‘Political imagination, in its most fervid and patriotic flights’: Copyright and Constitutional Theory in Post-Confederation Canada

This article is about differing ideas of self-government in post-Confederation Canada. It looks in particular at how the issue of copyright exposes a provocative and little-understood strain of constitutional theory in the first few decades of Confederation. This theory contended that the British North America Act was far more than a division of powers within a still-subordinate colony of the empire. Instead, proponents of the theory argued that the act was a constitutional turning point which transferred a share of British sovereignty to Canada, and gave the dominion new power even to contravene imperial law. This theory found support among many prominent politicians, judges, lawyers, and scholars. Armed with this idea, the federal Parliament passed a bill in 1872 that would have overridden imperial copyright. But neither the bill nor the theory succeeded. Britain blocked the legislation and an emerging consensus among constitutional thinkers, lawyers, and judges rejected its theoretical underpinnings. By exploring the debate over the limits of Canada’s power, this paper points to the diversity of ideas that surrounded even the basic precepts of the constitutional order after 1867.Cet article porte sur les notions divergentes d’autonomie gouvernementale dans le Canada d’après la confédération. Il s’intéresse notamment à la façon dont la question du droit d’auteur révèle un aspect controversé et mal compris de la théorie constitutionnelle dans les premières décennies de la confédération. Selon cette théorie, l’enjeu de l’Acte de l’Amérique du Nord britannique dépassait la simple répartition des compétences dans une colonie encore secondaire au sein de l’empire. Les tenants de la théorie ont plutôt fait valoir que cette loi marque un moment charnière de l’histoire constitutionnelle, au sens où elle a transféré une part de souveraineté britannique au Canada et conféré de nouveaux pouvoirs au dominion, qui l’autorisaient même à contrevenir au droit impérial. De nombreux politiciens, juges, avocats et intellectuels en vue ont appuyé cette théorie. En 1872, armé de cette idée, le parlement fédéral a adopté un projet de loi proposant de passer outre à la loi impériale sur le droit d’auteur. Mais ni le projet de loi ni la théorie ne devaient connaître de lendemain, la Grande-Bretagne bloquant la proposition et un consensus se dégageant parmi les avocats, juges et têtes pensantes de la constitution pour rejeter ses fondements théoriques. Cet article, en analysant le débat sur les limites des pouvoirs du Canada, fait ressortir la diversité d’idées entourant même les préceptes fondamentaux de l’ordre constitutionnel d’après 1867

A DLK And JNK Dependent Axon Self-Destruction Program Promotes Wallerian Degeneration

Axon loss is a debilitating consequence of a wide range of neurological conditions. As axons degenerate, they go through a stereotyped sequence of morphological changes termed Wallerian degeneration. It has long been hypothesized that there is an active axonal breakdown program, conceptually similar to apoptosis, which underlies Wallerian degeneration. However, the molecular pathways that accomplish this program in neurons have remained elusive. We demonstrate that dual leucine kinase: DLK) promotes degeneration of severed axons in Drosophila and mice, and its target JNK promotes degeneration locally in axons as they commit to degenerate. This pathway also promotes degeneration after chemotherapy exposure, and thus may be a component of a general axon self-destruction program

Evaluation of Carfentanil and Xylazine for Immobilization of White-tailed Deer

From October 2001 until January 2002 captive wild white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) held at the University of Georgia Daniel B. Warnell School of Forest Resources Whitehall Deer Research Facility were immobilized with a combination of carfentanil (carfentanil citrate) and xylazine (xylazine hydrochloride) to 1) determine and evaluate an optimum and safe dose for carfentanil/xylazine in white-tailed deer and 2) compare immobilization parameters and physiological effects of carfentanil/xylazine to Telazol®/xylazine. Animals were given intramuscular injections of 10 mg of xylazine and one of four different levels of carfentanil 0.5, 1.0, 1.5, and 2.0 mg. A carfentanil dose of 1.2 mg (mean = 23.0 μg/kg) and 10 mg xylazine (mean = 0.19 mg/kg) was selected to compare with a combination of 230 mg of Telazol® (mean = 4.41 mg/kg) and 120 mg xylazine (mean = 2.3 mg/kg) based on induction times and previously published reports. Time until first drug effects and time until deer dropped to the ground without rising were significantly longer in deer treated with carfentanil/xylazine than Telazol®/xylazine (

Book Review: Neither Kin nor Kind: The Peculiar Ties that Bond Organ Donors, their Families and Transplant Recipients

Reviewing Strange Harvest: Organ Transplants, Denatured Bodies, and the Transformed Self by Leslie A. Sharp, Berkeley, Cal., University of California Press, 2006

The Citizen-Focused Account of the State

Book review: The Constitutional State. N. W. Barber. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010. Pp. xiii + 199. Reviewed by Bradley W. Miller

The Citizen-Focused Account of the State

Book review: The Constitutional State. N. W. Barber. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010. Pp. xiii + 199. Reviewed by Bradley W. Miller

Understanding the Influence of Non-covalent Interactions and Nanoparticle Geometries in Carbon Based Polymer Nanocomposites

Low-loading polymer nanocomposites (PNC) are an area of great interest in polymer science. As nanoparticles (NP) are typically expensive in comparison to matrix materials; the low loading regime makes the most efficient use of materials, and represents the optimum for realizing cost effective, high-performance PNCs. However, formulating effective low-loading composites is not without challenges. In addition to the typical requirement of good dispersion for efficient translation of NP properties to the bulk, low-loading composites can sometimes exhibit anomalous (non-classical) dynamics, and unpredictable properties. It is within this context that this thesis aims to examine the effects of NP geometry and softness on the occurrence and nature of anomalous melt dynamics in low-loading PNCs. The first project presented in this thesis outlines the synthesis and characterization of few-layer graphene (FLG) used in subsequent dynamics studies. From graphite to exfoliated graphite oxide, chemically reduced FLG, and annealed FLG; composition and optoelectric persistence width were tracked through elemental analysis and Raman spectroscopy respectively. A profilometic analysis of some samples was performed using atomic force microscopy. Finally, spectroscopic and compositional information were combined with a geometric growth model to yield a scaled empirical formula that is simultaneously indicative of both compositional purity and optoelectric grade. Next, PNC melt dynamics were probed for low-loading PNCs filled with fullerenes, carbon nanotubes, and FLG. Graphitic nanoparticles with at least one common dimension, an identical series of styrene-acrylonitrile co-polymers matrices, and identical composite processing conditions were used to form a ceteris paribus assessment of the effect of NP geometry on PNC melt dynamics under conditions favorable for anomalous viscoelastic behavior. Rheometry and NMR relaxometry were used to probe the dynamics on both the bulk and local scale. Bulk and local, segmental dynamics were combined to create segmental scale model (with and without attractive NP-polymer interactions) describing the origin of anomalous viscoelastic behavior in the bulk. Finally, neutron reflectivity was used to probe matrix self-diffusion in low-loading PNCs of polystyrene (PS) filled with novel, PS-based, soft, nanoparticles. The effect of NP softness on the diffusive dynamics in PNCs is examined

Evaluating Adherence to Colorectal Cancer Screening

Purpose: The purpose of this project and literature review was to determine provider documentation practices of colorectal cancer (CRC) screening, identify the percent of clinic patients who need to be screened, and develop a set of recommendations and targeted interventions which will increase CRC screening rates. Methods: A retrospective chart review including males and females of all ethnicities between the ages of 45 and 80 was performed in one primary care practice. A randomized sample of 360 office visits between February and November of 2015 were selected, of which 281 met the inclusion and exclusion criteria. Patient demographics and characteristics were recorded in Excel. Data were exported to SPSS for analysis. Results: At the time of the chart review, 37% (n=105) of patients were determined to be either not up-to-date with screening or the screening status was not documented. A t-test assuming equal variances was used and determined that those who were offered screening tended to be younger, with a mean age of 60. This is in comparison to those who were not offered screening who demonstrated a mean age of 67 (p=0.001). Provider documentation practices demonstrated use of the electronic medical record health maintenance tracking module 63% of the time. A Chi-Square test confirmed that use of the health maintenance module increases the likelihood of patients being up-to-date with screening (p = 0.000). Conclusion: The findings of this project indicate that interventions such as a tracking tool similar to the health maintenance module are effective at improving cancer screening rates. Recommended interventions include provider and patient education, the implementation of a screening navigator, and timely software updates which impact automated features of the electronic medical record