First year students' perceptions of excellent teachers

The purpose of this study is to examine the characteristic of a excellent lecturer as perceived by the first year students of Malay Woman Training Institute the similarities and differences in the responses based on education level. Knowing what characteristics are correlated with excellence in teaching is important because it provides both pre-service and in-service teachers with an opportunity to evaluate their own teaching, receive feedback from students, and improve teaching. Also, this knowledge aids teacher preparation programs in designing their courses and in recruiting the best candidates for teaching. This will help the Teacher Education Division in modifying the curriculum to enhancing specific skills that a teacher must possess. Two distinct samples were involved in this study: For the (5-point) Likert scale, data will be collected from a group of 56 post graduate students from local university and 205 O' level school leavers from Malay Women Teachers' Institute in Malacca. Data analysis using SPSS version 14 through comparing means frequency, percentage, t-test and One-Way ANOVA. The findings of this study indicate that good leader is an important characteristic that contributes to excellent teachers. More than 90% of the students agree that the teaching skills such as motivation, learning environment, facilitating learning, instructional approach and enhancement of student learning with technology should be present in an excellent teacher. .The comparison of the two means shows that students agreed that personal traits are more important than teaching skills in making an excellent teacher. There is no significant difference in the perceptions of excellent teachers between postgraduates and undergraduates students. The findings indicate that what matters most is employing a variety of teaching styles, positive attitude, establish a closer rapport with student can provide a better and conducive environment for learning. Lecturers must be more open to criticism, suggestions and constructive comments in other to change and adjust their personal traits to be a better person

On Locality of Schmidt-Correlated States

We review some results on the equivalence of quantum states under local unitary transformations (LUT). In particular, the classification of two-qubit Schmidt correlated (SC) states under LUT is investigated. By presenting the standard form of quantum states under LUT, the sufficient and necessary conditions of whether two different SC states are local unitary equivalent are provided. The correlations of SC states are also discussed.Comment: 14 page

Determination of the distribution of water droplet sizes in butter and margarine using pulsed field gradient-NMR and confocal scanning laser microscopy : this thesis was presented in partial fulfillment of the requirements for [the] degree of Master of Science in Chemistry at Massey University

PFG-NMR has been used to determine the distribution of water droplets in emulsions. Especially, it has been used to measure the samples with high optical dense systems and highly viscous systems Butters and Margarines). To refine the method, the optimum measuring condition was investigated. It included delay time (Δ) between the field gradient pulses, τ null (τ0), gradient strength (G), water self-diffusion coefficients (D) and sampling techniques. Under the optimum conditions the water droplet size distributions of commercial butters, experimental butters and margarines were measured. Experimental results showed that PFG-NMR is an accurate, fast method to determine the water droplet size distributions of the butters and margarines. Also, it is can be used to investigate the properties of dispersed phase in emulsions. Especially, the method is suitable not only in the laboratory but also in the factory environment. The method was able to distinguish different distributions in butters of the same water content but with different manufacturing techniques. Differences in the distributions of water droplets were also obtained when comparing butters made by the same manufacturing technique but with different water contents. To confirm the results from PFG-NMR, confocal scanning laser microscopy (CSLM) was chosen to determine the droplet size distributions and the moisture contents of samples. Comparison between PFG-NMR and CSLM shows limitations in the latter techniques and its uses are limited

A review on applications of two-dimensional materials in surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy

Two-dimensional (2D) materials, such as graphene and MoS2, have been attracting wide interest in surface enhancement Raman spectroscopy. This perspective gives an overview of recent developments in 2D materials' application in surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy. This review focuses on the applications of using bare 2D materials and metal/2D material hybrid substrate for Raman enhancement. The Raman enhancing mechanism of 2D materials will also be discussed. The progress covered herein shows great promise for widespread adoption of 2D materials in SERS application.Comment: 14 pages, 7 Figure