Radio Deregulation: Has It Served Citizens and Musicians?

This report is an historical, structural, statistical and public survey analysis of the effects of the 1996 Telecommunications Act on musicians and citizens.Each week, radio reaches nearly 95 percent of the U.S. population over the age of 12 (see Chapter 5, p. 69). But more importantly, radio uses a frequency spectrum owned, ultimately, by the American public. Because the federal government manages this spectrum on citizens' behalf, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has a clear mandate to enact policies that balance the rights of citizens with the legitimate interests of broadcasters.Radio has changed drastically since the 1996 Telecommunications Act eliminated a cap on nationwide station ownership and increased the number of stations one entity could own in a single market. This legislation sparked an unprecedented period of ownership consolidation in the industry with significant and adverse effects on musicians and citizens

Financial Exigency: Need It Affect the Quality of Biology Curricula?

Declining enrollments and financial restraints require that science departments seek ways to meet academic commitments within the framework of reduced budgets and faculty resources without sacrificing quality programs. The following describes our evaluation of the role of the laboratory in the undergraduate biology curriculum and the positive effects achieved on our academic, financial, and faculty resources by separating labs from lecture courses and reducing the number of labs required for majors and nonmajors. Several years ago we experienced increased enrollments coupled with only modest increases in funds to deliver our undergraduate instructional programs. To resolve this problem we developed a new approach to the role of lecture and laboratory courses for our biology majors, the nonmajor, and the students in the allied health programs serviced by our department. The changes effected by us then would appear to be equally appropriate in today\u27s economy when inflationary pressures and a decline in students make it imperative that departments look to ways to meet their academic commitments within the framework of declining budgets and faculty resources

One Defence: one direction? The First Principles Review of Defence

Overview: The recently released report of the First Principles Review of Defence, Creating One Defence, is set to reshape the Defence enterprise over the next few years. This ASPI special report explains the review’s recommendations and analyses the consequences for Defence. It provides three perspectives on the forthcoming reforms: Peter Jennings, ‘One Defence–root causes, risks and values’; Andrew Davies, ‘The capability development life cycle’; Mark Thomson, ‘One Defence in two parts’

The changing role of banks and the changing value of deposit guarantees

Using a model for pricing deposit guarantees that treats the bank's investments as a portfolio of default-free bonds and risky loans, the authors push back uncertainty to the level of the borrowing firm and thus are able to explore how factors like firm leverage, loan maturity, and correlation effects between the firm's assets and interest rates affect the value of deposit guarantees.Deposit insurance ; Bank loans

Growth and volatility regime switching models for New Zealand GDP data

This paper fits hidden Markov switching models to New Zealand GDP data. A primary objective is to better understand the utility of these methods for modelling growth and volatility regimes present in the New Zealand data and their interaction. Properties of the models are developed together with a description of the estimation methods, including use of the Expectation Maximisation (EM) algorithm. The models are fitted to New Zealand GDP and production sector growth rates to analyse changes in their mean and volatility over time. The paper discusses applications of the methodology to identifying changes in growth performances, and examines the timing of growth and volatility regime switching between production sectors. Conclusions to emerge are that, in contrast to the 1980s, New Zealand GDP growth experienced an unusually long period of time in high growth and low volatility regimes during the 1990s. The paper evaluates sector contributions to this 1990s experience and discusses directions for further development.Hidden Markov models; regime switching; growth; business cycles; volatility; production sectors; GDP.

Wild dog control : facts behind the strategies

Background information to how strategies for controlling wild dogs have been developed over the years, not just in Western Australia, but also other parts of Australia. The information is based on scientific studies, including detailed evaluations of techniques and strategies, and also considerable practical experience from doggers, operational staff and landholders. This publication focuses on sheep enterprises

Calm after the Storm?: Supply-side contributions to New Zealand’s GDP volatility decline

The variance of New Zealand’s real GDP has declined since the mid-1980s. To investigate why, this paper decomposes the variance of chain-weighted estimates of production-based real GDP growth into sector shares, sector growth rate variances and co-variances. The principal explanation for the decline in GDP volatility is a fall in the sum of sector variances driven by a decline in the Services and Manufacturing sector production growth variances. Sector co-variances have had a dominant influence on the profile of GDP volatility and this influence has not diminished. Despite marked changes in sector shares, notably increases in Services and Primary sector shares and a decrease in the share of Manufacturing, this has not been a significant factor influencing the decline in GDP volatility. We postulate that policy interventions such as “Think Big”, regulatory interventions during the early 1980s, and the introduction of GST are key explanations for the higher volatility until the mid 1980s. Cessation of these interventions, deregulation and possibly changes in inventory management methods are important reasons why GDP volatility has fallen since then.Volatility, growth, production sector shares, manufacturing, services, primary, construction.

Effective interventions for working with young people who are homeless or at risk of homelessness

This literature review was commissioned by the Commonwealth Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs (FaHCSIA). The aim of the review is to assess the current state of evidence about what interventions are most effective in working with young people who are homeless or at risk of homelessness. This literature review was produced in order to inform a broader project that identifies the range of interventions and strategies that are applied by Reconnect services and situates these practices within the existing evidence base (see separate report, Reconnect: working with young people who are homeless or at risk of homelessness). Reconnect is a community-based early intervention program for young people who are homeless or at risk of homelessness. It was established in 1998 as an early intervention response to youth homelessness. Reconnect uses early intervention strategies to help young people to stabilise and improve their housing, achieve family reconciliation, and improve their level of engagement with work, education, training and community. FaHCSIA funds Reconnect services to deliver services to young people aged 12–18 years (newly arrived young people 12–21 years) who are homeless or at risk of homelessness, and their families. Some Reconnect services focus on working with specific population groups, for example: Indigenous young people (Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander people); young people experiencing mental health issues; and newly arrived young people. This review is guided by the key research question: ‘what are effective intervention strategies for working with young people who are homeless or at risk of homelessness?’ The literature review begins with a brief overview of youth homelessness as an issue of concern, its identified relevant risk and protective factors, and the relevance of early intervention. It then outlines the strategy for undertaking this literature review and presents the findings of the review

On flexibility, capital structure, and investment decisions for the insured bank

Most models of deposit insurance assume that the volatility of a bank's assets is exogenously provided. Although this framework allows the impact of volatility on bankruptcy costs and deposit insurance subsidies to be explored, it is static and does not incorporate the fact that equityholders can respond to market events by adjusting previous investment and leverage decisions. This paper presents a dynamic model of a bank that allows for such behavior. The flexibility of being able to respond dynamically to market information has value to equityholders. The impact and value of this flexibility option are explored under a regime in which flat-rate deposit insurance is provided.Deposit insurance ; Bank capital

A study of the complications associated with haemodialysis vascular access in patients with renal failure

Successful haemodialysis depends on the availability of safe, efficient, and durable access to the vascular tree. This can be provided by creation of an arteriovenous fistula, insertion of a synthetic vascular graft or insertion of a central venous catheter. Established haemodialysis vascular access is associated with a number of important complications which can impact significantly on both the quality of life and survival of haemodialysis patients. The primary aim of this thesis was to perform a detailed evaluation of the risks to health conferred by haemodialysis vascular access and its maintenance in patients with advanced renal failure. The work described in this thesis describes the relative strength and independence of association between haemodialysis vascular access type and risk of mortality, bacteraemia and catheter thrombosis. Greater clarity is demonstrated on the relative effect of heparin-based haemodialysis catheter lock solutions on markers of systemic coagulation in vivo, whilst the in-vitro variability of antimicrobial activity against planktonic and biofilm-embedded staphylococci achieved with catheter lock solutions containing heparin and vancomycin, alone and in combination, is clearly shown. New insights are gained into the benefits of contrast magnetic resonance venography as a tool for demonstrating thrombosis and stenosis of the central veins in the assessment of vascular access in haemodialysis patients. Similarly, the emergence of a new disease, nephrogenic systemic fibrosis was found and its association with gadolinium-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging was explored in detail