Public duty and private interest: report of the Committee of Inquiry established by the Prime Minister on 15 February 1978

This was the first report to set out the principles that underpin public servants\u27 and politicians\u27 obligations to disclose and manage conflicts of interest. Tabled in 1979, this is the first time a digitised version of this report, known as the \u27Bowen report\u27, has been made publically available. The intention to establish this inquiry was announced in a press statement issued by the then Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser on 16 December 1977. The statement mentioned the difficult position in which a Prime Minister finds himself when he is called upon to pass judgment on colleagues with whom he has worked closely, particularly as the Prime Minister must act as a judge and jury when allegations of impropriety are raised. Fraser expressed his disatisfaction with a previous inquiry on the topic, conducted by a Parliamentary committee. He stated that he would instead he would appoint a judge or Queen\u27s Counsel, to be assisted by a businessman and an accountant, to carry out a new inquiry. On 15 February 1978 Fraser stated that the new inquiry would be conducted by the Chief Judge of the Federal Court of Australia, the Hon. Sir Nigel Bowen, K.B.E., as well as Sir Cecil Looker, and Sir Edward Cain, C.B.E. The terms of reference were: 1. To recommend whether a statement of principles can be drawn up on the nature of private interests, pecuniary or otherwise, which could conflict with the public duty of any or all persons holding positions of public trust in relation to the Commonwealth. 2. To recommend whether principles can be defined which would promote the avoidance and if necessary the resolution of any conflicts of interest which the Inquiry may, under paragraph (1) above, find to be possible. 3. In the event of a finding under paragraph (2) above that principles can be defined, to recommend what those principles should be. 4. Without limiting the scope of paragraph (3) above, to recommend whether or not a register under judicial or other supervision should be maintained so that, in the event of allegations of impropriety, the allegation may be open to judicial investigation and report. 5. For the purposes of paragraph(1) above, \u27persons holding positions of public trust in relation to the Commonwealth\u27 to include the following: (a) Ministers; (b) Senators and Members of the House of Representatives; (c) Staff of (a) and (b); (d) Members of the Australian Public Service; and (e) Such other persons or classes of persons which in the opinion of the Committee ought to be included. This is the final report of the inquiry, which has helped shaped the conduct of the public service to this day. --------------- Part of the Policy History Collection. Digitisation of this report has been supported by the National Library of Australia. Reproduced with permission of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet

A Comparison of Absorption and Emission Line Abundances in the Nearby Damped Lyman-alpha Galaxy SBS 1543+593

We have used the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS) aboard HST to measure a sulfur abundance of [S/H] = -0.41 +/-0.06 in the interstellar medium (ISM) of the nearby damped Lyman-alpha (DLA) absorbing galaxy SBS 1543+593. A direct comparison between this QSO absorption line abundance on the one hand, and abundances measured from HII region emission line diagnostics on the other, yield the same result: the abundance of sulfur in the neutral ISM is in good agreement with that of oxygen measured in an HII region 3 kpc away. Our result contrasts with those of other recent studies which have claimed order-of-magnitude differences between HI (absorption) and HII (emission) region abundances. We also derive a nickel abundance of [Ni/H] < -0.81, some three times less than that of sulfur, and suggest that the depletion is due to dust, although we cannot rule out an over-abundance of alpha-elements as the cause of the lower metallicity. It is possible that our measure of [S/H] is over-estimated if some SII arises in ionized gas; adopting a plausible star formation rate for the galaxy along the line of sight, and a measurement of the CII* 1335.7 absorption line detected from SBS 1543+593, we determine that the metallicity is unlikely to be smaller than we derive by more than 0.25 dex. We estimate that the cooling rate of the cool neutral medium is log [l_c (ergs s^{-1} H atom^{-1})] = -27.0, the same value as that seen in the high redshift DLA population.Comment: 31 pages; accepted for publication in the Ap

Organizational Structure and the Creative Process

A creative edge can be a powerful source of competitive advantage in business, in war, in the arts, in science, and in life. In fact, creativity, innovation and the ability to adapt and change organizational structures in response to an increasingly fast-paced and competitive business environment are increasingly seen as essential for the success of many organizations. A current trend in organizational theory associates increases in formalization and both horizontal and vertical integration with decreases in an organization\u27s ability to innovate and adapt. Consequently, organizational change efforts often involve moving from traditional, hierarchical structures toward flatter, more flexible types of organizations (Damanpour, 1995; De Canio, Dibble, & Amir-Atefi, 2000; De Sanctis, Glass, & Ensing, 2002). However, as indicated by the failure of numerous downsizing and organizational change efforts, some structures may not be effectively reversible (Appelbaum, 1999; McKinley, 1993). Furthermore, reductions in structural complexity and size may not actually enhance organizational creativity (Damanpour, 1995). This study uses a stochastic model to investigate possible causes for this apparent disconnect between theory and observation. The model is applied to simple, idealized organizations in order to investigate the relationships between individual creativity, organizational creativity, organizational structure and restructuring, and environmental uncertainty. A simplified formulation of the stochastic model is investigated analytically, and a more expanded formulation is analyzed using Monte Carlo simulation. The model results suggest that reducing structure or increasing the autonomy of individual producers or subordinates will not necessarily yield increased creative performance. The most profitable organizations were those that converged to highly integrated structures. The simulation also indicated that, beyond a point, increases in both individual and leader creativity may not improve, and may actually detract from, organizational creativity

Introduction to the problem of rocket-powered aircraft performance

An introduction to the problem of determining the fundamental limitations on the performance possibilities of rocket-powered aircraft is presented. Previous material on the subject is reviewed and given in condensed form along with supplementary analyses. Some of the problems discussed are: 1) limiting velocity of a rocket projectile; 2) limiting velocity of a rocket jet; 3) jet efficiency; 4) nozzle characteristics; 5) maximum attainable altitudes; 6) ranges. Formulas are presented relating the performance of a rocket-powered aircraft to basic weight and nozzle dimensional parameters. The use of these formulas is illustrated by their application to the special case of a nonlifting rocket projectile

21-cm H I emission from the Damped Lyman-alpha absorber SBS 1543+593

We detect 21-cm emission from the Low Surface Brightness (LSB) galaxy SBS 1543+593, which gives rise to a Damped Lyman-alpha (DLA) absorption line in the spectrum of the background QSO HS 1543+5921 (z=0.807). We obtain an accurate measure of the velocity of the H I gas in the LSB galaxy, v=2868 km/s, and derive a mass of 1.3e9 solar masses. We compare this value with limits obtained towards two other z~0.1 DLA systems, and show that SBS 1543+593 would not have been detected. Hence LSB galaxies similar to SBS 1543+593 can be responsible for DLA systems at even modest redshifts without being detectable from their 21-cm emission.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figure, accepted for publication in A&

The O VI Absorbers Toward PG0953+415: High Metallicity, Cosmic-Web Gas Far From Luminous Galaxies

The spectrum of the low-redshift QSO PG0953+415 shows two strong, intervening O VI absorption systems. To study the nature of these absorbers, we have used the Gemini Multiobject Spectrograph to conduct a deep spectroscopic galaxy redshift survey in the 5' x 5' field centered on the QSO. This survey is fully complete for r' < 19.7 and is 73% complete for r' < 21.0. We find three galaxies at the redshift of the higher-z O VI system (z = 0.14232) including a galaxy at projected distance rho = 155 kpc. We find no galaxies in the Gemini field at the redshift of the lower-z O VI absorber (z = 0.06807), which indicates that the nearest galaxy is more than 195 kpc away or has L < 0.04 L*. Previous shallower surveys covering a larger field have shown that the z = 0.06807 O VI absorber is affiliated with a group/filament of galaxies, but the nearest known galaxy has rho = 736 kpc. The z = 0.06807 absorber is notable for several reasons. The absorption profiles reveal simple kinematics indicative of quiescent material. The H I line widths and good alignment of the H I and metal lines favor photoionization and, moreover, the column density ratios imply a high metallicity: [M/H] = -0.3 +/- 0.12. The z = 0.14232 O VI system is more complex and less constrained but also indicates a relatively high metallicity. Using galaxy redshifts from SDSS, we show that both of the PG0953+415 O VI absorbers are located in large-scale filaments of the cosmic web. Evidently, some regions of the web filaments are highly metal enriched. We discuss the origin of the high-metallicity gas and suggest that the enrichment might have occurred long ago (at high z).Comment: Submitted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal Letters. Figs. 1 and 2 compressed for astro-ph. High-resolution version available at http://www.astro.umass.edu/~tripp/astro/qualitypreps/pg0953tripp.pd

Extrapolating from experimental to human studies via the in vitro paradigm

Despite being the “gold standard” for toxicity testing, rat in vivo studies are estimated to be only 37-50% accurate at predicting xenobiotic toxicity in humans. If validated, in vitro systems could be incorporated into toxicity testing, allowing direct comparisons to be made between humans and rats and facilitating a reduction of in vivo testing. In this project, a normal rat urothelial (NRU) cell culture system was developed and optimised for comparison against an established normal human urothelial (NHU) cell culture system. NRU cells had a reduced lifespan in culture compared to NHU cells, leading to an investigation of the pathways regulating cellular proliferation. The PI3K/Akt pathway was found to be active in proliferating NRU cells, whereas the EGFR/MAPK and β-catenin pathways were confirmed to regulate NHU cell proliferation. Inhibition of the PI3K/Akt pathway enabled NRU cells to be subcultured to passage 2, most probably by enabling EGFR/MAPK and β-catenin pathway activation, although this requires experimental confirmation. To further increase cell lifespan, the proto-oncogene BMI1 was overexpressed in NRU and NHU cells, with the effects on lifespan and differentiation compared against both human telomerase reverse transcriptase (hTERT) overexpressing and control (empty vector) cells. NRU cell lifespan was not increased by BMI1 or hTERT overexpression. BMI1 overexpression increased NHU cell lifespan in culture, comparable with hTERT overexpression, but further work is required to determine the extent of the effects on lifespan and phenotype beyond passage 12. Finally, the metabolic competence of urothelial cells was explored, with a focus on the cytochrome P450 2B (CYP2B) family of metabolic enzymes. Xenobiotic induction of CYP2B expression by rat urothelium was demonstrated in vivo but not in NRU and NHU cells. Xenobiotic-induced CYP2B protein expression was achieved in a rat ex vivo organ culture model. Together these results identify a previously unknown metabolic capability of urothelial cells that can be modelled ex vivo, and demonstrate fundamental differences in rat and human urothelial cell physiology that support the validation of human tissue-specific in vitro models for assessment of xenobiotic toxicity

Thomas Southerne's 'Sir Anthony Love' : A critical edition

The editor has collated 27 copies of the five editions of Sir Anthony Love, published in 1691, 1698, 1713, 1721, and 1774. No authorial revisions or corrections are apparent, but collation has revealed new variants which have been noted, along with complete textual notations of substantive and accidental variations. The intent has been to devise a text accessible to the modern actor and reader, without loss of the original manuscript’s flavour. The first edition has served as the copy text, on the assumption that it best approximates Southerne’s acting text. Introductory material to the text begins with biographical information on the playwright, including a synopsis and brief analysis of each of his plays, set against a background of contemporary historical events. This combination seeks to provide a clearer picture of Southerne and to trace development of his major themes. Chapter two gives the play’s production history and explores its theatrical origins, including Aphra Behn’s work and Mrs. Behn herself as a possible model for its protagonist. Sources for other characters may be perceived in the biographical information given each member of the original cast. The third chapter is devoted to analysis of the play, including historical/biographical backgrounc, contributory philosophical trends and plot synopsis. The final section deals with the central theme of Sir Anthony Love - the conflict between appearance and reality – and explores Southerne’s use of Restoration theatrical conventions to underscore philosophical and social commentary. The critical view of Sir Anthony Love as a minor, and poorly constructed example of the comedy of intrigue results from lack of careful examination, understandable, based on its conventional appearance. In reality, it is a remarkable example of structural unity: its glossy surface conceals a meticulous sceptical examination of contemporary values, a metaphorical expression of its central theme