Power in legal education : a (new) critical and analytical approach

This article explores power within legal education scholarship. It suggests that power relations are not effectively reflected on within this scholarship, and it provokes legal educators to consider power more explicitly and effectively. It then outlines in-depth a conceptual and methodological approach based on Michel Foucault’s concept of ‘governmentality’ to assist in such an analysis. By detailing the conceptual moves required in order to research power in legal education more effectively, this article seeks to stimulate new reflection and thought about the practice and scholarship of legal education, and allow for political interventions to become more ethically sensitive and potentially more effective.

A novel CDVM based high-voltage converter using low power solid-state switches and a tuned resonant circuit designed for pulsed power applications

A novel concept of producing high dc voltage for pulsed-power applications is proposed in this paper. The topology consists of an LC resonant circuit supplied through a tuned alternating waveform that is produced by an inverter. The control scheme is based on the detection of variations in the resonant frequency and adjustment of the switching signal patterns for the inverter to produce a square waveform with exactly the same frequencies. Therefore the capacitor voltage oscillates divergently with an increasing amplitude. A simple one-stage capacitor-diode voltage multiplier (CDVM) connected to the resonant capacitor then rectifies the alternating voltage and gives a dc level equal to twice the input voltage amplitude. The produced high voltage appears then in the form of high-voltage pulses across the load. A basic model is simulated by Simulink platform of MATLAB and the results are included in the paper.

The traditional rationale of the arm’s length approach to transfer pricing : should the separate accounting model be maintained for modern multinational entities?

This article examines the current transfer pricing regime to consider whether it is a sound model to be applied to modern multinational entities. The arm's length price methodology is examined to enable a discussion of the arguments in favour of such a regime. The article then refutes these arguments concluding that, contrary to the very reason multinational entities exist, applying arm's length rules involves a legal fiction of imagining transactions between unrelated parties. Multinational entities exist to operate in a way that independent entities would not, which the arm's length rules fail to take into account. As such, there is clearly an air of artificiality in applying the arm's length standard. To demonstrate this artificiality with respect to modern multinational entities, multinational banks are used as an example. The article concluded that the separate entity paradigm adopted by the traditional transfer pricing regime is incongruous with the economic theory of modern multinational enterprises.

Corporate, risk, mining camps and knowledge/power

Australia is currently in the midst of a major resources boom. However the benefits from the boom are unevenly distributed, with state governments collecting billions in royalties, and mining companies billions in profits. The costs are borne mostly at a local level by regional communities on the frontier of the mining boom, surrounded by thousands of men housed in work camps. The escalating reliance on non–resident workers housed in camps carries significant risks for individual workers, host communities and the provision of human services and infrastructure. These include rising rates of fatigue–related death and injuries, rising levels of alcohol–fuelled violence, illegally erected and unregulated work camps, soaring housing costs and other costs of living, and stretched basic infrastructure undermining the sustainability of these towns. But these costs have generally escaped industry, government and academic scrutiny. This chapter directs a critical gaze at the hopelessly compromised industry–funded research vital to legitimating the resource sector’s self–serving knowledge claims that it is committed to social sustainability and corporate responsibility. The chapter divides into two parts. The first argues that post–industrial mining regimes mask and privatise these harms and risks, shifting them on to workers, families and communities. The second part links the privatisation of these risks with the political economy of privatised knowledge embedded in the approvals process for major resource sector projects.

International transfer pricing : the Australian approach and lessons for Canada

In response to developments in international trade and an increased focus on international transfer-pricing issues, Canada’s minister of finance announced in the 1997 budget that the Department of Finance would undertake a review of the transfer-pricing provisions in the Income Tax Act. On September 11, 1997, the Department of Finance released draft transfer-pricing legislation and Revenue Canada released revised draft Information Circular 87-2R. The legislation was subsequently amended and included in Bill C-28, which received first reading on December 10, 1997. The new rules are intended to update Canada’s international transfer-pricing practices. In particular, they attempt to harmonize the standards in the Income Tax Act with the arm’s-length principle established in the OECD’s transfer pricing guidelines. The new rules also set out contemporaneous documentation requirements in respect of cross-border related-party transactions, facilitate administration of the law by Revenue Canada, and provide for a penalty where transfer prices do not comply with the arm’s-length principle. The Australian tax authorities have similarly reviewed and updated their transfer-pricing practices. Since 1992, the Australian commissioner of taxation has issued three rulings and seven draft rulings directly relating to international transfer pricing. These rulings outline the selection and application of transfer pricing methodologies, documentation requirements, and penalties for non-compliance. The Australian Taxation Office supports the use of advance pricing agreements (APAs) and has expanded its audit strategy by conducting transfer-pricing risk assessment reviews. This article presents a detailed review of Australia’s transfer-pricing policy and practices, which address essentially the same concerns as those at which the new Canadian rules are directed. This review provides a framework for comparison of the approaches adopted in the two jurisdictions. The author concludes that although these approaches differ in some respects, ultimately they produce a similar result. Both regimes set a clear standard to be met by multinational enterprises in establishing transfer prices. Both provide for audits and penalties in the event of noncompliance. And both offer the alternative of an APA as a means of avoiding transfer-pricing disputes with Australian and Canadian tax authorities.

Small-signal stability analysis of a DFIG-based wind power system under different modes of operation

This paper focuses on the super/subsynchronous operation of the doubly fed induction generator (DFIG) system. The impact of a damping controller on the different modes of operation for the DFIG-based wind generation system is investigated. The coordinated tuning of the damping controller to enhance the damping of the oscillatory modes using bacteria foraging technique is presented. The results from eigenvalue analysis are presented to elucidate the effectiveness of the tuned damping controller in the DFIG system. The robustness issue of the damping controller is also investigated.

Induction motor load impact on power system eigenvalue sensitivity analysis

Load modelling plays an important role in power system dynamic stability assessment. One of the widely used methods in assessing load model impact on system dynamic response is parametric sensitivity analysis. A composite load model-based load sensitivity analysis framework is proposed. It enables comprehensive investigation into load modelling impacts on system stability considering the dynamic interactions between load and system dynamics. The effect of the location of individual as well as patches of composite loads in the vicinity on the sensitivity of the oscillatory modes is investigated. The impact of load composition on the overall sensitivity of the load is also investigated.

The power of malicious gossip

This paper focuses on malicious workplace gossip from the perspective of those targeted by this dark form of organisational communication. Findings from a large exemplarian action research project are reported that suggest malicious gossip can be an influential form of power that strongly contributes to counterproductive organisational behaviour. The discussion draws upon the emergent themes from the research to highlight the negative consequences of malicious gossip for those targeted and their organisations, and in so doing, elaborates on the phenomenon of workplace mobbing. This research highlights the importance of recognising gossip as an effective, though dark, form of power and the value of rational discourse for improving organisational communication.

Analysis and correction of voltage profile in low voltage distribution networks containing photovoltaic cells and electric vehicles

Voltage drop and rise at network peak and off–peak periods along with voltage unbalance are the major power quality problems in low voltage distribution networks. Usually, the utilities try to use adjusting the transformer tap changers as a solution for the voltage drop. They also try to distribute the loads equally as a solution for network voltage unbalance problem. On the other hand, the ever increasing energy demand, along with the necessity of cost reduction and higher reliability requirements, are driving the modern power systems towards Distributed Generation (DG) units. This can be in the form of small rooftop photovoltaic cells (PV), Plug–in Electric Vehicles (PEVs) or Micro Grids (MGs). Rooftop PVs, typically with power levels ranging from 1–5 kW installed by the householders are gaining popularity due to their financial benefits for the householders. Also PEVs will be soon emerged in residential distribution networks which behave as a huge residential load when they are being charged while in their later generation, they are also expected to support the network as small DG units which transfer the energy stored in their battery into grid. Furthermore, the MG which is a cluster of loads and several DG units such as diesel generators, PVs, fuel cells and batteries are recently introduced to distribution networks. The voltage unbalance in the network can be increased due to the uncertainties in the random connection point of the PVs and PEVs to the network, their nominal capacity and time of operation. Therefore, it is of high interest to investigate the voltage unbalance in these networks as the result of MGs, PVs and PEVs integration to low voltage networks. In addition, the network might experience non–standard voltage drop due to high penetration of PEVs, being charged at night periods, or non–standard voltage rise due to high penetration of PVs and PEVs generating electricity back into the grid in the network off–peak periods. In this thesis, a voltage unbalance sensitivity analysis and stochastic evaluation is carried out for PVs installed by the householders versus their installation point, their nominal capacity and penetration level as different uncertainties. A similar analysis is carried out for PEVs penetration in the network working in two different modes: Grid to vehicle and Vehicle to grid. Furthermore, the conventional methods are discussed for improving the voltage unbalance within these networks. This is later continued by proposing new and efficient improvement methods for voltage profile improvement at network peak and off–peak periods and voltage unbalance reduction. In addition, voltage unbalance reduction is investigated for MGs and new improvement methods are proposed and applied for the MG test bed, planned to be established at Queensland University of Technology (QUT). MATLAB and PSCAD/EMTDC simulation softwares are used for verification of the analyses and the proposals.

'Rebellion in the backland': discourse, truth and power

This article sets out to interpret the construction of truth discourse in the War of Canudos, through the classic 'Rebellion in the backland' by Euclides da Cunha. To enrich the research, the articles wrote by Cunha, while he was a war correspondent for the Estado de São Paulo newspaper, will be analyzed, too. Along with the text, the expression “truth-effects” designed by French philosopher Michel Foucault is being used. “Effects of truth” is an expression in reference to the idea of discourses being neither true nor false. In Os sertões, the effects of truth emerge from strategic power disputes amongst the Church, landowners, politicians and a seaside ruling elite that ignores the reality of the poor and forsaken hinterlands. Keywords: discourse, power, truth.

Experimental studies of wireless communication and GNSS kinematic positioning performance in high-mobility vehicle environments

In order to support intelligent transportation system (ITS) road safety applications such as collision avoidance, lane departure warnings and lane keeping, Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) based vehicle positioning system has to provide lane-level (0.5 to 1 m) or even in-lane-level (0.1 to 0.3 m) accurate and reliable positioning information to vehicle users. However, current vehicle navigation systems equipped with a single frequency GPS receiver can only provide road-level accuracy at 5-10 meters. The positioning accuracy can be improved to sub-meter or higher with the augmented GNSS techniques such as Real Time Kinematic (RTK) and Precise Point Positioning (PPP) which have been traditionally used in land surveying and or in slowly moving environment. In these techniques, GNSS corrections data generated from a local or regional or global network of GNSS ground stations are broadcast to the users via various communication data links, mostly 3G cellular networks and communication satellites. This research aimed to investigate the precise positioning system performances when operating in the high mobility environments. This involves evaluation of the performances of both RTK and PPP techniques using: i) the state-of-art dual frequency GPS receiver; and ii) low-cost single frequency GNSS receiver. Additionally, this research evaluates the effectiveness of several operational strategies in reducing the load on data communication networks due to correction data transmission, which may be problematic for the future wide-area ITS services deployment. These strategies include the use of different data transmission protocols, different correction data format standards, and correction data transmission at the less-frequent interval. A series of field experiments were designed and conducted for each research task. Firstly, the performances of RTK and PPP techniques were evaluated in both static and kinematic (highway with speed exceed 80km) experiments. RTK solutions achieved the RMS precision of 0.09 to 0.2 meter accuracy in static and 0.2 to 0.3 meter in kinematic tests, while PPP reported 0.5 to 1.5 meters in static and 1 to 1.8 meter in kinematic tests by using the RTKlib software. These RMS precision values could be further improved if the better RTK and PPP algorithms are adopted. The tests results also showed that RTK may be more suitable in the lane-level accuracy vehicle positioning. The professional grade (dual frequency) and mass-market grade (single frequency) GNSS receivers were tested for their performance using RTK in static and kinematic modes. The analysis has shown that mass-market grade receivers provide the good solution continuity, although the overall positioning accuracy is worse than the professional grade receivers. In an attempt to reduce the load on data communication network, we firstly evaluate the use of different correction data format standards, namely RTCM version 2.x and RTCM version 3.0 format. A 24 hours transmission test was conducted to compare the network throughput. The results have shown that 66% of network throughput reduction can be achieved by using the newer RTCM version 3.0, comparing to the older RTCM version 2.x format. Secondly, experiments were conducted to examine the use of two data transmission protocols, TCP and UDP, for correction data transmission through the Telstra 3G cellular network. The performance of each transmission method was analysed in terms of packet transmission latency, packet dropout, packet throughput, packet retransmission rate etc. The overall network throughput and latency of UDP data transmission are 76.5% and 83.6% of TCP data transmission, while the overall accuracy of positioning solutions remains in the same level. Additionally, due to the nature of UDP transmission, it is also found that 0.17% of UDP packets were lost during the kinematic tests, but this loss doesn't lead to significant reduction of the quality of positioning results. The experimental results from the static and the kinematic field tests have also shown that the mobile network communication may be blocked for a couple of seconds, but the positioning solutions can be kept at the required accuracy level by setting of the Age of Differential. Finally, we investigate the effects of using less-frequent correction data (transmitted at 1, 5, 10, 15, 20, 30 and 60 seconds interval) on the precise positioning system. As the time interval increasing, the percentage of ambiguity fixed solutions gradually decreases, while the positioning error increases from 0.1 to 0.5 meter. The results showed the position accuracy could still be kept at the in-lane-level (0.1 to 0.3 m) when using up to 20 seconds interval correction data transmission.