Extraterritorial Application and Customary Norm Assessment of Non-Refoulement: The Legality of Australia\u27s \u27Turn-Back\u27 Policy

This article considers whether the Commonwealth Government’s border protection policy of turning back asylum seeker boats breaches its international obligation not to refoule refugees, as imposed under the Refugee Convention art 33(1). In addressing this issue the article examines whether art 33(1) applies extraterritorially, and whether a similar obligation has become embedded in customary international law. The conclusions reached are applied to specific situations where Australia has returned refugees

Report on faculty and student evaluation of instructors in direct service teaching at Portland State University Graduate School of Social Work

The classroom as a messenger of learning and awareness is an honored institution. Education promotes the spirit of inquiry. Concurrently, inquiry spearheads research. As students who have spent many hours in a classroom, we have wondered, inquired, into the spirit of the classroom. Our research is devoted to gaining and establishing a series of perspectives as to what occurs in the classroom. Our research is concerned with specific characteristics of the teacher-learner relationship and outcomes of that relationship. Specific characteristics of the student-teacher relationship such as effective communication, clarity of course objectives, or the quality of class lectures, have been explored by the use of an evaluative tool. Outcomes of the teacher-learner relationship such as the achievement of course objectives, and their relevance to Direct Services were also explored. As students in the School of Social Work, we saw dearth of communication between students and their respective professors. By assessing the relative successes of Direct Service Methods classes, and by the processes that are necessary for assessment, we hope to serve students and those who teach them

Documenting sociolinguistic variation in lesser-studied indigenous communities: Challenges and practical solutions

Documenting sociolinguistic variation in lesser-studied languages presents methodological challenges, but also offers important research opportunities. In this paper we examine three key methodological challenges commonly faced by researchers who are outsiders to the community. We then present practical solutions for successful variationist research on indigenous languages and meaningful partnerships with local communities. In particular, we draw insights from our research with Australian languages and indigenous languages of rural China. We also highlight reasons why such lesser-studied languages are crucial to the further advancement of sociolinguistic theory, arguing that the value of the research justifies the effort needed to overcome the methodological difficulty. We find that the challenges of sociolinguistics in these communities sometimes make standard variationist methods untenable, but the methodological solutions we propose can lead to valuable results and community relationships.National Foreign Language Resource Cente

QED as the tensionless limit of the spinning string with contact interaction

QED with spinor matter is argued to correspond to the tensionless limit of spinning strings with contact interactions. The strings represent electric lines of force with charges at their ends. The interaction is constructed from a delta-function on the world-sheet which, although off-shell, decouples from the world-sheet metric. Integrating out the string degrees of freedom with fixed boundary generates the super-Wilson loop that couples spinor matter to electromagnetism in the world-line formalism. World-sheet and world-line, but not spacetime, supersymmetry underpin the model

Standard setting in Australian medical schools

Background: Standard setting of assessment is critical in quality assurance of medical programs. The aims of this study were to identify and compare the impact of methods used to establish the passing standard by the 13 medical schools who participated in the 2014 Australian Medical Schools Assessment Collaboration (AMSAC). Methods: A survey was conducted to identify the standard setting procedures used by participating schools. Schools standard setting data was collated for the 49 multiple choice items used for benchmarking by AMSAC in 2014. Analyses were conducted for nine schools by their method of standard setting and key characteristics of 28 panel members from four schools. Results: Substantial differences were identified between AMSAC schools that participated in the study, in both the standard setting methods and how particular techniques were implemented. The correlation between the item standard settings data by school ranged from − 0.116 to 0.632. A trend was identified for panel members to underestimate the difficulty level of hard items and overestimate the difficulty level of easy items for all methods. The median derived cut-score standard across schools was 55% for the 49 benchmarking questions. Although, no significant differences were found according to panel member standard setting experience or clinicians versus scientists, panel members with a high curriculum engagement generally had significantly lower expectations of borderline candidates (p = 0.044). Conclusion: This study used a robust assessment framework to demonstrate that several standard setting techniques are used by Australian medical schools, which in some cases use different techniques for different stages of their program. The implementation of the most common method, the Modified Angoff standard setting approach was found to vary markedly. The method of standard setting used had an impact on the distribution of expected minimally competent student performance by item and overall, with the passing standard varying by up to 10%. This difference can be attributed to the method of standard setting because the ASMSAC items have been shown over time to have consistent performance levels reflecting similar cohort ability. There is a need for more consistency in the method of standard setting used by medical schools in Australia

SP-100 reactor with Brayton conversion for lunar surface applications

Examined here is the potential for integrating Brayton-cycle power conversion with the SP-100 reactor for lunar surface power system applications. Two designs were characterized and modeled. The first design integrates a 100-kWe SP-100 Brayton power system with a lunar lander. This system is intended to meet early lunar mission power needs while minimizing on-site installation requirements. Man-rated radiation protection is provided by an integral multilayer, cylindrical lithium hydride/tungsten (LiH/W) shield encircling the reactor vessel. Design emphasis is on ease of deployment, safety, and reliability, while utilizing relatively near-term technology. The second design combines Brayton conversion with the SP-100 reactor in a erectable 550-kWe powerplant concept intended to satisfy later-phase lunar base power requirements. This system capitalizes on experience gained from operating the initial 100-kWe module and incorporates some technology improvements. For this system, the reactor is emplaced in a lunar regolith excavation to provide man-rated shielding, and the Brayton engines and radiators are mounted on the lunar surface and extend radially from the central reactor. Design emphasis is on performance, safety, long life, and operational flexibility

The micromechanics of the superficial zone of articular cartilage.

Journal ArticleOBJECTIVE: To investigate the relationships between the unique mechanical and structural properties of the superficial zone of articular cartilage on the microscopic scale. DESIGN: Fresh unstained equine metacarpophalangeal cartilage samples were mounted on tensile and compressive loading rigs on the stage of a multiphoton microscope. Sequential image stacks were acquired under incremental loads together with simultaneous measurements of the applied stress and strain. Second harmonic generation was used to visualise the collagen fibre network, while two photon fluorescence was used to visualise elastin fibres and cells. The changes visualised by each modality were tracked between successive loads. RESULTS: The deformation of the cartilage matrix was heterogeneous on the microscopic length scale. This was evident from local strain maps, which showed shearing between different regions of collagen under tensile strain, corrugations in the articular surface at higher tensile strains and a non-uniform distribution of compressive strain in the axial direction. Chondrocytes elongated and rotated under tensile strain and were compressed in the axial direction under compressive load. The magnitude of deformation varied between cells, indicating differences in either load transmission through the matrix or the mechanical properties of individual cells. Under tensile loading the reorganisation of the elastin network differed from a homogeneous elastic response, indicating that it forms a functional structure. CONCLUSIONS: This study highlights the complexity of superficial zone mechanics and demonstrates that the response of the collagen matrix, elastin fibres and chondrocytes are all heterogeneous on the microscopic scale.Arthritis Research U