Stepping Stone Research Articles

Stepping Stones — from Corporate Fault to Directors' Personal Civil Liability

Several recent cases have seen the courts approving ASIC's employment of a ‘stepping stone’ approach that applies directors‘ statutory duty of care as well as their other statutory duties in a novel context. The first ‘stepping stone‘ involves an action against a company for contravention of the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth). The establishment of corporate fault may then step stone to a finding that by exposing their company to the risk of criminal prosecution, civil liability or significant reputational damage, directors contravened one or more of their statutory duties in ss 180-2 of the Corporations Act, particularly their statutory duty of care, with the attendant civil penalty consequences. The effect of the ‘stepping stone’ approach is that directors may face a type of derivative civil liability for corporate fault. In this paper we analyse the stepping stone approach and assess the justification for imposing civil liability on directors for their company's misbehaviour. This paper also examines whether an extension of the stepping stone approach could make directors liable for their company's contraventions of non-Corporations Act laws as well as open the floodgates to make directors personally liable to shareholders, creditors, employees, or others affected by corporate fault.

Steppingstones to Appreciating the Importance of Play in the Creative Act

This paper documents how the literature on creativity has inspired a professor to live and teach creatively. Through a weaving of stories with the literature, the paper demonstrates that praxis is achievable and can be fun! It is hoped that the stories will inspire the readers to take risks and become more playful and creative in all aspects of their lives.

Illustrating the Practice of Statistics as a Stepping Stone to Statistical Engineering

ABSTRACT As students prepare for statistical engineering, they first need to learn about the practice of statistics. This article presents some of the realities of the practice of statistics. These realities include looking at the bigger picture, dealing with data quality issues, developing an appropriate statistical model using the context and knowledge of the client, and designing follow-on studies. The practice of statistics is illustrated with precipitation data collected by a meteorologist.

Improving the Accuracy of Demographic and Molecular Clock Model Comparison While Accommodating Phylogenetic Uncertainty

Recent developments in marginal likelihood estimation for model selection in the field of Bayesian phylogenetics and molecular evolution have emphasized the poor performance of the harmonic mean estimator (HME). Although these studies have shown the merits of new approaches applied to standard normally distributed examples and small real-world data sets, not much is currently known concerning the performance and computational issues of these methods when fitting complex evolutionary and population genetic models to empirical real-world data sets. Further, these approaches have not yet seen widespread application in the field due to the lack of implementations of these computationally demanding techniques in commonly used phylogenetic packages. We here investigate the performance of some of these new marginal likelihood estimators, specifically, path sampling (PS) and stepping-stone (SS) sampling for comparing models of demographic change and relaxed molecular clocks, using synthetic data and real-world examples for which unexpected inferences were made using the HME. Given the drastically increased computational demands of PS and SS sampling, we also investigate a posterior simulation-based analogue of Akaike's information criterion (AIC) through Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC), a model comparison approach that shares with the HME the appealing feature of having a low computational overhead over the original MCMC analysis. We confirm that the HME systematically overestimates the marginal likelihood and fails to yield reliable model classification and show that the AICM performs better and may be a useful initial evaluation of model choice but that it is also, to a lesser degree, unreliable. We show that PS and SS sampling substantially outperform these estimators and adjust the conclusions made concerning previous analyses for the three real-world data sets that we reanalyzed. The methods used in this article are now available in BEAST, a powerful user-friendly software package to perform Bayesian evolutionary analyses.

The House as a Stepping Stone to the Senate: Why Do So Few African American House Members Run?

Although a commonly recognized pathway to the U.S. Senate is through the U.S. House of Representatives, only four African American House members have run for the Senate since the passage of the 17th Amendment, and none have been elected. We examine why so few African American House members run for the Senate. Using an original dataset that includes all House members in the 102nd through the 110th Congresses, we explore the decision of House members, particularly African American House members, to run for the Senate. Despite the fact that so few African American House members have run for the Senate, our results raise doubts about the existence of direct race‐based explanations. Instead, we demonstrate with mediation analysis that contextual factors linked to race, such as state population, ability to raise campaign funds, and ideological extremity, play an intervening role in the strategic decision to run. These findings have normative implications for descriptive representation.

Overeducation at the Start of the Career - Stepping Stone or Trap?

This study investigates whether young unemployed graduates who accept a job below their level of education accelerate or delay the transition into a job that matches their level of education. We adopt the Timing of Events approach to identify this dynamic treatment effect using monthly calendar data from a representative sample of Flemish (Belgian) youth who started searching for a job right after leaving formal education. We find that overeducation is a trap. This trap is especially important early in the unemployment spell. Our results are robust across various specifications and for two overeducation measures.

Overeducation at the Start of the Career: Stepping Stone or Trap?

This study investigates whether young unemployed graduates who accept a job below their level of education accelerate or delay the transition into a job that matches their level of education. We adopt the Timing of Events approach to identify this dynamic treatment effect using monthly calendar data from a representative sample of Flemish (Belgian) youth who started searching for a job right after leaving formal education. We find that overeducation is a trap. This trap is especially important early in the unemployment spell. Our results are robust across various specifications and for two overeducation measures.

Is Temporary Agency Employment a Stepping Stone for Immigrants?

Is Temporary Agency Employment a Stepping Stone for Immigrants?

Using Primary Care Parenting Interventions to Improve Outcomes in Children with Developmental Disabilities: A Case Report

Parenting is central to the health and well-being of children. Children with developmental disabilities have been shown to be at increased risk of developing emotional and behavioral problems. Parent training programs are effective interventions for improving child behavior and family functioning. This paper describes the outcomes of a brief 4-session parenting intervention (Primary Care Stepping Stones Triple P) targeting compliance and cooperative play skills in an 8-year-old girl with Asperger's disorder and ADHD combined type. The intervention was associated with decreases in child behavior problems, increases in parenting confidence, and decreases in dysfunctional parenting styles. This paper demonstrates that low-intensity parenting interventions can lead to significant improvements in child behavior and family functioning. Such brief interventions are cost effective, can be widely disseminated, and have been designed to be delivered within primary health care settings. Pediatricians can play a key role in identifying parents in need of assistance and in helping them access evidence-based parenting interventions.

Transactional Sex and HIV Incidence in a Cohort of Young Women in the Stepping Stones Trial

Background: Structural drivers of the HIV epidemic are increasingly recognised, and cross-sectional research has shown an association between transactional sex and HIV prevalence, but evidence on the impact of transactional sex on HIV incidence in young women remains limited. Methods: We tested hypotheses that transactional sex predicted incident HIV infections in a dataset of 1077 HIV negative women aged 15-26 enrolled in a cluster randomised controlled trial. Incidence rate ratios were derived from multivariable Poisson models which included terms for age, HSV2, relationship power, condom use, intimate partner violence (IPV) exposure, treatment, stratum and person years of exposure to HIV. Results: 127 sexually active women acquired HIV during the study. HIV incidence was greater among women having transactional sex with a once off partner (IRR 3.29 95% CI 1.02, 10.55, p=0.046) and those having transactional sex with an on-going, concurrent partner (IRR 2.05 95% CI 1.20, 3.52, p=0.009). An analysis was performed to distinguish between the effects of a transactional sexual encounter or relationship and having a higher number of sexual partners or older partners, which are usually entailed in transactional sex. Women having transactional sex with a casual partner (on-going or once off) and two or more partners during follow up had an elevated risk of HIV acquisition (IRR 2.23 95% CI 1.28, 3.88, p=0.005), where as those just having two or more partners did not (IRR 1.20 95% CI 0.81, 1.77, p=0.368). Women with partners 5 or more years older did not have an elevated risk of HIV. Conclusions: Transactional sex with an on-going or once off partner elevates young women’s risk of HIV infection. This finding is independent of partner number or age. These findings support the need for structural interventions in HIV prevention, with a stronger focus on reducing transactional sex.

Restoring Connectivity in Landscapes Fragmented by Major Roads: A Case Study Using Wooden Poles as “Stepping Stones” for Gliding Mammals

Tree‐dwelling mammals may be vulnerable to road mortality if forced to cross canopy gaps on the ground. This group of mammals has received scant attention worldwide despite major road projects potentially causing severe fragmentation to their habitat. Gliding mammals may be enabled to cross road gaps that exceed their gliding capability by the installation of tall wooden poles to act as “stepping stones.” We investigated whether such glide poles installed across two land‐bridges in eastern Australia could restore landscape connectivity for small gliding petaurid marsupials. Hair‐traps revealed repeated use of all poles at both locations over periods of 1–3 years. Camera traps at one site suggest a crossing frequency on the poles by the squirrel glider (Petaurus norfolcensis) of once every 3.8 nights. Radio‐tracked animals did not glide directly over the road but instead used the poles to cross on the bridge. Hair‐traps and camera traps installed within the middle of two reference land‐bridges that lacked glide poles failed to detect crossings by gliding mammals despite their presence in adjacent forest. These observations suggest that glide poles can facilitate road crossing and thereby restore habitat connectivity for gliding mammals. This lends support to the notion that glide poles have the potential to mitigate road‐induced habitat fragmentation for gliding mammals worldwide.

Stepping Stones – a group therapy programme for the treatment of emotion regulation difficulties in offenders with an intellectual disability

PurposeThe current paper aims to provide an overview of the Stepping Stones Group Therapy Programme. Stepping Stones is an innovative 42‐week programme that comprehensively addresses the emotion regulation needs of offenders with an intellectual disability.Design/methodology/approachThe paper discusses the process of implementing a group treatment programme in a secure forensic intellectual disability service.FindingsSince the inception of the programme, there has been a reduction in both the frequency of aggression and the need for physical and chemical de‐escalation. In addition, clients have demonstrated a greater understanding of their emotional responses and an improved ability to use functional means of managing distress and solving life problems.Originality/valueThis paper shows that, although implementing group therapy programmes for clients with intellectual disabilities and co‐morbid emotion regulation difficulties can be daunting, treatment with this group of clients can be successful and rewarding.

“Stepping Stones”: Career Paths to the SSAO for Men and Women at Four-Year Institutions

This study examined career paths to becoming the Senior Student Affairs Officer for men (n = 151) and women (n = 99) at 4-year institutions. Descriptive statistics and network analysis of resume data revealed that an average of 20 years and six job changes led to the position. Most started careers in residential life or student activities, obtained a directorship midcareer in student affairs or administration, and then advanced to the dean of students office.

Training Temp Work = Stepping Stone? Evaluating an Innovative Activation Program for Disadvantaged Youths

Jugendarbeitslosigkeit ist ein groses Problem in vielen europaischen Landern. Da die Evaluationsliteratur zeigt, dass Arbeitsmarktprogramme fur benachteiligte junge Erwachsene haufig keine effektive Unterstutzung leisten konnen, werden innovative Masnahmen fur diese Problemgruppe benotigt. In dieser Studie evaluieren wir eine solche innovative Pilotmasnahme, die in drei deutschen Stadten umgesetzt wurde und die folgenden Programmkomponenten kombiniert: i) Individuelles Coaching, ii) Weiterbildung, iii) Beschaftigung in Zeitarbeit. Auf Basis eines Vergleichsgruppenansatzes (ex-post Quasi-Randomisierung) zeigen unsere empirischen Ergebnisse einen nachhaltig positiven Effekt der Masnahme auf die Eingliederung in den Arbeitsmarkt fur diejenigen Teilnehmer, die die Masnahme komplett durchlaufen haben.

Choosing among partition models in Bayesian phylogenetics.

Bayesian phylogenetic analyses often depend on Bayes factors (BFs) to determine the optimal way to partition the data. The marginal likelihoods used to compute BFs, in turn, are most commonly estimated using the harmonic mean (HM) method, which has been shown to be inaccurate. We describe a new more accurate method for estimating the marginal likelihood of a model and compare it with the HM method on both simulated and empirical data. The new method generalizes our previously described stepping-stone (SS) approach by making use of a reference distribution parameterized using samples from the posterior distribution. This avoids one challenging aspect of the original SS method, namely the need to sample from distributions that are close (in the Kullback–Leibler sense) to the prior. We specifically address the choice of partition models and find that using the HM method can lead to a strong preference for an overpartitioned model. In contrast to the HM method and the original SS method, we show using simulated data that the generalized SS method is strikingly more precise (repeatable BF values of the same data and partition model) and yields BF values that are much more reasonable than those produced by the HM method. Comparisons of HM and generalized SS methods on an empirical data set demonstrate that the generalized SS method tends to choose simpler partition schemes that are more in line with expectation based on inferred patterns of molecular evolution. The generalized SS method shares with thermodynamic integration the need to sample from a series of distributions in addition to the posterior. Such dedicated path-based Markov chain Monte Carlo analyses appear to be a cost of estimating marginal likelihoods accurately.

Hydrogen photo-evolution upon S deprivation stepwise: an illustration of microalgal photosynthetic and metabolic flexibility and a step stone for future biotechnological methods of renewable H2 production

The metabolic flexibility of some photosynthetic microalgae enables them to survive periods of anaerobiosis in the light by developing a particular photofermentative metabolism. The latter entails compounds of the photosynthetic electron transfer chain and an oxygen-sensitive hydrogenase in order to reoxidize reducing equivalents and to generate ATP for maintaining basal metabolic function. This pathway results in the photo-evolution of hydrogen gas by the algae. A decade ago, Melis and coworkers managed to reproduce such a condition in a laboratory context by depletion of sulfur in the algal culture media, making the photo-evolution by the algae sustainable for several days (Melis et al. in Plant Physiol 122:127-136, 2000). This observation boosted research in algal H(2) evolution. A feature, which due to its transient nature was long time considered as a curiosity of algal photosynthesis suddenly became a phenomenon with biotechnological potential. Although the Melis procedure has not been developed into a biotechnological process of renewable H(2) generation so far, it has been a useful tool for studying microalgal metabolic and photosynthetic flexibility and a possible step stone for future H(2) production procedures. Ten years later most of the critical steps and limitations of H(2) production by this protocol have been studied from different angles particularly with the model organism Chlamydomonas reinhardtii, by introducing various changes in culture conditions and making use of mutants issued from different screens or by reverse genomic approaches. A synthesis of these observations with the most important conclusions driven from recent studies will be presented in this review.

Evaluation of physical fish habitat quality enhancement designs in urban streams using a 2D hydrodynamic model

Creating a habitat for a variety of forms of life, such as riparian plants and various fish, is a necessity for stressed river ecosystems. In this study, the hydraulic characteristics of a fish habitat in an urban channel were analyzed using River2D, which is a two-dimensional (2D) depth-averaged finite element hydrodynamic model, to improve the habitat of two target fish in the Daejeon Stream, Korea. These species are Pseudopungtungia nigra, which is an endangered species in the Daejeon Stream, and Zacco platypus, which is a dominant species. In addition, changes in the weighted usable area (WUA) were compared and reviewed as boulders were placed in the stream. The best method for improving the P. nigra's habitat is proposed. A simulation analysis was performed on urban rivers for fish habitats. As a result, a straight and monotonous urban river flow was found to be an appropriate habitat environment for Z. platypus. The WUA for Z. platypus was about 20 times greater than that for P. nigra. Three different fish habitat enhancement methods were evaluated by calculating the WUA for the target fish in the study channel. By calculating the WUA to create fish habitats, the V-type riffle method was found to increase the usable area of the habitat environment for P. nigra by 360%, and the step stone method and single boulder method did so by 60% and 8%, respectively. For the single boulder method, boulders were placed in the channel bed at 3.5-m intervals, which significantly increased habitat availability. Moreover, centralizing the flow pattern in the channel among several types of boulder placements greatly expanded the habitat for P. nigra. Thus, an appropriate placement interval and boulder location that considers the characteristics of the riverbed and target fish species should be researched and implemented.

A preliminary assessment of an orbiter in the Haumean system: How quickly can a planetary orbiter reach such a distant target?

With the recent discoveries of planetary objects beyond Neptune and Pluto, the vast majority of all sizeable Solar System planetary objects lie now beyond Uranus, where insertion into orbit after a reasonably short travel is still not within the current capabilities of our spacecraft. Being able to go and stop at a transneptunian dwarf planet would represent a step stone for ambitious long-term goals. The pressure to send spacecraft to these bodies will grow, as, among the tens or hundreds of large objects, some will emerge as high priorities for science and exploration missions. It is subsequently necessary to prepare the technologies required for such spacecraft. In addition, being able to achieve a fast journey to a distant object will benefit also missions to closer targets. Thales Alenia Space has carried out a preliminary parameter exploration of such a mission with a challenging target: an orbiter in the Haumean system. The main parameters are the characteristics of the propulsion and power system, as well as the masses of the spacecraft. The exploration has inferred the technological improvement needed for reaching these objects within a reasonable time.

The “Stepping Stone Phenomenon”: Exploring the Role of Positive Attrition at an Early College Entrance Program

This study explored the differences between students who remained at one early college acceleration program and those who left. Students who left appeared to seek what they perceived as a greater academic challenge or more specialized academic majors than were provided by the host college, a phenomenon that lends credence to the notion of positive attrition. Programs and their host institutions need to acknowledge and consider whether positive attrition is acceptable and then structure their screening policies accordingly. Programs would also do well to ensure that screening takes into account students' talents and interests, for by ensuring an appropriate match, or “fit,” between the candidate, the program, and the host college or university, administrators and staff may help to improve retention and the overall quality of the experience for the early college accelerant. Appropriate screening is the key to improving academic fit, and the first step in improving screening may be for an institution to determine whether positive attrition is desirable or not. It is important during the screening process to match students' interests and talents with academic courses and opportunities offered by the college or university. Level of challenge is also a consideration, and part of the screening process should consider whether courses offered at the college are sufficiently challenging for the candidate. Administrators of these programs may wish to consider expanding current course offerings to include more majors and courses or recruiting the strongest students into the most challenging courses and majors that they currently offer. Participants enter early entrance programs at a very young age and may not be academically ready to select a major or a career in their teens, so more career counseling may be required than is normally provided at many colleges.

Step‐pool stability: Testing the jammed state hypothesis

We investigate the stability of step‐pool channels by examining how the traditional approach to bed stability based on the critical Shields number is modified by particles jamming across the width of the channel. Experiments were conducted in a flume with slopes ranging between 3% and 18% and either smooth or rough walls. By varying the size of sediment and width of the flume we observed that the stability of the bed increases as the jamming ratio (channel width/D84step is the diameter at which 84% of the step stones are smaller) decreases for jamming ratios less than six. At low jamming ratios both grain‐on‐grain structuring and sediment entrainment phenomena affect the stability of the bed. Actual bed failure, however, depends upon the history of bed development and the chance arrangement of the stone structures in the bed. Thus, the experiments also demonstrate that the inherently stochastic nature of sediment transport affects not only the movement of individual grains but also the stability of the channel as a whole. Since stochastic processes affect the stability of the entire channel, there is no clearly defined separation between stable and unstable beds, rather, an overlapping field where both stable and unstable bed states can exist. This field was modeled using logistic regression to derive a probability of bed failure. A comparison of data from experiments with rough banks and smooth banks showed that rough banks significantly increase the stability of the bed.