Mediation and Experiential Learning: How a Mediation Clinic Can Inform a Law-based Curriculum

The perception that students of Law and Legal Studies should learn about a variety of methods of dispute resolution and not just litigation, has prompted the Department of Law and Criminal Justice Studies at Canterbury Christ Church University in Kent UK to establish a mediation clinic as a focus for undergraduate experiential learning. This article will consider the importance of discipline based research and the integration of clinical legal education within the core curriculum, the benefits offered by a combined live and simulated curricula approach in the context of mediation and the importance of providing a practical input during the academic stage of legal education

P5_6 A Race in Space

By comparing solar and laser radiation sources, each driving a nano-satellite of mass 1 gram, we find that the solar sail is more advantageous up to 9.5 AU, and the laser sail is better beyond this distance. We also find that the laser sail has a constant acceleration throughout, but the solar sail acceleration decreases at a velocity of 150,000 ms-1

Modeling Life as Cognitive Info-Computation

This article presents a naturalist approach to cognition understood as a network of info-computational, autopoietic processes in living systems. It provides a conceptual framework for the unified view of cognition as evolved from the simplest to the most complex organisms, based on new empirical and theoretical results. It addresses three fundamental questions: what cognition is, how cognition works and what cognition does at different levels of complexity of living organisms. By explicating the info-computational character of cognition, its evolution, agent-dependency and generative mechanisms we can better understand its life-sustaining and life-propagating role. The info-computational approach contributes to rethinking cognition as a process of natural computation in living beings that can be applied for cognitive computation in artificial systems.Comment: Manuscript submitted to Computability in Europe CiE 201

Small Launch Vehicle (SLV) Concept Development for Affordable Multi-Stage Inline Configurations

No abstract availabl

Prevention of childhood poisoning in the home: overview of systematic reviews and a systematic review of primary studies

Unintentional poisoning is a significant child public health problem. This systematic overview of reviews, supplemented with a systematic review of recently published primary studies synthesizes evidence on non-legislative interventions to reduce childhood poisonings in the home with particular reference to interventions that could be implemented by Children's Centres in England or community health or social care services in other high income countries. Thirteen systematic reviews, two meta-analyses and 47 primary studies were identified. The interventions most commonly comprised education, provision of cupboard/drawer locks, and poison control centre (PCC) number stickers. Meta-analyses and primary studies provided evidence that interventions improved poison prevention practices. Twenty eight per cent of studies reporting safe medicine storage (OR from meta-analysis 1.57, 95% CI 1.22–2.02), 23% reporting safe storage of other products (OR from meta-analysis 1.63, 95% CI 1.22–2.17) and 46% reporting availability of PCC numbers (OR from meta-analysis 3.67, 95% CI 1.84–7.33) demonstrated significant effects favouring the intervention group. There was a lack of evidence that interventions reduced poisoning rates. Parents should be provided with poison prevention education, cupboard/drawer locks and emergency contact numbers to use in the event of a poisoning. Further research is required to determine whether improving poison prevention practices reduces poisoning rates

Acid sensing by the Drosophila olfactory system.

The odour of acids has a distinct quality that is perceived as sharp, pungent and often irritating. How acidity is sensed and translated into an appropriate behavioural response is poorly understood. Here we describe a functionally segregated population of olfactory sensory neurons in the fruitfly, Drosophila melanogaster, that are highly selective for acidity. These olfactory sensory neurons express IR64a, a member of the recently identified ionotropic receptor (IR) family of putative olfactory receptors. In vivo calcium imaging showed that IR64a+ neurons projecting to the DC4 glomerulus in the antennal lobe are specifically activated by acids. Flies in which the function of IR64a+ neurons or the IR64a gene is disrupted had defects in acid-evoked physiological and behavioural responses, but their responses to non-acidic odorants remained unaffected. Furthermore, artificial stimulation of IR64a+ neurons elicited avoidance responses. Taken together, these results identify cellular and molecular substrates for acid detection in the Drosophila olfactory system and support a labelled-line mode of acidity coding at the periphery

Auditory Hallucinations and the Brain’s Resting-State Networks: Findings and Methodological Observations

In recent years, there has been increasing interest in the potential for alterations to the brain’s resting-state networks (RSNs) to explain various kinds of psychopathology. RSNs provide an intriguing new explanatory framework for hallucinations, which can occur in different modalities and population groups, but which remain poorly understood. This collaboration from the International Consortium on Hallucination Research (ICHR) reports on the evidence linking resting-state alterations to auditory hallucinations (AH) and provides a critical appraisal of the methodological approaches used in this area. In the report, we describe findings from resting connectivity fMRI in AH (in schizophrenia and nonclinical individuals) and compare them with findings from neurophysiological research, structural MRI, and research on visual hallucinations (VH). In AH, various studies show resting connectivity differences in left-hemisphere auditory and language regions, as well as atypical interaction of the default mode network and RSNs linked to cognitive control and salience. As the latter are also evident in studies of VH, this points to a domain-general mechanism for hallucinations alongside modality-specific changes to RSNs in different sensory regions. However, we also observed high methodological heterogeneity in the current literature, affecting the ability to make clear comparisons between studies. To address this, we provide some methodological recommendations and options for future research on the resting state and hallucinations

The homeodomain factor Gbx1 is required for locomotion and cell specification in the dorsal spinal cord

Dorsal horn neurons in the spinal cord integrate and relay sensory information to higher brain centers. These neurons are organized in specific laminae and different transcription factors are involved in their specification. The murine homeodomain Gbx1 protein is expressed in the mantle zone of the spinal cord at E12.5-13.5, correlating with the appearance of a discernable dorsal horn around E14 and eventually defining a narrow layer in the dorsal horn around perinatal stages. At postnatal stages, Gbx1 identifies a specific subpopulation of GABAergic neurons in the dorsal spinal cord. We have generated a loss of function mutation for Gbx1 and analyzed its consequences during spinal cord development. Gbx1−/− mice are viable and can reproduce as homozygous null mutants. However, the adult mutant mice display an altered gait during forward movement that specifically affects the hindlimbs. This abnormal gait was evaluated by a series of behavioral tests, indicating that locomotion is impaired, but not muscle strength or motor coordination. Molecular analysis showed that the development of the dorsal horn is not profoundly affected in Gbx1−/− mutant mice. However, analysis of terminal neuronal differentiation revealed that the proportion of GABAergic inhibitory interneurons in the superficial dorsal horn is diminished. Our study unveiled a role for Gbx1 in specifying a subset of GABAergic neurons in the dorsal horn of the spinal cord involved in the control of posterior limb movement