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Exploration of the perceptions held by older adults surrounding cannabis
Get PDFThe history of cannabis prohibition in Canada is rooted in racism and it was not until 2018 that recreational cannabis was legalized in an attempt to curtail drug crime and to protect the health and safety of Canadians. Due to its long-standing criminal status, the limited existing research on cannabis has predominately explored addiction and the efficacy of cannabis as a treatment for various medical conditions, with a focus on young people. Nevertheless, statistics reveal an increase in cannabis use among older adults; therefore, it is important to explore what beliefs older adults possess that persuade or dissuade engagement with cannabis and to understand how they navigate their cannabis consumption. For the current study, data were collected from in-depth semi-structured qualitative interviews conducted with six older adults. General thematic analysis was used for coding and theme development. The findings demonstrate that 1) participants relied upon disclosing their membership to particular social groups as a means of communicating their worldviews and engagement with cannabis; 2) participants perceived the risks of cannabis to be equivalent to, or less than that of alcohol, other illicit substances, and prescription medications; 3) they credited the government control as a result of legalization as a factor in reducing some of the risks related to cannabis; and 4) during the years of prohibition, the risk of informal sanctions played a more pivotal role than formal sanctions in affecting their consumption and the behaviours they exhibited. The whiteness of the participants leads to the question of how instrumental one’s race is in affecting the apprehension of formal sanctions surrounding cannabis for older adults. Thus, future research is needed to explore perceptions and behaviours of older adults surrounding cannabis, from an intersectional lens
In their own voices: How can parents' expectations in the care of their children with complex health conditions be met by NB and PEI professional care providers
Get PDFFamilies of children with complex health conditions (CCHC) face many everyday struggles. It is important for stakeholders (i.e., healthcare, social and education providers) to understand the needs of these families in order to give them the best care possible. This study aimed to describe the insights of parents of CCHC in two Maritime provinces, New Brunswick (NB) and Prince Edward Island (PEI), about how health care providers can meet their expectations. A qualitative descriptive design was used to analyze the secondary data of family interviews. Participants’ interview data (N = 24) consisted of 16 participants from NB and 8 participants from PEI. Three overarching themes emerged from the data: (1) communication/collaboration; (2) support; and (3) advocacy. This study described these findings and discussed their practical implications. Overall, the current research emphasized the voices of parents of CCHC in Atlantic Canada to answer: how can healthcare providers meet the expectations of parents of CCHC’s care
Manipulation of plyethylene glycol capped gold nanoparticle packing density and film morphology at the air/water interface
Get PDFNanoparticle self-assembly (NP SA) at the air/water interface is a promising method for fabricating films with novel optical, electronic properties that are useful for state-of-the-art diagnostic and therapeutic applications. Interfacial NP films are often rigid and the NPs aggregate as a result of very strong NP-NP interactions. This prevents the film from correcting defects, causing poor performance. In this study polyethylene glycol (PEG) capped gold nanoparticle (AuNP) systems were investigated to potentially address this issue by tuning AuNPs’ main forces for self-assembly: electrostatic, hydrophobic, hydrogen bonding, and steric. A minimum concentration of 0.5 M NaCl was determined to be required for initial film formation at the interface from aqueous solution. Three types of PEG-capped AuNPs with various terminating PEG groups (methyl, amine and carboxylic acid) were synthesized and then tested on three different subphases pH’s (4, 6.5, and 8) to induce varying amounts of charge on the PEG terminating group. The effect of AuNP charge on NP film rigidity, morphology, and NP packing density were analyzed using compression isotherms along with atomic force microscopy (AFM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) imaging. The various PEG ligand terminating groups complicated AuNP purification and the 0.5 M NaCl subphase altered AFM and TEM sampling protocol. Results showed that, firstly, ligand functionality and charge impact both film rigidity, morphology and, secondly, that NP interfacial packing density varied with compression to create responsive AuNP films
Education, partnerships and governance in creating sustainable communities: If not Sackville, where?
Get PDFThis paper focuses on education, governance, and partnerships in creating sustainable development in Sackville, New Brunswick, home to Mount Allison, a publicly funded, primarily undergraduate university. Implementing a waste management pilot project exemplified the opportunities within Town and led to a series of recommendations for a sustainable future for the entire community. This waste management project incorporated three apartment buildings into the existing residential recycling, composting and waste management system, of which businesses and multi-unit apartment buildings are currently excluded. The hypotheses that apartment building tenants are capable of properly sorting waste and reducing garbage destined for the landfill was supported by the findings of this project. Furthermore, with proper coordination and execution of this process, the barriers to success can be overcome for this, as well as a range of future sustainable community initiatives. This action-based research also demonstrated the need for a full-time sustainability staff position, connecting the Town and university communities. As Sackville moves towards a sustainable future, the university and other community partners must be consulted and included to ensure long-term, comprehensive success
Developing a memory representation: Do we visualize or do we "verbalize" objects?
Get PDFAccording to encoding specificity, participants perform better when testing conditions match learning conditions. Interestingly, recent findings in visuo-haptic object identification violate this principle: participants who learned to recognize objects haptically performed just as well when asked to identify objects by sight and by touch. One possible explanation is that participants who explore objects haptically visualize the objects they explore, creating a multisensory memory trace equally accessible to vision and touch. We evaluated this possibility by asking undergraduate participants to learn to recognize novel objects either by sight or by touch. Participants completed sequences of learning trials where they explored each object, and test trials where they recalled the name of each object. During learning trials, some participants were presented with a visual distractor (either a verbal or nonverbal characters) they had to recognize later, while other participants completed a distractor-less control condition. Consistent with past findings, our results violated encoding specificity for participants who learned to recognize objects haptically – this was not modified by the addition of a secondary task. Interestingly however, only the verbal distractors interfered with learning. These results suggest that the creation of memory representations for novel objects involves a verbal code rather than visualization, independently of how objects are initially explored.This work was supported by a Natural Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada grant (DDG-2018-00033) awarded to Geneviève Desmarais.This is an accepted manuscript. This article may not exactly replicate the final version published in the CPA journal. It is not the copy of record. Copyright is held by the Canadian Psychological Association
Seeking an alternative ethic. Buddhist perspectives on human rights
Get PDFThis thesis examines different approaches to the conception of “human rights,” and, more broadly, to the protection of human life. Two main questions will be pursued: 1) Are human rights universal? and 2) Can Buddhist approaches and perspectives to the protection of human life complement and strengthen existing human rights doctrine? The universality of human rights is queried by determining whether the concept is compatible with the “test case” of Buddhism, from both textual-philosophical and “living Buddhism” approaches. Three case studies of Engaged Buddhist leaders, namely the Dalai Lama, Tzu Chi’s Zhengyan, and Thich Nhat Hanh, will demonstrate that Engaged Buddhism is compatible with human rights and provides alternative views as regards the protection of human life
The more you read the more you know: The impact of oral vocabulary on early literacy skills
Get PDFPast literature demonstrates that children’s storybooks play a key role in vocabulary acquisition. In addition, there is evidence to support an association between vocabulary and general reading level. The present study explored whether adding elaborative semantic teaching to storybook readings increased vocabulary learning and whether storybook exposure helps children learn to read the words to which they are being exposed. This study directly evaluated oral vocabulary learning and initial learning to read of novel words embedded within storybook contexts. Fifty-nine kindergarten students listened to two storybooks, in which ten nonwords were embedded in each. The nonwords were presented in two conditions: dialogic reading with semantic elaboration and dialogic reading without extra semantic focus. After a delay, students were tested on their ability to recognize, identify, understand, and read the nonwords that were presented in the storybook, relative to control nonwords. Posttests included receptive and expressive measures of vocabulary breadth and depth, as well as a novel learn-to-read task involving the embedded target nonwords. The results highlight the impact of storybook reading on word learning, particularly when presented with semantics. Participants demonstrated a greater degree of knowledge for the nonwords that were presented with additional semantics. In contrast, semantics provided no benefit in the learn-to-read task. Yet children demonstrated superior performance on the learn to read task for the nonwords from both conditions that were embedded in the storybooks compared to control nonwords that were not in the storybooks
Climate mythology in news media: Exposing the fallacy of people versus the planet
Get PDFIn recent years, the world has been shocked by the Christchurch shooting, the El Paso shooting, and various other attacks against humanity. These murderous rampages have been condoned by the idea that the perpetrators were working to combat climate change. These perpetrators are self-proclaimed ecofascists. Michael E. Zimmerman offers a brief and simplified definition of ecofascism (Zimmerman, 2008). Ecofascism, according to Zimmerman, is “a totalitarian government that requires individuals to sacrifice their interests to the well-being of the 'land', understood as the splendid web of life, or the organic whole of nature, including peoples and their states" (Zimmerman, 2008). Ecofascism, however, does not target all people equally. Notably, ecofascists target those marginalized by racialization, disability, gender, and immigration status.
While ecofascism was widespread in and prior to Nazi Germany, it has seen a resurgence in recent years. This has been attributed to rising concern regarding the climate crisis and the invention of the internet which has made ecofascist communities (by way of internet forums) readily available to almost anyone at any time. Most ecofascists (or even people who do not explicitly call themselves by this name but certainly tout its principles) do not perpetrate mass shootings or bombs. Rather, their violence comes by way of advocating against progressive values, policies, and discourse. Most ecofascists enact their violence through dangerous rhetoric, promoting ideas such as eugenics, race science, and anti-immigration discourse. While this may not be direct violence in the way a mass shooting is, it is nonetheless deadly. Imperialism, extraction, and closed borders do lead to real, tangible harm, human death, and suffering.
While this rhetoric is not explicitly violent in the way that a mass shooting is, it is violent in the hatred it breeds. Ecofascists strive for a future where a ‘clean’ climate is dependent on human suffering- they argue only some are worthy of living on such a planet. Ecofascists believe that there is a scarcity of resources, and that it must thus be determined who “deserves” these resources. Unsurprisingly, this benefits global elites and harms those who are marginalized by systems like capitalism, racism, and misogyny. This is clearly not ethical or the only way forward. Ecofascism exists in stark contrast to
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environmental justice, which seeks equitable benefits of a clean and healthy environment for all communities.
Ecofascist discourse can disseminate from grim corners of the internet and enter popular discourse. That being said, there is little to no research regarding how ecofascist rhetoric disseminates into popular discourse surrounding the climate crisis. One way that discourse is introduced and circulated throughout society is through the news media. The news media is a trusted source for information and is strategically framed as an objective, unbiased informant. A feminist analysis of this notion would argue that news is not unbiased, and that individual perceptions of the world are translated through discourse. This is especially true and potentially dangerous when the source is funded by large, multi-billion dollar familial empires, industries, or nations with their own set of values and motives. It is therefore important to be critical of information disseminated in the news media, and question the intent behind stories that are presented as factual
The response of mudflat microphytobenthos to bottom-up and top-down factors in the Bay of Fundy
Get PDFMudflats of the Bay of Fundy are habitats to a variety of organisms ranging from microbes to small invertebrates to mudsnails (Tritia obsoleta) and shorebirds. The main source of primary production in mudflats is microphytobenthos. Biotic and abiotic factors affect the abundance of microphytobenthos and ultimately the energy that most of the ecosystem relies on. The effect of bottom-up and top-down factors on mudflat ecosystems have been studied in the past. However, due to the complex overlapping trophic roles in the ecosystem, identifying factors that influence microphytobenthos abundance can be difficult. Previous studies have examined bottom-up and top-down factors, but have either investigated only top-down, or both bottom-up and top-down but without considering all predators known to be important. There is lack of research on the combined effect of known important bottom-up and top-down factors. We investigated the effect of nutrient availability and key predators on microphytobenthos abundance. A manipulative field experiment involving a combination of fertilizer addition and predator exclusion was performed in Grande Anse, in the Bay of Fundy in summer 2020. Fertilizer increased microphytobenthos abundance throughout the experiment, four weeks after application. A seasonal pattern in biofilm abundance was observed with a decrease in abundance form early July to late July and an increase from late July to late August. We found that mudsnails, which were present in low densities in this system, increased microphytobenthos abundance. We suggest bioturbation from mudsnails’ grazing stimulated nutrient recycling and increased microphytobenthos production. Mudsnails were more abundant in fertilized sites, as well as where birds could forage as compared to where birds were excluded. We propose that the increased presence of mudsnails where birds could forage could be attributed to bird droppings and surface disturbances, stimulating microphytobenthos production. Apart from mudsnails, invertebrate communities did not affect microphytobenthos abundance, but there were individual group responses to fertilizer and predation. In late August, Corophium volutator were more abundant in unfertilized, snail- and bird-excluded sites, and bivalves were less abundant in bird-included sites, regardless of fertilizer treatment. In late July, nematode abundance was higher in fertilized sites than unfertilized. These findings broaden our understanding of ecological factors that affect microphytobenthos abundance, and of mudflat ecology as whole
Comics and concussions: Media format and the impact of concussion knowledge and reporting attitudes in young adults
Get PDFUndiagnosed and unreported concussions in young adult sport is not uncommon. Traditional forms of education on concussions often fail to influence safer reporting attitudes in athletes. Comics are an emerging tool in health education, and the current study examined if a comic is an effective tool to educate and influence attitudes about concussions. One hundred and eighty-three undergraduate athlete and non-athlete students participated. Using a between-subjects experimental design, participants viewed either a comic, identical information in a written format, or received no information about concussions. Participants were assessed on their knowledge and attitudes about concussions, as well as their concussion history, sport history, and gave an effectiveness/engagement rating for the educational materials viewed. Outcomes were assessed by calculating total average attitude, knowledge, and effectiveness/engagement for each condition. It was found that attitudes were not influenced by condition. Comics and written conditions scored significantly higher on knowledge than control. Comics were considered more engaging and effective than written information. Overall, no condition influenced concussion reporting attitudes. Conditions with educational information had higher concussion knowledge scores, but the comic was no more effective than the written information. Comics were regarded as significantly more engaging and effective than the text condition. This study did not find support for the comic to specifically target sport-related attitudes about concussion reporting, but there is potential for the medium to address and impact attitudes