Concepts in Computer Aided Essay Assessment: Improving Consistency by Monitoring the Assessors

This paper focuses on a traditional educational skill, namely the assessment of student work. Whereas ICT has left a considerable mark on, for instance, the administrative support of educational activities and on the use of legal sources, other parts of legal training have seen almost no alterations in the past few decades. One such area is the grading of essay or open question student assignments. The CODAS Text Grader tool, described here, can be used to alleviate the task of marking this type of student work. Teachers still have an essential role with this. What changes is the ‘level’ at which the assessment of the student work takes place: from individual to survey, from marking to ranking. The CODAS software can also be used for a related task: it can assess the assessors. It contains functions to assess – and if necessary correct – the marks for comparable essays awarded by one specific teacher or even by a team of several teachers. Bringing transparency to the process of grading can only be of benefit to the education system.This paper was originally published in the proceedings of the 2005 BILETA conference (Belfast, 6-9 April 2005)

De maatschappelijke urgentie van juridisch kennismanagement

Juristen verrichten hun werk in een samenleving die sterk aan veranderingen onderhevig is. Technologie, met name op het gebied van informatieverwerking, speelt bij die veranderingen een belangrijke rol. Er bestaat de laatste jaren veel aandacht voor het omgaan met informatie en kennis. De begrippen informatiemanagement en vooral kennismanagement spelen daarbij een telkens terugkerende rol. Kennis is in veel organisaties van strategisch belang voor de bedrijfsvoering geworden. Daarom kan kennismanagement evenmin als algemeen management decentraal worden uitgevoerd. Een en ander heeft ook voor juristen gevolgen. Zij dienen zich te verdiepen in de grondbeginselen en toepassingen van kennismanagement, maar ook in die van algemeen management. Deze bewering wordt in dit rapport nader onderbouwd aan de hand van een analyse van een aantal maatschappelijke ontwikkelingen. Telkens wordt daarbij het belang voor juristen die werkzaam zijn in verschillende functies aangegeven

Stilling basin optimization for a combined inlet-outlet sluice in the framework of the Sigmaplan

Within the framework of the so-called Actualised Sigmaplan, i.e. the masterplan to create a sustainable Schelde estuary, flood control areas (FCA) are setup in well-chosen polders along the tidal part of the river Scheldeand its tributaries. In some of these FCAs a semi-diurnal, controlled reduced tide (CRT) is introduced, by means of simple inlet and outlet sluices. Nowadays, it is preferred to combine in- let and outlet sluices in one single structure, in which the inlet culverts are situated on top of the outlet culverts. At inflow, energy is dissipated by means of a vertical drop and a stilling basin. In this paper, results are presented of a physical model study (scale 1:8) aiming at the optimization of the inlet configuration, i.e. the stilling basin, starting from the desktop design of the in- and outlet construction for FCACRT Bergenmeersen

<i>Melav2</i>, an <i>elav</i>-like gene, is essential for spermatid differentiation in the flatworm <i>Macrostomum lignano</i>

BackgroundFailure of sperm differentiation is one of the major causes of male sterility. During spermiogenesis, spermatids undergo a complex metamorphosis, including chromatin condensation and cell elongation. Although the resulting sperm morphology and property can vary depending on the species, these processes are fundamental in many organisms. Studying genes involved in such processes can thus provide important information for a better understanding of spermatogenesis, which might be universally applied to many other organisms.ResultsIn a screen for genes that have gonad-specific expression we isolated an elav-like gene, melav2, from Macrostomum lignano, containing the three RNA recognition motifs characteristic of elav-like genes. We found that melav2 mRNA was expressed exclusively in the testis, as opposed to the known elav genes, which are expressed in the nervous system. The RNAi phenotype of melav2 was characterized by an aberrant spermatid morphology, where sperm elongation often failed, and an empty seminal vesicle. Melav2 RNAi treated worms were thus male-sterile. Further analysis revealed that in melav2 RNAi treated worms precocious chromatin condensation occurred during spermatid differentiation, resulting in an abnormally tightly condensed chromatin and large vacuoles in round spermatids. In addition, immunostaining using an early-spermatid specific antibody revealed that melav2 RNAi treated worms had a larger amount of signal positive cells, suggesting that many cells failed the transition from early spermatid stage.ConclusionWe characterize a new function for elav-like genes, showing that melav2 plays a crucial role during spermatid differentiation, especially in the regulation of chromatin condensation and/or cell elongation