The feasibility of achieving fair and effective access to law in the Australian welfare state : the lessons of revisiting the post-war experience of legal aid

In the 1970s Australia, like a number of comparable countries, reorganised the provision of legal aid. Within a few years, however, new 'problems' had emerged in 'access to justice'. In 1993, the Federal Government responded by charging a committee to identify 'solutions', some of whi£h were adopted in mid-199 5. Yet, the 'problems' of 'access to justice', and access to law, remain. This thesis considers whether these problems are capable of resolution. It begins by posing a general question: is fair and effective access to hiw a feasible expectation of citizens or governments in the Australian welfare state? In addressing this question, the thesis takes a 1990 official report into the problems facing legal aid in Australia as its starting point. This report left a legacy of unanswered questions. In retrospect, moreover, its questions highlighted the ongoing social significance of the problems in access to law for governments, business and citizens in post-war Australian society. The opening contention is that revisiting the origins and significance of the post-war experience of legal aid holds the key to determining the feasibility of achieving fair and effective access to law. The thesis nominates two major justifications in support of this contention. First, it asserts that revisiting the post-war experience will improve our understanding of 'why' Australia acted to enhance access to legal aid in the 1970s. Secondly, the thesis asserts that improving our understanding of the legal aid response will improve our capacity to understand the 'access to justice' response, and thereby the feasibility of any future reforms towards fair and effective access to law. Part I begins by explaining the history behind the national legal aid scheme, the reasons why it emerged in 1973-76 and its ideological context in modem Australian society. In doing so, it answers some of the unanswered questions of the 1990 report. However, Part II also demonstrates the limitations of institutional and ideological history in explaining the post-war experience, concluding that 'missing' parts of the story remain to be told. Thus, Part II begins by revisiting - in a crossnational context - the existing ideas which explain the post-war experience. It develops an alternative theory of the origins and significance of modem legal aid, which it proceeds to apply in revisiting - in the context of the Western world - the origins and significance of its post-war development. Part III proceeds to demonstrate 'why' and 'how' the lessons of revisiting the postwar experience enable us to better assess the feasibility of achieving fair and effective access to law. It begins by applying the insights, 'benchmarks' and analytical methodology of Part II to reconsider the origins of the new 'problems' in 'access to justice', the jettisoning of the legal aid response and the significance of the 1993 'access to justice' response. Part III concludes by briefly considering the implications of the thesis for the feasibility of achieving fair and effective access to law in the contemporary Australian welfare state

Can variation in standard metabolic rate explain context-dependent performance of farmed Atlantic salmon offspring?

Escaped farmed Atlantic salmon interbreed with wild Atlantic salmon, leaving offspring that often have lower success in nature than pure wild salmon. On top of this, presence of farmed salmon descendants can impair production of wild‐type recruits. We hypothesize that both these effects connect with farmed salmon having acquired higher standard metabolic rates (SMR, the energetic cost of self‐maintenance) during domestication. Fitness‐related advantages of phenotypic traits associated with both high SMR and farmed salmon (e.g., social dominance) depend on environmental conditions, such as food availability. We hypothesize that farmed offspring have an advantage at high food availability due to, for example, dominance behavior but suffer increased risks of starvation when food is scarce because this behavior is energy‐demanding. To test these hypotheses, we first compare embryo SMR of pure farmed, farmed‐wild hybrids and pure wild offspring. Next, we test early‐life performance (in terms of survival and growth) of hybrids relative to that of their wild half‐siblings, as well as their competitive abilities, in semi‐natural conditions of high and low food availability. Finally, we test how SMR affects early‐life performance at high and low food availability. We find inconclusive support for the hypothesis that domestication has induced increased SMR. Further, wild and hybrid juveniles had similar survival and growth in the semi‐natural streams. Yet, the presence of hybrids led to decreased survival of their wild half‐siblings. Contrary to our hypothesis about context‐dependency, these effects were not modified by food availability. However, wild juveniles with high SMR had decreased survival when food was scarce, but there was no such effect at high food availability. This study provides further proof that farmed salmon introgression may compromise the viability of wild salmon populations. We cannot, however, conclude that this is connected to alterations in the metabolic phenotype of farmed salmon

Maternal and pregnancy factors contributing to the association between area deprivation and infant mortality in England: a retrospective cohort study

Background: Socioeconomic inequality in infant mortality in the UK is rising. This study aims to identify contributory maternal and pregnancy factors that can explain the known association between area deprivation and infant mortality. Methods: A cohort study was conducted using Clinical Practice Research Datalink (CPRD) primary care data between 2004 and 2019 linked to the Index of Multiple Deprivation (IMD), and infant mortality from the Office for National Statistics death data. Potential maternal and pregnancy contributory factors included: maternal age, prior maternal health conditions, pregnancy lifestyle factors and complications, use of medications during pregnancy, and characteristics of birth. Counterfactual-based decomposition analysis was used to quantify the relative importance of equalising these factors to reduce inequalities in infant mortality. Findings: A total of 392,606 mother-child dyads were included in this study. The overall risk of infant mortality was greatest for individuals in the most deprived quintile (risk ratio 2.13 [95% CI 1.58–2.90]; risk difference 6.6 [3.8–8.8] per 10,000 live births) compared with the least deprived. Four contributory factors were identified as potentially important: preterm birth (Proportion eliminated [PE] 15.25% [95% CI 9.44–24.12%]), smoking during pregnancy (PE 13.61% [95% CI 3.96–80.97%]), maternal age <20 years at childbirth (PE 10.52% [95% CI 2.93–21.35%]) and maternal depression (PE 9.13% [95% CI 4.47–14.93%]). These collectively accounted for more than one-third of the socioeconomic inequality in mortality. Interpretation: Multifactorial interventions targeting maternal mental health, smoking, teenage pregnancy and preterm birth may mitigate a proportion of the effects of socioeconomic inequality but targeting these, alone, will not stem the rise in infant mortality. Structural efforts to reduce socioeconomic inequalities will also be required to prevent these excess infant deaths

The Ninth Data Release of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey: First Spectroscopic Data from the SDSS-III Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey

The Sloan Digital Sky Survey III (SDSS-III) presents the first spectroscopic data from the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS). This ninth data release (DR9) of the SDSS project includes 535,995 new galaxy spectra (median z=0.52), 102,100 new quasar spectra (median z=2.32), and 90,897 new stellar spectra, along with the data presented in previous data releases. These spectra were obtained with the new BOSS spectrograph and were taken between 2009 December and 2011 July. In addition, the stellar parameters pipeline, which determines radial velocities, surface temperatures, surface gravities, and metallicities of stars, has been updated and refined with improvements in temperature estimates for stars with T_eff<5000 K and in metallicity estimates for stars with [Fe/H]>-0.5. DR9 includes new stellar parameters for all stars presented in DR8, including stars from SDSS-I and II, as well as those observed as part of the SDSS-III Sloan Extension for Galactic Understanding and Exploration-2 (SEGUE-2). The astrometry error introduced in the DR8 imaging catalogs has been corrected in the DR9 data products. The next data release for SDSS-III will be in Summer 2013, which will present the first data from the Apache Point Observatory Galactic Evolution Experiment (APOGEE) along with another year of data from BOSS, followed by the final SDSS-III data release in December 2014.Comment: 9 figures; 2 tables. Submitted to ApJS. DR9 is available at http://www.sdss3.org/dr

The Fourteenth Data Release of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey: First Spectroscopic Data from the extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey and from the second phase of the Apache Point Observatory Galactic Evolution Experiment

The fourth generation of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS-IV) has been in operation since July 2014. This paper describes the second data release from this phase, and the fourteenth from SDSS overall (making this, Data Release Fourteen or DR14). This release makes public data taken by SDSS-IV in its first two years of operation (July 2014-2016). Like all previous SDSS releases, DR14 is cumulative, including the most recent reductions and calibrations of all data taken by SDSS since the first phase began operations in 2000. New in DR14 is the first public release of data from the extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (eBOSS); the first data from the second phase of the Apache Point Observatory (APO) Galactic Evolution Experiment (APOGEE-2), including stellar parameter estimates from an innovative data driven machine learning algorithm known as "The Cannon"; and almost twice as many data cubes from the Mapping Nearby Galaxies at APO (MaNGA) survey as were in the previous release (N = 2812 in total). This paper describes the location and format of the publicly available data from SDSS-IV surveys. We provide references to the important technical papers describing how these data have been taken (both targeting and observation details) and processed for scientific use. The SDSS website (www.sdss.org) has been updated for this release, and provides links to data downloads, as well as tutorials and examples of data use. SDSS-IV is planning to continue to collect astronomical data until 2020, and will be followed by SDSS-V.Comment: SDSS-IV collaboration alphabetical author data release paper. DR14 happened on 31st July 2017. 19 pages, 5 figures. Accepted by ApJS on 28th Nov 2017 (this is the "post-print" and "post-proofs" version; minor corrections only from v1, and most of errors found in proofs corrected

SDSS-III: Massive Spectroscopic Surveys of the Distant Universe, the Milky Way Galaxy, and Extra-Solar Planetary Systems

Building on the legacy of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS-I and II), SDSS-III is a program of four spectroscopic surveys on three scientific themes: dark energy and cosmological parameters, the history and structure of the Milky Way, and the population of giant planets around other stars. In keeping with SDSS tradition, SDSS-III will provide regular public releases of all its data, beginning with SDSS DR8 (which occurred in Jan 2011). This paper presents an overview of the four SDSS-III surveys. BOSS will measure redshifts of 1.5 million massive galaxies and Lya forest spectra of 150,000 quasars, using the BAO feature of large scale structure to obtain percent-level determinations of the distance scale and Hubble expansion rate at z<0.7 and at z~2.5. SEGUE-2, which is now completed, measured medium-resolution (R=1800) optical spectra of 118,000 stars in a variety of target categories, probing chemical evolution, stellar kinematics and substructure, and the mass profile of the dark matter halo from the solar neighborhood to distances of 100 kpc. APOGEE will obtain high-resolution (R~30,000), high signal-to-noise (S/N>100 per resolution element), H-band (1.51-1.70 micron) spectra of 10^5 evolved, late-type stars, measuring separate abundances for ~15 elements per star and creating the first high-precision spectroscopic survey of all Galactic stellar populations (bulge, bar, disks, halo) with a uniform set of stellar tracers and spectral diagnostics. MARVELS will monitor radial velocities of more than 8000 FGK stars with the sensitivity and cadence (10-40 m/s, ~24 visits per star) needed to detect giant planets with periods up to two years, providing an unprecedented data set for understanding the formation and dynamical evolution of giant planet systems. (Abridged)Comment: Revised to version published in The Astronomical Journa

The 13th Data Release of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey: First Spectroscopic Data from the SDSS-IV Survey Mapping Nearby Galaxies at Apache Point Observatory

The fourth generation of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS-IV) began observations in July 2014. It pursues three core programs: APOGEE-2,MaNGA, and eBOSS. In addition, eBOSS contains two major subprograms: TDSS and SPIDERS. This paper describes the first data release from SDSS-IV, Data Release 13 (DR13), which contains new data, reanalysis of existing data sets and, like all SDSS data releases, is inclusive of previously released data. DR13 makes publicly available 1390 spatially resolved integral field unit observations of nearby galaxies from MaNGA,the first data released from this survey. It includes new observations from eBOSS, completing SEQUELS. In addition to targeting galaxies and quasars, SEQUELS also targeted variability-selected objects from TDSS and X-ray selected objects from SPIDERS. DR13 includes new reductions ofthe SDSS-III BOSS data, improving the spectrophotometric calibration and redshift classification. DR13 releases new reductions of the APOGEE-1data from SDSS-III, with abundances of elements not previously included and improved stellar parameters for dwarf stars and cooler stars. For the SDSS imaging data, DR13 provides new, more robust and precise photometric calibrations. Several value-added catalogs are being released in tandem with DR13, in particular target catalogs relevant for eBOSS, TDSS, and SPIDERS, and an updated red-clump catalog for APOGEE.This paper describes the location and format of the data now publicly available, as well as providing references to the important technical papers that describe the targeting, observing, and data reduction. The SDSS website, http://www.sdss.org, provides links to the data, tutorials and examples of data access, and extensive documentation of the reduction and analysis procedures. DR13 is the first of a scheduled set that will contain new data and analyses from the planned ~6-year operations of SDSS-IV.PostprintPeer reviewe

The Eleventh and Twelfth Data Releases of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey: Final Data from SDSS-III

The third generation of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS-III) took data from 2008 to 2014 using the original SDSS wide-field imager, the original and an upgraded multi-object fiber-fed optical spectrograph, a new near-infrared high-resolution spectrograph, and a novel optical interferometer. All of the data from SDSS-III are now made public. In particular, this paper describes Data Release 11 (DR11) including all data acquired through 2013 July, and Data Release 12 (DR12) adding data acquired through 2014 July (including all data included in previous data releases), marking the end of SDSS-III observing. Relative to our previous public release (DR10), DR12 adds one million new spectra of galaxies and quasars from the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS) over an additional 3000 deg2 of sky, more than triples the number of H-band spectra of stars as part of the Apache Point Observatory (APO) Galactic Evolution Experiment (APOGEE), and includes repeated accurate radial velocity measurements of 5500 stars from the Multi-object APO Radial Velocity Exoplanet Large-area Survey (MARVELS). The APOGEE outputs now include the measured abundances of 15 different elements for each star. In total, SDSS-III added 5200 deg2 of ugriz imaging; 155,520 spectra of 138,099 stars as part of the Sloan Exploration of Galactic Understanding and Evolution 2 (SEGUE-2) survey; 2,497,484 BOSS spectra of 1,372,737 galaxies, 294,512 quasars, and 247,216 stars over 9376 deg2; 618,080 APOGEE spectra of 156,593 stars; and 197,040 MARVELS spectra of 5513 stars. Since its first light in 1998, SDSS has imaged over 1/3 of the Celestial sphere in five bands and obtained over five million astronomical spectra. \ua9 2015. The American Astronomical Society

Sloan Digital Sky Survey IV: mapping the Milky Way, nearby galaxies, and the distant universe

We describe the Sloan Digital Sky Survey IV (SDSS-IV), a project encompassing three major spectroscopic programs. The Apache Point Observatory Galactic Evolution Experiment 2 (APOGEE-2) is observing hundreds of thousands of Milky Way stars at high resolution and high signal-to-noise ratios in the near-infrared. The Mapping Nearby Galaxies at Apache Point Observatory (MaNGA) survey is obtaining spatially resolved spectroscopy for thousands of nearby galaxies (median ). The extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (eBOSS) is mapping the galaxy, quasar, and neutral gas distributions between and 3.5 to constrain cosmology using baryon acoustic oscillations, redshift space distortions, and the shape of the power spectrum. Within eBOSS, we are conducting two major subprograms: the SPectroscopic IDentification of eROSITA Sources (SPIDERS), investigating X-ray AGNs and galaxies in X-ray clusters, and the Time Domain Spectroscopic Survey (TDSS), obtaining spectra of variable sources. All programs use the 2.5 m Sloan Foundation Telescope at the Apache Point Observatory; observations there began in Summer 2014. APOGEE-2 also operates a second near-infrared spectrograph at the 2.5 m du Pont Telescope at Las Campanas Observatory, with observations beginning in early 2017. Observations at both facilities are scheduled to continue through 2020. In keeping with previous SDSS policy, SDSS-IV provides regularly scheduled public data releases; the first one, Data Release 13, was made available in 2016 July

Sloan Digital Sky Survey IV: Mapping the Milky Way, Nearby Galaxies, and the Distant Universe

We describe the Sloan Digital Sky Survey IV (SDSS-IV), a project encompassing three major spectroscopic programs. The Apache Point Observatory Galactic Evolution Experiment 2 (APOGEE-2) is observing hundreds of thousands of Milky Way stars at high resolution and high signal-to-noise ratios in the near-infrared. The Mapping Nearby Galaxies at Apache Point Observatory (MaNGA) survey is obtaining spatially resolved spectroscopy for thousands of nearby galaxies (median $z\sim 0.03$). The extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (eBOSS) is mapping the galaxy, quasar, and neutral gas distributions between $z\sim 0.6$ and 3.5 to constrain cosmology using baryon acoustic oscillations, redshift space distortions, and the shape of the power spectrum. Within eBOSS, we are conducting two major subprograms: the SPectroscopic IDentification of eROSITA Sources (SPIDERS), investigating X-ray AGNs and galaxies in X-ray clusters, and the Time Domain Spectroscopic Survey (TDSS), obtaining spectra of variable sources. All programs use the 2.5 m Sloan Foundation Telescope at the Apache Point Observatory; observations there began in Summer 2014. APOGEE-2 also operates a second near-infrared spectrograph at the 2.5 m du Pont Telescope at Las Campanas Observatory, with observations beginning in early 2017. Observations at both facilities are scheduled to continue through 2020. In keeping with previous SDSS policy, SDSS-IV provides regularly scheduled public data releases; the first one, Data Release 13, was made available in 2016 July