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Communities of Practice for the Empowerment of Future French Second Language Teachers: A Critical Complexity-Informed Perspective
No full textIn Canada, there is an increasing concern about the rise of neoliberal priorities in initial teacher education (ITE) policy and practices. Particularly in Ontario, governments have deployed techniques of governance to reform educational systems in an effort to achieve economic goals. This has resulted in an alarming decline in the retention of early-career teachers generally, and French second language (FSL) teachers specifically. While researchers have pointed to the need to bolster Faculties of Education to support early-career teachers before they enter the classroom, they also recognize that universities are subject to their own unique pressures, courtesy of neoliberalism. Set against the backdrop of an Ontario ITE program, this thesis by articles reports on a complex case study that examined the emerging practices of 18 language-focused teacher candidates as they participated in four voluntary communities of practice (CoP) over an eight-month period between 2022-2023. In these voluntary CoPs, candidates had the chance to pursue their own professional learning goals, assert their own norms and values, and develop their own practices. Anchored in a framework of resilience governance, and drawing from principles of complexity theory-critical realism (CTCR), data were collected through a variety of sources, including recordings of CoP meetings, interviews, artifacts, and a researcher journal. Taking each CoP as a unit of analysis, data were first analyzed with regard to the elements of the candidates' practices, reconstructed into narratives, and then contextualized into a complex case study. With support from the three CoP lenses of learning, innovating, and defending, I present the findings through three articles which ground the candidates' practices in educational theories related to mentorship, collaborative inquiry, and resistance. Despite the benefits that these CoPs afforded, such as increased opportunities for candidates to try out new roles, to have more control over the learning process, and to question cultural norms in the ITE program, findings showed that candidates still struggled to sustain the momentum of the groups and often reproduced dominant discourses in their practices. Ultimately, this study highlights that trying to support the autonomy of teacher candidates through policy does not offer them a means of empowerment, nor respite from the neoliberal pressures in ITE programming
Characterizing the Immune Cell Transcriptomic Response to Sustained Low Dose Ionizing Radiation Exposure
No full textThis study investigates the effects of sustained low dose ionizing radiation (LDIR) exposure on the murine immune system, focusing on the molecular mechanisms and cellular responses to low dose rate whole-body -radiation. Female C57BL/6 mice were continuously exposed to low dose rate 60Co -radiation over a period of 7 days, resulting in cumulative absorbed doses of 10 mGy and 100 mGy. Immediately following the exposure period, hematological analysis, flow cytometry, bulk RNA-sequencing, and single-cell RNA-sequencing were employed to comprehensively assess immune cell populations and their gene expression profiles.
Our findings indicate that the LDIR exposure model employed induced, at most, minimal perturbations to the immune system. Hematological metrics showed no significant changes in the abundance of hematopoietic cells in blood. Flow cytometry revealed no significant differences in the proportion of immune cell subsets in the spleen, thymus, and bone marrow across radiation conditions. Transcriptomic analyses identified minimal differentially expressed genes of low magnitude. Unsupervised single-cell RNA-seq analysis further confirmed the absence of significant perturbations to immune cell transcriptomes.
These results suggest a preservation of immune cell homeostasis under sustained low dose-rate exposure conditions. This study represents the first single-cell transcriptomic investigation of immune cells following whole-body exposure to low dose ionizing radiation. It contributes to a broader understanding of radiation biology, emphasizing that the effects of low-dose radiation on the immune system can be limited at very low dose-rates in mice. These findings may inform future research on radiation exposure and contribute to assessing the risks associated with chronic low-dose radiation in various contexts, from medical treatments to occupational exposures
Modeling Human-AI Cognitive Alignment on Protected Data
No full textThis study explores the quantifying of cognitive alignment between human expert reasoning and Large Language Model (LLM) generated solutions, in protected sensitive data environments, through Research Data Management (RDM) practices that are crucial to trustworthy AI systems. Using economic risk assessments as our data domain, we propose a novel approach that leverages oneAPI's unified computing capabilities to process and synthesize sensitive data, while maintaining privacy, to establish a performance baseline for human-centered Artificial Intelligence (AI). Our preliminary study analyzes 10 economic cases, first by modeling the topics with Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) and human analysis, and then by comparing patterns with the LLM generated insights using accelerated topic modeling. The methodology introduces a four-tier privacy preservation metric that quantifies information exposure rates, entity detection, and topic-level abstraction. Initial results demonstrate a 82% topic alignment between human-AI reasoning patterns, while maintaining a privacy preservation of 84% on our proposed scale. The oneAPI implementation shows promising results in handling unified computer-intensive privacy-preserving transformations. This research contributes to the field of privacy-aware AI-human collaboration in sensitive data domains, where reasoning alignment and data protection are crucial.University of Ottawa Research, Ottawa Canada
Columbia University, New York NY US
Trapped in Transition: A Multi-Methods Assessment of Sexual and Reproductive Health Needs for Youth in Albania
No full textYouth in Albania are initiating sexual activity at an earlier age. However, use of all forms of contraception has significantly declined in the last decade and uptake now stands at 4%. The self-reported prevalence of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and STI symptoms has risen dramatically, as has the reliance on abortion as the predominant method of family planning. In 2020-2022, we conducted a multi-method qualitative study in Albania to document the availability and accessibility of sexual and reproductive health (SRH) services and examine challenges that youth face when seeking SRH care. In order to better understand the current political, social, and cultural landscape with regard to reproductive health services available to adolescents and young adults in Albania, we conducted semi-structured interviews with different key informants. Adolescents and young adults from various regions and backgrounds were invited to report their knowledge of and practices surrounding sexual and reproductive health services in an online survey. We also conducted semi-structured interviews with youth to explore more in-depth youth's awareness of and experiences with sexual and reproductive health services in their region. Additionally, we conducted a service availability mapping exercise and a curriculum review to determine the availability of sexual and reproductive health services for youth and assess the quality of sexuality education in Albania.
Lack of youth-friendly services, poor infrastructure, widespread lack of awareness and fear of judgment contribute to the underutilization of SRH services among youth in Albania. Furthermore, existing sexuality education programs and interventions are inadequate and ineffective, leading to misinformation and misconceptions regarding SRH. Development of contextually relevant sexuality education and culturally resonant training materials could play a key role in improving the effectiveness of sexual health education. Improving knowledge, awareness, and infrastructure, alongside investing in establishing youth-friendly services, are essential to enhancing accessibility and quality of SRH services for Albanian youth. --
Les jeunes en Albanie initient leur activité sexuelle à un âge de plus en plus précoce. Cependant, l'utilisation de toutes les formes de contraception a considérablement diminué au cours de la dernière décennie et l'adoption se situe désormais à 4 %. La prévalence auto-déclarée des infections sexuellement transmissibles (IST) et des symptômes d'IST a augmenté de manière spectaculaire, de même que le recours à l'avortement en tant que méthode de planification familiale prédominante. De 2020 à 2022, nous avons mené une étude qualitative multiméthode en Albanie afin de documenter la disponibilité et l'accessibilité des services de santé sexuelle et reproductive (SSR) et d'examiner les défis auxquels les jeunes sont confrontés lorsqu'ils cherchent des soins de santé en SSR. Afin de mieux comprendre le paysage politique, social et culturel actuel en matière de services de santé reproductive disponibles pour les adolescents et les jeunes adultes en Albanie, nous avons mené des entretiens semi-structurés avec différents informateurs clés. Des adolescents et des jeunes adultes de diverses régions et origines ont été invités à faire part de leurs connaissances et de leurs pratiques en matière de services de santé sexuelle et reproductive dans une enquête en ligne. Nous avons également mené des entretiens semi-structurés avec les jeunes pour explorer plus en profondeur la sensibilisation des jeunes et leurs expériences avec les services de santé sexuelle et reproductive dans leur région. De plus, nous avons réalisé un exercice de cartographie de la disponibilité des services et une revue de programmes pour déterminer la disponibilité des services de santé sexuelle et reproductive pour les jeunes et évaluer la qualité de l'éducation à la sexualité en Albanie.
Le manque de services adaptés aux jeunes, la mauvaise infrastructure, le manque généralisé de sensibilisation et la crainte du jugement contribuent à la sous-utilisation des services de SSR chez les jeunes en Albanie. De plus, les programmes et interventions existants en matière d'éducation à la sexualité sont inadéquats et inefficaces, ce qui entraîne des informations erronées et des idées fausses sur la SSR. Le développement de programmes d'éducation à la sexualité contextuellement pertinents et de matériaux de formation culturellement résonants pourrait jouer un rôle clé dans l'amélioration de l'efficacité de l'éducation à la santé sexuelle. Améliorer les connaissances, la sensibilisation et l'infrastructure, ainsi que l'investissement dans l'établissement de services adaptés aux jeunes, sont essentiels pour améliorer l'accessibilité et la qualité des services de SSR pour les jeunes Albanais
Uncovering Peripheral Organ Defects in Spinal Muscular Atrophy: Insights from AAV9-SMN Gene Therapy
No full textSpinal muscular atrophy (SMA) is an autosomal recessive neuromuscular disease characterized by motor neuron loss and skeletal muscle atrophy. SMA is caused by the loss of the SMN1 gene and low SMN protein levels. Although lower motor neurons are a primary target, there is evidence that peripheral organ defects contribute to SMA. Motor neurons are nevertheless considered the primary target for treatment, and therapies directed to the central nervous system (CNS) are used on SMA patients and in clinical trials. Here, we aimed to explore the contributions of the peripheral organs to SMA by first performing a systematic characterization of the peripheral and neuronal defects in the Smn²ᴮᐟ⁻ mouse model of SMA and then comparing the rescue effect of either intravenous (IV) or intracerebroventricular (ICV) delivery of scAAV9-cba-SMN on the mice. Smn²ᴮᐟ⁻ mice displayed several peripheral defects prior to motor neuron loss. ICV injections increased SMN in peripheral organs and the CNS while IV administration increased SMN in peripheral tissues only, largely omitting the CNS. Further, ICV injections provided better motor neuron and motor function protection. Surprisingly, both delivery routes resulted in an equal long-term rescue effect on survival, weight, and peripheral defects. These results demonstrate the early and independent contributions of the peripheral organs to SMA pathology. Our work also emphasizes a need for a holistic approach to SMA management, including treatments that target motor neuron-independent pathways and the use of a set of biomarkers that monitors multiple systems
Coordination Deficits in Parkinson’s Disease: Effects of Attention and Medicine
No full textParkinson’s disease is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that begins unilaterally in the dopaminergic neurons of the basal ganglia. This neurodegeneration results in various cognitive and motor deficits, including movement asymmetry, attentional deficits, and impairments in timing and rhythm, all of which contribute to or reflect the development of deficits in coordination. Dopaminergic medication is effective in treating some symptoms, but not all symptoms are responsive to dopamine. The purpose of this thesis was to better understand the nature and extents of coordination deficits in people with Parkinson’s disease. In particular, the three objectives of this thesis were to: 1) Test measurement validity of existing (a)symmetry metrics in the literature, 2) Measure the effects of a dual task on interlimb coordination in people with Parkinson’s disease while walking, and 3) Determine the effects of dopaminergic medication and auditory cueing on coordination of the upper and lower limbs in people with Parkinson’s disease. Article 1 showed that several existing symmetry metrics were equally valid and sensitive to producing findings of asymmetry, but one metric and one common transformation were found to cause or have significantly decreased sensitivity. Article 2 found that multiple aspects of interlimb coordination in people with Parkinson’s disease were not affected by a dual task, which suggests that interlimb coordination remains automatic, and not requiring attention, in Parkinson’s disease. Article 3 found that dopaminergic medication did not generally affect timing in people with Parkinson’s disease, but the presence of timing deficits in comparison to healthy controls were confirmed. These findings suggest that timing deficits in people with Parkinson’s disease are not directly the result of dopaminergic neurodegeneration, and alternate solutions (e.g. non-dopaminergic or non pharmaceutical therapies) should be sought
The Production-Processing Paradox: Examining the Cognitive Effects of Code-Switching Via FEBLOC, a Novel Ecologically Valid Switching Corpus
No full textMany fluent bilinguals pass from one language to the another in a single conversation, seemingly without effort. However, in-lab experiments show that reading or hearing code-switching elicits cognitive costs (e.g., longer reaction times, distinct brain responses, etc.). The present dissertation teases apart this production-processing paradox and examines the cognitive consequences of code-switching according to modality.
First, nineteen in-group pairs of French-English bilinguals (i.e., siblings, couples, parent-child, etc.) completed a series of speech elicitation activities in a private room. Their conversations were recorded, transcribed, and coded for language membership (English, French, code-switched). This speech data—coined the French-English Bilingual Loved Ones Corpus (FEBLOC)—resulted in a dataset of 36,000 utterances (18% code-switches). Exploratory analyses revealed that i) the amount of within-speaker code-switching did not impact performance on the speech elicitation activities; ii) between-speaker switching was related to decreased proficiency and performance; iii) members from the same testing pair tended to match each other's language usage, with no effect of relationship type (e.g., couples vs. relatives); iv) women tended to code-switch more often than men; and v) participants were inaccurate in self-evaluating their code-switching habits.
Second, since FEBLOC contains multiparty speech (pairs of bilinguals), it was possible to compute proportions of produced switches (i.e., what partner-A said themselves) and heard switches (i.e., what partner-A heard from partner-B) for each participant. These indices were then examined in relation to the bilinguals’ performance on a subsequent behavioural Flanker task. The findings revealed a dissociation in the cognitive consequences of code-switching according to modality. Producing and hearing code-switches were both linked to ameliorated interference suppression (quicker responses to conflict trials), but interference disengagement was uniquely negatively associated to producing switches (slower responses to non-conflict trials). I speculated that producing dense code-switches engages proactive control (which impedes task disengagement), but that hearing inter utterance code-switches engages reactive control (which does not hinder task disengagement). This difference reflects the inherent nature of producing vs. processing: speech output can be biased according to a speaker’s own internal state (e.g., the accessibility of a given lexical item). By contrast, the listener is ‘at the mercy’ of the speaker’s internal state and must process input as it arrives.
Finally, FEBLOC was utilized in a pilot EEG experiment. Ten new French-English participants listened to forty excerpts of genuine conversations from the corpus (half bilingual, half unilingual); they also completed a Flanker task, and five minutes of resting-state EEGs. The passive listening EEGs for each excerpt were split into equal-sized segments. Spectral components were then extracted and averaged across conditions, giving a measure of ‘global’ processing in the frequency domain. During both resting state and passive listening, language background characteristics (e.g., entropy) modulated gamma oscillations. Equivalent global neural responses were observed for densely code- switched excerpts and unilingual excerpts during the passive listening task. However, participants with larger N2 Flanker effects exhibited decreased code-switching listening costs, while participants with larger LPC Flanker effects exhibited increased code-switching listening costs. Under the assumption that early ERP components reflect bottom-up mechanisms and later components reflect top-down mechanisms, I speculated that processing code-switches is positively associated to (top-down) reactive control abilities. Nevertheless, the absence of global costs corresponds well with bilinguals’ feelings about code-switching: though bilingualism doubtlessly shapes cognition (even at rest), code-switching costs are probably functionally inconsequential outside of the lab.
Overall, the present dissertation demonstrates that bilingual production and bilingual processing involve distinct mechanisms: producing (dense) code-switches engages (and therefore potentially trains) bottom-up proactive control, while processing switching is modulated by top-down reactive control. The original data included in the present dissertation circumvents many of the pre-existing issues in the code-switching literature (e.g., stigmatization, ecological validity, subjectivity), since (naive) in-group bilinguals were tested in a private room, and switching habits were operationalized objectively. With any luck, the corpus can continue to instruct future bilingualism research
Design, Synthesis, and Kinetic Evaluation of Hydrophobic Transglutaminase 2 Covalent Inhibitors
No full textTransglutaminase 2 (TG2) is a multifunctional, calcium-dependent enzyme that is ubiquitously expressed in the human body, capable of both acyltransferase and G-protein activities. The activities of TG2, when dysregulated, can contribute negatively to several physiological conditions including celiac disease, fibrosis, and cancer. Despite these contributions, there are currently no marketed clinical therapies that directly target the action of TG2. To aid in the development of methods to combat the negative effects of TG2, and to better understand the enzyme as a whole, this thesis focuses on developing small molecules capable of inactivating TG2’s catalysis. Described herein are the design, synthesis, and kinetic evaluation of irreversible covalent inhibitors of TG2’s acyltransferase activity. All molecules included maintained an established acrylamide-based inhibitor scaffold with systematic variation to one end of the molecule using cycloalkyl and aromatic hydrophobic groups by a novel synthetic approach. This was done to determine if this scaffold’s inhibition efficiency could be optimized by tailoring the hydrophobic group structure to TG2’s hydrophobic “D-site.” General trends were elucidated from the kinetic results of these inhibitors regarding hydrophobic group structures that can be employed in the design of future TG2 inhibitors with this scaffold. The investigation also identified several compounds with some of the highest inhibition efficiencies of any known irreversible inhibitor of TG2: compounds 5a, 12b, and 12c. These inhibitors may be valuable tools for subsequent research of TG2 and treatments addressing the pathological conditions that involve the enzyme
Assessment of Seismic Site Amplification at Newly Deployed Earthquake Early Warning Stations in Canada
No full textA well-implemented Earthquake Early Warning (EEW) system can warn populations and critical infrastructure operators about imminent shaking from earthquakes. The Canadian EEW network covers regions of high seismic hazard, dense population, and critical infrastructure. In some regions, site amplification due to soft soils and sediments are expected to cause deviations from predicted ground motion, which impacts the dissemination of alerts from the EEW system. The goal of this study is to provide empirical site amplification factors at EEW stations which reflect deviations from expected ground motion with respect to a hard rock (reference) site. We calculate the horizontal-to-vertical spectral ratios (HVSRs) at each site using ambient seismic noise and estimate the predominant site frequency (fₛᵢₜₑ) using a systematic Gaussian curve-fitting algorithm. From a total of 172 Canadian EEW stations investigated, 34% show site amplification compared to 14% of the stations outside of the EEW network, which are predominantly located on bedrock. Site amplification is assessed at stations with available earthquake data using the ground motion spectral ratio (GMSR), and station magnitude residual methods. We show consistency in fₛᵢₜₑ calculated from both the HVSR ambient noise or GMSR strong motion methods. We evaluate and compare the calculated ground motion amplifications with station magnitude residuals to show that both provide a reasonable estimate of overall site amplification and magnitude overestimation. Finally, by defining a relationship between fₛᵢₜₑ and site amplification, we calculate site amplification at the newly deployed EEW stations using only ambient noise data
Specialists Triaging Referrals to eConsult: a feasibility study including acceptability and impact of providing advice on primary health care providers
No full textAbstract Background Specialists review referrals for appropriateness and urgency. Limited capacity results in specialists declining referrals leaving primary care providers (PCP), patients, and specialists frustrated. Since specialist availability is unlikely to improve significantly, innovative solutions are required. This study evaluated the feasibility, acceptability, safety and impact of a new referral triage option Triaging Referrals to eConsult (TReC) which enables specialists to provide advice in lieu of an appointment (advice only) or provide advice to support the PCP until the appointment occurs (advice and appointment). Methods Utilization metrics were prospectively collected (number (%) of referrals converted, time from receipt of referral to completion (response time) and specialist self-reported billing time. To assess PCP opinions on safety (advice was clearly identified and actionable) and acceptability (comfort in patient not seeing a specialist, additional time burden and support for expansion) two surveys, one for those referrals triaged to advice only and another for those triaged to advice and appointment, were faxed 14 days after the referral response. Results From November 1, 2022, to October 31, 2023, five specialties converted 930/16,880 referrals—656 (3.8%) to Advice Only and 274 (1.6%) to Advice and Appointment for an overall conversion rate of 5.5%. 192/1010 (19%) PCPs returned the survey with over 80% agreeing that the advice was easily recognizable, conversion to eConsult was acceptable and the advice was helpful and actionable. Interpretation Enabling specialists to provide advice to PCPs, often in lieu of an appointment, was acceptable, feasible with no major patient safety concerns