A regulatory analysis of international climate change regulation

The political challenges impeding the negotiation of a comprehensive multilateral agreement on international climate change have received a great deal of attention. A question that has gone somewhat overlooked is what essential components an effective regulatory scheme to reduce greenhouse gas emissions should contain. The objective of this article is to examine the regulatory architecture of current international arrangements relating to global climate change regulation. A systematic analysis of the structure, substantive composition, and administrative characteristics of the UNFCCC and Kyoto Protocol is undertaken. The analytical standard against which the agreements are examined is whether current international regulatory arrangements satisfy the basic requirements of regulatory coherence. The analysis identifies how the present scheme consists of a complex institutional structure that lacks a substantive regulatory core. The implications of the absence of functional and effective mechanisms to govern greenhouse gas emission reductions are considered in relation to the principles of good regulatory design. This, in turn, provides useful insights into how a better regulatory scheme might be designed.

Teaching cause-of-death certification : lessons from international experience

The accuracy of cause-of-death statistics substantially depends on the quality of cause-of-death information in death certificates, primarily completed by medical doctors. Deficiencies in cause-of-death certification have been observed across the world, and over time. Despite educational interventions targeting to improve the quality of death certification, their intended impacts are rarely evaluated. This review aims to provide empirical evidence that could guide the modification of existing educational programs, or the development of new interventions, which are necessary to improve the capacity of certifiers as well as the quality of cause-of-death certification, and thereby, the quality of mortality statistics.

Adiabatic compression testing - part I : historical development and evaluation of fluid dynamic processes including shock-wave considerations

Adiabatic compression testing of components in gaseous oxygen is a test method that is utilized worldwide and is commonly required to qualify a component for ignition tolerance under its intended service. This testing is required by many industry standards organizations and government agencies. This paper traces the background of adiabatic compression testing in the oxygen community and discusses the thermodynamic and fluid dynamic processes that occur during rapid pressure surges. This paper is the first of several papers by the authors on the subject of adiabatic compression testing and is presented as a non-comprehensive background and introduction.

Adiabatic compression testing - part II : background and approach to estimating severity of test methodology

Adiabatic compression testing of components in gaseous oxygen is a test method that is utilized worldwide and is commonly required to qualify a component for ignition tolerance under its intended service. This testing is required by many industry standards organizations and government agencies; however, a thorough evaluation of the test parameters and test system influences on the thermal energy produced during the test has not yet been performed. This paper presents a background for adiabatic compression testing and discusses an approach to estimating potential differences in the thermal profiles produced by different test laboratories. A “Thermal Profile Test Fixture” (TPTF) is described that is capable of measuring and characterizing the thermal energy for a typical pressure shock by any test system. The test systems at Wendell Hull & Associates, Inc. (WHA) in the USA and at the BAM Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing in Germany are compared in this manner and some of the data obtained is presented. The paper also introduces a new way of comparing the test method to idealized processes to perform system-by-system comparisons. Thus, the paper introduces an “Idealized Severity Index” (ISI) of the thermal energy to characterize a rapid pressure surge. From the TPTF data a “Test Severity Index” (TSI) can also be calculated so that the thermal energies developed by different test systems can be compared to each other and to the ISI for the equivalent isentropic process. Finally, a “Service Severity Index” (SSI) is introduced to characterizing the thermal energy of actual service conditions. This paper is the second in a series of publications planned on the subject of adiabatic compression testing.

Security of employee entitlements : corporate governance issues

Following the collapse across the last decade of a number of large organizations such as Enron in the USA and several domestic organizations including Ansett Airlines, HIH Insurance and One.Tel, much discussion has ensued about the need to secure employee entitlements. However, tangible improvements in this area are elusive. Good corporate governance policies would suggest that deferred obligations as well as current debts should not be neglected and that appropriate arrangements be put in place to adequately fund employee entitlements. In this paper we consider recent Australian attempts to introduce better governance of employee entitlements.

Why common factors in international bond returns are not so common

This paper analyzes the common factor structure of US, German, and Japanese Government bond returns. Unlike previous studies, we formally take into account the presence of country-specific factors when estimating common factors. We show that the classical approach of running a principal component analysis on a multi-country dataset of bond returns captures both local and common influences and therefore tends to pick too many factors. We conclude that US bond returns share only one common factor with German and Japanese bond returns. This single common factor is associated most notably with changes in the level of domestic term structures. We show that accounting for country-specific factors improves the performance of domestic and international hedging strategies.

Validation of the impact of Health Information Technology (I-HIT) scale : an international collaborative

In 2005, the Healthcare Information Management Systems Society (HIMSS) Nursing Informatics Community developed a survey to measure the impact of health information technology (HIT), the IHIT Scale, on the role of nurses and interdisciplinary communication in hospital settings. In 2007, nursing informatics colleagues from Australia, England, Finland, Ireland, New Zealand, Scotland and the United States formed a research collaborative to validate the IHIT across countries. All teams have completed construct and face validation in their countries. Five out of six teams have initiated reliability testing by practicing nurses. This paper reports the international collaborative’s validation of the IHIT Scale completed to date.

How environmental and organizational complexity affects opportunity recognition and exploitation in development projects

Principal Topic: Project structures are often created by entrepreneurs and large corporate organizations to develop new products. Since new product development projects (NPDP) are more often situated within a larger organization, intrapreneurship or corporate entrepreneurship plays an important role in bringing these projects to fruition. Since NPDP often involves the development of a new product using immature technology, we describe development of an immature technology. The Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) F-35 aircraft is being developed by the U.S. Department of Defense and eight allied nations. In 2001 Lockheed Martin won a $19 billion contract to develop an affordable, stealthy and supersonic all-weather strike fighter designed to replace a wide range of aging fighter aircraft. In this research we define a complex project as one that demonstrates a number of sources of uncertainty to a degree, or level of severity, that makes it extremely difficult to predict project outcomes, to control or manage project (Remington & Zolin, Forthcoming). Project complexity has been conceptualized by Remington and Pollock (2007) in terms of four major sources of complexity; temporal, directional, structural and technological complexity (See Figure 1). Temporal complexity exists when projects experience significant environmental change outside the direct influence or control of the project. The Global Economic Crisis of 2008 - 2009 is a good example of the type of environmental change that can make a project complex as, for example in the JSF project, where project managers attempt to respond to changes in interest rates, international currency exchange rates and commodity prices etc. Directional complexity exists in a project where stakeholders' goals are unclear or undefined, where progress is hindered by unknown political agendas, or where stakeholders disagree or misunderstand project goals. In the JSF project all the services and all non countries have to agree to the specifications of the three variants of the aircraft; Conventional Take Off and Landing (CTOL), Short Take Off/Vertical Landing (STOVL) and the Carrier Variant (CV). Because the Navy requires a plane that can take off and land on an aircraft carrier, that required a special variant of the aircraft design, adding complexity to the project. Technical complexity occurs in a project using technology that is immature or where design characteristics are unknown or untried. Developing a plane that can take off on a very short runway and land vertically created may highly interdependent technological challenges to correctly locate, direct and balance the lift fans, modulate the airflow and provide equivalent amount of thrust from the downward vectored rear exhaust to lift the aircraft and at the same time control engine temperatures. These technological challenges make costing and scheduling equally challenging. Structural complexity in a project comes from the sheer numbers of elements such as the number of people, teams or organizations involved, ambiguity regarding the elements, and the massive degree of interconnectedness between them. While Lockheed Martin is the prime contractor, they are assisted in major aspects of the JSF development by Northrop Grumman, BAE Systems, Pratt & Whitney and GE/Rolls-Royce Fighter Engineer Team and innumerable subcontractors. In addition to identifying opportunities to achieve project goals, complex projects also need to identify and exploit opportunities to increase agility in response to changing stakeholder demands or to reduce project risks. Complexity Leadership Theory contends that in complex environments adaptive and enabling leadership are needed (Uhl-Bien, Marion and McKelvey, 2007). Adaptive leadership facilitates creativity, learning and adaptability, while enabling leadership handles the conflicts that inevitably arise between adaptive leadership and traditional administrative leadership (Uhl-Bien and Marion, 2007). Hence, adaptive leadership involves the recognition and opportunities to adapt, while and enabling leadership involves the exploitation of these opportunities. Our research questions revolve around the type or source of complexity and its relationship to opportunity recognition and exploitation. For example, is it only external environmental complexity that creates the need for the entrepreneurial behaviours, such as opportunity recognition and opportunity exploitation? Do the internal dimensions of project complexity, such as technological and structural complexity, also create the need for opportunity recognition and opportunity exploitation? The Kropp, Zolin and Lindsay model (2009) describes a relationship between entrepreneurial orientation (EO), opportunity recognition (OR), and opportunity exploitation (OX) in complex projects, with environmental and organizational contextual variables as moderators. We extend their model by defining the affects of external complexity and internal complexity on OR and OX. ---------- Methodology/Key Propositions: When the environment complex EO is more likely to result in OR because project members will be actively looking for solutions to problems created by environmental change. But in projects that are technologically or structurally complex project leaders and members may try to make the minimum changes possible to reduce the risk of creating new problems due to delays or schedule changes. In projects with environmental or technological complexity project leaders who encourage the innovativeness dimension of EO will increase OR in complex projects. But projects with technical or structural complexity innovativeness will not necessarily result in the recognition and exploitation of opportunities due to the over-riding importance of maintaining stability in the highly intricate and interconnected project structure. We propose that in projects with environmental complexity creating the need for change and innovation project leaders, who are willing to accept and manage risk, are more likely to identify opportunities to increase project effectiveness and efficiency. In contrast in projects with internal complexity a much higher willingness to accept risk will be necessary to trigger opportunity recognition. In structurally complex projects we predict it will be less likely to find a relationship between risk taking and OP. When the environment is complex, and a project has autonomy, they will be motivated to execute opportunities to improve the project's performance. In contrast, when the project has high internal complexity, they will be more cautious in execution. When a project experiences high competitive aggressiveness and their environment is complex, project leaders will be motivated to execute opportunities to improve the project's performance. In contrast, when the project has high internal complexity, they will be more cautious in execution. This paper reports the first stage of a three year study into the behaviours of managers, leaders and team members of complex projects. We conduct a qualitative study involving a Group Discussion with experienced project leaders. The objective is to determine how leaders of large and potentially complex projects perceive that external and internal complexity will influence the affects of EO on OR. ---------- Results and Implications: These results will help identify and distinguish the impact of external and internal complexity on entrepreneurial behaviours in NPDP. Project managers will be better able to quickly decide how and when to respond to changes in the environment and internal project events.

Compliance

Entry provides a concise description of obligations prescribed by laws and regulations, or procedural rules met by individuals or organisations. In the event of noncompliance, penalties are imposed. A conceptual overview, critical commentary and future directions on compliance provide the framework for this entry. The International Encyclopedia of Organization Studies is a definitive description of the field, spanning individual, organizational, societal, and cultural perspective in a cross-disciplinary manner. The Encyclopedia is thoroughly cross-referenced and entries are based around a series of broad themes. Key Features- Offers a comprehensive overview of many of the major ideas, concepts, terms, and approaches that characterise this diverse field of organization studies - Illustrates the fluidity, dynamism, and innovation that now occur in organization studies-internationally - Brings together a team of international contributors from the fields of: Management, Psychology, Sociology, Communications, Education, Political Science, Public Administration, Anthropology, Law and other related areas. - Examines how organizations are devices for structuring life and lives are structured by organizations

Procedural justice

Entry provides a concise description of procedural justice -the perceived fairness of organizational procedures in decision-making processes A conceptual overview, critical commentary and future directions provide the framework for this entry. The International Encyclopedia of Organization Studies is a definitive description of the field, spanning individual, organizational, societal, and cultural perspective in a cross-disciplinary manner. The Encyclopedia is thoroughly cross-referenced and entries are based around a series of broad themes. Key Features- Offers a comprehensive overview of many of the major ideas, concepts, terms, and approaches that characterise this diverse field of organization studies - Illustrates the fluidity, dynamism, and innovation that now occur in organization studies-internationally - Brings together a team of international contributors from the fields of: Management, Psychology, Sociology, Communications, Education, Political Science, Public Administration, Anthropology, Law and other related areas. - Examines how organizations are devices for structuring life and lives are structured by organizations

2006 International digital art awards : Beijing film academy galleries, China

The field was the curation of new media within large-scale exhibition practice for Chinese audiences. The context was improved understandings of the intertwining cultures and concerns of Chinese and Western contemporary practitioners. The research uncovered a range of connective and dialogical concerns around cultural displacement and re-identification, germane to the chosen group of media artists. The methodology was principally practice-led. The research brought together 31 practitioners from Asian, European and Australasian cultures within a major highly visible Chinese exhibition context. By identifying and promoting a distinct commonality within difference amongst the diverse practitioners the exhibition successfully activated a global dialogue that incorporated environmental and cultural identity agendas within a major Chinese educational and public context - thereby promulgating cross-cultural understanding, despite the often oppressive shadowing of domestic political processes. The project was developed under the international aegis of IDA Projects (established since 1999) and was substantially supported by the Fine Art Department of the Beijing Film Academy, QUT Precincts and Platform China Art Institute. It built upon IDA’s 2005 inaugural new media exhibition at the ‘Today Art’ Museum in Beijing – now recognised as one of the leading art spaces in China. Numerous peer-reviewed grants won included the Australian Embassy in China and the Australia China Council. Through subsequent invitations from external curators the work then traveled in a range of reconfigured formats to other major venues including the Block Gallery at QUT, Brisbane and ZAIM Artspace, Yokohama Japan. A major catalogue with authoritative essays was also printed.

Rethinking genre studies through distribution analysis : issues in international horror movie circuits

The existence of any film genre depends on the effective operation of distribution networks. Contingencies of distribution play an important role in determining the content of individual texts and the characteristics of film genres; they enable new genres to emerge at the same time as they impose limits on generic change. This article sets out an alternative way of doing genre studies, based on an analysis of distributive circuits rather than film texts or generic categories. Our objective is to provide a conceptual framework that can account for the multiple ways in which distribution networks leave their traces on film texts and audience expectations, with specific reference to international horror networks, and to offer some preliminary suggestions as to how distribution analysis can be integrated into existing genre studies methodologies.

The properties of the international classification of the external cause of injury when used as an instrument for injury prevention research

Objective: To demonstrate properties of the International Classification of the External Cause of Injury (ICECI) as a tool for use in injury prevention research. Methods: The Childhood Injury Prevention Study (CHIPS) is a prospective longitudinal follow up study of a cohort of 871 children 5–12 years of age, with a nested case crossover component. The ICECI is the latest tool in the International Classification of Diseases (ICD) family and has been designed to improve the precision of coding injury events. The details of all injury events recorded in the study, as well as all measured injury related exposures, were coded using the ICECI. This paper reports a substudy on the utility and practicability of using the ICECI in the CHIPS to record exposures. Interrater reliability was quantified for a sample of injured participants using the Kappa statistic to measure concordance between codes independently coded by two research staff. Results: There were 767 diaries collected at baseline and event details from 563 injuries and exposure details from injury crossover periods. There were no event, location, or activity details which could not be coded using the ICECI. Kappa statistics for concordance between raters within each of the dimensions ranged from 0.31 to 0.93 for the injury events and 0.94 and 0.97 for activity and location in the control periods. Discussion: This study represents the first detailed account of the properties of the ICECI revealed by its use in a primary analytic epidemiological study of injury prevention. The results of this study provide considerable support for the ICECI and its further use.

Reparations for Indigenous People: International and Comparative Perspectives

Published in concomitance with the adoption of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, this volume brings together a group of renowned legal experts and activists from different parts of the world who, from international and comparative perspectives, investigate the right of indigenous peoples to reparation for breaches of their individual and collective rights. The first part of the book is devoted to general aspects of this important matter, providing a comprehensive assessment of the relevant international legal framework and including overviews of the topic of reparations for human rights violations, the status of indigenous peoples in international law, and the vision of reparations as conceived by the communities concerned. The second part embraces a comprehensive investigation of the relevant practice at the international, regional, and national level, examining the best practices of reparations according to the ideologies and expectations of indigenous peoples and offering a comparative perspective on the ways in which the right of these peoples to redress for the injuries suffered is realized worldwide. The global picture painted by these contributions provides a view of the status of relevant international law that is synthesized in the two final chapters of the book, which include a concrete example of how a judicial claim for reparation is to be structured and prescribes the best practices and strategies to be adopted in order to maximize the opportunities for indigenous peoples to obtain effective redress. As a whole, this volume offers a comprehensive vision of its subject matter in international and comparative law, with a practical approach aimed at supporting legal academics, administrators, and practitioners in improving the avenues and modalities of reparations for indigenous peoples

International comparisons of Malaysian construction labour productivity

Productivity is basic statistical information for many international comparisons and country performance assessments. This study estimates the construction labour productivity of 79 selected economies. The real (purchasing power parities converted) and nominal construction expenditure from the Report of 2005 International Comparison Programme published by the World Bank and construction employment from the database of labour statistics (LABORSTA) operated by the Bureau of Statistics of International Labour Organization were used in the estimation. The inference statistics indicate that the descending order of nominal construction labour productivity from high income economies to low income economies is not established. The average construction labour productivity of low income economies is higher than middle income economies when the productivity calculation uses purchasing power parities converted data. Malaysia ranked 50th and 63rd position among the 79 selected economies on real and nominal measurement respectively.