Resistive pulse sensing of magnetic beads and supraparticle structures using tunable pores

Tunable pores (TPs) have been used for resistive pulse sensing of 1 μm superparamagnetic beads, both dispersed and within a magnetic field. Upon application of this field, magnetic supraparticle structures (SPSs) were observed. Onset of aggregation was most effectively indicated by an increase in the mean event magnitude, with data collected using an automated thresholding method. Simulations enabled discrimination between resistive pulses caused by dimers and individual particles. Distinct but time-correlated peaks were often observed, suggesting that SPSs became separated in pressure-driven flow focused at the pore constriction. The distinct properties of magnetophoretic and pressure-driven transport mechanisms can explain variations in the event rate when particles move through an asymmetric pore in either direction, with or without a magnetic field applied. Use of TPs for resistive pulse sensing holds potential for efficient, versatile analysis and measurement of nano- and microparticles, while magnetic beads and particle aggregation play important roles in many prospective biosensing applications.     

Reviews

Moyle, Donald (compiler) (1979) Teaching Reading. Peddie, W. S. & White, G. R. (1978). Testing in Practice–a guide to the preparation and marking of tests, formal examinations and informal assessments. Drummond, Don and Wignell, Edna (Editors), 1979. Reading: A Source Book. Roswell, Florence G. and Chall Jeanne S., (1979). Roswell Chall Diagnostic Reading Test of Word Analysis Skills.     

Faith schools,social capital and academic attainment: Evidence from TIMSS‐R mathematics scores in Flemish secondary schools

Social capital theory, recent developments in the theory of identity and a small econometric literature all suggest positive attainment effects from faith schooling. To test this hypothesis, the authors use a unique data set on Flemish secondary school students from the 1999 repeat of the Third International Mathematics and Science Study to estimate an education production function. The results suggest modest attainment benefits in mathematics when schools are influenced by faith communities but not when they are influenced by trade unions or business groups. The authors estimate models with exogenous and endogenous switching to investigate the robustness of this result to school selection policy and parental/student self‐selection. These additional results not only suggest that the positive attainment effects of faith schooling do not reflect selection bias but also provide evidence suggesting that such attainment effects reflect forms of social capital that are more readily available in faith schools than in non‐faith schools. However, the limitations of social capital theory and evidence caution against radical policy conclusions.     

Qualitative data analysis in cross‐cultural projects

Large‐scale research projects, conducted in a cross‐European context, are increasingly attractive to educational researchers and policy‐makers. However, this form of comparative research across cultures brings problems concerning the standardization of data collection and analysis, particularly where ethnographic research is concerned, as it prioritizes a full range of qualitative research strategies. This paper outlines the use of a universal model and the approaches recently taken by two research teams and contrasts these with another recent nine‐partner comparative European study that used ethnographic methods. We then describe the analytical procedures used in the project, which encouraged participant observation and individual researcher interpretation in order to generate grounded accounts and outline how they were culturally sensitive and meaningful to research teams who used varied analytical approaches. However, this raised difficult issues for the ‘final’ analysis and the production of a loosely coupled research report. Our pragmatic solution was a process of ‘qualitative synthesis’ whereby individual partner reports were collated by the Project Director and treated as data and a grounded theory approach was applied to generate tentative theory in respect of creative learning. The paper concludes by arguing that data generated by a loosely coupled approach to qualitative comparative research which uses a wide range of data collection methods can be effectively analysed with a qualitative synthesis.     

Coping Collectively: The formation of a teacher self-help group

Some social movements theorists argue that contemporary social movements such as pressure groups and support groups are increasingly fulfilling the protest function of political parties and trades unions in post-industrial societies. Furthermore, these social, cultural, emotional and economic developments are occurring on a global scale. This article is an ethnographic account of teachers in an English local education authority who formed a self-help group for what they perceived to be 'bullied' (i.e. abused in the workplace) local authority and private sector employees. This was a mode of collective rather than individual coping. The identity work involved in self-renewal for these workers was a collective, social and political process, involving networking with other similar individuals and groups nationally. I argue that, given the decline in trades union powers, the teachers can be considered to be reinventing collectivity and collective protest. And the self-help group studied is not fundamentally different in character to labour movements of the past.     

Education in England – a testbed for network governance?

Abstract

Since devolution in the late 1990s, education policy in England has diverged further from that in Scotland and also from policy in Wales and Northern Ireland. In this paper we review the roots and trajectory of the English education reforms over the past two decades. Our focus is the schools sector, though we also touch on adjoining reforms to early years and further and higher education. In so doing, we engage with various themes, including marketisation, institutional autonomy and accountability. Changes in governance arrangements for schools have been a defining feature of education reforms since devolution. This has been set against an evolution in national performance indicators that has put government priorities into ever sharper relief. In theorising the changes, we pay particular attention to the suggestion that the English education system now epitomises the concept of ‘network governance’, which has also been applied to education in a global context. We question the extent to which policies have in practice moved beyond the well-established mechanisms of ‘steering at a distance’ and undermined the very notion of an education system in England. We conclude by considering possible futures for education policy and how they may position England in relation to other parts of the UK and the wider world.     

Why lecturers still matter: the impact of lecturer-student exchange on student engagement and intention to leave university prematurely

This research examines the impact of lecturer-student exchange (student-LMX) on engagement, course satisfaction, achievement, and intention to leave university prematurely for 363 students in one Australian university. Survey and grade point average (GPA) data were collected from domestic undergraduate first- and second-year students and analysed using structural equation modelling. The results indicated that student’s levels of engagement and course satisfaction fully mediated the relationship between student-LMX and intention to leave university, when demographic and socio-economic factors were controlled for. In an era when low student engagement and attrition is often attributed to individual demographic factors, and lecturers are under increasing threat of being replaced by technology, this research offers compelling evidence regarding the role of lecturer-student relationships in enhancing tertiary student outcomes.