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A Comprehensive Analysis of Child and Youth Experiences within Shaking the Movers Workshops: A Discourse Analysis of Canadian UNCRC Implementation Efforts
Get PDFThe United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC, 1989) has been ratified by 197 nations, aiming to protect and provide for the rights of all children and young people. However, signatories such as Canada known as State Parties have mostly failed to adequately implement children’s rights (Senate of Canada, 2007; UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, 1995, 2003, 2012, 2022). Instead of widespread implementation efforts across governments and education systems, smaller organizations have been left to take on rights-based initiatives that provide children with safe spaces to facilitate rights-based education and discussions. In 2007, Carleton University's Landon Pearson Resource Centre for the Study of Childhood and Children’s Rights (LPRC) in Ottawa, worked to ensure this by establishing their annual Shaking the Movers (herein, STM) workshops. These workshops have engaged young Canadians by providing research and education about children’s rights. Over 14 years, these workshops have produced and published 40 reports which consist of the unfiltered and unique perspectives of young people. This qualitative study will use them as data to address the main question: “How are young people in partnership with adult stakeholders involved in the cross-Canada Shaking the Movers workshops understanding and implementing the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child?” The study employs Michel Foucault’s (1981) critical discourse analysis as the methodological framework to systematically analyze the STM reports. It has been adapted as a tool to identify and critique children’s experiences of rights and recognize how adult power relations impact them (Scraton, 1997). The Foucauldian analysis is guided by the sociology of childhood for a more extensive critical review of this database and to facilitate a wider understanding of children as active agents of their own socially constructed world, rather than passive or incomplete future citizens. This context further acknowledges that understandings of childhood are ever-changing and vary based upon history, culture, and politics of society (James & Prout, 1997). The findings of this study emphasize the need for better partnerships between children and adults at all levels of Canadian society for better implementation of the Convention
Investigating the negative regulatory role of neurogranin in IgE-mediated mast cell activation
Get PDFMast cells are granulocytic immune sentinels that drive the chronic inflammatory state characteristic of allergic pathologies, through the release of a plethora of pro-inflammatory mediators following IgE-mediated activation. Calcium mobilization following mast cell activation is essential for degranulation and pro-inflammatory cytokine/chemokine production, processes that require the Ca2+/calmodulin (CaM)-dependent phosphatase, calcineurin. Neurogranin is a protein that regulates Ca2+-mediated signaling pathways by binding and sequestering of CaM, subsequently acting as a critical suppressor of calcineurin phosphatase activity. Neurogranin was previously thought to exist exclusively in the brain; however, this is the first study to demonstrate the presence of neurogranin in mast cells. Since Ca2+/CaM signaling is so critical to the inflammatory response, the objective of this study was to characterize the role of neurogranin in allergen activated mast cells using bone marrow-derived mast cells (BMMCs) from Nrgn+/- mice. In this study, BMMCs from Nrgn+/- and Nrgn+/+ mice were sensitized with IgE overnight and stimulated the next day with TNP-BSA under SCF potentiation. Early phase mast cell degranulation, measured through a -hexosaminidase assay, was demonstrated to be uninterrupted in neurogranin deficient BMMCs. In the late phase, neurogranin was found to function as a negative regulator of the transcription of IL-6 and IL-13 genes, as well as the secretion of IL-6 and TNF. These observed functional effects of neurogranin deficiency were found to be independent of modulation of the MAPK signaling pathway. Inhibitory signals that terminate inappropriate mast cell responses and limit undesirable inflammation remain incompletely defined, and these findings are the first to suggest that neurogranin has an integral role in IgE-mediated mast cell inhibitory signaling
Priority-Based Resource Allocation Model for Vehicular Fog Computing
Get PDFVehicle Fog Computing (VFC) provides opportunities to enhance a vehicle’s processing capability as well as support services and applications for intelligent transportation. Due to its low-latency characteristic, VFC has become progressively valuable and appropriate for delay-sensitive applications. Vehicles must overcome substantial obstacles to match the required services and carry out jobs effectively. Several methods have attempted cooperatively pooling idle vehicle resources, and just a few have looked at priority techniques. We concentrate on hierarchically allocating resources based on priorities. Priority is given to resource requests based on some attributes of the vehicle, such as deadlines, distances, and mobility considerations. Dynamic thresholds are determined using the fuzzy membership functions for each vehicular attribute. Prioritization is arranged using a priority queue to identify and assign managed resources under requests and availability. Our proposed method enables fulfilling QoS standards by reducing the length of time a service request spends in the system queue and ensuring high throughput through effective resource allocation. Simulated evaluations revealed decreased response times and total costs for servicing requests in large-scale urban scenarios
Gen Z and Sustainable Diets: A Holistic Perspective. Understanding Perceptions of and Engagement with the Social, Economic and Environmental Dimensions of a Sustainable Diet
Get PDFCurrent food production methods are causing wide scale degradation of the natural environment thus a shift towards more sustainable agricultural systems is essential in fighting the climate crisis. Understanding how Gen Z, a generation that will inherit the changing climate, relates to the social, economic and environmental aspects of a sustainable diet is important in ensuring they are aware how to make an impact with their dietary choices. This thesis aimed to gain a holistic understanding of Gen Z's perceptions of and engagement with sustainable diets. Two studies were conducted online, examining Canadian youth between the ages of 18-25. The first study took an exploratory approach, aiming to understand what a sustainable diet means to Gen Z in their own words. The second study took a predictive approach, aiming to quantify and understand Gen Z's action stages around a range of sustainable dietary behaviours, including the psychological and educational factors that influence their stage of change. Results from Study One highlighted that youth perceive behaviours centered around supporting their local community and reducing food waste to be effective for promoting a sustainable diet. In addition, over 60% of participants indicated that there were barriers preventing them from engaging in sustainable diets, such as cost. Results from Study Two revealed that a high food literacy score and a strong belief in the efficacy of a behaviour are the two most important predictors of being in an action stage for a range of sustainable dietary behaviours. Together these two studies provide a holistic overview of what sustainable diets mean to Gen Z, how they currently engage with sustainable diets, and ways to encourage action. The thesis also contributes to the scholarly literature on the use of TTM and TPB in assessing the factors that influence engagement with sustainable dietary behaviours. It also offers practical recommendations on how our results can be used to shape policy, educational interventions and marketing towards Gen Z
Landlord-Tenant Matching System: A Design Science Framework
No full textThe recent uptick of immigration in a post-COVID world has seen an increase in number of international students coming into the country. In the current real estate sector, meeting the housing needs of these new immigrants requires a leap of faith by the landlords due to the lack of information available on these new immigrants. The lack of trust in this relationship is a research gap that is addressed by interpreting research done in the field of principal-agency problems to understand information asymmetry and its impact on the relationship and feedback intermediaries as a method of injecting trust. By utilizing a design science approach, this thesis designs a methodological framework that utilizes structured data to evaluate landlords and tenants. The thesis defines attributes of ideal tenant and landlord through a literature survey of rental sectors across the world. These attributes are then measured by applying decision analysis methods to the structured data to generate an objective numeric score for both tenants and landlords. This score is then used to generate a candidate list of potential tenants for the landlord to choose from. The system presented by the thesis utilizes a methodology that is field agnostic. The ability to characterize entities would be of great benefit to other ecosystems that rely on complete understanding of its participants to forge business or transactional relationships. The presence of such a system would alleviate the barriers faced by new immigrants in the rental market and alleviate the need for an act of goodwill from the landlords
Evaluation of injury surveillance data collected during major multisport games: Informing a standardized prospective injury surveillance system for the Canada Games
Get PDFThis thesis includes two projects focused on the injury surveillance system used by the Canada Games (CG). The first, examined the interrater reliability of coding of injury information collected using the injury surveillance system employed at the CG. The injury report form data from the 2017 and 2019 CG was independently coded by two researchers with sports medicine backgrounds and based on the categorization and definitions used by the 2020 International Olympic Committee (IOC) consensus statement on methods for recording and reporting injury and illness data and the Orchard Sports Injury and Illness Classification System (OSIICS).
The level of agreement based on percent agreement and Cohen’s kappa analysis (most interrater reliability was between moderate and substantial) was then determined between the two coded sets of data. The average percent agreement between the two researchers was 78.97% and the available information resulted in 8% of unknown or undiagnosed interpretations.
The second project investigated injuries in both male and female able-bodied athletes competing in the same sports at the CG. Available registration and medical reports from the 2009-2019 summer and winter games were coded using the IOC consensus statement and OSIICS. The Summer Games had an incidence rate of 13.57 injuries (95%CI 12.70-14.48) and 13.22 injuries (95%CI 12.39-14.10) per 1000 athlete-days for female and male athletes, respectively, with an incidence rate ratio of 1.02 (95% CI 0.93-1.12). The winter Games had an incidence rate of 13.68 injuries (95%CI 12.65-14.78) and 13.91 injuries (95%CI 12.89-14.99) per 1000 athlete-days for female and male athletes, respectively, with an incidence rate ratio of 0.98 (95% CI 0.88-1.10). The CG had a higher rate of injuries, specifically gradual onset injuries compared to the Olympic Games (OG) and Youth Olympic Games (YOG).
The lack of standardization in the current medical records does not allow for consistent coding of minimal recommended injury surveillance data. This may explain the significant difference in injury rates reported at the CG compared to the OG and YOG. A new injury surveillance system that is up to international standards may assist in more accurate reporting and comparison across similar studies
Letter by Ella Reeve Bloor, c. 1918
Get PDFElla Reeve Bloor (1862-1951), also known as “Mother Bloor”, was an American activist and socialist who advocated for workers’ and women’s rights. In 1897 she joined the Social Democratic Party but moved the following year to the more radical Socialist Labor Party. However, in 1902 she returned to the Social Democratic Party, which had been renamed the Socialist Party of America. For the next 17 years she dedicated herself to working for the Party, and became the first woman to run for state office in 1908. In 1919 she was expelled from the Socialist Party with other radical members, who then organized independently as the Communist Labor Party.A letter by Ella Reeve “Mother” Bloor, prominent labour organizer and feminist activist in the United States socialist movement, addressed to “my dear children”. There is no date on the letter but it was likely written around 1918. The letter is written on Liberty Defense Union letterhead and is three pages. Bloor served on the General Committee of the Liberty Defense Union, which was a more activist alternative to the American Civil Liberties Union. The letter was written as she was travelling for meetings and speaking engagements, making stops in Beamsville, Ontario, Niagara Falls, Buffalo, and Olean, New York.
Bloor apologizes for additional expenses incurred on her travels and comments on the difficulties of travelling and homesickness, noting that “I’m very joyful because I saw you—I needed you so couldn’t wait another day—some people call it “homesickness” when one gets into the condition I was in in Jamestown, some call it loneliness, but it was literally starvation for love”. She continues that “[I] am in a strange comrade’s home—The Mayor says we can’t have a meeting—but I guess we will have one for there is no ordinance against it, only the Mayor’s word”.
She also comments on her friend Horace Traubel, writing that “I see our dear Horace struggling with age, poverty, and pain—and feel such a helpless longing to make his life brighter. I’ll be so thankful when I know that he is sitting in your back yard with Betty and the baby, and Mildred and Frank building up his soul, with loving care, then his body will surely be healed. We cannot, we must not, let him slip away from us—His life is worth more to the world than ever before, his power grows each day…” Traubel was a writer known for his friendship with Walt Whitman but was also a devoted Socialist. He suffered a stroke in 1918 and was cared for by family, friends and comrades until his death in the summer of 1919.
The letter ends noting that “I’m very much afraid that I cannot get to the Whitman fellowship, but I’ve had my “Fellowship” with the real Whitman lovers over in Hamilton and now I must go out to fight the Mayor—isn’t it funny that we, who so love peace, have to fight—even have to fight for love”
Influence of thermal treatment on aptamer structure & Synthesis and purification of modified Acinetobacter baumanii-binding aptamers
Get PDFAptamers are single-stranded nucleic acid sequences which bind to defined targets with high affinity and specificity, primarily through formation of unique secondary and tertiary structures. Aptamers are promising tools in biotechnology, with applications in diagnostics, biosensors, and therapeutics. However, their translation from research to application has been limited by recently reported issues with aptamer reproducibility – aptamers are often incompletely characterized in the literature. Since aptamers bind to their targets via unique secondary and tertiary structures, these binding structures need to be properly characterized. As nucleic acid structure may be highly flexible, it is important to outline the conditions under which the aptamer forms the correct ligand-binding structure. To this end, adenosine-, ampicillin-, and quinine-binding aptamers were subjected to different thermal pre-treatment conditions. Following thermal treatment, aptamers were analyzed using anion-exchange HPLC, circular dichroism and UV/vis spectroscopy, and thermal melt curves. Results clearly demonstrate the conformational flexibility of aptamer sequences depending on thermal pre-treatment, which may have implications for binding. These findings may help guide decisions for aptamer selection and optimization.
Towards a different goal, solid-phase phosphoramidite chemistry was used for the synthesis of modified aptamers which are reported to bind Acinetobacter baumannii, and synthesis products were purified using anion-exchange HPLC. In one synthesis, the 80mer Aci55 was synthesized with a 5’-DBCO functionality for future coupling with azido-nanoparticles containing antibiotics as a therapeutic for the treatment of bacterial infections. A short-linker DBCO-Aci55 was synthesized with sufficient purity, but the long-linker DBCO-Aci55 synthesis conditions require further optimization. In a second synthesis, Aci55 and point mutation variants were synthesized with a 5’-FAM functionality to be analyzed for binding capabilities against different A. baumannii isolates. Nine FAM-modified Aci55 sequence variants were synthesized with sufficient purity as determined by MS and HPLC, with yields ranging from 6-9%. This work highlights the limitations of synthesis and purification of long oligonucleotides and proposes modifications to be made to the standard synthesis scheme to improve overall coupling efficiency
Research Patterns in the Treatment of Adults with Problem Behaviour and Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities: A Quantitative Systematic Review
Get PDFThe purpose of this study was to conduct a quantitative systematic literature review to examine research trends and patterns in the treatment of adults diagnosed with intellectual and developmental disabilities who engage in problem behaviour. The aim of the study was three-fold. First, to comment on adult participant and study characteristic trends in the problem behaviour literature. Second, to report on treatment effectiveness outcomes across various applied behaviour analytic treatments in single-case experimental design research using the Tau Baseline Corrected (Tau-BC) effect size estimate. Finally, to report effect size estimates associated with published and unpublished literature. In this review, descriptive findings of 76 single-case experimental design articles were summarized and Tau-BC effect size estimates were calculated for cases across 65 articles (N=125). Overall, adults were featured in approximately 13% of the sample, and aggression and self-injurious behaviour were the most frequently reported problem behaviours. Functional communication training was the most frequently used treatment. An array of 42 unique multi-protocol treatments were observed across studies. Regarding treatment gains as communicated by effect size, multi-protocol treatments were associated with larger effect sizes (i.e., more effective) compared to single-protocol treatments. Multi-protocol treatments featuring reinforcement elements were more commonly observed in the literature; however, multi-protocol treatments that featured a punishment component coincided with the largest effect size. Implications and directions for future research are discussed
“Congratulations on being drafted … Time to Start Planning for Retirement!”: NHL Players’ reflections on post-career planning
Get PDFThe purpose of this study is to understand retired NHL players' perceptions of the most important decisions that need to be made during a playing-career to position themselves for a “happy life” post-NHL career. Indeed, the retired NHL player population is underrepresented within academic literature, and to the extent that researchers have mapped out the decision-making process athletes go through upon retirement (e.g., Park et al., 2012; Eggleston et al., 2020), none have considered the tangible decisions that could be made over the course of a playing-career to build what they perceive as a happy life after retiring from sport, especially in the context of an NHL career. Hence, this study sought to accomplish its purpose through a pragmatic epistemology and a series of qualitative semi-structured interviews with 11 former NHL players who retired between 1995 and 2017. Each semi-structured interview was conducted via the telephone; the collected data was then analyzed using both in-vivo and focused coding strategies. Collectively, these codes were used to visually amalgamate the findings of this study into the Playing-Career Decision Making Model, which illustrated a) how retired NHL players define a happy life post-NHL career; b) the contributing factors during a playing-career to building a happy life; and c) the most important decisions NHL players need to make to prepare for their lives post-NHL career. Further, the findings of this study offer a practical understanding of retirement preparation and decision-making among retired NHL players, emphasizing the need for earlier pre-retirement planning, during a playing-career, to facilitate high-quality outcomes in retirement. Future research should address the subjectiveness of NHL players’ happiness in retirement, including those who do not exclusively reside in North America, and the tangible decisions they deem essential in facilitating a happy life in retirement