A fluorescence based method for the quantification of surface functional groups in closed micro- and nanofluidic channels

Surface analysis is critical for the validation of microfluidic surface modifications for biology, chemistry, and physics applications. However, until now quantitative analytical methods have mostly been focused on open surfaces. Here, we present a new fluorescence imaging method to directly measure the surface coverage of functional groups inside assembled microchannels over a wide dynamic range. A key advance of our work is the elimination of self-quenching to obtain a linear signal even with a high density of functional groups. This method is applied to image the density and monitor the stability of vapor deposited silane layers in bonded silicon/glass micro- and nanochannels.     

Differences in the Intensity and Duration of Adolescents' Sports and Exercise Across Physical and Social Environments

We used data from the American Time Use Survey (years 2003–06) to analyze whether the intensity and duration of high school students' (ages 15–18 years) sports and exercise bouts differed across physical and social environments. Boys' sports and exercise bouts were more likely to reach a vigorous intensity when taking place at school and with friends/acquaintances/other people; whereas girls' sports and exercise bouts were more likely to reach a vigorous intensity when outdoors and alone. For boys and girls, bout durations were greater at school and with friends/acquaintances/other people than in other environments. Overall, environmental influences on the intensity but not duration of sports and exercise bouts appear to differ between boys and girls.     

An investigation of a novel three-dimensional activity monitor to predict free-living energy expenditure

Abstract

The aim of this study was to assess the capability of the 3dNX? accelerometer to predict energy expenditure in two separate, free-living cohorts. Twenty-three adolescents and 14 young adults took a single dose of doubly labelled water and wore a 3dNX? activity monitor during waking hours for a 10-day period while carrying out their normal routines. Multiple linear regression with backward elimination was used to establish the strength of the associations between various indices of energy expenditure, physical activity counts, and anthropometric variables. 3dNX? output accounted for 27% and 35% of the variance in the total energy expenditure of the adolescent and young adult cohort, respectively. The explained variance increased to 78%, with a standard error of estimate of 7%, when 3dNX? output was combined with body composition variables. The 3dNX? accelerometer can be used to predict free-living daily energy expenditure with a standard error of estimate of 1.65 MJ in adolescents and 1.52 MJ in young adults. The inclusion of anthropometric variables reduces the error to approximately 1 MJ. Although it remains to cross-validate these models in other populations, early indications suggest that the 3dNX? provides a useful method of predicting energy expenditure in free-living individuals.     

‘Who’s that girl sitting with the boys?’: negotiating researcher identity in fieldwork with adolescent boys

ABSTRACT

The aim of this paper is to discuss the negotiation and performance of researcher identities while conducting fieldwork. It draws on a larger study of masculinities, health and physical education, and sport in an elite boys’ school to analyse the researcher’s role as a female ethnographer in the world of health and physical education in boys’ schooling. Using data drawn from field notes, reflections, and observations from six months of fieldwork at the school, this paper joins a growing body of research, which attests to the importance of making known the ‘hidden histories’ of qualitative research. The significance of this paper is twofold. Firstly, it lies in recognising the details of how researchers position themselves in the field, negotiate and renegotiate their identities, and the significance of social dynamics and relationships to this process. Secondly, it raises awareness of the implications of negotiating researcher identities and embodied experiences in the field and suggests this analysis should become more public in qualitative research.     

Preparing Minority Adolescents to Blend Work and Family Roles: Increasing Work-Family Conflict Management Self Efficacy

Ethnic identity, information about the world of work, and mastery in specific career skills crucially impact the process of career development among minority adolescents. Identity and conflict management skills also affect one of the major stressors experienced by employees today: the work-family conflict. This paper presents a culturally appropriate career intervention program for increasing Israeli Arab adolescents’ self-efficacy to manage work and family roles, and feedback from 15 participants in a preliminary pilot intervention. The program comprised three units: identity exploration, information, and skill transfer. The intervention was grounded in the career development literature on minorities, on work-family conflict research, and on social cognitive career theory. The proposed strategy also included process variables comprising critical career intervention components. The program is seen as having potential for being implemented in other cultural contexts.     

‘Is it like one of those infectious kind of things?’ The importance of educating young people about HPV and HPV vaccination at school

Abstract

The National Human Papillomavirus (HPV) Vaccination Program in Australia commenced in 2007 for girls and in 2013 for boys, using the quadrivalent HPV [4vHPV] vaccine. In Australia, students are primarily vaccinated en masse, on school grounds, after parental/guardian consent is obtained. Students most often receive little, or no, education at school about HPV or HPV vaccination prior to immunisation. There is also some uncertainty about where young people can and should obtain reliable information about the vaccine, outside of school. We conducted a cluster randomised controlled trial of a complex intervention in schools. This study aimed to improve: (1) student knowledge about HPV vaccination; (2) psycho-social outcomes and (3) vaccination uptake. In this paper, we briefly outline our educational intervention and discuss its implementation by educators including facilitators and barriers. We also discuss the study findings pertaining to student knowledge about HPV and HPV vaccination and their attitudes to vaccination across control and intervention schools. Study results showed students in intervention schools demonstrate greater knowledge and understanding of HPV and HPV vaccination. Greater knowledge and understanding of HPV and HPV vaccination appeared to promote positive attitudes towards vaccination and supported confidence with vaccination.     

Development and Validation of the College Campus Environment Scale (CCES): Promoting Positive College Experiences

One of the essential factors related to student success and satisfaction with a higher education experience is the college environment in which learning takes place. The purpose of this study was to develop a scale, the College Campus Environment Scale (CCES), to measure characteristics of college campus environments valued by students. A model emerged with the following six factors: Academic and Career Expectations, Athletics, Health, Role Models and Mentors, Safety, and Social and Extracurricular Activities. The CCES demonstrates good evidence of reliability and validity and can be utilized by researchers and college personnel to promote positive college experiences for students.     

Psychological Resources as Stress Buffers: Their Relationship to University Students' Anxiety and Depression

The association of protective resources, personality variables, life events, and gender with anxiety and depression was examined with university students. Building on regression analyses, a structural equation model was generated with good fit, indicating that with respect to both anxiety and depression, negative life events and coping resources were mediated by a common distress factor. Personality variables were associated with anxiety, which in turn had a direct relationship to depression.     

LEARNING ABOUT TEACHING THE EXTRACURRICULAR TOPIC OF NANOTECHNOLOGY AS A VEHICLE FOR ACHIEVING A SUSTAINABLE CHANGE IN SCIENCE EDUCATION

This study focused on teachers’ transfer of a variety of teaching methods from a teaching module on nanotechnology, which is an example of a topic outside the science curriculum, to teaching topics that are part of the chemistry curriculum. Nanotechnology is outside the science curriculum, but it was used in this study as a means to carry out a change in the way chemistry teachers teach. The participants in the study included nine high school in-service chemistry teachers. Three research tools were used: (1) semistructured interviews that were conducted with the teachers, after they had finished teaching their nanotechnology module, and follow-up semistructured interviews that were conducted 2 years after the teachers had taught the nanotechnology module , and teachers’ assessment and evaluation of their own teaching method, determining how the nanotechnology modules influenced the students who learned according to this program. The data collection process continued for 5 years. Most of the teachers indicated that they continued teaching the nanotechnology module that they designed and all of them stated that they integrated the unique teaching methods into their teaching of chemistry. High efficacy beliefs were built based on the self-evaluation process that was part of the teachers’ professional development program. Teaching self-efficacy beliefs and organization efficacy beliefs was found to contribute to teachers’ sustainable changes. The findings in the current research are only limited to the topic of nanotechnology; however, we believe that similar results can be obtained for any modern scientific topic that is outside the high school science curriculum. We suggest that more research should be done to determine whether the same findings emerge by using the same approach but on another topic.     

Students’ unions,consumerism and the neo-liberal university

This article explores the economic relationships between individual students’ unions and their wider institutions, and the ways in which they articulate with a pervasive consumerist agenda across the higher education sector. We draw on data from a UK-wide study to argue that students’ unions have an ambivalent relationship with consumerist discourses: on the one hand, they often reject the premise that the higher education student is best conceptualised as a consumer; yet, on the other, they frequently accept aspects of consumerism as a means of, for example, trying to protect their independence and autonomy. We explore whether this particular form of positioning with respect to consumerism is best conceptualised as a form of resistance, or whether it has become extremely difficult for students’ unions to take up any other position in a system that is driven by market logic.