Freedom of Information in Indonesia and Australia

Freedom of Information laws promote access to data held by government authorities in the public sector to mainstream society. Such laws have been enacted on a global scale however the obedience they have attracted is not consistent amongst each geographical location. Freedom of Information Laws have been enacted in Indonesia, it was a scheme introduced in 2008 which included many different components that were to improve each individual's right to communicate and obtain information for the purpose of developing themselves and their current political and social environment. The adequacy of the Freedom of Information is a questionable notion in the grand scheme of Indonesia's legal environment as its effectiveness and motives are rather questionable. It has been acknowledged that this initiative is still developing on a national scale, which raises the main question, is 6 years long enough for a scheme to still be dubbed as ‘developing'? This text will analyse the advantageous and pitfalls of the legislative instrument ending with a comparative analysis with the current situation that Australia experiences

Freedom of Information

OBJECTIVE: It has previously been shown that a combination of inhaled nitric oxide (iNO) and intravenous (IV) steroid attenuates endotoxin-induced organ damage in a 6-hour porcine endotoxemia model. We aimed to further explore these effects in a 30-hour model with attention to clinically important variables. DESIGN: Randomized controlled trial. SETTING: University animal laboratory. SUBJECTS: Domestic piglets (n = 30). INTERVENTIONS: Animals were randomized into 5 groups (n = 6 each): 1) Controls, 2) LPS-only (endotoxin/lipopolysaccharide (LPS) infusion), 3) LPS + iNO, 4) LPS + IV steroid, 5) LPS + iNO + IV steroid. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: Exposure to LPS temporarily increased pulmonary artery mean pressure and impeded renal function with elevated serum creatinine and acidosis compared to a control group over the 30-hour study period. Double treatment with both iNO and IV steroid tended to blunt the deterioration in renal function, although the only significant effect was on Base Excess (p = 0.045). None of the LPS + iNO + IV steroid treated animals died during the study period, whereas one animal died in each of the other LPS-infused groups. CONCLUSIONS: This study suggests that combined early therapy with iNO and IV steroid is associated with partial protection of kidney function after 30 hours of experimental LPS infusion

Freedom of Information Commissioner: annual report 2015-16

In the 2015-16 financial year the Office revised and updated the Strategic Plan which had originally been developed in 2014. The revision took into account proposed legislative changes and the future of FOI in Victoria. The Strategic Plan identifies future challenges and reflects our commitment to working with applicants, agencies and our stakeholders, understanding their expectations and prioritising our activities accordingly. Our strategic priorities are – 1: To conduct reviews and handle complaints; 2:To provide accurate advice, education and guidance on FOI; 3:To develop and support our people; and 4:To maintain good corporate governanc

THREAT TO FREE INFORMATION AND FREEDOM OF INFORMATION

“Imagine a world in which every single person on the planet is given free access to the sum of all human knowledge. That’s what we’re doing.” At a time when internet access is widely available, information is spread around the globe rapidly. This development enables people in various parts of the world to gain access to information faster than ever before imagined. A lot of the information on the net comes free of charge, which allows access regardless of money. However, as everybody is able to provide information more or less anonymously on the net we have to focus on the quality of the information supplied.freedom of information, objectivity, anonimyty, credibility, censorship

Developments Under the Freedom of Information Act

This article reviews authors' recently developed algorithm for identification of nonlinear state-space models under missing observations and extends it to the case of unknown model structure. In order to estimate the parameters in a state-space model, one needs to know the model structure and have an estimate of states. If the model structure is unknown, an approximation of it is obtained using radial basis functions centered around a maximum a posteriori estimate of the state trajectory. A particle filter approximation of smoothed states is then used in conjunction with expectation maximization algorithm for estimating the parameters. The proposed approach is illustrated through a real application