Every day around the province the Here and Now team pull out all the stops to cover your news and weather

The province is still on track to move to a lower alert level Monday, which would ease some of the public health measures in place aimed at curbing COVID-19.

64-year-old John Neville, in agony and needing his wisdom tooth extracted, has been navigating a complex tangle of COVID-19 restrictions in an unsuccessful attempt at getting emergency dental care.

Staff halted $100 service over pandemic concerns, forcing homeowners to private plumbers much more, and Danny Breen is urging them to contact the city.

From age 17, Ana Maria prayed to serve God in Switzerland. While she waited, she became a dance instructor with no idea dance would become her ministry.

Doron's experience on Logos Hope shows him God's faithfulness and uncovers leadership abilities he is using today in a new role.

An OM worker from Latin America uses his carpentry skills to disciple young men in their faith and give them better employment opportunities for the future.

Service Team members share why they enjoy being onsite during Setup Week, when the vision of TeenStreet becomes a reality for them, and what part of the upcoming conference they are most excited for.

How do you encapsulate everything that goes into a full week of teaching, worship music, workshops, meals and so much more? Enjoy a brief overview of TeenStreet 2019.

Mar del Plata, Argentina :: Crewmembers visit a Christian rehabilitation centre and remind women of their value in God's eyes.

Mar del Plata, Argentinen :: Schiffsmitarbeiter besuchen ein christliches Suchtrehabilitationszentrum und erinnern die Frauen dort daran, dass sie in Gottes Augen wertvoll sind

Durante un viaje misionero de un mes, Eduardo aprendió a escuchar y reconocer la voz de Dios, tanto personalmente como ministrando a otros.

“Listening to their testimonies, I’ve begun to envision their stories as a collection of clues, a series of scenes revealing the fingerprints of something—or Someone—beyond our deepest imagination,” says Chris. “The people I talked with hail from a variety of backgrounds—atheist German to Cambodian Buddhist—but the tapestries of their lives reveal the same beautiful threads, pointing unmistakably to a Designer.“

Los obreros de OM en la Península Arábiga usan sus empleos de forma intencional como una fuente oportunidades para desarrollar relaciones y compartir la verdad con sus compañeros de trabajo en las naciones menos alcanzadas.

Mar del Plata, Argentina :: A church congregation learns about nations without access to the gospel.

The vessel, formerly known as the Edmonton Queen, got skewered by its own moorings last month as the icy North Saskatchewan River began to thaw.

Residents are cleaning up damage to hundreds of homes and businesses caused by floods in the northern Alberta hamlet of Fort Vermilion.

A longstanding battle between an Alberta entrepreneur and a $50-million lottery winner is still raging after a new legal judgment, a securities investigation, allegations of harassment and even duelling ebooks.

In a new twist on oral history, University of Alberta paleontologists have discovered that an Argentinian reptile from 95 million years ago developed a type of tooth enamel that is common in humans and other mammals but rare among reptiles.

Police are investigating a report of a suspicious package in north Edmonton.

Before COVID-19 hit, Hemliss Eloïse Konan had plans for how she'd spend her summer in Sudbury. After finishing her first year at Laurentian University, Konan planned to stay in residence, and get a job for the summer.

Tensions are rising on Manitoulin Island because a First Nation is stopping travellers on provincial highways that go through the community. But opinions on M'Chigeeng's attempt to protect its people from COVID-19 are not divided along racial lines. 

Three residents at a long-term care facility in Sault Ste. Marie have tested positive for COVID-19, prompting officials to declare an outbreak at Extendicare Maple View.

A new study facilitated by the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board of Ontario states miners who were forced to inhale an aluminum powder were found to have a higher risk of Parkinson’s disease.

The Porcupine Health Unit is reporting the fifth COVID-19 related death in its area.

As the province of Ontario starts to relax some COVID-19 restrictions, one Sudbury business owner says it feels great to be opening back up.

Business owners throughout northern Ontario will have the chance Friday morning to speak directly with federal Economic Development Minister Mélanie Joly.

The Porcupine Health Unit is declaring a COVID-19 outbreak at a long-term care home in Iroquois Falls.

A former miner who was forced to breathe in a fine aluminum dust before each shift says he’s not surprised a new report links that dust and a higher risk of Parkinson’s disease.

Those in Sudbury may have had a few choice words when waking up Friday morning after a snowfall overnight.

The City of Timmins says a COVID-19 outbreak remains in place at a long-term care home in the city, even after the one affected resident has now tested negative — twice.

Provincial surveillance testing has returned a positive case of COVID-19 in a resident of Wikwemikong Nursing Home on Manitoulin Island. Ogimaa Duke Peltier says every staff member and resident underwent tests Tuesday and Wednesday of this week and the results are starting to come in.

The following is a guest post by Katherine Blood, Curator of Fine Prints, Prints & Photographs Division. As the Library of Congress marks its 220th year of serving the nation, the publication of a new guide tells two stories: how staff have for decades worked with art professionals to build the collections and how by […]

The only way to solubilize many antigens for immunoprecipitation is by denaturation. This cell lysis protocol is ideally suited for this purpose to release proteins from complex structures or reveal antibody epitopes hidden within native proteins. Short linear epitopes may not be accessible to antibodies within the native tertiary and quaternary protein structures, but they become exposed upon the unraveling of proteins, exposing their secondary structure. Antibodies otherwise not suitable for the immunoprecipitation of proteins prepared under nondenaturing conditions are now able to bind these antigens of interest in cell lysates prepared under denaturing conditions. These antibodies may also work well for immunoblotting purposes when the protein target is completely denatured. Harvested cells in this protocol are washed in tris-buffered saline (TBS) before lysis in 2% sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS)-containing Lysis buffer for 10 min at 100°C. The resulting sample is diluted 20-fold in TBS to reduce the SDS concentration to ≤0.1% before the addition of an antibody for immunoprecipitation. Addition of 2% bovine serum albumin (BSA) or 0.1% Nonidet P-40 to the TBS before an immunoprecipitation, respectively, ensures either removal of SDS from the target protein or retaining denatured proteins in solution.

Differential detergent fractionation of cells is a rapid method for extraction of cytoplasmic and nuclear proteins in preparation of an immunoprecipitation. This method can be applied for use of adherent or suspension cells and can significantly reduce nonspecific background in an immunoprecipitation by separation of cellular compartments into individual fractions. The lysis of cells by differential detergents permits the rapid extraction of proteins from the cytoplasm (digitonin), the cytoplasmic membranes, and organelles (Triton X-100), and nucleoplasm (Tween/DOC), facilitated through the use of distinct extraction buffers. Cytoplasmic and nuclear matrix proteins as well as DNA are left behind during the detergent-based extraction.

This rapid and efficient method to prepare highly purified recombinant adeno-associated viruses (rAAVs) is based on binding of negatively charged rAAV capsids to an anion-exchange resin that is pH dependent.

This is a simple method for rapid preparation of recombinant adeno-associated virus (rAAV) stocks, which can be used for in vivo gene delivery. The purity of these vectors is considerably lower than that obtained by either CsCl gradient centrifugation or by combination of iodixanol gradient ultracentrifugation followed by column chromatography.

The most commonly used method for production of recombinant adeno-associated virus (rAAVs) in research laboratories is by transient triple transfection of 293 cells with AAV cis and trans plasmids and an adenovirus helper plasmid. This protocol describes the processes required to prepare the transfected cell suspension for virus purification.

Over many years, the Xenopus laevis embryo has provided a powerful model system to investigate how mechanical forces regulate cellular function. Here, we describe a system to apply reproducible tensile and compressive force to X. laevis animal cap tissue explants and to simultaneously assess cellular behavior using live confocal imaging.

Purified RNA may need to be concentrated by precipitation for downstream applications. Precipitation of RNA with ethanol (or isopropanol) is the standard method to recover RNA from aqueous solutions.

In this protocol, DNA fragments are separated according to size by electrophoresis through low-melting-temperature agarose, and then recovered by melting the agarose and extracting with phenol:chloroform. The protocol works best for DNA fragments ranging in size from 0.5 to 5.0 kb. Yields of DNA fragments outside this range are usually lower, but often are sufficient for many purposes.

For most immunoblots developed with chemiluminescence or with fluorochrome-based detection systems, it is possible to remove the primary and secondary antibodies from the membrane without affecting the bound antigen. This allows you to reuse the membrane for detection of another protein antigen. The blots developed with chromogenic substrates can also be stripped of antibodies and reprobed, but the bands detected in the first round of immunoblotting will remain unaffected. Stripping and reprobing of the membrane are particularly useful when the amount of sample is limited or when it is important to accurately compare the signal between two different protein antigens in the same sample. Examples of such experiments include determining the levels of a protein antigen in a series of samples relative to the loading control and comparison of the phosphorylated form to the total levels of the protein in the sample.

Successful modification of the bacterial artificial chromosome (BAC) after two-step BAC engineering is confirmed in two separate polymerase chain reactions (PCRs). The first reaction (5' co-integrate PCR) uses a forward 5' co-integrate primer (a sequence located upstream of the 5' end of the A-box) and a reverse 3' primer on the vector (175PA+50AT) or within the reporter sequence or mutated region as appropriate. The second reaction (3' co-integrate PCR) uses a forward 5' primer on the recA gene (RecA1300S) and a reverse 3' co-integrate primer (a sequence located downstream from the 3' end of the B-box). Those colonies shown to be positive in PCR analysis are further tested for sensitivity to UV light. After the resolution, colonies that have lost the excised recombination vector including sacB and recA genes become UV light sensitive.

Bacterial artificial chromosome (BAC) clones are rendered electrocompetent and transformed with the recombinant shuttle vector, pLD53SCAB/AB-box. Cointegrates are selected by growth on chloramphenicol and ampicillin to ensure recombination of the shuttle vector into the BAC.

Plasmid DNA is prepared from the recombinant shuttle vector pLD53.SCAB/A-B created by cloning of the A and B homology arms for two-step bacterial artificial chromosome (BAC) engineering. To confirm that the A-box and B-box arms have been successfully incorporated into pLD53.SCAB, the pattern of enzyme digestion of the modified plasmid is compared with that of the unmodified pLD53.SCAB. Once the shuttle vector is shown to carry the proper sequences, it is ready for transfer into the BAC host.

The 700-bp A homology arm (A-box) and the 700-bp B homology arm (B-box) are amplified by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) using purified bacterial artificial chromosome (BAC) DNA as template for two-step BAC engineering. The resulting A-box PCR product contains an AscI site at its 5' end (the 5' primer incorporates an AscI site, and the 3' primer does not incorporate any restriction sites). The B-box PCR product contains an XmaI site at its 3' end (the 5' primer does not incorporate any restriction sites, and the 3' primer incorporates an XmaI site). The amplification products are then digested with the appropriate restriction endonucleases to render them suitable for cloning into the shuttle vector.

In two-step bacterial artificial chromosome (BAC) engineering, a single plasmid is introduced into the BAC-carrying cell lines. The shuttle vector pLD53.SCAB (or pLD53.SCAEB) carries the recA gene and the R6K origin, which requires the protein to replicate. PIR2 cells, expressing , are typically used for the amplification of the vector and maintain about 15 copies/cell of the donor vector, which is relatively stable in this host.

Amid widespread sell-offs in risky asset classes, corporate bond exchange-traded funds (ETFs) traded at steep discounts to underlying asset values in March. Contributing factors were high market volatility, reduced risk-taking by dealers and investors' reaction to policy decisions. Policy interventions that improve market functioning in a given sector can have temporary yet important spillovers to other segments through portfolio rebalancing by investors.

FSI Briefs No 1, April 2020. Regulatory policy responses should seek to support economic activity while preserving the financial system's soundness and ensuring transparency. The recommendation for banks to make full use of capital and liquidity buffers should go hand in hand with restrictions on dividends and bonuses and clarity concerning the process for rebuilding them. Flexibility in loan classification criteria for prudential and accounting purposes should be complemented with sufficient disclosure on the criteria banks use to assess creditworthiness. The publication of detailed guidance on the application of expected loss provisioning rules, combined with sensible transitional arrangements, may constitute a balanced approach to mitigating the unintended effects of the new accounting standards.

FSI Briefs No 2, April 2020. Guidance issued by financial sector authorities in response to the Covid-19 crisis seems to suggest that international efforts to come up with operational resilience standards should take into account at least the following elements: Critical/essential employees: identifying the critical functions and employees that support important business services, as well as ensuring employees' safety and that they can safely resume their duties (remotely, if necessary); IT infrastructure: ensuring that IT infrastructure can support a sharp increase in usage over an extended period and taking steps to safeguard information security; Third-party service providers: ensuring that external service providers and/or critical suppliers are taking adequate measures and are sufficiently prepared for a scenario in which there will be heavy reliance on their services; Cyber resilience: remaining vigilant in order to identify and protect vulnerable systems, and detect, respond and recover from cyber attacks..