Peace education

There are various understandings of peace education. What might be called maximalist peace education refers to educating students towards personal fulfilment and the creation of a just and co-operative society. What might be called minimalist peace education refers to educating students to avoid war, militarism and arms races. Peace education is only now being formally accepted as an integral part of educational endeavour, and an important part of this acceptance is recognition in international pronouncements and instruments, emphasizing the importance of a culture of peace and the right to peace. In terms of methodology, peace education includes curriculum, structures and process, and personal leadership. This last element is clearly the most challenging of all.

Cues to starting CPAP in obstructive sleep apnoea : development and validation of the cues to CPAP Use Questionnaire (CCUQ)

Background: The reasons that a patient has to start treatment, their “Cues to Action”, are important for determining subsequent health behaviours. Cues to action are an explicit component of the Health Belief Model of CPAP acceptance adherence. At present there is no scale available to measure this construct for individuals with Obstructive Sleep Apnoea (OSA). This paper aims to develop, validate and describe responding patterns within an OSA patient sample to the Cues to CPAP Use Questionnaire (CCUQ).----- Method: Participants were 63 adult patients diagnosed with OSA who had never tried CPAP when initially recruited. The CCUQ was completed at one month after being prescribed CPAP.----- Results: Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) showed a three factor structure of the 9-item CCUQ, with “Health Cues”, “Partner Cues” and “Health Professional Cues” subscales accounting for 59.91% of the total variance. The CCUQ demonstrated modest internal consistency and split-half reliability. The questionnaire is brief and user-friendly, with readability at a 7th grade level. The most frequently endorsed cues for starting CPAP were Health Professional Cues (prompting by the sleep physician) and Health Cues such as tiredness and concern about health outcomes.----- Conclusions: This study validates a measure of an important motivational component of the Health Belief Model. Health Professional Cues and internal Health Cues were reported to be the most important prompts to commence CPAP by this patient sample.

Mathematical models for describing the shape of the in vitro unstretched human crystalline lens

We developed orthogonal least-squares techniques for fitting crystalline lens shapes, and used the bootstrap method to determine uncertainties associated with the estimated vertex radii of curvature and asphericities of five different models. Three existing models were investigated including one that uses two separate conics for the anterior and posterior surfaces, and two whole lens models based on a modulated hyperbolic cosine function and on a generalized conic function. Two new models were proposed including one that uses two interdependent conics and a polynomial based whole lens model. The models were used to describe the in vitro shape for a data set of twenty human lenses with ages 7–82 years. The two-conic-surface model (7 mm zone diameter) and the interdependent surfaces model had significantly lower merit functions than the other three models for the data set, indicating that most likely they can describe human lens shape over a wide age range better than the other models (although with the two-conic-surfaces model being unable to describe the lens equatorial region). Considerable differences were found between some models regarding estimates of radii of curvature and surface asphericities. The hyperbolic cosine model and the new polynomial based whole lens model had the best precision in determining the radii of curvature and surface asphericities across the five considered models. Most models found significant increase in anterior, but not posterior, radius of curvature with age. Most models found a wide scatter of asphericities, but with the asphericities usually being positive and not significantly related to age. As the interdependent surfaces model had lower merit function than three whole lens models, there is further scope to develop an accurate model of the complete shape of human lenses of all ages. The results highlight the continued difficulty in selecting an appropriate model for the crystalline lens shape.

A novel profluorescent dinitroxide for imaging polypropylene degradation

Free-radical processes underpin the thermo-oxidative degradation of polyolefins. Thus, to extend the lifetime of these polymers, stabilizers are generally added during processing to scavenge the free radicals formed as the polymer degrades. Nitroxide radical precursors, such as hindered amine stabilizers (HAS),1,2 are common polypropylene additives as the nitroxide moiety is a potent scavenger of polymer alkyl radicals (R¥). Oxidation of HAS by radicals formed during polypropylene degradation yields nitroxide radicals (RRNO¥), which rapidly trap the polymer degradation species to produce alkoxyamines, thus retarding oxidative polymer degradation. This increase in polymer stability is demonstrated by a lengthening of the “induction period” of the polymer (the time prior to a sharp rise in the oxidation of the polymer). Instrumental techniques such as chemiluminescence or infrared spectroscopy are somewhat limited in detecting changes in the polymer during the initial stages of degradation. Therefore, other methods for observing polymer degradation have been sought as the useful life of a polymer does not extend far beyond its “induction period”

Rejoinder to James Hamilton

Hamilton (2001) makes a number of comments on our paper (Harding and Pagan, 2002b). The objectives of this rejoinder are, firstly, to note the areas in which we agree; secondly, to define with greater clarity the areas in which we disagree; and, thirdly, to point to other papers, including a longer version of this response, where we have dealt with some of the issues that he raises. The core of our debate with him is whether one should use an algorithm with a specified set of rules for determining the turning points in economic activity or whether one should use a parametric model that features latent states. Hamilton begins his criticism by stating that there is a philosophical distinction between the two methods for dating cycles and concludes that the method we use “leaves vague and intuitive exactly what this algorithm is intended to measure”. Nothing is further from the truth. When seeking ways to decide on whether a turning point has occurred it is always useful to ask the question, what is a recession? Common usage suggests that it is a decline in the level of economic activity that lasts for some time. For this reason it has become standard to describe a recession as a decline in GDP that lasts for more than two quarters. Finding periods in which quarterly GDP declined for two periods is exactly what our approach does. What is vague about this?

Do board contacts matter? : an analysis of the relationship between boards of directors’ ties and the performance of Australia’s largest companies.

Boards of directors are thought to provide access to a wealth of knowledge and resources for the companies they serve, and are considered important to corporate governance. Under the Resource Based View (RBV) of the firm (Wernerfelt, 1984) boards are viewed as a strategic resource available to firms. As a consequence there has been a significant research effort aimed at establishing a link between board attributes and company performance. In this thesis I explore and extend the study of interlocking directorships (Mizruchi, 1996; Scott 1991a) by examining the links between directors’ opportunity networks and firm performance. Specifically, I use resource dependence theory (Pfeffer & Salancik, 1978) and social capital theory (Burt, 1980b; Coleman, 1988) as the basis for a new measure of a board’s opportunity network. I contend that both directors’ formal company ties and their social ties determine a director’s opportunity network through which they are able to access and mobilise resources for their firms. This approach is based on recent studies that suggest the measurement of interlocks at the director level, rather than at the firm level, may be a more reliable indicator of this phenomenon. This research uses publicly available data drawn from Australia’s top-105 listed companies and their directors in 1999. I employ Social Network Analysis (SNA) (Scott, 1991b) using the UCINET software to analyse the individual director’s formal and social networks. SNA is used to measure a the number of ties a director has to other directors in the top-105 company director network at both one and two degrees of separation, that is, direct ties and indirect (or ‘friend of a friend’) ties. These individual measures of director connectedness are aggregated to produce a board-level network metric for comparison with measures of a firm’s performance using multiple regression analysis. Performance is measured with accounting-based and market-based measures. Findings indicate that better-connected boards are associated with higher market-based company performance (measured by Tobin’s q). However, weaker and mostly unreliable associations were found for accounting-based performance measure ROA. Furthermore, formal (or corporate) network ties are a stronger predictor of market performance than total network ties (comprising social and corporate ties). Similarly, strong ties (connectedness at degree-1) are better predictors of performance than weak ties (connectedness at degree-2). My research makes four contributions to the literature on director interlocks. First, it extends a new way of measuring a board’s opportunity network based on the director rather than the company as the unit of interlock. Second, it establishes evidence of a relationship between market-based measures of firm performance and the connectedness of that firm’s board. Third, it establishes that director’s formal corporate ties matter more to market-based firm performance than their social ties. Fourth, it establishes that director’s strong direct ties are more important to market-based performance than weak ties. The thesis concludes with implications for research and practice, including a more speculative interpretation of these results. In particular, I raise the possibility of reverse causality – that is networked directors seek to join high-performing companies. Thus, the relationship may be a result of symbolic action by companies seeking to increase the legitimacy of their firms rather than a reflection of the social capital available to the companies. This is an important consideration worthy of future investigation.

Making sense of Australia's war memorials

War memorials are an important part of the Australian landscape and culture. This essay suggests five possible explanations for this: a) imperial loyalty, at least initially; b) the warrior cult; c) guilt at the loss of so many young people in a seemingly senseless fashion; d) the demise of formal religion, and; e) the insecure nature of Australian nationalism.

Single-layer decoupling networks for large circulant symmetric arrays

In this paper, the authors propose a new structure for the decoupling of circulant symmetric arrays of more than four elements. In this case, network element values are again obtained through a process of repeated eigenmode decoupling, here by solving sets of nonlinear equations. However, the resulting circuit is much simpler and can be implemented on a single layer. The corresponding circuit topology for the 6-element array is displayed in figure diagrams. The procedure will be illustrated by considering different examples.

Gemma Smith and the intuitive abstract

This article examines the work of Brisbane artist Gemma Smith. It investigates the artist's career and her developmental abstract paintings and sculptures. It argues that the artist is fundamentally intuitive in her approach to the genre and also employs mimicry of certain abstract styles as a means through which to develop her own creative outcomes.

Highly efficient, stoichiometric radical exchange reactions using isoindoline profluorescent nitroxides

Exchange reactions between the isoindoline profluorescent nitroxide 1,1,3,3-tetramethyldibenzo[e,g]isoindolin-2-yloxyl (TMDBIO) and a TEMPO capped polystyrene were carried out. High conversions to the desired products were achieved using only stoichiometric ratios of nitroxide relative to polymer. The scope of this study was expanded by exploiting a di-nitroxide 9,10-bis(5-[1,1,3,3-tetramethylisoindolin-2-yloxy])anthracene (BTMIOA) as a connector between two polymer chains forming PS–nitroxide–PS systems.

James Street market, Brisbane : a subtropical retail case study

Climate change mitigation is driving demand for energy-efficient and environmentally conscious commercial buildings in Australia. In the Australian subtropics, high rainfall, warm weather and humidity present unique challenges and opportunities for the architects tasked with designing eco-sensitive projects. The case of the James Street Market in Brisbane’s Fortitude Valley shows that climate-responsive design is an effective approach for reducing the environmental impact of commercial developments. The James Street Market combines climate-responsiveness, environmentally sensitive design strategies and smart planning to create a more sustainable retail precinct. This paper details the design strategies featured in the James Street Market, the project that kicked off a renaissance in climate-responsive commercial building design in Brisbane.

Networked aquatic microbial observing systems: An overview

-

Adam Smith's Dinner

The Future of Financial Regulation is an edited collection of papers presented at a major conference at the University of Glasgow in Spring 2009. It draws together a variety of different perspectives on the international financial crisis which began in August 2007 and later turned into a more widespread economic crisis following the collapse of Lehman Brothers in the Autumn of 2008. Spring 2009 was in many respects the nadir since valuations in financial markets had reached their low point and crisis management rather than regulatory reform was the main focus of attention. The conference and book were deliberately framed as an attempt to re-focus attention from the former to the latter. The first part of the book focuses on the context of the crisis, discussing the general characteristics of financial crises and the specific influences that were at work during this time. The second part focuses more specifically on regulatory techniques and practices implicated in the crisis, noting in particular an over-reliance on the capacity of regulators and financial institutions to manage risk and on the capacity of markets to self-correct. The third part focuses on the role of governance and ethics in the crisis and in particular the need for a common ethical framework to underpin governance practices and to provide greater clarity in the design of accountability mechanisms. The final part focuses on the trajectory of regulatory reform, noting the considerable potential for change as a result of the role of the state in the rescue and recuperation of the financial system and stressing the need for fundamental re-appraisal of business and regulatory models. This informative book will be of interest to financial regulators and theorists, commercial and financial law practitioners, and academics involved in the law and economics of regulation.