Ticketing Poverty: An Analysis of The Discriminatory Impacts of Public Intoxication By-Laws on People Experiencing Homelessness in Montreal

Municipalities like Montreal penalize what they consider public disturbances through by-law infraction citations, or “tickets,” that are issued to people experiencing visible homelessness at a disproportionate rate. This is a pattern we observed over the course of two years during our time at a legal clinic providing legal information to people in precarious housing situations. In this article, we propose that Montreal’s by-laws prohibiting public drinking and public intoxication adversely impact unhoused people and are discriminatory under the Quebec Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms, a quasi-constitutional human rights instrument unique to Quebec. Drawing from research by criminologists and legal geographers, we explore how these by-laws and the judicialization of homelessness violate equality rights, specifically the right to be free from discrimination on the basis of social condition. We develop arguments that can be adopted by legal practitioners advocating for people experiencing various forms of homelessness. Although the Quebec Charter is our analytical starting point, we engage in a comparative discussion of other provincial and territorial human rights legislation—with an eye on developing case law regarding encampments and the use of public spaces across Canada. Moreover, a successful human rights claim using the Quebec Charter may contribute to interpretations of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms that are inclusive of economic and social rights. Indeed, we suggest that judicial recognition in Quebec that people experiencing homelessness are an equity-seeking group may be persuasive in Section 15 claims under the Canadian Charter, which to date does not recognize poverty or homelessness as analogous grounds of discrimination. Les municipalités comme Montréal pénalisent ce qu\u27elles considèrent comme des troubles à l\u27ordre public par l’émission de constats d\u27infractions, ou contraventions, à des règlements municipaux, qui sont remis à un taux disproportionné aux personnes en situation d\u27itinérance visible. C\u27est une tendance que nous avons observée pendant deux ans, alors que nous travaillions dans une clinique juridique fournissant de l\u27information juridique à cette population. Dans cet article, nous proposons que les règlements de Montréal interdisant la consommation d\u27alcool et l\u27intoxication en public ont un impact négatif sur les personnes non logées et sont discriminatoires en vertu de la Charte québécoise des droits et libertés de la personne, un instrument quasi-constitutionnel de protection des droits de la personne unique au Québec. En s\u27appuyant sur la littérature développée par des criminologues et géographes juridiques, nous explorons comment ces règlements et la judiciarisation de l\u27itinérance violent les droits à l\u27égalité, en particulier le droit de ne pas être victime de discrimination fondée sur la condition sociale. Nous développons des arguments qui peuvent être adoptés par des juristes qui défendent les personnes vivant diverses formes d\u27itinérance. Bien que la Charte québécoise soit notre point de départ analytique, nous incorporons une discussion comparative des autres législations provinciales et territoriales en matière de droits de la personne, avec un regard sur le développement de la jurisprudence concernant les campements et l\u27utilisation des espaces publics à travers le Canada. De plus, nous suggérons qu’une demande fondée sur la Charte québécoise peut contribuer à étayer des interprétations de la Charte canadienne des droits et libertés qui englobent des droits économiques et sociaux. En effet, la reconnaissance judiciaire au Québec du fait que les personnes en situation d’itinérance constituent un groupe protégé pourrait être convaincante dans les demandes déposées en vertu de l\u27article 15 de la Charte canadienne, qui à ce jour, ne reconnaît pas la pauvreté ou l\u27itinérance comme des motifs analogues de discrimination

Disconnection in the Alexandroff duplicate

[EN] It was demonstrated in [2] that the Alexandroff duplicate of the Čech-Stone compactification of the naturals is not extremally disconnected. The question was raised as to whether the Alexandroff duplicate of a non-discrete extremally disconnected space can ever be extremally disconnected. We answer this question in the affirmative; an example of van Douwen is significant. In a slightly different direction we also characterize when the Alexandroff duplicate of a space is a P-space as well as when it is an almost P-space.Bhattacharjee, P.; Knox, ML.; Mcgovern, WW. (2021). Disconnection in the Alexandroff duplicate. Applied General Topology. 22(2):331-344. https://doi.org/10.4995/agt.2021.14602OJS331344222P. Alexandrov and P. Urysohn, Memoire sur les espaces topologiques compacts, Verh. Akad. Wetensch. Amsterdam, 14 (1929), 1-96.K. Almontashery and L. Kalantan, Results about the Alexandroff duplicate space, Appl. Gen. Topol. 17, no. 2 (2016), 117-122. https://doi.org/10.4995/agt.2016.4521A. V. Arkhangel'skii, Topological Function Spaces, Mathematics and Its Applications, 78, Springer, Netherlands, 1992. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-2598-7G. Bezhanishvili, N. Bezhanishvili, J. Lucero-Bryan and J. van Mill, S4.3 and hereditarily extremally disconnected spaces, Georgian Mathematical Journal 22, no. 4 (2015), 469-475. https://doi.org/10.1515/gmj-2015-0041A. Caserta and S. Watson, The Alexandroff duplicate and its subspaces, Appl. Gen. Topol. 8, no. 2 (2007), 187-205. https://doi.org/10.4995/agt.2007.1880R. Engelking, On functions defined on Cartesian products, Fund. Math. 59 (1966), 221-231. https://doi.org/10.4064/fm-59-2-221-231L. Gillman and M. Jerison, Rings of Continuous Functions, Graduate Texts in Mathametics, vol. 43, Springer Verlag, Berlin-Heidelberg-New York, 1976.E. van Douwen, Applications of maximal topologies, Topology Appl. 51 (1993), 125-139. https://doi.org/10.1016/0166-8641(93)90145-4J. van Mill, Weak P-points in Čech-Stone compactifications, Trans. Amer. Math. Soc. 273 (1982), 657-678. https://doi.org/10.2307/1999934J. L. Verner, Lonely points revisited, Comment. Math. Univ. Carolin. 54, no. 1 (2013), 105-110

The classical ring of quotients of Cc(X)C_c(X)

[EN] We construct the classical ring of quotients of the algebra of continuous real-valued functions with countable range. Our construction is a slight modification of the construction given in [M. Ghadermazi, O.A.S. Karamzadeh, and M. Namdari, On the functionally countable subalgebra of C(X), Rend. Sem. Mat. Univ. Padova, to appear]. Dowker's example shows that the two constructions can be different.Bhattacharjee, P.; Knox, ML.; Mcgovern, WW. (2014). The classical ring of quotients of $C_c(X)$. Applied General Topology. 15(2):147-154. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.4995/agt.2014.3181.SWORD147154152Hager, A. W., Kimber, C. M., & McGovern, W. W. (2005). Unique a-closure for some ℓ-groups of rational valued functions. Czechoslovak Mathematical Journal, 55(2), 409-421. doi:10.1007/s10587-005-0031-zHenriksen, M., & Woods, R. G. (2004). Cozero complemented spaces; when the space of minimal prime ideals of a C(X) is compact. Topology and its Applications, 141(1-3), 147-170. doi:10.1016/j.topol.2003.12.004Knox, M. L., & McGovern, W. W. (2008). Rigid extensions of ℓ-groups of continuous functions. Czechoslovak Mathematical Journal, 58(4), 993-1014. doi:10.1007/s10587-008-0064-1R. Levy and M. D. Rice, Normal $P$-spaces and the $G_delta$-topology, Colloq. Math. 44, no. 2 (1981), 227-240.Levy, R., & Shapiro, J. (2005). Rings of quotients of rings of functions. Topology and its Applications, 146-147, 253-265. doi:10.1016/j.topol.2003.03.003A. Mysior, Two easy examples of zero-dimensional spaces, Proc. Amer. Math. Soc. 92, no. 4 (1984), 615-617.Porter, J. R., & Woods, R. G. (1988). Extensions and Absolutes of Hausdorff Spaces. doi:10.1007/978-1-4612-3712-9Rudin, W. (1957). Continuous functions on compact spaces without perfect subsets. Proceedings of the American Mathematical Society, 8(1), 39-39. doi:10.1090/s0002-9939-1957-0085475-

Cardiovascular and inflammatory effects of simvastatin therapy in patients with COPD: a randomized controlled trial.

BACKGROUND: There is excess cardiovascular mortality in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Aortic stiffness, an independent predictor of cardiovascular risk, and systemic and airway inflammation are increased in patients with the disease. Statins modulate aortic stiffness and have anti-inflammatory properties. A proof-of-principle, double-blind, randomized trial determined if 6 weeks of simvastatin 20 mg once daily reduced aortic stiffness and systemic and airway inflammation in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. METHODS: Stable patients (n=70) were randomized to simvastatin (active) or placebo. Pre-treatment and post-treatment aortic stiffness, blood pressure, spirometry, and circulating and airway inflammatory mediators and lipids were measured. A predefined subgroup analysis was performed where baseline aortic pulse wave velocity (PWV) was >10 m/sec. RESULTS: Total cholesterol dropped in the active group. There was no significant change in aortic PWV between the active group and the placebo group (-0.7 m/sec, P=0.24). In those with aortic stiffness >10 m/sec (n=22), aortic PWV improved in the active group compared with the placebo group (-2.8 m/sec, P=0.03). Neither systemic nor airway inflammatory markers changed. CONCLUSION: There was a nonsignificant improvement in aortic PWV in those taking simvastatin 20 mg compared with placebo, but in those with higher baseline aortic stiffness (a higher risk group) a significant and clinically relevant reduction in PWV was shown

Summary and Highlights of the SPARC-Reanalysis Intercomparison Project

The climate research community uses global atmospheric reanalysis data sets to understand a wide range of processes and variability in the atmosphere; they are a particularly powerful tool for studying phenomena that cannot be directly observed. Different reanalyses may give very different results for the same diagnostics. The Stratosphere troposphere Processes And their Role in Climate (SPARC) Reanalysis Intercomparison Project (S-RIP) is a coordinated activity to compare key diagnostics that are important for stratospheric processes and their tropospheric connections among available reanalyses. S-RIP has been identifying differences among reanalyses and their underlying causes, providing guidance on appropriate usage of reanalysis products in scientific studies (particularly those of relevance to SPARC), and contributing to future improvements in the reanalysis products by establishing collaborative links between reanalysis centres and data users. S-RIP emphasizes diagnostics of the upper troposphere, stratosphere, and lower mesosphere. The draft S-RIP final report is expected to be completed in 2018. This poster gives a summary of the S-RIP project and presents highlights including results on the Brewer-Dobson circulation, stratosphere/troposphere dynamical coupling, the extra-tropical upper troposphere / lower stratosphere, the tropical tropopause layer, the quasi-biennial oscillation, lower stratospheric polar processing, and the upper stratosphere/lower mesosphere

LSST: from Science Drivers to Reference Design and Anticipated Data Products

(Abridged) We describe here the most ambitious survey currently planned in the optical, the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST). A vast array of science will be enabled by a single wide-deep-fast sky survey, and LSST will have unique survey capability in the faint time domain. The LSST design is driven by four main science themes: probing dark energy and dark matter, taking an inventory of the Solar System, exploring the transient optical sky, and mapping the Milky Way. LSST will be a wide-field ground-based system sited at Cerro Pach\'{o}n in northern Chile. The telescope will have an 8.4 m (6.5 m effective) primary mirror, a 9.6 deg$^2$ field of view, and a 3.2 Gigapixel camera. The standard observing sequence will consist of pairs of 15-second exposures in a given field, with two such visits in each pointing in a given night. With these repeats, the LSST system is capable of imaging about 10,000 square degrees of sky in a single filter in three nights. The typical 5$\sigma$ point-source depth in a single visit in $r$ will be $\sim 24.5$ (AB). The project is in the construction phase and will begin regular survey operations by 2022. The survey area will be contained within 30,000 deg$^2$ with $\delta<+34.5^\circ$, and will be imaged multiple times in six bands, $ugrizy$, covering the wavelength range 320--1050 nm. About 90\% of the observing time will be devoted to a deep-wide-fast survey mode which will uniformly observe a 18,000 deg$^2$ region about 800 times (summed over all six bands) during the anticipated 10 years of operations, and yield a coadded map to $r\sim27.5$. The remaining 10\% of the observing time will be allocated to projects such as a Very Deep and Fast time domain survey. The goal is to make LSST data products, including a relational database of about 32 trillion observations of 40 billion objects, available to the public and scientists around the world.Comment: 57 pages, 32 color figures, version with high-resolution figures available from https://www.lsst.org/overvie

LSST Science Book, Version 2.0

A survey that can cover the sky in optical bands over wide fields to faint magnitudes with a fast cadence will enable many of the exciting science opportunities of the next decade. The Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) will have an effective aperture of 6.7 meters and an imaging camera with field of view of 9.6 deg^2, and will be devoted to a ten-year imaging survey over 20,000 deg^2 south of +15 deg. Each pointing will be imaged 2000 times with fifteen second exposures in six broad bands from 0.35 to 1.1 microns, to a total point-source depth of r~27.5. The LSST Science Book describes the basic parameters of the LSST hardware, software, and observing plans. The book discusses educational and outreach opportunities, then goes on to describe a broad range of science that LSST will revolutionize: mapping the inner and outer Solar System, stellar populations in the Milky Way and nearby galaxies, the structure of the Milky Way disk and halo and other objects in the Local Volume, transient and variable objects both at low and high redshift, and the properties of normal and active galaxies at low and high redshift. It then turns to far-field cosmological topics, exploring properties of supernovae to z~1, strong and weak lensing, the large-scale distribution of galaxies and baryon oscillations, and how these different probes may be combined to constrain cosmological models and the physics of dark energy.Comment: 596 pages. Also available at full resolution at http://www.lsst.org/lsst/sciboo

Towards net zero in agriculture: future challenges and opportunities for arable, livestock and protected cropping systems in the UK

© The AuthorsThe agricultural sector faces multiple challenges linked to increased climate uncertainty, causing severe shocks including increased frequency of extreme weather events, new pest and disease risks, soil degradation, and pre and postharvest food losses. This situation is further exacerbated by geopolitical instability and volatility in energy prices impacting on fertiliser supplies and production costs. Net zero strategies are vital to achieve both food security and address negative environmental impacts. This perspective paper reviews and assesses the most viable options (actions) to achieve net zero with a focus on the arable/livestock and protected cropping sectors in the UK. The methodology was based on a synthesis of relevant literature, coupled with expert opinions using the holistic PESTLE (Political, Environmental, Social, Technological, Legal and Environmental) approach to categorise actions, leading to formulation of a roadmap to achieve net zero. The PESTLE analysis indicated that there are technically and economically viable actions available which need to be prioritised depending on the ease of their implementation within the two crop sectors investigated. These actions include (i) policy changes that are better aligned to net zero; (ii) circular economy approaches; (iii) connectivity and accessibility of information; (iv) increased resilience to shocks; (v) changing diets, nutrition and lifestyles; (vi) target setting and attainment; and (vii) farm economics and livelihoods. The outputs can be used by stakeholders and decision makers to inform policy and drive meaningful changes in global food and environmental security