Holt, Johnson and the 1966 Federal Election. A Question of Causality

US President Lyndon Johnson's state visit to Australia in October 1966, came at the pinnacle of support for Australia's military involvement in the Vietnam War. Johnson's visit also occurred just weeks before an election for the House of Representatives at which the ruling Liberal-Country Party Coalition won its eighth successive, and largest victory, The proximity of these events has led many to argue that a causal relationship exists between the two. Advocates of this thesis, however, have failed to support their position with any evidence other than the anecdotal. Contrary to the assertions made by numerous political historians and observers of the period, this paper finds no evidence to support a thesis of causality. This paper argues that the Coalition's landslide victory in 1966 was both a rejection of the tired and lacklustre leadership of Labor's Arthur Calwell and a measure of the electorate's overwhelming support for Holt and his Government's policies of conscription and military involvement in Vietnam.

Telehealth and the diagnosis and management of cardiac disease

The financial and personal burden of chronic cardiac disease is high. Costs are likely to increase over the next few decades. Promising applications of telehealth have appeared in the diagnosis and management of cardiac disease and there are indications that telehealth services can improve the management of chronic cardiac disease as well as extend services to remote and rural populations. Telehealth has been applied to the capture of symptoms of cardiac disease with electrocardiography and echocardiography, to the management and rehabilitation of recently discharged patients, and in peer-to-peer consultation where remote expertise can facilitate diagnosis. Telehealth promises cost reductions in service delivery, although there is a need for properly controlled cost-effectiveness trials to underpin telehealth with a firm evidence base.

Review of 'Hearts and minds: Creative Australians and the environment'

Reviews the book `Hearts and Minds: Creative Australians and the Environment,' by Michael Pollak and Margaret MacNabb

Rapid diagnosis in pediatric infectious diseases: The past, the present and the future

The focus of rapid diagnosis of infectious diseases of children in the last decade has shifted from variations of the conventional laboratory techniques of antigen detection, microscopy and culture to that of molecular diagnosis of infectious agents. Pediatricians will need to be able to interpret the use, limitations and results of molecular diagnostic techniques as they are increasingly integrated into routine clinical microbiology laboratory protocols. PCR is the best known and most successfully implemented diagnostic molecular technology to date. It can detect specific infectious agents and determine their virulence and antimicrobial genotypes with greater speed, sensitivity and specificity than conventional microbiology methods. Inherent technical limitations of PCR are present, although they are reduced in laboratories that follow suitable validation and quality control procedures. Variations of PCR together with advances in nucleic acid amplification technology have broadened its diagnostic capabilities in clinical infectious disease to now rival and even surpass traditional methods in some situations. Automation of all components of PCR is now possible. The completion of the genome sequencing projects for significant microbial pathogens, in combination with PCR and DNA chip technology, will revolutionize the diagnosis and management of infectious diseases.

The future role of government in knowledge-based economies

In this article, we draw together aspects of contemporary theories of knowledge (particularly organisational knowledge) and complexity theory to demonstrate how appropriate conceptual rigor enables both the role of government and the directions of policy development in knowledge-based economies to be identified. Specifically we ask, what is the role of government in helping shape the knowledge society of the future? We argue that knowledge policy regimes must go beyond the modes of policy analysis currently used in innovation, information and technology policy because they are based in an industrial rather than post-industrial analytical framework. We also argue that if we are to develop knowledge-based economies, more encompassing images of the future than currently obtain in policy discourse are required. We therefore seek to stimulate and provoke an array of lines of thought about government and policy for such economies. Our objective is to focus on ideas more than argument and persuasion.

Reversible luminescence thermochromism in dipotassiumsodium tris[dicyanoargentate(I)] and the role of structural phase transitions

As a function of temperature, the layered compound K2Na[Ag(CN)213 displays dramatic variations in luminescence thermochromism with major trend changes occurring around 80 K. In order to understand these interesting optical properties, high-resolution neutron diffraction investigations were performed on a polycrystalline sample of this material in the temperature range from 1.5 to 300 K, and previous synchrotron X-ray data of Larochelle et al. (Solid State Commun. 114, 155 (2000)) were reinterpreted. The corresponding significant structural changes were found to be continuous with an anomalous increase of the monoclinic c-lattice parameter with decreasing temperature, associated with slight reorientations of two inequivalent, approximately linear N-C-Ag-C-N units. In the whole temperature range, the crystal structure is monoclinic with the space group C2/m. Based on the structural results, the major luminescence thermochromism changes around 80 K are attributed to the dominance of a back energy transfer process from low- to high-energy excitons at high temperatures. (E) 2002 Elsevier Science (USA).

Expression of neurexin ligands, the neuroligins and the neurexophilins, in the developing and adult rodent olfactory bulb

The neurexins are a large family of neuronal cell-surface proteins believed to be involved in intercellular signalling and the formation of intercellular junctions. To begin to assess the role of these proteins in the olfactory bulb, we describe here the expression patterns of their transmembrane and secreted ligands, the neuroligins and neurexophilins, during both embryonic and postnatal development. In situ hybridisation showed that neuroligin 1 and 2 were expressed by second order mitral cells during early postnatal development but not in adults. The secreted ligand for a-neurexin, neurexophilin 1, was also expressed in the postnatal olfactory bulb. Neurexophilin 1 was detected in only periglomerular cells during the early postnatal period of glomerular formation but later was also expressed in mitral cells. These results suggest that neurexin-ligand interactions may be important for development and/or maturation of synaptic connections in the primary olfactory pathway.

Parenthood and pay in Australia and the UK: evidence from workplace surveys

This article addresses the effect of parenthood on pay, examining potential reasons for-differences between Australia and the UK that are evident in spite of their similarly minimalist. male, breadwinner style approaches to work/family issues, Although cross-national differences reflect complex intersections of policy combinations, institutional frameworks, patterns of employment and gender contracts that cannot be assessed in a single analysis, the data used in this analysis uncover some of the factors that contribute to different outcomes. Motherhood penalties in the UK appear to be associated primarily with the comparatively low level of part-time earnings in that country, while higher premiums to fatherhood at least in part reflect a wider overall wage distribution. These findings reinforce the heed to interpret earnings effects of parenthood within the context of national patterns of employment and wage distribution; and highlight the breadth of strategies needed to deliver more equitable outcomes.

The tidiest revolution: Regulative feminist autobiography and the de-facement of the Australian women's movement

Examines the use of writing autobiographies as a feminist strategy for expanding and realigning the historical record. Significance of autobiographies in describing the oppression experienced by women in the society; Discussion on three memoirs by Australian feminist activists Susan Ryan, Wendy McCarthy and Anne Summers; Analysis of the textual strategies employed and the paradoxes that emerged from the memoirs; Details on the use of prosopopoeia in autobiographies.