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Purpose – This article identifies current performance measurement practice within state, territory and federal government departments in Australia with a particular emphasis on the importance of sustainability performance measures. Whilst voluntary sustainability reporting by private sector organisations aligned, for the most part, with Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) guidelines is growing, there is little sustainability reporting by organisations in the public sector. This raises questions as to the extent to which public sector sustainability performance is managed. This research aims to assess the use of sustainability performance measures for supporting organisational performance improvement. Design/methodology/approach – A mail out survey approach has been adopted within government departments. Findings – The performance measures utilised by organisations to a great extent were in the areas of cost efficiency and quality measures and those utilised to least extent were for learning and growth measures and to satisfy legislative requirements and manage programs. Sustainability, environmental or social responsibility measures are the least used performance measures, and those utilised are mainly measures of employee diversity and non-financial economic aspects that are identified. Practical implications – The public sector is unlikely to adopt comprehensive sustainability performance measures while they remain voluntary and while there is no perceived need to be competitive in these areas. Either mandatory reporting is required or some form of competitive process based on performance measures implemented. Originality/value – The findings make a contribution to the academic literature on sustainability performance measures in public sector organisations and point to policy measures that may lead to improvements in practice.

By the end of the nineteenth century Rimsky-Korsakov was the most frequently performed and best-known Russian composer in England after Tchaikovsky and Rubinstein. However, the favourable reception that Tchaikovsky, in particular, had enjoyed in the English press was in sharp contrast to the attacks that were levelled from many sides against Rimsky-Korsakov and other composers viewed at the time as 'Nationalist'. In this article, which builds upon recent work by Gareth Thomas, Philip Bullock, and others, I examine English critical attitudes to Rimsky-Korsakov, extending my assessment much earlier than previously attempted. In doing so, I expose and evaluate the critical environment that led to the determined advocacy of Russian music by such authors as Rosa Newmarch and her successors. I propose sources for the disputes that coloured later English interest in Russian music, at the same time suggesting that critical reception did not always shape, nor indeed reflect, audience responses.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of CE-355621, a novel antibody against c-Met, in a subcutaneous U87 MG xenograft mouse model using ^sup 18^F-FDG small-animal PET. Methods: CE-355621 or control vehicle was administered intraperitoneally into nude mice (drug-treated group, n = 12; control group, n = 14) with U87 MG subcutaneous tumor xenografts. Drug efficacy was evaluated over 2 wk using ^sup 18^F-FDG small-animal PET and compared with tumor volume growth curves. Results: The maximum %ID/g (percentage injected dose per gram of tissue) of ^sup 18^F-FDG accumulation in mice treated with CE-355621 remained essentially unchanged over 2 wk, whereas the %ID/g of the control tumors increased 66% compared with the baseline. Significant inhibition of ^sup 18^F-FDG accumulation was seen 3 d after drug treatment, which was earlier than the inhibition of tumor volume growth seen at 7 d after drug treatment. Conclusion: CE-355621 is an efficacious novel antineoplastic chemotherapeutic agent that inhibits ^sup 18^F-FDG accumulation earlier than tumor volume changes in a mouse xenograft model. These results support the use of ^sup 18^F-FDG PET to assess early tumor response for CE-355621. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]

Consider a multidimensional shift space with a countably infinite alphabet, which serves in mathematical physics as a classical lattice gas or lattice spin system. A new definition of a Gibbs measure is introduced for suitable real-valued functions of the configuration space, which play the physical role of specific internal energy. The variational principle is proved for a large class of functions, and then a more restrictive modulus of continuity condition is provided that guarantees a function’s Gibbs measures to be a nonempty, weakly compact, convex set of measures that coincides with the set of measures obeying a form of the DLR equations (which has been adapted so as to be stated entirely in terms of specific internal energy instead of the Hamiltonians for an interaction potential). The variational equilibrium measures for a such a function are then characterized as the shift invariant Gibbs measures of finite entropy, and a condition is provided to determine if a function’s Gibbs measures have infinite entropy or not. Moreover the spatially averaged limiting Gibbs measures, i.e. constructive equilibria, are shown to exist and their weakly closed convex hull is shown to coincide with the set of true variational equilibrium measures. It follows that the “pure thermodynamic phases”, which correspond to the extreme points in the convex set of equilibrium measures, must be constructive equilibria. Finally, for an even smoother class of functions a method is presented to construct a compatible interaction potential and it is checked that the two different structures generate the same sets of Gibbs and equilibrium measures, respectively.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of CE-355621, a novel antibody against c-Met, in a subcutaneous U87 MG xenograft mouse model using (18)F-FDG small-animal PET. CE-355621 or control vehicle was administered intraperitoneally into nude mice (drug-treated group, n = 12; control group, n = 14) with U87 MG subcutaneous tumor xenografts. Drug efficacy was evaluated over 2 wk using (18)F-FDG small-animal PET and compared with tumor volume growth curves. The maximum %ID/g (percentage injected dose per gram of tissue) of (18)F-FDG accumulation in mice treated with CE-355621 remained essentially unchanged over 2 wk, whereas the %ID/g of the control tumors increased 66% compared with the baseline. Significant inhibition of (18)F-FDG accumulation was seen 3 d after drug treatment, which was earlier than the inhibition of tumor volume growth seen at 7 d after drug treatment. CE-355621 is an efficacious novel antineoplastic chemotherapeutic agent that inhibits (18)F-FDG accumulation earlier than tumor volume changes in a mouse xenograft model. These results support the use of (18)F-FDG PET to assess early tumor response for CE-355621.

This study employs surveys and key informant interviews to examine global health partnerships, and it presents a framework for success to guide the development of sustainable global health programs and partnerships with measurable, defined impact.

With the retirement of Cariboo bishop Jim Cruickshank, the parishes fall under the leadership of Archbishop David Crawley, metropolitan of the ecclesiastical province of British Columbia and Yukon. He is based in Kelowna, B.C., diocese of Kootenay.

Advances in the performance of commodity hardware and acceptance of open-source software have recently led to the increased use of systems based upon a combination thereof as network appliances. The principal thesis of this dissertation is that such appliances can operate more efficiently if their operating system is designed specifically for that task. I present Piglet as a novel design for such an operating system, and describe its implementation and evaluation in such a context. The core of the Piglet architecture is the Active Kernel. A dedicated kernel processor provides concurrency between kernel and applications and enables asynchronous shared-memory communication. The use of shared objects for all communication between applications and the kernel permits Piglet to offer much more efficient mechanisms for the invocation of system services than a conventional kernel. The experimental results presented herein demonstrate how these fundamental kernel features make Piglet a more efficient operating system for network appliances: reduced latency for individual operations and increased aggregate data throughput. In addition to detailing microbenchmark results to support those claims, I show how an existing web server application can readily make use of those enhancements to achieve a performance boost over standard operating systems. Finally, this dissertation examines, both quantitatively and qualitatively, some of the challenges and problems presented by the implementation of the Piglet architecture, and proposes solutions and/or architectural changes to address those concerns.

Examines the sources of Rimsky-Korsakov's opera \"Sadko\" in light of inferences made by the composer and other Russian critics that in contrast to his previous operas, this one was based on original folk source material, the \"byliny\" or epic folk poetic cycles depicting the deeds of legendary heroes. Investigates primary sources and concludes that the material used for the libretto was in fact filtered and adapted and thus is not as heavily \"of the people\" as claimed.