Liberal rise in Nanos Index stops but still very strong (ending November 20, 2015)

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The Nanos Party Power Index

  • Nanos Party Power Index –  The Nanos Party Power Index which is a composite of a series of measures including ballot preferences and impressions of the leaders still has the Liberals with a very high score on the index but the climb as abated.  The Liberals scored 68.3 out of a possible 100 points followed by the NDP with 47.3 points, the Conservatives with 45.1 points, the Greens with 32.9 points and the BQ in the province of Quebec only with 25.2 points.
  • Accessible Voters – Asked a series of independent questions to gauge accessible voters for each federal party, 66.5% of Canadians would consider voting Liberal, 42.1% would consider voting Conservative, 41.3% would consider voting NDP and 30.4% would  consider voting Green.

The team at Nanos in conjunction with Klipfolio have launched our new live political data portal where you run the numbers you want and can explore the trends and data you need.  This is part of our campaign, not only to provide the most reliable data to Canadians but to let them use it as they wish. We were the first to do nightly tracking and now we are the first research organization to post live public opinion data for Canadians. Here’s the link to check it out

To view the detailed tracking visit our website.

Methodology

The views of 1,000 respondents are compiled into a party power brand index for each party that goes from 0 to 100, where 0 means that the party has no brand power and 100 means it has maximum brand power. A score above 50 is an indication of brand power for the party and its leader at this time.

The important factors in this weekly tracking include the direction of the brand strength or weakness and also the brand power of one federal party relative to another.

The data is based on random telephone interviews with 1,000 Canadians, using a four week rolling average of 250 respondents each week, 18 years of age and over. The random sample of 1,000 respondents may be weighted by age and gender using the latest census information for Canada, and the sample is geographically stratified to be representative of Canada.

The interviews are compiled into a four week rolling average of 1,000 interviews where each week, the oldest group of 250 interviews is dropped and a new group of 250 interviews is added. The current wave of tracking is based on a four-week rolling average of 1,000 Canadians (250 per week) ending November 20th.

A random telephone survey of 1,000 Canadians is accurate 3.1 percentage points, plus or minus, 19 times out of 20.

All references or use of this data must cite “Nanos Party Power Index” as the source.

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CANUCKS BANTER: Each Canuck Asked To Get Two Per Cent Better Leaving For Minnesota

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CANUCKS BANTER     By Andrew Chernoff    November 24, 2015

The Canuck players and coaches met together today, before taking off for the first game of their 4 game road trip that begins Wednesday in Minnesota, and then they met with the media.

Coach Willie Desjardins disclosed to the media that he asked each player to get two per cent better.

“If every guy gets two per cent better, we win those games, It’s not a big jump but it’s a little jump for each guy.” Desjardins said.

Vancouver will not have an easy time of it against Minnesota for their initial game of the road trip and here is why:

  • The Canucks (8-8-6) start the 4- game road trip having lost 5 of their past 6 games.
  • The Canucks went 1-4-2 on a recent 7-game road trip that ended on Nov. 18, but are still above .500 (5-4-3) away from Rogers Arena this season.
  • Vancouver has allowed at least 3 goals against in 10 straight games
  • After winning 22 of 31 one-goal games last season, the Canucks have won just 2 of 14 this season, representing the worst winning percentage.
  • Vancouver’s 5-on-5 goals-for/goals-against numbers rank 13th and 13th in the NHL respectively according to Hockey Analysis.
  • Vancouver is tied for 5th  in the NHL  in goals scored with the man advantage, but their five-on-five Corsi For % of 48.6 is good for only 20th.
  • Vancouver will be without defenseman Ben Hutton (lower body) and forward Brandon Sutter (abdominal), who remain out for the road trip. Hutton  and Sutter are to be at least a week away from returning, according to coach Willie Desjardins.
  • Minnesota (11-5-3) is 8-1-0 at home and has outscored opponents 10-3 in three straight victories there since losing to Nashville on Nov. 5.
  • Devan Dubnyk recorded his 3rd shutout on November 21 against Nashville, 4-0.
  • Dubnyk’s shutouts have all come at home, where he has a 1.90 goals-against average compared to 3.09 on the road.
  • Minnesota is 9-1-0 when scoring first.
  • The Canucks (8-8-6) lost for the fifth time in six games Sunday, falling 3-2 to New Jersey
  • Against the Devils, Vancouver were 1 for 8 on power plays after scoring on 8 of 21 chances in the previous five games.
  • The Canucks have been abysmal on the penalty kill, giving up 11 goals on opponents’ 36 chances in the past 10 games after previously limiting teams to 3 for 32.
  • Minnesota is 17 for 50 on the power play (34.0 percent) against Vancouver, with the Canucks losing 9 of the last 13 in Minnesota.

“Our record right now is what we deserve,” Canucks goaltender Ryan Miller told the Canucks website on Tuesday. “We have to find a way to win games. We can be better and we have to be better.”

  • The Canucks’ scoring chance differential during the month of November in 11 games, War-On-Ice figures indicate, is 45.9 per cent. Only three NHL teams have been out-chanced by a wider margin this month: Ottawa, 43.6 per cent; Florida, 42.9 per cent; and the New York Rangers, 39.8 per cent.
  • In these 11 games, War-On-Ice figures indicate Vancouver has given up 225 even-strength scoring chances. Only five NHL teams have been out-chanced at even-strength by a wider margin this month: St. Louis, 230; Boston, 234; Philadelphia, 238; Dallas, 238; Toronto, 292.

“It’s like playoff hockey for us, and we need to recognize that. Our urgency level has to be higher. I think the guys know that, so I would expect us to be battling.  Saying that, I do believe in the character of this group, and I don’t believe there are many nights that they haven’t given everything they have.” Desjardins continued.

Road game one of four, tomorrow against Minnesota, don’t miss it.

Global stocks fall, bonds gain as investors seek safety

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World stock markets fell while government debt prices rose on Tuesday as investors sought safety in low-risk assets after Turkish jets shot down a Russian warplane near the Syrian border.

The dollar fell against the traditionally safe-haven Japanese yen, helping to push oil and metals prices higher. Gold rose 1 percent.

Travel and leisure stocks .SXTP fell after the U.S. State Department late Monday warned U.S. citizens of the risk to worldwide travel posed by what it called increased terrorist threats. United Continental (UAL.N), American Airlines (AAL.O) and Delta Air Lines (DAL.N) all were lower in early U.S. trading.

The warplane incident was the first time a NATO member’s armed forces had shot down a Russian or Soviet military aircraft since the 1950s. Russia said its plane had been downed over Syria.

“This has really gotten investors’ attention,” said Jack Ablin, chief investment officer at BMO Private Bank in Chicago. “Investors are worried that tensions could escalate.”

Wall Street cut its losses in midday trading, however.

The Dow Jones industrial average .DJI fell 16.9 points, or 0.09 percent, to 17,775.78, the S&P 500 .SPX lost 5.46 points, or 0.26 percent, to 2,081.13 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC dropped 25.30 points, or 0.5 percent, to 5,077.18.

The MSCI index of global stock markets .MIWD00000PUS fell 0.3 percent, and a broad gauge of European stocks .FTEU3 dropped 1.3 percent.

Turkish shares .XU100 dropped, as well, while the prospect of escalating tension between the former Cold War foes gave an additional push lower to German yields.

In U.S. Treasuries, the 30-year yield hovered near 3 percent, while benchmark 10-year Treasuries notes US10YT=RR were up 6/32 in price to yield 2.227 percent.

The dollar index .DXY, which measures the dollar against six major world currencies, fell 0.1 percent.

But the dollar’s weakness and escalating tensions in the Middle East helped oil prices, with Brent futures LCOc1 up more than 2 percent at $45.81 a barrel and U.s. crude CLc1 also up more than 2 percent at $42.70.

Gold rose, recovering from near six-year lows after the warplane news. Spot gold XAU= peaked at $1,080.51 and was up 0.7 percent at $1,077.30 an ounce.

(Additional reporting by Nigel Stephenson in London; Abhiram Nandakumar in Bengaluru; Lisa Twaronite and Hideyuki Sano in Tokyo; Editing by Hugh Lawson and Nick Zieminski)

Source: Global stocks fall, bonds gain as investors seek safety | Reuters

Gut microbes signal when dinner is done

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LOSS OF APPETITE Experiments show that helpful gut bacteria like this E. coli K12 produce proteins that could influence the appetite of mice and rats.

LOSS OF APPETITE Experiments show that helpful gut bacteria like this E. coli K12 produce proteins that could influence the appetite of mice and rats.

Gut bacteria are not polite dinner guests. They fill up fast and tell their host to quit eating, too.

After only 20 minutes, helpful E. coli populations that live in animal guts produce proteins that can curb how hungry its animal partner is, researchers show November 24 in Cell Metabolism. In mice and rats, the proteins stimulated brain-body responses that led the animals to eat less. The new findings indicate that gut microbes could be more involved with regulating food intake in animals, including humans, than previously thought.

“It suggests that the growth and activity of the microbiome might specifically regulate appetite and feeding behavior,” says Kevin Murphy, an endocrinologist at Imperial College London not involved with the study.

Food provides loads of nutrients to the gut. There, microbes use the nourishment to maintain population size. In the lab, Sergueï Fetissov and colleagues found that E. coli populations stopped growing 20 minutes after receiving nutrients. Upon hitting the 20-minute mark, the microbes also made some different proteins than before and boosted production of the protein ClpB, which mimics a hormone in humans that acts on appetite. When the E. coli stopped growing, they produced “two times as much of this protein,” says Fetissov, a physiologist at Rouen University in France.

Proteins from the E. coli no-growth stage were then injected in rats and mice. Compared with rodents that didn’t receive the proteins, those that did ate less and had higher levels of ClpB in their guts. The researchers also found that the protein encouraged the release of peptide YY — a hormone associated with reduced appetite — and stimulated nerve cells that decrease hunger levels.

The E. coli proteins seem to influence feeding behavior in the rats and mice. But it’s too soon to say whether the results are applicable to humans. “Further work is required to determine how physiologically relevant the findings are,” Murphy says.

The interaction between gut microbes and host organisms isn’t well understood, Fetissov says, so it’s important to study pathways and mechanisms that relate to food intake. Human gut microbes, for instance, may play a role in obesity, and he says that studies like this could help explain links between microbes and human health.

Source: Gut microbes signal when dinner is done | Science News