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Families, mobility, and work
No full textEmployment-related geographical mobility is widespread and increasing within Canada and around the world. Prolonged daily commutes, working away for extended periods, and being employed in mobile workplaces can affect work and family lives along with creating personal risk and compromising well-being.
Families, Mobility, and Work allows readers to experience and explore many of the challenges, opportunities and effects of diverse forms of work-related mobility through a family-centred lens. Assembling findings from substantial research, rooted primarily in the Canadian context, this expansive collection explores intersections between family lives and diverse types of mobility across multiple populations of workers, regions, and sectors. Authors consider a wide range of work-related geographical mobility patterns and their implications including intimate adult relationships, parenting, gender roles, commuting, perspectives on disability, youth as sources of support in families, communities with migrant workers, and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on Canada’s mobile labour force.
Families, Mobility, and Work is a rich, engaging, and broadly accessible volume, comprising research-based articles, personal stories, songs, poetry, and a photographic essay. These collected perspectives aim to remind us that while families may be the most adaptable institutions in our society, we require evidence-based workplace practices, community and social supports, public policies, and programs if families are to thrive as they endeavour to harmonize their work and mobility rhythms with their broader lives
The effect of rearing in a shelved environment on behavioral and physiological markers of welfare in rats (Rattus norvegicus)
No full textEarly-life experiences are critical modifiers of development. An important component of early-life experience is the nature of maternal interactions, which can be modified by stress. During rearing, mothers are typically allocated to single-level cages where they are readily accessible to pups, a potentially stressful scenario not reflective of nature. Accordingly, mothers regularly removed from the rearing environment interact differently with their offspring, leading to long-term changes in offspring physiology and behavior. Such changes commonly include modifications within the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis, of which corticosterone is a major component. Modifications in the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis may also be manifested through changes in affective behavior and assessed via tests such as the open field and elevated plus maze as well as via ultrasonic vocalization (USV) analysis. As a means of assessing the impact of rearing in a shelved environment, we allocated mothers to standard single-level cages or cages with an integrated shelf, which allowed the mother to temporarily escape pups. While there were no differences in fecal corticosterone, behavior in the elevated plus maze, or USVs, male rats reared in standard cages weighed more, and all standard single-level housed rats spent more time in the center of the open field. The observed differences indicate that allocating nursing mothers to shelved environments throughout the postnatal period has long-lasting effects on offspring behavior that must be considered when establishing dam enrichment protocols
The development and validation of a scale to measure climate change anxiety
No full textClimate change – the rapid changes to Earth’s climate system related to anthropogenic influence – has had widespread effects on humans and the natural world (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [IPCC], 2022). Research suggests that psychological effects of climate change are becoming more common as more people become aware of climate change (Searle & Gow, 2010). This includes climate change anxiety, defined as anxiety in response to knowledge of the threat of climate change. To address the growing incidence of climate change anxiety, we must be able to accurately assess the problem. Informed by the psychological literature, the present study involved the development and validation of a scale to measure climate change anxiety at adaptive and maladaptive levels. Exploratory factor analysis revealed a three-factor solution, with subscales measuring clinical significance of anxiety, existential anxiety, and cognitive, future-focused anxiety respectively. The study also explored relationships between climate change anxiety and other constructs, including climate-related knowledge, climate action, and experience with climate change events. The development of this evidence-based scale
will allow for the accurate assessment of climate change anxiety which may help to inform treatment of those that experience debilitating levels of climate change anxiety
Future climate projections for Eastern Canada
No full textRecent global warming has caused significant changes to the regional climate over Eastern Canada and brought unprecedented challenges to the local communities, such as rising sea level, shrinking sea ice coverage, increasing coastal and inland floods, accelerated coastal erosion, and so on. Although local governments have declared climate emergency in recent years, there is still a lack of real climate actions due to the poor understanding of the future climatic changes over Eastern Canada and how to mitigate and adapt to those changes from a long-term perspective. Here we attempt to fill this gap by developing high-resolution regional climate scenarios for Eastern Canada throughout the twenty-first century under three greenhouse gases emission scenarios (RCP2.6—low, RCP4.5—medium, and RCP8.5—high). The results suggest that the low-emission scenario of RCP2.6 would potentially stabilize the regional climate (i.e., no significant changes in both temperature and precipitation) over Eastern Canada after the continuous warming reaches its peak in the middle of this century. However, an average warming about 1 °C would still be expected from now to the end of this century under RCP2.6, highlighting the importance of preparing for a new climate normal even though strict carbon reduction efforts could be made before 2050. In comparison, both RCP4.5 and RCP8.5 scenarios would lead to a continuous warming over Eastern Canada with increased total precipitation throughout this century. Most importantly, the warming trend under RCP8.5 is likely to accelerate after 2050, which would potentially cause significant shifts in the precipitation seasonality and bring more climate extremes, such as droughts in August, increasing spring and fall floods, more freezing rains between fall and winter, and more heavy snowfalls in winter. The results from this study can help the local policy makers understand the importance and scientific implications of taking immediate carbon reduction actions and developing long-term climate adaptation plans.Natural Science and Engineering Research Council of CanadaNew Frontiers in Research FundAtlantic Computational Excellence Network (ACENET
Evaluation of longevity, antibacterial, antioxidant and antiinflammatory efficacies of honey extracted from lozenges
No full textHoney is a sweet viscous food product that is popularly used as a natural sweetener in baking or other culinary applications. While the majority of honey’s composition is sugars, it also contains a large number of bioactive components, including proteins, enzymes, phenolic acids, flavonoids, vitamins, minerals, and other phytochemicals. These components imbue honey with beneficial properties such as antioxidant, antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory, and wound healing activities. Processing methods impact the composition of honey and, by extension, its ability to demonstrate these properties. Honey
is commonly processed by heat or filtration to destroy microorganisms and remove contaminants in order to improve its quality and longevity. The purpose of this study was to investigate changes in composition and activities of processed honey lozenges and drops products from Island Abbey Foods compared with raw, unprocessed honey. Processing methods aim to prevent loss of quality of honey, usually indicated by accumulation of hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) and loss of enzyme (diastase) activity. This study did find higher HMF content and loss of diastase activity in the processed honey lozenges and drops, which could indicate loss of quality. However, processing does not always result in loss of quality in all aspects of honey, and some studies have reportedly maintained many beneficial properties, or in some cases, even found that some components or properties were enhanced. In this study, bacterial activity was evaluated by the broth microdilution assay. It was determined that the honey lozenge and drop maintained antibacterial activity against Escherichia coli and Micrococcus luteus relative to raw honey, despite possessing a lower content of hydrogen peroxide, which is a key antibacterial factor in honey. Both the processed and unprocessed honey samples also had similar probiotic activities with Bacillus subtilis, Staphylococcus epidermidis, and Lactobacillus acidophilus. Antioxidant activity was evaluated using a number of colorimetric assays including ABTS radial scavenging, DPPH inhibition, ferric reducing antioxidant power (FRAP), oxygen radial absorbance capacity (ORAC), and lipoprotein oxidation in serum assays. Interestingly, it was also determined in this study, that the honey lozenge and drop possessed greater phenolic content and antioxidant activity compared with the raw honey. This was believed to be due, in part, to the formation of Maillard reaction products and intermediates, which contribute to darker honey with richer flavour but can also lead to increased antioxidant and antibacterial activities. It was also found that the honey lozenge and drop maintained anti-inflammatory activity relative to the unprocessed honey both by inhibition of nitric oxide and prevention of TNF-α cytotoxicity. Phenolics and flavonoids are linked with suppression of the NF-κB pathway, which leads to inhibition of nitric oxide synthases and other inflammatory markers. Similarly, prevention of TNF-α cytotoxicity is also linked with phenolics, flavonoids, and antioxidant activity. Thus, despite processing, the high phenolic content and antioxidant activity of the honey candies continues to impart these products with antiinflammatory activity. As well, wound healing properties of raw honey and honey candies was also investigated by the scratch assay, although a significant difference was not observed between the honey samples. Overall, the results indicate that despite processing, honey lozenges and drops can maintain or sometimes even enhance the health properties of raw, natural honey
Impact of a spectrum of care elective course on third-year veterinary students’ self-reported knowledge, attitudes, and competencies
No full textVeterinary services’ rising cost is an increasing barrier to pet care. Spectrum of care (SpOC) refers to evidence-based veterinary medicine options along the socioeconomic spectrum. To meet growing pet owner financial constraints and pet care needs, training to equip veterinarians with competencies to provide SpOC as Day One graduates is argued to be added as part of the veterinary curriculum. Objectives of our prospective pre- and post-survey study were to (a) determine baseline self-reported knowledge, attitudes, and competencies (KACs) surrounding SpOC in third-year DVM students; (b) develop and assess impact of a SpOC course on student self-reported SpOC KACs; and (c) obtain student feedback on the course and future SpOC training. Enrolled students (n = 35) completed the pre-survey (n = 35) and post-survey (n = 33). Results indicated that students were aware of the need for SpOC training within the veterinary curriculum, and positive changes occurred in self-reported KAC from pre- to post-survey. Students tended (p = .08) to predict better outcomes in SpOC cost-barrier scenarios from pre- (34%) to post-survey (76%), such as reduced perceived likelihood of euthanasia (63%–39%) and unsuccessful outcomes (40%–27%). Most students (31/33, 94%) predicted the course would benefit them in clinical practice and had preferred future training preferences (online modules [70%], seminars [60%], webinars [58%]). Data indicate benefits in student self-reported KACs following the SpOC course, warranting formal course inclusion, with tracking of students into clinical practice to document objective KAC impacts and perhaps similar course rollout to other institutions
How we failed in context: A text-mining approach to understanding hotel service failures
No full textService failure is inevitable. Although empirical studies on the outcomes and processes of service failures have been conducted in the hotel industry, the findings need more exploration to understand how different segments perceive service failures and the associated emotions differently. This approach enables hotel managers to develop more effective strategies to prevent service failures and implement more specific service-recovery actions. For analysis, we obtained a nine-year (2010–2018) longitudinal dataset containing 1224 valid respondents with 73,622 words of textual content from a property affiliated with an international hotel brand in Canada. A series of text-mining and natural language processing (NLP) analyses, including frequency analysis and word cloud, sentiment analysis, word correlation, and TF–IDF analysis, were conducted to explore the information hidden in the massive amount of unstructured text data. The results revealed the similarities and differences between groups (i.e., men vs. women and leisure vs. business) in reporting service failures. We also carefully examined different meanings of words that emerged from the text-mining results to ensure a more comprehensive understanding of the guest experience
Essential elements to implementing a paramedic palliative model of care: An application of the consolidated framework for implementation research
No full textBackground: Comfort care without transport to hospital was not traditionally a paramedic practice. The novel Paramedics Providing Palliative Care at Home Program includes a new clinical practice guideline, medications, a database to manage and share goals of care, and palliative care training. This study determined essential elements for implementation, scale, and spread of this Program.
Methods: Deliberative dialogs, a qualitative method, were held with diverse stakeholders/experts in one province with the Program (Nova Scotia, March 2018) and one without (British Columbia, July 2018). The Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research (CFIR) informed the discussion guide and was used in a framework analysis. Four team members analyzed the data independently; themes were derived by consensus with the broader research team.
Results: CFIR constructs framed several key elements. Inter-sectoral communication is critical but challenged by privacy concerns and the siloed structure of the health system. Locally adapted training is an essential characteristic of the intervention; cost is a factor. A shift in mindset away from traditional paramedic roles is required; this can be facilitated by paramedic champions and a positive implementation climate. Early engagement of diverse stakeholders and planning for sustainability is key.
Conclusion: This framework analysis using CFIR constructs can guide successful scale and spread of the program. The constructs of Outer setting: Cosmopolitanism; Characteristics of the intervention: Adaptability; Inner Setting: Implementation climate; and Processes: Engagement, and Planning, emerged as essential
Mapping and functional characterization of powdery mildew resistance genes in flax (Linum usitatissimum L.)
No full textFlax (Linum usitatissimum L.) is a dual-purpose crop widely cultivated for its fiber and seed properties. However, the crop incurs yield and seed quality losses due to fungal diseases, including powdery mildew (PM) which is caused by the obligate biotrophic fungus Podosphaera lini. Whereas several PM-resistant flax cultivars are known to express different levels of resistance, and candidate genes associated with PM resistance have been reported, the genetic factors and mechanisms of PM resistance in flax are not well known, and no PM-resistant genes have so far been functionally characterized. This
study was undertaken to 1) genotype and phenotype the NorMan and Linda flax recombinant inbred line population for PM disease reactions in different environments, identify the genomic regions associated with PM resistance, and 2) characterize the gene expression profile of candidate genes associated with PM resistance to better understand the potential mechanisms involved in PM flax resistance. The first study identified 3,841 SNP markers, leading to the discovery of 75 quantitative trait loci and quantitative trait nucleotides in the population, which were co-located with 91 resistance gene analogs. The second study used six candidate genes, including a ATP-binding cassette (ABC) transporter (Lus10003971), VirE2-interacting protein (VIP1) (Lus10018899), protein phosphatase 2C (PP2C) (Lus10014926), and resistance to powdery mildew 8 (RPW8) (Lus10009328, Lus10000835, and Lus10000836), for gene expression analysis. Gene expressions of VIP1 and PPC2 were found to be induced in PM-inoculated plants compared to non-inoculated plants, whereas a differential gene expression was observed between groups for each of the three RPW8 homologs. A salicylic acid defense response and signaling pathway is suggested for the two RPW8 homologs Lus10000835 and Lus10000836, similar to the Arabidopsis RPW8.2, whereas the ethylene or jasmonate defense response and signaling pathway is suggested for the RPW8 homolog Lus10009328 as found for the Arabidopsis RPW8.1. Altogether, this study identified
some candidate PM genes, along with new insights and potential mechanisms of action into how resistant flax lines cope with PM infection, and will help in designing strategies for developing flax lines with increased PM resistance
Comparison of SARFIMA and LSTM methods to model and to forecast Canadian temperature
No full textAn empirical study is performed using
seasonal autoregressive fractionally integrated
moving average (SARFIMA) time series
models and long short-term memory (LSTM)
methods from deep learning to evaluate their
statistical performance for the fit and
prediction of temperature variables. These two
methods are applied to monthly minimum and
maximum air temperature data collected from
four Canadian stations, covering the eastern,
western, and central regions of Canada. It is a
generally accepted fact that accurate
temperature forecasting is important to
everyone and stakeholders in several economic
activities including the tourism, agriculture, and
energy sectors rely on this information.
Therefore, it is crucial to select the best
methods which provide appropriate statistical
modelling and an accurate prediction of
temperature. The results of this study show
that deep learning LSTM models have better
fit and smaller root-mean-square errors
compared to time series SARFIMA models