A case study of the barriers and enablers affecting teaching staff e-learning provision

Presented at the International Conference on Information Communication Technologies in Education, 7-9 July, 2016, Rhodes Greece.The present paper reports the outputs of a focus group examining the perceived uses, enablers and barriers of utilising virtual learning environments (VLEs), amongst a small group of postgraduate teachers. Sixteen pedagogical/teaching functions were identified and were mapped to MacLean and Scott’s (2011) model of VLE elements. Whilst a number of enablers of VLE use were apparent, participants’ insights and inputs indicated a larger number of VLE barriers. It appears that the biggest barrier to overcome in using VLEs is finding the time to develop the materials and navigate the technology

A planned program of study and guidance for parents of acoustically handicapped children

Thesis (Ed.M.)--Boston Universit

Effect of HINS light on the contraction of fibroblast populated collagen lattices

High intensity narrow spectrum (HINS) light has been shown to have bactericidal effects on a range of medically important bacteria[1]. HINS technology could potentially be useful as a method for disinfecting medical implants, tissue engineered constructs and wounds. The fibroblast populated collagen lattice (FPCL) was used as an in vitro model to investigate the effect of HINS light on the wound contraction phase of wound healing

Impact of varying intensities of blue-light exposure on 3T3 cells

There is the need to develop a compatible sterilisation method for hybrid biomaterials. High-intensity blue light in the 405 nm region has been shown to be an effective bacterial decontamination method [1], to cause no noticeable damage to the gross structure of type-I collagen monomer (when treated at 10 mW/cm2) [2], and to have no noticeable effect on 3T3 cell viability, growth rate, redox state or lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) leakage (at 1.0 mW/cm2) [2]. The purpose of this research was to investigate the effect of varying the blue-light intensity on the 3T3 cell response parameters

Weighted entropy and optimal portfolios for risk-averse Kelly investments

Following a series of works on capital growth investment, we analyse log-optimal portfolios where the return evaluation includes `weights' of different outcomes. The results are twofold: (A) under certain conditions, the logarithmic growth rate leads to a supermartingale, and (B) the optimal (martingale) investment strategy is a proportional betting. We focus on properties of the optimal portfolios and discuss a number of simple examples extending the well-known Kelly betting scheme. An important restriction is that the investment does not exceed the current capital value and allows the trader to cover the worst possible losses. The paper deals with a class of discrete-time models. A continuous-time extension is a topic of an ongoing study

Spin-Dependent Tunneling of Single Electrons into an Empty Quantum Dot

Using real-time charge sensing and gate pulsing techniques we measure the ratio of the rates for tunneling into the excited and ground spin states of a single-electron AlGaAs/GaAs quantum dot in a parallel magnetic field. We find that the ratio decreases with increasing magnetic field until tunneling into the excited spin state is completely suppressed. However, we find that by adjusting the voltages on the surface gates to change the orbital configuration of the dot we can restore tunneling into the excited spin state and that the ratio reaches a maximum when the dot is symmetric.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure

Direct characterization of ultrafast energy-time entangled photon pairs

Energy-time entangled photons are critical in many quantum optical phenomena and have emerged as important elements in quantum information protocols. Entanglement in this degree of freedom often manifests itself on ultrafast timescales making it very difficult to detect, whether one employs direct or interferometric techniques, as photon-counting detectors have insufficient time resolution. Here, we implement ultrafast photon counters based on nonlinear interactions and strong femtosecond laser pulses to probe energy-time entanglement in this important regime. Using this technique and single-photon spectrometers, we characterize all the spectral and temporal correlations of two entangled photons with femtosecond resolution. This enables the witnessing of energy-time entanglement using uncertainty relations and the direct observation of nonlocal dispersion cancellation on ultrafast timescales. These techniques are essential to understand and control the energy-time degree of freedom of light for ultrafast quantum optics.Comment: 12 pages (5 main, 7 supplementary material) 4 main figure