The Precautionary Principle in Australia: Policy, Law & Potential Precautionary EIAs

Dr. Gullet argues that environmental impact assessments are a logical vehicle for factoring the precautionary principle into large-project-approval processes

Paicardo\u27s Funding ministry with five loaves and two fishes (Book Review)

Paicardo, R. (2016). Funding ministry with five loaves and two fishes. Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press. 124 pp. ISBN 978150181892

Back to the future in NHS reform

PURPOSE - In the mid 1990s the NHS ‘did’ competition, in the mid 2000s the NHS is ‘doing’ choice. This paper aims to cut through the rhetoric, highlight the differences and parallels between then and now and identify if these differences will have a different or the same impact on local services. DESIGN/METHODOLOGY/APPROACH – Following a review of literature from the 1990s, a qualitative research study is used to examine the impact of competition and markets in the 1990s. The discussion examines the implications of this study for current system reform. FINDINGS - Patient choice recreates many of the features of the internal market, but despite concerns at the time, the internal market did not have a significant impact on services. It is likely that patient choice will similarly have a limited impact. RESEARCH LIMITATIONS/IMPLICATIONS - The research is a case study confined to Day Surgery in one part of the North of England. ORIGINALITY/VALUE - The paper reminds academics and practitioners what happened last time the NHS attempted to introduce a market-based system

Low-luminosity X-ray sources and the Galactic ridge X-ray emission

Using the XMM-Newton Slew Survey, we construct a hard-band selected sample of low-luminosity Galactic X-ray sources. Two source populations are represented, namely coronally-active stars and binaries (ASBs) and cataclysmic variables (CVs), with X-ray luminosities collectively spanning the range 10^(28-34) erg/s (2-10 keV). We derive the 2-10 keV X-ray luminosity function (XLF) and volume emissivity of each population. Scaled to the local stellar mass density, the latter is found to be 1.08 +/- 0.16 x 10^28 erg/s/M and 2.5 +/- 0.6 x 10^27 erg/s/M, for the ASBs and CVs respectively, which in total is a factor 2 higher than previous estimates. We employ the new XLFs to predict the X-ray source counts on the Galactic plane at l = 28.5 deg and show that the result is consistent with current observational constraints. The X-ray emission of faint, unresolved ASBs and CVs can account for a substantial fraction of the Galactic ridge X-ray emission (GRXE). We discuss a model in which roughly 80 per cent of the 6-10 keV GRXE intensity is produced in this way, with the remainder attributable to X-ray scattering in the interstellar medium and/or young Galactic source populations. Much of the hard X-ray emission attributed to the ASBs is likely to be produced during flaring episodes

The justification of homeschooling vis-a-vis the european human rights system

The very idea of the European Convention on Human Rights is to bring the laws of contracting states into line with fundamental human rights principles. Where the Convention is not explicit, the Court should never rule restrictively so as to reduce the scope of a general right. In the case of homeschooling, the Convention sets forth the general principle that “the state shall respect the right of parents to ensure such education and teaching in conformity with their own religious and philosophical convictions.” It must not, therefore, allow a contracting state to eliminate a means of achieving this desired by parents—unless the state can show that the means in question is ineffective

Back to the future in NHS reform

PURPOSE - In the mid 1990s the NHS ‘did’ competition, in the mid 2000s the NHS is ‘doing’ choice. This paper aims to cut through the rhetoric, highlight the differences and parallels between then and now and identify if these differences will have a different or the same impact on local services. DESIGN/METHODOLOGY/APPROACH – Following a review of literature from the 1990s, a qualitative research study is used to examine the impact of competition and markets in the 1990s. The discussion examines the implications of this study for current system reform. FINDINGS - Patient choice recreates many of the features of the internal market, but despite concerns at the time, the internal market did not have a significant impact on services. It is likely that patient choice will similarly have a limited impact. RESEARCH LIMITATIONS/IMPLICATIONS - The research is a case study confined to Day Surgery in one part of the North of England. ORIGINALITY/VALUE - The paper reminds academics and practitioners what happened last time the NHS attempted to introduce a market-based system.

The rise and fall of the patient forum

The circular, ‘A Stronger Local Voice’ (Department of Health 2006) published in July announced that Patient Forums in England will be abolished to be replaced by local authority run Local Involvement Networks (LINks). What went wrong with Forums? What was wrong with Community Health Councils before them? Will LINks be more successful than either of them? Is there anything to be gained from another major reorganisation of public involvement arrangements?

From the buzzing in Turing’s head to machine intelligence contests

This paper presents an analysis of three major contests for machine intelligence. We conclude that a new era for Turing’s test requires a fillip in the guise of a committed sponsor, not unlike DARPA, funders of the successful 2007 Urban Challenge