Updates to some names used for microalgal taxa in Australia

[No abstract available

A Qualitative Exploration of the Motivations and Expectations of Lecturers Who Sign-up to Participate in an Emotional Intelligence Coaching Programme

Research has emphasised the importance of emotional intelligence (EI) in the work of higher education staff. However, little is about the motivations and expectations of lecturers who decide to participate in EI coaching programmes. As part of a larger study pertaining to the efficacy of EI coaching for Irish higher education lecturers, qualitative data was collected by way of a questionnaire that contained two open-ended questions from all participants who signed up for coaching (N = 40). The findings indicate that the primary motivations for participants to sign-up for coaching were personal development and a desire to support research activities. Participants expected that their participation would give them an opportunity to enhance their self-awareness and learn about EI through their participation in the programme. The participants brought with them an openness to the experience. The findings also highlighted that lecturers had, for the most part, not received any formal training in this area, which suggests that a gap exists in lecturer training in this regard. Based on these findings, it is recommended that further research be conducted to acknowledge the importance of EI in the work of higher education lecturers in Ireland and to assess the motivations and expectations of participants in EI programmes in other contexts. It is also recommended that further research explore the reasons why lecturers may choose not to participate with EI coaching

Specialist and more-able mathematics students: understanding their engagement with mathematics support

<p>Along with a growing body of evidence of the challenges experienced by specialist and more-able mathematics students during their undergraduate studies, there now exists evidence that these students are increasingly accessing mathematics support centres as a means of enhancing their mathematical learning experience. Here, we report on a survey of 47 specialist mathematics students, studying within the mathematics department of a large, UK research-intensive university. Our findings show that whilst such students have high levels of engagement with core teaching components, additional, and optional, opportunities for personalized support and dialogue provided by the mathematics department to support their studies are less well used and valued. Friends provide an important source of additional support along with visits to the mathematics support centre. Our data show that users of mathematics support from later years are not necessarily returners, but instead are new to the centre. Whilst many students use the centre only occasionally and as the need arises, there is evidence that others are more regular users and are using the centre as a core part of their mathematical learning experience. The reasons given for their usage are linked to the convenient availability of support, its personalized nature with friendly tutors of a similar-age and subject profile, the ability to use the centre as a group study space to work with friends, and as an opportunity to engage in dialogue about their mathematical learning.</p

Are North Atlantic Alaria esculenta and A. grandifolia (Alariaceae, Phaeophyceae) conspecific?

Alaria (Alariaceae, Phaeophyceae) is a common genus of kelps in the northern hemisphere. Fourteen species are currently recognized, of which three, Alaria esculenta (L.) Greville, A. pylaii (Bory de Saint-Vincent) Greville and A. grandifolia J. Agardh, are reported for the cold-temperate North Atlantic Ocean. Alaria esculenta, the type species described originally from the North Atlantic, exhibits a range of biogeographically correlated morphotypes suggesting the possibility of multiple species, subspecies or hybrids. In Ireland we discovered an A. esculenta population with unusually long stipes resembling the type specimen of A. grandifolia described from Spitsbergen by J. Agardh in 1872. These and other plants of A. esculenta h om Ireland were compared with plants from Spitsbergen fitting the description of A. grandifolia, using sexual hybridization relative growth rate measurements and DNA sequence comparisons. Complete interfertility was observed between the different isolates. Three nucleotide substitutions (0.37%) were found in the rbcL and RuBisCo spacer of A. grandifolia, and two in the partial 18S rRNA gene and ITS1 sequences. The relative growth rate at 10 OC of an Irish self-cross was significantly lower than those of all the other crosses. Comparison of RuBisCo spacer sequences of the Spitsbergen A. grandifolia and six A. esculenta isolates showed that A. grandifolia was identical to A. esculenta from Halifax, Canada. The partial 18S rRNA gene and ITS1 sequence of A. grandifolia was identical to that of A. praelonga from Japan and differed by a single substitution from A. esculenta from Scotland and by two nucleotide substitutions from the isolate from Ireland. The intraspecific differences in A. esculenta, together with the hybridization and morphometric results, suggest that A. grandifolia is to be considered conspecific with A. esculenta, and that A. grandifolia is most probably a large deep-water morphological variant subspecies or ecotype of A. esculenta

Stable-Isotope Bone Chemistry and Human/Animal Interactions in Historical Archaeology

Stable isotope–based paleodietary work is ideally suited for answering questions about a wide variety of human/animal relationships in historical archaeological contexts in northeastern North America and farther afield. To date, very few published studies have approached historical animal husbandry and trade from an isotopic perspective. We advocate for increased attention to the possibilities of stable-isotope work by (1) explaining why the technique is well suited to address some problems of human/animal relations encountered by historical archaeologists, (2) presenting a literature review of previous stable-isotope work on human/ animal interaction in historical North America, and (3) offering a short case study on the dietary life history of an individual pig raised at the archaeological site of Ferryland, Newfoundland, Canada, based on stable carbon- and nitrogen-isotope data from serially sectioned dental collagen

An Analysis of the Impact and Efficacy of Online Emotional Intelligence Coaching as a Support Mechanism for University Students

As a consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic, many college courses have pivoted to complete online delivery and colleges are also tasked with providing student supports online. It is likely this transition will last beyond any COVID-19 specific restrictions, therefore this small-scale, exploratory study examined the efficacy and impact of the provision of a 5 week online emotional intelligence (EI) coaching programme to a cohort of Irish university students (n = 19) studying at Technological University Dublin (TU Dublin). Results revealed that the average overall level of EI increased for participants following the coaching programme. Students reported that they believed the programme provided emotional support and that it also enabled them to manage academic stress more effectively and ultimately that engagement with the programme had a positive impact on their academic engagement. Taken collectively, the results of this study suggest that whilst EI coaching can be successfully delivered online, where possible, a blended approach may be optimal. However, as this is a novel and exploratory study, further confirmatory research is recommended

Time Travellers and Storytellers: Representations of Dementia in Children's Fantasy Literature

This creative writing research-based thesis asks how dementia can be represented to primary-aged children through a fantasy fiction novel and offers an original fantasy fiction novel, The Battle for Spanoak (Guiry, 2020), written for children between the ages of 7 and 12-years-old as an original contribution to the corpus of dementia writing for children. The critical component to this thesis explores how generic fantasy devices and structures impact on the representation of dementia through ‘storytelling’ and ‘memory’ and describes the particular relevance of ‘time’ as a narrative device in dementia fantasy narratives. I have also contributed a corpus of dementia texts for the young from which I have identified thematic commonplaces which I propose might be criteria to recognise fantasy dementia writing for the young. I have codified and offered this evidence in Table 1: Dementia and Fantasy Writing for the Young. I offer a multi-disciplinary and inter-disciplinary theoretical approach which brings together children’s fiction writing about dementia, fictional landscape theories and the fantasy genre to propose that fantasy landscapes can open up a useful theoretical space to represent dementia to children in positive terms of transformation

DEPOLARIZATION OF DOUBLET-6P CESIUM ATOMS INDUCED IN COLLISIONS WITH NOBLE GASES.

Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 37-06, Section: B, page: 2927. Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Windsor (Canada), 1976