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Wastewater-Based Surveillance of Respiratory Syncytial Virus Reveals a Temporal Disconnect in Disease Trajectory Across an Active International Land Border
No full textConventional metrics for tracking infectious diseases, including case and outbreak data and syndromic surveillance can be resource-intensive, misleading, and comparatively slow with prolonged data collection, analysis and authentication. This study examined the 2022-2023 Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) season in a contiguous metropolitan area connected by an active international land border, affording an opportunity for comparison of the respiratory virus season spanning two independent public health jurisdictions. Time-lagged cross correlation and qualitative examination of the wastewater signals showed that the peak of the Detroit (MI, USA) RSV season predated the peak in Windsor (ON, Canada) by approximately five weeks. A strong positive relationship was observed between RSV N-gene concentrations in wastewater and hospitalization rates in Windsor-Essex (Kendall’s τ = 0.539, p ≤ 0.001; Spearman’s ρ = 0.713, p ≤ 0.001) as well as Detroit (Kendall’s τ = 0.739, p ≤ 0.001; Spearman’s ρ = 0.888, p ≤ 0.001). This study demonstrated that wastewater surveillance can reveal regional differences in infection dynamics between communities and can provide an independent measure of the prevalence of RSV, an underreported disease. These findings support the use of wastewater surveillance as a cost-effective tool in monitoring of RSV to enhance existing surveillance systems and to better inform public health disease mitigation strategies
Agenda setting at the municipal level: A comparison of strategies in two campaigns to increase wage standards in a mid-size Canadian city
Get PDFResearch in agenda setting theory rarely focusses on local level investigations but this project does. It examines two locally-based parallel public campaigns focused on raising wage standards. The purpose of this research is to determine the effectiveness of the strategies employed in the Windsor-Essex Living Wage campaign and the Windsor-Essex Fight for $15 and Fairness campaign to assess whether the campaigns have been successful in bringing the issue of increasing wage standards onto the municipal policy agenda and if so, why. The research methodology employed in this investigation involves a combination of cataloguing public data found from traditional and new media sources, such as local newspapers, social media feeds and blog postings, as well as conducting interviews with politicians, political staff, other policy elites and individuals who are knowledgeable about one or both campaigns. Examination of this data compares the organizational structures and distinctions between the two campaigns. Campaign effectiveness will be measured through an analysis of the level of public, political and media/social media penetration each group achieves as well as how effective they are in accomplishing their campaign goals. This research aims to provide a better understanding of how social movements can be more effectively organized and what strategies are successful in raising issue salience at the municipal level
Do female students in relationships self-silence to avoid "rocking the boat"? Is self-silencing connected to an increasingly negative body image?
Get PDFSession 5: Kanawayhitowin (Taking Care of Each Other's Spirit): Raising Awareness and Prevention of Violence Against Indigenous Women
No full textLorena Garvey, Ontario Federation of Indigenous Friendship Centres Kanawayhitowin (Taking Care of Each Other's Spirit): Raising Awareness and Prevention of Violence Against Indigenous Wome
Anticancer Effects of Simarouba Glauca Extract in Combination with Chemotherapy
No full textIn 2019, over 26 000 Canadian women were diagnosed with breast cancer. Although conventional chemotherapies are effective, their mechanism of action is not specific to cancerous cells. Classic chemotherapeutics, such as taxol and cisplatin, have shown to target healthy cells, therefore they are not optimal for long-term usage. Natural health products (NHPs) are non-toxic, safe for consumption and are effective for a variety of different purposes, notably for their anti-cancer effects. Simarouba Glauca (SG), more commonly known as Paradise-Tree, is an NHP with a long history in herbal medicine in many countries. Previous studies suggest SG is effective against various cancers. We have studied whether SG can selectively induce cell death in MCF-7 and MDA-MB-231 breast cancer cell lines, as well as its ability to be used in conjunction with common chemotherapeutics. Through qualitative and quantitative analysis, we have demonstrated that SG exhibits selective anti-cancer activity. Combining plant-based extracts with established chemotherapeutics may not only provide more effective treatment but will also reduce the toxicity associated with the latter. We found that SG succeeded in enhancing the anticancer effectiveness of taxol and cisplatin. This work further evaluated the mechanism by which SG induces cell death in breast-cancers. The research is currently being extended to in-vivo trials, where the effects of SG are investigated on genetically modified mouse models. The findings provided have offered scientific validation in support of safe NHPs as well-tolerated and effective forms of cancer treatment
French-Speaking Minorities in Ontario and New Brunswick: Surviving or Thriving?
No full textWhen the Royal Commission on Bilingualism and Biculturalism recommended that both Ontario and New Brunswick become officially bilingual in 1967 to prevent inevitable linguistic assimilation, only the latter did so. My research question focuses on the effects of Ontario's decision. Was the Commission right in maintaining that official bilingualism was necessary? Has Ontario created a language regime that is able to prevent assimilation without becoming fully bilingual? I aim to explore whether Ontario's decision not to adopt bilingualism has led to increased assimilation for Franco-Ontarians as compared to Acadians in New Brunswick. To do so, I examine the Speeches from the Throne and legislation in both provinces from 1967 to 1985 to investigate the level of commitment in each province to preventing assimilation. I use reports from both provinces in 1985 to determine whether there was a disparity in the level of access to French-language services between the two provinces. To study the possible effects of any disparities, I examine census data to measure linguistic assimilation rates in both provinces from 1971 to 2011. I expect to find that Ontario had a lower level of commitment to its French-speaking citizens' needs than New Brunswick, and that this has translated into higher rates of assimilation for Franco-Ontarians
On the Idea of an Investigation into the Foundations of Mathematics or Psychology in Wittgenstein
No full textWittgenstein said of Kierkegaard that he was the “single most profound philosopher of the 19th century”; but what accounts for Wittgenstein’s estimation of Kierkegaard’s work? I argue that Kierkegaard, who was a student of ancient philosophy, synthesized Socratic and Aristotelian concepts into a conception of philosophical inquiry that provided the basis for a Socratic-style engagement with what Kierkegaard calls “the present age.” This allows Kierkegaard to engage Socratically with the present age’s assumptions, but with a kind of categorial sophistication that goes beyond traditional Socratic inquiry. This Kierkegaardian model, I argue, provides the template for what Wittgenstein comes to call “philosophical foundations of X,” where X is some non-philosophical enterprise, such as psychology or mathematics. But didn’t Wittgenstein’s later work constitute a fundamental break with the philosophical tradition altogether? As G. H. von Wright famously remarks, “the author of Philosophical Investigations has no ancestors in philosophy.” In fact, I argue that if a reasonable adjustment is made in the understanding of Wittgenstein’s grammatical investigation, then the Wittgensteinian grammatical investigation can be seen to have more in common with certain Socratic and Aristotelian paradigms in ancient philosophy than we might otherwise assume. At that point, we can appreciate how the work of Søren Kierkegaard represents a significant conceptual and historical transitional link between these two periods. According to Kierkegaard, it is a central Socratic idea that anyone, no matter who they are, always already operates with some philosophical understanding of the things with which they are especially occupied in life. And scientists are no exception to this rule. In fact, scientists can be expected to operate with some formal-causal and ontological-categorial (i.e., philosophical) understanding of their subject, as well as an understanding of how the basic domains and topics that preoccupy them fit into the larger scheme of things: however, in light of the division of labor, scientists will not necessarily be aware of the extent to which they are already committed to a distinctively philosophical understanding of things. Making this philosophical understanding explicit and scrutinizing it may in turn have an impact on the ways in which scientists go on to frame their scientific research. I suggest that in light of the above genealogy of Wittgenstein’s concept of “philosophical foundations of X,” Wittgenstein can be regarded as a descendant of this Socratic tradition of philosophy, in which philosophy is occasioned by a reflection on the philosophical foundations of non-philosophical discourse
"Elektra" by Sophocles (Adapted by John Barton and Kenneth Cavander)
No full textHow can we create an original piece of theatre, using the text of Sophocles' Electra, that will play to a modern audience and contribute new knowledge to approaching ancient Greek theatre in our modern world
Factors Affecting Late Diagnosis of Developmental Dysplasia of the Hip
Get PDFOur project aims to identify a possible reason for the increased incidence of late diagnosis DDH observed in Southwestern Ontario
I see, I remember, I do, I understand: Narratives of Empathic and Non-Empathic Experiences in Everyday Life
No full textEmpathy is the ability to connect, understand, and share others emotional experiences (Soucie, Lawford & Pratt, 2012). It is traditionally measured through picture/story indices, self-report questionnaires or physiological responses (e.g., heart rate, blood pressure, facial, and vocal reactions, etc.) during emotionally evocative situations (Eisenberg & Fabes, 1990; Zhou et al., 2003). While these measurement tools are important in capturing empathic and non-empathic responses, they lack a fundamental human element, i.e., the personal, or real life experience. The present study intends to capture the experience of empathy as a real-world, on-the-ground, experience. We seek to understand the cognitive, motivational, and social aspects of why we feel empathy for others, and why, in other cases, we lack compassion for others. In this study, participants who ranged in age 14-17 (N=60, M=15.28, SD=.99) were interviewed about two self-defining events associated with empathic and non-empathic experience: (1) a time when they felt sad for someone and (2) a time when they didn 't feel sad for someone but thought that they should have. These events will be coded for a variety of themes related to the aforementioned processes. It is hypothesized that empathic stories will be predicted on a close relationship with the protagonist, will be more meaningful, and thus more likely to cause a change in a person 's self-concept, and include greater attempts at taking the protagonists perspective. Non-empathic stories, or times when participants did not feel sad for others, are expected to occur with more distant or less close others, and are likely to involve greater attempts to blame the protagonist for their wrongdoing, thus resulting in a lack of perspective taking, a lack of meaning, and relevance for the self-concept. Coding of these themes is currently underway, and this research project will be completed in the spring of 2017