Reference Re Genetic Non-Discrimination Act: How to Make Space for Some Certainty

In the Reference re Genetic Non-Discrimination Act (Reference) the Supreme Court of Canada divided three ways, reproducing the divisions from the Reference re Assisted Human Reproduction Act (AHRA), decided a decade earlier. AHRA did not provide a majority statement of the rule for determining what constitutes a valid exercise of the section 91(27) criminal law power. Neither did the Reference. As a consequence, uncertainty in this area of the law persists. This article suggests arguments that, if adopted, would resolve this uncertainty. Part I summarizes the Reference, including the three sets of reasons written by Karakatsanis J., Moldaver J. and Kasirer J., respectively. Part II is organized around three spatial metaphors: the relationship of parts to the whole, breadth, and line-drawing. Part II begins by addressing an apparent disagreement in the federalism jurisprudence and in the Reference about the proper order for pith and substance analyses, when a part of an act is at issue. I argue that in some cases it is necessary to interpret an act as a whole before assessing its parts. Part II then turns to disagreements in the Court about the breadth of the criminal law power. I argue that Karakatsanis J.’s expansive interpretation places in jeopardy federalism principles and that Kasirer J.’s criticisms of that interpretation were justified. Part II concludes by examining a disagreement between Kasirer and Karakatsanis JJ. about whether the test for validity under the criminal law power should include a line-drawing exercise. I argue that this relatively narrow disagreement reveals a deeper debate about the appropriate role of courts in adjudicating disputes about the criminal law power. I conclude that Kasirer J.’s position flows from an understanding of the judicial role that is consistent with the broader federalism jurisprudence

Comeau and Constitutional Interpretation

R. v. Comeau raises questions about the place of originalism in the interpretation of a federalism provision of the Constitution Act, 1867, as well as related issues about the doctrine of stare decisis. Indeed, in anticipation of the Supreme Court’s hearing of the case, Léonid Sirota and Benjamin Oliphant wrote in the postscript to their 2017 article entitled “Originalist Reasoning in Canadian Constitutional Jurisprudence”: “[t]he Supreme Court’s decision … may well provide welcome clarifications as to [the] value and importance of originalist reasoning in Canada”. They argued that the case posed a question that represented “‘the biggest single challenge facing originalists’ — whether and how to ‘reconcil[e] originalism with precedent’” that deviates from the original meaning of a constitutional provision. When understood in these terms, Comeau engaged a broad academic debate about the relationship between living tree constitutionalism and originalism that is ongoing in Canada, the United States and elsewhere

A quantum analog of Huffman coding

We analyze a generalization of Huffman coding to the quantum case. In particular, we notice various difficulties in using instantaneous codes for quantum communication. Nevertheless, for the storage of quantum information, we have succeeded in constructing a Huffman-coding inspired quantum scheme. The number of computational steps in the encoding and decoding processes of N quantum signals can be made to be of polylogarithmic depth by a massively parallel implementation of a quantum gate array. This is to be compared with the O (N^3) computational steps required in the sequential implementation by Cleve and DiVincenzo of the well-known quantum noiseless block coding scheme of Schumacher. We also show that O(N^2(log N)^a) computational steps are needed for the communication of quantum information using another Huffman-coding inspired scheme where the sender must disentangle her encoding device before the receiver can perform any measurements on his signals.Comment: Revised version, 7 pages, two-column, RevTex. Presented at 1998 IEEE International Symposium on Information Theor

A proposal for a scalable universal bosonic simulator using individually trapped ions

We describe a possible architecture to implement a universal bosonic simulator (UBS) using trapped ions. Single ions are confined in individual traps, and their motional states represent the bosonic modes. Single-mode linear operators, nonlinear phase-shifts, and linear beam splitters can be realized by precisely controlling the trapping potentials. All the processes in a bosonic simulation, except the initialization and the readout, can be conducted beyond the Lamb-Dicke regime. Aspects of our proposal can also be applied to split adiabatically a pair of ions in a single trap

Play materials

 This chapter presents the role of play in fostering health and wellbeing in children, identifying that curriculum guidelines and policies today, in many countries, take cognisance of these important facets of development. The chapter discusses what experts, such as Laevers (1994, 2004), state about wellbeing and how his international scale on wellbeing has also been used in the Australian contexts (DECS, 2008). Other important elements of play which are central to children’s health and wellbeing are presented with timely examples of how play contexts give children the much needed opportunities to grow and play in a healthy and confident way. Issues relating to technological toys, war play, commercialisation of play materials and safety criteria for selecting toys and equipment, are also presented

Quasi-Local Energy Flux of Spacetime Perturbation

A general expression for quasi-local energy flux for spacetime perturbation is derived from covariant Hamiltonian formulation using functional differentiability and symplectic structure invariance, which is independent of the choice of the canonical variables and the possible boundary terms one initially puts into the Lagrangian in the diffeomorphism invariant theories. The energy flux expression depends on a displacement vector field and the 2-surface under consideration. We apply and test the expression in Vaidya spacetime. At null infinity the expression leads to the Bondi type energy flux obtained by Lindquist, Schwartz and Misner. On dynamical horizons with a particular choice of the displacement vector, it gives the area balance law obtained by Ashtekar and Krishnan.Comment: 8 pages, added appendix, version to appear in Phys. Rev.

Structural and Functional Analysis of Multi-Interface Domains

10.1371/journal.pone.0050821PLoS ONE71

Intrinsic time gravity and the Lichnerowicz-York equation

We investigate the effect on the Hamiltonian structure of general relativity of choosing an intrinsic time to fix the time slicing. 3-covariance with momentum constraint is maintained, but the Hamiltonian constraint is replaced by a dynamical equation for the trace of the momentum. This reveals a very simple structure with a local reduced Hamiltonian. The theory is easily generalised; in particular, the square of the Cotton-York tensor density can be added as an extra part of the potential while at the same time maintaining the classic 2 + 2 degrees of freedom. Initial data construction is simple in the extended theory; we get a generalised Lichnerowicz-York equation with nice existence and uniqueness properties. Adding standard matter fields is quite straightforward.Comment: 4 page

09311 Abstracts Collection -- Classical and Quantum Information Assurance Foundations and Practice

From 26 July 2009 to 31 July 2009, the Dagstuhl Seminar 09311 ``Classical and Quantum Information Assurance Foundations and Practice\u27\u27 was held in Schloss Dagstuhl~--~Leibniz Center for Informatics. The workshop was intended to explore the latest developments and discuss the open issues in the theory and practice of classical and quantum information assurance. A further goal of the workshop was to bring together practitioners from both the classical and the quantum information assurance communities. To date, with a few exceptions, these two communities seem to have existed largely separately and in a state of mutual ignorance. It is clear however that there is great potential for synergy and cross-fertilization between and this we sought to stimulate and facilitate

Modular detergents tailor the purification and structural analysis of membrane proteins including G-protein coupled receptors

Detergents enable the purification of membrane proteins and are indispensable reagents instructural biology. Even though a large variety of detergents have been developed in the lastcentury, the challenge remains to identify guidelines that allowfine-tuning of detergents forindividual applications in membrane protein research. Addressing this challenge, here weintroduce the family of oligoglycerol detergents (OGDs). Native mass spectrometry (MS)reveals that the modular OGD architecture offers the ability to control protein purificationand to preserve interactions with native membrane lipids during purification. In addition to abroad range of bacterial membrane proteins, OGDs also enable the purification and analysisof a functional G-protein coupled receptor (GPCR). Moreover, given the modular design ofthese detergents, we anticipatefine-tuning of their properties for specific applications instructural biology. Seen from a broader perspective, this represents a significant advance forthe investigation of membrane proteins and their interactions with lipids