Mechanisms underpinning use of new walking and cycling infrastructure in different contexts: mixed-method analysis

BACKGROUND: Few studies have evaluated the effects of infrastructural improvements to promote walking and cycling. Even fewer have explored how the context and mechanisms of such interventions may interact to produce their outcomes. METHODS: This mixed-method analysis forms part of the UK iConnect study, which aims to evaluate new walking and cycling routes at three sites - Cardiff, Kenilworth and Southampton. Applying a complementary follow-up approach, we first identified differences in awareness and patterns of use of the infrastructure in survey data from a cohort of adult residents at baseline in spring 2010 (n = 3516) and again one (n = 1849) and two (n = 1510) years later following completion of the infrastructural projects (Analysis 1). We subsequently analysed data from 17 semi-structured interviews with key informants to understand how the new schemes might influence walking and cycling (Analysis 2a). In parallel, we analysed cohort survey data on environmental perceptions (Analysis 2b). We integrated these two datasets to interpret differences across the sites consistent with a theoretical framework that hypothesised that the schemes would improve connectivity and the social environment. RESULTS: After two years, 52% of Cardiff respondents reported using the infrastructure compared with 37% in Kenilworth and 22% in Southampton. Patterns of use did not vary substantially between sites. 17% reported using the new infrastructure for transport, compared with 39% for recreation. Environmental perceptions at baseline were generally unfavourable, with the greatest improvements in Cardiff. Qualitative data revealed that all schemes had a recreational focus to varying extents, that the visibility of schemes to local people might be an important mechanism driving use and that the scale and design of the schemes and the contrast they presented with existing infrastructure may have influenced their use. CONCLUSIONS: The dominance of recreational uses may have reflected the specific local goals of some of the projects and the discontinuity of the new infrastructure from a satisfactory network of feeder routes. Greater use in Cardiff may have been driven by the mechanisms of greater visibility and superior design features within the context of an existing environment that was conducive neither to walking or cycling nor to car travel.

One-step synthesis of graphene quantum dots from defective CVD graphene and their application in IGZO UV thin film phototransistor

Chemical vapor deposition (CVD) has recently been considered as the most reliable method to prepare high-quality monolayer graphene films, yet the as-grown graphene usually contains wrinkles and cracks or suffers from discontinuity. These defects can easily result in the shredding of large-sized graphene into small pieces even under a gentle disturbance. Herein, this work presents a cost-effective new method to produce high-quality GQDs by vigorous sonication of defective CVD graphene. The prepared GQDs can be easily and stably dispersed in organic solvents. Morphology and optical properties of the GQDs are investigated using a number of techniques. And we observed the as-prepared GQDs are highly homogeneous, mostly consisted of single-layered graphene, roughly round shapes less than 8 nm in a diameter, and exhibited a strong blue luminescence. Impressively, it is also confirmed that the as-obtained GQDs can act as a promising light absorption material for phototransistor with a hybrid film of GQDs and indium gallium zinc oxide (IGZO) as the channel layer. The GQD/IGZO phototransistor exhibited an appreciated photocurrent, which is 10 times larger than that of the IGZO one when exposed to 270 nm light.

‘Fixing’ student deficit in contexts of diversity: another cautionary tale for pre-service teacher education

This article presents one teacher’s perspective on issues of student difference. ‘Elissa’s’ account begins with her views as a pre-service teacher and continues through to her early career teaching. Elissa’s overwhelming tendency to construct students of difference as deficit alongside her efforts to ‘fix’ these deficits to align with an Anglo-Australian middle class ideal strongly resonate with concerns long expressed in the literature about teacher–student cultural discontinuity; teachers’ ill-preparedness for addressing student diversity; and the failure of universities to support pre-service teachers in this respect. Amid broader climates of unprecedented diversity where equity for marginalised groups is a mandated schooling goal, Elissa’s story is another cautionary tale. It further illuminates the gap between the kinds of teachers currently being produced and the kinds of teachers likely to realise social justice through education. As such it provides further warrant for rethinking how best to support teachers to productively address student diversity.