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Responsibility for suicide prevention falls to the Government of Canada and Health Canada. The issue of suicide affects Canadians of all ages and in all regions of the country, hence the need for a pan-Canadian strategy aimed at reducing suicide deaths and reaching all Canadians. The availability and accessibility of mental health services constitute important resources for suicide prevention and a target for interventions that can be made to rapidly reduce the suicide rate. Such a strategy to improve services should include quality surveillance and quality control programs, such as suicide audits and the use of linked government administrative databases. Population-based strategies to prevent and treat depression must also be established and should be based on the Nuremberg model. In particular, development of equitable access to psychotherapy and mental health literacy programs should be priority goals.

Three theories have been proposed to explain the relationship between suicide and economic fluctuations, including the Durkheim (nonlinear), Ginsberg (procyclical), and Henry and Short (countercyclical) theories. This study tested the effect of economic fluctuations, measured by unemployment rate, on suicide rates in Canada from 1926 to 2008. Autoregressive integrated moving average time-series models were used. The results showed a significant relationship between suicide and economic fluctuation; this association was positive during the contraction period (1926-1950) and negative in the period of economic expansion (1951-1973). Males and females showed differential effects in the period of moderate unemployment (1974-2008). In addition, the suicide rate of mid-adults (45-64) was most impacted by economic fluctuations. Our study tends to support Durkheim's theory and suggests the need for public health responses in times of economic contraction and expansion.

The role of liposomes in antigen presentation and in induction of humoral and cell-mediated immune responses has been investigated by anchoring viral envelope glycoproteins into the phospholipidic bilayer of preformed liposomes to produce Immunosomes. Using purified glycoproteins of three different enveloped viruses, it was found that in mice immunosomes induced high titres of neutralizing antibodies, whereas equal amounts of the purified glycoproteins alone failed to induce or induced much lower neutralizing antibodies. Similarly, immunosomes induced in vaccinated animals antigenspecific interleukin-2 production upon in vitro restimulation with the same antigen, whereas no secondary response was observed in animals vaccinated with equal amounts of the free antigen. Finally, influenza and rabies immunosomes were shown to be efficient in protecting animals from a challenge with the corresponding virulent strain.

Two nucleases active on alkylated-depurinated DNA have been extracted from rat liver chromatin with 1 M KCl. The major enzyme was purified to near homogeneity; it has a molecular weight of 12 500 (although some dimerization might occur), needs Mg2+ or Mn2+ for activity. The endonuclease activity is specific for apurinic/apyrimidinic sites in DNA; the enzyme has no associated exonuclease activity.