Search

Although scholars have noted the detrimental nature of the various changes in higher education prompted by neoliberalism, its impact on the experiences of international Higher Degree by Research (HDR) students has yet to be adequately studied. Informed by Bourdieu's concepts of "doxa," field, habitus, and capital, this paper examines the ways in which neoliberalism as "doxa" in the Australian higher education field has "colonised" the perception and practice of Chinese international HDR students whilst some students were able to demonstrate resilience to the pervasive neoliberal practices. The paper draws on a larger qualitative research project including interviews with 18 Chinese HDR students from four Australian universities. Data suggest that Chinese HDR research students gradually developed intensified dispositions of self-reliance and self-exploitation in response to neoliberal academic practices whilst others were enculturated into a "floating habitus" (or vulnerable position) in relation to academic publishing as they attempted to negotiate the tensions across fields and over time. Data further reveal that some participants demonstrated resilience to neoliberalism when empowered by their supervisors with less utilitarian and more critically reflexive supervisory practices. The paper argues that the embrace of neoliberalism in the Australian higher education field has become widespread yet controversial, and that thinking and enacting resilience sociologically may de-neoliberalise the higher education field in Australia and beyond.

Although scholars have noted the detrimental nature of the various changes in higher education prompted by neoliberalism, its impact on the experiences of international Higher Degree by Research (HDR) students has yet to be adequately studied. Informed by Bourdieu's concepts of doxa, field, habitus, and capital, this paper examines the ways in which neoliberalism as doxa in the Australian higher education field has colonised the perception and practice of Chinese international HDR students whilst some students were able to demonstrate resilience to the pervasive neoliberal practices. The paper draws on a larger qualitative research project including interviews with 18 Chinese HDR students from four Australian universities. Data suggest that Chinese HDR research students gradually developed intensified dispositions of self-reliance and self-exploitation in response to neoliberal academic practices whilst others were enculturated into a floating habitus (or vulnerable position) in relation to academic publishing as they attempted to negotiate the tensions across fields and over time. Data further reveal that some participants demonstrated resilience to neoliberalism when empowered by their supervisors with less utilitarian and more critically reflexive supervisory practices. The paper argues that the embrace of neoliberalism in the Australian higher education field has become widespread yet controversial, and that thinking and enacting resilience sociologically may de-neoliberalise the higher education field in Australia and beyond., Author(s): Congcong Xing [sup.1] , Guanglun Michael Mu [sup.1] , Deborah Henderson [sup.1] Author Affiliations: (1) grid.1024.7, 0000000089150953, School of Teacher Education & Leadership, Queensland University of Technology, , Victoria [...]

With English hegemony sustained in 'multicultural' Anglophone universities, non-English speaking research students often develop diverse strategies to improve their English. While such strategies demonstrate a form of resilience, the symbolic power of English remains intact. To grapple with this paradox, we draw on the work of Pierre Bourdieu to probe Chinese international research students' academic language practice in response to English monolingualism in Australian universities. Findings from semi-structured interviews with 18 Chinese international research students in Australian universities indicate that participants' academic language practice is influenced by both the doxic English monolingualism and the evolving exercise of academic multilingualism. Drawing insights from Bourdieu-informed sociology of resilience and post-monolingual theorising, we problematise English monolingualism and provide recommendations for (Chinese) international research students, supervisors, and universities to capitalise on linguistic repertories for the sake of enriching academic experience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Psychological studies on international research students' resilience to mental distress have attracted much scholarly attention. Yet, sociological inquiries into resilience to 'invisible' pressures such as power imbalances remain limited. Drawing insights from Bourdieu's relational sociology, we recast the psychology of resilience to adversities into a sociology of resilience to symbolic violence. To delve into the latter, we surveyed 220 Chinese international Higher Degree by Research (HDR) students across Australian universities using a self-designed instrument and analysed the data through Multiple Correspondence Analysis. Findings revealed that Chinese international HDR students were drawn into a space of forces fraught with the symbolic violence of supervisor authority, English hegemony, and neoliberalism; yet, simultaneously, they ventured into a space of struggles with such forms of symbolic violence by virtue of their agency and reflexivity as well as peer and supervisor empowerment. Such resilience practice was complicated by their capital portfolio and habitual dispositions, which in turn, contributed differently to their perceptions of symbolic violence and resilience to it. We thereby offer diverse stakeholders strategies in building resilience for (Chinese) international research students within and beyond Australia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Australians are embracing new forms of digital finance products and services, which includes purchasing cryptocurrencies and non‐fungible tokens (NFTs). There has been an increase in investment scams associated with cryptocurrencies. In this article, we sought to understand from cryptocurrency and NFT investors, who is vulnerable and what vulnerabilities exist. We surveyed 745 Australians aged 18 and over who have purchased cryptocurrencies or NFTs. We used sociological perspectives of consumer vulnerability that focus on internal and external factors to analyse our findings. We found that both socioeconomic advantaged and disadvantaged Australians are vulnerable. The vulnerabilities include concerns over security, unsolicited advice, limited options for learning, and insufficient financial and IT literacy. The findings suggest that online financial education is needed from trusted independent sources to help combat scams and to keep Australians and their crypto assets safe. We recommend that more opportunities to educate individuals about alternative forms of financial products are offered in compulsory, vocational and higher education settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The demand for high‐performance materials in thermoelectric (TE) technology has driven continuous efforts to enhance the performance of commercialized Bi2Te3‐based thermoelectric materials. Here, we report success in achieving significant performance improvements in n‐type Bi2Te2.8Se0.2S0.01 through the implementation of a hot extrusion manufacturing process. This tailored manufacturing process has yielded a desired microstructure characterized by grain growth and preferred orientations. The resulting enlarged grain‐based microstructure exhibits reduced dislocations and defects that originated from plastic deformation during extrusion and post annealing. As such, the charge carrier mobility is significantly enhanced, leading to an ultrahigh power factor of approximately 51 μW cm−1 K−2 at ambient temperature. Consequently, a maximum figure of merit (zT) of 1.12 is achieved at 348 K in the combination of extrusion and annealing procedures. Using the synthesized n‐type Bi2Te2.8Se0.2S0.01 material, full‐scale cooling modules have been fabricated. These modules demonstrate record cooling performance, with a maximum temperature difference (ΔT) of 73.9 K at a hot‐side temperature of 300 K and a maximum cooling power density of 2.2 W cm−2. The cooling performance of these TE devices surpasses that of commercially available devices, establishing their potential for next‐generation TE cooling applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Submarine landslides always occur along gently inclined continental slopes, but the reasons for such failure of low-angle submarine slopes are unclear and contentious. A short discussion is presented here to some recent published papers including some inspirations about the low-angle failure of submarine slopes. Because fluid overpressure could lead to steepening slopes before landslide, the inclination of the slopes at failure may be underestimated. We offer a new perspective on low-angle failure of low-permeability slopes.

Based on the model of ecological environment evolution in the process of the economic development, this paper constructed the evaluation index system of marine ecological environment. The results were shown as follows: the evaluation index system of marine ecological environment consists of 1 object layer, 3 element layers (state of marine ecological environment pressure of marine ecological environment and response of marine ecological environment), and 15 factor layers. Index weight was calculated through combination weighting approach of subjective and objective evaluation method of analytic hierarchy process(AHP) and entropy method. The evaluation indicator system and evaluation method have general applicability and strong operability.

The South China Sea (SCS) is the result of several major tectonic plates' interaction, and a more detailed density structure is essential to study the tectonic evolution of the marginal seas. In the past decades, density studies in the SCS have focused more on profiles, and the lateral density structure has been less mentioned by scholars. Previously, gravity data have been used many times to study the SCS; this can satisfy the demands of large-scale lateral studies, but a point that cannot be ignored is that the gravity method has certain deficiencies in vertical resolution. Therefore, this paper applies a gravity multiscale analysis method to isolate the Bouguer gravity anomaly signal in the SCS, and then uses the power spectrum method to estimate the mean field source depth, which corresponds to the decomposed gravity anomaly signal. On this basis, we modeled stratified crustal and upper mantle structures in the SCS to determine the lateral density distribution at different depths. The results show the following: (1) There are two large high-density materials in the SCS. The first one is located near the Yinggehai Basin, where the depth ranges from 42.4 km to 71.2 km, with a diameter of nearly 220 km; the second one is located near the northwest sub-basin, where the depth ranges from 106.8 km to 128.8 km, which is probably part of the Paleo-Pacific remnant in the SCS. (2) The proto South China Sea subduction zone is located in the northwestern part of the Sulu Sea and has a northeast–southwest trend. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is an urgent need for cost‐effective strategies to produce hydrogen from renewable net‐zero carbon sources using renewable energies. In this context, the electrochemical hydrogen evolution reaction can be boosted by replacing the oxygen evolution reaction with the oxidation of small organic molecules, such as ethylene glycol (EG). EG is a particularly interesting organic liquid with two hydroxyl groups that can be transformed into a variety of C1 and C2 chemicals, depending on the catalyst and reaction conditions. Here, a catalyst is demonstrated for the selective EG oxidation reaction (EGOR) to formate on nickel selenide. The catalyst nanoparticle (NP) morphology and crystallographic phase are tuned to maximize its performance. The optimized NiS electrocatalyst requires just 1.395 V to drive a current density of 50 mA cm−2 in 1 m potassium hydroxide (KOH) and 1 m EG. A combination of in situ electrochemical infrared absorption spectroscopy (IRAS) to monitor the electrocatalytic process and ex situ analysis of the electrolyte composition shows the main EGOR product is formate, with a Faradaic efficiency above 80%. Additionally, C2 chemicals such as glycolate and oxalate are detected and quantified as minor products. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations of the reaction process show the glycol‐to‐oxalate pathway to be favored via the glycolate formation, where the CC bond is broken and further electro‐oxidized to formate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Transitional metal oxides have attracted increasing attention as the most promising anode material for lithium-ion batteries (LIBs). However, due to the poor ionic conductivity and great structural changes in the process of Li+ insertion and extraction, the performance of the pristine materials in batteries still has a far way to go to satisfy requirements. In this article, using spherical ZIF-12 as a pyrolysis precursor, two Co3O4 hollow core-shell carbon nanocomposites (CHS@C and CHS@CG) were fabricated via a molecular precursor pyrolysis strategy. The synergistic effect of the yolk-shell hollow nanosphere structure shortens the diffusion path of ions, increases the contact area between the electrode and electrolyte, and provides a buffer space for the volume change in the electrochemical reaction. Both materials have excellent structural stability and good electrical conductivity. In comparison, the performance of CHS@CG is better, and the reversible specific capacity reaches 831 mAh·g−1 at 0.2 C after 400 cycles. In the galvanostatic charge–discharge process, the Coulombic efficiency reaches nearly 100%, exhibiting a good reversible cycle. The synthesis method of these electrode materials can provide a reference for making other energy storage equipments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The development of high-performance and cost-effective earth-abundant transition metal-based electrocatalysts is of major interest for several key energy technologies, including water splitting. Herein, we report the synthesis of ultrathin CoMoP nanosheets through a simple ion etching and phosphorization method. The obtained catalyst exhibits outstanding electrocatalytic activity and stability towards oxygen and hydrogen evolution reactions (OER and HER), with overpotentials down to 273 and 89 mV at 10 mA cm−2, respectively. The produced CoMoP nanosheets are also characterized by very small Tafel slopes, 54.9 and 69.7 mV dec−1 for OER and HER, respectively. When used as both cathode and anode electrocatalyst in the overall water splitting reaction, CoMoP-based cells require just 1.56 V to reach 10 mA cm−2 in alkaline media. This outstanding performance is attributed to the proper composition, weak crystallinity and two-dimensional nanosheet structure of the electrocatalyst. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The cost-effective deployment of several key energy technologies, such as water electrolysis, CO2 electroreduction and metal–air batteries, relies on the design and engineering of cost-effective catalysts able to accelerate the sluggish kinetics of the oxygen evolution reaction (OER). Herein, we detail the synthesis, processing and performance of a cobalt oxide-based OER electrocatalyst with optimized composition, atomic arrangement and nano/microstructure. We demonstrate that doping the cobalt oxide with a higher electronegativity element such as molybdenum promotes the participation of lattice oxygen in the OER. Besides, the processing of the catalyst at moderate temperatures results in an amorphous material with extended compositional and atomic arrangement versatility. Additionally, the catalyst, which is produced through an ion etching assisted strategy using ZIF-67 as a template, displays a highly porous structure in the form of amorphous ultrathin MoCoxOy nanosheets that maximize interaction with the media and facilitate the transport of ions through the electrolyte. After optimizing the molybdenum concentration and structural parameters, the best MoCoxOy catalysts exhibited a low overpotential of 282 mV at 10 mA cm−2 with a reduced Tafel slope of 60.6 mV dec−1, and excellent stability with more than 60 h operation without significant activity decay. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Appropriately designed nanocomposites allow improving the thermoelectric performance by several mechanisms, including phonon scattering, modulation doping and energy filtering, while additionally promoting better mechanical properties than those of crystalline materials. Here, a strategy for producing Bi2Te3–Cu2−xTe nanocomposites based on the consolidation of heterostructured nanoparticles is described and the thermoelectric properties of the obtained materials are investigated. We first detail a two-step solution-based process to produce Bi2Te3–Cu2−xTe heteronanostructures, based on the growth of Cu2−xTe nanocrystals on the surface of Bi2Te3 nanowires. We characterize the structural and chemical properties of the synthesized nanostructures and of the nanocomposites produced by hot-pressing the particles at moderate temperatures. Besides, the transport properties of the nanocomposites are investigated as a function of the amount of Cu introduced. Overall, the presence of Cu decreases the material thermal conductivity through promotion of phonon scattering, modulates the charge carrier concentration through electron spillover, and increases the Seebeck coefficient through filtering of charge carriers at energy barriers. These effects result in an improvement of over 50% of the thermoelectric figure of merit of Bi2Te3. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Atopic dermatitis (AD) is a relapsing, acute, and chronic skin disease featured by intractable itching, eczematous skin. Conventional therapies based on immunosuppression such as corticosteroids are associated with multiple adverse reactions. Periploca forrestii Schltr saponin (PFS) was shown to potently inhibit murine arthritis by protecting bone and cartilage injury and suppressing NF-κB activation. However, its therapeutic effect on oxazolone-induced atopic dermatitis (AD) and the underlying mechanisms on macrophage are still unclear. The AD-like dermatitis was induced by repeated oxazolone challenge to the skin of BALB/c mice in vivo. Blood and ears were biochemically or histologically processed. RT-PCR, western blotting, and ELISA were conducted to evaluate the expression of macrophage factors. Mouse bone marrow-derived macrophages (BMDMs) stimulated with lipopolysaccharide (LPS) were used as a model in vitro. PFS treatment inhibited AD-like dermatitis development. PFS downregulated epidermis thickness and cell infiltration, with histological analysis of the skin lesion. PFS alleviated plasma immunoglobulin (Ig) E, IgG2a, and IgG1 levels. PFS downregulated the expression of M1 macrophage factors, tumor necrosis factor- (TNF-) α, interleukin- (IL-) 6, monocyte chemotactic protein-1 (MCP-1), and nitric oxide synthase2 (NOS2), and M2 macrophage factors, IL-4, arginase1 (Arg1) and CD163 in AD-like skin, which were confirmed by western blot and ELISA analysis. In addition, PFS inhibited LPS-induced macrophage polarization via the inhibition of the phosphorylation of signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (STAT3) and nuclear translocation of NF-κB p65. These results suggest that PFS exerted an antidermatitis effect against oxazolone by modulating macrophage activation. PFS administration might be useful in the treatment of AD and inflammatory skin diseases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present a strategy to produce porous NiTiO3/TiO2 nanostructures with excellent photocatalytic activity toward hydrogen generation. In a first step, nickel-doped TiO2 needle bundles were synthesized by a hydrothermal procedure. Through the sintering in air of these nanostructures, porous NiTiO3/TiO2 heterostructured rods were obtained. Alternatively, the annealing in argon of the nickel-doped TiO2 needle bundles resulted in NiOx/TiO2 elongated nanostructures. Porous NiTiO3/TiO2 structures were tested for hydrogen evolution in the presence of ethanol. Such porous heterostructures exhibited superior photocatalytic activity toward hydrogen generation, with hydrogen production rates up to 11.5 mmol h−1 g−1 at room temperature. This excellent performance is related here to the optoelectronic properties and geometric parameters of the material. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background. The dry root of Flemingia philippinensis has been widely used in the treatment of rheumatism, arthropathy, and osteoporosis in traditional Chinese medicine; the therapeutic effects of Flemingia philippinensis are associated with antiarthritis in traditional Chinese medicine theory. This study was undertaken to investigate the mechanism of bone erosion protection and anti-inflammatory effect of Flemingia philippinensis flavonoids (FPF) in collagen-induced arthritis (CIA) in mice. Methods. Flavonoids were extracted from the dry root of Flemingia philippinensis. Collagen-induced arthritis in C57BL/6 mice was used as a rheumatoid arthritis model, and the mice were orally fed with FPF prior to induction to mimic clinical prophylactic therapy for a total of 39 days. After treatment, histology and immunohistochemistry staining were performed, and the levels of anti-collagen type II (CII) antibody and inflammatory mediators, as well as the key proteins of nuclear factor kappa-B (NF-κB) and mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) pathways, were detected in the samples taken from ankle joints, plasma, and paws. Results. FPF administration significantly suppressed the paw swelling and arthritic score in CIA mice. FPF reduced inflammatory infiltration and pannus formation, articular cartilage destruction and osteoclast infiltration, and the expression of MMP-9 and cathepsin K in the ankle joint. FPF inhibited plasma anti-CII antibody levels and the production of inflammatory cytokines and chemokines in CIA paws. FPF treatment suppressed the activation of NF-κB as indicated by downregulating the phosphorylation of NF-κB p65 and mitogen-activated protein kinases in CIA paws. Additionally, FPF significantly inhibited inflammation signaling by suppressing the activation of activator protein-1 subset and signal transducers and activators of transcription 3 (STAT3). Conclusions. Our data suggest that FPF might be an active therapeutic agent for rheumatoid arthritis and the preventive effect of FPF on arthritis is attributable to an anti-inflammatory effect on CIA by preventing bone destruction, regulating inflammatory mediators, and suppressing NF-κB and MAPK signaling pathways. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the present work, we detail a fast and simple solution‐based method to synthesize hexagonal SnSe2 nanoplates (NPLs) and their use to produce crystallographically textured SnSe2 nanomaterials. We also demonstrate that the same strategy can be used to produce orthorhombic SnSe nanostructures and nanomaterials. NPLs are grown through a screw dislocation‐driven mechanism. This mechanism typically results in pyramidal structures, but we demonstrate here that the growth from multiple dislocations results in flower‐like structures. Crystallographically textured SnSe2 bulk nanomaterials obtained from the hot pressing of these SnSe2 structures display highly anisotropic charge and heat transport properties and thermoelectric (TE) figures of merit limited by relatively low electrical conductivities. To improve this parameter, SnSe2 NPLs are blended here with metal nanoparticles. The electrical conductivities of the blends are significantly improved with respect to bare SnSe2 NPLs, what translates into a three‐fold increase of the TE Figure of merit, reaching unprecedented ZT values up to 0.65. Thermoelectrics: A fast and simple solution‐based method is presented to synthesize flower‐like SnSe2 nanostructures and crystallographically textured SnSe2 nanomaterials, which display highly anisotropic charge and heat transport properties. Unprecedented thermoelectric performance of SnSe2 is achieved through modulation doping by combining SnSe2 nanoplates with metal nanoparticles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Periploca forrestii Schltr has been used as a Chinese folk medicine for the treatment of rheumatism, arthralgia and fractures. However, the anti-arthritic activity of Periploca forrestii saponin (PFS) and the active compound has still not been revealed. This study aimed to investigate the protective effects and mechanisms of PFS on collagen type II (CII) collagen-induced arthritis (CIA) mice. We sought to investigate whether PFS and Periplocin could regulate osteoclastogenesis, and if so, further investigation on its mechanism of action. Methods: Arthritis was induced in female BALB/c mice by CIA method. PFS was administered at a dose of 50 mg/kg body weight once daily for five weeks. The effects of treatment in mice were assessed by histological and biochemical evaluation in sera and paws. Anti-osteoclastogenic action of PFS and Periplocin was identified using an osteoclast formation model induced by RANKL. Results: PFS ameliorated paw erythema and swelling, inhibited bone erosion in ankle joint histopathological examination. PFS treatment resulted in decreased IgG2a, and increased IgG1 levels in the serum of CIA mice. Decreased TNF-α, and increased interleukin (IL)-4 and IL-22 levels were also found in PFS-treated mice. PFS inhibited the I-κBα phosphorylation, blocked nuclear factor (NF)-κB/p65 phosphorylation and abrogated AP-1/c-Fos activity. PFS downregulated toll-like receptor (TLR) 4, STAT3 and MMP-9 expression in CIA mice and RANKL-induced osteoclastogenesis. PFS and Periplocin inhibited RANKL-induced osteoclast formation in a dose dependent manner within nongrowth inhibitory concentration, and PFS decreased osteoclastogenesis-related marker expression, including cathepsin K and MMP-9. Conclusion: This study revealed that the protective mechanism of PFS on CIA was associated with regulatory effects on proinflammatory factors and further on the crosstalk between NF-κB and c-Fos/AP-1 in vivo and in vitro. Therefore, PFS is a promising therapeutic alternative for the treatment of RA, evidencing the need to conduct further studies that can identify their active components in treating and preventing RA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The photodehydrogenation of ethanol is a sustainable and potentially cost-effective strategy to produce hydrogen and acetaldehyde from renewable resources. The optimization of this process requires the use of highly active, stable and selective photocatalytic materials based on abundant elements and the proper adjustment of the reaction conditions, including temperature. In this work, Cu2O-TiO2 type-II heterojunctions with different Cu2O amounts are obtained by a one-pot hydrothermal method. The structural and chemical properties of the produced materials and their activity toward ethanol photodehydrogenation under UV and visible light illumination are evaluated. The Cu2O-TiO2 photocatalysts exhibit a high selectivity toward acetaldehyde production and up to tenfold higher hydrogen evolution rates compared to bare TiO2. We further discern here the influence of temperature and visible light absorption on the photocatalytic performance. Our results point toward the combination of energy sources in thermo-photocatalytic reactors as an efficient strategy for solar energy conversion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article talks about the coastline change which is a result of natural process, anthropogenic interference that includes change in sea level, storm surge, river damming and land reclamation. It talks about monitoring the coastline changes that helps us to know the coastal factors, developments that includes numerical investigation and remote sensing enabling to track the coastal erosion and changes.