Fiscal Equalisation in Australia: High Level VFI and Equity Focused HFE

Finanzausgleich, Australien, Fiscal transfer, Australia

The New Zealand Jury

In New Zealand, the recent history of the jury has been one of fairly steady decline. This is particularly so of the civil jury, which has become virtually extinct with little realistic prospect of revival

Preshaping command inputs to reduce telerobotic system oscillations

The results of using a new technique for shaping inputs to a model of the space shuttle Remote Manipulator System (RMS) are presented. The shapes inputs move the system to the same location that was originally commanded, however, the oscillations of the machine are considerably reduced. An overview of the new shaping method is presented. A description of RMS model is provided. The problem of slow joint servo rates on the RMS is accommodated with an extension of the shaping method. The results and sample data are also presented for both joint and three-dimensional cartesian motions. The results demonstrate that the new shaping method performs well on large, telerobotic systems which exhibit significant structural vibration. The new method is shown to also result in considerable energy savings during operations of the RMS manipulator

An exploration of the psychosocial risk factors that lead to antisocial behaviour and delinquent group (gang) membership amongst a cohort of youth living in Wentworth, Durban, South Africa.

Masters Degree. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg.Researchers have identified a number of risk factors that increase vulnerability amongst young people, and coerce them towards engaging in antisocial behaviour, substance use, and gang membership. Drawing from an Ecological Systems Model, these risk factors are considered across five influential domains, including (1) the individual’s personal characteristics, (2) the family, (3) the peer group, (4) the school, and (5) the community. Inherent risks within these domains include a history of family instability, poverty, living within a marginalized community, neighbourhood criminality, and the pressures experienced from delinquent peers. This thesis utilizes Interactional Theory as a lens through which to explore the bidirectional interaction of these risk factors across the five influential domains, as experienced by adolescents living in Wentworth, Durban. Q Methodology was employed as a quali-quantitative research tool to explore the perceptions of adolescents from two schools in Wentworth. This process involved holding one-hour classroom-based sessions with four different groups of adolescents who made up the sample of 117 people. In these sessions respondents engaged in a ‘Q-Sorting’ exercise, which involved comparing and arranging a series of 44 statements onto a ‘Q-Sort Matrix Board’ to reflect individual perceptions about each of the domains mentioned above. Factor Analysis was used to evaluate these Q-Sorts, which yielded five unique factors, each of which represented a cluster (or group) of similar-minded adolescents. Narrative explanations were developed to make sense of these factors. The findings revealed central themes of risk that are considered indicative and predictive of antisocial behaviour and delinquent group and/or gang affiliation amongst youth living in Wentworth. These include (1) the dominant influence of the family; (2) low socio-economic status and associated financial stress; (3) living within a marginalized community; and (4) peer influences relating to the use of illicit substances, especially cannabis and LenazineÓ (Codeine-containing cough syrup). The bidirectional interaction between these central themes indicates that when an adolescent experiences an accumulation of the effects of disadvantage from across a range of risk factors, so the likelihood of stress and insecurity increases. This increases vulnerability, and coerces adolescents towards antisocial behaviour, substance use, delinquent peer group association, and gangsterism

Re-Imagining Digital Things: Sustainable Data in Medieval Manuscript Studies

The Middle English prose Brut chronicle survives in nearly two hundred manuscripts. This corpus has been the subject of extensive study for more than a hundred years. The most recent research, however, has turned out to be the most fragile. In 2017, the multiyear digital humanities project “Imaging History: Perspectives on Late Medieval Vernacular Historiography” disappeared from the live Internet, only a decade after its publication. We describe the website’s lifecycle as well as our progress so far in creating a new dataset for the Brut corpus, “Re-Imagining History,” part of the ongoing project “Remix the Manuscript: A Chronicle of Digital Experiments.” Because the dataset is relatively small, we are using it to explore ongoing challenges in manuscript studies related to discoverability, interoperability, and sustainability. Our research questions address the interface between digital data and manuscripts themselves. How do catalogue and database structures impact research outcomes? How can we ethically represent the relative authority of disparate sources? How can we enable users to discover things they don’t already know? How do we plan for longevity and growth? We combine social, technical, and historical factors in order to account for “digital things” as complex networks of relationships. By laying bare the data design process, this essay deepens the dialogue between medieval studies and critical infrastructure studies

Carbon villains? Climate change responses among accommodation providers in historic premises

Copyright © 2016 Taylor & Francis This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Journal of Heritage Tourism on 25 September 2015 available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/1743873X.2015.1082569Building stock is a major anthropogenic source of emissions contributing to global warming. Older buildings are conventionally portrayed as performing worse environmentally than more recent buildings. For a sector like tourism, which relies heavily on historic building stock, this raises questions about its ability to contribute to emissions reductions moving forward. This paper explores the relationship between the age and environmental performance of historic premises for small accommodation businesses in South West England, first by correlation analysis and then three extensive case-studies. It argues that the failure to integrate heritage buildings in tourism scholarship on climate change is a major lacuna. Empirically, no statistically significant relationship is found between environmental performance and the date when the original premises were first built. Far from being carbon villains, several ccommodation providers in older premises perform very well against environmental benchmarking schemes. Three types of heritage accommodation providers are identified on the basis of their perceived and actual levels of environmental performance. The paper concludes that heritage building stock of itself is no impediment to action on climate change. Guidance to tourism businesses in such properties should make them aware of this, and provide tailored advice to help them realise potential opportunities.Economic and Social Research CouncilEuropean Regional Development Fund (2007-13

A Simplified Method for Deriving Equations of Motion For Continuous Systems with Flexible Members

A method is proposed for deriving dynamical equations for systems with both rigid and flexible components. During the derivation, each flexible component of the system is represented by a "surrogate element" which captures the response characteristics of that component and is easy to mathematically manipulate. The derivation proceeds essentially as if each surrogate element were a rigid body. Application of an extended form of Lagrange's equation yields a set of simultaneous differential equations which can then be transformed to be the exact, partial differential equations for the original flexible system. This method's use facilitates equation generation either by an analyst or through application of software-based symbolic manipulation

Climate change mitigation and the age of tourism accommodation buildings: a UK perspective.

notes: Accepted 03/03/2015publication-status: Acceptedtypes: Article"This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Journal of Sustainable Tourism on 3 March 2015, available online: http://wwww.tandfonline.com/10.1080/09669582.2015.1027213.”Recent research on climate change mitigation has emphasized decision-making within tourism businesses is vital for sustainable futures. However, there has been little consideration of how the age of buildings and (historic) property frames, modifies or constrains the sector’s response to climate change. Through surveys of accommodation providers in South-West England, this paper explores relationships between property age, energy performance and pro-environmental innovations requiring adjustment to the fabric of buildings. Findings are presented from empirical research with small- and medium-sized tourism enterprises (SMTEs) occupying properties often well over a century old. This paper’s large-scale dataset and series of intensive case-histories demonstrates that property age does not play a straightforward role in encouraging or hindering efforts among accommodation providers to tackle climate change. Some (but not all) businesses with the oldest buildings performed and responded strongest, successfully introducing the latest renewable energy technologies, although adapting older buildings was not without complications and cost implications. Conceptually, this research points to the limits of calls for greater pro-environmental behaviour change without clearer understanding of the contexts and settings in which such behaviour takes place. Its findings are important to heritage based destinations worldwide: accommodation in heritage buildings can be a unique selling point

Energy practices among small- and medium-sized tourism enterprises: a case of misdirected effort?

notes: Published online 18/09/2014publication-status: Publishedtypes: ArticleNOTICE: this is the author’s version of a work that was accepted for publication in Journal of Cleaner Production. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published in Journal of Cleaner Production. doi:10.1016/j.jclepro.2014.09.028Discussion of sustainable tourism has become dominated by the issue of climate change. As a major source of emissions, the tourism sector has a vital role to play in efforts to mitigate the effects of climate change. Within the current body of knowledge and among major policy discourses, the prevailing paradigm has been to encourage action: reduced emissions will follow innovations in managerial practices and the uptake of the latest, most resource-efficient technologies. This paper examines energy practices among small- and medium-sized tourism enterprises (SMTEs), reporting empirical research conducted as part of a five-year programme. Although energy was a significant cost of production, it did not feature prominently in the business administration of most SMTEs. A major knowledge gap was exposed regarding how energy was consumed and administered by individual businesses. The paper argues for a major shift in thinking away from the number of actions as the key success criterion. Action alone is no guarantee of emissions reductions in a sector where growth is the dominant imperative. Instead, a crucial reorientation towards stimulating higher levels of energy literacy among SMTEs is necessary in parallel to rebalancing of attention towards energy generation

Iwi interests and the RMA: An evaluation of the quality of first generation council plans

This working paper analyses the processes adopted by councils for involving hapū /iwi in plan implementation, including the resource consents process. Three topic issues were investigated to assess plan implementation — urban amenity, storm water, and issues of importance to iwi. Questions were asked about the capacity of hapū/iwi to engage in the resource consent process, which resource issues were of concern to them, their relationship with council and consent applicants, and their perception of the consent process. Most resources listed in the questionnaire were of concern to hapū/iwi, with water quality, wāhi tapu and heritage the most commonly cited. In conclusion, we found a general dissatisfaction on the part of hapū/iwi with councils’ performance with respect to both Treaty relationships and consent processing under the RMA. A further contributing factor to the poor relationships found between hapū/iwi and councils, was the lack of clarity over the role of hapū and iwi in resource management. In several districts, diverging responses from hapū/iwi and councils to questions about level of understanding and commitment suggests there is a need for more effective communication. These problems are compounded by the generally low capacity of hapū/iwi to participate in resource consent processes. These findings suggest that there is much to be done to improve relationships and behaviour of these key stakeholder groups in the plan implementation process if key provisions in the RMA related to hapū/iwi interests are to be fulfilled. The differences shown in reciprocal perceptions have serious implications for establishing a sound working partnership between councils and hapū/iwi in their areas. Making clear these discrepancies is a first step towards taking the measures needed for building a better partnership. Further, the capacity of hapū/iwi to participate could be better utilised if there was greater integration between regional and district councils on issues of significance and processes for iwi involvement