Deputy Minister Salary in Canada: Economic and Political Forces

Since the late 1990s both the public and the federal and provincial governments in Canada have paid increasing attention to the issue of public sector salaries due to the availability of public compensation information, the aging of senior government officials and adoption of new public management by the public sector. This study investigates the factors determining the compensation level of senior government officials, namely deputy ministers (DMs), in the provincial and the federal governments in Canada. The key factors of interest are cabinet minister salaries, private sector salaries and the presence of pay-for-performance schemes. Using descriptive and regression analysis, this study shows that political elements play an important role in DM salary determination. In particular, regression results indicate a close relationship between DM and ministerial salaries during the period between 2000 and 2010. The relationship between DM salary and pay-for-performance schemes shows that DM salary is positively related to the presence of aggressive pay-for-performance schemes. This study argues that the introduction of pay-for-performance schemes is consistent with the politicization of the salary determination process for senior government officials. DMs with better performance are awarded with higher salaries in exchange for reaching performance measures that politicians lay out in advance

Racial differences in the responses to shear stress in human umbilical vein endothelial cells

African American ethnicity is an independent risk factor for exaggerated oxidative stress, which is related to inflammation, hypertension, and cardiovascular disease. Recently, we reported that in vitro oxidative stress and inflammation levels differ between African American and Caucasian human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs), African American HUVECs having higher levels of both. However, it remains to be shown whether the cells would respond differently to external stimuli

The Numbers Behind Mushroom Biodiversity

Fungi are among the most diverse groups of organisms on Earth. with a global diversity estimated at 0.8 million to 5.1 million species. They play fundamental ecological roles as decomposers, mutualists, and pathogens, growing in almost all habitats and being important as sources of food and health benefits, income, and to maintain forest health. Global assessment of wild edible fungi indicate the existence of 2327 useful wild species; 2166 edible and 1069 used as food; 470 medicinal species. Several million tonnes are collected, consumed, and sold each year in over 80 countries. The major mushroom-producing countries in 2012 were China, Italy, USA, and The Netherlands, with 80% of the world production, 64% of which came from China. The European Union produces 24% of the world production. Italy is the largest European producer, Poland is the largest exporter, UK the largest importer.Fungi are difficult to preserve and fossilize and due to the poor preservation of most fungal structures, it has been difficult to interpret the fossil record of fungi. Hyphae, the vegetative bodies of fungi, bear few distinctive morphological characteristicss, and organisms as diverse as cyanobacteria, eukaryotic algal groups, and oomycetes can easily be mistaken for them (Taylor & Taylor 1993). Fossils provide minimum ages for divergences and genetic lineages can be much older than even the oldest fossil representative found. According to Berbee and Taylor (2010), molecular clocks (conversion of molecular changes into geological time) calibrated by fossils are the only available tools to estimate timing of evolutionary events in fossil‐poor groups, such as fungi. The arbuscular mycorrhizal symbiotic fungi from the division Glomeromycota, generally accepted as the phylogenetic sister clade to the Ascomycota and Basidiomycota, have left the most ancient fossils in the Rhynie Chert of Aberdeenshire in the north of Scotland (400 million years old). The Glomeromycota and several other fungi have been found associated with the preserved tissues of early vascular plants (Taylor et al. 2004a). Fossil spores from these shallow marine sediments from the Ordovician that closely resemble Glomeromycota spores and finely branched hyphae arbuscules within plant cells were clearly preserved in cells of stems of a 400 Ma primitive land plant, Aglaophyton, from Rhynie chert 455–460 Ma in age (Redecker et al. 2000; Remy et al. 1994) and from roots from the Triassic (250–199 Ma) (Berbee & Taylor 2010; Stubblefield et al. 1987).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

A branched chain amino acid metabolite drives vascular transport of fat and causes insulin resistance

Epidemiological and experimental data implicate branched chain amino acids (BCAAs) in the development of insulin resistance, but the mechanisms underlying this link remain unclear.1–3 Insulin resistance in skeletal muscle stems from excess accumulation of lipid species4, a process that requires blood-borne lipids to first traverse the blood vessel wall. Little is known, however, of how this trans-endothelial transport occurs or is regulated. Here, we leverage PGC-1α, a transcriptional coactivator that regulates broad programs of FA consumption, to identify 3-hydroxy-isobutyrate (3-HIB), a catabolic intermediate of the BCAA valine, as a novel paracrine regulator of trans-endothelial fatty acids (FA) transport. 3-HIB is secreted from muscle cells, activates endothelial FA transport, stimulates muscle FA uptake in vivo, and promotes muscle lipid accumulation and insulin resistance in animals. Conversely, inhibiting the synthesis of 3-HIB in muscle cells blocks the promotion of endothelial FA uptake. 3-HIB levels are elevated in muscle from db/db mice and from subjects with diabetes. These data thus unveil a novel mechanism that regulates trans-endothelial flux of FAs, revealing 3-HIB as a new bioactive signaling metabolite that links the regulation of FA flux to BCAA catabolism and provides a mechanistic explanation for how increased BCAA catabolic flux can cause diabetes

A922 Sequential measurement of 1 hour creatinine clearance (1-CRCL) in critically ill patients at risk of acute kidney injury (AKI)

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Interactive lighting art installation in virtual environments as a stimulus for public Ownership in urban development – Brighter Brunnshög

Urban development projects are often 1opposed by residents due to a lack of sense of ownership over the project. This study is a methodological approach in creating interactive lighting art installations in virtual environments to stimulate this sense of ownership. The study is part of the Brighter Brunnshög project, which is the initial stage of the urban development plan for new research centres in Brunnshög, Sweden. The main goal of this research is to explore the impact of virtual lighting art installations on residents´ attitudes toward the urban development of their area. The research is based on qualitative field studies and focus group interviews, and was assessed with questionnaires. The design itself is based on the results of the research data and consists of three criteria; awareness, mutuality, and adaptability. The results of the assessment indicate that interactive lighting art installations in virtual environments have the potential to create awareness of areas under urban development, which is a fundamental condition for creating place attachment, and by extension, a sense of ownership over the project

Interactive lighting art installation in virtual environments as a stimulus for public Ownership in urban development – Brighter Brunnshög

Urban development projects are often 1opposed by residents due to a lack of sense of ownership over the project. This study is a methodological approach in creating interactive lighting art installations in virtual environments to stimulate this sense of ownership. The study is part of the Brighter Brunnshög project, which is the initial stage of the urban development plan for new research centres in Brunnshög, Sweden. The main goal of this research is to explore the impact of virtual lighting art installations on residents´ attitudes toward the urban development of their area. The research is based on qualitative field studies and focus group interviews, and was assessed with questionnaires. The design itself is based on the results of the research data and consists of three criteria; awareness, mutuality, and adaptability. The results of the assessment indicate that interactive lighting art installations in virtual environments have the potential to create awareness of areas under urban development, which is a fundamental condition for creating place attachment, and by extension, a sense of ownership over the project