Moving from voluntary euthanasia to non-voluntary euthanasia: equality and compassion

The recent Dutch law legalising active voluntary euthanasia will reignite the euthanasia debate. An illuminating method for evaluating the moral status of a practice is to follow the implications of the practice to its logical conclusion. The argument for compassion is one of the central arguments in favour of voluntary active euthanasia. This argument applies perhaps even more forcefully in relation to incompetent patients. If active voluntary euthanasia is legalised, arguments based on compassion and equality will be directed towards legalising active non-voluntary euthanasia in order to make accelerated termination of death available also to the incompetent. The removal of discrimination against the incompetent has the potential to become as potent a catch-cry as the right to die. However, the legalisation of non-voluntary euthanasia is undesirable. A review of the relevant authorities reveals that there is no coherent and workable "best interests" test which can be invoked to decide whether an incompetent patient is better off dead. This provides a strong reason for not stepping onto the slippery path of permitting active voluntary euthanasia.

Cycles in public opinion and the dynamics of stable party systems

We study a dynamic model of elections where many parties may enter or exit political competition. At each election a new political leadership arrives for each party. The leadership cannot choose the party's platform (ideological identities are fixed) but must decide whether or not to contest the election. Contesting elections is costly and this cost is higher if the party has recently been inactive. The distribution of voters' ideal policies, or public opinion, changes over time via a Markov process with a state independent persistence parameter. We characterise stable party systems where the set of contestants is invariant to the recent most observed opinion. We show that stable party systems exist only when public opinion is sufficiently volatile, while highly persistent moods lead to instability and change in the party system whenever public opinion changes.

Still plucking figures out of the air? Markarian and the affirmation of the instinctive synthesis

The High Court of Australia recently had the opportunity to reconsider the appropriate sentencing methodology to be adopted in the sentencing of offenders under Australian criminal law in the case of Markarian v The Queen. The High Court had to decide whether to continue with the instinctive synthesis approach to sentencing or a process that exposed in greater clarity the basis upon which sentencing was to occur. Ultimately, a majority of the Court favoured the continuance of the instinctive synthesis approach to sentencing in criminal cases. The article will consider the decision in Markarian and the implications that it will have for the sentencing of offenders in the States and Territories of Australia.

The effects of time pressure and experience on nurses' risk assessment decisions : a signal detection analysis

Background: Time pressure and, occasionally, suboptimal assessment decisions are features of nursing in acute care.

Objectives: To explore the effect of generic and specialist clinical experience on the ability to detect the need to take action in acute care and the impact of time pressure on nurses' decision-making performance.

Methods: Experienced acute care registered nurses (n = 241) were presented with 50 vignettes of real clinical risk assessments. Each vignette contained seven information cues. In response to these vignettes, nurses had to decide whether to intervene or not. The 26 vignettes were time limited and mixed randomly into the 50 cases. Signal detection analysis was used to establish nurses' performance, personal decision thresholds ([beta]), and their abilities (d') to distinguish a signal of clinical risk from the clinical noise of noncontributory information.

Results: Nurses had significantly lower d' and were significantly less likely to indicate intervening under time pressure. For ability-but not threshold-there was a significant interaction of time pressure and years of experience in acute care. With no time pressure, d' increased in line with years of experience. Under time pressure, there was no effect.

Discussion: Time pressure reduced nurses' ability to detect the need and the tendency to report intervening. Thus, there were more failures to report appropriate intervention under time pressure, and the positive effects of clinical experience were negated under time pressure. More and larger scale research on the effect on clinical outcomes of time pressured nursing choices is required.

Characterising derivative-based loan arrangements

The income tax and GST laws contain an array of rules that apply to debt and gains in the nature of interest. The definitions of 'debt' or 'loan' and amounts in the nature of 'interest' vary across the provisions and tax officials, taxpayers and courts must decide whether the terms should be read as applying to debt, loans or interest in a narrow legal sense or should be read more broadly to catch multi-element arrangements that give effect to a debt or loan relationship in an economic or commercial sense but not in conventional single document form. This article reviews the UK, US and Australian approaches to interpreting multi-element transactions and considers whether four tax provisions dealing with debt should be interpreted to apply to multi-element, derivative-based loan arrangements.

Relationship marketing, audience retention and performing arts organisation viability

Marketing strategy in performing arts organisations has become particularly important in the increasingly competitive environment in which the arts operate. Since the late 1980s there has been a necessary shift in focus to audience development away from product development. This change in focus is being encouraged to ensure the long-term viability of performing arts organisations (PAOs) and micro-economic reform. While government reports have recommended strategies aimed at building audience based recognition, this is an expensive approach for many PAOs and does not produce short term returns. Little attention has been paid to building enduring relationships with existing audiences as a way if having a more dramatic impact on PAOs' long-term viability. This paper explores this theme through relationship marketing and the implication of retaining existing audiences. The paper identifies the changing cultural environment which has led to the importance if marketing. It then explains the concepts if relationship marketing and its pertinence to PAOs' viability by presenting a loyalty ladder. The structure is modelled as a dynamic conceptualisation of the relationships (audience and organisation) to assist arts managers to decide whether to focus their efforts on catching or keeping customers to maximise earned income.

Knowledge, attitudes and experience associated with testing for prostate cancer: a comparison between male doctors and men in the community

Background: Debate about testing for prostate cancer using prostate-specific antigen (PSA) and digital rectal examination (DRE) continues. The evidence of benefit from screening for prostate cancer using PSA tests is inconclusive, and it is unclear how PSA can be used most effectively in the detection of prostate cancer. Given the lack of consensus, it is important that consumers understand the issues in a way that will permit them to decide whether or not to have a test and, if symptomatic, how their condition is managed.

Aims: To compare prostate cancer knowledge, attitudes and testing experiences reported by male doctors and men in the community, despite the lack of evidence of a benefit.

Methods : The primary method for ascertaining the attitudes of male doctors (MD) was a telephone survey, with some doctors electing to complete a written survey. Each MD was selected, at random, from a register of male practitioners aged ≥ 49 years of age. A total of 266 MD participated in the survey. The community sample (CS) was accessed using a telephone survey. Five hundred male Victorian residents aged ≥ 49 years of age participated in the study.

Results:
Knowledge − Overall, 55% of the CS indicated ­correctly that prostate disease is sometimes cancer, compared to 83% of MD.

Attitudes − Fifty-five per cent of MD believed men should be tested for prostate disease at least every 2 years, compared to 68% of men in the CS.

Testing experience − Forty-five per cent of MD had been tested for prostate cancer in the past, and 92% of those tests were reported as negative. In the CS, 56% had been tested for prostate cancer in the past, and 78% of the results were reported as negative. The ­significant independent predictors of having had a prostate test among MD were: (i) age (≥ 60 years; odds ratio (OR): 1.59; 95% confidence intervals (CI): 1.30−1.88) and (ii) positive attitudes towards regular testing for prostate cancer (OR: 2.27; 95% CI: 1.98−2.56). The significant independent predictors for the CS were: (i) age (≥ 60 years; OR: 1.65; 95% CI: 1.40−1.89), (ii) being married (OR: 1.30; 95% CI: 1.00−1.60), (iii) knowledge that prostate disease was sometimes cancer (OR: 1.46; 95% CI: 1.26−1.66) and (iv) positive attitudes towards regular testing for prostate cancer (OR: 2.12; 95% CI: 1.90−2.34).

Conclusions: The results highlight that testing for prostate cancer is widespread in the community and in the medical profession. Further research should be undertaken to identify how to help men make fully informed decisions about prostate cancer testing.

A model for assessing financial competence

This thesis aimed to design a valid and reliable assessment of financial competence to decide whether or not someone required help in looking after their finances. A multidimensional assessment was developed that was found useful in identifying the financial difficulties experiences by people with a cognitive impairment.

Structural equation modelling : tips for getting started with your research

At a time when numerical expression of data is becoming more important in the business of obtaining grant money research tools such as structural equation modelling (SEM) are becoming more popular. Structural equation modelling enables researchers to show relationships between variables numerically. It is of particular use to educational researchers who are interested in developing or using standard questionnaires in their research. This session will introduce SEM and explore its uses in educational research to enable the reader to decide whether it is a tool to use to add an extra dimension to their research findings.

Conclusion : the promises and challenges of the Arab revolutions

This concluding chapter analyses the various promises and challenges that were embodied in the Arab revolutions and face the region as it moves forward. It concludes by noting that if those who participated in these popular movements are patient, engage and invest in this period of change to make their own authentic and democratic future, then there is real hope for the region. It is up to the people of the MENA to decide whether the spark ignited in the many ‘Tahrir’ squares is snuffed out or burns brightly.

Bias of damage awards and free options in securities litigation

Damage measures in securities fraud cases are very imprecise because they are based on security price changes that reflect both the correction of previous misrepresentation and other independent information. Consequently, potential plaintiffs have a valuable “free option” to decide whether or not to file suit, and average damage awards are greater than actual damages, much greater when markets are volatile. The “Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995” was intended to curb abusive litigation and to address the problem of excessive damage awards. Motivated by a misdiagnosis that excess awards are due to temporary price drops, the Act limits damages to the difference between the purchase price and the time-averaged trading price from the release of the corrective information until 90 days later or until the sale of the security, whichever is first. Unfortunately, the Act's modified measure of damages suffers from a more severe free-option problem than did the traditional measure. Also, the Act introduced an additional new option to time the sale of the security; the effects of these options may be mitigated by the impact of the positive drift in stock prices over time, if the time-averaged price is not adjusted for market movements. As a result, the bias can be larger or smaller under the new Act, depending on how severe the free-option problem is. We propose an alternative approach to addressing the issue of excessive damages: courts should adopt a threshold of measured damages below which no damage would be awarded. The threshold would depend on several factors, most notably the volatility of the stock in the period under question. That is, damages will be awarded only if measured damages exceed the threshold, and awards would be capped by the formula presented in the Reform Act.

A highly practical approach toward achieving minimum data sets storage cost in the cloud

Massive computation power and storage capacity of cloud computing systems allow scientists to deploy computation and data intensive applications without infrastructure investment, where large application data sets can be stored in the cloud. Based on the pay-as-you-go model, storage strategies and benchmarking approaches have been developed for cost-effectively storing large volume of generated application data sets in the cloud. However, they are either insufficiently cost-effective for the storage or impractical to be used at runtime. In this paper, toward achieving the minimum cost benchmark, we propose a novel highly cost-effective and practical storage strategy that can automatically decide whether a generated data set should be stored or not at runtime in the cloud. The main focus of this strategy is the local-optimization for the tradeoff between computation and storage, while secondarily also taking users' (optional) preferences on storage into consideration. Both theoretical analysis and simulations conducted on general (random) data sets as well as specific real world applications with Amazon's cost model show that the cost-effectiveness of our strategy is close to or even the same as the minimum cost benchmark, and the efficiency is very high for practical runtime utilization in the cloud.

Optimal vigilance level and hiring illegal immigrants

This paper assumes a Ricardian Economy and analyzes migration of illegal unskilled workers in a model of Cournot Duopoly where firms are producing homogenous and non-traded goods, and hiring illegal immigrants. The focus is on the behaviours of firms and the implications for the output, prices and employment of domestic workers in that industry. A two-stage simultaneous move game is set up: In Stage 1, for a given technology and vigilance level, each individual firm will decide whether to hire illegal immigrants. In Stage 2, each firm will choose the Cournot output level. Using this structure, we provide additional insights as to why firms hire illegal workers and what motivates these firms in their hiring practices. Furthermore the presence of illegal immigrants may create more employment for domestic workers and a social planner can be strategic in choosing optimal level of vigilance as we have shown that multiple solutions for optimal vigilance are possible and also Pareto ranked.

A social identity approach to party drug use and associated harm minimisation

This project investigated party (club) drug use and associated harm minimisation strategies of party drug users (N = 72), by gender and sexual
orientation, to determine whether drug use and harm minimisation behaviours differ in particular social groups.Adopting a social identity approach, this project also explored the existence of a party drug user social identity in relation to harmful party drug behaviours and harm minimisation
strategies.Results indicated that males and females showed similar patterns of harmful party drug use and harm minimisation, whilst heterosexuals and homosexuals differed slightly in their patterns of harmful party drug use, and more substantially in their patterns of harm minimisation.Furthermore, results showed some evidence for the existence of a party drug user social identity, which was related to party drug use within a clear social context, and to experiencing fewer party drug related problems.The authors conclude that harm minimisation initiatives need to be designed for particular social groups, such as heterosexuals or homosexuals, targeting their particular patterns of party drug use, and
suggest that effective harm minimisation strategies should incorporate both the social context in which the behaviour occurs, and the social norms of party drug use by particular social groups.

A pilot study using the internet to study patterns of party drug use : processes, findings and limitations

Since the 1990s there has been a rise in both the prevalence of party drug use in Australia and the use of party drug-related websites. This study investigates whether it is feasible to recruit and survey party drug users via the internet. It took place in Victoria, Australia. Participants were directed to a website where they completed a brief, structured internet-based survey. A total of 460 responses were received over 31 days, 393 of which fitted all inclusion criteria. The sample consisted predominately of young, male polydrug users and is one of the largest samples of party drug users in Australia reported thus far. It was concluded that it is feasible to recruit and survey current party drug users via the internet and that this method is quicker and cheaper than traditional survey methods, although samples are not necessarily representative of the party drug-using population. Other limitations and advantages are discussed.