Search results for "Toe"

Hierarchies of knowledge, incommensurabilities and silences in South African ECD policy: Whose knowledge counts?

2017

AbstractPolicy for young children in South Africa is now receiving high-level government support through the ANC’s renewed commitment to redress poverty and inequity and creating ‘a better life for all’ as promised before the 1994 election. In this article, I explore the power relations, knowledge hierarchies and discourses of childhood, family and society in National Curriculum Framework (NCF) as it relates to children’s everyday contexts. I throw light on how the curriculum’s discourses relate to the diverse South African settings, child rearing practices and world-views, and how they interact with normative discourses of South African policy and global early childhood frameworks. The NCF…

Revealing colonial power relations in early childhood policy making: An autoethnographic story on selective evidence

2021

The COVID-19 pandemic exposes uncertainty, instability and glaring inequality that requires urgent global policy decisions. Historically, bureaucrats regard uncertainty as the enemy and look for tested solutions (Stevens, 2011). In contrast, Fielding & Moss (2010) acknowledge an uncertain future and encourage shifting policy making towards the search for possibilities instead of replicating singular solutions. Escobar (2020) advocates for pluriversal politics, with many possibilities created through collective decision-making by autonomous interlinked networks. In this paper, I combine autoethnography with policy analysis drawing on my own experience in South African early childhood pol…

Pd2Au36(SR)(24) cluster: structure studies

2015

The location of the Pd atoms in Pd2Au36(SC2H4Ph)(24), is studied both experimentally and theoretically. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) indicates oxidized Pd atoms. Palladium K-edge extended X-ray absorption fine-structure (EXAFS) data clearly show Pd-S bonds, which is supported by far infrared spectroscopy and by comparing theoretical EXAFS spectra in R space and circular dichroism spectra of the staple, surface and core doped structures with experimental spectra.

Measuring optical anisotropy in poly(3,4-ethylene dioxythiophene):poly(styrene sulfonate) films with added graphene

2015

Abstract Graphene is a 2D nanomaterial having a great potential for applications in electronics and optoelectronics. Composites of graphene with conducting polymers have shown high performance in practical devices and their solution-processability enables low-cost and high-throughput mass manufacturing using printing techniques. Here we measure the effect of incorporation of graphene into poly(3,4-ethylene dioxythiophene):poly(styrene sulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS) to the optical anisotropy, absorbance and conductivity of the film. Uniaxial anisotropy in PEDOT:PSS films has been thought to be caused by the spin-coating process used in fabrication. We have characterized spray- and spin-coated films …

Characterization of a CZT focal plane small prototype for hard X-ray telescope

2005

The promise of good energy and spatial resolution coupled with high efficiency and room temperature operation has fuelled a large international effort to develop cadmium zinc telluride (CZT) for hard X-ray applications. We are involved on the development of a hard X-ray telescope based on multilayer optics and focal plane detector operative in the 10-80 keV energy range. This telescope requires a high efficiency focal plane providing both fine spatial resolution and spectroscopy with a compact and robust design. This paper reports preliminary results on the characterization both in spectroscopic and spatial response of two small pixellated CZT detectors (10times10times1 mm3 and 10times10tim…

Optical properties of conductive carbon-based nanomaterials

2016

The interaction of light with carbon nanomaterials is the main focus of this thesis. I explore several nanostructured systems involving different allotropes of carbon, and characterize them both electrically, if applicable, and optically. Special attention is paid to search for plasmon-like excitations on the systems, or utilizing surface plasmons on characterization. The first objective is to achieve control of carbon nanotube (CNT) conductivity with surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs), which resulted in the first CNT field-effect transistor (FET) that can be gated definitively with SPPs. The second objective is the investigation of optical properties of various thin carbon-based molecular n…

Resting electrocardiogram and blood pressure in young athletes and nonathletes : A 4-year follow-up

2022

A follow-up data on electrocardiogram (ECG) and blood pressure (BP) changes in adolescent athletes are scarce. We compared ECG and BP between adolescent athletes and non-athletes in a 4-year follow-up. A total of 154 youth sports clubs (SC) in Finland and 100 secondary schools for comparison data participated in this observational follow-up study. Those who maintained or adopted SC participation are referred to as “Always athletes” (n=137), those who never participated in SC as “Never athletes” (n=108) and those who dropped out of SC during the follow-up as “Changers” (n=116). The mean age of the participants was 15.5 (0.6) years in all study groups at baseline. Resting ECG including heart …

Lo stress ossidativo nella steatoepatite alcolica e non alcolica e nella pancreatite acuta e cronica

2010

Influence of the Resin Layer Thickness at the Interface of Hybrid Metal-composite Co-cured Joints

2011

As discussed in literature, the accurate analysis of the modern co-cured joints between composite materials or between a metal and a composite material (hybrid joints) is complicated by the influence of the interface resin layer on the interface singular stress field. In such joints, in fact, there is not a proper adhesive layer and the thickness of the resin layer, that plays the role of the adhesive, is not constant due to the presence of the reinforcing fibers in the composite adherent. For this reason several authors assume that a generic co-cured joint can not be studied as a simple bi-material joint, without considering the particular characteristics of the actual resin layer. This pr…

Rola efektu podstawnikowego w sprzężeniu π-elektronowym w N-podstawionym karbazolu

2019

Modyfikacja właściwości optoelektronowych materiałów organicznych w wielu przypadkach sprowadza się do wywołania zmian w ich strukturze elektronowej, a w szczególności w π-elektronowej delokalizacji w obrębie całej molekuły. Dużą uwagę zajmują w tych badaniach układy skondensowane zawierające pierścienie aromatyczne, niearomatyczne oraz hetero atomy. Do układów tych można zaliczyć, między innymi, karbazol i jego pochodne, który znajduje zastosowanie w organicznych materiałach optycznych i elektronowych. W niniejszej publikacji zaprezentowano wyniki z przeprowadzonych badań nad wpływem podstawienia pierścienia fulwenowego na atomie azotu oraz podstawników o zróżnicowanym charakterze elektron…