They Promised to Leave Us Some of Our Land: Aboriginal Title in Canada\u27s Maritime Provinces

This thesis analyzes the status of Aboriginal title in Canada\u27s Maritime Provinces in light of the Supreme Court of Canada\u27s historic declaration of Aboriginal title in the 2014 decision of Tsilhqot\u27in Nation v. British Columbia. This thesis argues that, in light of the clarified legal principles articulated by the Court, it is very likely that Aboriginal title can be proven to have existed in the Maritime Provinces. In light of this conclusion, the inquiry then shift to whether that title was legally extinguished. The legal parameters of the extinguishment question are surveyed in considerable detail and it is concluded that title was likely never legally extinguished in the region. Having found that title was likely not extinguished in the region, the final section of the thesis analyzes how the Aboriginal peoples of the region were dispossessed of their lands and provides some provisional arguments concerning the legal framework for assessing that dispossession where legal extinguishment is not proven

They Promised to Leave Us Some of Our Land: Aboriginal Title in Canada\u27s Maritime Provinces

This thesis analyzes the status of Aboriginal title in Canada\u27s Maritime Provinces in light of the Supreme Court of Canada\u27s historic declaration of Aboriginal title in the 2014 decision of Tsilhqot\u27in Nation v. British Columbia. This thesis argues that, in light of the clarified legal principles articulated by the Court, it is very likely that Aboriginal title can be proven to have existed in the Maritime Provinces. In light of this conclusion, the inquiry then shift to whether that title was legally extinguished. The legal parameters of the extinguishment question are surveyed in considerable detail and it is concluded that title was likely never legally extinguished in the region. Having found that title was likely not extinguished in the region, the final section of the thesis analyzes how the Aboriginal peoples of the region were dispossessed of their lands and provides some provisional arguments concerning the legal framework for assessing that dispossession where legal extinguishment is not proven

They Promised to Leave Us Some of Our Land: Aboriginal Title in Canada's Maritime Provinces

This thesis analyzes the status of Aboriginal title in Canada's Maritime Provinces in light of the Supreme Court of Canada's historic declaration of Aboriginal title in the 2014 decision of Tsilhqot'in Nation v. British Columbia. This thesis argues that, in light of the clarified legal principles articulated by the Court, it is very likely that Aboriginal title can be proven to have existed in the Maritime Provinces. In light of this conclusion, the inquiry then shift to whether that title was legally extinguished. The legal parameters of the extinguishment question are surveyed in considerable detail and it is concluded that title was likely never legally extinguished in the region. Having found that title was likely not extinguished in the region, the final section of the thesis analyzes how the Aboriginal peoples of the region were dispossessed of their lands and provides some provisional arguments concerning the legal framework for assessing that dispossession where legal extinguishment is not proven

National Renewal and Strategic Change -First lessons from an Early-Mover in Deregulation

The scope and pace of economic liberalisation in New Zealand have been judged by the OECD as the most extensive of any undertaken in a developed economy during the past decade. This paper reports on a project aimed at determining how and at what rate New Zealand businesses have adapted to this major deregulation of their commercial environment. We first describe the nature of reform in New Zealand, and then we develop a qualitative model of the adjustment processes set in motion by deregulation. The process of strategic adaptation is represented as a continuum comprising four stages: stability, survival, sharpbending and sustained adaptation. This model is embellished with evidence on actual changes that have been observed in New Zealand business since deregulation. We conclude that, after eight years of substantial economic reform, the majority of businesses have not fully adapted to the new environment

Role of exhaled nitric oxide as a predictor of atopy.

PMC3654880BACKGROUND: The fractional exhaled nitric oxide (FeNO) is a quantitative, noninvasive and safe measure of airways inflammation that may complement the assessment of asthma. Elevations of FeNO have recently been found to correlate with allergic sensitization. Therefore, FeNO may be a useful predictor of atopy in the general population. We sought to determine the diagnostic accuracy of FeNO in predicting atopy in a population-based study. METHODS: We conducted a cross-sectional study in an age- and sex- stratified random sample of 13 to 15 year-olds in two communities in Peru. We asked participants about asthma symptoms, environmental exposures and sociodemographics, and underwent spirometry, assessment of FeNO and an allergy skin test. We used multivariable logistic regression to model the odds of atopy as a function of FeNO, and calculated area-under-the-curves (AUC) to determine the diagnostic accuracy of FeNO as a predictor of atopy. RESULTS: Of 1441 recruited participants, 1119 (83%) completed all evaluations. Mean FeNO was 17.6 ppb (SD=0.6) in atopics and 11.6 ppb (SD=0.8) in non-atopics (p20 ppb was associated with an increase in the odds of atopy in non-asthmatics (OR=5.3, 95% CI 3.3 to 8.5) and asthmatics (OR=16.2, 95% CI 3.4 to 77.5). A FeNO>20 ppb was the best predictor for atopy with an AUC of 68% (95% CI 64% to 69%). Stratified by asthma, the AUC was 65% (95% CI 61% to 69%) in non-asthmatics and 82% (95% CI 71% to 91%) in asthmatics. CONCLUSIONS: FeNO had limited accuracy to identify atopy among the general population; however, it may be a useful indicator of atopic phenotype among asthmatics.JH Libraries Open Access Fun

Vacuum-assisted decellularization: an accelerated protocol to generate tissue-engineered human tracheal scaffolds

Patients with large tracheal lesions unsuitable for conventional endoscopic or open operations may require a tracheal replacement but there is no present consensus of how this may be achieved. Tissue engineering using decellularized or synthetic tracheal scaffolds offers a new avenue for airway reconstruction. Decellularized human donor tracheal scaffolds have been applied in compassionate-use clinical cases but naturally derived extracellular matrix (ECM) scaffolds demand lengthy preparation times. Here, we compare a clinically applied detergent-enzymatic method (DEM) with an accelerated vacuum-assisted decellularization (VAD) protocol. We examined the histological appearance, DNA content and extracellular matrix composition of human donor tracheae decellularized using these techniques. Further, we performed scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and biomechanical testing to analyze decellularization performance. To assess the biocompatibility of scaffolds generated using VAD, we seeded scaffolds with primary human airway epithelial cells in vitro and performed in vivo chick chorioallantoic membrane (CAM) and subcutaneous implantation assays. Both DEM and VAD protocols produced well-decellularized tracheal scaffolds with no adverse mechanical effects and scaffolds retained the capacity for in vitro and in vivo cellular integration. We conclude that the substantial reduction in time required to produce scaffolds using VAD compared to DEM (approximately 9 days vs. 3–8 weeks) does not compromise the quality of human tracheal scaffold generated. These findings might inform clinical decellularization techniques as VAD offers accelerated scaffold production and reduces the associated costs

In a Silent Way: Communication between AI and improvising musicians beyond sound

Collaboration is built on trust, and establishing trust with a creative Artificial Intelligence is difficult when the decision process or internal state driving its behaviour isn't exposed. When human musicians improvise together, a number of extra-musical cues are used to augment musical communication and expose mental or emotional states which affect musical decisions and the effectiveness of the collaboration. We developed a collaborative improvising AI drummer that communicates its confidence through an emoticon-based visualisation. The AI was trained on musical performance data, as well as real-time skin conductance, of musicians improvising with professional drummers, exposing both musical and extra-musical cues to inform its generative process. Uni- and bi-directional extra-musical communication with real and false values were tested by experienced improvising musicians. Each condition was evaluated using the FSS-2 questionnaire, as a proxy for musical engagement. The results show a positive correlation between extra-musical communication of machine internal state and human musical engagement

Cosmic flows in the nearby universe from Type Ia Supernovae

Peculiar velocities are one of the only probes of very large-scale mass density fluctuations in the nearby Universe. We present new "minimal variance" bulk flow measurements based upon the "First Amendment" compilation of 245 Type Ia supernovae (SNe) peculiar velocities and find a bulk flow of 249 +/- 76 km/s in the direction l= 319 +/- 18 deg, b = 7 +/- 14 deg. The SNe bulk flow is consistent with the expectations of \Lambda CDM. However, it is also marginally consistent with the bulk flow of a larger compilation of non-SNe peculiar velocities (Watkins, Feldman, & Hudson 2009). By comparing the SNe peculiar velocities to predictions of the IRAS Point Source Catalog Redshift survey (PSCz) galaxy density field, we find \Omega_{m}^{0.55} \sigma_{8,lin} = 0.40 +/- 0.07, which is in agreement with \Lambda CDM. However, we also show that the PSCz density field fails to account for 150 +/- 43 km/s of the SNe bulk motion.Comment: MNRAS in press, 9 pages, 4 figures, 4 table

Novel loss-of-function variants expand ABCC9-related intellectual disability and myopathy syndrome

Loss-of-function mutation of ABCC9, the gene encoding the SUR2 subunit of ATP sensitive-potassium (KATP) channels, was recently associated with autosomal recessive ABCC9-related intellectual disability and myopathy syndrome (AIMS). Here we identify nine additional subjects, from seven unrelated families, harbouring different homozygous loss-of-function variants in ABCC9 and presenting with a conserved range of clinical features. All variants are predicted to result in severe truncations or in-frame deletions within SUR2, leading to the generation of non-functional SUR2-dependent KATP channels. Affected individuals show psychomotor delay and intellectual disability of variable severity, microcephaly, corpus callosum and white matter abnormalities, seizures, spasticity, short stature, muscle fatigability and weakness. Heterozygous parents do not show any conserved clinical pathology but report multiple incidences of intra-uterine fetal death, which were also observed in an eighth family included in this study. In vivo studies of abcc9 loss-of-function in zebrafish revealed an exacerbated motor response to pentylenetetrazole, a pro-convulsive drug, consistent with impaired neurodevelopment associated with an increased seizure susceptibility. Our findings define an ABCC9 loss-of-function-related phenotype, expanding the genotypic and phenotypic spectrum of AIMS and reveal novel human pathologies arising from KATP channel dysfunction.publishedVersio

Evolving east Asian river systems reconstructed by trace element and Pb and Nd isotope variations in modern and ancient Red River-Song Hong sediments

Author Posting. © American Geophysical Union, 2008. This article is posted here by permission of American Geophysical Union for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Geochemistry Geophysics Geosystems 9 (2008): Q04039, doi:10.1029/2007GC001867.Rivers in east Asia have been recognized as having unusual geometries, suggestive of drainage reorganization linked to Tibetan Plateau surface uplift. In this study we applied a series of major and trace element proxies, together with bulk Nd and single K-feldspar grain Pb isotope ion probe isotope analyses, to understand the sediment budget of the modern Red River. We also investigate how this may have evolved during the Cenozoic. We show that while most of the modern sediment is generated by physical erosion in the upper reaches in Yunnan there is significant additional flux from the Song Lo, draining Cathaysia and the SW Yangtze Block. Nd isotope data suggest that 40% of the modern delta sediment comes from the Song Lo. Carbonates in the Song Lo basin make this a major control on the Red River Sr budget. Erosion is not a simple function of monsoon precipitation. Active rock uplift is also required to drive strong erosion. Single grain Pb data show a connection in the Eocene between the middle Yangtze and the Red River, and probably with rivers draining the Songpan Garze terrane. However, the isotope data do not support a former connection with the upper Yangtze, Mekong, or Salween rivers. Drainage capture appears to have occurred throughout the Cenozoic, consistent with surface uplift propagating gradually to the southeast. The middle Yangtze was lost from the Red River prior to 24 Ma, while the connection to the Songpan Garze was cut prior to 12 Ma. The Song Lo joined the Red River after 9 Ma. Bulk sample Pb analyses have limited provenance use compared to single grain data, and detailed provenance is only possible with a matrix of different proxies