Doctor of Philosophy

dissertationThis thesis is focused on the investigation of the fundamental physical nature and potential technical applications of spin-dependent charge carrier recombination in poly[2-methoxy-5-(2'-ethyl-hexyloxy)-1,4-phenylene vinylene (MEH-PPV), a π conjugated polymer which has been utilized as organic thin film semiconductor. Pulsed electrically detected magnetic resonance (pEDMR) spectroscopy was used to observe how coherent spin motion of paramagnetic charge carrier states (so called polarons) control the macroscopic conductivity of thin (∼100nm) MEH-PPV layers under different charge carrier injection regimes. The pEDMR experiments were conducted at frequencies covering almost three orders of magnitude (∼20MHz to ∼10GHz) and at temperatures between ∼5K and ∼300k. The measurements revealed that under balanced bipolar injection, the conductivity of MEH-PPV is influenced at any temperature by the polaron pair (PP) mechanism, a spin-dependent process previously described in the literature. The experiments showed that PPs are weakly exchange-and dipolar-coupled pairs but they are strongly influenced by proton induced hyperfine fields. Electrical detection of coherent polaron-spin motion revealed extraordinary long coherence times (order of μs) at room temperature which could qualify PPs for quantum information applications. The PP mechanism was also demonstrated to work as an extraordinary sensitive (< 50 nT Hz−1/2) organic thin film probe which uses the polarons gyromagnetic ratio γ as magnetic field standard. γ was observed to be independent of temperature, device-current, and -bias, and degradation of the MEH-PPV device. In addition to the PP mechanism, another spin-dependent process previously described in the literature was confirmed to significantly influence conductivity in MEH-PPV: Triplet-exciton polaron recombination

Anglo-American Relations in Miniature: the Prince of Wales in Portland, Maine, 1860

An article on events surrounding a visit of the Prince of Wales, Albert Edward (1841-1910)--the future King Edward VII--to Portland, Maine. Reprinted from The New England Quarterly, Vol. XLV, No. 4, December, 1972

God and the Gridiron

The alliance of sport and religion is nowhere more evident than in the South, where football and evangelical, born-again theology are soul mates

Nurse Led Community Health Worker Lay Leader Model

In America’s Health Rankings 2018 Annual Report, Kentucky ranked 45 out of 50 in the nation’s healthiest states, signifying the poor overall health of the state.1 Additional statistics show that rural areas of Kentucky, especially the Appalachian region, face some of the highest rates of health disparities in the state and nation. Associated social, environmental, and health risk factors in this population further complicate matters, resulting in a higher prevalence of chronic diseases. Although chronic diseases can cause serious complications, most disease risk factors can be prevented or controlled. Evidence-based self-management education models, such as the Chronic Disease Self-Management Program (CDSMP), Diabetes Self-Management Program (DSMP), and Walk With Ease, may provide a solution to address the growing chronic disease epidemic. In these programs, participants receive self-management education for a variety of chronic diseases, including diabetes and arthritis, to improve and manage their health conditions. Led and trained by registered nurses, community health workers (CHWs) incorporate these self-management programs into the communities they serve and provide a supportive role by interacting with participants before, during, and after each session to aid in successful completion rates and improved health outcomes. One such CHW program, Kentucky Homeplace, has been providing self-management education since its inception in 1994, and began integrating CDSMP, DSMP, and Walk With Ease into the community in 2015

A General Formula for Black Hole Gravitational Wave Kicks

Although the gravitational wave kick velocity in the orbital plane of coalescing black holes has been understood for some time, apparently conflicting formulae have been proposed for the dominant out-of-plane kick, each a good fit to different data sets. This is important to resolve because it is only the out-of-plane kicks that can reach more than 500 km/s and can thus eject merged remnants from galaxies. Using a different ansatz for the out-of-plane kick, we show that we can fit almost all existing data to better than 5 %. This is good enough for any astrophysical calculation, and shows that the previous apparent conflict was only because the two data sets explored different aspects of the kick parameter space.Comment: 14 pages

Treatment of estrogen-induced dermatitis with omalizumab

In 1945, Drs Bernhard Zondek and Yehuda Bromberg demonstrated intradermal treatment with estrone and estradiol benzoate induced urticarial lesions in some patients.1 Fifty years later, Shelley et al,2 who introduced the concept of progesterone dermatitis several decades prior, defined estrogen dermatitis based on studies of 7 women with premenstrual flares of skin eruptions including papulovesicular, urticarial, or eczematous lesions or generalized pruritus. Previously described therapies for estrogen dermatitis include estrogen desensitization, tamoxifen, leuprolide, and oophorectomy.3 Here we report a case of estrogen-induced dermatitis successfully treated with omalizumab

Mathematics Teacher Leadership Preparation, Mentorship, and Service: Communities of Practice Through Online Modalities

This article is a preface to a special issue of the Journal of Mathematics and Science: Collaborative Explorations which features articles that describe (a) online components of mathematics specialist preparation and mentoring programs, (b) the mentoring and support of teachers preparing to serve as mathematics teacher leaders, and (c) the subsequent service of mathematics specialists in leadership roles. This preface describes the context within which the described online activities took place, provides a common glossary of terms that will be used consistently across all the articles, and briefly introduces each of the fourteen papers that constitute the special issue

Arts Education Academics’ Perceptions of eLearning & Teaching in Australian Early Childhood and Primary ITE Degrees

This article presents the findings of an investigation of eLearning & teaching in Arts education in Australian Initial Teacher Education (ITE) degrees. This project used survey and interviews to collect data from academics in 16 universities in 5 Australian states regarding their experiences of eLearning and Arts education. A rigorous and comprehensive thematic, inductive approach to the analysis of data revealed four main themes: congruence and incongruence of eLearning in Arts education with academic identity, dissonance between eLearning and the nature of Arts education, negatively perceived reasons for teaching Arts education in an eLearning mode, and some expressions of positive experiences in this space. These themes revealed a divided, unsettled and challenging space with pockets of acceptance, but characterised by epistemological and pedagogical questions, doubts and uneasiness