Trainee Perspectives of the Effectiveness of Active Learning in a Legal Education Context

This article explores whether active learning techniques can be effectively introduced to large group lectures in the context of legal professional training. It is limited to the perspective of the students (trainee solicitors). It is evident from research literature that a student-centred approach in the form of active learning techniques engages students and is considered a more effective form of teaching than the traditional lecturing style generally adopted at higher level education. There is a distinctive gap in the research literature relating to professional education. This article discusses a small scale qualitative study which adopted an action research methodology to determine the effectiveness of active learning techniques in this particular context. The study was confined to the introduction of two particular techniques, an in-class computation exercise and a re-cap technique, to the traditional lecture format. The views of a small focus group of trainee solicitors from the Law Society’s of Ireland Professional Practice Course were engaged. Findings from this study indicate that active learning techniques are effective in achieving learning outcomes from a trainees’ perspective. The author concludes that limitations of the use of the techniques can be overcome. Important directions for future research include in-depth analysis of the effectiveness of the techniques in preparing trainee solicitors for the professional role

Over-Policing and Under-Protecting in American Cities

In recent years there have been numerous protests all over the United States focused on the over-policing of African Americans by law enforcement. Those involved are protesting against a term known as over-policing, the blatant brutality and senseless murders, that have taken place for decades but have been made ever more visible by our modern media channels. “Over-policing allows police to use excessive force and brutalize disenfranchised neighborhoods and target people of color indiscriminately. Ironically, as politicians take a “tough on crime” stance, violence has actually gone down, but police budgets and presence have increased. The American criminal justice system was never based on rehabilitation but punitive and on capitalism” (Lee, 2020). Furthermore, over-policing tactics have been rampant in this country for centuries, “Police brutality is nothing new. In the 1960s, police attacked civil rights protesters with dogs and water hoses in the name of “law and order.” In the 1970s and 80s, it was well-known that the Chicago Police Department engaged in torture tactics. Under Police Commander Jon Burge, over 100 black men were tortured into confessing to crimes they never committed under the guise of a traffic-violation pullover. The lynch mobs of the south were replaced by a law enforcement system that targets and profiles black people for no reason or minor infractions (jaywalking, failure to signal while turning) that result in their injury, incarceration, or death” (Lee, 2020). While these horrible incidents act as a catalyst for powerful movements, they fail to acknowledge the fact that the lack of police presence in African American communities is, just as, if not more harmful than these scattered incidents of police brutality

Best Practice Medication Reconciliation in the Outpatient Setting

Abstract Background: Medication safety is a focus of the Joint Commission’s National Patient Safety Goals and research supports improved medication reconciliation as a strategy to reduce medication errors and adverse drug events. In a busy, outpatient specialty clinic where patients are routinely considered for high-risk pharmaceutical therapies, a consistent medication reconciliation process is essential for patient safety and positive health outcomes. Purpose: To improve consistency of medication reconciliation in this high-risk outpatient setting. Method: Based on a gap analysis between evidence-based and current practice, a quality improvement intervention was implemented to increase patient engagement in the medication reconciliation process. A reminder prompt was added to automated appointment notification calls and staff provided verbal cues to patients along with a printed copy of the medication list for review during the check-in and rooming process. A report was created to capture whether medication reconciliation was completed at the same time as provider-patient visits, and rates of reconciliation completions were calculated. Results: Prior to implementation of this project, medication reconciliation completion rates were calculated at an average of 35.6% over the three months prior. During the six-week intervention period, reconciliation rates improved in the range of 4.4-10.7% over that of the pre-intervention average rate. Medication list completeness and accuracy, however remain a challenge. Conclusion: Increased patient engagement showed a positive effect on medication reconciliation completion rates in the outpatient setting but did not surpass the goal of at least 50% reconciled. Further interventions, including staff training to improve competency in comprehensive, accurate medication reconciliation is warranted

Coffey Park - Is it Worth Rebuilding Homes or Should Fire Victims Look to Modular Housing?

In October 2017, Coffey Park, a neighborhood within the city of Santa Rosa, CA, experienced mass destruction from the Tubbs Fire. Most of the neighborhood was burnt down, leaving fire victims with empty lots that they need to decide what to do with. For the average person, being well versed in the construction process and the different methods that can be used in the recovery process is rare. This paper is a tool to provide those in fire recovery with all of the information they will need in one place. Both modular and traditional stick-built housing are explored in this report as these are the two best options for a fire recovery plan in this area. Through both time and cost analysis, this report will leave Coffey Park residents with the knowledge and confidence they need to make a recovery plan tailored to their needs

Socioeconomic indicators of underweight children during Indonesia's economic crisis

Master of ArtsCenter for Southeast Asian StudiesUniversity of Michiganhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/149072/1/013852784.pd

Constructing Guilt, Obstructing Truth: How the Spectacle of Wrongful Conviction Reveals and Magnifies Fundamental Flaws in the Criminal Justice System

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Social Studies of Bard College

Some Empirical Observations on the Forward Exchange Rate Anomaly

This paper looks at issues surrounding the testing of fractional integration and nonlinearity in relation to the forward exchange rate anomaly of Fama (1984). Recent tests for fractional integration and nonlinearity are discussed and used to investigate the behaviour of three exchange rates and premiums. The findings provide some support for I(1) exchange rates but suggest fractionality for premiums, mixed evidence on cointegration, and a strong possibility of time-wise nonlinearity. Significantly, when the nonlinearity is modelled using a random field regression, the forward anomaly disappears.

Developing a Tourism Opportunity Spectrum Scale

The Recreation Opportunity Spectrum (ROS) has been used in a multitude of recreation planning and management applications, and has led the way for the development of the Water Recreation Opportunity Spectrum (WROS) – its water based counterpart. More recently the Tourism Opportunity Spectrum (TOS) has been identified as a valuable tool for assessing nature-based tourism viability and host community-visitor relationships (Butler and Waldbrook, 2003). This tool relies on important tourism conditions of site access, compatibility of other uses, regimentation, tourism impacts, onsite management, and social perceptions of visitors and hosts. This tool however, has its merits for application, but sometimes suffers from limited practical use in the field. This is in part because there is no field inventory process or measurement protocol like those that have been developed for both ROS and WROS This paper will describe the process of creating a similar field-ready, inventory protocol for TOS, and present the statistical results of the field testing of the instrument. The scale was based off of the components that have been established in the TOS literature, and uses the layout of the WROS inventories as a design guide. After development of the TOS protocol was established, the instrument was then field-tested along the New River in Southwestern Virginia. A series of 10 Separate TOS inventories were conducted by individuals at the same sites during the same time, and results were analyzed for inter-correlations to test for inter-rater reliability. Results of the correlation analysis across raters at various sites indicate that this newly-developed TOS field inventory is correctly capturing the elements of TOS, suggesting a new planning and management tool for nature-based tourism may be emerging

Nonlinearity as an Explanation of the Forward Exchange Rate Anomaly

This paper shows that nonlinearity can provide an explanation for the forward exchange rate anomaly (Fama, 1984). Using sterling-Canadian dollar data, and modelling nonlinearity of unspecified form by means of a random field, we find strong evidence of time-wise nonlinearity and, significantly, obtain parameter estimates that conform with theory to a high degree of precision: the anomaly disappears.Forward exchange rate anomaly; nonlinearity; random field regression