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Démystifier l'ingénierie : Une exploration des représentations sociales de l'ingénierie chez le personnel enseignant de sciences et de mathématiques dans des écoles secondaires de langue française en Ontario
No full textL'ajout récent du processus de design d'ingénierie et du codage dans les programmes-cadres de mathématiques et de sciences de 9e année dans les écoles secondaires de l'Ontario a introduit l'ingénierie dans les salles de classe. Bien que cette initiative soit prometteuse pour l'apprentissage intégré des STIM (sciences, technologie, ingénierie, mathématiques), peu de recherches ont exploré les représentations sociales de l'ingénierie chez le personnel enseignant, en particulier le personnel enseignant francophone au palier secondaire en Ontario. Cette étude vise à combler cette lacune en explorant comment ce personnel enseignant perçoit l'ingénierie, les spécialistes en ingénierie et l'enseignement de l'ingénierie, afin de les soutenir dans l'intégration de cette discipline dans leurs cours.
Pour mener à bien cette recherche, nous avons travaillé avec 16 personnes enseignantes de sciences et de mathématiques du palier secondaire en Ontario. L'étude a commencé par le Draw An Engineer Test, suivi d'entretiens semi-dirigés. Les personnes participantes ont été invitées à définir l'ingénierie, expliquer son rôle dans la société, décrire le processus de design et partager leurs réflexions sur l'intégration de l'ingénierie dans les programmes scolaires. Elles ont également discuté des défis rencontrés lors de cette intégration, ce qui a permis de brosser un portrait global de leurs représentations sociales.
Les résultats révèlent que le corps enseignant consulté perçoit généralement l'ingénierie comme une profession axée sur la résolution de problèmes sociétaux. Bien que la plupart des personnes participantes comprennent la nature du processus de design en ingénierie, certaines n'en maîtrisent pas les étapes ni la terminologie précise. Elles reconnaissent également les nombreuses occasions de carrière qu'offre l'ingénierie, mais expriment des opinions divergentes quant à la meilleure façon d'intégrer cette discipline à l'enseignement.
Malgré ces défis, le corps enseignant interviewé provenant de différentes écoles de langue française en Ontario semble avoir une attitude positive envers l'intégration de l'ingénierie, tout en soulignant qu'il y a un besoin accru de ressources en français et que des conseils pratiques sont essentiels pour la réussite de cette intégration
Characterization and Analysis of Human Vertical Mobility in Complex Urban Environments: Interplay With Horizontal Mobility and Implications for High-Density Urban Design
No full textThe study of human mobility deals with the movement of human beings (as a group or as an individual) across space and time. Our movements in space affect and are influenced by the built environment, economy, transportation, and the natural environment. These factors are nowhere more intensely interlinked than in cities. Cities are increasingly growing dense and vertical to adapt to the rapid urbanization of our planet. However, a complete understanding of the influence of the vertical dimension on the dynamics of the cities and the lives of its inhabitants needs to be improved. Urban environments are increasingly studied as networks across the three physical dimensions. However, the processes that occur on them, specifically mobility, are still studied as planar (i.e., two-dimensional) processes considering only horizontal mobility. The latter has been extensively studied using various data sources, e.g., census data, travel surveys, call detail records, and GPS. It can therefore be said that there is a general lack of data and methodology to track and derive vertical movements from large-scale human experiments. It is critical for urban planners to understand the patterns of mobility across three physical dimensions and their impact on the built environment. For instance, such knowledge would greatly help improve traffic management, optimize the allocation of facilities and transportation networks, and study several spreading processes (e.g., epidemic diseases).
This research analyzes the patterns of human mobility, encompassing the deeply intertwined horizontal and vertical movements. By studying mobility, valuable insights can be gained, and novel ways can be offered to create, design, and enhance urban built environments with the ultimate goal of prioritizing residents' well-being and quality of life. First, we introduce a city-scale experiment conducted in Singapore, tracking a large population of 50,000 students carrying a wearable device with many sensors. This experiment provides the foundation for accurately deriving vertical displacement based on understanding barometric pressure behavior and developing a machine learning framework. The second study offers novel contributions to the mobility literature by revealing the spatiotemporal patterns of vertical mobility for the first time, discovering key aggregate statistics of vertical mobility, and showing the intricate interplay and correlation between horizontal and vertical mobility. The third and final study aims to identify and understand the factors that influence user movement in an integrated development, where residential, commercial, and public facilities are distributed in a vertical, high-density built environment. With Kampung Admiralty development as a case study, we show that network-theoretic methods offer a powerful way of looking at data-driven designs at the building scale by associating the network process (user movement) with the network structure (built environment layout)
Numerical Modeling of Bioinspired Tri-Layer Scaffolds for Heart Valve Constructs
No full textFor many patients suffering from heart valve diseases, heart valve replacement surgery is the primary treatment option. Currently, there are two types of artificial valves clinically available for the replacement surgery, the mechanical valve and the bioprosthetic valve. The former is typically made from durable materials and can last for a long time. However, lifelong medical treatment with blood thinner is required to reduce the clot risk. The latter is generally made from animal valves and could avoid the long-term use of medication. However, it suffers from biocompatibility issues and relatively short service life due to calcification. With the recent advancement in tissue engineering, tissue-engineered heart valves provide a promising potential to overcome the limitations of the existing artificial heart valves. Among various fabrication methods, the electrospinning technology offers an effective approach to fabricate scaffold materials needed in the artificial heart valve. In order to ensure that the fabricated scaffold material mimics the mechanical properties of native valve tissues, solely relying on experimental trial-and-error is labor-intensive, time-consuming, and financially expensive. On the other hand, numerical methods, especially finite element simulations, provide an efficient approach to investigate the mechanical properties of fabricated scaffold materials. In this thesis, a computational framework based on the finite element method is developed to model the mechanical responses of the bioinspired tri-layer scaffold used for heart valve constructs. This scaffold material is composed of a top layer and a bottom layer containing mutually orthogonal fiber alignments as well as a middle layer possessing a honeycomb pattern. A hyperelastic material constitutive model is developed as the material constitutive model, and a three-field mixed finite element approach is adopted to enforce the material incompressibility. The details of the developed numerical technique are presented, including the material constitutive formulation and the finite element approach in the framework of the nonlinear solid mechanics. The obtained numerical results are compared with the experimental observations, and the detailed stress distributions among various scaffold layers are revealed. The force-displacement relationship confirms that the fabricated tri-layer scaffold exhibits similar mechanical properties as native heart valve tissues
Considerations for informing precision psychiatry in eating disorders: Foundations for future practice
No full textAbstract Eating disorders (EDs) are multisystemic, debilitating, and complex illnesses that affect many young Canadians. These disorders are associated with high rates of medical complications, psychiatric and physical comorbidities, functional impairment, family distress, and financial burden. Despite the severity and increasing prevalence of EDs in youth, advancements in understandings of the pathophysiology and treatment of EDs have remained limited over the past three decades. This trend may be shaped by the chronic underfunding of the field, reliance on small sampled cross-sectional studies, and the notable lack of research focused on youth with EDs from historically underrepresented communities. Current treatment practices demonstrate modest efficacy and often omit the complex, heterogeneous presentations, development, and maintenance of pediatric EDs. Large-scale, multiaxial datasets are necessary to elucidate ED etiology and enable phenotyping. This is a critical step towards implementing future precision psychiatry and personalized treatment advances. In this commentary, we share our experience of conceptualizing a precision ED data and bio-registry, EDBioMAP: Eating Disorder Bio-Registry and Multiaxial Precision Health Platform, and suggest necessary pillars to inform, implement, and drive the successful use of precision psychiatry in pediatric ED care. Effective data utilization requires actionable steps and includes: (1) establishing strategic partnerships; (2) incorporating measurement-based care into clinical practice; (3) collecting novel biological markers; (4) developing minimum datasets; and (5) leveraging predictive modelling techniques. Strategic and standardized data integration is imperative to informing the future use of precision psychiatry for EDs. It can lend well to igniting multi-site collaboration to enhance large datasets necessary for this type of work and offers avenues for future development of personalized treatment interventions and clinical decision-making tools for youth with EDs
Experiences of Racism Among Students of Colour at the University of Ottawa
No full textThis study investigates the prevalence and impact of racial microaggressions on Black, Indigenous, and People of Colour (BIPOC) students at the University of Ottawa (uOttawa), revealing critical implications for institutional policy and support services. Racial microaggressions, often subtle yet pervasive, contribute to significant psychological distress among students, negatively impacting their mental health and sense of belonging on campus. This report details findings from a survey of uOttawa BIPOC students, highlighting the frequency of microaggressive experiences, their association with mental health challenges, and the coping mechanisms students employ
Methodological Challenges in the Identification of Drug-Drug Interactions Using Spontaneous Reporting System
No full textIntroduction: It has been shown that reporting bias can distort estimates of disproportionate reporting in the single drug setting, however, their influence is unclear when screening spontaneous reporting databases for drug-drug interactions (DDI). Antiviral medications were repurposed to treat COVID-19 during the pandemic period which may have introduced reporting bias. Its impact on DDI signal detection, particularly when using restricted comparator designs for systematic bias mitigation, remains unclear. To investigate this potential we conducted a retrospective bias analysis on a well known DDI.
Methods: We used data from the United States Food and Drug Administration Adverse Event Reporting System (2000Q3-2023Q3) to evaluate changes in disproportionality estimates for lopinavir/ritonavir and atorvastatin with myopathy/rhabdomyolysis. We computed signals using three methods: Concomitant Signal Score (CSS), Omega Shrinkage, and the extended-Bayesian Confidence Propagation Neural Network (BCPNN). Comparisons were conducted across unrestricted and active comparator reference sets (all statins and CYP3A4 statins), pre- and during-pandemic, change in estimates (ACiE) was calculated to quantify differences.
Results: In the unrestricted comparator design, Omega and BCPNN estimates decreased during-pandemic when including Paxlovid (ACiE: -0.37 and -0.24, respectively), potentially by increased background reporting, but increased when excluding Paxlovid (ACiE: 0.84 and 0.16, respectively). In contrast, signal strength increased in all active comparator analyses, particularly with CYP3A4 statins (Omega ACiE: 1.05; BCPNN ACiE: 0.31). CSS results showed a similar trend.
Conclusion: Changes in antiviral indications in response to the COVID-19 pandemic may have altered reporting patterns affecting DDI signal detection
The Health and Economic Impacts of Group B Streptococcus Disease Among Infants in Ontario, Canada
No full textGroup B Streptococcus (GBS) remains a leading cause of neonatal morbidity and mortality worldwide, despite preventive measures such as intrapartum antibiotic prophylaxis (IAP). Globally, an estimated 20 million pregnant individuals are colonized with GBS each year, leading to nearly 400,000 cases of infant GBS disease and over 90,000 infant deaths annually. While routine screening using rectovaginal swabs in the late third trimester and IAP have reduced the incidence of early-onset GBS disease (infection occurring within the first 6 days of life) in high-income countries like Canada, current strategies have important limitations: they are less effective against later-onset GBS disease (beyond the first week of life), may miss cases due to false-negative screening results or changes in maternal colonization status, and have limited impact on GBS-associated preterm births and stillbirths. Moreover, despite the widespread adoption of these prevention strategies in Canada, studies evaluating their effectiveness remain sparse, often relying on outdated or regionally limited data with small sample sizes. Important gaps also exist in fully understanding the true burden of GBS disease, its long-term neurodevelopmental consequences, and its broader economic impact. As maternal immunization with a GBS vaccine is being explored as a potential future prevention strategy, robust epidemiological and health economic data are critically needed to support vaccine development, inform policy decisions, and guide future implementation efforts.
This dissertation aimed to address these gaps by evaluating the epidemiological, clinical, and economic burden of infant GBS disease in Ontario, Canada. Leveraging real-world, population-wide health administrative and registry data, this research pursued three key objectives: (1) to estimate the burden of infant GBS disease, describe epidemiological trends, and assess the effectiveness of current prevention strategies; (2) to evaluate the risk of neurodevelopmental impairments (NDIs) in early childhood following infant GBS disease, while examining sex and prematurity as effect modifiers; and (3) to determine the healthcare costs associated with GBS disease in infancy.
The findings from this dissertation highlight the substantial health and economic burden of infant GBS disease in Ontario and reveal ongoing challenges with current prevention efforts. In the first study, despite demonstrating high maternal screening coverage, we identified missed opportunities for IAP administration, and the incidence of later-onset disease remained unchanged across the five-year study period. The second study found that survivors of infant GBS disease had approximately twice the risk of developing neurodevelopmental impairments by five years of age, with particularly elevated risks among preterm infants and males. The last study demonstrated that infant GBS disease was associated with substantial short-term healthcare costs, particularly during the first 30 days after disease onset. Collectively, these findings can support clinical and public health planning, inform cost-effectiveness analyses, and contribute to evidence-based policy development as Canada and other jurisdictions explore the potential introduction of maternal GBS vaccination in the future, should a vaccine become available, licensed, and recommended for use
Lessons learned from a muscle study in nail-patella syndrome
No full textAbstract Background Nail-patella (NPS) syndrome is an autosomal dominant disorder caused by mutations in the LMX1B gene and manifests with involvement of kidneys, nails, eyes as well as skeletal musculature. NPS shows some clinical similarities with Emery-Dreifuss muscular dystrophy. However, thus far human muscle tissue has not been analysed in the context of NPS to precisely clarify the muscular involvement in this multi-systemic disease. Methods To study the effects of a missense variant in LMX1B on human skeletal muscle, histological, immunofluorescence and ultra-structural studies were performed on a deltoid muscle biopsy performed at the age of 2 aiming to analyse potential pathologies in muscle fibres in addition to unbiased proteomic profiling to identify dysregulated proteins. Results Microscopic work-up of the muscle biopsy revealed no striking pathologies, except for some atrophic fibres. The proteomic analyses unveiled a clustered number of dysregulated keratin proteins among the downregulated proteins. Conclusion Although NPS can also present with a muscular phenotype indicated by muscular weakness of the upper extremities, elevated CK levels and contractures of the elbow joint, there is no evidence of primary muscular involvement due to expression of mutant LMX1B. The examination of human skeletal muscle tissue confirmed the findings from the animal models showing that the skeletal muscle symptoms of NPS may be the result of a developmental disorder of the extremities that leads to impaired muscle mobilisation
Sexual Consent Challenges Among GBMSM: Rates, Reasons, and Risk Factors
No full textGay, Bisexual, and other Men who have Sex with Men (GBMSM) experience disproportionately high rates of nonconsensual sexual experiences (NSEs), yet accurate prevalence estimates remain elusive due to inconsistent terminology and measurement limitations. This dissertation comprises two studies aimed at improving understanding and measurement of NSEs in GBMSM. Study 1 examined how GBMSM label and report NSEs, comparing self-identification with experiences assessed through behavioural indicators. Among a Canadian sample of 346 GBMSM, 64.5% endorsed a history of NSEs via a two-part question, while 66.8% reported such experiences on the Sexual Experiences Survey-Short Form Victimization. Demographic analyses revealed higher prevalence among trans men and People of Colour. Study 2 validated the Reasons for Consenting to Unwanted Sex Scale (RCUSS) using bifactor exploratory structural equation modeling. Results supported a multidimensional structure with three interpretable group factors - emotional, interpersonal, and contextual pressures - alongside a general factor. Together, these findings highlight the importance of nuanced, inclusive assessment tools and culturally responsive frameworks to better understand and address consent-related challenges in sexual minority populations. This research has critical implications for measurement, public health, and the development of interventions tailored to GBMSM's lived experiences with sexual consent negotiation and coercion
Application of Shrimp Waste Based Biomass for Removal of Heavy Metals (Cadmium(II), Copper(II), Nickel(II)) from Aqueous Phase
No full textFinding economical and environmentally friendly processes to remove heavy metals (HMs) from industries' influent is a research priority to move toward sustainability. Shrimp shell waste (SSW) could be converted to an efficient adsorbent for HM uptake from aqueous solutions. In this study, two methods - the conventional method and the deep eutectic solvents (DESs) method - are assessed for the removal of proteins and minerals from SSW and the extraction of chitin.
Chitin extracted by the conventional method (Ch-C ) and extracted by the DES method (Ch-DES) prepared to remove Cu(II), Cd(II) and Ni(II) from single-component aqueous solution in the first phase. The effect of experimental factors, including the pH, adsorbent dosage, initial concentration, and temperature on removal efficiency and adsorption uptake of Ch-C in a single-component system was evaluated to optimize the adsorption conditions. SEM, FT-IR and BET of the synthesized Ch-C confirmed the removal of protein and mineral components, increased surface area and pore volume, and uptake of HMs after adsorption. The isotherm study showed that Langmuir isotherm was the best fit to the experimental data of Cu(II), Cd(II) and Ni(II) adsorption on Ch-C and thermodynamic studies showed all the adsorption reactions were exothermic, physical and spontaneous. Then, Ch-C and Ch-DES were used for Cu(II), Cd(II) and Ni(II) adsorption from competitive aqueous media in the second phase. The Langmuir model showed that the maximum adsorption capacity of chitin in a multi-component system is for Cu(II), with maximum adsorption capacity of 42.20 mg/g for Ch-DES versus 32.88 mg/g for Ch-C, showing an improvement of approximately 28% for _ under same experimental conditions. The _ of Cd(II) and Ni(II) were 29.85 and 19.71 mg/g onto Ch-C, 38.25 and 23.48 mg/g onto Ch-DES. The pseudo-second-order best fitted all the experimental data and the thermodynamic study showed that all the adsorption reactions were exothermic, physical and spontaneous. While DESs were utilized as a green extraction medium for chitin, a comprehensive assessment should be conducted for the potential impacts to disposal or reuse, especially in large-scale applications