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Implementing and Enhancing the Peer Mentor Network (PMN) in Undergraduate Biomedical Research Education
No full textDuring the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, the reliance on face-to-face training in research education was identified as a significant weakness; this resulted in a gap in student's understanding of lab procedure and methodology. To combat this setback, Porter Lab has developed an e-learning peer mentor network for undergraduate students to share knowledge among different research proficiency levels. This platform aims to enhance students' understanding of scientific research (both theoretical and practical) while also fostering improved feedback and collaborative abilities. This presentation offers an overview of the mentoring model and its effectiveness based on direct feedback from the students involved. Results indicated that peer-led delivery of lab-oriented concepts, including experiments and scientific presentations, not only reduced the need for training and staff assistance, but also accelerated students' independence and heightened their interest in research. The peer mentor network model has proven to be a customizable and effective tool for supplementing undergraduate research training, with benefits extending beyond the pandemic context
The Influence of Canadian Pre-service Teachers' Chinese Language Learning on Understanding Teacher-Student Relationship Between Canada and China
No full textCross-cultural learning experience plays a very important role in the development of pre-service teachers. This research uses narrative inquiry as the methodology to explore the Canadian pre-service teachers’ Chinese language learning experience as well as its influence on their understanding of teacher-students relationship through their three-month reciprocal learning in China. This research is contextualized in Dr. Shijing Xu’s Reciprocal Learning Program between University of Windsor and Southwest University China and Xu and Connelly’s (2013-2020) larger SSHRC Partnership Grant Project. It could fit in the fourth theme of the Grand Challenges as it would improve the development of the teacher education of the two countries and help increase the mutual understanding between the two countries. This research involves a lot of fieldwork includes daily participant observations, group debriefings, individual interviews, newsletters and portfolios. The major research question of the study is: how do the Canadian pre-service teacher’s Chinese learning help with their cross-cultural learning in China and how these experiences influence their understanding of teacher-student relationship while they were learning and teaching in China. The findings of this study show that the Canadian pre-service teachers’ Chinese language learning not only helped with their reflection on teacher-student relationship but also helped them redefine a good relationship between teachers and students. In addition, the reciprocal learning of the three months had a positive influence on the Canadian pre-service teachers’ future personal and academic development
Almost periodic functions and almost periodic equidistributed functions
No full textIn our lives, there are plenty of periodic motions, which repeat in equal intervals of time. For instance, the recurrences of days and nights and the regular changes of seasons. However, a linear combination of two or more periodic motions need not be periodic any longer. Almost periodic functions are more general than periodic functions. Therefore, the class of almost periodic functions forms a more suitable object of study from a structural point of view. As we know sequence is a special case of function. With this knowledge, one part of the main idea of the research was generalizing the existing concept of equidistributed sequences to equidistributed functions by using the property of the invariant mean on almost periodic functions. In the proposed presentation, first, the classic notions of almost periodic functions and equidistributed sequences will be shown with examples. Following this, the definition of almost periodic equidistributed functions on general topological groups will be introduced with the comparison with the classic concepts of equidistributed sequences on compact groups. Furthermore, the Weyl's criterion, which describes an equivalent condition of equidistributed sequences, will be discussed in the generalized version on almost periodic equidistributed functions as a new result. This presentation is based on part of the results of my Ph.D. thesis, supervised by Dr. Mehdi S. Monfared. Some References: [1] H. Weyl, Uber die gleichverteilung von zahlen mod. eins, Math. Ann. 77 (1916), 313-352. [2] L. Kuipers and H. Niederreiter, Uniform Distribution of Sequences, Dover Publications, New York, 2006
Keynote Presentation - Reducing Sexual Violence: From Pilot Research to International Scale-up in 15 Years
No full textDr. Charlene Y. Senn is a Professor of Psychology and Women’s and Gender Studies and Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Sexual Violence at the University of Windsor. She is an expert on effective sexual violence interventions, particularly those developing women’s capacity to resist sexual assault. She created the Enhanced Assess, Acknowledge, Act sexual assault resistance education program for women in the first year of university. Findings from the randomized controlled trial evaluation were published in 2015 in the New England Journal of Medicine. This 12-hr program resulted in a 46% reduction in completed rapes and 63% reduction in attempted rape experienced across one year, when compared with the control group. The program accomplishes this while reducing woman-blaming and self-blame. With her co-investigators, Charlene is currently conducting a study of implementation and effectiveness of the program as it is offered at Canadian universities. In 2016, she created a non-profit (SARE Centre) to facilitate scale-up on campuses around the world. In this presentation, Charlene will explore her journey from small internally funded pilot studies, to increasingly more complex CIHR-funded studies, to “real world” implementation
Rapid degeneration of Polymers and it's Applications
No full textSelf-immolative polymers, materials that spontaneously depolymerize monomer unit by monomer unit at room temperature, have been developed only over the past decade. These molecules can be stabilized indefinitely simply by attaching an end-cap to one end of the polymer after it is made. When this end-cap is removed, the polymer degrades completely over a period of hours or days-only one bond needs to be broken, the polymer breaks the rest by itself. This is in stark contrast with traditional biodegradable polymers that require an enzyme to cleave ever single bond between ever monomer unit in the polymer. That is why biodegradable materials take months or years to degrade. However, this rapid degradation is not the most interesting thing about these special polymers. By carefully choosing the structure and nature of the end-cap, the stimulus that is used to remove it (and hence degrade the polymer) can also be easily changed without needing to change the basic nature of the polymer backbone. Previously used stimuli include light, heat, reduction, oxidation, and pH. Unfortunately, many of the polymers made to date are made from highly toxic materials, and are not ever going to be suitable for promising nanoparticle drug delivery applications. This would involve adding a very toxic drug to a nanoparticle made from a self-immolative polymer. In its best iteration, the polymer degradation would be stimulated by an enzyme only found in a cancer cell or bacterium, and would release its drug directly at the target. The Trant Team is looking to solve this toxicity problem by making these polymers out of amino acids. This presentation will introduce this fascinating class of innovative smart materials, and will discuss the progress we have made towards their preparation and characterization
Progress Towards the Synthesis of Acetal-Free TF Antigens Anti-Cancer Vaccine Candidate
Full text linkViable, Healthy and Safe CommunitiesMany biological processes including bacterial and viral infections (notably HIV and the flu), immunogenic responses, and cancer pathogenesis/metastasis are mediated by carbohydrate interactions. Epithelial carcinomas continue to be a leading cause of death in all over the world and include some of the very high fatality cancers such as stomach, pancreas, lung, and breast. These cancer cells express unique carbohydrate signatures on their surface, tumor associated carbohydrate antigens (TACAs) that are not found on healthy non-foetal tissue. Treatment and understanding of these conditions can be probed by using carbohydrate vaccines, enzyme inhibitors and anti-tumor compounds. If the immune system could be trained to target this molecule, then the immune system could be used to help cure cancer. Unfortunately, carbohydrates are notoriously difficult immunotherapeutic targets, and no such treatments exist to date. This is partially because glycoconjugates are enzymatically-sensitive, and this has limited their therapeutic utility. This project aims to remove the unstable acetal functionality in carbohydrates by replacing the exocyclic anomeric oxygen with a methylene (C-glycoside) to make the first fully-acetal-free C-glycoside analogues of the TF antigen for biological evaluation. Removing the labile functionality should result in greatly enhanced lifetime, and bioavailability relative to the native system with no likely loss in recognition specificity as the exocyclic oxygen is not generally involved in molecular recognition events. This presentation will discuss the importance of acetal-free carbohydrates, and our significant progress towards the synthesis of these promising but challenging molecules
The Place of Health in the Liberal Theory of Justice
Full text linkAuthor Information: Paul Tubig
PhD Philosophy Student, University of Washington - Seattle
[email protected]
Submission Title: The Place of Health in the Liberal Theory of Justice
Abstract: The purpose of this paper is to articulate the relationship between health and justice. Ethical claims, such as the World Health Organization’s assertion that health is a fundamental human right or that global health inequalities are normative inequities, require a conceptual analysis of the meaning and value of health within a particular framework of justice. Working from the liberal conception of justice as developed by John Rawls, I will argue that the political significance of health is derived from the Rawlsian democratic conception of persons. In developing this thesis, I will first argue against the traditional biomedical approach of defining health within the political context and instead, advocate a conception of health that comprises a normative dimension to derive moral rights and responsibilities. I will then argue that the most reasonable conception of health as a public value is derived from Rawls’ democratic conception of persons. By understanding the public identity of citizens as persons who possess a specific set of moral powers and highest order moral interests to develop and exercise these powers, we can derive the political significance of health as a necessary background condition to serve these interests. Therefore, structural arrangements should promote public health to the extent that the two moral powers are developed and sustained.
Key Words: Justice, Health, Rawls, Liberalism, Healthcare Justice, Political Bioethic
‘DEATH OF A UNION MAN’: RECONSTRUCTING CONFLICT AT WINDSOR CHRYSLER DURING THE LONG SEVENTIES
Full text linkThe shooting of UAW Local 444 President Charles “Charlie” Brooks in January 1977 by former Chrysler worker Clarence Talbot, allegedly over a grievance, brought the city of Windsor, Ontario to a standstill. Recently fired from his position as a relief worker at the Chrysler plant, Talbot was in a very vulnerable position where his ability to survive hinged on a successful grievance. Brooks was a beloved labour leader noted for his radical and colourful ways who had a long history of working hard for union and community members through his advocacy. The Ontario Supreme Court ultimately declared Talbot not criminally responsible by reason of insanity resulting in an indefinite rehabilitory sentence to a mental asylum. These men’s lives and Brooks’ death can be better understood by historically examining the systems that surrounded them, especially by examining the social forces that shaped the expectations placed on them by their communities. Using academic sources and newspaper accounts of these events, this paper seeks to analyze factors that may have contributed to the shooting and the context in which it occurred. At a time when discussions of labour rights, civil rights and the criminal justice system are once again enflamed, this story seems especially apt for re-examination
New York City Cab Tipping by Passenger Count
No full textTipping is an economic wonder which affects a vast amount of people therefore research in this field is necessary. Past studies on social loafing have shown that group effort decreases as the number of people present increases. The purpose of this research is to further investigate this social loafing trend. More specifically, the goal is to determine if the tip amount decreases as the number of passengers increases. Analysis of 6.7M NYC cab fares from July 2016 to June 2017 initially uncovered no association between number of passengers and tip size; yet assumed a linear relation. An ANOVA with passenger number by tip amount showed an inverted-U relation, wherein the smallest tips were received from both the lowest (1) and highest (6) number of passengers, and the highest from those in the middle (2-5). This relation further varied by time of year in a predictable sine-wave cycle; that is, tips were highest in the months of July and August, falling in September through to March, before rising again. Finally, the two factors of time of year and number of passenger interacted to further predict tip amount. In conclusion, the tip amount is lowest when the number of passengers is below two and exceeds five. Further research has been discussed to determine possible reasons for the spike in tip amount from July to August as well as the dip from September to March
Investigating the Presence of Circadian Rhythms in Colon Regeneration
No full textLittle is known about the regenerative response in the colon as directed by the circadian clock. The latter is an evolutionary molecular oscillator which generates periodic 24-hour (circadian) rhythms in division and that is synchronized with daily external cues, such as photoperiod and temperature variations. This is troubling, since improper intestinal stem cell proliferation is 20 times more likely to lead to cancer in the human large intestine than in the human small intestine. We propose to characterize the circadian rhythm in colon regeneration of wild type mice following Dextran Sulfate Sodium (DSS)-induced colitis to create damage conditions in the large intestine, and we hypothesize that the damaged colon will still have circadian rhythms. Ten-micron sections of three wild type mouse intestine samples treated with DSS have been gathered at six different time points. These sections have been stained using antibody to pHH3, which labels cells undergoing mitosis, and DAPI, which labels the nuclei of all living cells. Fluorescence microscopy quantification is now being used to assess the number of dividing cells to the total number of cells in 10-20 crypts for the proximal and distal regions of the small intestine and the colon of each sample. Undamaged intestinal tissue should, and so far, has shown to have low pHH3 staining throughout, indicating undamaged intestinal tissue has a lower rate of regeneration. Damaged intestinal tissue should display more pHH3 staining. Quantification of the ratio of pHH3-stained cells to the total number DAPI-stained cells at 6 different time points that show repetitive 24-hour patterns will determine the presence of circadian rhythm mediation. Knowledge of circadian rhythms of the colon in damaged and undamaged conditions will supplement our understanding of regeneration of the intestine as a whole, allowing for improved timing of treatments of gastrointestinal disorders