Australia\u27s solution to disability discrimination enforcement

[Excerpt] Until recently, Australian disability discrimination law was similar to that of the United States and much of the rest of the world: it defined disability relatively narrowly, its penalties for noncompliance were relatively paltry, and it depended on enforcement of lawsuits brought by aggrieved private citizens. In 2009, however, Australia adopted the Fair Work Act 2009 (FW Act). The FW Act defined disability much more broadly, increased substantially the penalties for noncompliance, and created a state institution to enforce disability rights. This article analyses the FW Act, compares it to the workplace disability law in the United States, and argues that the FW Act is a transformational development in the struggle to achieve workplace equality and is an approach that should attract significant international interest

Evidentiary use of Prior Acquittals: When Analysis Exceeds Reality

The purpose of this note is to assess the basis and propriety of that decision and to highlight some potential problems with the Court\u27s conclusion. Additionally, this casenote will attempt to envision how this holding may affect future prosecutions. Finally it will offer an alternative model which may more adequately address the tension between the government\u27s legitimate prosecutorial interests and the defendant\u27s interest in finality of judgment

Server behaviours in healthcare queueing systems

In the classical queueing theory literature, a server is commonly assumed to work at a constant speed. Motivated by observations from healthcare applications, a study is made to explore the nature of the relationship between service times and workload in order to assess and quantify any workforce (server) behaviours. Consequently, an initial analytical queueing model is considered with switching thresholds to allow for two-speed service. In this model service time depends on queue length, which for example captures the congestion in the waiting room and the resulting change in speed of the workforce to try and cope with the backlog of patients. Furthermore, related behavioural characteristics resulting from workload fatigue and service breakdown are considered. A developed analytical model with ‘catastrophic’ service failure is proposed to examine the consequences on patient service levels. The research helps to demonstrate the importance of more accurately capturing server behaviours in workload-dependent environment

Solid Waste Transport: Commerce Clause Restrictions and Free Market Incentives

This Comment explores the Commerce Clause of the United States Constitution and the restraints it places on state and local governments which attempt to restrict the importation of waste. Additionally, it will focus on the development of exclusionary alternatives including the market participant exception and regulatory schemes designed to avoid Commerce Clause scrutiny. Finally, this Comment will examine the possibility of using free market techniques to develop an alternative to the traditional command and control methods of regulation

A rhetorical analysis of motive attribution in the alternative press

Dissertation (Ph.D.)--University of Kansas, Speech and Drama, 1974

Functional Imaging of Autonomic Regulation: Methods and Key Findings.

Central nervous system processing of autonomic function involves a network of regions throughout the brain which can be visualized and measured with neuroimaging techniques, notably functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). The development of fMRI procedures has both confirmed and extended earlier findings from animal models, and human stroke and lesion studies. Assessments with fMRI can elucidate interactions between different central sites in regulating normal autonomic patterning, and demonstrate how disturbed systems can interact to produce aberrant regulation during autonomic challenges. Understanding autonomic dysfunction in various illnesses reveals mechanisms that potentially lead to interventions in the impairments. The objectives here are to: (1) describe the fMRI neuroimaging methodology for assessment of autonomic neural control, (2) outline the widespread, lateralized distribution of function in autonomic sites in the normal brain which includes structures from the neocortex through the medulla and cerebellum, (3) illustrate the importance of the time course of neural changes when coordinating responses, and how those patterns are impacted in conditions of sleep-disordered breathing, and (4) highlight opportunities for future research studies with emerging methodologies. Methodological considerations specific to autonomic testing include timing of challenges relative to the underlying fMRI signal, spatial resolution sufficient to identify autonomic brainstem nuclei, blood pressure, and blood oxygenation influences on the fMRI signal, and the sustained timing, often measured in minutes of challenge periods and recovery. Key findings include the lateralized nature of autonomic organization, which is reminiscent of asymmetric motor, sensory, and language pathways. Testing brain function during autonomic challenges demonstrate closely-integrated timing of responses in connected brain areas during autonomic challenges, and the involvement with brain regions mediating postural and motoric actions, including respiration, and cardiac output. The study of pathological processes associated with autonomic disruption shows susceptibilities of different brain structures to altered timing of neural function, notably in sleep disordered breathing, such as obstructive sleep apnea and congenital central hypoventilation syndrome. The cerebellum, in particular, serves coordination roles for vestibular stimuli and blood pressure changes, and shows both injury and substantially altered timing of responses to pressor challenges in sleep-disordered breathing conditions. The insights into central autonomic processing provided by neuroimaging have assisted understanding of such regulation, and may lead to new treatment options for conditions with disrupted autonomic function

Long distance dispersion managed soliton transmission experiments

This thesis presents results of transmission experiments using optical solitons in a dispersion managed optical fibre recirculating loop. The basic concepts of pulse propagation in optical fibre are introduced before optical solitons and their use in optically amplified fibre systems are discussed. The role of dispersion management in such systems is then considered. The design, operation and limitations of the recirculating loop and soliton sources which were used and the experimental techniques are described before the experimental work is presented. The experimental work covers a number of areas all of which used dispersion management of the transmission line. A novel ultra-long distance propagation scheme which achieved low timing jitter by suppression of the amplifier noise and by working close to the zero dispersion wavelength has been discovered. The use of fibre Bragg gratings as wavelength filters to suppress noise and reduce timing jitter has been investigated. The performance of the fibre grating cornpared favourably with that of a bulk device and was in good agreement with theoretical predictions. The upgrade of existing standard fibre systems to higher bit rates is currently an important issue. The possibility of using solitons with dispersion compensation to allow an increase in data rate of existing standard fibre systems to 10Gbit/s over 5000km has been demonstrated. The applicability of this technique to longer distances, higher bit rates or longer amplifier spans is also investigated by optimisation of the dispersion management scheme. The use of fibre Bragg gratings as the dispersion compensating elements in such standard fibre transmission experiments has been examined and the main problem that these devices currently have, high polarisation mode dispersion, is discussed. The likely future direction of optical communications and what part solitons and dispersion management will play in this development is discussed in the thesis conclusion

Detecting variable responses in time-series using repeated measures ANOVA: Application to physiologic challenges.

We present an approach to analyzing physiologic timetrends recorded during a stimulus by comparing means at each time point using repeated measures analysis of variance (RMANOVA). The approach allows temporal patterns to be examined without an a priori model of expected timing or pattern of response. The approach was originally applied to signals recorded from functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) volumes-of-interest (VOI) during a physiologic challenge, but we have used the same technique to analyze continuous recordings of other physiological signals such as heart rate, breathing rate, and pulse oximetry. For fMRI, the method serves as a complement to whole-brain voxel-based analyses, and is useful for detecting complex responses within pre-determined brain regions, or as a post-hoc analysis of regions of interest identified by whole-brain assessments. We illustrate an implementation of the technique in the statistical software packages R and SAS. VOI timetrends are extracted from conventionally preprocessed fMRI images. A timetrend of average signal intensity across the VOI during the scanning period is calculated for each subject. The values are scaled relative to baseline periods, and time points are binned. In SAS, the procedure PROC MIXED implements the RMANOVA in a single step. In R, we present one option for implementing RMANOVA with the mixed model function "lme". Model diagnostics, and predicted means and differences are best performed with additional libraries and commands in R; we present one example. The ensuing results allow determination of significant overall effects, and time-point specific within- and between-group responses relative to baseline. We illustrate the technique using fMRI data from two groups of subjects who underwent a respiratory challenge. RMANOVA allows insight into the timing of responses and response differences between groups, and so is suited to physiologic testing paradigms eliciting complex response patterns