The case for excluding workers' compensation insurance from medicare.

The lead paper, "Parallel Payers and Preferred Access: How Canada's Workers' Compensation Boards Expedite Care for Injured and Ill Workers," discusses the implications of funding parallel systems of health - workers' compensation and provincially operated services - and concludes that the current model can create rivalries and inequities through preferred access for some workers. The following commentary outlines provincially funded healthcare insurance and workers' compensation systems in the context of their public policy origins, common and distinct features and social purposes. It argues that a narrow examination of coincident payments excludes consideration of the broader social justice principles inherent in workers' compensation and overlooks the substantial differences in the scope and mandate between these two important social policy domains.

Quantitative genetic studies of A/B zeins using a new model to test non-allelic interactions.

A genetic model developed by Bogyo et al. (1988) for quantitatively inherited triploid endosperm characters (an extension of the well-known Mather-Jinks model) is not well-suited for estimating epistatic interaction effects because it requires the assumption that, in segregating loci, all alleles positively affecting a particular character are in one of the inbred parental lines. To better explain zein inheritance in maize, a new model was developed not relying on this assumption.

Expression of A/B zeins in single and double maize endosperm mutants.

Zeins, the major endosperm proteins in maize (Zea mays L.), are deficient in the essential amino acids lysine and tryptophan. Some mutant genes, like opaque-2 (o2) and floury-2 (fl2), reduce the levels of A- and B-zeins, thereby improving maize's nutritional value.

Expression of alcohol-soluble endosperm proteins in maize single and double mutants.

Many maize (Zea mays L.) mutant genes exist. Some affect protein content or composition, while others modify carbohydrates or kernel phenotype.