Introducing personal liability under the continuous disclosure regime : The essentials and non-essentials

Under the Federal Government's CLERP 9 legislation, expected at the time of writing to come into force in July 2004, personal liability will be introduced for the first time under the continuous disclosure regime. Individuals who are 'involved' in a failure to immediately disclose materially price sensitive information to the market will be subject to a civil penalty, in addition to the company being liable. According to the author, the introduction of personal liability per se is not contentious and indeed is a favourable change; what is questionable, however, is whether 'involvement' in a contravention is the appropriate test for imposing personal liability in relation to breaches of the continuous disclosure provisions. Based on the case law to date on the meaning of 'involved', there is particular uncertainty as to whether an individual would need to have actual knowledge that non-disclosed information is 'materially price sensitive' in order to satisfy the test of 'involved' in the context of continuous disclosure, or whether mere knowledge that the information has not been disclosed would be sufficient. This uncertainty arises due to the vague concept of 'essential matters' which the courts have developed as a test for what degree of knowledge a person needs to have in order to be 'involved'. The author argues that all the confusion as to what 'involved' means could be addressed by removing the word 'essential' from the dialogue, so that the test of 'involvement' would simply be based on whether the particular person had actual knowledge of each of the factual elements constituting the offence.

Conductive wool yarns by continuous vapour phase polymerization of pyrrole

Conducting polypyrrole (PPy) coated wool yarns were prepared by a continuous vapour polymerization technique, using a speed of 1 m/min with different iron(III) chloride (FeCl₃) as the oxidant at different concentrations. The resistivities, tensile properties, longitudinal and cross-sectional views of PPy-coated wool yarns were investigated. Optimum specific electrical resistances of 2.96 Ω g/cm² at 80 g/L FeCl₃ and 1.69 Ω g/cm² at 70 g/L FeCl₃ were obtained for 500 and 400 twist per meter (TPM) yarns, respectively. PPy-coated wool yarns exhibited higher elongation than uncoated yarns. Longitudinal and cross-sectional views of the yarns indicate that PPy coating penetrated deep into the yarn cross-section and a uniform coating was obtained on the surface of the yarn surface.

Challenges of continuous global optimization in molecular structure prediction

The molecular geometry, the three dimensional arrangement of atoms in space, is a major factor determining the properties and reactivity of molecules, biomolecules and macromolecules. Computation of stable molecular conformations can be done by locating minima on the potential energy surface (PES). This is a very challenging global optimization problem because of extremely large numbers of shallow local minima and complicated landscape of PES. This paper illustrates the mathematical and computational challenges on one important instance of the problem, computation of molecular geometry of oligopeptides, and proposes the use of the Extended Cutting Angle Method (ECAM) to solve this problem.

ECAM is a deterministic global optimization technique, which computes tight lower bounds on the values of the objective function and fathoms those part of the domain where the global minimum cannot reside. As with any domain partitioning scheme, its challenge is an extremely large partition of the domain required for accurate lower bounds. We address this challenge by providing an efficient combinatorial algorithm for calculating the lower bounds, and by combining ECAM with a local optimization method, while preserving the deterministic character of ECAM.

Continuous professional learning through school based strategic planning

There is ample evidence that in many countries school science is in difficulty, with declining student attitudes and uptake of science. This presentation argues that a key to addressing the problem lies in transforming teachers’ classroom practice, and that pedagogical innovation is best supported within a school context. Evidence for effective change will draw on the School Innovation in Science (SIS) initiative in Victoria, which has developed and evaluated a model to improve science teaching and learning across a school system. The model involves a framework for describing effective teaching and learning, and a strategy that allows schools flexibility to develop their practice to suit local conditions and to maintain ownership of the change process. SIS has proved successful in improving science teaching and learning in primary and secondary schools. Experience from SIS and related projects, from a national Australian science and literacy project, and from system wide science initiatives in Europe, will be used to explore the factors that affect the success and the path of innovation in schools.

Experimentation and self learning in continuous database marketing

We present a method for continuous database marketing that identifies target customers for a number of marketing offers using predictive models. The algorithm then selects the appropriate offer for the customer. Experimental design principles are encapsulated to capture more information that will be used to monitor and refine the predictive models. The updated predictive models are then used for the next round of marketing offers.

Supply chain security: the need for continuous assessment

Ease of Internet accessibility has offered business the opportunity to incorporate this electronic infrastructure technology into establishing electronic-based supply chains. With the improved efficiency that this brings to the management and functionality of the supply chain, there are also security considerations that should be taken into account for protecting the integrity of the electronic supply chain, not only within each business node, but also across the entire supply chain. Such security vulnerabilities can be negated with the implementation of security measures and policies, however these need to be consistent throughout the supply chain and regularly assessed against security benchmarks in order to ensure they meet dequate security standards.

Continuous improvement through shared understanding : reconceptualising instructional design for online learning

Many Australian tertiary institutions provide support for academic staff in the design and development of online teaching and learning resources, often employing a centralised unit staffed with educational and instructional designers, multimedia and online developers, audio/video producers and graphic artists. It is not unusual for these units to have evolved from print-based distance education providers and consequently the design and development processes inherent within those units are often steeped in ‘traditional’ sequential instructional development models. We argue that these models are no longer valid for effectively working with academic staff given the dynamic nature of online learning environments and the diversity of skills to implement effective online learning. This paper therefore presents an extended instructional design model in which the development cycle for online teaching and learning materials uses a scaffolding strategy in order to cater for learner-centred activities and to maximise scarce developer and academic resources. The model also integrates accepted phases of the instructional development process to provide guidelines for the disposition of staff and to more accurately reflect the creation of resources as learning design rather than instructional design. It is a model that builds on instructional design processes and integrates concepts of team-based development, shared understanding and the development of relevant communities of practice.

Conducting nylon, cotton and wool yarns by continuous vapor polymerization of pyrrole

Conductive textile yarns were prepared by a continuous vapor polymerization method; the application of polypyrrole by the continuous vapor polymerization method used is designed for the easy adaptation into industrial procedures. The resultant conductive yarns were examined by longitudinal and cross-sectional views, clearly showing the varying levels of penetration of the polymer into the yarn structure. It was found that for wool the optimum specific resistance was achieved by using the 400 TPM yarn with a FeCl3 solution concentration of 80 g/L FeCl3 to produce 1.69 Ω g/cm2. For cotton yarn, the optimum specific resistance of 1.53 Ω g/cm2 was obtained with 80 g/L of a FeCl3 solution.

Television time and continuous metabolic risk in physically active adults

Purpose: Among Australian adults who met the public health guideline for the minimum health-enhancing levels of physical activity, we examined the dose-response associations of television-viewing time with continuous metabolic risk variables.

Methods: Data were analyzed on 2031 men and 2033 women aged >= 25 yr from the 1999-2000 Australian Diabetes, Obesity and Lifestyle study without clinically diagnosed diabetes or heart disease, who reported at least 2.5 h·wk-1 of moderate- to vigorous-intensity physical activity. Waist circumference, resting blood pressure, and fasting and 2-h plasma glucose, triglycerides, and high-density-lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) were measured. The cross-sectional associations of these metabolic variables with quartiles and hours per day of self-reported television-viewing time were examined separately for men and for women. Analyses were adjusted for age, education, income, smoking, diet quality, alcohol intake, parental history of diabetes, and total physical activity time, as well as menopausal status and current use of postmenopausal hormones for women.

Results: Significant, detrimental dose-response associations of television-viewing time were observed with waist circumference, systolic blood pressure, and 2-h plasma glucose in men and women, and with fasting plasma glucose, triglycerides, and HDL-C in women. The associations were stronger in women than in men, with significant gender interactions observed for triglycerides and HDL-C. Though waist circumference attenuated the associations, they remained statistically significant for 2-h plasma glucose in men and women, and for triglycerides and HDL-C in women.

Conclusions: In a population of healthy Australian adults who met the public health guideline for physical activity, television-viewing time was positively associated with a number of metabolic risk variables. These findings support the case for a concurrent sedentary behavior and health guideline for adults, which is in addition to the public health guideline on physical activity.