Palliative care, double effect and the law in Australia

Care and decision-making at the end of life that promotes comfort and dignity is widely endorsed by public policy and the law. In ethical analysis of palliative care interventions that are argued potentially to hasten death, these may be deemed to be ethically permissible by the application of the doctrine of double effect, if the doctor’s intention is to relieve pain and not cause death. In part because of the significance of ethics in the development of law in the medical sphere, this doctrine is also likely to be recognized as part of Australia’s common law, although hitherto there have been no cases concerning palliative care brought before a court in Australia to test this. Three Australian States have, nonetheless, created legislative defences that are different from the common law with the intent of clarifying the law, promoting palliative care, and distinguishing it from euthanasia. However, these defences have the potential to provide less protection for doctors administering palliative care. In addition to requiring a doctor to have an appropriate intent, the defences insist on adherence to particular medical practice standards and perhaps require patient consent. Doctors providing end-of-life care in these States need to be aware of these legislative changes. Acting in accordance with the common law doctrine of double effect may not provide legal protection. Similar changes are likely to occur in other States and Territories as there is a trend towards enacting legislative defences that deal with the provision of palliative care

Essays in empirical asset pricing and portfolio construction

The key thread running through this thesis is predictability and how it relates to asset pricing and portfolio construction. Chapter 1, co-authored with Oliver Linton, tests for predictability in asset pricing model residuals to check model specification. We estimate three consumption-based asset pricing models and derive ex-ante expected stock market returns from them. For each model, a suite of tests rejects the null that the model residual, the difference between the ex-ante expected market return and the actual return, is a martingale difference sequence. The ability of these models to explain the own-history predictability of the market return is therefore rejected. Further tests show that lagged returns have too much predictive power over current returns to be consistent with the state variables which explain the market return being the same as the state variables which explain the market return in any of the three models. Chapter 2 focusses on a specific type of predictive information. I examine whether regulator-required public disclosures of large net short positions can be profitably used to build portfolios. These disclosures do not form the basis of a profitable trading strategy for UK stocks. Long-short portfolios based on these disclosures typically make a profit, but it is statistically insignificant. While certain long-only unit initial outlay portfolios can reliably significantly outperform the market, this outperformance is economically modest: about one percentage point a year in gross and risk-adjusted terms. Finally, Chapter 3 considers how best to use predictive information. Using predictive information unconditionally optimally produces better portfolios than using the predictive information conditionally optimally. Unconditionally optimal portfolios have higher Sharpe ratios and certainty equivalents, plus lower turnover, leverage, losses and drawdowns than conditionally optimal portfolios. Moreover, the unconditionally optimal portfolios tend to stochastically dominate the conditionally optimal portfolios once transaction costs are accounted for. However, whether unconditionally optimal portfolios are preferred to minimum variance or 1/N portfolios depends on the asset universe

Development and validation of an advanced low-order panel method

A low-order potential-flow panel code, PMARC, for modeling complex three-dimensional geometries, is currently being developed at NASA Ames Research Center. The PMARC code was derived from a code named VSAERO that was developed for Ames Research Center by Analytical Methods, Inc. In addition to modeling potential flow over three-dimensional geometries, the present version of PMARC includes several advanced features such as an internal flow model, a simple jet wake model, and a time-stepping wake model. Data management within the code was optimized by the use of adjustable size arrays for rapidly changing the size capability of the code, reorganization of the output file and adopting a new plot file format. Preliminary versions of a geometry preprocessor and a geometry/aerodynamic data postprocessor are also available for use with PMARC. Several test cases are discussed to highlight the capabilities of the internal flow model, the jet wake model, and the time-stepping wake model

The medical provision of hydration and nutrition: Two very different outcomes in Victoria and Florida

Decisions to withhold or withdraw medical hydration and nutrition are amongst the most difficult that confront patients and their families, medicaland other health professionals all over the world. This article discusses two cases relating to lawful withdrawal and withholding of a percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy tube (PEG) from incompetent patients with no hope of recovery. Victoria and Florida have statutory frameworks that provide for advance directives, however in both Gardner; Re BWV and Schindler v Schiavo; Re Scliiavo the respective patients did not leave documented instructions. The article analyses the two cases and their outcomes from legal, medical and ethical perspectives

Enhancing the Collection and Analysis of General Aviation Insurance Data in Australasia Through the Use of HFACS

This paper provides an overview of a 5-stage program of work conducted over a three-year period that aims to develop a General Aviation (GA) safety database in Australia using data collected by aviation insurers. The need to standardize and enhance insurance data was recognized to support meaningful safety-based countermeasure development. Incorporating the Human Factors Analysis and Classification Scheme into the insurance assessment process is a major feature of the data enhancement process. Data collection by GA insurance assessors in Australia, using standardized and enhanced data collection methods, will begin in late 2007. Establishment of this database will allow for meaningful safety-based analyses of GA insurance incident data in the future

SIMULATED IN-TRANSIT VIBRATION DAMAGE TO FRESH MARKET RASPBERRIES

Agribusiness,

Lacerda 120. Proceedings of the Fifth International Workshop on the History of Speech Communication Research

This volume contains papers presented at the 5th International Workshop on the History of Speech Communication Research (Porto, 2022). This conference was designed to commemorate the 120th anniversary of the birth of the Portuguese phonetician Armando de Lacerda (1902–1984). The papers address the life and work of Armando de Lacerda in the context of the development of experimental phonetics throughout Europe and in Brazil in the mid twentieth century. The workshop was jointly organized by the International Speech Communication Association Special Interest Group on “The History of Speech Communication Sciences”, the Institute of Contemporary History (NOVA University of Lisbon; University of Évora), the University of Porto (Rectory; Linguistics Centre), Ferraz de Lacerda, Lda., and supported by the International Phonetic Association. It was also sponsored by the University of Coimbra (Science Museum; Faculty of Letters)

Final Report: Analysis of Environmental Justice

This is a scientific and technical review of the Department of Energy\u27s Final Environmental Impact Statement on the Proposed Nuclear Weapons Nonproliferation Policy Concerning Foreign Research Reactor Spent Nuclear Fuel (FRR-SNF). The receipt of FRR-SNF adds an additional and important component to DOE\u27s programmatic Spent Nuclear Fuel (SNF) activities. This review also looks at the EIS processes associated with the revised Surplus Plutonium Disposition initiatives. This analysis evaluates the EIS procedures associated with these two programs for consideration of NEPA requirements with particular emphasis on Environmental Justive. This review has identified deficiencies in DOE\u27s EIS procedures and evaluates some of the problems arising there. This review analyzed the adequacy of the environmental impact assessment and public participation approaches taken by Department of Energy (DOE) as part of decision-making on spent fuel and surplus plutonium. This research was completed money allocated during Round 1 of the Citizens’ Monitoring and Technical Assessment Fund (MTA Fund). Clark University was named conservator of these works. If you have any questions or concerns please contact us at [email protected]://commons.clarku.edu/harambee/1000/thumbnail.jp

How to improve the risk cultures of financial institutions

Following the 2008 global financial crisis, official inquires, parliamentary reports, and the media frequently focused their attention on the flawed risk cultures of financial institutions. In their research, Michael Power, Simon Ashby, and Tommaso Palermo investigated how these risk cultures operate, evolve, and can be improved