Out of the Troubles and into Rights: Protection For Gays, Lesbians, and Bisexuals in Northern Ireland Through Equality Legislation in the Belfast Agreement

Part I of this Note explores the history of LGB rights in Northern Ireland, focusing on the development of domestic equality legislation stemming from the recent peace process. Part II examines the statutory framework of this legislation, concentrating on what protections and rights it provides for sexual minorities in Northern Ireland. Part II also looks at a recent European Directive prohibiting discrimination against LGB persons in employment. Part III argues that for truly effective change to occur, LGB individuals need both policy-based and rights-based legislation encompassing the human rights principles of equality and non-discrimination. Part III further argues that the political divisions in the region ultimately hinder the drafting, passing, and effectiveness of such legislation

Solar cycle variation in Sun-as-a-star Ca II 854.2 nm bisectors

The bisector of the strong chromospheric Ca II 854.2 nm line has an inverse-C shape the cause of which is not yet fully understood. We show that the amplitude of the bisector in Sun-as-a-star observations exhibits a solar cycle variation with smaller amplitudes during highest activity. The line core intensity is lower during solar minima while the part of the bisector most sensitive to the line core shows no systematic change with activity. Our results support the use of Ca II 854.2 nm bisectors in studying the relationship between convection and magnetic fields, not only in the Sun but in other stars as well.Comment: Accepted to Ap

The relationship of dementia prevalence in older adults with intellectual disability (ID) to age and severity of ID

Background: Previous research has shown that adults with intellectual disability (ID) may be more at risk of developing dementia in old age than expected. However, the effect of age and ID severity on dementia prevalence rates has never been reported. We investigated the predictions that older adults with ID should have high prevalence rates of dementia that differ between ID severity groups and that the age-associated risk should be shifted to a younger age relative to the general population. Method: A two-staged epidemiological survey of 281 adults with ID without Down syndrome (DS) aged >60 years; participants who screened positive with a memory task, informant-reported change in function or with the Dementia Questionnaire for Persons with Mental Retardation (DMR) underwent a detailed assessment. Diagnoses were made by psychiatrists according to international criteria. Prevalence rates were compared with UK prevalence and European consensus rates using standardized morbidity ratios (SMRs). Results: Dementia was more common in this population (prevalence of 18.3%, SMR 2.77 in those aged >65 years). Prevalence rates did not differ between mild, moderate and severe ID groups. Age was a strong risk factor and was not influenced by sex or ID severity. As predicted, SMRs were higher for younger age groups compared to older age groups, indicating a relative shift in age-associated risk. Conclusions: Criteria-defined dementia is 2–3 times more common in the ID population, with a shift in risk to younger age groups compared to the general population

Criminal neighbourhoods: does the density of prior offenders encourage others to commit crime?

Using crime data over a period of a decade for Glasgow, this paper explores whether the density of prior offenders in a neighbourhoods has an influence on the propensity of others to (re)commence offending. The study shows that the number of ‘newly active’ offenders in a neighbourhood in the current quarter is positively associated with the density of prior offenders for both violent and property crime from the previous two years. In the case of ‘newly active’ property offenders, the relationship with active prior offenders is only apparent when prior offender counts exceed the median. The paper postulates that intraneighbourhood social mechanisms may be at work to create these effects. The results suggest that policies which concentrate offenders in particular neighbourhoods may increase the number of ‘newly active’ offenders, and point to evidence of a threshold at which these effects take place

Concordance and Mutation

We provide a framework for studying the interplay between concordance and positive mutation and identify some of the basic structures relating the two. The fundamental result in understanding knot concordance is the structure theorem proved by Levine: for n>1 there is an isomorphism phi from the concordance group C_n of knotted (2n-1)-spheres in S^{2n+1} to an algebraically defined group G_{+-}; furthermore, G__{+-} is isomorphic to the infinite direct sum Z^infty direct sum Z_2^infty direct sum Z_4^infty. It was a startling consequence of the work of Casson and Gordon that in the classical case the kernel of phi on C_1 is infinitely generated. Beyond this, little has been discovered about the pair (C_1,phi). In this paper we present a new approach to studying C_1 by introducing a group, M, defined as the quotient of the set of knots by the equivalence relation generated by concordance and positive mutation, with group operation induced by connected sum. We prove there is a factorization of phi, C_1-->M-->G_-. Our main result is that both maps have infinitely generated kernels. Among geometric constructions on classical knots, the most subtle is positive mutation. Positive mutants are indistinguishable using classical abelian knot invariants as well as by such modern invariants as the Jones, Homfly or Kauffman polynomials. Distinguishing positive mutants up to concordance is a far more difficult problem; only one example has been known until now. The results in this paper provide, among other results, the first infinite families of knots that are distinct from their positive mutants, even up to concordance.Comment: Published in Geometry and Topology at http://www.maths.warwick.ac.uk/gt/GTVol5/paper26.abs.htm

The Suffixes -aster, -ignus, etc., in Nouns of Relationship

In an article on the Interchange of suffixes -aster, -ignus and -icus (Mod. Lang. Notes, 1909, 241-3), Mr. S. G. Patterson sustains that, in words of step-relationship, in addition to the endings -aster and -ignus (of Lat. privignus), the termination -icus (of Lat. vitricus) survives, not only in Sard. bidrigu, etc. and Rum. vitrigu, etc., but also in O. Fr. serorge, etc. (Godefroy) and in Neapol. matreye and patreye. After considering the diffusion of -aster and -ignus, the author summarizes: “Enough examples have been given to show the constant interchange of -ignus and -aster in these words of quasi-kinship… in several dialects the same stem is found compounded indifferently with either suffix (cf. Venet.)." He doubtless means rather alternation than interchange; for no real interchange is demonstrated: the diffusion of Ven. pareastro is not precisely the same as that of paregno; Boerio limits the first to Chioggia

Concordance of Bing doubles and boundary genus

Cha and Kim proved that if a knot K is not algebraically slice, then no iterated Bing double of K is concordant to the unlink. We prove that if K has nontrivial signature $\sigma$, then the n-iterated Bing double of K is not concordant to any boundary link with boundary surfaces of genus less than $2^{n-1}\sigma$. The same result holds with $\sigma$ replaced by $2\tau$, twice the Ozsvath-Szabo knot concordance invariant.Comment: 13 pages, 7 figure