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CCMEME 2023 Proceedings
Get PDFProceedings of the 2023 Symposium held April 26, 27 - 29. at Brock University
Canada’s recreational cannabis legalization and medical cannabis patient activity, 2017–2022
Get PDFObjectives. To estimate changes in medical cannabis patient activity after Canada’s recreational cannabis legalization.
Methods. I used linear regressions of interrupted times series models to analyze medical cannabis patient registrations per 10 000 residents, purchases per 100 registrations, and packages per purchase in Canada’s 10 provinces between April 2017 and December 2022. I tested relationships between the recreational law’s passage in June 2018, recreational sales starting in October 2018, and the arrival of edibles and vapes in December 2019.
Results. Medical patient registrations initially increased; they slowed after the law passed and started decreasing after edibles became available. Medical purchasing frequencies initially decreased; they decreased further in proportion to recreational sales but stabilized after edibles became available. Medical purchase sizes were initially stable; they began increasing after edibles became available.
Conclusions. Canada saw substantial decreases in medical cannabis patient registrations, but the remaining patients stabilized their purchasing frequencies and increased their purchase sizes.
Public Health Implications. Other countries might see significant changes in patient usage of their medical cannabis systems after nationwide recreational cannabis legalization
Implementing Single Session Interventions in Educational Settings for Youth and Adolescents Experiencing Anxiety Symptoms
Get PDFThis study examined the effectiveness of single session interventions for youth and adolescents experiencing anxiety symptoms in educational settings. Conducting a systematic literature review aimed to answer the following question: How effective are SSIs for treating anxiety symptoms in individuals 10 to 18 years of age? There were 14 articles which met the inclusion criteria. The articles yielded some minimal significant outcomes and many trending outcomes that will be useful in conducting future research to better understand the specific role single session interventions play in effectiveness for youth and adolescents experiencing anxiety symptoms
Understanding Grade 4-8 Teachers’ Instructional Practices and Beliefs as a Function of Transdisciplinary Coaching in STEM-Language Literacy
Get PDFChanges in STEM education in Ontario have resulted in the need for teachers to have professional development and coaching support to introduce a cross-curricular, transdisciplinary instructional approach while honouring teachers’ knowledge, attitudes, and instructional methods. This study sought to introduce Grade 48 teachers to transdisciplinary STEM and language literacy through a five-session coaching partnership with the Principal Student Investigator. Participating teachers and students solved real-world problems using a transdisciplinary rather than typical single-subject instructional delivery. The study adopted a generic descriptive qualitative approach (Elliot & Timulak, 2021) to investigate Grade 48 teachers’ practices and beliefs. Four types of data—pre-questionnaires, interviews, researcher reflections, and fieldnotes—were coded to highlight recurring concepts and descriptive words and expressions. Three meaningful themes and sub-themes were identified to respond to the research question. Findings indicated that changes to teacher instructional practices were possible from starting with structured practices, shifting to inquiry-based, student-driven learning, seeing increasing student motivation and problem-solving and identifying the need for more coaching time. Teachers also saw the benefits of learning coding alongside students and how to implement cross-curricular assessment. Teacher beliefs varied with regards to conceptions of teaching language literacy in STEM; their initial apprehensions shifted to realizations, reservations about accountability related to transdisciplinary learning were expressed, and the positive outcomes of transdisciplinary learning impact on students was witnessed. A productive working relationship was established between the coach and teachers. The teachers expressed that the coach was flexible and open, met the teachers where they were at, listened to their needs, and adhered to the gradual release of responsibility to extend the teachers to their next level of instructional acumen. The study identified how teachers’ practices and beliefs might change when provided with coaching support through professional learning (PL) sessions focused on transdisciplinary approaches to STEM-Language Literacy education. Implications for practice include coaching support for teachers to evolve from single-subject teaching to adopting STEM-Language Literacy with the transdisciplinary approach. Implications for theory suggest that scaffolding teachers through the PL experience with STEM-Language Literacy is consistent with the experiential learning theory (Dewey, 1938)
Emerging Variants and Fading Immunity: Analyzing the Impact in Epidemic Modeling
Get PDFOutbreaks like the recent COVID-19 pandemic underscore the importance of quick and informed responses to control and mitigate the epidemic. This thesis aims to develop a model that can provide deeper insights into how epidemics progress and behave. Accurate epidemic simulation can provide valuable insights into how an epidemic affects the population.
This thesis considers both epidemic spread and epidemic severity, and integrates fading immunity into the epidemic model, creating a more realistic representation of real-life scenarios. This research also extends the model by considering diverse population structures in the contact network where different age groups have different levels of immunity strength.
An evolutionary algorithm was used to generate and evolve personal contact networks. We analyzed the epidemic dynamics within these networks, focusing on how different proportions of young and old individuals impact the spread and severity of the epidemic. Results reveal that older populations with weaker immunity experience more severe infections, while younger populations with stronger immunity mitigate both spread and severity. The thesis also explores the impact on variant generation, showing that when using the epidemic spread fitness function there is a tendency to produce more variants than when using the epidemic severity fitness function, highlighting the virus's need to mutate in response to existing immunity.
When the population is dominated by younger individuals, even though fewer variants are being generated, successful variants tend to exhibit a higher mutation distance to overcome the robust immunity present in the community
Supporting Mental Health Education in Ontario Secondary Schools: A Cross-Curricular Handbook for Ontario Secondary Teachers
Get PDFIt has been almost two full years since the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic (2019), the effects of which are currently being seen in Ontario today within the education system, with a profound escalation in mental health challenges among children and youth. Educators are noticing an increase in mental health issues brought forward by students, and the increase in mental health issues continues to be at the forefront of conversations held by secondary school teachers because of the pressures they face as role models and caring adults. Teachers, however, have identified they are not comfortable helping students who come forward with mental health issues because they, too, lack mental health literacy; they do not feel equipped with the knowledge and understanding of mental health, and feel ill-prepared because they have not received adequate education, training, or professional development on the topic. Some teachers are also avoiding conversations in classes related to mental health because they are unaware of the available and accessible resources, services, strategies, and tools. To address this gap, the researcher developed a mental health handbook in alignment with the Aligned and Integrated Model (AIM) framework from School Mental Health Ontario (2023) that offers a solution to improve secondary teachers’ readiness in supporting students’ mental health and well-being. Focusing on Tier 1 of AIM, the handbook is designed to improve educators’ mental health literacy through understanding early identification, prevention, and early intervention, ensuring a holistic approach to address the varying mental health needs within the school setting. The handbook is also intended to help educators recognize, respond to, and support students who might be experiencing mental health challenges. Implementing the handbook within secondary schools throughout Ontario might hold the potential to enhance teachers’ confidence and comfortability in assisting students who come forward with mental health concerns and, ultimately, foster an environment where students feel supported and empowered to navigate their mental health challenges with both efficacy and dignity
Embedding a Culture of Research in Canadian Community Hospitals
Get PDFThis study aims to understand how research culture is experienced and shaped in Canadian community hospitals to provide strategies for strengthening community hospital research culture. This qualitative interpretive study employed Schein’s Model of Organizational Culture as a theoretical framework to identify the underlying components of research culture. Data was collected via semi-structured interviews and analyzed using reflexive thematic analysis. The final sample included 38 participants, representing 20 different community hospitals across 6 provinces. As community hospital research programs advanced, participants described a shift in research culture based on three key themes: Awareness and Engagement, Understanding the ‘Why’ and Leadership Support and Organizational Commitment. Aligning with each theme, recommended strategies to achieve an embedded culture of research involve six categories: communications; relationship building; mentorship, training and education opportunities; selecting locally relevant studies; system-level support; and ‘top-down’ versus ‘bottom-up’ approaches. These findings illustrate how research culture is experienced in community hospitals and offers targeted strategies for strengthening community hospital research culture at various levels of experience. Overall, strengthening community hospital research culture is necessary for improving Canadian health system research capacity
Science curriculum-making for the Anthropocene: perspectives and possibilities
Get PDFThis paper illuminates how science curriculum-making can be reinvigorated to address urgent local and global socioscientific issues that centres place as an interconnected part of larger socio-ecological and socio-technical systems. Given how industrial and capitalistic extractive practices have pushed the planet beyond its complex life-sustaining limits, we draw on theoretical perspectives that recognize schools as complex systems, nested within local, regional, and global social-ecological-technological systems. Science curriculum-making in these systems prompt dialogue regarding knowledge and competencies required to address planetary sustainability, as well as ontological questions connected to systems, relations, and responsibility. Consequently, schools are important places for curriculum enactment practices. Furthermore, teachers, students, administrators, and school community members are enmeshed with local ecologies that are constituted in the cultural, material, and social arrangements found in or brought to a school and its local community. In our work, we draw on a curriculum commonplaces perspective to investigate curriculum-making practices. Specifically, we use empirical data from two cases of elementary and secondary science teachers developing and enacting curriculum and adopt a philosophical-empirical deductive approach illustrative of how to apply complexity theory, systems thinking, and associated ontological and epistemological views to practical reasoning of science curriculum-making for schools.This work was supported by Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council [435-2018-59
Can low-dose lithium supplementation protect against sarcopenic obesity in ovariectomized mice?
Get PDFDuring menopause, females lose the protective effects of estrogen and are at risk for age-related diseases, including sarcopenic obesity. Sarcopenic obesity is the coexistence of excess adiposity and muscle atrophy and weakness that is associated with age. Glycogen synthase kinase 3 (GSK3) is a well-known negative regulator of muscle mass, strength, and the oxidative fibre type, and has been associated with weight gain and obesity. Our lab has found that inhibiting GSK3 using low-dose lithium (Li) supplementation improves skeletal muscle function, elevates whole-body energy expenditure, and enhances insulin sensitivity in male mice. However, it is unknown whether GSK3 inhibition will have similar benefits in female mice in the presence and absence of estrogen. The purpose of this thesis was to investigate whether low-dose Li supplementation can protect against sarcopenic obesity in ovariectomized (OVX) mice. 28-week-old sham and OVX C57BL/6J mice were divided into a control (con) or Li group, giving rise to four groups: sham-con, OVX-con, sham-Li, and OVX-Li (n = 6-10 per group). OVX-Li mice were provided a dose of 50 mg/kg/day of Li via drinking water for 8 weeks. Energy expenditure was higher in Li-treated mice compared to control mice. However, this increase in energy expenditure did not alter body composition. Force production of soleus and EDL were significantly lower in OVX-con mice compared to sham-con. Li supplementation increased force production of soleus and EDL in OVX mice. Muscle fatigability was improved in soleus, but not EDL, of sham and OVX mice provided with Li supplementation. Glucose handling and insulin sensitivity were not affected by Li treatment, however, fasting blood glucose levels were improved with Li supplementation in OVX mice. OVX-Li mice had greater cage activity than OVX-con mice, which suggests improved muscle function. OVX mice had lower bone mineral density than sham mice, however, this was increased with Li supplementation. In conclusion, low-dose Li supplementation did not alter body composition or glucose handling in OVX mice, but did improve force production, fatigue resistance, energy expenditure, fasting blood glucose levels, cage activity, and BMD, suggesting that GSK3 inhibition may protect against muscle weakness associated with estrogen loss
Niagara Falls and Niagara River stereo cards, n.d.
Get PDFA set of 43 non-commercial stereo cards of Niagara Falls and the Niagara River. Photos include the American Falls and steel arch bridge or Falls View bridge; the Maid of the Mist; the Upper and Lower River rapids; the Horseshoe Falls; and the Whirlpool. The Clifton Hotel can be seen in some of the photographs