Assessment and learning : the impact of professional body requirements

This paper is the result of personal reflection that I undertook during the course of a professional development programme at London Metropolitan University. It was also written days after the University’s Legal Practice Course (LPC) had received its triennial, three-day monitoring visit by the Law Society. During that visit I had to represent the course and present our teaching, curriculum and assessment rationales. However, it is perhaps a misnomer to refer to our ‘assessment rationale’ because while we may develop our own learning outcomes and tweak the curriculum, the Law Society prescribes assessment instruments and criteria. I assumed I would be able to engage in a stimulating debate with the Law Society by plotting our course’s progress with reference to current developments in teaching and learning. However, I emerged from the meetings with the feeling that the assessors did not appreciate what I was talking about. They appear to rely on assessment checklists based upon decades-old narratives and the now prevalent concept of ‘deep-learning’ did not seem to resonate with them

Review essay: Disentangling feminisms from the cold war

Feminist thinkers have long argued for the centrality of sexuality, gender and women to the Cold War. They have critiqued the sexual language of ‘deep penetration’ and ‘orgasmic whumps’ used to describe nuclear arms race technology and argued that sexuality and gender were central to high‐level political decision‐making and everyday experiences of the conflict.1 Scholars have also begun to question the inverse relationship: they have used the politics of the Cold War as a lens into the history of feminist knowledge production itself. Kelly Coogan‐Gehr's 2011 monograph, for example, challenges conventional genealogies tracing feminist scholarship in the ‘West’ back to the ‘new social movements’ of the 1960s and to women's movements, in particular.2 She argues Cold War pressures have privileged certain ideologies (neoliberal capitalism) and knowledge producers (white women) at the expense of others (socialism, communism and black feminist thinkers) in the preeminent feminist journal, Signs, since its inception in 1975

Identification and characterization of the dif Site from Bacillus subtilis

Bacteria with circular chromosomes have evolved systems that ensure multimeric chromosomes, formed by homologous recombination between sister chromosomes during DNA replication, are resolved to monomers prior to cell division. The chromosome dimer resolution process in Escherichia coli is mediated by two tyrosine family site-specific recombinases, XerC and XerD, and requires septal localization of the division protein FtsK. The Xer recombinases act near the terminus of chromosome replication at a site known as dif (Ecdif). In Bacillus subtilis the RipX and CodV site-specific recombinases have been implicated in an analogous reaction. We present here genetic and biochemical evidence that a 28-bp sequence of DNA (Bsdif), lying 6° counterclockwise from the B. subtilis terminus of replication (172°), is the site at which RipX and CodV catalyze site-specific recombination reactions required for normal chromosome partitioning. Bsdif in vivo recombination did not require the B. subtilis FtsK homologues, SpoIIIE and YtpT. We also show that the presence or absence of the B. subtilis SPβ-bacteriophage, and in particular its yopP gene product, appears to strongly modulate the extent of the partitioning defects seen in codV strains and, to a lesser extent, those seen in ripX and dif strains

Generalized EC&LSS computer program configuration control

The generalized environmental control and life support system (ECLSS) computer program (G189A) simulation of the shuttle orbiter ECLSS was upgraded. The G189A component model configuration was changed to represent the current PV102 and subsequent vehicle ECLSS configurations as defined by baseline ARS and ATCS schematics. The diagrammatic output schematics of the gas, water, and freon loops were also revised to agree with the new ECLSS configuration. The accuracy of the transient analysis was enhanced by incorporating the thermal mass effects of the equipment, structure, and fluid in the ARS gas and water loops and in the ATCS freon loops. The sources of the data used to upgrade the simulation are: (1) ATCS freon loop line sizes and lengths; (2) ARS water loop line sizes and lengths; (3) ARS water loop and ATCS freon loop component and equipment weights; and (4) ARS cabin and avionics bay thermal capacitance and conductance values. A single G189A combination master program library tape was generated which contains all of the master program library versions which were previously maintained on separate tapes. A new component subroutine, PIPETL, was developed and incorporated into the G189A master program library

Generalized environmental control and life support system computer program (G189A) configuration control, phase 2

A method for updating and maintaining the G189A program library and documentation for all program users is provided. The effort also involves: (1) providing instruction and recommendations for the use and application of the program, (2) developing new subroutines and the logic required for new simulations, (3) supporting special analyses required by CSD, and (4) conduct studies to define and understand the interaction of the shuttle ECLSS and propose payload ECLSS and ECS designs

NEW CURRENTS AND NEW CONCEPTS IN COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

Community/Rural/Urban Development,

Choice or Mimetism in the Decision to Migrate? A European Illustration

This paper examines the role of herd behavior (mimetism) and network effects as determinants of bilateral migration flows to thirteen of the EU-15 countries. Using an adapted gravity model controlling for economic activity, welfare progressivity, geospatial, and historic relationships, the results force us to question the ways in which we explain migration flows. Herd behavior influences positively the flows of migrants to Europe, whereas the existence of network complementarities in the receiving country does not consistently predict and may in some cases reduce the likelihood of immigrant inflows. Moreover, economic activity and particularly labor market conditions play a lesser role in migrants’ choice of location than was previously thought. The introduction of herd behavior as a determinant of European Migration in our empirical analysis changes the paradigm for understanding migration and suggests that prior definitions of social perceptions are inadequate. Cet article étudie le rôle des comportements mimétiques et des effets de réseaux dans les décisions de migration vers treize pays de l’Union européenne. En utilisant un modèle de gravité adapté à cette question et incluant des indicateurs mesurant l’activité économique, le progrès social, et les relations historiques, les résultats de cette étude précisent les méthodes traditionnelles d’évaluation des flux migratoires. Les comportements mimétiques influencent positivement les flux migratoires vers l’Europe, alors que les effets de réseaux dans le pays hôte ne prédisent pas de façon toujours satisfaisante les flux d’immigration. De plus, l’activité économique, et en particulier les conditions du marché du travail, jouent un rôle moindre que ceux mis en évidence dans des études précédentes. La prise en compte des comportements mimétiques en tant que déterminant des flux migratoires en Europe vient donc changer le paradigme pour l’étude des flux migratoires.migration, herd behavior, network effects, flux migratoires, comportements mimétiques, effets de réseaux