Building an Assessment Use Argument for sign language: the BSL Nonsense Sign Repetition Test

In this article, we adapt a concept designed to structure language testing more effectively, the Assessment Use Argument (AUA), as a framework for the development and/or use of sign language assessments for deaf children who are taught in a sign bilingual education setting. By drawing on data from a recent investigation of deaf children's nonsense sign repetition skills in British Sign Language, we demonstrate the steps of implementing the AUA in practical test design, development and use. This approach provides us with a framework which clearly states the competing values and which stakeholders hold these values. As such, it offers a useful foundation for test-designers, as well as for practitioners in sign bilingual education, for the interpretation of test scores and the consequences of their use

Reflections on the four facets of symmetry: how physics exemplifies rational thinking

In contemporary theoretical physics, the powerful notion of symmetry stands for a web of intricate meanings among which I identify four clusters associated with the notion of transformation, comprehension, invariance and projection. While their interrelations are examined closely, these four facets of symmetry are scrutinised one after the other in great detail. This decomposition allows us to examine closely the multiple different roles symmetry plays in many places in physics. Furthermore, some connections with others disciplines like neurobiology, epistemology, cognitive sciences and, not least, philosophy are proposed in an attempt to show that symmetry can be an organising principle also in these fields

The significance of place for contemporary Indigenous identity: The Berajondo case study, southeast Queensland, Australia

The upcoming safety standard ISO/WD 26262 that has been derived from the more general IEC 61508 and adapted for the automotive industry, introduces the concept of a safety case, a scheme that has already been successfully applied in other sectors of industry such as nuclear, defense, aerospace, and railway. A safety case communicates a clear, comprehensive and defensible argument that a system is acceptably safe in its operating context. Although, the standard prescribes that there should be a safety argument, it does not establish detailed guidelines on how such an argument should be organized and implemented, or which artifacts should be provided. In this paper, we introduce a methodology and a tool chain for establishing a safety argument, plus the evidence to prove the argument, as a concrete reference realization of the ISO/WD 26262 for automotive systems. We use the goal structuring notation to decompose and refine safety claims of an emergency braking system (EBS) for trucks into subclaims until they can be proven by evidence. The evidence comes from tracing the safety requirements of the system into their respective development artifacts in which they are realized. Preprint of paper of 26th International Conference on Computer Safety, Reliability and Security, 18 - 21 September 2007, Nuremberg, GermanySoftware TechnologyElectrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Scienc