Settlement offers on appeal : when might costs be awarded on the indemnity basis?

In Roberts v Prendergast [2013] QCA 89 the respondent had offered to settle the appeal, purporting to make the offer under Chapter 9 Part 5 of the Uniform Civil Procedure Rules 1999 (Qld) (UCPR). Differing views were expressed in the Court of Appeal regarding the impact in the circumstances of the offer to settle, with the majority concluding that the appellant should pay the respondent’s costs on the standard basis.

A clear view of costs ‘of and incidental to’ : Mio Art Pty Ltd v Macequest (No.2) Pty Ltd [2013] QSC 271

In Mio Art Pty Ltd v Macequest (No.2) Pty Ltd [2013] QSC 271 Jackson J provided considered analysis of several aspects of costs law. His Honour regarded various orders which are commonly sought or made as reflecting practice that is inappropriate or unnecessary under the Uniform Civil Procedure Rules 1999 (Qld) (UCPR).

An exploratory study of child-feeding practices of Indian mothers with children aged 1-5 years residing in Australia and Mumbai, India

This research has taken the first step to study child-feeding practices of Indian mothers in relation to childhood obesity. It compares feeding practices of Indian mothers with children aged 1-5 years living in Australia and Mumbai. Mothers in the Australian sample were more likely to use 'positive' feeding practices hypothesized to promote healthy growth and weight status. However, mothers in both samples commonly used coercive feeding practices that potentially increase the risk of childhood obesity. These results will inform interventions designed to promote healthy weight status in this cultural group.

Metabolomic analysis of siderophore cheater mutants reveals metabolic costs of expression in uropathogenic escherichia coli

Bacterial siderophores are a group of chemically diverse, virulence-associated secondary metabolites whose expression exerts metabolic costs. A combined bacterial genetic and metabolomic approach revealed differential metabolomic impacts associated with biosynthesis of different siderophore structural families. Despite myriad genetic differences, the metabolome of a cheater mutant lacking a single set of siderophore biosynthetic genes more closely approximate that of a nonpathogenic K12 strain than its isogenic, uropathogen parent strain. Siderophore types associated with greater metabolomic perturbations are less common among human isolates, suggesting that metabolic costs influence success in a human population. Although different siderophores share a common iron acquisition function, our analysis shows how a metabolomic approach can distinguish their relative metabolic impacts in E.coli.

'Too high in human terms' : the costs of high security imprisonment. Review of Imprisoning Resistance by Bree Carlton and Intractable by Bernie Matthews.

The article discusses the issues of resistance; that is resistance by prisoners to the various manifestations of power operating in high security prisons, as well as that of attempted shifts in the regime from physical to psychological control. Other topics highlighted include legitimacy and 'official discourse', mourning and the construction of 'ungrievable lives' and the importance of finding a way out of the cycle of violence, which high security regimes perpetuate.

From "Secondary Punishment" to "Supermax" : the human costs of high-security regimes in Australia

“Supermax” prisons, conceived by the United States in the early 1980s, are typically reserved for convicted political criminals such as terrorists and spies and for other inmates who are considered to pose a serious ongoing threat to the wider community, to the security of correctional institutions, or to the safety of other inmates. Prisoners are usually restricted to their cells for up to twenty-three hours a day and typically have minimal contact with other inmates and correctional staff. Not only does the Federal Bureau of Prisons operate one of these facilities, but almost every state has either a supermax wing or stand-alone supermax prison. The Globalization of Supermax Prisons examines why nine advanced industrialized countries have adopted the supermax prototype, paying particular attention to the economic, social, and political processes that have affected each state. Featuring essays that look at the U.S.-run prisons of Abu Ghraib and Guantanemo, this collection seeks to determine if the American model is the basis for the establishment of these facilities and considers such issues as the support or opposition to the building of a supermax and why opposition efforts failed; the allegation of human rights abuses within these prisons; and the extent to which the decision to build a supermax was influenced by developments in the United States. Additionally, contributors address such domestic matters as the role of crime rates, media sensationalism, and terrorism in each country’s decision to build a supermax prison.

Ghost hunting with lollies, chess and Lego : appreciating the ‘messy’ complexity (and costs) of doing difficult research in education

This paper contributes to conversations about the funding and quality of education research. The paper proceeds in two parts. Part I sets the context by presenting an historical analysis of funding allocations made to Education research through the ARC’s Discovery projects scheme between the years 2002 and 2014, and compares these trends to allocations made to another field within the Social, Behavioural and Economic Sciences assessment panel: Psychology and Cognitive Science. Part II highlights the consequences of underfunding education research by presenting evidence from an Australian Research Council Discovery project that is tracking the experiences of disaffected students who are referred to behaviour schools. The re-scoping decisions that became necessary and the incidental costs that accrue from complications that occur in the field are illustrated and discussed through vignettes of research with “ghosts” who don’t like school but who do like lollies, chess and Lego.

Psychosocial factors associated with controlling feeding practices of Indian and Australian-Indian mothers

This cross-sectional study examined the association between psychosocial factors (mothers’ perception of own and child weight, maternal self-efficacy in feeding and involvement of the mother-in-law in child-feeding) and controlling feeding practices (monitoring, restriction, pressure to eat and passive feeding). Participants were 531 affluent-Indian mothers in Australia and Mumbai with children aged 1-5 years. The psychosocial variables and feeding practices were measured using a combination of previously validated scales and study-developed items/scales. Multivariable regression analyses were stratified by sample (Australia and Mumbai) to investigate psychosocial factors related to the feeding practices, adjusting for covariates. Self-efficacy in feeding was associated with each of the feeding practices in at least one of the samples (β values between 0.1-0.2, p= 0.04-0.005). The greater involvement of the mother-in-law in child-feeding was related to the higher use of restriction in both samples (β values ≥0.2, p=0.02). In contrast, maternal weight perceptions were not consistently associated with feeding practices in either sample. The findings highlighted that unique (self-efficacy in feeding) and culturally-specific (involvement of the mother-in-law) variables not extensively researched within the context of child-feeding were important factors associated with Indian mothers’ feeding practices. Greater consideration of these factors may be required when tailoring child-feeding interventions for Indian mothers.

Stepwise engineering of a Pichia pastoris D-amino acid oxidase whole cell catalyst

Trigonopsis variabilis D-amino acid oxidase (TvDAO) is a well characterized enzyme used for cephalosporin C conversion on industrial scale. However, the demands on the enzyme with respect to activity, operational stability and costs also vary with the field of application. Processes that use the soluble enzyme suffer from fast inactivation of TvDAO while immobilized oxidase preparations raise issues related to expensive carriers and catalyst efficiency. Therefore, oxidase preparations that are more robust and active than those currently available would enable a much broader range of economically viable applications of this enzyme in fine chemical syntheses. A multi-step engineering approach was chosen here to develop a robust and highly active Pichia pastoris TvDAO whole-cell biocatalyst. As compared to the native T. variabilis host, a more than seven-fold enhancement of the intracellular level of oxidase activity was achieved in P. pastoris through expression optimization by codon redesign as well as efficient subcellular targeting of the enzyme to peroxisomes. Multi copy integration further doubled expression and the specific activity of the whole cell catalyst. From a multicopy production strain, about 1.3 x 103 U/g wet cell weight (wcw) were derived by standard induction conditions feeding pure methanol. A fed-batch cultivation protocol using a mixture of methanol and glycerol in the induction phase attenuated the apparent toxicity of the recombinant oxidase to yield final biomass concentrations in the bioreactor of >or= 200 g/L compared to only 117 g/L using the standard methanol feed. Permeabilization of P. pastoris using 10% isopropanol yielded a whole-cell enzyme preparation that showed 49% of the total available intracellular oxidase activity and was notably stabilized (by three times compared to a widely used TvDAO expressing Escherichia coli strain) under conditions of D-methionine conversion using vigorous aeration. Stepwise optimization using a multi-level engineering approach has delivered a new P. pastoris whole cell TvDAO biocatalyst showing substantially enhanced specific activity and stability under operational conditions as compared to previously reported preparations of the enzyme. The production of the oxidase through fed-batch bioreactor culture and subsequent cell permeabilization is high-yielding and efficient. Therefore this P. pastoris catalyst has been evaluated for industrial purposes.

Feeding beliefs and practices of Chinese immigrant mothers : validation of a modified version of the child feeding questionnaire

The Child Feeding Questionnaire (CFQ) developed by Birch and colleagues (2001) is a widely used tool for measuring parental feeding beliefs, attitudes and practices. However, the appropriateness of the CFQ for use with Chinese populations is unknown. This study tested the construct validity of a novel Chinese version of the CFQ using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). Participants included a convenience sample of 254 Chinese-Australian mothers of children aged 1-4 years. Prior to testing, the questionnaire was translated into Chinese using a translation-back-translation method, one item was re-worded to be culturally appropriate, a new item was added (monitoring), and five items that were not age-appropriate for the sample were removed. Based on previous literature, both a 7-factor and an 8-factor model were assessed via CFA. Results showed that the 8-factor model, which separated restriction and use of food rewards, improved the conceptual clarity of the constructs and provided a good fit to the data. Internal consistency of all eight factors was acceptable (Cronbach’s α: .60−.93). This modified 8-factor CFQ appears to be a linguistically and culturally appropriate instrument for assessing feeding beliefs and practices in Chinese-Australian mothers of young children.

Assessment of costs : challenge to validity of client agreement between party entitled to costs and its solicitors

In ASIC v Atlantic 3 Financial (Aust) Pty Ltd [2006] QCA 540 the Queensland Court of Appeal dismissed an appeal from the decision of Mullins J at first instance in ASIC v Atlantic 3 Financial (Aust) Pty LTd [2006] QSC 152, the majority concluding that the client agreement in issue was not inconsistent with s48 of the Queensland Law Society Act 1952.

A lesson in costs recovery

In La Spina v Macdonnells Law [2014] QSC 44 the Queensland Court of Appeal set aside a judgment entered in circumstances where the appellant had not been given the requisite notice of the application under r31 of the Uniform Civil Procedure Rules 1999 (Qld)(UCPR). The court found there had been a denial of natural justice. The court also considered whether in any event the entry of judgment in the circumstances was a proper exercise of the powers which may be exercised on an application for directions under r743H of the UCPR.

Practice and Procedure - offers to settle - no costs benefit if no compromise

In Jones v Millward [2005]QCA76 the Queensland Court of Appeal held that an offer to settle under the UCPR will not attract a costs benefit unless it involves some element of compromise

Indemnity costs - whether indemnity costs can be ordered in Magistrates Court

In Asset Loan Management v Mamap Pty Ltd [2005] QDC 295, McGill DCJ held that costs may be recovered in Magistrates Courts on the indemnity basis. His Honour was satisfied his conclusion in this respect was not precluded by the decision of the Court of Appeal in Beardmore v Franklins Management Services Pty Ltd [2002] QCA 60