The role of the “Inter-Life” virtual world as a creative technology to support student transition into higher education

The shape of Higher Education (HE) in the UK and internationally is changing, with wider access policies leading to greater diversity and heterogeneity in contemporary student populations world-wide. Students in the 21st Century are often described as “fragmented”; meaning they are frequently working whilst participating in a full time Degree programme. Consequently, those in the HE setting are required to become “future ready” which increasingly involves the seamless integration of new digital technologies into undergraduate programmes of teaching and learning. The present study evaluated the effectiveness of the “Inter-Life” three-dimensional virtual world as a suitable Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL) tool to support the initial stages of transition from school into university. Our results demonstrate that Inter-Life is “fit for purpose” in terms of the robustness of both the educational and technical design features. We have shown that Inter-Life provides a safe space that supports induction mediated by active learning tasks using learner-generated, multi-modal transition tools. In addition, through the provision of private spaces, Inter-Life also supports and fosters the development of critical reflective thinking skills. However, in keeping with the current literature in the field, some of the students expressed a wish for more training in the functional and social skills required to navigate and experience the Inter-Life virtual world more effectively. Such findings resonate with the current debate in the field which challenges the notion of “digital natives”, but the present study has also provided some new evidence to support the role of virtual worlds for the development of a suitable community to support students undergoing transition to university

Casco Northern Bank v. JBI Associates: Imputed Disqualification for Maine\u27s Migratory Lawyer

The practice of law in Maine, as elsewhere in the United States, is changing. Problems that previously have been considered insignificant are more pronounced because of the increase in the number of practicing attorneys. One problem likely to be confronted by Maine lawyers on an increasing basis is that of determining the appropriateness of representing a party against a former client of the lawyer or the lawyer\u27s firm. This problem is complicated by today\u27s competitive job market for lawyers, which forces inexperienced lawyers to switch firms more frequently than in the past. While it is a generally accepted axiom that a lawyer cannot represent a party in a similar matter adverse to the lawyer\u27s previous client, moving from firm to firm (or from a firm to a solo practice) raises a number of other questions regarding the transferring or “migratory” lawyer\u27s responsibilities. Can the lawyer represent interests adverse to the lawyer\u27s former firm\u27s clients if they were not the lawyer\u27s personal clients? Is the lawyer restricted from opposing clients of the former firm even if the lawyer can show that he obtained no information relating to the former client while the lawyer worked at the old firm? If the lawyer is prohibited from representation, are all of the lawyer\u27s new colleagues similarly disqualified? Courts throughout the United States have been struggling to find the “right” answers to these questions for some time. Indeed, since the mid-1950s numerous cases and commentaries have addressed both the policies that underlie certain prohibitions of successive representation and the rules that should guide an attorney\u27s conduct in such situations. Only in the last several years, however, has Maine\u27s highest court been faced with the challenge of determining when a lawyer should be disqualified from representing a client against a party with whom the lawyer has a previous connection. Most recently, in Casco Northern Bank v. JBI Associates, the Maine Supreme Judicial Court, sitting as the Law Court, unanimously upheld a trial judge\u27s disqualification of two attorneys who were seeking to represent a business entity in a suit against the entity\u27s former affiliates. The court held that due to the nature of the lawyers\u27 connection to the previous work done on behalf of all of the parties, the lawyers were now barred from representing one party against the others. The Law Court prohibited the first attorney from representing JBI Associates against its former affiliates in a lease dispute because the attorney had participated in the creation of JBI Associates and an affiliated company that, the court held, was substantially related to the present matter. The second lawyer was disqualified because he previously had been associated with the first lawyer and so was presumed to have received the same confidential information. When determining whether a lawyer\u27s current representation is adverse to a prior representation most courts have utilized the “substantial relationship” test. There is much less agreement regarding when the possession of confidential information should be imputed to the attorney\u27s former or present colleagues

Evaluation of sale forecasting methods : a case study

This study investigated forecasting accuracy for sales. Three quantitative and one qualitative forecasting techniques were tested and two combinational models were generated and evaluated. Three data sets, obtained from a market leader were used to forecast sales. The series represented monthly sales for three years. Three accuracy levels were employed in this study, these are: Mean Absolute Error (MAE), Mean Absolute Percentage Error (MAPE), and Root Mean Square Error (RMSE). Results indicated that the quantitative method outperformed the qualitative method; that combining two or more quantitative methods provide better forecasts than the individual methods; and that combining quantitative and qualitative methods provide more accurate forecasts than the individual qualitative method. Future studies should focus on the reasons for the differences in accuracy achieved by the different forecasting models. In addition, more quantitative and qualitative methods should be investigated using several companies from different industries

ADR salt pill design and crystal growth process for hydrated magnetic salts

A process is provided for producing a salt pill for use in very low temperature adiabatic demagnetization refrigerators (ADRs). The method can include providing a thermal bus in a housing. The thermal bus can include an array of thermally conductive metal conductors. A hydrated salt can be grown on the array of thermally conductive metal conductors. Thermal conductance can be provided to the hydrated salt