Project i-Spy : A project to support the development of student information skills (i-skills)

This project aimed to make a step change in the university's support for student development of information skills (i-skills) after significant i-skills challenges for students had been identified in the university’s digital study environment. A coherent framework to support the development of student i-skills was identified and implemented, incorporating specified learning outcomes and support for different skills levels. The framework is populated with i-skills tutorials in 'bite-size chunks' for students to use in conjunction with timetabled skills sessions and their academic programmes, and also to support independent study. Ease of use is of great importance. The project outcomes were achieved through a successful partnership between LIS Consultants and external experts, selected through a formal tender process in December 2005. Project i-Spy was funded by a university learning and teaching development fund award 2005/6.Peer reviewedFinal Accepted Versio

What is a case study?

Case study is a research methodology, typically seen in social and life sciences. There is no one definition of case study research. However, very simply… ‘a case study can be defined as an intensive study about a person, a group of people or a unit, which is aimed to generalize over several units’. A case study has also been described as an intensive, systematic investigation of a single individual, group, community or some other unit in which the researcher examines in-depth data relating to several variables

The Whore and the Holy Woman: How Christianity and Islam Slandered Their Leading Ladies

Mary Magdalene and Aisha Bint Abi Bakr—women hailing from the early days of Christianity and Islam respectively—are household names among adherents to each of those religions, but most know surprisingly little about who the women were. Both were independent, highly influential women, but their legacies have been corrupted by associations with repentance for deviation from traditional gender roles as well as with sexual immorality. This paper examines the biography of each women and puts it in conversation with her legacy in order to demonstrate a theme of strong women being erased from religious narratives—a theme which we must reverse in order to recover true, God-given gender roles and empower today’s women in both traditions

Technology Enhancing Kindergarten Students’ Literacy Skills in Math

I planned my methods and procedures in an effort to gain understanding of how technology affects instruction and learning of reading and writing in mathematics. I also focused my research on determining the impact that incorporating technology into mathematics can have on motivation in learning. In order to explore the impact technology can have on math instruction; I randomly selected three five year old students from my kindergarten classroom for a six week time frame during the Fall of 2014. I collected data through use of a variety of observations, audio tools, assessments, and interviews, as participant’s utilized technology in a consistent approach during mathematics instruction. Several findings were determined based on the research from this study. It was found that IXL, an online resource allowing students to practice specific mathematical practices, allowed for read aloud accessibility and positively enhanced independence and excitement among learners. Students used a variety of strategies that differed from their peers, to communicate problems to their solutions. Each learner modeled growth in a variety of ways. Literacy skills are able to flourish with consistent use of technology to enhance young learners and their exploration of its correlation to mathematics. Results from this study may assist educators in the importance of use of technology in mathematics, and its significant role in literacy practice

Special Wettability Coatings, Films and Slippery Liquid Infused Porous Surfaces with Self-cleaning, Anti-icing and Anti-fogging Applications

This thesis presents research into the use of highly functional special wettability surface technologies for the enhancement of smart decorative paint formulation, self-cleaning materials and anti-icing and anti-fogging devices. Sample preparation via wet deposition, aerosol assisted chemical vapour deposition (AACVD) and lubricant spin coating afforded stain resistant superhydrophobic, self-cleaning water/ice/fog retardant and slippery liquid infused porous surface (SLIPS) materials respectively. In answer to the paint industry's desire for an economically viable self-cleaning decorative paint, low toxicity and reduced cost SiO2 particles were incorporated into aqueous formulations containing octadecanoic acid (FA C18), copolymer dispersant materials and an acrylic latex binder. Practical formulation workability was optimised using a refined FA C18/SiO2 ratio to produce hydrophobic painted surfaces. TiO2 particle dopant studies were completed to assess the impact of multiple minerals on the resulting sample functionality. Superhydrophobic and self-cleaning properties were further enhanced with CaCO3 particles in octadecanoic acid (FA C18) and acrylic latex containing aqueous systems. A range of TiO2 dopant particle loadings were consequently introduced to achieve an optimised superhydrophobic drawn down paint, average water contact angle of 154±5°. Commercial paint additives including a thickening hydroxyethylcellulose Natrosol and a hydrophobic aminofunctional siloxane were explored prior to the draw down of said formulation as a self-cleaning top coat paint. Stain resistance testing identified samples that displayed the greatest resistance to red wine, tea and coffee staining. Other special wettability surfaces with alternative anti-icing and anti-fogging applications have been produced via aerosol assisted chemical vapour deposition (AACVD). TiO2-SnO2 thin film composites were consequently spin coated with a Krytox lubricant. Resulting slippery liquid infused porous surfaces (SLIPS) had underlying intricate nano and micro protrusions, which contributed to the samples' exceptional anti-icing and anti-fogging properties. The final study stream focused on AACVD thin films that were transparent, superhydrophobic and self-cleaning in nature. TiO2 or SiO2 particles were combined with a fluorinated and non-fluorinated polymer precursor mixture. Particle and polymer loadings and temperature variations were comprehensively explored to produce a final optimised thin film, with average contact angles reaching 167° that showed Cassie-Baxter water droplet rolling

An Olfactory Input To The Dentate Gyrus: Electrophysiological, Behavioral, Pharmacological And Anatomical Studies

Odors were presented under the nose of behaving rats and electrophysiological responses were recorded concurrently from the olfactory bulb and dentate gyrus. The results confirm previous work showing that some organic solvents elicit 15-30 Hz fast wave activity in both the olfactory bulb and dentate gyrus but further show that 2-propylthietane and trimethyl thiazoline (components of weasel and fox odors respectively) also elicit fast waves in the dentate gyrus while other strong odors do not. Noxious tactile stimulation in urethane anesthetized rats was found to produce an activation response in the dentate gyrus and olfactory bulb, similar to that seen in the neocortex, but did not elicit fast wave activity. Gustatory stimuli were also ineffective. Toluene and 2-propylthietane were found to suppress feeding in rats while non-fast wave inducing odors did not. Electrical stimulation of the olfactory bulb elicits long latency evoked potentials in the dentate gyrus with a latency of 16-18 ms and an early component which merges with the stimulus artifact. Results following lesions of the lateral olfactory tract or olfactory bulb suggest that the early component is due to the activation of stimulated olfactory bulb cells which is in turn volume conducted to the dentate gyrus. The late components of the evoked response appear to be generated locally in the dentate gyrus as is shown by the observation that small lesions of the dentate produced by injections of colchicine or kainic acid abolish the late, but not the earliest, components of the evoked response. The fast wave, but not the evoked potential, was shown here to be abolished following scopolamine or atropine in both urethane anesthetized and behaving rats, suggesting that the former is dependent on muscarinic cholinergic synapses. The cellular mechanisms supporting olfactory responses in the dentate gyrus could not be determined in the present thesis. The fast wave response in the dentate gyrus may be part of a cerebral response to the odor of a potential predator such as the weasel and fox

Graph expansions of semigroups

We construct a graph expansion from a semigroup with a given generating set, thereby generalizing the graph expansion for groups introduced by Margolis and Meakin. We then describe structural properties of this expansion. The semigroup graph expansion is itself a semigroup and there is a map onto the original semigroup. This construction preserves many features of the original semigroup including the presence of idempotent/periodic elements, maximal group images (if the initial semigroup is E-dense), finiteness, and finite subgroup structure. We provide necessary and sufficient graphical criteria to determine if elements are idempotent, regular, periodic, or related by Green’s relations. We also examine the relationship between the semigroup graph expansion and other expansions, namely the Birget and Rhodes right prefix expansion and the monoid graph expansion. If S is a -generated semigroup, its graph expansion is generally not -generated. For this reason, we introduce a second construction, the path expansion of a semigroup. We show that it is a -generated subsemigroup of the semigroup graph expansion. The semigroup path expansion possesses most of the properties of the semigroup graph expansion. Additionally, we show that the path expansion construction plays an analogous role with respect to the right prefix expansion of semigroups that the group graph expansion plays with respect to the right prefix expansion of groups

Long-range Propagation, Interaction, and Dissipation of Small-Scale Gravity Waves in the Mesosphere and Lower Thermosphere

A 2-D nonlinear, compressible numerical model [Snively and Pasko, 2008] is used in conjunction with ray-theory to investigate the long-range propagation, dissipation and interaction of small-scale gravity waves in the Mesosphere and Lower Thermosphere (MLT) region. The research in this thesis is made up of three distinct studies which build upon each other. The first investigates the thermospheric dissipation of three gravity wave packets representing: (1) A quasi-monochromatic packet, (2) A monochromatic, steady state wave, and (3) A spectrally broad packet, as well as an initial condition specified packet. It is found that dissipation due to molecular viscosity and thermal conduction acts to decrease the vertical wavelength of the packet in time (except in the steady-state case, when it remains constant). This is due to the higher frequencies (longer wavelengths) reaching the thermsophere first and dissipating before the lower frequencies (shorter wavelengths), thus the spectral content of the packet shifts from higher frequencies (longer wavelengths) to lower frequencies (shorter wavelengths) in time. At any instant of time, the vertical wavelength increases with altitude in the thermosphere when the wave has reached a steady state. The second study investigated the potential for long-range propagation of three small-scale wave packets under averaged high latitude conditions. The three packets were chosen to represent wave parameters typically observed over Halley, Antarctica [Nielsen et al., 2009, 2012] and ones that may be considered favorable for long-range propagation [ Snively, 2013]. It was found that the stratosphere provides an efficient region of the atmosphere to trap waves and allow them to propagate large horizontal distances. Ducting in the mesosphere was less likely when considering averaged meridional winds, and it is suggested that waves observed in the mesopause, far from the source region, may be the result of leakage from the stratosphere. It was also shown that leakage from the stratosphere over considerable horizontal distances can lead to a periodic and spatially distributed forcing on the MLT region. The third and final study investigated the propagation of wave packets through a background wind which was horizontally, and vertically inhomogeneities and also time dependent. Two small-scale wave packets were chosen, such that one was prone to critical level filtering and the other reflection. These waves were propagated through (1) a background wind which was static and varied in the vertical and horizontal directions separately, (2) a background wind representing a medium-scale wave propagating in the direction of propagation of the small-scale wave, and (3) a background wind representing a medium-scale wave propagating against the propagation direction of the small-scale wave. It was found that a purely horizontally inhomogeneous background wind can include a blocking level, where the horizontal group velocity of the small-scale packet goes to zero, if the wind opposes and the horizontal gradient is negative relative to the propagation direction. If the wind gradient is positive then the wind will horizontally accelerate the small-scale packet. Adding a time-dependent phase progression to the medium scale waves acts to significantly reduce the effects of both reflection and critical level filtering of the small-scale packet. Also, a small-scale packet was less likely to experience reflection or critical level filtering if it was propagating against the horizontal phase progression of the medium scale wave. The reduction of critical level filtering and reflection in a time-dependent background is the result of 1) The transient nature of the critical or reflection level, which will progress with the phase of the medium scale wave. 2) The time-dependence of the background wind acts to alter the ground relative frequency of the small-scale wave and avoid satisfying the critical level or reflection conditions. Current parameterization schemes consider time-independent backgrounds which vary in the vertical direction only, and generally do not consider the effects of wave reflection. Understanding how a time-dependent, and horizontally inhomogeneous background effects small-scale wave propagation may be important for future parameterizations as small- scale waves are suggested to contribute significantly to the overall momentum budget of the middle atmosphere