Ethanol Future Remains Cloudy After EPA Delay

Agribusiness, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

Innovative approaches to land acquisition and conservation management : the case of Fish River Station, Northern Territory

There has been a dramatic increase in the area that is within the National Reserve System since 2000 &ndash; from around 60 million hectares to around 100 million in 2008. This dramatic increase can be attributed to Indigenous Protected Areas and the acquisition of private or leasehold land for either addition to the public protected area estate or management as private protected areas. This growth has also been strategic, increasingly the reservation status of the most underreserved bioregions. However, the reality is the land acquisition has slowed since the global financial crisis of the late 2000s and this has led to new models with different partners coming to the fore. This chapter highlights one of those new models &ndash; the acquisition of Fish River Station in the Northern Territory for conservation.<br /

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

Dependability analysis of web services

Web Services form the basis of the web based eCommerce eScience applications so it is vital that robust services are developed. Traditional validation and verification techniques are centred around the concept of removing all faults to guarantee correct operation whereas Dependability gives an assessment of how dependably a system can deliver the required functionality by assessing attributes, and by eliminating threats via means attempts to improve dependability. Fault injection is a well-proven dependability assessment method. Although much work has been done in the area of fault injection and distributed systems in general, there appears to have been little research carried out on applying this to middleware systems and Web Services in particular. There are additional problems associated with applying existing fault injection technologies to Web Services running in a virtual machine environment since most are either invasive or work at a machine level. The Fault Injection Technology (FIT) method has been devised to address these problems for middleware systems. The Web Service-Fault Injection Technology (WS-FIT) implementation applies the FIT method, based on network level fault injection, to Web Services to create a non-invasive dependability assessment method. It allows targeted perturbation of Web Service RFC parameters as well as more traditional network level fault injection operations. The WS-FIT tool includes taxonomies that define a system under test, fault models to apply and failure modes to be detected, and uses these taxonomies to generate fault injection campaigns. WS-FIT has been applied to a number of case studies and has successfully demonstrated its effectiveness. It has also been successfully applied to a third-party system to evaluate dependability means. It performed this dependability assessment as well as allowing debugging of the means to be undertaken uncovering unknown faults

The Non-Christian Nature of Marxism

Marxism is one of the most impactful philosophies in the history of mankind. It refers to the political and economic theories formulated by Karl Marx, a German philosopher who lived from 1818 to 1883. Marx’s most well-known works include the Communist Manifesto (1848) and Das Kapital (1859). Marxism initially consisted of the three related ideas of a philosophical anthropology, a theory of history, and a radical economic and political program.[1] More specifically, Marx claimed that capitalism is just one stage in the historical progression from inferior economic systems to superior ones. Marx held that every society throughout history has been divided into different social classes which drive conflict. Within the capitalist framework, Marx claimed that society consisted of two classes: the bourgeoisie, or the business class who control the means of production, and the proletariat, or the workers whose labor produces valuable economic goods. In Marx’s view, the bourgeoisie profit at the expense of the proletariat, who they exploit by means of low wages and poor working conditions. As the political and economic inequalities between the upper and working classes continue to grow, Marx predicted that the proletariat would increasingly become alienated from capitalism. This would, in turn, inevitably lead to the proletariat forcefully overthrowing the bourgeoisie and implementing a new, classless, egalitarian society under a system known as communism. In Marx’s estimation, communism would represent the peak of economic and social evolution, and its utopian scheme would eventually render the state unnecessary.[2] The fundamental tenets of the communist political program warrant further examination. [1] Henri Chambre, “Marxism.” Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Marxism [2] “Marxism.” Investopedia. https://www.investopedia.com/terms/m/marxism.as

AN ANALYSIS OF NAVY NURSE CORPS SPECIALTIES AND THE EFFECTS OF CIVILIAN MARKET WAGES ON RETENTION

Between 2000 and 2020, the civilian nursing labor market continued to evolve to meet the needs of society putting additional strain on the military nursing labor market. In particular, the demand for nurses has outpaced supply in specific specialties and geographical regions, resulting in the continued rising of real wages and increased incentives to attract nurses. This can have significant implications for the Navy Nurse Corps planners, as the Nurse Corps is in direct competition with the labor market. This study examines the civilian market wages of nurses between 2000 and 2018 disaggregated by census region, specialty, and years of experience and then assesses the relationship to the military nursing market. Additionally, this study analyzes how the military-civilian wage differential affects retention in the Navy Nurse Corps. The multivariate regression model indicates that while controlling for basic demographics, prior-enlisted experience, duty station census region, and nursing specialty, a $1,000 increase in the military-civilian wage differential will increase the odds of a nurse remaining on active duty by 17.2 percent at the three-year decision point and 9.2 percent at the ten-year decision point. The key findings of this study will enable the Navy Nurse Corps planners to continue to make effective and targeted decisions regarding recruiting and retention while competing in a highly competitive civilian labor market.Lieutenant, United States NavyApproved for public release. Distribution is unlimited

Illegal Abortion: Truth vs. Fiction

Abortion has remained one of the most contentious issues in American political discourse ever since the Supreme Court legalized the procedure in the 1973 decision Roe v. Wade. Numerous emotional, statistical, and even Biblical arguments have been formulated in debates over this topic. However, arguably the two most common assertions are that thousands of women perished due to unsafe abortions prior to Roe v. Wade, and that laws restricting or outlawing abortion are ineffective in reducing abortion rates. As an example, former President of Planned Parenthood Leana Wen made the following claim in May 2019: “Before Roe v. Wade, thousands of women died every year – and because of extreme attacks on safe, legal abortion care, this could happen again right here in America.”[1] Nevertheless, this assertion is contradicted by the best available evidence. Additionally, numerous studies demonstrate the success of abortion bans in dramatically reducing abortion rates. Similar studies also show that more modest restrictions, such as parental involvement laws, informed consent requirements, and restrictions on public funding of abortion have been associated with more modest, yet still statistically significant reductions in abortion rates. Furthermore, Scripture overwhelmingly supports the value of life in the womb and calls on Christians to protect vulnerable life. In the face of the best available scientific evidence, as well as Biblical commands, Christians must be proactive in ending abortion throughout society. [1] Kessler, Glenn. “Planned Parenthood’s false stat: ‘Thousands’ of women died every year before Roe.” Washington Post. May 29, 2019. https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/05/29/planned-parenthoods-false-stat-thousands-women-died-every-year-before-roe