Development of a group work assessment pedagogy using constructive alignment theory

The purpose of this paper is to explore group work assessment underpinned by constructive alignment theory to develop a new assessment pedagogy. A review was undertaken of an existing module ‘Mental Health Nursing 1’, with student nurses participating in the BSc (Hons) Nursing Programme. Constructive alignment theory requires teachers to adopt a deep approach to learning where module learning outcomes are aligned with the teaching environment and modes of assessment. As the module progressed, reviewing the Mental Health Nursing 1 module became an excellent opportunity to begin to understand how constructive alignment theory can inform a group work assessment pedagogy. Working using a constructively aligned assessment process became a valuable learning experience for the module leader whilst at the same time revealed a gap in the research around the impact of constructively aligned teaching and group work assessment

Search for new physics in semileptonic B-decays

Semileptonic decays provide an excellent environment for testing the Standard Model (SM). Violation of lepton universality would be a smoking gun for physics beyond the SM. Using semi-tauonic $B$ decays, LHCb finds a value of $\mathcal{R}(D^*) = \mathcal{B}(\bar{B}^0 \to D^{*+} \tau^{-} \bar{\nu}_{\tau})/\mathcal{B}(\bar{B}^0 \to D^{*+} \mu^{-} \bar{\nu}_{\mu}) = 0.336 \pm 0.027 \rm{(stat)} \pm 0.030 \rm{(syst)}$, which is 2.1 standard deviations larger than the value expected from the SM. Moreover, the measurement of the $CP$ asymmetry in mixing of $B_s^0$ mesons is highly sensitive to physics beyond the SM. This article presents the latest result on semileptonic asymmetries; using the full Run 1 dataset, it is found that $a_{\rm{sl}}^s = (0.39 \pm 0.26 \rm{(stat)} \pm 0.20 \rm{(syst)})\%$, which is consistent with the Standard Model.Comment: 6 pages, 8 figures, Contribution to the Proceedings of the 38th International Conference on High Energy Physics, ICHEP 2016, Chicago, IL, US

Yogis, Ayurveda, and Kayakalpa: The Rejuvenation of Pandit Malaviya

How should we read claims about health and well-being which defy common sense? Are claims of extreme longevity to be viewed as fraudulent, or as pushing the boundaries of possibility for the human body? This article will consider the narrative and context around a particularly well-publicized incident of rejuvenation therapy, advertised as kāyakalpa (body transformation or rejuvenation), from 1938. In this year, the prominent Congress Activist and co-founder of Banaras Hindu University, Madan Mohan Malaviya (1861–1946), underwent an extreme – and very public – rejuvenation treatment under the care of a sadhu using the name of Shriman Tapasviji (c.1770?-1955). The first half of the article will explore the presentation of Malaviya’s treatment and how it inspired a focus on rejuvenation therapy within Indian medicine in the years immediately following. Exploring this mid-twentieth century incident highlight some of the themes and concerns of the historical period, just out of living memory, but in many ways similar to our own

Picturing difference: juxtaposition, collage and layering of a multiethnic street

My research is an ethnographic exploration of how cultural and ethnic diversity manifests through regular, face-to-face social contact on the Walworth Road in South London. My focus is the small independent shops along the mile length of this multi-ethnic street and the social and spatial interactions between proprietors and customers within them. While absorbed in an ethnography of everyday life, I searched for ways of understanding the layers of place, time and experience that make this street. As an architect, I had a fascination for how urban space is designed and appropriated, and a predilection for a visual reading of the city. As an inexperienced ethnographer, I had to learn about a much slower process of looking; making time to sit, listen and talk. My research methodology has been influenced by a combination of architectural and ethnographic approaches to how individuals appropriate and re-constitute urban space in the habitual rhythm of their day-to-day lives. In this paper I expand on my ethnographic process of exploring difference through pictures made during fieldwork. I use juxtaposition, collage and layering as both illustrative forms and analytic methods for observing and representing difference

International Adjudication and Custom Breaking by Domestic Courts

This Essay identifies a fundamental but overlooked tension between international adjudication and the evolution of customary international law (CIL). According to the traditional understanding, the evolution of CIL requires one or more states to deviate from existing customary rules and engage in new conduct—a concept that I refer to as custom breaking. A deviation\u27s legal status is determined over time, as other states respond by deciding whether to follow the proposed break or adhere to the existing rule. Therefore, the deviation cannot be classified definitively as either legal or illegal at the time it occurs. During the period of state response, CIL necessarily contains some legal ambiguity and inconsistency. Because an important function of international adjudication involves resolving ambiguities in the law, a central tension emerges: international courts may be called upon to adjudicate a break with CIL before other states have had the opportunity to decide for themselves whether to follow the break. Given that most international courts will invalidate deviations from the status quo, international adjudication risks impeding the traditional process by which CIL evolves. More specifically, international adjudication of cases that involve custom breaking may have both a procedural and a substantive effect: procedurally, it may short-circuit state responses to the break with CIL, and substantively, it may deter states from following the custom breaker, even when the other states are not formally bound by the international judicial decision. To illustrate these constraining effects, this Essay discusses three departures by domestic courts from the foreign sovereign immunity rule. It concludes by proposing that in cases involving custom breaking, international courts should adopt, as Professor Cass Sunstein has argued for U.S. courts, a minimalist approach that produces narrow and shallow decisions. This judicial strategy would give states, including their domestic courts, the opportunity to determine for themselves whether a break with international custom is the beginning of a new legal rule