specimens. Smother filaments were obtained using modified fibers, which confirms the better compatibility of fibers/PP. The surface of the 3D printed composite specimen produced using treated fibers, presented smooth surface, similar to the PP. This observation highlights the enhancement of the 3D printing quality due to the chemical modification of fibers. © 2021, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.publishe
Heliophysics Event Knowledgebase for the Solar Dynamics Observatory and Beyond
The immense volume of data generated by the suite of instruments on SDO
requires new tools for efficient identifying and accessing data that is most
relevant to research investigations. We have developed the Heliophysics Events
Knowledgebase (HEK) to fill this need. The HEK system combines automated data
mining using feature-detection methods and high-performance visualization
systems for data markup. In addition, web services and clients are provided for
searching the resulting metadata, reviewing results, and efficiently accessing
the data. We review these components and present examples of their use with SDO
data.Comment: 17 pages, 4 figure
‘Around the edges’: using behaviour change techniques to characterise a multilevel implementation strategy for a fall prevention programme
Abstract
Background
Implementation strategies are needed to ensure that evidence-based healthcare interventions are adopted successfully. However, strategies are generally poorly described and those used in everyday practice are seldom reported formally or fully understood. Characterising the active ingredients of existing strategies is necessary to test and refine implementation. We examined whether an implementation strategy, delivered across multiple settings targeting different stakeholders to support a fall prevention programme, could be characterised using the Behaviour Change Technique (BCT) Taxonomy.
Methods
Data sources included project plans, promotional material, interviews with a purposive sample of stakeholders involved in the strategy’s design and delivery and observations of staff training and information meetings. Data were analysed using TIDieR to describe the strategy and determine the levels at which it operated (organisational, professional, patient). The BCT Taxonomy identified BCTs which were mapped to intervention functions. Data were coded by three researchers and finalised through consensus.
Results
We analysed 22 documents, 6 interviews and 4 observation sessions. Overall, 21 out a possible 93 BCTs were identified across the three levels. At an organisational level, identifiable techniques tended to be broadly defined; the most common BCT was restructuring the social environment. While some activities were intended to encourage implementation, they did not have an immediate behavioural target and could not be coded using BCTs.
The largest number and variety of BCTs were used at the professional level to target the multidisciplinary teams delivering the programme and professionals referring to the programme. The main BCTs targeting the multidisciplinary team were instruction on how to perform the (assessment) behaviour and demonstration of (assessment) behaviour; the main BCT targeting referrers was adding objects to the environment. At the patient level, few BCTs were used to target attendance.
Conclusion
In this study, several behaviour change techniques were evident at the individual professional level; however, fewer techniques were identifiable at an organisational level. The BCT Taxonomy was useful for describing components of a multilevel implementation strategy that specifically target behaviour change. To fully and completely describe an implementation strategy, including components that involve organisational or systems level change, other frameworks may be needed
Experimental investigation of optical atom traps with a frequency jump
We study the evolution of a trapped atomic cloud subject to a trapping
frequency jump for two cases: stationary and moving center of mass. In the
first case, the frequency jump initiates oscillations in the cloud's momentum
and size. At certain times we find the temperature is significantly reduced.
When the oscillation amplitude becomes large enough, local density increases
induced by the anharmonicity of the trapping potential are observed. In the
second case, the oscillations are coupled to the center of mass motion through
the anharmonicity of the potential. This induces oscillations with even larger
amplitudes, enhancing the temperature reduction effects and leading to
nonisotropic expansion rates while expanding freely.Comment: 8 figures, Journal of Physics B: At. Mol. Op. Phy
Electron irradiation effects on superconductivity in PdTe: an application of a generalized Anderson theorem
Low temperature ( 20~K) electron irradiation with 2.5 MeV relativistic
electrons was used to study the effect of controlled non-magnetic disorder on
the normal and superconducting properties of the type-II Dirac semimetal
PdTe. We report measurements of longitudinal and Hall resistivity, thermal
conductivity and London penetration depth using tunnel-diode resonator
technique for various irradiation doses. The normal state electrical
resistivity follows Matthiessen rule with an increase of the residual
resistivity at a rate of 0.77cm/. London penetration depth and thermal
conductivity results show that the superconducting state remains fully gapped.
The superconducting transition temperature is suppressed at a non-zero rate
that is about sixteen times slower than described by the Abrikosov-Gor'kov
dependence, applicable to magnetic impurity scattering in isotropic,
single-band -wave superconductors. To gain information about the gap
structure and symmetry of the pairing state, we perform a detailed analysis of
these experimental results based on insight from a generalized Anderson theorem
for multi-band superconductors. This imposes quantitative constraints on the
gap anisotropies for each of the possible pairing candidate states. We conclude
that the most likely pairing candidate is an unconventional
state. While we cannot exclude the conventional and the triplet
, we demonstrate that these states require additional assumptions about
the orbital structure of the disorder potential to be consistent with our
experimental results, e.g., a ratio of inter- to intra-band scattering for the
singlet state significantly larger than one. Due to the generality of our
theoretical framework, we think that it will also be useful for irradiation
studies in other spin-orbit-coupled multi-orbital systems.Comment: 22 pages, 12 figure
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