Assisted Reproduction Policy in Federal States: What Canada Should Learn From Australia

Rapid advances in assisted reproductive technologies (ARTs) confront policymakers worldwide with dilemmas that touch on the fundamentals of human existence — life, death, and sexuality. Canada, following the lead of non-federal Britain, spent 15 years developing the comprehensive, national Assisted Human Reproduction Act (2004), only to have the Supreme Court strike much of it down in 2010 for invading provincial jurisdiction. As Canadians return to square one on many ART issues, they should seek inspiration from Australia, where the lead role of the states in this policy area has not prevented significant coordination on matters of broad consensus. Like their federal cousins down under, Canadians who wish to harmonize ART policy in a constitutionally acceptable manner must now rely more heavily on legislative modeling among provinces, intergovernmental agreements, and non-statutory (even nongovernmental) guidelines

First Record of a Collapsed Dorsal Fin in a White-beaked Dolphin Lagenorhynchus albirostris, with a Gunshot Wound as a Possible Cause

Collapsed dorsal fins are rare in odontocete cetaceans, having been reported for only a few species. We present the first known case in a White-beaked Dolphin (Lagenorhynchus albirostris Gray, 1846), photographed off northern Newfoundland, Canada in September 2004. The animal also had a wound on the right side of its body, anterior to the dorsal fin, with an estimated average diameter of 20-37 mm. We consider this to be a gunshot wound, most likely a 12-gauge rifled slug. The dolphin appeared to be healthy and with no movement problems, and what was apparently the same animal was seen in the same area on several dates during 2005. There is a long history of hunting small cetaceans off the Labrador coast, and a gunshot wound is the most likely cause of the wound observed. The wound may have caused the dorsal fin to collapse, as noted in other dolphin species

Why the Government of Canada Won\u27t Regulate Assisted Human Reproduction: A Modern Mystery

The Canadian Assisted Human Reproduction Act (AHR Act), passed in 2004, prohibits both paying consideration to a surrogate mother and purchasing sperm and ova from a donor (sections 6-7). Both prohibitions are subject to section 12, which was intended to permit reimbursement of expenditures incurred by surrogate mothers and gamete donors and reimbursement for loss of work-related income for surrogate mothers. Remarkably, more than ten years after the AHR Act received Royal Assent, and in spite of repeated calls for greater legal clarity, Health Canada has not drafted regulations pursuant to section 12 of the AHR Act, which is not yet in force. In this paper, we speculate as to possible reasons why the Conservative government (2006-2015) did not draft regulations, and we explain in turn why each of the possible reasons for inaction is flawed. In light of our rejection of all of the reasons we could imagine, we argue that Health Canada should both explain and justify its failure to draft the regulations that would set the stage for Parliament to bring section 12 into force. It must do so if the federal government is to meet the AHR Act‘s goal of protecting children, women, and men engaged in, or affected by, surrogacy and third-party egg production

Dialogue: Clarified and Reconsidered

Controversies about constitutional “dialogue” often stem from disagreement over the concept itself. The metaphor’s meaning and attendant consequences differ depending on whether it reflects the assumptions of judicial interpretive supremacy or coordinate interpretation. By combining that distinction with the contrast between weak-form and strong-form rights review, this article creates an integrated framework for clarifying dialogic variation across such jurisdictions as the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, New Zealand, and Australia. We apply this framework most intensely to the Canadian case and bring differences between several dialogic forms—especially the difference between “clarification dialogue” and “reconsideration dialogue”—into sharper relief than is common in the literature. The classification of dialogic types revealed by the Canadian experience can, we suggest, illuminate analysis in other jurisdictions

A guide to the clearwing borers (Sesiidae) of the North Central United States

1 online resource (PDF, 33 pages)This archival publication may not reflect current scientific knowledge or recommendations. Current information available from the University of Minnesota Extension: https://www.extension.umn.edu

The Limits and Intensity of Plasmodium falciparum Transmission: Implications for Malaria Control and Elimination Worldwide

Combining extensive surveillance and climate data, as well as biological characteristics of Anopheles mosquitoes, Robert Snow and colleagues create a global map of risk for P. falciparum malaria

MPI-DING reference glasses for in situ microanalysis: New reference values for element concentrations and isotope ratios

We present new analytical data of major and trace elements for the geological MPI-DING glasses KL2-G, ML3B-G, StHs6/80-G, GOR128-G, GOR132-G, BM90/21-G, T1-G, and ATHO-G. Different analytical methods were used to obtain a large spectrum of major and trace element data, in particular, EPMA, SIMS, LA-ICPMS, and isotope dilution by TIMS and ICPMS. Altogether, more than 60 qualified geochemical laboratories worldwide contributed to the analyses, allowing us to present new reference and information values and their uncertainties (at 95% confidence level) for up to 74 elements. We complied with the recommendations for the certification of geological reference materials by the International Association of Geoanalysts (IAG). The reference values were derived from the results of 16 independent techniques, including definitive (isotope dilution) and comparative bulk (e.g., INAA, ICPMS, SSMS) and microanalytical (e.g., LA-ICPMS, SIMS, EPMA) methods. Agreement between two or more independent methods and the use of definitive methods provided traceability to the fullest extent possible. We also present new and recently published data for the isotopic compositions of H, B, Li, O, Ca, Sr, Nd, Hf, and Pb. The results were mainly obtained by high-precision bulk techniques, such as TIMS and MC-ICPMS. In addition, LA-ICPMS and SIMS isotope data of B, Li, and Pb are presented. Copyright 2006 by the American Geophysical Union

Measurement of the cosmic ray spectrum above 4×10184{\times}10^{18} eV using inclined events detected with the Pierre Auger Observatory

A measurement of the cosmic-ray spectrum for energies exceeding $4{\times}10^{18}$ eV is presented, which is based on the analysis of showers with zenith angles greater than $60^{\circ}$ detected with the Pierre Auger Observatory between 1 January 2004 and 31 December 2013. The measured spectrum confirms a flux suppression at the highest energies. Above $5.3{\times}10^{18}$ eV, the "ankle", the flux can be described by a power law $E^{-\gamma}$ with index $\gamma=2.70 \pm 0.02 \,\text{(stat)} \pm 0.1\,\text{(sys)}$ followed by a smooth suppression region. For the energy ($E_\text{s}$) at which the spectral flux has fallen to one-half of its extrapolated value in the absence of suppression, we find $E_\text{s}=(5.12\pm0.25\,\text{(stat)}^{+1.0}_{-1.2}\,\text{(sys)}){\times}10^{19}$ eV.Comment: Replaced with published version. Added journal reference and DO

Energy Estimation of Cosmic Rays with the Engineering Radio Array of the Pierre Auger Observatory

The Auger Engineering Radio Array (AERA) is part of the Pierre Auger Observatory and is used to detect the radio emission of cosmic-ray air showers. These observations are compared to the data of the surface detector stations of the Observatory, which provide well-calibrated information on the cosmic-ray energies and arrival directions. The response of the radio stations in the 30 to 80 MHz regime has been thoroughly calibrated to enable the reconstruction of the incoming electric field. For the latter, the energy deposit per area is determined from the radio pulses at each observer position and is interpolated using a two-dimensional function that takes into account signal asymmetries due to interference between the geomagnetic and charge-excess emission components. The spatial integral over the signal distribution gives a direct measurement of the energy transferred from the primary cosmic ray into radio emission in the AERA frequency range. We measure 15.8 MeV of radiation energy for a 1 EeV air shower arriving perpendicularly to the geomagnetic field. This radiation energy -- corrected for geometrical effects -- is used as a cosmic-ray energy estimator. Performing an absolute energy calibration against the surface-detector information, we observe that this radio-energy estimator scales quadratically with the cosmic-ray energy as expected for coherent emission. We find an energy resolution of the radio reconstruction of 22% for the data set and 17% for a high-quality subset containing only events with at least five radio stations with signal.Comment: Replaced with published version. Added journal reference and DO