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Using in vitro data to derive acceptable exposure levels for environmental chemicals: A case study on p,p’-DDE obesogenicity
No full textThis study adds to a growing body of literature on the potential of in vitro data combined with computational modeling for chemical risk assessment, while also identifying challenges to regulatory adoption.Canada Research Coordinating Committee (Award: NFRFE-2018-00139)Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (Award: RGPIN-2016-06101)Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (Award: RGPIN-2023-03477
Altered underwater light characteristics impact photoreceptive mesozooplankton and macrozooplankton from physiological responses to community dynamics
No full textAlthough the underwater light environment is significantly altered by environmental and climatic drivers, a comprehensive review focusing on its effects on photoreceptive mesozooplankton (e.g., rotifers) and macrozooplankton (e.g., cladocerans and copepods), hereafter collectively referred to as pMMZ, has not yet been conducted. Here we summarize current knowledge on the changing light characteristics in global aquatic environments and the effects of those changes on pMMZ traits. Evidence shows that changes in underwater light intensity, quality, and color are evident in present-day natural aquatic ecosystems. Altered light intensity influences pMMZ behaviors, including vertical distribution, feeding behavior, and predator avoidance. Changes in light quality (particularly ultraviolet radiation) can affect pMMZ antioxidant physiology, individual metabolism, gene expression, and development. Thus far, lethal effects on individual pMMZ have only been attributed to elevated ultraviolet radiation under specific conditions. Other changes in light characteristics primarily disrupt pMMZ behavior and physiological traits, indirectly shaping life-history traits and interspecies relationships, which in turn impact community composition and dynamics. In summary, the effects of changes in underwater light characteristics on pMMZ in natural ecosystems are broad-ranging but predominantly indirect. Insights gained from this review shed light on the mechanisms by which changes in underwater light characteristics shape pMMZ communities, underscoring the importance of exploring these effects from a community ecology perspective
Polymer-Based Chemicapacitive Hybrid Sensor Array for Improved Selectivity in e-Nose Systems
No full textDetecting volatile organic compounds (VOCs) is essential for health, environmental protection, and industrial safety. VOCs contribute to air pollution, pose health risks, and can indicate leaks or contamination in industries. Applications include air quality monitoring, disease diagnosis, and food safety. This paper focuses on polymer-based hybrid sensor arrays (HSAs) utilizing interdigitated electrode (IDE) geometries for VOC detection. Achieving high selectivity and sensitivity in gas sensing remains a challenge, particularly in complex environments. To address this, we propose HSAs as an innovative solution to enhance sensor performance. IDE-based sensors are designed and fabricated using the Polysilicon Multi-User MEMS process (PolyMUMPs). Experimental evaluations are performed by exposing sensors to VOCs under controlled conditions. Traditional multi-sensor arrays (MSAs) achieve 82% prediction accuracy, while virtual sensor arrays (VSAs) leveraging frequency dependence improve performance: PMMA-VSA and PVP-VSA predict compounds with 100% and 98% accuracy, respectively. The proposed HSA, integrating these VSAs, consistently achieves 100% accuracy in compound identification and concentration estimation, surpassing MSA and VSA performance. These findings demonstrate that proposed polymer-based HSAs and VSAs, particularly with advanced IDE geometries, significantly enhance selectivity and sensitivity, advancing e-Nose technology for more accurate and reliable VOC detection across diverse applications
The Performativity of Race for Black Canadian Male Student-athletes
No full textHumphrey Nartey is a Ph.D. candidate in the Human Kinetics department at the University of Ottawa. He studies sports and physical activity from a socio-cultural perspective, with an emphasis on the sociology of sport. His doctoral research focuses on the transition experiences out of university athletics for Black Canadian male student-athletes. Being a former university varsity athlete, he is very keen on understanding the processes involved with athletes transitioning out of sport, particularly among marginalized groups in Canada. With an M.Sc. in Kinesiology, with a specialization in sport psychology, Humphrey hopes to be able to combine his graduate degrees to develop policies, procedures and/or programs that can be used to assist athletes transitioning to life after sport.Abstract According to Fordham and Ogbu (1986), the acting White hypothesis stems from White Americans’ refusal to acknowledge Black Americans’ intellect, leading to stereotypes of Black intellectual inferiority. This results in Black American youth doubting themselves and their intellectual ability, defining academic success as a White person’s privilege, as well as discouraging their Black peers, whether consciously or unconsciously, from emulating the academic pursuits of White people (Fordham & Ogbu, 1986). With academic success considered a characteristic of Whiteness, many Black American students suppress their academic potential by doing poorly in school, as a means of rejecting accusations of acting White, even though they are intellectually capable (Fordham & Ogbu, 1986). Drawing on data from 20 qualitative interviews of former and current Black Canadian student-athletes, this research addresses the acting White hypothesis from a Canadian perspective. Using Critical Race Theory (CRT) as a guide, this analysis found that although Black American culture and the acting White mindset have permeated Black Canadian communities, many of the Black Canadian youth in this study did not suppress their academic potential out of fear of being characterized as “acting White.” Rather, in the Canadian university sport system that emphasizes education, their pursuit of academic success challenged the stereotype that Blacks are intellectually inferior, while simultaneously reproducing the acting White hypothesis.Abstract According to Fordham and Ogbu (1986), the acting White hypothesis stems from White Americans’ refusal to acknowledge Black Americans’ intellect, leading to stereotypes of Black intellectual inferiority. This results in Black American youth doubting themselves and their intellectual ability, defining academic success as a White person’s privilege, as well as discouraging their Black peers, whether consciously or unconsciously, from emulating the academic pursuits of White people (Fordham & Ogbu, 1986). With academic success considered a characteristic of Whiteness, many Black American students suppress their academic potential by doing poorly in school, as a means of rejecting accusations of acting White, even though they are intellectually capable (Fordham & Ogbu, 1986). Drawing on data from 20 qualitative interviews of former and current Black Canadian student-athletes, this research addresses the acting White hypothesis from a Canadian perspective. Using Critical Race Theory (CRT) as a guide, this analysis found that although Black American culture and the acting White mindset have permeated Black Canadian communities, many of the Black Canadian youth in this study did not suppress their academic potential out of fear of being characterized as “acting White.” Rather, in the Canadian university sport system that emphasizes education, their pursuit of academic success challenged the stereotype that Blacks are intellectually inferior, while simultaneously reproducing the acting White hypothesis.Abstract According to Fordham and Ogbu (1986), the acting White hypothesis stems from White Americans’ refusal to acknowledge Black Americans’ intellect, leading to stereotypes of Black intellectual inferiority. This results in Black American youth doubting themselves and their intellectual ability, defining academic success as a White person’s privilege, as well as discouraging their Black peers, whether consciously or unconsciously, from emulating the academic pursuits of White people (Fordham & Ogbu, 1986). With academic success considered a characteristic of Whiteness, many Black American students suppress their academic potential by doing poorly in school, as a means of rejecting accusations of acting White, even though they are intellectually capable (Fordham & Ogbu, 1986). Drawing on data from 20 qualitative interviews of former and current Black Canadian student-athletes, this research addresses the acting White hypothesis from a Canadian perspective. Using Critical Race Theory (CRT) as a guide, this analysis found that although Black American culture and the acting White mindset have permeated Black Canadian communities, many of the Black Canadian youth in this study did not suppress their academic potential out of fear of being characterized as “acting White.” Rather, in the Canadian university sport system that emphasizes education, their pursuit of academic success challenged the stereotype that Blacks are intellectually inferior, while simultaneously reproducing the acting White hypothesis.Abstract According to Fordham and Ogbu (1986), the acting White hypothesis stems from White Americans’ refusal to acknowledge Black Americans’ intellect, leading to stereotypes of Black intellectual inferiority. This results in Black American youth doubting themselves and their intellectual ability, defining academic success as a White person’s privilege, as well as discouraging their Black peers, whether consciously or unconsciously, from emulating the academic pursuits of White people (Fordham & Ogbu, 1986). With academic success considered a characteristic of Whiteness, many Black American students suppress their academic potential by doing poorly in school, as a means of rejecting accusations of acting White, even though they are intellectually capable (Fordham & Ogbu, 1986). Drawing on data from 20 qualitative interviews of former and current Black Canadian student-athletes, this research addresses the acting White hypothesis from a Canadian perspective. Using Critical Race Theory (CRT) as a guide, this analysis found that although Black American culture and the acting White mindset have permeated Black Canadian communities, many of the Black Canadian youth in this study did not suppress their academic potential out of fear of being characterized as “acting White.” Rather, in the Canadian university sport system that emphasizes education, their pursuit of academic success challenged the stereotype that Blacks are intellectually inferior, while simultaneously reproducing the acting White hypothesis.Abstract According to Fordham and Ogbu (1986), the acting White hypothesis stems from White Americans’ refusal to acknowledge Black Americans’ intellect, leading to stereotypes of Black intellectual inferiority. This results in Black American youth doubting themselves and their intellectual ability, defining academic success as a White person’s privilege, as well as discouraging their Black peers, whether consciously or unconsciously, from emulating the academic pursuits of White people (Fordham & Ogbu, 1986). With academic success considered a characteristic of Whiteness, many Black American students suppress their academic potential by doing poorly in school, as a means of rejecting accusations of acting White, even though they are intellectually capable (Fordham & Ogbu, 1986). Drawing on data from 20 qualitative interviews of former and current Black Canadian student-athletes, this research addresses the acting White hypothesis from a Canadian perspective. Using Critical Race Theory (CRT) as a guide, this analysis found that although Black American culture and the acting White mindset have permeated Black Canadian communities, many of the Black Canadian youth in this study did not suppress their academic potential out of fear of being characterized as “acting White.” Rather, in the Canadian university sport system that emphasizes education, their pursuit of academic success challenged the stereotype that Blacks are intellectually inferior, while simultaneously reproducing the acting White hypothesis
Two-Stage Target Detection for Compact HFSWR With Space-to-Depth YOLOv8 and Multiframe ViT
No full textAccurate and reliable target detection is a crucial requirement of high-frequency surface wave radar for effective maritime surveillance. However, existing methods based on single-frame radar images primarily focus on static target features, limiting their ability to capture dynamic ship behaviors across multiple frames. In this study, a two-stage multiframe target detection framework (MFTDF) is proposed to address this issue in ship-target detection from range-Doppler (RD) images. The framework consists of two stages: a space-to-depth YOLOv8 network in Stage-1 and a multiframe vision transformer network in Stage-2. First, Stage-1 aims to extract regions of interest (ROI) from the current and several preceding RD images. Thereafter, target association and pattern selection are applied to collect multiframe image patch sequences for each ROI result. Finally, Stage-2 focuses on further discriminating the input image patches to obtain refined target detection results. Moreover, the dataset for training and validating the two-stage network is automatically generated based on the automatic identification system ship data and constant false alarm rate detection results to identify all true and visible targets, ensuring the dataset's credibility. Experiments using the measured data show that the proposed MFTDF achieves a considerably improved precision rate while maintaining an average improvement of 12.3% in the recall rate. These results confirm that MFTDF delivers superior detection accuracy and efficiency, offering a robust solution for maritime target detection in complex scenarios.National Natural Science Foundation of China (Award: 52371355
Keynote: Black Diasporas, Caribbean Transnationality, and Sport in the Greater Toronto Area and Beyond
No full textDr. Janelle Joseph is Director, Academic Success Centre, University of Toronto and Adjunct Lecturer in the Faculty of Kinesiology and Physical Education, University of Toronto. She researches and teaches in the areas of gender, race, multi-culturalism, sports, and leisure. She has a BSc in Kinesiology from Western University, and an MSc and PhD in Physical Cultural Studies from University of Toronto. She completed two post-doctoral research fellowships, including one at the University of Otago in New Zealand and a Banting SSHRC Postdoctoral Fellowship at the University of Ontario Institute of Technology. Along with numerous articles, she also co-edited Race and Sport in Canada: Intersecting Inequalities (2012) with Simon Darnell and Yuka Nakamura. Her book Sport in the Black Atlantic: Cricket, Canada and the Caribbean Diaspora was released in January 2017
The Impact of Cultural and Linguistic Variability on the Validity of Self-Reported Bilingual Proficiency and Clinical Language Assessments
No full text
Association of circulating Notch1 and VEGF with flow-mediated dilation and aerobic fitness in healthy adults
No full textNotch1 is a mechanosensitive endothelial receptor that responds to vascular wall shear stress. However, data on Notch1 activity in humans remains limited, particularly regarding its role in endothelial function. Objectives: Accordingly, the purpose of this study was to determine whether Notch1 is associated with the flow-mediated dilatory (FMD) response and whether it is related to aerobic fitness. A secondary purpose was to determine whether Notch1 is related to concentrations of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF). Methods: Sixteen (8M/8F) young (20-30 yrs old) and healthy (BMI: 25±4.2 kg/m2, blood pressure: 117±11.63 / 69±11.25 mmHg) adults participated in the study. Aerobic fitness was determined by cycle V̇O2 peak. An FMD was performed on the brachial artery, and blood samples were taken from the antecubital vein at rest (baseline) and 1 minute after cuff deflation (to align with peak vessel dilation). Concentrations of Notch1 extracellular domain (NECD) and VEGF were determined from plasma using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays. Results: In contrast to our hypothesis, concentrations of NECD and VEGF did not change throughout the FMD and were unrelated to allometrically scaled FMD values (p all > 0.05). Likewise, there was no relationship between changes in NECD and VEGF (p = 0.331, r = 0.127). However, the change in NECD across the FMD was moderately (r = 0.515) and significantly (p = 0.024) correlated with V̇O2 peak. Conclusion: These novel data indicate that in healthy young adults, Notch1 activity is linked to aerobic fitness but may not be acutely involved in the shear-mediated vasodilatory response