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Augmented reality (AR) has the capacity to afford a virtual experience that obviates the reliance on using two-dimensional representations of 3D molecules for teaching stereochemistry to undergraduate students. Using a combination of quantitative instruments and qualitative surveys/interviews, this study explored the relationships between students' attitudes, perceived cognitive load, spatial ability, and academic performance when engaging in an asynchronous online stereochemistry activity. Our activity was designed using elements of game-based learning, and integrated AR technologies. The control group was provided with a copy of our activity that used two-dimensional drawings, whereas the AR group completed an activity using the AR technologies. For this cohort of students, results indicated significant improvement in academic performance in both the control and AR groups. The introduction of AR technologies did not result in the AR group outperforming the control group. Participants from both groups displayed significant improvements in spatial ability throughout the research period. Further, a moderate correlation (r[subscript s] = 0.416) between students' spatial ability and academic performance was found. No significant intergroup differences in the perceived cognitive loads of students were observed. A significant difference was observed on one item of the Intellectual Accessibility subscale of the ASCI (V2), Complicated-Simple. We found no correlation for student attitude or cognitive load with academic performance. The findings of this study provide insights for future AR-related studies to explore the role of spatial ability, student attitude, and cognitive load in learning performance.

An educational escape activity was developed, embedding elements of both augmented and immersive virtual reality technologies, in an active learning environment. The mental visualization of abstract concepts can be difficult for students, inhibiting their ability to reason cogently regarding important topics of stereochemistry. Consequently, an educational escape room coupled with immersive technologies can be utilized to foster teamwork and critical thinking while encouraging student interaction with three-dimensional virtual molecular phenomena. Nine participants were recruited from the University of East Anglia to complete the activity. From this first experience, student feedback and subsequent thematic analysis show not only the significant positive impacts on student engagement and learning but also the potential of this paradigm to be adopted as an educational tool.

We elucidate the influence of the system–bath boundary placement within an open quantum system, with emphasis on the two-dimensional electronic spectra, through the application of the hierarchical equations of motion formalism for an exciton system. We apply two different models, the Hamiltonian vibration model (HVM) and bath vibration model (BVM), to a monomer and a homodimer. In the HVM, we specifically include the vibronic states in the Hamiltonian capturing vibronic quenching, whereas in the BVM, all vibrational details are contained within the bath and described by an underdamped spectral density. The resultant spectra are analyzed in terms of energetic peak position and thermodynamic broadening precision in order to evaluate the efficacy of the two models. The HVM produces 2D spectra with accurate peak positional information, while the BVM is well suited to modeling dynamic peak broadening. For the monomer, both models produce equivalent spectra in the limit where additional damping associated with the underdamped vibration in the BVM approaches zero. This is supported by analytical results. However, for the homodimer, the BVM spectra are redshifted with respect to the HVM due to an absence of vibronic quenching in the BVM. The computational efficiency of the two models is also discussed in order to inform us of the most appropriate use of each method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The focus of this work is on a microscopic quantum electrodynamical understanding of cumulative quantum effects in resonance energy transfer occurring in an isotropic and disordered medium. In particular, we consider quantum coherence, defined in terms of interferences between Feynman pathways, and analyze pure-amplitude and phase cross terms that appear in the Fermi golden rule rate equation that results from squaring the matrix element for mediated energy transfer. It is shown that pure-amplitude terms dominate in the near-zone when chromophores are close in proximity to one another (within a few nanometers), and phase cross terms dominate toward the far-zone when phase differences between different Feynman pathways begin to emerge. This can be understood in terms of physical attributes of the mediating photon, whose character becomes more real at long distances, coinciding with vanishing longitudinal components of the field, as transverse components begin to dominate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Non-Markovian effects in open quantum systems are central to understanding spectral lineshape. Here, we quantify the non-Markovianity associated with both overdamped and underdamped vibrations in terms of information flow between the bath and the system and compare this with the broadening and ellipticity of two-dimensional spectra. Using the Breuer Laine Piilo (BLP) measure, we link the well-known stochastic models for spectral lineshape with modern quantum information theory. Specifically, we study the effect of non-Markovianity in a system in contact with underdamped vibrations and examine the differences observed on increasing the damping to the overdamped limit. The open quantum system dynamics are evolved using the hierarchical equations of motion, efficiently terminated with a Markovian cutoff, where separate hierarchies are derived for the underdamped and overdamped environments. It is shown that the BLP measure is quantitatively correlated with the ellipticity of two-dimensional spectra and memory effects are more pronounced in underdamped environments, due to the long-lived feedback of information between the system and its bath, compared to overdamped environments. Environmental signatures in spectral lineshapes emerge as a result of information flow from the bath back into the system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bangura, Abdul Karim (ed.). Islam and Political Economy Systems. San Diego, Calif.: Cognelta, 2011. 176 pp. Impressive! Frustrating! This is how I read Bangura's edited work. But then edited works [...]

Blackburn, Susan, Bianca J. Smith and Siti Syamsiyatun (eds.). Indonesian Islam in a New Era, How Women Negotiate Their Identities. Clayton, Australia: Monash University Press, 2008.211 pp.Flowerings in reviviscent time. [...]

Swain, Ashok (ed.). Islam and Violent Separatism: New Democracies in Southeast Asia. London, U.K.: Kegan Paul Press, 2007. 137 pp.This slim volume comprising five chapters of a total 104 pages [...]

Kingsbury, Damien (ed.). Violence in Between: Conflict and Security in Archipelagic Southeast Asia. Clayton, Australia: Monash University Press and Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asia Studies, 2005, 325 pp.Violence throughout archipelagic [...]

A complete report of the ability of the hybrid quantum mechanics molecular mechanics (QM/MM) method to reproduce the electronic distributions in the classical and quantum components of a number of small hybrid QM/MM systems is presented. This method is based on the induced dipole approach but exploits the methodology for calculating potential-derived point charges from the distributed multipole series.

An electronic dynamics method where the time dependence of an external oscillating electric field is the perturbing part of the Hamiltonian is described. Application of the electric field induces charge movement inside the molecule and electronic transitions between the molecular orbitals.