International Conference on Structural Reform and the Transformation of rganisations and Business Homerton College, University of Cambridge, U.K

The government of Ontario has made a number of major changes in the way that municipalities are governed and financed. Some municipalities have been forced to amalgamate despite opposition from their residents. Ontario has also redistributed the responsibilities of the province and the municipalities through the Local Service Realignment Program (LSR). This program is referred to as downloading. Other major changes include the use of market value for property tax assessment and the transfer of education funding to the province from the local school boards. This paper is concerned with two aspects of the changes. The first question is whether megacities are less costly to operate than many small municipalities in a large urban area. The recent amalgamation of Toronto is used to examine this question. Since the amalgamation occurred in 1998, the new city is still adjusting to the change, and only preliminary conclusions can be drawn at this time. The second question is concerned with the impact of downloading on the municipalities. The experience of the new City of Toronto is again used to examine this question.

THE FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS OF AMALGAMATION: THE CASE OF THE CITY OF TORONTO

The rapid population and economic growth of the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) in the late 1940?s and early 1950?s put a significant strain on the financial and administrative capabilities of the existing municipal governments. However, the existing municipalities wanted to preserve local interest and citizen participation. The province?s solution was a two-tier system of local government that more or less satisfied both objectives

ADJUSTING TO ECONOMIC GROWTH IN TORONTO AMALGAMATION AND FEDERALISM

This paper is concerned with how the Toronto-based economy adjusted to the problems of rapid economic and population growth and to political changes that were shaped by forces beyond its control. As a result, the City had to change its local government machinery, expand its infrastructure, and face many social problems with a revenue base setup to handle the pre-growth pattern of expenditures. The paper will discuss how two important functions of local government, local transportation and social services, were affected by the changes.

Introduction

It is with great pride that we introduce our new resident JOURNAL. This unique forum was created to allow our resident s the opportunity to explore the challenges and pleasures to writing and publishing. Putting one\u27s thoughts and experiences on paper demands a clarity of thinking and a willingness to share what is otherwise private. For the resident this becomes a valuable educational enterprise. For the faculty this is an opportunity to view first hand the work of our trainees . Not limited to reading course descriptions of clinical service schedules, our staff can now get to know t he depth, variety , and quality of resident work. Evan further, we welcome input from the faculty on the ideas presented in THE JOURNAL. We will be beginning a \u27Letters to the Journal\u27 section and hope that it becomes a significant arena for interdepartmental discussion

Discrepancy Without Partial Colorings

Spencer\u27s theorem asserts that, for any family of n subsets of ground set of size n, the elements of the ground set can be "colored" by the values +1 or -1 such that the sum of every set is O(sqrt(n)) in absolute value. All existing proofs of this result recursively construct "partial colorings", which assign +1 or -1 values to half of the ground set. We devise the first algorithm for Spencer\u27s theorem that directly computes a coloring, without recursively computing partial colorings

THE NEW GOVERNMENTAL STRUCTURE OF TORONTO AND ITS RELEVANCE FOR THE ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL ENVIRONMENT OF THE 21ST CENTURY

The present government of Ontario has made a number of major changes in the way that municipalities are governed and financed. Some municipalities have been forced to amalgamate despite opposition from their residents. Ontario has also redistributed the responsibilities of the province and the municipalities through the Local Service Realignment Program (LSR). This program is commonly refereed to as downloading. Other major changes include the use of market value assessment for property tax evaluation and the transfer of education funding to the province from the local school boards. This paper is concerned with two aspects of these changes. Are megacities less costly to operate than many small municipalities in a large urban area? The recent amalgamation of the City of Toronto is used to examine this question. Since the amalgamation occurred in 1998, the new city is still adjusting to the changes and only preliminary conclusions can be drawn about this question. The second question is concerned with the impact of downloading on the municipalities. The experience of the new City of Toronto is again used to examine this question.

Test report for single event effects of the 80386DX microprocessor

The Jet Propulsion Laboratory Section 514 Single Event Effects (SEE) Testing and Analysis Group has performed a series of SEE tests of certain strategic registers of Intel's 80386DX CHMOS 4 microprocessor. Following a summary of the test techniques and hardware used to gather the data, we present the SEE heavy ion and proton test results. We also describe the registers tested, along with a system impact analysis should these registers experience a single event upset

Leptin-dependent Phosphorylation of PTEN Mediates Actin Restructuring and Activation of ATP-sensitive K+ Channels

Leptin activates multiple signaling pathways in cells, including the phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase pathway, indicating a degree of cross-talk with insulin signaling. The exact mechanisms by which leptin alters this signaling pathway and how it relates to functional outputs are unclear at present. A previous study has established that leptin inhibits the activity of the phosphatase PTEN (phosphatase and tensin homolog deleted on chromosome 10), an important tumor suppressor and modifier of phosphoinositide signaling. In this study we demonstrate that leptin phosphorylates multiple sites on the C-terminal tail of PTEN in hypothalamic and pancreatic β-cells, an action not replicated by insulin. Inhibitors of the protein kinases CK2 and glycogen synthase kinase 3 (GSK3) block leptin-mediated PTEN phosphorylation. PTEN phosphorylation mutants reveal the critical role these sites play in transmission of the leptin signal to F-actin depolymerization. CK2 and GSK3 inhibitors also prevent leptin-mediated F-actin depolymerization and consequent ATP-sensitive K+ channel opening. GSK3 kinase activity is inhibited by insulin but not leptin in hypothalamic cells. Both hormones increase N-terminal GSK3 serine phosphorylation, but in hypothalamic cells this action of leptin is transient. Leptin, not insulin, increases GSK3 tyrosine phosphorylation in both cell types. These results demonstrate a significant role for PTEN in leptin signal transmission and identify GSK3 as a potential important signaling node contributing to divergent outputs for these hormones

Missense Mutation R338W in ARHGEF9 in a Family with X-linked Intellectual Disability with Variable Macrocephaly and Macro-Orchidism

Non-syndromal X-linked intellectual disability (NS-XLID) represents a broad group of clinical disorders in which ID is the only clinically consistent manifestation. Although in many cases either chromosomal linkage data or knowledge of the >100 existing XLID genes has assisted mutation discovery, the underlying cause of disease remains unresolved in many families. We report the resolution of a large family (K8010) with NS-XLID, with variable macrocephaly and macro-orchidism. Although a previous linkage study had mapped the locus to Xq12-q21, this region contained too many candidate genes to be analyzed using conventional approaches. However, X-chromosome exome sequencing, bioinformatics analysis and segregation analysis revealed a novel missense mutation (c.1012C>T; p.R338W) in ARHGEF9. This gene encodes collybistin (CB), a neuronal GDP-GTP exchange factor previously implicated in several cases of XLID, as well as clustering of gephyrin and GABAA receptors at inhibitory synapses. Molecular modeling of the CB R338W substitution revealed that this change results in the substitution of a long electropositive side-chain with a large non-charged hydrophobic side-chain. The R338W change is predicted to result in clashes with adjacent amino acids (K363 and N335) and disruption of electrostatic potential and local folding of the PH domain, which is known to bind phosphatidylinositol-3-phosphate (PI3P/PtdIns-3-P). Consistent with this finding, functional assays revealed that recombinant CB CB2SH3- (R338W) was deficient in PI3P binding and was not able to translocate EGFP-gephyrin to submembrane microaggregates in an in vitro clustering assay. Taken together, these results suggest that the R338W mutation in ARHGEF9 is the underlying cause of NS-XLID in this family