Preliminary evaluation of a micro-based repeated measures testing system

A need exists for an automated performance test system to study the effects of various treatments which are of interest to the aerospace medical community, i.e., the effects of drugs and environmental stress. The ethics and pragmatics of such assessment demand that repeated measures in small groups of subjects be the customary research paradigm. Test stability, reliability-efficiency and factor structure take on extreme significance; in a program of study by the U.S. Navy, 80 percent of 150 tests failed to meet minimum metric requirements. The best is being programmed on a portable microprocessor and administered along with tests in their original formats in order to examine their metric properties in the computerized mode. Twenty subjects have been tested over four replications on a 6.0 minute computerized battery (six tests) and which compared with five paper and pencil marker tests. All tests achieved stability within the four test sessions, reliability-efficiencies were high (r greater than .707 for three minutes testing), and the computerized tests were largely comparable to the paper and pencil version from which they were derived. This computerized performance test system is portable, inexpensive and rugged

Issues in development, evaluation, and use of the NASA Preflight Adaptation Trainer (PAT)

The Preflight Adaptation Trainer (PAT) is intended to reduce or alleviate space adaptation syndrome by providing opportunities for portions of that adaptation to occur under normal gravity conditions prior to space flight. Since the adaptation aspects of the PAT objectives involve modification not only of the behavior of the trainee, but also of sensiomotor skills which underly the behavioral generation, the defining of training objectives of the PAT utilizes four mechanisms: familiarization, demonstration, training and adaptation. These mechanisms serve as structural reference points for evaluation, drive the content and organization of the training procedures, and help to define the roles of the PAT instructors and operators. It was determined that three psychomotor properties are most critical for PAT evaluation: reliability; sensitivity; and relevance. It is cause for concern that the number of measures available to examine PAT effects exceed those that can be properly studied with the available sample sizes; special attention will be required in selection of the candidate measure set. The issues in PAT use and application within a training system context are addressed through linking the three training related mechanisms of familiarization, demonstration and training to the fourth mechanism, adaptation

A comparison of production processes for OER

In most cases the initial production and publication of OER is undertaken by a University and funded through a special project with grants from external bodies. In this phase, OER are developed both from scratch or derived from existing Higher Education courses. After this project phase, the ongoing development and publication of OER continues and the question of the management and upgrading of the OER comes into focus. The costs of producing and upgrading OER are an important factor in devising a sustainable process. Therefore, it is necessary to develop an efficient process for the continuing production, publication and maintenance of OER. To learn more about influencing factors of production process efficiency we have compared the production processes of two institutions, the Open University UK (OU-UK) and the Open Universiteit Netherlands (OU-NL), both in the initial project phase (OpenLearn for OU-UK and OpenER for OU-NL) and the post initial phase. We aim to identify the differences and commonalities and the influence of these on the efficiency of the production processes. The main difference between the two Universities is the adoption of state-of-the-art (XML) standard to deliver to different channels at OU-UK. At OU-NL this adoption has just started. Valuable lessons learned in the project phase for the post initial phase are clear specification of requirements for selection of an open course and utilization of technologies already being used for regular materials production. Both institutions firstly drew upon the existing expertise and capabilities for educational resource production being used for regular courses. But rather than strictly follow exactly the same process and possibly compromise the more mission critical development of resources for students both institutions chose to experiment or adapt this process to help provide lessons that might be taken back into regular materials production. Once these lessons and experiences had been gained both open universities sought to reduce the costs of dealing with legacy or de novo educational resources by integrating identification, production and publication within the regular curriculum and course development processes

Contracts—Statute of Frauds—Contract not to be Performed Within Year

Zupan v. Blumberg, 2 N.Y.2d 547, 161 N.Y.S.2d 428 (1957)

Taxation—Foreclosure of In Rem Tax Lien

Town of Somers v. Covey, 2 N.Y.2d 250, 140 N.E.2d 277 (1957)

THE EU CHARTER OF FUNDAMENTAL RIGHTS AND THE SUBSISTING COMMITMENTS OF EU MEMBER STATES UNDER THE EUROPEAN CONVENTION ON HUMAN RIGHTS: MORE VARIABLE GEOMETRY

The product of discrete sources and strands, the protection of fundamental rights in Europe has now begun to knit together. The difficulties spring less from widely varying views of what fundamental rights ought to be than from their being played out upon different planes and to different purpose: pan-Europe by virtue of the European Convention on Human Rights, and pan-European Union with its economic (Community) emphasis and partially common law approach combined now with a codified Charter of Fundamental Rights. Perhaps more contentious is the institutional mechanisms by which rights are to be judicially protected, the relatively coherent Convention system and the quasi-appellate jurisdiction of the Court of Human Rights through the right of individual petition, and the Community/Union system which exists in a different dimension yet embraces (or purports to embrace), but is not (yet) formally married to, the Convention – but to which, it is important to remember, the member states are signatory and still subject. The two courts at the heart of this protection, the Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg and the Court of Justice in Luxembourg, have moved slowly into a closer embrace, but each remains subject still to the peculiarities of its jurisdiction, conscious of the practical limits to its authority and wary of the risks of over-confidence and extending itself too far. Recent developments in their case law, brought about especially by the growth of Union activities which escape Luxembourg scrutiny, have brought issues to a head and produced both robustness and deference from Strasbourg. At the same time events are moving on as life is breathed back into the Constitution for Europe, which had proposed one solution, by the draft Reform Treaty, which proposes another. It also goes down the road of yet more variable geometry, a device all too easy as a means of earning agreement in the political arena but often leaving legal chaos in its wake

Bankruptcy-Federal Tax Claims-Accrual of Post-Petition Interest

In 1953 taxpayer filed a petition and was discharged in bankruptcy owing federal withholding and social security taxes for 1951. In 1958 taxpayer became entitled to a refund on his 1953-1954 taxes. The Commissioner applied a portion of this ·refund against the balance of the tax for the year 1951, plus accrued interest to 1958. Taxpayer claimed that he was not liable for the interest which had accrued during the period between the date of petition in bankruptcy and the date of refund. When the Commissioner disallowed his claim, the taxpayer brought an action in district court to recover the disputed portion of the interest. Held, complaint dismissed. Interest on delinquent taxes will accrue against a taxpayer after the filing of a petition in bankruptcy. Bruning v. United States, 192 F. Supp. 826 (S.D. Cal. 1961)

Criminal Law—Parole Violation

People ex rel. Watkins v. Murphy, 3 N.Y.2d 163, 164 N.Y.S.2d 719 (1957)

Taxation—Foreclosure of In Rem Tax Lien

Town of Somers v. Covey, 2 N.Y.2d 250, 140 N.E.2d 277 (1957)