Green colored nano-pigments derived from Y2BaCuO5: NIR reflective coatings

A green colored nano-pigment Y2BaCuO5 with impressive near infra-red (NIR) reflectance (61% at 1100 nm) was synthesized by a nano-emulsion method. The developed nano-crystalline powders were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), Transmission electron microscopy (TEM), UV-vis-NIR diffuse reflectance spectroscopy and CIE-L*a*b* 1976 color scales. The XRD and Rietveld analyses of the designed pigment powders reveal the orthorhombic crystal structure for Y2BaCuO5, where yttrium is coordinated by seven oxygen atoms with the local symmetry of a distorted trigonal prism, barium is coordinated by eleven oxygen atoms, and the coordination polyhedron of copper is a distorted square pyramid CuO5]. The UV-vis spectrum of the nano-pigment exhibits an intense d-d transition associated with CuO5 chromophore between 2.1 and 2.5 eV in the visible domain. Therefore, a green color has been displayed by the developed nano-pigment. The potential utility of the nano-pigments as ``Cool Pigments'' was demonstrated by coating on to a building roofing material like cement slab and PVC coatings. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Style and the “Idea” of the sophist after Plato : the impact of form typology on sophistic teaching and writing on interdisciplinary scholarly work

Resumen: Después de la primera sofística, los sofistas actuaron entre el resto de los pensadores del Mediterráneo como un grupo definido. Dado que hay muchos ejemplos que muestran que los sofistas ejercían sus prácticas y que también eran personas comprometidas en otras actividades, vamos a examinar aquí diversos casos de semejanzas y diferencias entre ellos y otros grupos de pensadores. Nuestras tres preguntas fundamentales son: qué, cómo y por qué los sofistas escribían y enseñaban. Intentaremos responder haciendo un análisis diacrónico de las principales formas y géneros de escritura que produjeron (qué). El cómo lo responderemos en su desenvolvimiento como una actividad comunicativa más allá de las fronteras de las disciplinas de la época. El por qué tendrá su respuesta al enfatizar la necesidad de la actividad de los sofistas en la socialización de la época y en la educación de la antigüedad. Al aseverar que el estilo era la idea de los sofistas, ponemos la noción de idea en Platón en el contexto de idea derivado de los sofistas contemporáneos a él y de los sofistas posteriores (segunda sofística) y centramos el foco en la función de visualidad expresada en su concepto de idea desde las obras sofísticas más tempranas en la época de Platón hasta las contribuciones posteriores.

Learning from human teaching strategies

Recent works in the area of adaptive education systems point out the importance of aumenting the student model to improve the personalization and adaptation to the learner by means of several aspects such as emotions, user locations or interactions. Until now the study of interactions has been mainly focused on the student-learning system flow, despite the fact that the most successful and used way of teaching are the traditional face-to-face interactions. In this project, we explore the use of interactions among teachers and students, as they occur in traditional education, to enrich the current student models, with the aim of providing them with useful information about new characteristics for improving the learning process. At a first step, in this paper we present the formal process carried out to obtain information about teachers’ expertise and necessities regarding the direct interactions with students.

Obtaining teaching expertise from F2F learning interactions

Learning environments are commonly used nowadays, but they exclude face-to-face interaction among teachers and students what is a successful basis of traditional education. On the other hand, in many cases teachers are imposed to use technology, what they do in an intuitive way. That is, teachers “learn by doing” and do not fully exploit its potential benefits. Consequently, some questions arise: How do teachers use F2F interaction to guide learning session? How can technology help teachers and students in their day by day? Moreover, are teachers and students really opened to be helped by technology? In this paper we present the formal process carried out to obtain information about teachers’ expertise and necessities regarding the direct interactions with students. We expose the possibilities to cover those necessities and the willingness that teachers show to be helped.

Teaching how to Look at and View Bodies within Literature

[EN] This paper focuses on how to initiate discussions of the regulatory gaze in primary school classrooms through the study of characters in literature. It specifically focuses on two renowned characters in Spanish literature: Xola (Bernardo Atxaga) and Iholdi (Mariasun Landa). These characters are composed of a chorus of looks which in turn also look. We shall carefully reflect upon these looks and discuss how we see others, how others see us, and how we would like others to see us.

Hopwood Hall College: Touchscreen technology overtakes interactive whiteboards as interactive teaching tool of choice

Hopwood Hall is adopting the use of touch screen technology and gradually replacing its interactive whiteboards to improve access to interactive learning. The touch screen monitors connected to LCD TV’s provide a cheaper classroom build with technology that’s more user-friendly and better suited to classroom delivery. Until now, interactive boards had been the mainstay of classrooms but they created teaching barriers for staff including the additional software to learn and master. They are also expensive and often have usability issues with 'pens' not working or having a delay when used as the mouse tool.

Huntingdonshire Regional College: e-Portfolio system motors students to success and improves organisational efficiency

By introducing the OneFile e–portfolio system, the Motor Vehicle department at Huntingdonshire Regional College has revolutionised its teaching and learning delivery, improved organisational efficiency, and helped students achieve qualifications quicker. Bundles of paper have been scrapped, students can now upload video and audio as reflective evidence, and assessors no longer have to go on unnecessary visits to collect papers and signatures. What's more, the department has saved time and money, diversified learning and made an impact on its carbon footprint.

Lancaster and Morecambe College: Uses serious computer games as a teaching tool

John Latham, International Projects Co-ordinator at Lancaster and Morecambe College (LMC), got involved with the project Serious Computer Games as a Teaching Tool (SCOGATT) after using the game EnerCities with his students. The web based platform at www.scogatt.eu serves as a One Stop Toolkit for vocational teachers and trainers who want to use serious computer games (SCG) in their teaching environments but might need a helping hand. There they will be able to find a compendium of serious games, SCOGATT pilot results, teacher reports and the exemplar games, EnerCities.

Curriculum innovation: pragmatic approaches to transforming learning and teaching through technologies

This report draws together outcomes from the JISC Curriculum Delivery Programme on behalf of JISC and includes recommendations for further investigation.

Case study: Technology - a fundamental aspect of teaching, learning and assessment

Case study on how Reading College is taking a holistic approach to developing their digital strategy, focusing on good practice in teaching and learning and extending learning beyond the classroom walls.