Investigating Relations Between Facebook Use and Social Capital Among College Undergraduates

This article examines relations between Facebook® (FB) use and social capital among 530 undergraduate students. The results demonstrated that using FB habitually was associated with gains in online bridging and offline network capital. This study also examined 2 motivations for using FB: the motivation to socialize with others and the motivation to improve one's status. Results showed that using FB for sociability reasons was associated with increased online bridging and bonding. Using FB more for status than for sociability was not associated with decreased online bridging and bonding. Finally, the results provided evidence of the sociability motivation mediating the relationship between FB habit and online bridging and bonding. Theoretical implications are discussed.     

Shaping Adolescents' Attitudes towards Science and Religion in Northern Ireland: The role of scientism,creationism and denominational schools

A sample of 1584 pupils between the ages of 14 and 16 years, attending Year 9, Year 10 and Year 11 classes within Protestant and Catholic grammar schools in Northern Ireland completed indices of attitude towards Christianity, attitude towards science, creationism and scientism. The data demonstrate that the apparent independence of attitude towards science and attitude towards Christianity is transformed into a positive relationship after taking into account individual differences in scientism and creationism.     

Rethinking assessment and inequality: the production of disparities in attainment in early years education

Despite decades of research and debate, the issue of unequal outcomes continues to be a concern in educational systems worldwide. In England, published data relating to pupils’ attainment across ethnic groups and by class indicators has been used to demonstrate continued inequalities in schools. This article attempts to deconstruct the relationship between assessment results and inequality by questioning the assumption that results only record inequality, rather than being implicated in its production. Interview data related to the case of a statutory teacher assessment system in early years education are used to show how assessment results may be influenced by pressure from external advisors, who only recognise certain patterns of results as intelligible. These recognisable patterns, it is argued, relate to wider discourses of class, race and the ‘inner city’, through which the pupils in these schools are constituted as inevitably low attaining. In addition, monitoring systems based on ‘value added’ methodologies provide an incentive to deflate assessment results in this first year of school. The article concludes that we need to rethink exactly what apparent disparities in assessment results actually represent, particularly given the increasing use of teacher assessment in the school system in England.     

Ultrafast microfluidics using surface acoustic waves

We demonstrate that surface acoustic waves (SAWs), nanometer amplitude Rayleigh waves driven at megahertz order frequencies propagating on the surface of a piezoelectric substrate, offer a powerful method for driving a host of extremely fast microfluidic actuation and micro∕bioparticle manipulation schemes. We show that sessile drops can be translated rapidly on planar substrates or fluid can be pumped through microchannels at 1–10 cm∕s velocities, which are typically one to two orders quicker than that afforded by current microfluidic technologies. Through symmetry-breaking, azimuthal recirculation can be induced within the drop to drive strong inertial microcentrifugation for micromixing and particle concentration or separation. Similar micromixing strategies can be induced in the same microchannel in which fluid is pumped with the SAW by merely changing the SAW frequency to rapidly switch the uniform through-flow into a chaotic oscillatory flow by exploiting superpositioning of the irradiated sound waves from the sidewalls of the microchannel. If the flow is sufficiently quiescent, the nodes of the transverse standing wave that arises across the microchannel also allow for particle aggregation, and hence, sorting on nodal lines. In addition, the SAW also facilitates other microfluidic capabilities. For example, capillary waves excited at the free surface of a sessile drop by the SAW underneath it can be exploited for micro∕nanoparticle collection and sorting at nodal points or lines at low powers. At higher powers, the large accelerations off the substrate surface as the SAW propagates across drives rapid destabilization of the drop free surface giving rise to inertial liquid jets that persist over 1–2 cm in length or atomization of the entire drop to produce 1–10 μm monodispersed aerosol droplets, which can be exploited for ink-jet printing, mass spectrometry interfacing, or pulmonary drug delivery. The atomization of polymer∕protein solutions can also be used for the rapid synthesis of 150–200 nm polymer∕protein particles or biodegradable polymeric shells in which proteins, peptides, and other therapeutic molecules are encapsulated within for controlled release drug delivery. The atomization of thin films behind a translating drop containing polymer solutions also gives rise to long-range spatial ordering of regular polymer spots whose size and spacing are dependent on the SAW frequency, thus offering a simple and powerful method for polymer patterning without requiring surface treatment or physical∕chemical templating.     

Rapid production of protein-loaded biodegradable microparticles using surface acoustic waves

We present a straightforward and rapid surface acoustic wave (SAW) atomization-based technique for encapsulating proteins into 10 μm order particles composed of a biodegradable polymeric excipient, using bovine serum albumin (BSA) as an exemplar. Scans obtained from confocal microscopy provide qualitative proof of encapsulation and show the fluorescent conjugated protein to be distributed in a relatively uniform manner within the polymer shell. An ELISA assay of the collected particles demonstrates that the BSA survives the atomization, particle formation, and collection process with a yield of approximately 55%. The SAW atomization universally gave particles with a textured morphology, and increasing the frequency and polymer concentration generally gave smaller particles (to 3 μm average) with reduced porosity.