How burned out employees perceive work stress and organisational burnout

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An additional step towards modelling the mechanical behaviour of sugar cane bagasse

A better understanding of the behaviour of prepared cane and bagasse, especially the ability to model the mechanical behaviour of bagasse as it is squeezed in a milling unit to extract juice, would help identify how to improve the current milling process; for example to reduce final bagasse moisture. Previous investigations have proven with certainty that juice flow through bagasse obeys Darcy’s permeability law, that the grip of the rough surface of the grooves on the bagasse can be represented by the Mohr- Coulomb failure criterion for soils, and that the internal mechanical behaviour of the bagasse can be represented by critical state behaviour similar to that of sand and clay. Current Finite Element Models (FEM) available in commercial software have adequate permeability models. However, commercial software does not contain an adequate mechanical model for bagasse. Progress has been made in the last ten years towards implementing a mechanical model for bagasse in finite element software code. This paper builds on that progress and carries out a further step towards obtaining an adequate material model. In particular, the prediction of volume change during shearing of normally consolidated final bagasse is addressed.

Defences in medical negligence : to what extent has tort law reform in Australia limited the liability of health professionals?

Tort law reform has resulted in legislation being passed by all Australian jurisdictions in the past decade implementing the recommendations contained in the Ipp Report. The report was in response to a perceived crisis in medical indemnity insurance. The objective was to restrict and limit liability in negligence actions. This paper will consider to what extent the reforms have impacted on the liability of health professionals in medical negligence actions. After an analysis of the legislation, it will be argued in this paper that while there has been some limitation and restriction, courts have generally interpreted the civil liability reforms in compliance with the common law. It has been the impact of statutory limits on the assessment of damages through thresholds and caps which has limited the liability of health professionals in medical negligence actions.

The Law and Governance of Water Resources : The Challenge of Sustainability

To achieve the sustainable use and development of water resources is a daunting challenge for both the global and local communities. It requires commitments by all groups within the international, national and local communities from their own particular, possibly conflicting, perspectives. Without a set of coherent legal arrangements designed to ensure effective governance of water resources, their sustainable use and development are unlikely to be achieved. This study looks at how the legal arrangements for managing water resources have evolved across the continents over hundreds of years; their relevance for contemporary society; how the norms of current international and national legal regimes are responding; and, most importantly, how legal rights and duties should be structured so as to achieve sustainability in the future.

Raising awareness of traffic pollution: the potential benefits and problems of using a warning smell

Exposure to traffic pollution is increasing worldwide as people move to cities, and as more vehicles join the roads, creating longer journeys and more traffic jams. Most traffic pollutants are odourless and invisible, which hides exposure from the public. If traffic pollution had a distinctive smell it would enable people to avoid exposure, and increase the political will for difficult policy changes. A smell may also instigate longer-term changes, such as switching to active transport for school pick-ups. A smell could be added using a fuel additive or a temporary device attached to vehicle exhausts.

Charity law, advocacy and the aid/watch decision : compatibility of charitable purposes and political objects — the view from Australia

Introduction In 1952 the Nathan report stated that: Some of the most valuable activities of voluntary societies consist, however, in the fact that they may be able to stand aside from and criticize State action or inaction, in the interests of the inarticulate man in the street. Some 60 years later it remained the case that if a voluntary society wanted to gain or retain charitable status then, contrary to the Nathan report, the one thing it could not do was set itself up with the purpose of criticizing State action or inaction. This legal position was adopted by the authorities in Australia with the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) noting in Taxation Ruling TR2005/21: 102. An institution or fund is not charitable if its purpose is advocating a political party or cause, attempting to change the law or government policy, or propagating or promoting a particular point of view. So, why, if it is such a valuable activity, have governments steadfastly refused to allow charities to have as their purpose the freedom to advocate in this way and how has this situation been affected by the recent High Court of Australia decision in Aid/Watch v Commissioner of Taxation? This article proposes to address such questions. Beginning with some background history, it explains that, initially, the current constraints did not apply. Then it looks at the nature of these constraints: how does the law define what constitutes the type of political activity that a charity must not undertake? What is the rationale for prohibition? How has the judiciary contributed to the development of the law in this area in recent years? This will lead into a consideration of the Aid/Watch case and the implications arising from the recent final decision. The article concludes by reflecting on what has changed and why the view on this contentious matter now looks different from Australia.

Section 64 of the Property Law Act 1974 (Qld) and the reluctant buyer

The decision of the Court of Appeal in Dunworth v Mirvac Qld Pty Ltd [2011] QCA 200 arose from unusual circumstances associated with the flood in Brisbane earlier this year. Maris Dunworth (‘the buyer’) agreed to purchase a ground floor residential apartment located beside the Brisbane River at Tennyson from Mirvac Queensland Pty Ltd (‘Mirvac’). The original date for completion was 12 May 2009. In earlier proceedings, the buyer had alleged that she had been induced to purchase the apartment by false, misleading and deceptive representations. This claim was dismissed and an order for specific performance was made with a new completion date of 8 February 2011...

Engaging law students to promote psychological health

Recent empirical evidence suggests that concern for the psychological health of law students is well justified. Traditionally, the legal curriculum has focused on the provision of substantive legal doctrinal knowledge. This approach has not always engaged students positively with their learning of law. This article considers some strategies that can be adopted by Law Faculties to better engage students with their legal education in order to promote their psychological health. These strategies are: ensuring that active learning occurs in lectures, demonstrating concern for students and their learning and skillful management of student expectations and the learning environment. Further, some self-help strategies that students can adopt for themselves are discussed. Combined, these strategies will enable students to engage more positively with their legal education.

National Environmental Law Review Issue 2011: 3, Editorial: Federal Developments

Clean Energy Agreement of the MPCCC On 10 July 2011, details of the Multi-Party Climate Change Committee’s Clean Energy Agreement for implementing a carbon price were released. This included an agreed package of measures that the Committee considered would enable Australia to meet its emissions reduction targets in an environmentally and economically efficient way. A copy of the agreement can be found on the website of the Department of Climate Change and Energy Efficiency...

Mapping intermedia news flows : topical discussions in the Australian and French political blogospheres

The growth of technologies and tools branded as =new media‘ or =Web 2.0‘ has sparked much discussion about the internet and its place in all facets of social life. Such debate includes the potential for blogs and citizen journalism projects to replace or alter journalism and mainstream media practices. However, while the journalism-blog dynamic has attracted the most attention, the actual work of political bloggers, the roles they play in the mediasphere and the resources they use, has been comparatively ignored. This project will look at political blogging in Australia and France - sites commenting on or promoting political events and ideas, and run by citizens, politicians, and journalists alike. In doing so, the structure of networks formed by bloggers and the nature of communication within political blogospheres will be examined. Previous studies of political blogging around the world have focussed on individual nations, finding that in some cases the networks are divided between different political ideologies. By comparing two countries with different political representation (two-party dominated system vs. a wider political spectrum), this study will determine the structure of these political blogospheres, and correlate these structures with the political environment in which they are situated. The thesis adapts concepts from communication and media theories, including framing, agenda setting, and opinion leaders, to examine the work of political bloggers and their place within the mediasphere. As well as developing a hybrid theoretical base for research into blogs and other online communication, the project outlines new methodologies for carrying out studies of online activity through the analysis of several topical networks within the wider activity collected for this project. The project draws on hyperlink and textual data collected from a sample of Australian and French blogs between January and August 2009. From this data, the thesis provides an overview of =everyday‘ political blogging, showing posting patterns over several months of activity, away from national elections and their associated campaigns. However, while other work in this field has looked solely at cumulative networks, treating collected data as a static network, this project will also look at specific cases to see how the blogospheres change with time and topics of discussion. Three case studies are used within the thesis to examine how blogs cover politics, featuring an international political event (the Obama inauguration), and local political topics (the opposition to the =Création et Internet‘, or HADOPI, law in France, the =Utegate‘ scandal in Australia). By using a mixture of qualitative and quantitative methods, the study analyses data collected from a population of sites from both countries, looking at their linking patterns, relationship with mainstream media, and topics of interest. This project will subsequently help to further develop methodologies in this field and provide new and detailed information on both online networks and internet-based political communication in Australia and France.

Physicality in Australian Patent Law

It is generally understood that the patent system exists to encourage the conception and disclosure of new and useful inventions embodied in machines and other physical devices, along with new methods that physically transform matter from one state to another. What is not well understood is whether, and to what extent, the patent system is to encourage and protect the conception and disclosure of inventions that are non-physical methods – namely those that do not result in a physical transformation of matter. This issue was considered in Grant v Commissioner of Patents. In that case the Full Court of the Federal Court of Australia held that an invention must involve a physical effect or transformation to be patentable subject matter. In doing so, it introduced a physicality requirement into Australian law. What this article seeks to establish is whether the court’s decision is consistent with the case law on point. It does so by examining the key common law cases that followed the High Court’s watershed decision in National Research Development Corporation v Commissioner of Patents, the undisputed authoritative statement of principle in regard to the patentable subject matter standard in Australia. This is done with a view to determining whether there is anything in those cases that supports the view that the Australian patentable subject matter test contains a physicality requirement.

Real estate issues associated with the implementation of a carbon trading framework : a rural landholders perspective

The issue of carbon sequestration rights has become topical following the United Nations Convention on Climate Change and the subsequent Kyoto Protocol which identified emissions trading as one of the mechanisms to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The Australian Government has responded by initiating the Garnaut Climate Change Review which in its final report, proposed that an emissions trading scheme be introduced and set out some of the desirable features of such a trading scheme. This proposal has been the subject of much debate and at this stage there still seems to be little clarity surrounding the topic of emissions trading in Australia. The treatment of rights to carbon sequestered in vegetation is also an issue when reconciled with the system of land tenure and ownership in many jurisdictions. These carbon property rights are treated differently in different Australian and international jurisdictions ranging from recognition of their new and unique nature to fitting them within a more established common law framework, e.g.a profit a prendre. This paper identifies the treatment of these sequestered carbon rights within the wider property rights framework in Australia and considers issues that this treatment may inflict on land holders when there is a fracturing of ownership between the rights of the carbon in vegetation and the ownership of the land.

Using cost-effective multimedia to create engaging learning experiences in law and other disciplines

This is the final report of an Australian Learning and Teaching Council Teaching Fellowship which addressed the needs of two separate groups of learners: (1) final year law students studying ethics and (2) law academics and other interested educators in higher education wishing to use information and communication technologies (ICT) to create engaging learning environments for their students but lacking the capacity to do so. The Fellowship resulted in final year law students being infused with an improved appreciation of ethical practice than they receive from traditional lecture/tutorial means by the development of an integrated program of blended learning including an online program entitled "Entry into Valhalla". This "ethics capstone‟ utilises multimedia produced using cost effective resources (including the "Second Life" virtual environment) to create engaging, contextualised learning experiences. The Fellowship also constructed the knowledge of producing cost-effective multimedia projects in other law academics and other educators in higher education by staff development activities comprising workshops, conference presentations and an interactive website using the "Entry into Valhalla" program as a case study exemplar.