A qualitative inquiry of doctoral students' herding in education and validation of ‘herding in educational decisions’ scale

Fresh PhD recipients are experiencing restricted career opportunities yet the enrolment of PhD Scholars is increasing rapidly. Perhaps, doctoral students lack conscious educational decision-making. Building on such a perspective of doctoral students' unconscious educational choices, we explored their educational choices throughout their life trajectory. We started with a qualitative inquiry of 18 different PhD scholars in Pakistan. The findings helped us in developing a measure to determine the extent of herding in doctoral students' educational decisions. We ‘benefitted from’ this opportunity and validated the scale in two separate quantitative inquiries for conducting an exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis. The study concluded a 3-dimensional scale (consisting of 15-items) for measuring ‘herding in educational decisions’. The study offers certain implications for conscious educational decisions.     

Experimental tests used for treatment of red weathering crusts in disintegrated granite – Egypt

Rock weathering is defined as the process of rocks alteration as a result of the adjustment of its internal constituents by the action of physical, chemical and biological factors, to the prevailing conditions of the atmosphere and in the environment. In humid polluted areas “red weathering” is one of the major deterioration forms that characterize most granitic rocks. Several intervention steps are required to remove and treat all surfaces affected by this form. It is one of the most aggressive forms of deterioration which are essentially composed of some complex species of clay minerals “Kaolinite, Illite, Montmorillonite and Tosudite”, in addition to some species of salts as “Gypsum” pigmented by “Hematite” as a colorant. After several investigatin techniques, these crusts need several intervention and conservation steps to remove and eliminate the aggressive effects resulted from the red crusts through three essential steps: “cleaning, gap filling and strengthening and stabilizing”. After evaluating all materials and methods that were performed by “DBN, SEM, EDX, and AAS”, the present study suggests that the most suitable cleaning methods are composed of three essential steps “dry and vacuum cleaning (DVC), ultra-sonic cleaning (USC), poultice cleaning (PC)”. Furthermore, the elected gap filling material composed of “Araldite AY-103” mixed with “Granite powder as petro-filler.” Finally, different evaluation methods proved that “Wacker H” is the most suitable strengthening and stabilizing material for consolidation purpose.     

Sorption of ammonium and phosphate from aqueous solution by biochar derived from phytoremediation plants

The study on biochar derived from plant biomass for environmental applications is attracting more and more attention. Twelve sets of biochar were obtained by treating four phytoremediation plants, Salix rosthornii Seemen, Thalia dealbata, Vetiveria zizanioides, and Phragmites sp., sequentially through pyrolysis at 500 °C in a N2 environment, and under different temperatures(500, 600, and 700 °C) in a CO2 environment. The cation exchange capacity and specific surface area of biochar varied with both plant species and pyrolysis temperature. The magnesium(Mg) content of biochar derived from T. dealbata(TC) was obviously higher than that of the other plant biochars. This biochar also had the highest sorption capacity for phosphate and ammonium. In terms of biomass yields, adsorption capacity, and energy cost, T. dealbata biochar produced at 600 °C(TC600) is the most promising sorbent for removing contaminants(N and P) from aqueous solution. Therefore, T. dealbata appears to be the best candidate for phytoremediation application as its biomass can make a good biochar for environmental cleaning.     

Bread wheat varieties as influenced by different nitrogen levels

INTRODUCTION Dera Ismail Khan lies in Pakistan’s arid zone (71.07° longitude, 31.57° latitude and 500 m above sea level). This zone is in the extreme south of (NWFP) Pakistan at the bank of the River Indus. Dera Ismail Khan is bounded by Sulaiman Range to the West, the Indus River on the East, Marwat and Bhit- tani Ranges on the North and Vehowa Nala (Punjab) on the South. Besides certain local variability the area is comprised of four basic divisions viz mountains, a series …     

Black Muslim Girls Navigating Multiple Oppositional Binaries Through Literacy and Letter Writing

Writing alongside 12 African American Muslim girls, we led a summer literacy program in an effort to understand how Black Muslim adolescent girls write about their identities and ideas. The 4-week literacy program was designed to engage and support Black Muslim girls, aged 12–17 years old, in reading, writing, and understanding the multiple contexts that inform their worlds. The girls received writing instruction connected to their experiences and identities in an environment that afforded them time to represent their situated worlds of being Black, Muslim, and girls in the United States. In this qualitative inquiry, we investigated the following research question: How would Black Muslim girls write to encourage a future generation to navigate multiple identities? The participants penned letters to a future generation of African American Muslim girls. Drawing upon methods of thematic analysis, we found that themes of sisterhood and unity, shattering misrepresentations, empowerment, strength through faith, knowledge (education), and speaking up and fighting for rights emerged. These themes indicate the messages Muslim girls write are indicative of the multiple identities they navigate and speaks to how they would encourage youth who share their complex racialized-gender religious identities, as well as the need to open the conversation on Black education to center both Black girls and Black Muslim girls.     

Critical Community Conversations: Cultivating the Elusive Dialogue About Racism With Parents,Community Members,and Teachers

Abstract

This article highlights how two researchers started Critical Community Conversations (CCC) with a school community in an effort to learn from one another and build solidarity. The intent was for CCC to focus on some of the most pressing issues facing our nation, state, and local neighborhoods, with a special lens on racism.     

Space Charge Layer Effect in Sulfide Solid Electrolytes in All-Solid-State Batteries: In-situ Characterization and Resolution

All-solid-state lithium batteries (ASSLBs) have advantages of safety and high energy density, and they are expected to become the next generation of energy storage devices. Sulfide-based solid-state electrolytes (SSEs) with high ionic conductivity and low grain boundary resistance exhibit remarkable practical application. However, the space charge layer (SCL) effect and high interfacial resistance caused by a mismatch with the current commercial oxide cathodes restrict the development of sulfide SSEs and ASSLBs. This review summarizes the research progress on the SCL effect of sulfide SSEs and oxide cathodes, including the mechanism and direct evidence from high performance in-situ characterizations, as well as recent progress on the interfacial modification strategies to alleviate the SCL effect. This study provides future direction to stabilize the high performance sulfide-based solid electrolyte/oxide cathode interface for state-of-the-art ASSLBs and future all-SSE storage devices.

     

国家自然科学基金对西部边疆科技发展的作用和意义及有关问题的思考

为了避免老、少、边地区因经济相对落后、科技条件艰苦和信息相对闭塞而造成科技人员流失，促进不发达地区的科技发展，国家自然科学基金委员会采取了设立地区科学基金的措施。这一明智而科学的措施对于稳定和培养西部边疆地区的科技人才队伍、提高地区科技水平、发展地方经济的作用是深远的，其影响力也是其他类型的项目所无法比拟的，但在有关资助工作中也存在一些问题值得我们思考。     

International brand alliances and co-branding: antecedents of cognitive dissonance and student satisfaction with co-branded higher education programs

The study investigates how in international partnerships the brand credibility of each partner, student-institution identification with each partner, and perceived service quality relate to student satisfaction. A structured survey questionnaire was completed by 528 students taking a co-branded higher education program in Hong Kong or Sri Lanka. The results indicate that the brand credibility of a foreign institution is a stronger influencer on student identification with the foreign institution as compared to the relationship between credibility and identification with the local partner. The negative relationship between organizational identification and cognitive dissonance for each institution in the partnership is also stronger for the foreign institution. As the popularity of international partnerships and co-branded higher education programs continues to grow, the importance and dominance of foreign brand credibility and student identification with foreign institutions is recognized.