Application to set aside statutory demand

In C & E Pty Ltd v Corrigan [2006] QCA 47, the Queensland Court of Appeal considered whether r103 of the Uniform Civil Procedure Rules applied to the service of an application to set aside a statutory demand under s459G of the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth). The decision provides analysis and clarification of an issue that has clearly been one of some uncertainty.

Renormalization group interpretation of the Born and Rytov approximations

In this paper the method of renormalization group (RG) [Phys. Rev. E 54, 376 (1996)] is related to the well-known approximations of Rytov and Born used in wave propagation in deterministic and random media. Certain problems in linear and nonlinear media are examined from the viewpoint of RG and compared with the literature on Born and Rytov approximations. It is found that the Rytov approximation forms a special case of the asymptotic expansion generated by the RG, and as such it gives a superior approximation to the exact solution compared with its Born counterpart. Analogous conclusions are reached for nonlinear equations with an intensity-dependent index of refraction where the RG recovers the exact solution. © 2008 Optical Society of America.

A regional interpretation of rules and good practice for greenhouse accounting : Northern Australian savanna systems

Land-use change, particularly clearing of forests for agriculture, has contributed significantly to the observed rise in atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration. Concern about the impacts on climate has led to efforts to monitor and curtail the rapid increase in concentrations of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Internationally, much of the current focus is on the Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Although electing to not ratify the Protocol, Australia, as a party to the UNFCCC, reports on national greenhouse gas emissions, trends in emissions and abatement measures. In this paper we review the complex accounting rules for human activities affecting greenhouse gas fluxes in the terrestrial biosphere and explore implications and potential opportunities for managing carbon in the savanna ecosystems of northern Australia. Savannas in Australia are managed for grazing as well as for cultural and environmental values against a background of extreme climate variability and disturbance, notably fire. Methane from livestock and non-CO2 emissions from burning are important components of the total greenhouse gas emissions associated with management of savannas. International developments in carbon accounting for the terrestrial biosphere bring a requirement for better attribution of change in carbon stocks and more detailed and spatially explicit data on such characteristics of savanna ecosystems as fire regimes, production and type of fuel for burning, drivers of woody encroachment, rates of woody regrowth, stocking rates and grazing impacts. The benefits of improved biophysical information and of understanding the impacts on ecosystem function of natural factors and management options will extend beyond greenhouse accounting to better land management for multiple objectives.

The importance of good data, analysis and interpretation for showing the economics of reducing healthcare-associated infection

To the Editor—In a recent review article in Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology, Umscheid et al1 summarized published data on incidence rates of catheter-associated bloodstream infection (CABSI), catheter-associated urinary tract infection (CAUTI), surgical site infection (SSI), and ventilator- associated pneumonia (VAP); estimated how many cases are preventable; and calculated the savings in hospital costs and lives that would result from preventing all preventable cases. Providing these estimates to policy makers, political leaders, and health officials helps to galvanize their support for infection prevention programs. Our concern is that important limitations of the published studies on which Umscheid and colleagues built their findings are incompletely addressed in this review. More attention needs to be drawn to the techniques applied to generate these estimates...

The BRICS and R2P : contestation, re-interpretation and norm entrepreneurship

The intra-state humanitarian crises in Libya and Syria have led to renewed debate over the content and implementation of pillar three of the responsibility to protect (R2P). This paper examines the BRICS’ (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) current perspectives on R2P and their recent efforts to shape the concept’s evolution. While Brazil’s “Responsibility while Protecting” (RwP) proposal has been widely discussed, the central focus here is on the lesser-known, semi-official Chinese idea of “Responsible Protection” (RP). Like RwP, RP proposes decision-making criteria and accountability mechanisms for UN-authorised military intervention under R2P’s third pillar. This paper argues that although RP draws heavily on previous R2P proposals such as the original 2001 ICISS report and Brazil’s RwP, by amalgamating and re-packaging these earlier ideas in a more restrictive form the Chinese initiative represents a new and distinctive interpretation of R2P. However, as it currently stands, some aspects of RP appear to be framed too strictly to provide workable guidelines for determining the permissibility of R2P military intervention, and would, therefore, benefit from clarification and refinement. Of broader significance, China’s RP and Brazil’s RwP initiatives point to the growing willingness of rising, non-Western powers to articulate and promote their own normative preferences on sovereignty, intervention and global governance. This development has potential implications both for R2P’s evolution and for the structure of the international system.

Book Review : "Statutory Will Applications : A practical Guide by Richard Williams and Sam McCullough"

The jurisdiction of Australian courts to make wills for those lacking testamentary capacity is relatively new, having been granted by legislation progressively enacted across the various states and territories between 1996 and 2010. Given increasing numbers of statutory will applications since the legislative reform, and a growing body of law, the publication of the specialist work, Statutory Will Applications: A Practical Guide, by Richard Williams and Sam McCullough, is timely and valuable. This work will be of great interest to those who act for individual clients, especially wills and estates practitioners, but also personal injury practitioners acting for incapacitated persons who have been awarded substantial damages.

Book Review : "Statutory will Applications in Australia : A Practical Guide by Richard Williams & Sam McCullough"

Although UK courts have, for many years, had power to make wills for those lacking testamentary capacity, this jurisdiction jurisdiction is relatively new in Australia, having been granted by legislation enacted between 1996 and 2010.

Statutory occupational health and safety workplace arrangements for the modern labour market

Over the past 20 years there has been a significant refashioning of the labour market within Australia and other industrialised countries. This paper examines the implications of the growth of more flexible work arrangements for mechanisms designed to facilitate worker involvement in occupational health and safety at the workplace—a pivotal feature of post-Robens OHS legislation in Australia. It is argued that the growth of subcontracting, casual and home-based work has undermined both coverage and the effectiveness of these provisions, especially in a context where union membership and influence has also been declining. Looking at international experience, the paper examines a number of ways of remedying these deficiencies.

The Artful Interpretation of Science through Picture Books

Science picture books offer pleasurable and educational reading experiences. These texts open up opportunities for cross-curriculum teaching and learning and a means for developing students’ visual literacy skills, aesthetic appreciation, and higher level thinking skills. Picture books demonstrate how one mode or semiotic system (visual and verbal) mediates the other, often complementing, extending, and filling-in the gaps between words and images. Students’ meaning making is further extended when they can understand the subtleties and effects (and affects) of the visual elements of art and design, and the different styles of writing and language use.

An efficient tagging data interpretation and representation scheme for item recommendation

A tag-based item recommendation method generates an ordered list of items, likely interesting to a particular user, using the users past tagging behaviour. However, the users tagging behaviour varies in different tagging systems. A potential problem in generating quality recommendation is how to build user profiles, that interprets user behaviour to be effectively used, in recommendation models. Generally, the recommendation methods are made to work with specific types of user profiles, and may not work well with different datasets. In this paper, we investigate several tagging data interpretation and representation schemes that can lead to building an effective user profile. We discuss the various benefits a scheme brings to a recommendation method by highlighting the representative features of user tagging behaviours on a specific dataset. Empirical analysis shows that each interpretation scheme forms a distinct data representation which eventually affects the recommendation result. Results on various datasets show that an interpretation scheme should be selected based on the dominant usage in the tagging data (i.e. either higher amount of tags or higher amount of items present). The usage represents the characteristic of user tagging behaviour in the system. The results also demonstrate how the scheme is able to address the cold-start user problem.

A survey of radiographers' confidence and self-perceived accuracy in frontline image interpretation and their continuing educational preferences

Introduction The provision of a written comment on traumatic abnormalities of the musculoskeletal system detected by radiographers can assist referrers and may improve patient management, but the practice has not been widely adopted outside the United Kingdom. The purpose of this study was to investigate Australian radiographers’ perceptions of their readiness for practice in a radiographer commenting system and their educational preferences in relation to two different delivery formats of image interpretation education, intensive and non-intensive. Methods A cross-sectional web-based questionnaire was implemented between August and September 2012. Participants included radiographers with experience working in emergency settings at four Australian metropolitan hospitals. Conventional descriptive statistics, frequency histograms, and thematic analysis were undertaken. A Wilcoxon signed-rank test examined whether a difference in preference ratings between intensive and non-intensive education delivery was evident. Results The questionnaire was completed by 73 radiographers (68% response rate). Radiographers reported higher confidence and self-perceived accuracy to detect traumatic abnormalities than to describe traumatic abnormalities of the musculoskeletal system. Radiographers frequently reported high desirability ratings for both the intensive and the non-intensive education delivery, no difference in desirability ratings for these two formats was evident (z = 1.66,P = 0.11). Conclusions Some Australian radiographers perceive they are not ready to practise in a frontline radiographer commenting system. Overall, radiographers indicated mixed preferences for image interpretation education delivered via intensive and non-intensive formats. Further research, preferably randomised trials, investigating the effectiveness of intensive and non-intensive education formats of image interpretation education for radiographers is warranted.

Interpretation of morphological data to inform design Bridge to Bridge: Ridge to Ridge urban design workshop

The importance of design practice informed by urban morphology has led to intensification in interest, signalled by the formation of the ISUF Research and Practice Task Force and voiced through several recent academic publications cognisant of this current debate, this paper reports on a recent urban design workshop at which morphology was set as one of the key themes. Initially planned to be programmed as a augmented concurrent event to the 2013 20th ISUF conference held in Brisbane, the two day Bridge to Bridge: Ridge to Ridge urban design workshop nevertheless took place the following month, and involved over one hundred design professionals and academics. The workshop sought to develop several key urban design principles and recommendations addressing a major government development proposal sited in the most important heritage precinct of the city. The paper will focus specifically on one of the nine groups, in which the design proposal was purposefully guided by morphological input. The discussion will examine the design outcomes and illicit review and feedback from participants, shedding critical light on the issues that arise from such a design approach.