Beyond trade: getting economic integration right

This paper suggests a process for consultation with business, consumers and various levels of government that would enhance outcomes. Introduction Australia has an open economy that is heavily dependent on trade for its wellbeing. Well formulated evidence based trade policy therefore matters greatly, as does the form and content of these economic agreements. Past trade policy practice has been focussed on consultations with industry as a precursor to negotiations, with the aim of rectifying market access issues. Today’s trade treaties go far beyond negotiations about actual trade. They also tackle a wide range of domestic policy issues. These broader ‘economic partnership’ or ‘comprehensive trade’ agreements deal as much, if not more, in regulatory politics as in traditional trade policy. Consequently they affect many nontrading businesses and many segments of the wider community. This article draws on three different perspectives to suggest that consultations on these new generation deals need to be broader and more robust. Input from at least three major sectors of society is essential to identify Australia’s priority ‘demands’ in a negotiation, and those areas of domestic activity that are non-negotiable. Here we suggest a process for consultation with business, consumers and various levels of government that would enhance outcomes. We suggest that the national interest would be better identified in a process that is separate from any particular prospective trade deal (and its politically imposed time constraints) and which fully accounts for our domestic settings. The objective of these agreements should be the maximum benefit to the national interest, rather than achieving specific export successes. Such market entry issues create benefits for only selected businesses. A focus on a broader agenda of prioritised domestic reform would result in a stronger increase in national welfare

Viscous fingering and dendritic growth under an elastic membrane

We investigate the viscous fingering instability that arises when air is injected from the end of an oil-filled, compliant channel. We show that induced axial and transverse depth gradients foster novel pattern formation. Moreover, the steady propagation of the interface allows us to elucidate the nonlinear saturation of a fingering pattern first observed in a time-evolving system (Pihler-Puzovic et al. PRL 108, 074502, 2012): the wavelength is set by the viscous fingering mechanism, but the amplitude is inversely proportional to the tangent of the compliant wall's inclination angle

The trapping in high-shear regions of slender bacteria undergoing chemotaxis in a channel

Recently published experimental observations of slender bacteria swimming in channel flow demonstrate that the bacteria become trapped in regions of high shear, leading to reduced concentrations near the channel's centreline. However, the commonly-used, advection-diffusion equation, formulated in macroscopic space variables and originally derived for unbounded homogeneous shear flow, predicts that the bacteria concentration is uniform across the channel in the absence of chemotactic bias. In this paper, we instead use a Smoluchowski equation to describe the probability distribution of the bacteria, in macroscopic (physical) and microscopic (orientation) space variables. We demonstrate that the Smoluchowski equation is able to predict the trapping phenomena and compare the full numerical solution of the Smoluchowski equation with the experimental results when there is no chemotactic bias and also in the presence of a uniform cross-channel chemotactic gradient. Moreover, a simple analytic approximation for the equilibrium distribution provides an excellent approximate solution for slender bacteria, suggesting that the dominant effect on equilibrium behaviour is flow-induced modification of the bacteria's swimming direction. A continuum framework is thus provided to explain how the equilibrium distribution of slender chemotactic bacteria is altered in the presence of spatially varying shear flow. In particular we demonstrate that whilst advection is an appropriate description of transport due to the mean swimming velocity, the random reorientation mechanism of the bacteria cannot be simply modelled as diffusion in physical space

On the Buckling of Elastic Rings by External Confinement

We report the results of an experimental and numerical investigation into the buckling of thin elastic rings confined within containers of circular or regular polygonal cross section. The rings float on the surface of water held in the container and controlled removal of the fluid increases the confinement of the ring. The increased compressive forces can cause the ring to buckle into a variety of shapes. For the circular container, finite perturbations are required to induce buckling, whereas in polygonal containers the buckling occurs through a linear instability that is closely related to the canonical Euler column buckling. A model based on Kirchhoff–Love beam theory is developed and solved numerically, showing good agreement with the experiments and revealing that in polygons increasing the number of sides means that buckling occurs at reduced levels of confinement. This article is part of the themed issue ‘Patterning through instabilities in complex media: theory and applications.

Predicting the stability of atom-like and molecule-like unit-charge Coulomb three-particle systems

Non-relativistic quantum chemical calculations of the particle mass, m ± 2 , corresponding to the dissociation threshold in a range of Coulomb three-particle systems of the form {m ± 1 m ± 2 m ∓ 3 } , are performed variationally using a series solution method with a Laguerre-based wavefunction. These masses are used to calculate an accurate stability boundary, i.e., the line that separates the stability domain from the instability domains, in a reciprocal mass fraction ternary diagram. This result is compared to a lower bound to the stability domain derived from symmetric systems and reveals the importance of the asymmetric (mass-symmetry breaking) terms in the Hamiltonian at dissociation. A functional fit to the stability boundary data provides a simple analytical expression for calculating the minimum mass of a third particle required for stable binding to a two-particle system, i.e., for predicting the bound state stability of any unit-charge three-particle system

A Dialogue of Forms: The Display of Thinking in George Eliot’s ‘Poetry and Prose, From the Notebook of an Eccentric’ and Impressions of Theophrastus Such

This article rereads George Eliot's Impressions of Theophrastus Such in the light of her early series of journalism “Poetry and Prose, from the Notebook of an Eccentric.” Rather than viewing these texts as experimental deviations, this article casts these texts as part of larger patterns evident in Eliot's canon as a whole. Building on recent studies on Eliot and Victorian perfectionism, it argues that Eliot united an appreciation for complex and diverse configurations of form with her interest in individual development and the extension of sympathy. In these texts, we can see a reflection of Eliot's interest in the attempt to capture and display human thinking processes in order to advance her project of extending the sympathies of her readership. It examines Eliot's organicist views on form and consciousness and suggests that these are key to making sense of the apparently “aberrant” nature of these texts. Eliot, influenced by Ludwig Feuerbach, held to the idea that just as the highest form of organicism was the most complex, so also was the highest form of art the most structurally varied and intricate. From this viewpoint, the texts are eminently successful. Moreover, they point the way to achieving a fuller understanding of the apparent problematics of form that have concerned critics in regard to Eliot's better-known fictional works since their original publication

Infant feeding practices of emirati women in the rapidly developing city of Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates

Rapid economic and cultural transition in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has been accompanied by new challenges to public health; most notably a rapid rise in chronic disease. Breastfeeding is known to improve health outcomes in adulthood, is associated with reduced risk of developing chronic disease, and is therefore an important public health issue for this rapidly increasing population. Factors associated with infant feeding practices were examined in a cohort of 125 Emirati women and their infants, with data collected at birth and 3, 6 and 15 months postpartum by questionnaires and interviews. Participants were recruited in the Corniche Hospital, the main maternity hospital in the city of Abu Dhabi. Factors affecting the duration of breastfeeding and the introduction of complementary foods were investigated using univariate and multivariate statistics. Recommended infant feeding practices, such as exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months of life and timely introduction of appropriate complementary foods, were poorly adhered to. Factors implicated in early cessation of breastfeeding included: time to first breastfeed, mother’s education level, employment status and early introduction of complementary foods