In late April 2010, the Museum Studies Program in the Faculty of Information celebrated its 40-year history as a graduate program at the University of Toronto (U of T) by hosting a three-day conference at Hart House dedicated to museology. Founded in 1969, the U of T program is Canada’s oldest Museum Studies Program. With the explicit aim of creating a forum for discussing the historical and contemporary trajectories of museological research and practices, Taking Stock: Museum Studies and Museum Practices in Canada drew together an Englishand French-speaking community of approximately 150 scholars, museum professionals, and graduate students from across Canada, USA, and UK. Organized by Professors Christine Castle, Lisa Hunter, Lynne Teather, and Jennifer Carter (Chair) and conference coordinator, Nina Boric, Taking Stock had the threefold intentions of: (1) bringing together a network of scholar practitioners to explore the range of theories and practices of contemporary and historical museology in Canada, (2) mobilizing new research communities, and (3) critically engaging the issues that characterize contemporary museology. Co-organizers hoped the conference would help shape professional and pedagogic practices to come in museums, academic institutions, and beyond. Toward these ends, Taking Stock addressed a number of contemporary themes that occupy researchers and practitioners both in Canada and abroad, ranging from curation and exhibition pedagogy, to First Nations museology, museum management, professional development, research partnerships, civic engagement, and sustainability. We invited the Editor-in-Chief of this journal, Dr. Robert R. Janes, to be our keynote speaker. Of the several distinguished Canadian museologists we originally identified for this task, we found Janes’ probing of the contemporary relevance of museums as social institutions to be timely, daring, and most importantly, constructive in its suggestions for fundamentally rethinking the capacity of cultural heritage institutions to become active interventionists on the stage of world issues. Janes advocates for institutions with vision, agency, and having a crucial role to play in addressing issues of sustainability, citizenry, and social ethics (Janes 2009). Significantly, these themes surfaced several times over the course of the conference as the subjects of formal presentations and ongoing discussions over coffee and lunch,

Objective Animal models of atherosclerosis are essential to elucidate disease mechanisms and develop new therapies. Each model features advantages and disadvantages in exemplifying the pathophysiology of human atherosclerosis. Diet-induced development of atherosclerosis in Octodon degus (degu) was examined to demonstrate the potential of the degu as a model of human atherosclerosis. Methods Degus were fed for 16 weeks with either normal chow or chow containing 0.25% cholesterol and 6% palm oil to induce atherosclerosis. The lipid compositions of plasma lipoproteins and aortas were determined. Locations of aortic lesions were mapped by imaging of fluorescently stained aortic lesions. Lesion morphology in the brachiocephalic artery was detected by histological staining. Results Total plasma cholesterol in chow-fed degus was distributed approximately 60% in HDL, 30% in LDL and less than 10% in VLDL. Cholesterol-fed degus exhibited 4- to 5-fold increases in total plasma cholesterol, principally in the VLDL and LDL fractions. Cholesteryl ester transfer protein activity of similar magnitude to that in human plasma was detected in chow-fed degu plasma. Cholesterol-fed degus developed cholesteryl ester-rich atherosclerotic lesions throughout the aorta. Histological examination of lesions in the brachiocephalic artery showed well-formed, foam cell-rich lesions populated with inflammatory cells. It is also noteworthy that all the degus in this study exhibited hyperglycemia. Conclusion These results demonstrate that degus have a human-like lipoprotein metabolism and develop extensive atherosclerosis with cholesterol feeding in the presence of hyperglycemia. These features, combined with the manageable size and handling characteristics, point to the potential of the degu as a useful model for atherosclerosis research.

Biomarkers are an increasingly important constituent of the drug development process, offering the potential of increased efficiency through reduced compound attrition and earlier proof of mechanism and/or efficacy. Assays developed for compound screening that can be directly translated for clinical trials are especially valuable, but their successful adoption requires a careful balance between assay performance and implementation costs. One such 'fit-for-purpose' biomarker assay, the indirect measurement of pharmacological modulation of sphingolipid biosynthesis and disposition, is presented here. Among sphingolipids, numerous ceramide species are readily detectable in different lipoprotein fractions of mammalian plasma, but their parallel quantification can be prohibitively expensive and time consuming. Ceramides differ in their fatty acid moiety, which is readily removed by hydrolysis, yielding a common sphingosine derivative, the measurement of which serves as an indicator of total ceramide. When followed by liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (LC/MS/MS) for detection, robust analyte quantification becomes relatively straightforward. The practical utility of a method developed to be fit for the purpose of rapidly and quantitatively measuring treatment-induced variations in total ceramide from hamster plasma and individual lipoprotein fractions is described. With a linear calibration range from 0.003 to 33.4 microm sphingosine, precision and accuracy error in plasma-based quality controls spiked with ceramides was less than 15%. The specificity of the assay for ceramides was also assessed. The simplicity of the method would allow for its potential translation to other preclinical species, as well as for clinical applications in later-stage drug development.