The Yonder project: Stories of impact, change, and capacity building through engagement in arts education

This thesis examined the long-term impact of the community arts education project Yonder, a collaboration between Education Queensland and Queensland Performing Arts Centre. The findings from the data reveal that the project was still having impact twelve months after its completion and that in some instances the project served as a 'circuit-breaker', especially for special needs students and struggling students. The intervention of a rich arts project proved to be an opportunity for these students to learn in a different way and to perceive themselves in a new and reinvented light. This confidence was found to transfer into other aspects of their learning.

An Electron-Accepting Chromophore Based on Fluorene and Naphthalenediimide Building Blocks for Solution-Processable Bulk Heterojunction Devices

We have designed, synthesized and utilized a new non-fullerene electron acceptor, 9,9′-(9,9-dioctyl-9H-fluorene-2,7-diyl)bis(2,7-dioctyl-4-(octylamino)benzo[lmn][3,8]phenanthroline-1,3,6,8(2H,7H)-tetraone) (B2), for use in solution-processable bulk-heterojunction devices. B2 is based on a central fluorene moiety, which was capped at both ends with an electron-accepting naphthalenediimide functionality. B2 exhibited excellent solubility (>30 mg mL−1 in chloroform), high thermal and photochemical stability, and appropriate energy levels for use with the classical polymer donor regioregular poly(3-hexylthiophene). A power conversion efficiency of 1.16 % was achieved for primitive bulk-heterojunction devices with a high fill factor of approximately 54 %.

Happily ever after: Romance, gender and the building blocks of domestic violence

My sister describes the state of something being a psychological or personal 'issue' - such as a trauma, compulsion, phobia, or obsession - as having 'brain spaghetti'. For example, apparently she has spaghetti about me pinning her down as a child and tickling her until she screamed for mercy. She knows this because when her spouse tried to do the same, the experience she had as a child came flooding back as a complex tangle of fears, feelings, and mental images. Notwithstanding the trauma inflicted on a sibling in my youth, the spaghetti metaphor is a simple but useful tool for explaining how complex our experiences are, and I bring it up here because I believe a lot of people have spaghetti about love. So much so, that often love becomes distorted, sometimes to the point of making one completely blind to manipulation and abuse. Part of the blame for 'love spaghetti' can be allotted to media depictions of romance and gender, which helps entrench and maintain our deeply held beliefs about what relationships should look like.

Impact of online privacy concerns and brand reputation on consumer willingness to provide personal information

The aim of this research was to identify the role of brand reputation in encouraging consumer willingness to provide personal data online, for the benefits of personalisation. This study extends on Malhotra, Kim and Agarwal’s (2004) Internet Users Information Privacy Concerns Model, and uses the theoretical underpinning of Social Contract Theory to assess how brand reputation moderates the relationship between trusting beliefs and perceived value (Privacy Calculus framework) with willingness to give personal information. The research is highly relevant as most privacy research undertaken to date focuses on consumer related concerns. Very little research exists examining the role of brand reputation and online privacy. Practical implications of this research include gaining knowledge as to how to minimise online privacy concerns; improve brand reputation; and provide insight on how to reduce consumer resistance to the collection of personal information and encourage consumer opt-in.

Mercaptoethane sulfonate protected, water-soluble gold and silver nanoparticles: Syntheses, characterization and their building, multilayer films with polyaniline via ion-dipole interactions

Mercaptoethane sulfonate protected, water-soluble gold and silver nanoparticles (Au-MES and Ag-MES) are synthesized by one-phase method and characterized by TEM, TGA and XPS techniques, UV-vis and FTIR spectra. Both Au-MES and Ag-MES nanoparticles are soluble in the water up to 2.0 mg/ml and the stability of AU-MES is much better than that of Ag-MES. When dissolved in the water. they behave like a polyanion and can be used to build multilayer films with polyaniline (PANI) by way of layer-by-layer. A new approach is presented to fabricate the Multilayer films of Au-MES/PANI and Ag-MES/PAN]. The assembly mechanism of these multilayer films is also discussed. We anticipate highly conducting PANI films can be obtained by doping with these nanoparticles.

The architecture of influence: Paul Rudolph's Art and Architecture Building at Yale

Focussing on Paul Rudolph’s Art & Architecture Building at Yale, this thesis demonstrates how the building synthesises the architect’s attitude to architectural education, urbanism and materiality. It tracks the evolution of the building from its origins – which bear a relationship to Rudolph’s pedagogical ideas – to later moments when its occupants and others reacted to it in a series of ways that could never have been foreseen. The A&A became the epicentre of the university’s counter culture movement before it was ravaged by a fire of undetermined origins. Arguably, it represents the last of its kind in American architecture, a turning point at the threshold of postmodernism. Using an archive that was only made available to researchers in 2009, this is the first study to draw extensively on the research files of the late architectural writer and educator, C. Ray Smith. Smith’s 1981 manuscript about the A&A entitled “The Biography of a Building,” was never published. The associated research files and transcripts of discussions with some thirty interviewees, including Rudolph, provide a previously unavailable wealth of information. Following Smith’s methodology, meetings were recorded with those involved in the A&A including, where possible, some of Smith’s original interviewees. When placed within other significant contexts – the physicality of the building itself as well as the literature which surrounds it – these previously untold accounts provide new perspectives and details, which deepen the understanding of the building and its place within architectural discourse. Issues revealed include the importance of the influence of Louis Kahn’s Yale Art Gallery and Yale’s Collegiate Gothic Campus on the building’s design. Following a tumultuous first fifty years, the A&A remains an integral part of the architectural education of Yale students and, furthermore, constitutes an important didactic tool for all students of architecture.

The limits of legitimacy: Former loyalist combatants and peace-building in Northern Ireland

The British government has a fraught relationship with former combatants in Northern Ireland. It simultaneously benefits from former combatants’ peace-building efforts, whilst denying them statutory recognition and funding. Drawing on interviews and focus groups with politically motivated former loyalist combatants and statutory representatives in Belfast, this paper explores the complex and sometimes contradictory relationship between them. It argues that that a lack of legitimacy is the biggest obstacle to good working relationships, and that positive engagement may be crucial in order to promote the implementation of peace in the most difficult to reach and volatile constituencies in Northern Ireland.

From PASS 1 to YES to AND logic: building parallel processing into molecular logic gates by sequential addition of receptors

The synthesis and photophysical characterization of a novel molecular logic gate 4, operating in water, is demonstrated based on the competition between. fluorescence and photoinduced electron transfer (PET). It is constructed according to a 'fluorophore-spacer-receptor(1)-spacer-receptor(2)' format where anthracene is the. fluorophore, receptor(1) is a tertiary amine and receptor(2) is a phenyliminodiacetate ligand. Using only protons and zinc cations as the chemical inputs and. fluorescence as the output, 4 is demonstrated to be both a two-input AND and INH logic gate. When 4 is examined in context to the YES logic gates 1 and 2, and the two-input AND logic gate 3 and three-input AND logic gate 5, each with one or more of the following receptors including a tertiary amine, phenyliminodiacetate or benzo-15-crown-5 ether, logic gate 4 is the missing link in the homologous series. Collectively, the molecular logic gates 1-5 corroborate the PET 'fluorophore-spacer-receptor' model using chemical inputs and a light-signal output and provide insight into controlling the. fluorescence quantum yield of future PET-based molecular logic gates.

Recruitment and capacity-building challenges in participatory research involving young people in Northern Ireland

Consulting young people in social research is increasingly popular and is not confined to their recruitment as participants but extends to the design, delivery and dissemination of research. In this chapter we explore the recruitment and capacity building challenges involved in working with young people as researchers. We will introduce some of the theoretical issues around young people’s participation. Drawing on experiences from four separate participatory research projects with young people in Northern Ireland, we will highlight some of the difficulties encountered and give some practical approaches to managing the research process. Strategies for recruiting and training young researchers will be considered and we also reflect on what the benefits of young people’s involvement can be; not only enhancing the research process but also empowering young people and creating the potential for social agency.