Quantal Risk Assessment Database: A Database for Exploring Patterns in Quantal Dose‐Response Data in Risk Assessment and its Application to Develop Priors for Bayesian Dose‐Response Analysis

Quantitative risk assessments for physical, chemical, biological, occupational, or environmental agents rely on scientific studies to support their conclusions. These studies often include relatively few observations, and, as a result, models used to characterize the risk may include large amounts of uncertainty. The motivation, development, and assessment of new methods for risk assessment is facilitated by the availability of a set of experimental studies that span a range of dose‐response patterns that are observed in practice. We describe construction of such a historical database focusing on quantal data in chemical risk assessment, and we employ this database to develop priors in Bayesian analyses. The database is assembled from a variety of existing toxicological data sources and contains 733 separate quantal dose‐response data sets. As an illustration of the database's use, prior distributions for individual model parameters in Bayesian dose‐response analysis are constructed. Results indicate that including prior information based on curated historical data in quantitative risk assessments may help stabilize eventual point estimates, producing dose‐response functions that are more stable and precisely estimated. These in turn produce potency estimates that share the same benefit. We are confident that quantitative risk analysts will find many other applications and issues to explore using this database.     

Conceptual frameworks and the philosophical foundations of general living systems theory

The continued expansion and fragmentation of biological disciplines impede education, communication, and efficient advance of biological research. Reversing these trends may require a unification of theories and concepts from all levels of biological organization. One form of this unification is the statement of generalizations that apply to all living systems. We explore the philosophical foundations of general theories of living systems by analyzing conceptual frameworks as they apply to biology. This analysis examines the relation of empirical observation, theories, and conceptual frameworks within the context of an individual scientist's conceptual continuum. Also presented are a small set of translevel generalizations that articulate our conceptual framework of living systems in terms of organismic system organization, the environmental system-organismic system dyad, system capacity, and system incorporation. A set of procedural rules are stated which suggest minimum criteria for the evaluation of the explanatory adequacy of biological theories. The relation of this work to other similar analyses and syntheses of biological knowledge is discussed.     

Critical decision areas in corporate financial policy

The argument in this paper rests on the assumption that the prime objective of any corporate activity must in some way be related to a profitability goal, however this may be measured, however this may be defined, and however this may be constrained by the relevance of a times-cale.

The paper makes some comments on the selection of a corporate objective or goal but mainly it considers the direct contribution that financial management can make to achievement of this goal. It distinguishes this from the accounting rôle which is more appropriately concerned with measuring and monitoring progress towards the goal.     

The Powers of Australian Teachers in the Political System of School Government

The views of a sample of Australian teachers were obtained regarding the powers exercised by teachers and administrators in decisions relevant to internal school government. The teachers perceived themselves as playing a delegated-leadership role within the classroom and a subordinate role in decision areas external to classroom management. On the other hand, they expressed a desire to extend their delegated-leadership role to important matters concerning the instructional organization and administration of the school. The evidence suggested that teachers wished to change the perceived balance of power in schools in the direction of a more ‘democratic’ style of school government.