What Section 15 has Achieved

AbstractThe triumphant Canadian women’s constitution fight was a “political earthquake.” Massive lobbying efforts created or amended, inserted, and defended two sections relevant to sex equality—sections 15 and 28—in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Responses from both provincial and federal governments included the appointment in 1982 of the first woman justice of the Supreme Court, Bertha Wilson. A series of court challenges under section 15 resulted in a legal earthquake with respect to equal treatment for sexual preference. The presence of women justices on the Canadian Supreme Court—a political change—may produce the level of scrutiny that section 28 was intended to invoke. Résumé Le combat constitutionnel triomphant des femmes canadiennes a été un « cataclysme politique ». Les efforts massifs de lobbying ont permis de créer ou de modifier, d’insérer et de protéger deux articles pertinents à l’égalité des sexes—les articles 15 et 28—dans la Charte canadienne des droits et libertés. Les réactions du gouvernement fédéral et des gouvernements provinciaux ont comporté la nomination, en 1982, de la première femme juge à la Cour suprême, Bertha Wilson. Une série de contestations judiciaires en vertu de l’article 15 a provoqué un cataclysme juridique en ce qui concerne l’égalité du traitement face à l’orientation sexuelle. La présence de femmes juges à la Cour suprême du Canada—un changement politique—pourrait entraîner le degré de minutie que l’article 28 visait à invoquer

Well testing in gas hydrate reservoirs

Reservoir testing and analysis are fundamental tools in understanding reservoir hydraulics and hence forecasting reservoir responses. The quality of the analysis is very dependent on the conceptual model used in investigating the responses under different flowing conditions. The use of reservoir testing in the characterization and derivation of reservoir parameters is widely established, especially in conventional oil and gas reservoirs. However, with depleting conventional reserves, the quest for unconventional reservoirs to secure the increasing demand for energy is increasing; which has triggered intensive research in the fields of reservoir characterization. Gas hydrate reservoirs, being one of the unconventional gas reservoirs with huge energy potential, is still in the juvenile stage with reservoir testing as compared to the other unconventional reservoirs. The endothermic dissociation hydrates to gas and water requires addressing multiphase flow and heat energy balance, which has made efforts to develop reservoir testing models in this field difficult. As of now, analytically quantifying the effect on hydrate dissociation on rate and pressure transient responses are till date a huge challenge. During depressurization, the heat energy stored in the reservoir is used up and due to the endothermic nature of the dissociation; heat flux begins from the confining layers. For Class 3 gas hydrates, just heat conduction would be responsible for the heat influx and further hydrate dissociation; however, the moving boundary problem could also be an issue to address in this reservoir, depending on the equilibrium pressure. To address heat flux problem, a proper definition of the inner boundary condition for temperature propagation using a Clausius-Clapeyron type hydrate equilibrium model is required. In Class 1 and 2, crossflow problems would occur and depending on the layer of production, convective heat influx from the free fluid layer and heat conduction from the cap rock of the hydrate layer would be further issues to address. All these phenomena make the derivation of a suitable reservoir testing model very complex. However, with a strong combination of heat energy and mass balance techniques, a representative diffusivity equation can be derived. Reservoir testing models have been developed and responses investigated for different boundary conditions in normally pressured Class 3 gas hydrates, over-pressured Class 3 gas hydrates (moving boundary problem) and Class 1 and 2 gas hydrates (crossflow problem). The effects of heat flux on the reservoir responses have been addressed in detail

Patron Activity Monitoring and Privacy Protection

Library building usage data are weak. Electronic resource usage data are weak. We conduct occasional headcounts and receive sketchy COUNTER reports. These data lack needed specificity and can’t be correlated to each other, e.g.; what resources do the early birds who sit in the north commons use? What if we knew to the minute and foot how many patrons occupied the building and where they sat? What if we also knew the electronic resources those same patrons used whether or not they were in the building? And what if we could perfectly protect their privacy? We can. This presentation will be most relevant for libraries with: Centralized wireless (if not, this will provide some justification) Centralized authentication, e.g. CAS, LDAP, Shibboleth EZProxy or other web proxy to electronic resources Patron type (Faculty, Undergraduate, etc) information either in the ILS or in the CAS/LDAP/Shibbolet

Effortless Building Census

Library headcounts are tedious, time-consuming, and subject to the vagaries of scheduling, attention to detail, and incomplete (especially for consortia). If we conduct them perfectly, on-schedule without fail we can gather at best the number of patrons seated in various areas of the library at two arbitrary times per day. We don\u27t know their home campus. We don\u27t know how patronage varies by time of day. If only there was an automatic way of conducting counts that was automatic, unsleeping, and could differentiate between campuses The wireless infrastructure is (hopefully) always on, and devices are nearly ubiquitous, and typically signed in to campus accounts 24x7. What if we could use it to count building usage? What if it could differentiate patrons by campus, by device type and operating system, tell us how long the patrons remained in the building? But how ubiquitous are devices and are they really always logged in and isn\u27t that a massive invasion of privacy? Yes, they really are and this presentation will demonstrate that the patron privacy can be protected

Development and validation of novel methods for the study of Staphylococcus aureus PVL strains

Since the initial association of the Panton Valentine leucocidin (PVL) toxin with highly virulent strains of Staphylococcus aureus found in the community, a firm epidemiological link has been established between the PVL encoding genes and community-acquired strains of both meticillin resistant (CA-MRSA) and susceptible (CA-MSSA) Staphylococcus aureus. While most research has predominantly concentrated on the genotyping of CA-MRSA strains, PVL-MSSA appear to pose an increasing public health risk. Currently though, there exists a dearth of epidemiological data on PVL-MSSA strains, particularly with regard to the lukS and lukF genes which encode the PVL toxin. This first aim of the present study therefore was to explore the genetic diversity of a group of PVL-MSSA clinical local isolates in order to contribute to the limited current data and provide insight into the evolution and emergence of PVL-MRSA isolates. In addition, as current typing systems are cumbersome, time consuming and expensive, this present study was also aimed at the development of a rapid high resolution melt (HRM) typing system for the characterisation of PVL-positive isolates. The PVL toxin is encoded for by two highly conserved adjacent genes (lukF and lukS) which are co-transcribed. Variations in these genes correlate with a strain’s genotype. Therefore, the present study set out to genotype isolates based on the four major SNPs at positions 527 and 663 of the lukS gene and 1396 and 1729 of the lukF gene. The final aim of the present study was the development of an enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) system (for the detection and quantification of both PVL and alpha haemolysin) that has potential application in clinical diagnosis and as a research tool. Characterisation of a collection of UK PVL-MSSA isolates by MLST and spa typing which is presented in the present study, showed a genetic similarity to circulating PVL-MRSA strains, with 94.7% of the isolates belonging to CA-MRSA related genetic backgrounds (ST1, ST22, ST30, ST772 and ST88). Three novel spa types (t6642, t6643 and t6769) and a novel ST (ST1518) were however detected in this population. Furthermore, the presence of identical PVL phages and haplotypes in the PVL-MSSA isolates to those previously described in PVL-MRSA isolates point strongly at the role these strains may play as precursors of emerging lineages of clinical significance. The HRM assay developed in this study was able to accurately genotype PVL-positive isolates based on the double allelic variations in both the lukS and lukF genes. The high degree of sensitivity of this technique was clearly demonstrated by its ability to differentiate between the lukS A527/G663 and G527/T663 genotypes which theoretically should have the same melt temperature. Despite the issues in data interpretation, which arose following attempts to improve the discrimination of this technique by the addition of a third locus (spa), the technique still showed potential as a useful tool for the rapid genotyping of PVL-positive isolates. While HRM was useful in rapidly detecting and genotyping PVL-positive isolates, the actual level of protein production of both PVL and HLA toxins could only be determined following the development and validation in the present study of a simple competitive ELISA platform which exploited the high affinity biotin/streptavidin interaction to improve sensitivity. This technique would be especially useful in settings which lack the specialised equipment required for genetic studies like HRM. In summary, in addition to contributing to the limited epidemiological information about PVL-MSSA strains and demonstrating a clear role for these strains in the evolution of PVL-MRSA strains, the present study has developed two distinct methods to aid the study of S. aureus PVL producing strains which are becoming a significant healthcare problem worldwide. The present study will contribute to our understanding of these strains and to the development of intervention strategies to curb their spread and threat

City Sanitation planning through a political economy lens

© 2019 Water Alternatives Association. While citywide sanitation planning is perceived to be an enabler of coordinated improvements in sanitation services for developing countries, intended outcomes have often been elusive. In order to illustrate how political economy, chosen planning approaches, and ideas about change and development have acted as determinants of outcomes, this paper draws on three case study countries that took qualitatively different approaches to sanitation planning - Indonesia, the Philippines and Malaysia. The analysis found that the assumptions informing the planning methods were often not valid, which then undermined the potential for successful implementation. Based on the analysis, the paper argues that urban sanitation planning and implementation in developing countries needs to be transformed to reduce the emphasis on comprehensiveness and instead emphasise flexibility, a learning orientation and strategically chosen incentives. This approach demands tighter cycles of planning and action, direct testing of assumptions, and an in-depth understanding of the local- and national-level political economy and the links between them. It requires innovation to be enabled, with funding mechanisms that focus on outcome rather than input. In this way it would be possible to shift away from the typical emphasis on prescriptive procedural planning steps and towards delivery of the much-needed improved sanitation outcomes