Department of Social Services Options Paper : Options for Replacement Arrangements Following the Abolition of the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission : Response

Submission in response to government options paper regarding arrangements for regulation of charities following abolition of the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission.

Small firms and the challenge of equality, diversity and difference

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to introduce the papers contributing to this special issue and to locate them within the broader questions about the role of small firms in enabling or alleviating issues of equality, diversity, and difference for various groups in society. Design/methodology/approach The literature dealing with the issues of equality, diversity, and difference pertaining to the operation of and/or working in smaller firms was reviewed prior to drawing out the key points from the submitted papers and considering the contribution they make to this literature. Findings Overall, one's these five papers contribute to one's understanding of the issues facing those in business or self‐employment, working in small business or wanting to pursue enterprise. Originality/value Rarely are questions asked about the assumed role small firms play in mitigating social exclusion for a range of groups in society. By addressing questions which explore the challenge of equality, diversity, and difference for small business in their establishment, management, and effective operation using interdisciplinary frameworks and different methodologies, a better understanding of the role of small business in society can be developed.

International Handbook of Entrepreneurship and HRM

This invaluable reference tool has been designed in response to the growing recognition that too little is known about the intersection between entrepreneurship and human resource management. Paying particular attention to the ‘people’ side of venture emergence and development, it offers unique insights into the role that human resource management (HRM) plays in small and entrepreneurial firms.

On the design of power buffer and its applications

A power electronics-based buffer is examined in which through control of its PWM converters, the buffer-load combination is driven to operate under either constant power or constant impedance modes. A battery, incorporated within the buffer, provides the energy storage facility to facilitate the necessary power flow control. Real power demand from upstream supply is regulated under fault condition, and the possibility of voltage or network instability is reduced. The proposed buffer is also applied to a wind farm. It is shown that the buffer stabilizes the power contribution from the farm. Based on a battery cost-benefit analysis, a method is developed to determine the optimal level of the power supplied from the wind farm and the corresponding capacity of the battery storage system.

Effects of driver familiarity and prolonged or intermittent right-side failure on level crossing safety

This paper investigates the adverse effects of familiarity and human factors issues associated with the reliability of low-cost warning devices at level crossings. The driving simulator study featured a repetitive, low workload, monotonous driving task in which there were no failures of the level crossing (control) or prolonged or intermittent right-side failures (where the device reverts to a safe failure mode). The results of the experiment provided mixed support for the familiarity hypothesis. Four of the 23 participants collided with the train when it first appeared on trial 10 but safety margins increased from the first train to the next presentation of a train (trial 12). Contrary to expectations, the safety margins decreased with repeated right-side failure only for the intermittent condition. The limited head movement data showed that participants in the prolonged failure condition were more likely to turn their head to check for trains in the right-side failure trials than in earlier trials where there was no signal and no train. Few control participants turned their head to check for trains when no signal was presented. This research highlights the need to consider repetitive tasks and workload in experimental design and accident investigation at railway level crossings.

The robustness of mine water accounting over a range of operating contexts and commodities

Communicating the mining industry’s water use is fundamental to maintaining its social license to operate but the majority of corporate reporting schemes list indicators. The Minerals Council of Australia’s Water Accounting Framework was designed to assist the minerals industry obtain consistency in its accounting method and in the definitions of terms used in water reporting. The significance of this paper is that it shows that the framework has been designed to be sufficiently robust to describe any mining/mineral related operation. The Water Accounting Framework was applied across four operations over three countries producing four commodities. The advantages of the framework were then evident through the presentation of the reports. The contextual statement of the framework was able to explain contrasting reuse efficiencies. The Input-Output statements showed that evaporation was a significant loss for most of the operations in the study which highlights a weakness of reporting schemes that focus on discharge volumes. The framework method promotes data reconciliation which proved the presence of flows that two operations in the study had neglected to provide. Whilst there are many advantages of the framework, the major points are that the reporting statements of the framework, when presented together, can better enable the public to understand water interactions at a site-level and allows for valid comparisons between sites, regardless of locale and commodity. With mining being a global industry, these advantages are best realised if there was international adoption of the framework.

The rise and fall of the international law of maritime terrorism : the ghost of piracy is still hunting!

Maritime terrorism is a serious threat to global security. A major debate in this regard is the treating of acts of maritime terrorism as piracy by some scholars and a rejection of this view by others. Moreover, the international law of maritime terrorism suffers from fundamental definitional issues, much like the international law of terrorism. This article examines the current international law of maritime terrorism with a particular emphasis on the debate regarding the applicability of the international law of piracy in the case of maritime terrorism. It argues that the international law of piracy is not applicable in the enforcement and prosecution of maritime terrorists on the high seas. International treaties on terrorism and the post-September 11 developments relating to international laws on terrorism have created a workable international legal framework for combating maritime terrorism, despite some bottlenecks.

Technicolouring the fridge : reducing food waste through uses of colour-coding and cameras

Domestic food wastage is a growing problem for the environment and food security. Some causes of domestic food wastes are attributed to a consumer’s behaviours during food purchasing, storage and consumption, such as: excessive food purchases and stockpiling in storage. Recent efforts in human-computer interaction research have examined ways of influencing consumer behaviour. The outcomes have led to a number of interventions that assist users with performing everyday tasks. The Internet Fridge is an example of such an intervention. However, new pioneering technologies frequently confront barriers that restrict their future impact in the market place, which has prompted investigations into the effectiveness of behaviour changing interventions used to encourage more sustainable practices. In this paper, we investigate and compare the effectiveness of two interventions that encourage behaviour change: FridgeCam and the Colour Code Project. We use FridgeCam to examine how improving a consumer’s food supply knowledge can reduce food stockpiling. We use the Colour Code Project to examine how improving consumer awareness of food location can encourage consumption of forgotten foods. We explore opportunities to integrate these interventions into commercially available technologies, such as the Internet Fridge, to: (i) increase the technology’s benefit and value to users, and (ii) promote reduced domestic food wastage. We conclude that interventions improving consumer food supply and location knowledge can promote behaviours that reduce domestic food waste over a longer term. The implications of this research present new opportunities for existing and future technologies to play a key role in reducing domestic food waste.

Investigating the interplay between transport, land use and the environment : a review of the literature

Integration of land use and transport decisions to achieve sustainable travel behavior has been considered an integral element for sustainable urban development. However, before the popularity of urban sustainability concept, land use and transport interaction had been scrutinized as strictly separate entities in the urban planning and development domains. Fortunately today the concept of sustainability has been pushed to the forefront of policy-making and politics as the world wakes up to the impacts of climate change and the effects of the rapid urbanization and modern urban lifestyles. The paper therefore aims to highlight the importance of the interplay between transport, land use and the environment. This review paper provides evidence from the literature including the Transport, Land Use and the Environment Special Issue contributions and global best practice cases to showcase new empirical approaches and investigations from different parts of the world that contribute to the wealth of knowledge in exploring the interplay between transport, land use and the environment thoroughly.

Advances in the science of objective physical activity monitoring : 3rd International Conference on Ambulatory Monitoring of Physical Activity and Movement

Editorial: This theme issue of BJSM presents key papers from the 3rd International Conference on Ambulatory Monitoring of Physical Activity and Movement (ICAMPAM). The July 2013 conference was hosted by the University of Massachusetts and was attended by researchers, clinicians, students and technology vendors for North America, Europe, Australasia and Asia...

On the need for an international effort to capture, share and use crystallization screening data

When crystallization screening is conducted many outcomes are observed but typically the only trial recorded in the literature is the condition that yielded the crystal(s) used for subsequent diffraction studies. The initial hit that was optimized and the results of all the other trials are lost. These missing results contain information that would be useful for an improved general understanding of crystallization. This paper provides a report of a crystallization data exchange (XDX) workshop organized by several international large-scale crystallization screening laboratories to discuss how this information may be captured and utilized. A group that administers a significant fraction of the worlds crystallization screening results was convened, together with chemical and structural data informaticians and computational scientists who specialize in creating and analysing large disparate data sets. The development of a crystallization ontology for the crystallization community was proposed. This paper (by the attendees of the workshop) provides the thoughts and rationale leading to this conclusion. This is brought to the attention of the wider audience of crystallographers so that they are aware of these early efforts and can contribute to the process going forward. © 2012 International Union of Crystallography All rights reserved.

A data mining based method for discovery of web services and their compositions

Due to the availability of huge number of web services, finding an appropriate Web service according to the requirements of a service consumer is still a challenge. Moreover, sometimes a single web service is unable to fully satisfy the requirements of the service consumer. In such cases, combinations of multiple inter-related web services can be utilised. This paper proposes a method that first utilises a semantic kernel model to find related services and then models these related Web services as nodes of a graph. An all-pair shortest-path algorithm is applied to find the best compositions of Web services that are semantically related to the service consumer requirement. The recommendation of individual and composite Web services composition for a service request is finally made. Empirical evaluation confirms that the proposed method significantly improves the accuracy of service discovery in comparison to traditional keyword-based discovery methods.

Toward a model for predicting magnetic susceptibility of bedrock regolith and soils

One of the Department of Defense's most pressing environmental problems is the efficient detection and identification of unexploded ordnance (UXO). In regions of highly magnetic soils, magnetic and electromagnetic sensors often detect anomalies that are of geologic origin, adding significantly to remediation costs. In order to develop predictive models for magnetic susceptibility, it is crucial to understand modes of formation and the spatial distribution of different iron oxides. Most rock types contain iron and their magnetic susceptibility is determined by the amount and form of iron oxides present. When rocks weather, the amount and form of the oxides change, producing concomitant changes in magnetic susceptibility. The type of iron oxide found in the weathered rock or regolith is a function of the duration and intensity of weathering, as well as the original content of iron in the parent material. The rate of weathering is controlled by rainfall and temperature; thus knowing the climate zone, the amount of iron in the lithology and the age of the surface will help predict the amount and forms of iron oxide. We have compiled analyses of the types, amounts, and magnetic properties of iron oxides from soils over a wide climate range, from semi arid grasslands, to temperate regions, and tropical forests. We find there is a predictable range of iron oxide type and magnetic susceptibility according to the climate zone, the age of the soil and the amount of iron in the unweathered regolith.