Highly Luminescent Lanthanide Chirality Probes

The chirality of biological systems can be probed using highly emissive lanthanide complexes with the aid of circularly polarised luminescence and emission spectroscopy. Such chirality probes can be synthesised through the incorporation of a remote chiral centre within the ligand framework, which can preferentially stabilise a particular stereoisomer giving an enantiopure complex of well-defined helicity. Alternatively, lanthanide chirality probes can be derived from achiral or dynamically racemic ligands, where the selective induction of a CPL signal can be monitored as a function of the nature and concentration of a selected chiral analyte. A series of chiral lanthanide complexes has been synthesised. Each complex is based on an amide substituted 1,4,7-triazacyclononane system derived from either R-(+) or S-(-)-α-methylbenzyl amine. The stereochemistry of the amide moiety controls the helicity of the complex, and one major diastereoisomer is formed for each lanthanide metal. The absolute stereochemistry of the major diastereoisomer was determined by X-ray crystallography (S-Δ-λλλ and R-Λ-δδδ). Inclusion of an aryl-alkynyl chromophore generated complexes that exhibited large extinction coefficients (up to 55,000 M-1 cm-1) and high quantum yields (up to 37%) in water. A second set of bright Eu (III) complexes has been prepared based on an achiral heptadentate ligand system, which vary in the nature of the pyridyl donor (phosphinate, carboxylate and amide). The binding of a number of chiral acids including lactate, mandelate and cyclohexylhydroxyacetate was monitored by a change in the emission spectrum and the induction of strong CPL. Empirical analysis of the ΔJ = 4 region of each of the Eu (III) complexes allows an assignment of the complex-anion adducts as R-Δ and S-Λ. Furthermore, variations in the sign and magnitude of CPL allow the enantiomeric purity of samples with unknown enantiomeric composition to be assessed. Finally, several dynamically racemic lanthanide chirality probes have been synthesised and characterised. Induced CPL has been assessed, which arises as a result of the change in complex constitution upon binding to important chiral biomolecules such as, sialic acid, O-phosphono-amino acids and peptides and oleoyl-L-lysophosphatidic acid (LPA). This work presents the first example of induced CPL in the detection of cancer biomarkers, sialic acid and LPA, and demonstrates the utility of this class of dynamically racemic Eu (III) complexes as chirality probes

Exploring the optimal customer experience online

Customer experience research is widely considered to be cutting edge. Despite this very little research has been conducted on the optimal online customer experience. Whilst some research has been conducted on the Business to Consumer Sector (B2C) there appears to be very little on Business to Business (B2B). Work conducted on behalf of the Henley Centre for Customer Management explored the perceptions of both B2B and B2C customers with online experience in both Europe and the United States. 132 people were interviewed in depth using a qualitative version of Repertory Grid. Over 100 hours of interview were analyzed. The research also adopted a cross industry approach as an aid to generalizability. We found 13 themes and 109 factors for the optimum B2C experience. Themes include; interactivity, security, informative, trustworthy, personal, community, emotional engagement, aesthetics, usability, quality of content, commercialization customer orientation, fulfilment. We found 13 themes and 97 factors for the optimum B2B experience. Themes; usability, aesthetics, subject relevance, hedonic experience, information processing, trustworthy, relational, learning, contemporary, customer oriented, community, commercialization, fulfilment. The report also contains a checklist of factors members should consider when crafting the optimum experience for their online customers

Method for assigning satellite lines to crystallographic sites in rare-earth crystals

We describe an experimental technique for associating the satellite lines in a rare-earth optical spectrum caused by a defect with the rare-earth ions in crystal sites around that defect. This method involves measuring the hyperfine splitting caused by

The practice of beginning teachers: Identifying competence through case writing in teacher education

Competent teachers display common attitudes and behaviours, yet it is apparent to those who attempt to categorise teachers\u27 work, attitudes and behaviours that the identification of competence is extremely complex. This article suggests a rationale for demonstrating competence through case writing. Case writing documents and provides examples of student teachers and beginning teachers at work in teaching and leaming situations. These examples of teaching and learning are part of a portfolio of cases of teaching and learning which student teachers, teachers and teacher educators working within the Department of Education at Victoria University have developed. These collections provide \u27snapshots\u27 of practice, stimuli for reflection and a public and collective view of teaching and learning experiences. They provide a comprehensive perspective of teacher competence as displayed in practice

Visible Difference, Stigmatising Language(s) and the Discursive Construction of Prejudices Against Others in Leeds and Warsaw

There is a growing interest in – and urgency around – the understanding of cultural difference in and across European societies. Language matters crucially to how difference is perceived and conceptualised. Against this backdrop, the consequences of encountering difference through language still require research. In response to this need, this chapter looks into the use of prejudiced terms addressing difference with respect to axes of gendered ethnicity/religion (Muslim men) and gendered class (male underclass) in two European cities. In doing so, it traces the vernacular embedding of perceptions of specifically coded difference in Poland and the UK. As such, it explores how the same categories of difference are discursively produced in two national contexts and enquires in what ways perceptions differ, overlap or refer to an increasingly global discursive framework

Professionalism of new further education teachers: a metaphorical analysis

This thesis explores the possible tensions and alignments between professional standards and teachers in a general further education college in the midlands, in the further education sector (FE), and identifies the limitations for individuals given this standardised approach. The research is situated at a time when FE has been increasingly held to account for student success and increased/improved industrial productivity on the world stage. Central to this notion is the quality of the training of its teachers, which successive governments have recognised and embraced by introducing new sets of qualifications and teacher professional standards. The thesis provides a detailed view of how individuals’ socio-cultural backgrounds and life histories impact on how well they engage with the standards and what this might mean for their future professional practice. The research was conducted with four pre- and beginning teachers who attended the introductory ‘threshold licence to teach’ qualification, Preparing to Teach in the Lifelong Learning Sector (PTLLS), now the Award in Education and Training (AET). This was situated in a qualitative, interpretivist paradigm using a nested case study, mixed methods approach. Nominal Group Technique, semi structured interviews and textual analysis were employed as data gathering techniques. The analytical framework was influenced by Lakoff and Johnson’s (1981) work on contemporary theory of metaphors and was used throughout as the main methodology using a grounded, inductive approach. This thesis illuminates, through metaphor analysis, the complicated conceptual associations of pre- and beginning teachers’ socio-cultural histories and life histories and how these can fundamentally affect their future professional practice and engagement with professional standards. This raises the notion of there being multiple ways in which teachers experience their work and how trainees’ metaphors can indicate the types of professionals they are likely to be. The study thus calls for policy-makers, FE organisations, teacher trainers and ITE trainees and researchers to encourage ways that the diversity of individual trainees can be explored and utilised, by the encouragement of deeper reflexive rather than reflective practice. This will aid the improvement of FE teacher professionalism

Animal lifestyle affects acceptable mass limits for attached tags

Animal-attached devices have transformed our understanding of vertebrate ecology. To minimize any associated harm, researchers have long advocated that tag masses should not exceed 3% of carrier body mass. However, this ignores tag forces resulting from animal movement. Using data from collar-attached accelerometers on 10 diverse free-ranging terrestrial species from koalas to cheetahs, we detail a tag-based acceleration method to clarify acceptable tag mass limits. We quantify animal athleticism in terms of fractions of animal movement time devoted to different collar-recorded accelerations and convert those accelerations to forces (acceleration x tag mass) to allow derivation of any defined force limits for specified fractions of any animal’s active time. Specifying that tags should exert forces <3% of the gravitational force exerted on the animal's body for 95% of the time led to corrected tag masses that should constitute between 1.6% and 2.98% of carrier mass, depending on athleticism. Strikingly, in four carnivore species encompassing two orders of magnitude in mass (ca. 2-200 kg), forces exerted by ‘3%’ tags were equivalent to 4-19% of carrier body mass during moving, with a maximum of 54% in a hunting cheetah. This fundamentally changes how acceptable tag mass limits should be determined by ethics bodies, irrespective of force and time limits specified

Net atmospheric mercury deposition to Svalbard : estimates from lacustrine sediments

Author Posting. © The Author(s), 2012. This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here by permission of Elsevier B.V. for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Atmospheric Environment 59 (2012): 509-513, doi:10.1016/j.atmosenv.2012.05.048.In this study we used lake sediments, which faithfully record Hg inputs, to derive estimates of net atmospheric Hg deposition to Svalbard, Norwegian Arctic. With the exception of one site affected by local pollution, the study lakes show twofold to fivefold increases in sedimentary Hg accumulation since 1850, likely due to long-range atmospheric transport and deposition of anthropogenic Hg. Sedimentary Hg accumulation in these lakes is a linear function of the ratio of catchment area to lake area, and we used this relationship to model net atmospheric Hg flux: preindustrial and modern estimates are 2.5±3.3 μg/m2/y and 7.0±3.0 μg/m2/y, respectively. The modern estimate, by comparison with data for Hg wet deposition, indicates that atmospheric mercury depletion events (AMDEs) or other dry deposition processes contribute approximately half (range 0-70%) of the net flux. Hg from AMDEs may be moving in significant quantities into aquatic ecosystems, where it is a concern because of contamination of aquatic food webs.Funding was provided by an NSERC Discovery Grant (Drevnick) and the Norges forskningsråd (grant number 107745/730)