The increased number of casuals in the Australian workforce has generated considerable concern about a proliferation of inferior jobs in the labour market. Critics of casualisation have pointed to poor outcomes associated with casual work: job insecurity, lack of training and career paths, marginalisation in the workplace and so forth. Those who defend casualisation argue that non‐standard employment provides greater choice within the labour market, and that casual employees are no less dissatisfied with their jobs than permanent employees. In this paper, I re‐assess this debate by examining a recent analysis of job satisfaction among casual employees by Wooden and Warren in 2004. I argue that findings of contentment among casual employees are subject to both methodological and philosophical weaknesses. In place of subjective measures of job satisfaction, I argue that the quality of jobs should be directly assessed by objective criteria like remuneration. Following this, I fit earnings equations to the HILDA data and find that part‐time casual employees earn only a modest premium over permanent full‐time employees. When the loadings, which casuals are paid, are taken into account, I find that part‐time casual employees are actually penalised by virtue of working as casuals. I conclude that casual jobs are inferior jobs, irrespective of the satisfaction levels of their incumbents.

Partial internal energy distributions of the hydroxyl reaction products of O(1D)+H2, HD, and D2 reactions are presented. Inverted rotational distributions, preferential population of the π+ lambda doubling sublevels, and statistical population of the spin sublevels are observed. A slight preferential formation of the OD vs OH reaction products observed is measured for the reaction of O(1D)+HD. Surprisal analysis of these results indicates both dynamical and kinematic constraints on the reaction dynamics. Comparison of these results with published model calculations suggest that an insertion mechanism to form a highly energetic collision complex dominates the reaction dynamics.

A method is described for estimating leaf area of the oil palm. Significant correlations were found between leaf area and yield in a number of progenies of palms growing in West Malaysia.The oil palm (Elaeis guineensis) produces about 25-35 fronds annually from a single terminal apex. These fronds remain green for more than a year and the palm crown consists of about 35-40 green fronds, subtended by a number of ageing ones. The 'trunk' of the palm, formed from the frond bases and the central stem tissue, grows 30-40 cm. in height a year under plantation conditions in Malaya. The palm is monoecious, producing separate male and female inflorescences in the leaf axils, in cycles of varying duration. The female inflorescences develop into compact bunches of red or orange fruits, which are harvested for the oils contained in the mesocarp and kernels. A variable number of bunches is produced annually, but mature palms in Malaya, at the usual planting density of 138 palms per ha., usually yield between 15-30 metric tons per annum. Yields are closely related to soil and climatic factors.The phyllotaxis of the oil palm is remarkably constant, usually with eight observable spirals or parastichies (Henry, 1955). Consequently the position of the leaves on the phyllotaxis is a close indication of relative age. From observations on oil palms in South East Asia and West Africa it is known that the rate of leaf production is affected by the environment and by the age of the palm. In Malaya leaf production in young palms increases to about 35 per year (at 3-4 years from field planting), gradually dropping to about 26 fronds per annum approximately 3-4 years later, after which it remains relatively constant (Fig. 2). Within each age group and environment, frond production is surprisingly constant.In studies on productivity of the oil palm, Rees (1962) and Rees and Tinker (1963) estimated that dry matter production by the aerial parts of plantation oil palms in Nigeria was about 1-95 X io 4 kg./ha./year, and calculated that this, associated with a leaf area index (LAI) of 4-9, gave a value for mean net assimilation rate of 0-078 gm/dm. 2 /week, a value lower than for many crop species. According to Rees, the oil palm maintains a canopy LAI of about this value under Nigerian conditions. Rees compared the growth rates of various tropical species and concluded that, because conditions for leaf area index and leaf area duration are near optimal in West Africa, and because the efficiency of light interception is also near optimal (presumably referring to total light interception and not strictly

Groundwater contaminants may degrade via fermentation to intermediate species, which are subsequently consumed by terminal electron-accepting processes (TEAPs). A numerical model of an aquifer-derived laboratory microcosm is developed to simulate the dynamic behavior of fermentation and respiration in groundwater by coupling microbial growth and substrate utilization kinetics with a formulation that also includes aqueous speciation and other geochemical reactions including surface complexation, mineral dissolution, and precipitation. The model is used to test approaches that currently make use of H2(aq) to diagnose prevalent TEAPs in groundwater. Competition between TEAPs is integral to the conceptual model of the simulation, and the results indicate that competitive exclusion is significant but with some overlap found in the temporal sequence of TEAPs. Steady-state H2(aq) concentrations observed during different TEAPs do not differ significantly. The results are not consistent with previous applications of the partial equilibrium approach since most TEAP redox pairs exhibit free energies that suggest a particular process is able to proceed, yet observations here show that this process does not proceed.