The purpose of this review was to explore how Second Life (SL) has been discussed, investigated and applied in education from its launch to present. Two research questions guided the review: (1) what are the annual publication number and its percentage of empirical studies?; (2) what are the characteristics of the empirical studies regarding the academic levels, subject areas, pedagogical frameworks, evolution of research foci, research methods and sample sizes? A total of 107 papers from 68 refereed journals were reviewed. The findings of the review indicated that SL research has outgrown merely envisioning SL for educational purposes and switched to empirical explorations. Most of the empirical studies were conducted in college settings. The research had been most frequently carried out in teacher education, language education, business, hospitality and tourism and computer disciplines. The most recent research focus was to find out issues, problems and factors that might affect SL‐based learning as well as the relevant solutions. This study can contribute to the discussion on the instructional use of SL by providing researchers with a summary of previous attempted studies. Several recommendations for future research are provided based on the findings. Practitioner Notes Second Life (SL) is currently the most mature and popular virtual world being used in education. SL has been used by educators to teach and supplement classes. There are rich anecdotal stories, conference presentations and scholarly publications concerning what educators have been doing in SL. An overview of the development and evolution of SL‐related research in education from its launch to present. Answers to questions, such as “is the educational implementation of SL still in its infancy?,” “what were the subject areas and academic levels that have been explored by researchers?” and “has the research foci evolved throughout the years?” Assistance to researchers for identifying and locating areas for future explorations. There are studies, reports and stories that exemplify how SL can be used for language teaching, business, hospitality and tourism, computer studies and so on. Educators and researchers in K‐12 and adult education can pay more attention to using SL as an instructional tool. Educators and researchers in the fields such as chemistry and mathematic can explore more about the instructional use of SL.
Using data from the longitudinal NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development (N=1364), this study examined the association between mothers’ sensitivity and children’s externalizing behavior from preschool to preadolescence. Externalizing behavior declined on average across this period with a slowing of this decline around middle childhood. Maternal sensitivity remained relatively stable on average, and there was significant variation across mothers. A decrease in maternal sensitivity from ages 3 to 11 was related to an increase in externalizing behavior from ages 4 to 12. A model-based test of the direction of the effect suggested that the association between changes in maternal sensitivity and externalizing behavior from ages 4 to 11 was driven by child effects on mothers and not vice-versa. Between late preschool age and preadolescence, the behavior problems of children appear to strongly influence the sensitive support of mothers. Practical implications were discussed in light of these findings.
Blackwell et al. (Child Development 78(1):246-263, 2007) tested a motivational model of achievement in which an incremental theory of intelligence leads to learning goals and positive effort beliefs, which leads to fewer ability-based, helpless attributions, and more positive strategies, which leads to improved grades. In the present study, we tested this model by using a different population, using domain-specific items, comparing the results across gender, including "interest" as another variable in the model, and assessing the impact of achievement as an antecedent and outcome variable in the model. Participants included 163, mostly White, ninth-grade Algebra students from a suburban school in southwest Virginia, USA. We established that the model had a relatively good fit to the data and all paths were statistically significant when achievement was used as both an antecedent and outcome variable. The standardized path coefficients were consistent with those reported by Blackwell et al. and the model was invariant across genders. Furthermore, we documented that interest could be included as another mediating variable in the model. The results of this study provide evidence to support the validity of the relationships between the constructs in the Blackwell et al. model for the population examined.
The efficient development of selective materials for the recovery of uranium from nuclear waste and seawater is necessary for their potential application in nuclear fuel and the mitigation of nuclear pollution. In this work, a graphene oxide/amidoxime hydrogel (AGH) exhibits a promising adsorption performance for uranium from various aqueous solutions, including simulated seawater. We show high adsorption capacities (Qm = 398.4 mg g−1) and high % removals at ppm or ppb levels in aqueous solutions for uranium species. In the presence of high concentrations of competitive ions such as Mg2+, Ca2+, Ba2+ and Sr2+, AGH displays an enhanced selectivity for uranium. For low uranium concentrations in simulated seawater, AGH binds uranium efficiently and selectively. The results presented here reveal that the AGH is a potential adsorbent for remediating nuclear industrial effluent and adsorbing uranium from seawater.
Developing an economical, durable, and efficient electrode that performs well at high current densities and is capable of satisfying large-scale electrochemical hydrogen production is highly demanded. A self-supported electrocatalytic "Pt-like" WC porous electrode with open finger-like holes is produced through industrial processes, and a tightly bonded nitrogen-doped WC/W (WC-N/W) heterostructure is formed in situ on the WC grains. The obtained WC-N/W electrode manifests excellent durability and stability under multi-step current density in the range of 30-1000 mA cm −2 for more than 220 h in both acidic and alkaline media. Although WC is three orders of magnitude cheaper than Pt, the produced electrode demonstrates comparable hydrogen evolution reaction performance to the Pt electrode at high current density. Density functional theory calculations attribute its superior performance to the electrode structure and the modulated electronic structure at the WC-N/W interface.
Self-cleaning materials have attracted immense commercial and academic interests in recent years. A major challenge is the scalable and cost-effective fabrication of three-dimensional bulk materials with remarkable self-cleaning and a desirable combination of tailored porosity, robust superhydrophobicity, excellent mechanical strength, heat insulation, and sound absorption ability. Here, self-cleaning concrete was achieved in one step through the combination of the liquid template pore formation and in situ bulk hydrophobic modification. The concrete exhibited superhydrophobicity with a high water contact angle of 166°both on the surface and inside of the sample, which qualified the sample with remarkable stain repellency and longterm stability. The water contact angle remained unchanged under continuous mechanical grinding and harsh environments, such as high temperature (450 °C in air and 650 °C in Ar) and chemical erosion. The concrete with a controllable porosity from 56.3 to 77.4% and homogeneous small pore size (∼15 μm) exhibited high compressive strength and low thermal conductivity. Furthermore, high sound absorption capacity (97%, 500 Hz) at a vibration frequency from 400 to 600 Hz was realized. With these excellent performances and characteristics and easy scalable fabrication, the concrete prepared in this work possessed a wide application prospect.
Binder-free, cost-effective, and stable hydrogen evolution reaction electrocatalytic electrodes with a customized size are urgently needed for large-scale industrial hydrogen production. Toward this challenge, self-supported TiC@MoS 2 (TCMS) ceramic membrane electrodes were fabricated by a self-template strategy. Porous TiC ceramic membranes with straight finger-like pores were first fabricated by phase inversion tape-casting and sintering. Then, a 1T-2H MoS 2 nanosheet layer grew on the porous conductive TiC skeleton. The high conductivity of the TCMS skeleton promotes charge transfer, while the porous structure, which consists of abundant finger-like and cavernous pores, favors proton transfer and bubble transfer during the electrolysis process. The optimal TCMS composition displayed an overpotential of −127 mV at −10 mA•cm −2 , a Tafel slope of 41 mV•dec −1 , and an extremely high electrochemical active area of 1079.4 mF•cm −2 as well as remarkable stability in 0.5 M H 2 SO 4 . A high Faradaic efficiency of 99.7% was also achieved. The superior electrocatalytic performance was ascribed to the synergistic effect of the tight bonding and the crystal matching between TiC and MoS 2 , the unique dual pore structure, the abundant exposed active sites of MoS 2 nanoflakes, and the high 1T-MoS 2 content. First-principles density functional calculations showed that the 1T-MoS 2 /TiC hybrid has the lowest free energy for H adsorption (0.116 eV) and the highest density of states near the Fermi level, which leads to a strong catalytic activity.
Silicon oxycarbide (SiOC) ceramics are attractive materials for anodes of lithium-ion batteries, because of their excellent structural stability and high rate capability. Nonetheless, complex production procedures hinder their commercialization. This work proposes a simple emulsion templating method using liquid poreforming agent to prepare hard SiOC microbeads, which feature spherical morphology (∼35 μm in diameter) and large specific surface area (217 m 2 g −1 ). Moreover, the produced SiOC microbeads have a hard and dense surface, which significantly improves the structural stability during the process of lithiation/delithiation. A discharge specific capacity of 805 mAh g −1 was reached after 300 cycles, using a current density of 360 mA g −1 , and 420 mAh g −1 was recorded after 1000 cycles, even at an ultrahigh current density of 3600 mA g −1 . The porous interior structure and the disordered carbon structure of the SiOC microbeads are contributory factors due to the fast mobility of Li + in the SiOC matrix, related to the coefficient of Li + diffusion (4.5 × 10 −6 cm 2 s −1 ) and eventually the rate capability of the material. Consequently, anodes of lithium-ion batteries with high performance can be produced via this fast and simple preparation method.
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