BURNS V CORBETT: WHAT IF THE HIGH COURT HAD DECIDED THE IMPLIED FREEDOM OF POLITICAL COMMUNICATION ISSUE?

Because the Commonwealth has never fulfilled its promise to domesticate the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights 1966 (ICCPR), human rights in Australia remain an uncertain blend of federal and state anti-discrimination statutes, common law rights and constitutional implications. The litigation surrounding Tess Corbett’s media interview in Hamilton, Victoria when she was campaigning as a candidate in the 2013 federal election, highlights that uncertainty. Should her statements have been protected because the voters in Wannon, Victoria needed to know her views so as to vote in an informed way, or did New South Wales’ interest in stamping out the vilification of gay people justify a law in that state that burdened Ms Corbett’s expression? While the New South Wales Court of Appeal and the High Court eventually agreed that the New South Wales’ tribunals involved had no jurisdiction to hear the case in the first place, the underlying anti-discrimination v freedom of political communication issue was not resolved despite many hearings. This article considers how that question might have been resolved since the New South Wales Court of Appeal in the Sunol case in 2012 seem to have preferred the views of the minority in the High Court in Coleman v Powerin 2004

The Benefit Function Approach to Modeling Price-Dependent Demand Systems: An Application of Duality Theory

In this article we advocate more extensive use of the benefit function in specifying price-dependent or inverse demand models. In particular, we demonstrate how duality theory may be used to establish the inter-relationships between the Marshallian (or Hicksian) inverse demands and Luenberger's adjusted price functions, allowing estimable inverse demands to be derived directly from a benefit function. We also make use of a numerical inversion estimation method to rectify the "unobservability of utility problem" encountered in the empirical analysis of these inverse demands. To illustrate the usefulness of the proposed methods, we estimate two systems of inverse demands for Japanese quarterly fish consumption. Results generally indicate that the proposed methods are promising and operationally feasible so that we have opened up a wider range of empirical inverse demand specifications that can be subjected to tight theoretical restrictions.Benefit Functions; Duality Theory; Numerical Inversion Estimation Method

The Fate of SUSY Flat Directions and their Role in Reheating

We consider the role of supersymmetric flat directions in reheating the Universe after inflation. One or more flat directions can develop large vevs during inflation, which can potentially affect reheating by slowing down scattering processes among inflaton decay products or by coming to dominate the energy density of the Universe. Both effects occur only if flat directions are sufficiently long-lived. The computation of their perturbative decay rate, and a simple estimate of their nonperturbative decay have led to the conclusion that this is indeed the case. In contrast, we show that flat directions can decay quickly through nonperturbative channels in realistic models. The mass matrix for MSSM excitations around flat directions has nondiagonal entries, which vary with the phase of the (complex) flat directions. The quasi-periodic motion of the flat directions results in a strong parametric resonance, leading to the rapid depletion of the flat direction within its first few rotations. This may preclude any significant role for the flat directions in reheating the Universe after inflation in models in which the inflaton decays perturbatively.Comment: 30 pages, 6 .ps figures. Final published versio

Comparison of FFP predictions with measurements of a low-frequency signal propagated in the atmosphere

An experimental study of low-frequency propagation over a distance of 770 m was previously reported (J. Acoust. Soc. Am. Suppl. 1 86, S120 (1989)). For that study, sound speed profiles were reconstructed entirely from surface-layer micrometeorological data. When the acoustic data were compared with theoretical predictions from a fast field program (FFP), it was found that the FFP underpredicted sound levels measured in a shadow zone. Here, the effect on the predictions of including meteorological data for heights greater than the surface layer, i.e., wind profiles measured by a Doppler sodar, is discussed. Vertical structure of turbulence is simulated by stochastically perturbing the mean profiles, and the agreement between the acoustic data and FFP predictions is improved

The Asymmetric Rotor. IX. The Heavy Water Bands at 2787 cm^–1 and 5373 cm^–1

The combination band (110) of the two stretching fundamentals of D2O is reported and analyzed to yield nu0=5373.2 cm^–1 and the excited state moments of inertia 1.910, 3.931, and 5.929×10^–40 g cm^2. The same method of analysis applied to the unsymmetrical fundamental band (100) envelope gives nu0=2787.5 cm^–1 and the excited state moments 1.881, 3.876, and 5.843×10^–40 g cm^2

Differences in health symptoms among residents living near illegal dump sites in Los Laureles Canyon, Tijuana, Mexico: a cross sectional survey.

Living near landfills is a known health hazard prompting recognition of environmental injustice. The study aim was to compare self-reported symptoms of ill health among residents of four neighborhoods, living in haphazardly constructed settlements surrounded by illegal dumpsites in Tijuana, Mexico. One adult from each of 388 households located in Los Laureles Canyon were interviewed about demographics, health status, and symptoms. Distance from each residence to both the nearest dumpsite and the canyon bottom was assessed. The neighborhoods were selected from locations within the canyon, and varied with respect to proximity to dump sites. Residents of San Bernardo reported significantly higher frequencies of ill-health symptoms than the other neighborhoods, including extreme fatigue (OR 3.01 (95% CI 1.6-5.5)), skin problems/irritations (OR 2.73 (95% CI 1.3-5.9)), stomach discomfort (OR 2.47 (1.3-4.8)), eye irritation/tears (OR 2.02 (1.2-3.6)), and confusion/difficulty concentrating (OR 2.39 (1.2-4.8)). Proximity to dumpsites did not explain these results, that varied only slightly when adjusted for distance to nearest dumpsite or distance to the canyon bottom. Because San Bernardo has no paved roads, we hypothesize that dust and the toxicants it carries is a possible explanation for this difference. Studies are needed to further document this association and sources of toxicants