Practice and procedure : Personal Injuries Proceedings Act 2002 s56

In Amos v Brisbane City Council [2005] QCA 433 the Queensland Court of Appeal was called upon to determine the scope of s56 of the Personal Injuries Proceedings Act 2002. The decision makes it clear that the section does not provide a complete code governing awards of damages and does not deprive the court of power to award costs against a plaintiff who fails to succeed on liability.

Supreme Court Act 1995 s48 - Interest on judgment for damages for personal injuries

The case of Flynn v The Maryborough Sugar Factory Limited [2003] QDC 446 the plaintiff had been awarded damages for personal injuries and there was a charge on those damages under a Commonwealth statute, with a provision in the statute that damages could not be satisfied until the Commonwealth had been paid. The Court considered the point of considerable practical significance of whether interest accrued on the judgment under s48 of the Supreme Court Act 1995 (Qld) before the defendant had obtained clearances under the Commonwealth legislation.

Damages for personal injuries in Queensland : interest please!

The article revises established principles relating to the awarding of damages to the date of judgment and discusses decisions in the High Court and in the Supreme Court of Queensland which have caused significant changes to the manner of assessments of interest. Its purpose is to provide for practitioners involved in personal injuries litigation in Queensland a current set of guidelines as to the manner in which the wide discretion to award interest may be expected to be exercised.

Personal injuries sustained in the course of employment - claim against employer under Workcover Queensland Act 1996

In Devlin v South Mole Island Resort [2003] QSC 020 the Court concluded the applicant was entitled to pursue a concurrent claim he alleged he had against the respondent under the Personal Injuries Proceedings Act 2002 in respect of injuries sustained in the course of employment, and also that the Workcover Queensland Act 1996 did not abolish the applicant's right to proceed against the respondent.

Practice and Procedure - Proceedings claiming damages for personal injuries commenced before June 18, 2002

In Inglis v Connell [2003] QDC 029 the court considered s6(3) of the Personal Injuries Proceedings Act 2002 in relation to the application of the Act. The conclusion reached was that the provision should be interpreted as providing that the requirements of the Act do not apply in respect of personal injury the subject of any proceeding commenced before June 18, 2002.

Promoting posttraumatic growth in police recruits : preliminary results of a randomised controlled resilience intervention trial

Recent research has demonstrated that the same experiences that may elicit symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in emergency service personnel can also provide a catalyst for positive personal changes such as posttraumatic growth (PTG). In this research newly recruited police officers (N = 412) participated in a randomised control trial of a program specifically designed to promote mental health. On entry to the academy, new recruits were randomly allocated, by classrooms, to either a treatment as usual condition (i.e., existing psychoeducation program) or to the intervention group. The Promoting Resilient Officers (PRO) program is a resilience building intervention adapted from an earlier resilience building program in collaboration with the police service. The PRO program also includes additional components on trauma and PTG. The current research included the participants who had experienced trauma prior to or during the research period (N = 246). It was hypothesised that participation in the PRO program would increase levels of PTG and lower levels of PTSD when compared to recruits in the control condition. Using multilevel modelling and post-hoc analyses, results indicated there were significantly higher levels of PTG across multiple dimensions when compared to the control group. There was no effect on PTSD symptoms with both conditions showing a floor effect. The research indicated the potential value of developing interventions that elicit reflections on the potential for positive as well as negative outcomes of experiencing traumatic and other highly challenging events.

Evaluating the use of ambient and tangible interaction approaches for personal indoor climate preferences [Extended Abstract]

In this paper we describe the preliminary results of a field study which evaluated the use of MiniOrb, a system that employs ambient and tangible interaction mechanisms to allow inhabitants of office environments to report on subjectively perceived office comfort levels. The purpose of this study was to explore the role of ubiquitous computing in the individual control of indoor climate and specifically answer the question to what extent ambient and tangible interaction mechanisms are suited for the task of capturing individual comfort preferences in a non-obtrusive manner. We outline the preliminary results of an in-situ trial of the system.

Planning to Learn : Creating and Using a Personal Planner with Young People on the Autism Spectrum

Late intervention often means that young people on the autism spectrum appear to act on impulse, seem disorganized, or fail to learn from past experiences. In this practical, effective resource, the authors share tried and tested techniques for creating and using a personal planner to help individuals on the autism spectrum to develop independence. "Planning to Learn" is split into three parts. The first part guides adults in helping young people to make sense of the world and to develop and practise coping strategies for any given situation. The authors also explain how simple visual and verbal cues can help people to cope successfully in stressful situations. The second part provides worksheets for the young person to complete to learn how to use plans in different situations, for example staying calm when waiting for a doctor, or coping with a change in the school timetable. Each individual makes a unique planner with procedures to refer to, such as responding to pressure, calming down, being organised, and being around people. The third part includes useful cards, schedules and plans for photocopying and including in the planner. This illustrated photocopiable workbook is packed with guidance, support and helpful notes for those new to, or experienced in, working with children and young people with ASD. It can be used within educational and community settings or at home.

Material traces : reflecting on dance performance and the archive

How dance history should be conserved, like any other human event is problematical. This article refers to the dancer’s embodied repertoire of movement and questions how it might connect with the archive, so that the recording of dance work is not taken as fully representative of the work itself. I propose opening out the multi-dimensional configuring that is part of the creation of a dance piece in order to flesh out the bones of the archive. This could be done through engaging with the choreographer and the performers (who are often co-creators of the work) to draw a range of insights and perspectives together.

Assessment of damages for defamation of business and personal reputation

An award of damages for defamation is to provide reparation for harm to a plaintiff’s reputation for the publication of defamatory material, compensate for any personal distress caused and vindicate the plaintiff’s reputation.1 Assessing such damages is recognised as a difficult task and perhaps the Queensland courts face further difficulties as there are few awards of damages for defamation in the state. This was pointed out in the recent decision of the Queensland Court of Appeal, Cerutti & Anor v Crestside Pty Ltd & Anor.2 This decision examined in detail the principles of assessing damages for defamation.

The Proposed Commonwealth Personal Property Securities Act 2008

Inspired by similar reforms introduced in New Zealand, Canada and the United States, the Commonwealth, with the co-operation of the States, seeks in the Personal Property Securities Bill 2008 (the Bill) to introduce a central repository of recorded information reflecting particular security interests in personal property in Australia. Specifically, the interest recorded is an interest in personal property provided for by a transaction that in substance secures the payment or the performance of an obligation. In addition to providing a notification of the use of the personal property as collateral to secure the payment of monies or the performance of an obligation, the Bill proposes to introduce a regime of prioritising interests in the same collateral. Central to this prioritisation are the concepts of a ‘perfected security interests’and ‘unperfected security interests’. Relevantly, a perfected security interest in collateral has priority over an unperfected security interest in the same collateral. The proposed mechanisms rely on the fundamental integer of personal property, which is defined as any property other than land. Recognising that property may take a tangible as well as an intangible form, the Bill reflects an appreciation of the fact that some property may have a tangible form which may act as collateral, and simultaneously the same property may involve other property, intangible property in the form of intellectual property rights, which in their own right may be the subject of a‘security agreement’. An example set out in the Commentary on the Consultation Draft of the Bill (the Commentary), indicates the practical implications involving certain property which have multiple profiles for the purposes of the Bill. This submission is concerned with the presumptions made in relation to the interphase between tangible property and intangible property arising from the same personal property, as set out in s 30 of the Bill.

Datascape

"Contemporary society is in the midst of the boundless generation and collection of data, data that is produced from almost any measurable act. Be it weather or transport data sets published by government agencies, or the individual and interpersonal data generated by our digital interactions; a server somewhere is collating. With the rise of this digital data phenomenon comes questions of comprehension, purpose, ownership and translation. Without mediation digital data is an immense abstract list of text and numbers and in this abstracted form data sets become detached from the circumstances of their creation. Artists and digital creatives are building works from these constantly evolving data sets to develop a discourse that investigates, appropriates, reveals and reflects upon the society and environment that generates this medium. Datascape presents a range of works that use data as building blocks to facilitate connections and understanding around a range of personal, social and worldly issues. The exhibition is concerned with creating an opportunity for experiential discovery through engaging with work from some of the world’s prominent creatives in this field of practice. Utilising three thematic lenses: Generative Currents, the Anti-Sublime and the Human Context, the works offer a variety of pathways to traverse the Datascape. Lubi Thomas and Rachael Parsons, QUT Creative Industries Precinct"

Twitter-archive und die Herausforderungen von "Big Social Data" für die Medien- und Kommunikationswissenschaft

Twitter ist eine besonders nützliche Quelle für Social-Media-Daten: mit dem Twitter-API (dem Application Programming Interface, das einen strukturierten Zugang zu Kommunikationsdaten in standardisierten Formaten bietet) ist es Forschern möglich, mit ein wenig Mühe und ausreichenden technische Ressourcen sehr große Archive öffentlich verbreiteter Tweets zu bestimmten Themen, Interessenbereichen, oder Veranstaltungen aufzubauen. Grundsätzlich liefert das API sehr langen Listen von Hunderten, Tausenden oder Millionen von Tweets und den Metadaten zu diesen Tweets; diese Daten können dann auf verschiedentlichste Weise extrahiert, kombiniert, und visualisiert werden, um die Dynamik der Social-Media-Kommunikation zu verstehen. Diese Forschung ist häufig um althergebrachte Fragestellungen herum aufgebaut, wird aber in der Regel in einem bislang unbekannt großen Maßstab durchgeführt. Die Projekte von Medien- und Kommunikationswissenschaftlern wie Papacharissi und de Fatima Oliveira (2012), Wood und Baughman (2012) oder Lotan et al. (2011) – um nur eine Handvoll der letzten Beispiele zu nennen – sind grundlegend auf Twitterdatensätze aufgebaut, die jetzt routinemäßig Millionen von Tweets und zugehörigen Metadaten umfassen, erfaßt nach einer Vielzahl von Kriterien. Was allen diesen Fällen gemein ist, ist jedoch die Notwendigkeit, neue methodische Wege in der Verarbeitung und Analyse derart großer Datensätze zur medienvermittelten sozialen Interaktion zu gehen.