Unincorporated associations as entities : a matter of balance between regulation and facilitation?

Small non-profit organisations play a vital role in the creation of social capital and resilience of civil society in Australia. A number of government inquiries have recently been commissioned to propose reform to non-profit enterprise and it is timely to examine the suitability of legal structures available for small non-profit organisations. This article reviews the characteristics of small Australian non-profit organisations and the legal treatment of similar associations in New Zealand, the United Kingdom, Europe, Canada and United States to inform possible reform strategies. Reforms are then proposed for small Australian unincorporated organisations which allow them access to the benefits of separate legal entity status, but with regulation proportionate to the risks posed to the broader community.

Socially responsible investment in market downturns : implications for the fiduciary responsibilities of investment fund trustees

This paper investigates whether Socially Responsible Investment (SRI) is more or less sensitive to market downturns than conventional investment, and examines the legal implications for fund managers and trustees. Using a market model methodology, we find that over the past 15 years, the beta risk of SRI, both in Australia and internationally, increased more than that of conventional investment during economic downturns. This implies that companies acting as fund trustees, managed investment schemes and traditional institutional fund managers risk breaching their fiduciary or statutory duties if they go long - or remain long - in SRI funds during market downturns, unless perhaps relevant legislation is reformed. If reform is viewed as desirable, possible reforms could include explicitly overriding the common law to allow all traditional funds to invest in SRI; granting immunity to directors of trustee companies from potential personal liability under sections 197 or 588G et seq of the Corporations Act; allowing companies acting as trustees, managed investment schemes and traditional institutional fund managers and trustees to invest in SRI without triggering a substantial capital gains tax liability through trust resettlement; tax concessions for SRI (eg. introducing a 150% tax deduction or investment allowance for SRI); and allowing SRI sub-funds to obtain “deductible gift recipient” status or the equivalent from relevant taxation authorities. The research is important and original insofar as the assessment of risk in SRIs during market downturns is an area which has hitherto not been subjected to rigorous empirical investigation, despite its serious legal implications.

Genetic Analysis of Tolerance to Rice Tungro Bacilliform Virus in Rice (Oryza sativa L.) Through Agroinoculation

Balimau Putih [an Indonesian cultivar tolerant to rice tungro bacilliform virus (RTBV)] was crossed with IR64 (RTBV, susceptible variety) to produce the three filial generations F1, F2 and F3. Agroinoculation was used to introduce RTBV into the test plants. RTBV tolerance was based on the RTBV level in plants by analysis of coat protein using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. The level of RTBV in cv. Balimau Putih was significantly lower than that of IR64 and the susceptible control, Taichung Native 1. Mean RTBV levels of the F1, F2 and F3 populations were comparable with one another and with the average of the parents. Results indicate that there was no dominance and an additive gene action may control the expression of tolerance to RTBV. Tolerance based on the level of RTBV coat protein was highly heritable (0.67) as estimated using the mean values of F3 lines, suggesting that selection for tolerance to RTBV can be performed in the early selfing generations using the technique employed in this study. The RTBV level had a negative correlation with plant height, but positive relationship with disease index value

Applying psychological model of personality to the study of leadership

Cloninger’s psychobiological model of temperament and character is a general model of personality that has been widely used in clinical psychology, but has seldom been applied in other domains. In this research we apply Cloninger’s model to the study of leadership. Our study comprised 81 participants who took part in a diverse range of small group tasks. Participants rotated through tasks and groups and rated each other on “emergent leadership.” As hypothesized, leader emergence tended to be consistent regardless of the specific tasks and groups. It was found that personality factors from Cloninger, Svrakic, and Przybeck’s (1993) model could explain trait-based variance in emergent leadership. Results also highlight the role of “cooperativeness” in the prediction of leadership emergence. Implications are discussed in terms of our theoretical understanding of trait-based leadership, and more generally in terms of the utility of Cloninger’s model in leadership research.

Catch me if you can : the effective service of bankruptcy documents in a changing world

This article discusses some recent judicial decisions to assist legal practitioners to overcome some of the problems encountered when serving Bankruptcy Notices and Creditor’s Petitions. Some of the issues covered in the discussion are: What the valid last-known address of the debtor can be, whether a Bankruptcy Notice can be validly served by email on a debtor who is located outside Australia, whether service of a Bankruptcy Notice is valid when the debtor is outside Australia when service on the debtor occurs in Australia, whether the creditor’s failure to obtain leave for service of a Bankruptcy Notice can be excused, what can be done regarding personal service of a Creditor’s Petition when a debtor is outside Australia and whether the Court can set aside a sequestration order. The article goes on to place the issues in the context of broader bankruptcy policies noting that effective service of bankruptcy documents is challenging in a world where mobility of debtors is global and new modes of communication ever changing.

Patient education to prevent falls among older hospital inpatients : a randomized controlled trial

Background Falls are a common adverse event during hospitalization of older adults, and few interventions have been shown to prevent then. Methods This study was a 3-group randomized trial to evaluate the efficacy of 2 forms of multimedia patient education compared with usual care for the prevention of in-hospital falls. Older hospital patients (n = 1206) admitted to a mixture of acute (orthopedic, respiratory, and medical) and subacute (geriatric and neurorehabilitation) hospital wards at 2 Australian hospitals were recruited between January 2008 and April 2009. The interventions were a multimedia patient education program based on the health-belief model combined with trained health professional follow-up (complete program), multi-media patient education materials alone (materials only), and usual care (control). Falls data were collected by blinded research assistants by reviewing hospital incident reports, hand searching medical records, and conducting weekly patient interviews. Results Rates of falls per 1000 patient-days did not differ significantly between groups (control, 9.27; materials only, 8.61; and complete program, 7.63). However, there was a significant interaction between the intervention and presence of cognitive impairment. Falls were less frequent among cognitively intact patients in the complete program group (4.01 per 1000 patient-days) than among cognitively intact patients in the materials-only group (8.18 per 1000 patient-days) (adjusted hazard ratio, 0.51; 95% confidence interval, 0.28-0.93]) and control group (8.72 per 1000 patient-days) (adjusted hazard ratio, 0.43; 95% confidence interval, 0.24-0.78). Conclusion Multimedia patient education with trained health professional follow-up reduced falls among patients with intact cognitive function admitted to a range of hospital wards.

Creating an effective prevention curriculum to reduce transport risks and injuries

Adolescent injury is a significant health concern and can be a result of the adolescents engagement in transport-related behaviours. There is however significant planning and formative research needed to inform prevention programme design. This presentation reports on the development and evaluation of a curriculum programme that was shown to be effective in reducing transport-related risks and injuries. Early adolescents report injuries resulting from a number of transport-related behaviours including those associated with riding a bicycle, a motorcycle, and as a passenger (survey of 209 Year 9 students). In focus groups, students (n=30) were able to describe the context of transport risks and injuries. Such information provided evidence of the need for an intervention and ecologically valid data on which to base programme design including insights into the language, culture and development of adolescents and their experiences with transport risks. Additional information about teaching practices and implementation issues were explored in interviews with 13 teachers. A psychological theory was selected to operationalise the design of the programmes that drew on such preparatory data. The programme, Skills for Preventing Injury in Youth was evaluated with 197 participating and 137 control students (13–14 year olds). Results showed a significant difference between the intervention and control groups from baseline to 6-month follow-up in a number of transport-related risk behaviours and transport-related injuries. The programme thus demonstrated potential in reduce early adolescents transport risk behaviours and associated harm. Discussion will involve the implications of the development research process in designing road safety interventions.

The mediating effects of the time structure on the relationships between time management behaviour, job satisfaction and psychological wellbeing

This article examined the relationship between time structure and Macan's process model of time management. This study proposed that time structure—‘appraisal of effective time usage’—would be a more parsimonious mediator than perceived control over time in the relationship between time management behaviours and outcome variables, such as job satisfaction and psychological well-being. Alternative structure models were compared using a sample of 111 university students. Model 1 tested Macan's process model of time management with perceived control over time as the mediator. Model 2 replaced perceived control over time by the construct of time structure. Model 3 examined the possibility of perceived control over time and time structure as being parallel mediators of the relationships between time management and outcomes. Results of this study showed that Model 1 and Model 2 fitted the data equally well. On the other hand, the mediated effects were small and partial in both models. This pattern of results calls for reassessment of the process model.

Body-site distribution of skin cancer, pre-malignant and common benign pigmented lesions excised in general practice

Background Concern about skin cancer is a common reason for people from predominantly fair-skinned populations to present to primary care doctors. Objectives To examine the frequency and body-site distribution of malignant, pre-malignant and benign pigmented skin lesions excised in primary care. Methods This prospective study conducted in Queensland, Australia, included 154 primary care doctors. For all excised or biopsied lesions, doctors recorded the patient's age and sex, body site, level of patient pressure to excise, and the clinical diagnosis. Histological confirmation was obtained through pathology laboratories. Results Of 9650 skin lesions, 57·7% were excised in males and 75·0% excised in patients ≥50years. The most common diagnoses were basal cell carcinoma (BCC) (35·1%) and squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) (19·7%). Compared with the whole body, the highest densities for SCC, BCC and actinic keratoses were observed on chronically sun-exposed areas of the body including the face in males and females, the scalp and ears in males, and the hands in females. The density of BCC was also high on intermittently or rarely exposed body sites. Females, younger patients and patients with melanocytic naevi were significantly more likely to exert moderate/high levels of pressure on the doctor to excise. Conclusions More than half the excised lesions were skin cancer, which mostly occurred on the more chronically sun-exposed areas of the body. Information on the type and body-site distribution of skin lesions can aid in the diagnosis and planned management of skin cancer and other skin lesions commonly presented in primary care.

Learning the Kernel Matrix with Semi-Definite Programming

Kernel-based learning algorithms work by embedding the data into a Euclidean space, and then searching for linear relations among the embedded data points. The embedding is performed implicitly, by specifying the inner products between each pair of points in the embedding space. This information is contained in the so-called kernel matrix, a symmetric and positive definite matrix that encodes the relative positions of all points. Specifying this matrix amounts to specifying the geometry of the embedding space and inducing a notion of similarity in the input space -- classical model selection problems in machine learning. In this paper we show how the kernel matrix can be learned from data via semi-definite programming (SDP) techniques. When applied to a kernel matrix associated with both training and test data this gives a powerful transductive algorithm -- using the labelled part of the data one can learn an embedding also for the unlabelled part. The similarity between test points is inferred from training points and their labels. Importantly, these learning problems are convex, so we obtain a method for learning both the model class and the function without local minima. Furthermore, this approach leads directly to a convex method to learn the 2-norm soft margin parameter in support vector machines, solving another important open problem. Finally, the novel approach presented in the paper is supported by positive empirical results.

Producing the intercultural citizen in the International Baccalaureate

The International Baccalaureate Diploma (IBD) is currently offered in 2,718 schools across 138 countries, and explicitly aims to produce ‘internationally-minded’ citizens with a sense of belonging to both the local and the global community. It thus offers an opportunity to enquire how a school curriculum might produce more intercultural or global dispositions, knowledge and skills, and the challenges inherent in such design. To frame this empirical enquiry, the chapter distinguishes between the fact of living together in difference as a life circumstance, and a range of ethical dispositions for such living together, including cosmopolitanism, internationalism, interculturality and global citizenship. These alternatives are understood as competing social imaginaries with different premises and logics. This chapter offers an empirical exploration of how the IBD’s curricular goal of ‘international-mindedness’ is interpreted firstly in current official documents, then reinterpreted by teachers and students in three case study schools in Australia. Traces of these overlapping but distinct discourses are found in the teachers’ recontextualisation of the IBD’s ‘internationalmindedness’ producing diffuse and contradictory versions of what ‘internationalmindedness’ means, and looks like in educational settings.

Computational approaches for modelling intrinsic noise and delays in genetic regulatory networks

This chapter focuses on the interactions and roles between delays and intrinsic noise effects within cellular pathways and regulatory networks. We address these aspects by focusing on genetic regulatory networks that share a common network motif, namely the negative feedback loop, leading to oscillatory gene expression and protein levels. In this context, we discuss computational simulation algorithms for addressing the interplay of delays and noise within the signaling pathways based on biological data. We address implementational issues associated with efficiency and robustness. In a molecular biology setting we present two case studies of temporal models for the Hes1 gene (Monk, 2003; Hirata et al., 2002), known to act as a molecular clock, and the Her1/Her7 regulatory system controlling the periodic somite segmentation in vertebrate embryos (Giudicelli and Lewis, 2004; Horikawa et al., 2006).