Suchergebnisse

Employing a hermeneutic phenomenological approach, I explore the experiences of eight individuals engaged differently with nonprofit accountability. The principal-Agent perspective provides the framework. My investigation is prompted by my dissatisfaction with portrayals of governments' relationships with financially dependent nonprofits as being dysfunctional, and necessarily oppositional, dyads. Simultaneous calls for more collaboration and ever-greater accountability risk dislocating excessively stretched joints. Preserving the uniqueness of each actor's depiction and interpretation of accountability, I hope to shed light on what is really going on as accountability is negotiated, mediated and enacted by implicated individuals, and suggest how we might improve performances if we pay more attention to performers' pragmatic interpretations of accountability scripts. Participants' considered improvisations may enlighten accountability's audiences and its directors and script-writers. ; May 2013

The history, size and status of each of Australia's 12 public wood collections, or 'xylaria', are reviewed in light of the uncertain future of most of them. Their history is traced from the colonial era to the present. Australian colonies sent wood samples to Britain and international exhibitions from early in the nineteenth century to promote their timber exports. In the 1880s Queensland and New South Wales started the first two scientific reference collections of wood, other states followed, and in the 1920s the Commonwealth started two large national collections. The collections were used to develop classification systems for identifying samples of wood in the absence of botanical specimens. There are currently 12 collections held by public institutions, of which the largest, with 47 000 specimens, is held by the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO). Their expansion was followed by gradual retractions of government funding, staff and interest over the last 30 years. Ten of the 12 collections are now considered to be secure, six are in institutions that can conserve them, and only two are in use. Consolidation of the national collections under a professional curator is needed.

The history, size and status of each of Australia's 12 public wood collections, or 'xylaria', are reviewed in light of the uncertain future of most of them. Their history is traced from the colonial era to the present. Australian colonies sent wood samples to Britain and international exhibitions from early in the nineteenth century to promote their timber exports. In the 1880s Queensland and New South Wales started the first two scientific reference collections of wood, other states followed, and in the 1920s the Commonwealth started two large national collections. The collections were used to develop classification systems for identifying samples of wood in the absence of botanical specimens. There are currently 12 collections held by public institutions, of which the largest, with 47 000 specimens, is held by the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO). Their expansion was followed by gradual retractions of government funding, staff and interest over the last 30 years. Ten of the 12 collections are now considered to be secure, six are in institutions that can conserve them, and only two are in use. Consolidation of the national collections under a professional curator is needed.

For a long time XMMU J010331.7−730144 was proposed as a high-mass X-ray binary candidate based on its X-ray properties, however, its optical behaviour was unclear – in particular previous observations did not reveal key Balmer emission lines. In this paper, we report on optical and X-ray variability of the system. XMMU J010331.7–730144 has been monitored with the Optical Gravitational Lensing Experiment (OGLE) in the I and V bands for the past 9 yr where it has shown extremely large amplitude outbursts separated by long periods of low-level flux. During its most recent optical outburst we obtained spectra with the Southern African Large Telescope (SALT) where, for the first time, the H α line is seen in emission, confirming the Be nature of the optical companion. The OGLE colour–magnitude diagrams also exhibit a distinct loop that is explained by changes in mass-loss from the Be star and mass outflow in its disc. In the X-rays, XMMU J010331.7−730144 has been monitored by the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory through the S-CUBED programme. The X-ray flux throughout the monitoring campaign shows relatively low values for a typical Be/X-ray binary system. We show, from the analysis of the optical data, that the variability is due to the Be disc density and opacity changing rather than its physical extent as a result of efficient truncation by the NS. The relatively low X-ray flux can then be explained by the neutron star normally accreting matter at a low rate due to the small radial extent of the Be disc. ; IMM, DAHB, and VAM are supported by the South African NRF. Some of the observations reported in this paper were obtained with the Southern African Large Telescope (SALT), as part of the Large Science Programme on transients 2018-2-LSP-001 (PI: Buckley).The OGLE project has received funding from the National Science Centre, Poland, grant MAESTRO 2014/14/A/ST9/00121 to AU. IN is partially supported by the Spanish Government under grant PGC2018-093741-B-C21 (MICIU/AEI/FEDER, UE). Polish participation in SALT is funded by grant No. MNiSW DIR/WK/2016/07.