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POLITICAL LEADERSHIP IS KEY VARIABLE IN THE CONTEMPORARY PROCESS OF DEMOCRATIZATION. POWERFUL POLITICAL LEADERS WERE ALSO A SALIENT FEATURE OF CANADA'S TRANSITION FROM THE AUTHORITARIAN, GOVERNOR-CONTROLLED REGIMES IN THE EARLY NINETEENTH CENTURY TO MODERN DEMOCRATIC CONDITIONS IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY. CANADA'S POLITICAL LEADERSHIP TRADITION, WHICH VALUED COMPROMISE AND ACCOMMODATION, IS OFTEN HAILED AS EXEMPLARY BUT HAS COME IN FOR CONSIDERABLE CRITICISM SINCE 1982 AS CANADIAN POLITICIANS CONTINUE TO FAIL IN THEIR ATTEMPTS TO FIND A BASIC CONSTITUTIONAL DEFINITION OF THE CANADIAN STATE ACCEPTABLE TO QUEBEC AND THE REST OF CANADA. THIS ARTICLE ASSESSES THE CANADIAN TRADITION AND ARGUES THAT THE IMAGE OF PAST CANADIAN LEADERS HAS CONVENTIONALLY BEEN IDEALIZED. AN IMPORTANT LESSON TO BE LEARNED FROM THE CANADIAN CASE IS THAT LEADERS WHO ASSISTED IN THE TRANSITION TO DEMOCRACY IN NORTH AMERICA WORKED IN GENERALLY FAVORABLE CONDITIONS OF ECONOMIC AND TERRITORIAL EXPANSION AND OFTEN RESORTED TO PARTY BUILDING TECHNIQUES OF PATRONAGE, INFLUENCE AND CORRUPTION WHICH ARE DENOUNCED WHEN USED BY CONTEMPORARY LEADERS IN NEW DEMOCRATIC POLITIES.

Although Baltistan, north east Pakistan, is in a region of iodine deficiency disorders, the distribution of goitre within the district, according to age and sex, has not been clearly defined. To establish the prevalence of the condition and to measure the reported difference in prevalence in the north and south of the district thyroid size was assessed in new patients attending the Aman clinic, Khapalu, and outlying areas between April and September from 1981 to 1986. Samples of potable water collected from villages were analysed for iodine (as iodide) concentrations in Britain. Population weighted prevalences were: in the north in males 20.4%, in females 28.1% and in the south in males 13.9%, in females 21.2%. There was an overall deficiency of iodine in the water (mean iodine (as iodide) concentrations (north) 11.0 nmol/l (1.4 micrograms/l), (south) 11.8 nmol/l (1.5 micrograms/l) (95% confidence interval -0.7 to 0.9). The differences followed the Main Karakoram Thrust, suggesting a geological goitrogen in the north, which might be minerals containing ions such as BF4- and SO3F-, and molybdenite and calcium, which are present in rocks in Baltistan. A new hypothesis for the genesis of endemic goitre is proposed--that is, that continents on crustal plates drift across the earth and collide, one plate sliding under the other and melting, giving rise to characteristic mineral assemblages in the overlying rocks. As the minerals weather out they enter the diet of the local population, where in the presence of iodine deficiency they produce or enhance iodine deficiency disorders. Despite the current iodised oil campaign by the Pakistani government with Unicef a long term working iodisation programme is still urgently needed.

AbstractA Cobb–Douglas growth accounting framework is used to study the contributions of structures and land to newly constructed home prices across major Canadian cities. The data set is unusual in that land prices are directly observed rather than having to be imputed, and quality change is carefully controlled for in the measurement of structures. These data permit testing of constant returns to scale, which in conventional applications must be adopted as a maintained hypothesis, as well as the introduction of dynamic effects. Whereas standard analyses find land costs to be the dominant contributor to the growth in housing costs, I find that this varies greatly by city. Yet, despite this novel empirical result, the evidence supports other recent work that endorses the constant‐returns Cobb–Douglas methodological framework.

An understanding of airblast uncertainty allows reliability-based load factors to be calculated. Reliability-based load factors are influenced by the variability of model error, explosive mass and range distance, and are estimated for reliability levels of 0.05 to 0.99 for military, civilian and terrorist munitions. Structural reliabilities are then calculated for reinforced concrete columns, and compared to target values. It was found that RC columns designed to existing standards have a significant margin of safety conditional on successful detonation of the explosive and assuming a relatively low variability of range or explosive mass. ; The support of the Australian Research Council through Discovery Project DP160100855 is gratefully acknowledged.