Arthur Phillip: Commodore of the Fleet

The transportation of convicts to New South Wales in the early years of settlement was a great deal more challenging than has generally been recognised. Arthur Phillip's success in bringing a convoy of eleven ships, including six transports carrying more than 750 convicts, on a voyage of eight months duration across the globe means we need to rethink his contribution to fitting out and managing Australia's First Fleet

International genome-wide meta-analysis identifies new primary biliary cirrhosis risk loci and targetable pathogenic pathways.

Primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC) is a classical autoimmune liver disease for which effective immunomodulatory therapy is lacking. Here we perform meta-analyses of discovery data sets from genome-wide association studies of European subjects (n=2,764 cases and 10,475 controls) followed by validation genotyping in an independent cohort (n=3,716 cases and 4,261 controls). We discover and validate six previously unknown risk loci for PBC (Pcombined<5 × 10(-8)) and used pathway analysis to identify JAK-STAT/IL12/IL27 signalling and cytokine-cytokine pathways, for which relevant therapies exist

Can Parliament cope? Towards a new era in public accountability. by Gary L. Sturgess

It is unsurprising that the buzzwords of the 1990's - in business and in government - are "quality", "intregity" and "accountability"

Faultlines in post-industrial society

In the past national governments were expected to meet citizen’s material needs by providing physical and economic security, and the significant faultlines in society followed the divisions between rich and poor. Today people focus on past-material needs and we face a multitude of faultlines marked out by special interest groups and minority parties. But two major questions lie behind this multitude of faultlines. The first concerns community. Should we identify with the national community or with a number of different types of communities? The second concerns individualism and the growing politics of rights. Should we define democracy as a system of representation within a nation state or as a set of individual rights? If we are to maintain social cohesion we need to find ways of answering these questions

Faultlines in post-industrial society

In the past national governments were expected to meet citizen’s material needs by providing physical and economic security, and the significant faultlines in society followed the divisions between rich and poor. Today people focus on past-material needs and we face a multitude of faultlines marked out by special interest groups and minority parties. But two major questions lie behind this multitude of faultlines. The first concerns community. Should we identify with the national community or with a number of different types of communities? The second concerns individualism and the growing politics of rights. Should we define democracy as a system of representation within a nation state or as a set of individual rights? If we are to maintain social cohesion we need to find ways of answering these questions. Copyright. Monash University and the author/