The concept of sexual exploitation in legislation relating to persons with intellectual disability

The focus of this paper is on the use of the concept of sexual exploitation in legislation concerning sexual expression by persons with mental impairment, with particular emphasis on persons with intellectual disability. Two main statutory approaches have been adopted in Australian jurisdictions. The first is prohibition of sexual acts between a person with intellectual disability and others who, by virtue of their employment, are in a position of ascendancy over that person. The second is the prohibition of sexually exploitative acts by any person towards a person with an intellectual disability. The major aim in this article is to critically examine these approaches and evaluate them according to the standards of being non-discriminatory, minimally restrictive of rights, and enforceable. It is argued that comprehensively cataloguing sexually exploitative acts is untenable, with the result that prohibition of all sexual exploitation is unenforceable. The alternative, namely legislation that prohibits sexual relations with any person employed to render any kind of service to the intellectually disabled person, would further restrict an already limited number of potential sexual partners. We suggest that a more useful approach would be to prohibit sexual activity in one-on-one relationships whose scope is commonly understood to exclude such acts, while allowing relations between workers or caregivers and the persons to whom they do not directly render services. This mechanism would have to be narrowly defined to have the desired effect of affording protection to vulnerable persons while preserving their right to sexual expression

20th century operation of the Tromsø Ionosonde

A history of ionospheric soundings from Tromsø and its vicinity in northern Norway (69°N , 19°E ) between 1932 and present is given

Designing a Solid Waste Infrastructure Management Model for Integration into a National Infrastructure System-of Systems

Solid waste management is arguably one of the most important municipal services provided by government1. Given the rapid socio-economic changes that are projected to take place in the UK2 it is important that we plan our future waste management capacity to ensure the continuance of this valuable service. The Solid Waste Infrastructure Management System (SWIMS) model was designed to model the current solid waste infrastructure requirements (from collection through treatment and disposal) for an area based on its solid waste arisings. SWIMS allows an area’s waste treatment capacity requirements to be forecast against future socio-economic change to help decision-makers choose the right solid waste infrastructure given their goals, constraints and ideas about future conditions. The modelling of solid waste management systems has been carried out since the 1970s3 and such modelling exercises have been undertaken for numerous different geographical areas around the world4. However, the SWIMS model is unique in that it was designed to also operate within a larger national infrastructure system-of-systems model, including interdependencies with other infrastructure sectors including energy, water and waste water. To achieve such flexibility the SWIMS model was carefully designed using object-oriented programming (OOP) principles. In documenting this model’s design methodology we hope to demonstrate how applying OOP principles enables such models to not only be more flexible and more easily integrated with other modelling efforts, but also more easily understood by system experts and end-users

Improving Detectors Using Entangling Quantum Copiers

We present a detection scheme which using imperfect detectors, and imperfect quantum copying machines (which entangle the copies), allows one to extract more information from an incoming signal, than with the imperfect detectors alone.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, REVTeX, to be published in Phys. Rev.

Universal geometric approach to uncertainty, entropy and information

It is shown that for any ensemble, whether classical or quantum, continuous or discrete, there is only one measure of the "volume" of the ensemble that is compatible with several basic geometric postulates. This volume measure is thus a preferred and universal choice for characterising the inherent spread, dispersion, localisation, etc, of the ensemble. Remarkably, this unique "ensemble volume" is a simple function of the ensemble entropy, and hence provides a new geometric characterisation of the latter quantity. Applications include unified, volume-based derivations of the Holevo and Shannon bounds in quantum and classical information theory; a precise geometric interpretation of thermodynamic entropy for equilibrium ensembles; a geometric derivation of semi-classical uncertainty relations; a new means for defining classical and quantum localization for arbitrary evolution processes; a geometric interpretation of relative entropy; and a new proposed definition for the spot-size of an optical beam. Advantages of the ensemble volume over other measures of localization (root-mean-square deviation, Renyi entropies, and inverse participation ratio) are discussed.Comment: Latex, 38 pages + 2 figures; p(\alpha)->1/|T| in Eq. (72) [Eq. (A10) of published version

40Ar/39Ar ages from blueschists of the Jambaló region, Central Cordillera of Colombia : implications on the styles of accretion in the Northern Andes

This paper presents the first argon dating of blueschists from the Jambaló area (Cauca Department) in the Central Cordillera of the Colombian Andes. Step-heating 40Ar/39Ar spectra were obtained for mica from several lenses of blueschists including greenschist facies rocks. The blueschists are mainly constituted of preserved lenticular cores in strongly mylonitic rocks, which resulted from retrometamorphic processes that affected the high pressure rocks during their exhumation. The majority of 40Ar/39Ar data points to metamorphic ages close to 63±3Ma, but some ages are older than 71Ma. These Maastritchtian-Danian ages correspond to the timing of exhumation of the blueschists near metamorphic peak conditions, because the dated paragonite and phengite crystallized during development of the mylonitic foliation. The continuous exhumation of this blueschist belt between 71-63Ma reflects the flow on an accretionary system/subduction channel environment that was interrupted by the collision of an intra-oceanic arc with the continental margin. Regional geological correlations suggest that this arc-continent collision also took place in Ecuador. This collisional event, although synchronous with other arc-continent collisions in the Northern Andes, was apparently not related to the formation of the great Caribbean arc, but to an arc built in the southeastern margin of the Caribbean plate

Evaluation of efficacy of school-based anthelmintic treatments against anaemia in children in the United Republic of Tanzania

Objective: To determine the impact of deworming on anaemia as part of a large-scale school-based anthelmintic treatment programme in the Tanga Region of the United Republic of Tanzania. Methods: Both the reduction in the prevalence of anaemia and the cost per case prevented were taken into consideration. Cross-sectional studies involved parasitological examination and anaemia evaluation before and at 10 months and 15 months after schoolchildren were dewormed. Findings: Baseline studies indicated that the prevalence of anaemia (haemoglobin < 110 g/l) was high (54%) among schoolchildren, particularly those with high intensities of hookworm and schistosomiasis. Attributable fraction analysis suggested that hookworm and schistosomiasis were responsible for 6% and 15% of anaemia cases, respectively. Fifteen months after deworming with albendazole and praziquantel the prevalence of anaemia was reduced by a quarter and that of moderate-to-severe anaemia (haemoglobin <90 g/l) was reduced by nearly a half. The delivery of these anthelmintics through the school system was achieved at the relatively low cost of US$1 per treated child. The cost per anaemia case prevented by deworming schoolchildren was in the range US$ 6 - 8, depending on the haemoglobin threshold used. Conclusions: The results suggested that deworming programmes should be included in public health strategies for the control of anaemia in schoolchildren where there are high prevalences of hookworm and schistosomiasis

Dark Energy and Projective Symmetry

Nurowski [arXiv:1003.1503] has recently suggested a link between the observation of Dark Energy in cosmology and the projective equivalence of certain Friedman-Lemaitre-Robertson-Walker (FLRW) metrics. Specifically, he points out that two FLRW metrics with the same unparameterized geodesics have their energy densities differing by a constant. From this he queries whether the existence of dark energy is meaningful. We point out that physical observables in cosmology are not projectively invariant and we relate the projective symmetry uncovered by Nurowski to some previous work on projective equivalence in cosmology

Corrections to the Central Limit Theorem for Heavy-Tailed Probability Densities

Classical Edgeworth expansions provide asymptotic correction terms to the Central Limit Theorem (CLT) up to an order that depends on the number of moments available. In this paper, we provide subsequent correction terms beyond those given by a standard Edgeworth expansion in the general case of regularly varying distributions with diverging moments (beyond the second). The subsequent terms can be expressed in a simple closed form in terms of certain special functions (Dawson's integral and parabolic cylinder functions), and there are qualitative differences depending on whether the number of moments available is even, odd or not an integer, and whether the distributions are symmetric or not. If the increments have an even number of moments, then additional logarithmic corrections must also be incorporated in the expansion parameter. An interesting feature of our correction terms for the CLT is that they become dominant outside the central region and blend naturally with known large-deviation asymptotics when these are applied formally to the spatial scales of the CLT

Vertical and interhemispheric links in the stratosphere-mesosphere as revealed by the day-to-day variability of Aura-MLS temperature data

The coupling processes in the middle atmosphere have been a subject of intense research activity because of their effects on atmospheric circulation, structure, variability, and the distribution of chemical constituents. In this study, the day-to-day variability of Aura-MLS (Microwave Limb Sounder) temperature data are used to reveal the vertical and interhemispheric coupling processes in the stratosphere-mesosphere during four Northern Hemisphere winters (2004/2005–2007/2008). The UKMO (United Kingdom Meteorological Office) assimilated data and mesospheric winds from MF (medium frequency) radars are also applied to help highlight the coupling processes. In this study, a clear vertical link can be seen between the stratosphere and mesosphere during winter months. The coolings and reversals of northward meridional winds in the polar winter mesosphere are often observed in relation to warming events (Sudden Stratospheric Warming, SSW for short) and the associated changes in zonal winds in the polar winter stratosphere. An upper-mesospheric cooling usually precedes the beginning of the warming in the stratosphere by 1–2 days. Inter-hemispheric coupling has been identified initially by a correlation analysis using the year-to-year monthly zonal mean temperature. Then the correlation analyses are performed based upon the daily zonal mean temperature. From the original time sequences, significant positive (negative) correlations are generally found between zonal mean temperatures at the Antarctic summer mesopause and in the Arctic winter stratosphere (mesosphere) during northern mid-winters, although these correlations are dominated by the low frequency variability (i.e. the seasonal trend). Using the short-term oscillations (less than 15 days), the statistical result, by looking for the largest magnitude of correlation within a range of time-lags (0 to 10 days; positive lags mean that the Antarctic summer mesopause is lagging), indicates that the temporal variability of zonal mean temperature at the Antarctic summer mesopause is also positively (negatively) correlated with the polar winter stratosphere (mesosphere) during three (2004/2005, 2005/2006, and 2007/2008) out of the four winters. The highest value of the correlation coefficient is over 0.7 in the winter-stratosphere for the three winters. The remaining winter (2006/2007) has more complex correlations structures; correspondingly the polar vortex was distinguished this winter. The time-lags obtained for 2004/2005 and 2006/2007 are distinct from 2005/2006 and 2007/2008 where a 6-day lag dominates for the coupling between the winter stratosphere and the summer mesopause. The correlations are also provided using temperatures in northern longitudinal sectors in a comparison with the Antarctic-mesopause zonal mean temperature. For northern mid-high latitudes (~50–70° N), temperatures in Scandinavia-Eastern Europe and in the Pacific-Western Canada longitudinal sectors often have opposite signs of correlations with zonal mean temperatures near the Antarctic summer mesopause during northern mid-winters. The statistical results are shown to be associated with the Northern Hemisphere's polar vortex characteristics