Population health profile of the NSW Outback Division of General Practice: supplement

© Commonwealth of Australia To view the data presented in the profiles in Excel spreadsheets or via Interactive Mapping, please see the PHIDU website at: www.publichealth.gov.au

A Monte Carlo Study of the 6.4 keV Emission at the Galactic Center

Strong fluorescent Fe line emission at 6.4 keV has been observed from the Sgr B2 giant molecular cloud located in the Galactic Center region. The large equivalent width of this line and the lack of an apparent illuminating nearby object indicate that a time-dependent source, currently in a low-activity state, is causing the fluorescent emission. It has been suggested that this illuminator is the massive black hole candidate, Sgr A*, whose X-ray luminosity has declined by an unprecedented six orders of magnitude over the past 300 years. We here report the results of our Monte Carlo simulations for producing this line under a variety of source configurations and characteristics. These indicate that the source may in fact be embedded within Sgr B2, although external sources give a slightly better fit to the data. The weakened distinction between the internal and external illuminators is due in part to the instrument response function, which accounts for an enhanced equivalent width of the line by folding some of the continuum radiation in with the intrinsic line intensity. We also point out that although the spectrum may be largely produced by K$\alpha$ emission in cold gas, there is some evidence in the data to suggest the presence of warm (~10^5 K) emitting material near the cold cloud.Comment: 11 pages, 4 figure

RACE pulls for shared control

Maintaining and supporting an aircraft fleet, in a climate of reduced manpower and financial resources, dictates effective utilization of robotics and automation technologies. To help develop a winning robotics and automation program the Air Force Logistics Command created the Robotics and Automation Center of Excellence (RACE). RACE is a command wide focal point. Race is an organic source of expertise to assist the Air Logistic Center (ALC) product directorates in improving process productivity through the judicious insertion of robotics and automation technologies. RACE is a champion for pulling emerging technologies into the aircraft logistic centers. One of those technology pulls is shared control. Small batch sizes, feature uncertainty, and varying work load conspire to make classic industrial robotic solutions impractical. One can view ALC process problems in the context of space robotics without the time delay. The ALC's will benefit greatly from the implementation of a common architecture that supports a range of control actions from fully autonomous to teleoperated. Working with national laboratories and private industry, we hope to transition shared control technology to the depot floor. This paper provides an overview of the RACE internal initiatives and customer support, with particular emphasis on production processes that will benefit from shared control technology

Intermediate Scrutiny for Corporate Political Contributions

A corporation contributes to a Super PAC that supports a candidate for public office. A shareholder sues, alleging that management breached its duty of loyalty by making the contribution to promote its own political views rather than to serve the corporation’s best interests—i.e., by acting in bad faith. What standard will a Delaware court apply when reviewing management’s decision to cause the corporation to make the contribution? Myriad scholars have opined that the court will apply the standard of review for ordinary business decisions: the management-friendly business judgment rule. Unfortunately for our shareholder plaintiff, this rule presumes that management acts rationally, without a conflict of interest, and in good faith. Further, management can easily concoct a justification for supporting any major-party political candidate. Thus, absent a “smoking gun” that points to bad faith, it will be extremely difficult for a shareholder to prove that management has acted disloyally. This Article departs from the scholarly consensus that courts should apply the business judgment rule to review corporate political contributions. Instead, courts should apply the intermediate level of scrutiny—the Unocal test—that is applied whenever management adopts defensive measures in the face of a hostile takeover. Delaware courts apply Unocal to defensive measures due to the “omnipresent specter” that management will promote its own interests over the corporation’s best interests. Under Unocal, management must earn the protection of the business judgment rule by establishing the reasonableness and proportionality of its defensive actions. Courts evaluating management’s decision to make a Super PAC contribution should apply Unocal for two related reasons. First, like corporate charitable donations, corporate political contributions give rise to serious agency cost concerns. These same concerns led prior commentators to propose applying intermediate scrutiny to charitable contributions; post-Citizens United, this proposal should be updated to include corporate political contributions. Second, upon closer review, corporate Super PAC contributions give rise to greater agency cost concerns than corporate charitable gifts, due to the increased potential of management pretext in the former context. Indeed, although corporate Super PAC contributions do not pose an inherent conflict between management and the corporation, the possibility of pretext is so great that there is an “omnipresent specter” that management will serve its own purposes whenever it causes the corporation to make a political contribution. Therefore, by analogy to Unocal, a court evaluating a corporate political contribution should ask (1) whether management had reasonable grounds to believe that the contribution would directly or indirectly advance specific corporate interests, rather than some general political viewpoint; and (2) whether the contribution was reasonable, both as a method of addressing the specific corporate interest and in its amount. Only if management can show that the political contribution satisfies both prongs should it be protected by the business judgment rule

The perceived psychosocial benefits of pet ownership on child development: A parental perspective

The purpose of this review is to explore the beneficial role pets play in facilitating the psychosocial development of preadolescent children. It is proposed that the pet is perceived by both the child and parent as a developmental resource during preadolescent development, as it assists the child in accomplishing key developmental tasks such as responsibility and autonomy, socialisation and the development of humanistic qualities. This review also highlights the importance of pets in assisting preadolescents develop self esteem and identity, and examines how pets give children new perspective on important life matters such as birth, illness and death. Attainment of these developmental tasks ensures a smooth transition into adolescence for the child. Limitations and implications for future research are noted. A qualitative inquiry was conducted to explore the perceived psychosocial benefits of pet ownership on child development, from a parental perspective. Eight parents of primary school aged pet-owning children were interviewed about their child\u27s pet owning experiences. The transcripts were analysed according to the systematic inductive process as postulated by Miles and Huberman (1994). Inductive data analysis revealed positive experiences on many levels, with three major themes regarding the perceived benefits of pet ownership for child development. These included the influence of the parent\u27s pet owning experience; the perceived role of pets as affectionate bond-building human surrogates; and the use of pets for teaching children about the importance of respect for life. Limitations and implications for future research are discussed

Undead Dicta or Haunted Holdings? A Closer Look at the Zombie Subjective Intent Partnership Formation Cases

Undead precedents haunt the partnership formation caselaw. But just how dangerous are they? It depends on what type of zombies they are—walking-dead dicta or haunted holdings. Asking a court to ignore bad dicta is nowhere near as difficult for litigants as asking a court to overrule an entire line of cases. This article takes a closer look at the undead partnership formation cases that were previously identified in a companion article and concludes that nearly all such cases fall into the less-scary category of undead dicta, rather than truly dangerous category of zombie holdings

Are Corporate Super PAC Contributions Waste or Self-Dealing? A Closer Look

This Article is organized into four parts and a brief conclusion. Part II provides a brief background on the Citizens United decision. Part III describes derivative lawsuits, the business judgment rule, and what little leading scholars have said about shareholders’ ability to challenge corporate political contributions using derivative suits. Parts IV and V, respectively, summarize and critique arguments advanced by two recent authors, that shareholders could challenge political contributions as a breach of the duty of loyalty. Part IV deals with the theory of corporate waste and Part V deals with the theory of self-dealin

Laboratories of Democracy? Policy Innovation in Decentralized Governments

Innovations in government produce positive externalities for other jurisdictions. Theory therefore predicts that local government will tend to produce a lower than optimal amount of innovation, as officials will prefer to free-ride on innovation by others. As Susan Rose-Ackerman observed in 1980, these two predictions, if true, tend to undermine arguments by proponents of federated government that decentralization will lead to many competing “laboratories of democracy.” In this paper, which is aimed primarily at legal academics, we review and critically assess nearly three decades of responses to Rose-Ackerman’s arguments, none of which have been discussed in depth in the legal literature. In addition we sketch and evaluate, without rigorously modeling, other possible grounds for believing that local officials may have incentives to innovate in the face of the temptation of free-riding. We also analyze the policy implications that follow from our conclusion that there are no demonstrably overwhelming replies to Rose-Ackerman’s skepticism. For instance, we suggest that one conclusion may be that certain regulatory regimes, such as corporate governance regulation, might best be centered at the national level, where collective action problems affecting public officials are lessened. However, we also caution that this result would depend on the likely effectiveness of industry itself propagating “good” regulation, or the effectiveness of contracting regulatory functions out to intermediaries, such as private consulting firms or non-profit organizations, who might use property rights to more fully capture the gains of policy innovation