Predicting time trade-off health state valuations of adolescents in four Pacific countries using the assessment of quality-of-life (AQoL-6D) instrument

Objectives: Pacific Obesity Prevention in Communities (OPIC) is a community-based intervention project targeting adolescent obesity in Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, and Tonga. The Assessment of Quality of Life Mark 2 (AQoL-6D) instrument was completed by 15,481 adolescents to obtain a description of the quality of life associated with adolescent overweight and obesity, and a corresponding utility score for use in a cost–utility analysis of the interventions. This article describes the recalibration of this utility instrument for adolescents in each country.

Methods: The recalibration was based on country-specific time trade-off (TTO) data for 30 multiattribute health states constructed from the AQoL-6D descriptive system. Senior secondary students, in a classroom setting, responded to 10 health state scenarios each. These TTO interviews were conducted for 24 groups, comprising 279 students in the four countries resulting in 2790 completed TTO scores. The TTO scores were econometrically transformed by regressing the TTO scores upon predicted scores from the AQoL-6D to produce country-specific algorithms. The latter incorporated country-specific “corrections” to the Australian adult utility weights in the original AQoL.

Results: This article reports two methodological elements not previously reported. The first is the econometric modification of an extant multi-attribute utility instrument to accommodate cultural and other group-specific differences in preferences. The second is the use of the TTO technique with adolescents in a classroom group setting. Significant differences in utility scores were found between the four countries.

Conclusion: Statistical results indicate that the AQoL-6D can be validly used in the economic evaluation of both the OPIC interventions and other adolescent programs.

How information technology can support family law and mediation

In Australia, before a divorcing couple can have their case heard by the Family Court, they must undertake mediation. Thus it is useful to develop information technology tools to support negotiation and mediation in family law. Most negotiation support systems focus upon integrative bargaining. In doing so, they tend to ignore issues of fairness. In Australian Family Law, the interests of the children, as opposed to those of their parents/guardians, are paramount. We investigate the use of providing BATNAs and integrative bargaining in providing family mediation decision support. The discussion is highlighted with examples taken from the domain of Australian Family Law

AssetDivider : a new mediation tool in Australian family law

This article describes research in a new theory of decision support in negotiation in family law mediation. AssetDivider was based on the principles of Family_Winner. As a Negotiation Decision Support System Family_Winner takes ratings assigned to items by the parties involved and develops a list of allocations to each party; based on trade-offs inherently present in the dispute. Given advice provided from our industry partners Relationships Australia (Queensland) - RAQ, AssetDivider uses an ideal “percentage split” to guide the development of an allocation list for parties. The system has been tested informally by our contacts at RAQ, and we now look forward to extensive testing and evaluation by mediators at RAQ in the near future. We hope to report on a comprehensive evaluation which will report on the effectiveness of this program in practice.

Trade-off manipulations in the development of negotiation decision support systems

Our model of negotiation for constructing Negotiation Decision Support Systems is based upon Principled Negotiation and uses trade-off manipulations in order to provide decision support. A resulting system, Family_Winner, was constructed using several information systems techniques. Trade-off Maps (a variant of Constraint Diagrams) are used to represent trade-off opportunities, while an empirically derived formula calculates the amount of compensation given to the ratings of issues remaining in dispute. The Issue Decomposition Hierarchy embedded in the system allows for the incorporation of sub-issues. Family_Winner was originally built for use in Australian Family Law. We believe our model can be extended for use in various other domains.

Family_Winner has been evaluated in the areas of industrial relations, international disputation and company disputes. Results from our evaluation suggest the system works satisfactorily in these domains. We conclude this paper by describing future projects that will develop and extend Family_Winner's functions and applicability.

Creating an Innovation Exception? Copyright Law as the Infrastructure for Innovation

Innovation is clearly essential for economic growth, cultural development and personal autonomy. Yet the relationship between innovation and copyright law in Australia is uncertain and perhaps overly restrictive. After the Australia-United States Free Trade Agreement Australia now has a copyright regime that can broadly be
described as a lock up and lock out scheme. Whilst the Australian Government has paid lip service to innovation the Australian Copyright Act, which provides the essential legal infrastructure for innovation, now privileges the rights of owners over the interests of the public. In particular, the Copyright Act neglects to create a specific exception for technology innovation. If there is to be some coherence in Australia
thinking with regards to innovation and copyright policy it is crucial that such an exception be created. Arguably, it is possible that such an exception can withstand the scrutiny of the three step test. At present the only ‘exception’ that can be said to exist is in the form of the limits of the authorisation liability provisions or the ISP safe harbour scheme. Australian copyright law needs something more substantial than that
and needs for there to be a clear hierarchy between the exceptions and the liability provisions.

Intellectual property law in Southeast Asia : Recent legislative and institutional developments

Over the last few decades, countries belonging to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) all had to revise their intellectual property systems. These revisions resulted at first from bilateral pressure of major trading partners such as the US and EU, then from the WTO-TRIPS Agreement and more recently from bilateral Free Trade Agreements. To observe the IP developments in ASEAN over this period is interesting, because this group of countries covers developed (Singapore), developing as well as least developed countries. All countries had to reform their outdated laws from the colonial era in very short time. However, in comparison to the early 1980s, important differences with regards to intellectual property policies have emerged in recent years.

This article will briefly sketch the developments in individual ASEAN countries and after that examine some broader trends in law making, IP administration, enforcement and the court system. It concludes that the ASEAN enlargement process has created a very diverse picture with regards to IP. With the fast pace of the legislative development, countries have been struggling to keep up with the creation of the institutional and administrative framework. Progress in the ASEAN harmonisation process has been limited. Statistics indicate that some of the new laws have been reasonably well received at the domestic level, while the patent sector remains foreign dominated.

The recognition and protection of well-known trade marks in Indonesia

Legal context The recognition and protection of well-known marks in Indonesia has improved over the last few years for a variety of reasons.

Key points First, the Asian Crisis resulted in the creation of a Commercial Court, which is a clear improvement over the previously responsible District Courts. Secondly, the increasingly frequent publication of court decisions has improved transparency and consistency of those decisions. Well-known marks are now clearly protected against use for similar goods/services. Protection is extended to dissimilar goods/services by applying Article 16(3) TRIPS directly or by arguing that registration occurred in bad faith. Nevertheless, decisions thus far concern almost exclusively revocation and invalidity of registrations. Civil remedies such as damages and interim injunctions are hardly used, because the outdated civil procedural law has not familiarised judges with such legal instruments. Clearing the register of infringing registrations is another matter of concern. Cancellation for non-use for three consecutive years can be difficult, because the plaintiff is required to provide evidence of the last use in the production of the goods/services rather than in the course of trade more generally.

Practical significance While it has become much easier to protect well-known marks in Indonesia, much work remains to be done regarding the procedural framework of civil infringement proceedings and regarding the clearing of the register.

Creative choices : changes to Australian copyright law and the future of the public domain

Changes to Australian copyright law introduced under the Australia–United States Free Trade Agreement will diminish the public domain, criminalise common copyright infringing practices and locally introduce significant portions of the controversial 1998 American Digital Millennium Copyright Act. This paper examines these imminent changes to Australian copyright law, with specific attention to the potential effects of the extended duration of copyright protection and the introduction of technological anti-circumvention measures. It argues that public domain-enhancing activities are crucial for sustaining cultural creativity and technological innovation, and discusses the potential role of the Creative Commons movement in establishing economically viable and legal alternatives to the current model of trade-oriented copyright reform.

Behavioural trade-offs between growth and mortality explain evolution of submaximal growth rates

1. The importance of body size and growth rate in ecological interactions is widely recognized, and both are frequently used as surrogates for fitness. However, if there are significant costs associated with rapid growth rates then its fitness benefits may be questioned.

2. In replicated whole-lake experiments, we show that a domestic strain of rainbow trout (artificially selected for maximum intrinsic growth rate) use productive but risky habitats more than wild trout. Consequently, domestic trout grow faster in all situations, experience greater survival in the absence of predators, but have lower survival in the presence of predators. Therefore, rapid growth rates are selected against due to increased foraging effort (or conversely, lower antipredator behaviour) that increases vulnerability to predators. In other words, there is a behaviourally mediated trade-off between growth and mortality rates.

3. Whereas rapid growth is beneficial in many ecological interactions, our results show the mortality costs of achieving it are large in the presence of predators, which can help explain the absence of an average phenotype with maximized growth rates in nature.

Introduction: IP and the Asia-Pacific ‘spaghetti bowl’ of free trade agreements

The contributions to this book show the strategies and policies of countries in the Asia-Pacific region that have to grapple with international standard setting in what has been called the ‘spaghetti bowl’ of criss-crossing free trade agreements. The chapters show how intellectual property is just one among many political and economic factors that are used in trade off discussions. It leads to an often considerable further raising of IP standards in those countries that agree to higher protection levels, often for reasons that have little to do with the provision of incentives for technological progress. A more nuanced picture of IP protection in Asia shows the different interests of high protection countries, ‘first’ and ‘second tier’ newly industrialized and industrializing countries and the rather peculiar position of Australia and New Zealand. The chapter introduces the contributions to this volume according to these various groups of countries and of international law and the political economy of the region.