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The lived experiences of nurses who identify as 2SLGBTQIA+ in providing nursing care within an urban prairie setting: an interpretive descriptive study
No full textBackground: Despite rapid improvement in human rights and protections for people who identify as 2SLGBTQIA+ in Canada, discrimination against people who identify as non-heterosexual and non-cisgender occurs. Heteronormativity and cisnormativity prevail within the Canadian health care system and environment nurses work and study. Nurses who identify as being 2SLGBTQIA+ are hypothesized as being one of the workforce's largest subcategories; despite this, there is a shortage of literature on the experiences of nurses who identify as 2SLGBTQIA+. Purpose: This study aims to uplift the voices and lived experiences of equity-deserving nurses who identify as 2SLGBTQIA+ in providing nursing care in the urban prairie setting of Winnipeg, Manitoba. Method: An interpretive descriptive qualitative study design was utilized. Data was collected through semi-structured interviews. Interviews were transcribed verbatim and coded to generate themes describing the experiences of nurses identifying as 2SLGBTQIA+. Minority Stress Theory served as a guiding theoretical framework to provide context in understanding the lived experiences of study participants. Convenience and snowball sampling was used to recruit the sample size of 11 nurse participants. Findings: This study revealed findings related to five themes: discrimination, disclosure, education, allyship, and identity. Discrimination is often covert and witnessing discrimination negatively affected participants. There is nuance in choosing to disclose or not disclose one's 2SLGBTQIA+ identity as a nurse. The onus is often placed upon the oppressed to educate those in power and meaningful content about the health and wellness of people identifying as 2SLGBTQIA+ is needed for nurses and all health care providers. Allyship in practice is actionable and consistent as opposed to the performative allyship often conveyed in practice. 2SLGBTQIA+ identities in nursing are an asset to nursing practice and patient care. Implications: Many implications arose from this research and can be attributed to three areas: nursing practice, nursing education, and nursing research. Within nursing practice, leadership, regulatory bodies, active allyship and the incorporation of EDI is of utmost importance. Formal nursing education and curriculum need to recognize the existence, health, and wellness of people who identify as 2SLGBTQIA+. Education delivered by clinical facilities that nurses work within need be inclusive of the experiences of people who identify as 2SLGBTQIA+. More research is needed to better understand the lived experiences of nurses who identify as 2SLGBTQIA+. Examples include research with underrepresented identities encompassed within the 2SLGBTQIA+ acronym, the experiences of nurses working in diverse workplace settings, the intersection of numerous social identities, and moving from a deficit approach to a strengths-based approach. Conclusion: Eleven nurse participants who identify as 2SLGBTQIA+ and work within Manitoba shared their lived experiences that subverts cis-heteronormativity and cis-heteroprofessionalism. Implications for how to improve the experiences of nurses who identify as 2SLGBTQIA+ have been identified.October 202
Refilling Punjab's aquifer: preventing desertification of the bread basket of India
No full textPunjab, known as the bread basket of India, is facing an ground water crisis. The over extraction of groundwater for water intensive crops s such as Rice, a legacy of the Green Revolution, has pushed the aquifers of the state towards critical depletion. As a result, Punjab is expected to face desertification by 2050, threatening the food security of the country.
This practicum is both a design inquiry and a personal exploration, as an effort to reconnect to the landscape my grandmother once knew and told me stories about. Farming as not only an essential chore but an activity the community worked on together.
This project explores design to harvest water and refill the aquifer while maintaining agricultural productivity in the state of Punjab, at the Bist Doab region scale, and finally an inter-village scale. The aim is to design a landscape structure that slows, stores and recharges water through different strategies, while offering spaces for cultural and community life.October 202
How firms prioritize the dynamic trade-off theory and funding horizon theory: investigating the impact of cash needs on adjustment speed toward leverage target
No full textThis study explores how firms adjust their capital structure in response to short- and long-term cash needs, examining the dynamic trade-off and funding horizon theories. While liquidity constraints may temporarily push firms away from target leverage, they ultimately rebalance, supporting the dynamic trade-off theory. However, adjustment speed varies with cash need severity, as greater liquidity constraints delay rebalancing. The findings highlight financial frictions’ role in capital structure decisions, showing that cash shortages create persistent barriers to optimal leverage. This study contributes to the literature by demonstrating how liquidity constraints shape firms’ leverage adjustments and financial decision-making.October 202
Mental imagery and emotion regulation: positively valenced distraction in the mind's eye
No full textAttentional distraction, or the diversion of attention away from emotionally salient stimuli towards an innocuous distractor, has been shown to regulate negative emotion. Although converging evidence has indirectly supported the use of a positively valenced imagined distractor, no existing research has used positively valenced mental imagery to distract from a threatening stimulus. To address this gap in the literature, the present investigation recruited a sample of 50 University of Manitoba students. A differential fear association was first created, followed by a distraction manipulation where participants were instructed to either attend to the stimulus presented or visualize a neutral or positively valenced distractor. It was primarily hypothesized that imagining a distracting stimulus would downregulate one’s fear response when presented with a threat cue, as measured through the skin conductance response (SCR) and self-reported fear. Additionally, positively valenced imagery was predicted to be more effective than neutral imagery in the regulation of fear. Self-report and SCR measures revealed the successful acquisition and persistence of differential fear. Whereas the self-reported fear results supported positively valenced imagery in the regulation of fear, neutral imagery was not supported. SCR results revealed that both positively valenced and neutral imagined distraction had downregulated the differential threat response, such that SCRs did not differ significantly when participants were shown a threat or safety cue. No direct evidence for the increased efficacy of positively valenced distraction was found. Together, the present investigation informs the use of an effective emotion regulation strategy for those who struggle with emotion dysregulation.October 202
Mystified discourse
No full textMystification, which classical theorists typically align with the religious mind, plays a recurring role in social theory. It is argued that when confronted with inexplicable phenomena, the religious falsely project a reality beneath appearances. Theorists critique this misapprehension based on naturalistic assumptions, or the presumed impossibility of a transcendental world. However, several authors propose that the concept is neither exclusively religious nor limited to imagined anthropomorphisms, suggesting that this critique is one-sided and asymmetrical. Alternatively, I will examine mystification as a structure or form, apart from its religious deployment and the valuations of theorists who condemn it. Through several contemporary sources, a layered model of reality emerges as a common and necessary condition of scientific inquiry. Using a structuralist discourse analysis, I will attempt to distill what is constant beneath a differentiated surface, or coherence in units larger than the text by examining pattern. This process begins with an inductive examination of mystification as it develops through classical and contemporary social theory, with the goal of defining its essential characteristics, or ‘grammar’. The resulting structure contains ontological and strategic dimensions, which incorporates an independent and opaque reality that also delegates work between the mystified object and the subject. Similarly, I will inductively extract the language or signals of this structure, or mystification as a way of speaking. I will then apply this structure and its associated signals to a theoretical sample to identify the author’s ontological claims. This analytical tool can be used to examine the reality claims in theory generally and how these claims inform operational characteristics, thereby providing a potential enhancement to paradigm modeling. More importantly, I will argue that identifying a structure of mystified discourse is indispensable to programmatic reflexivity and that only trans-theoretical measures permit a symmetrical examination of theory, or theoretical self-examination. In this way, I am not using sociology to demystify the work of others, but to understand and normalize mystification as discourse across theoretical perspectives.February 202
Assessing the feasibility of a virtual reality intervention for lower phantom limb pain in the acute postoperative period
No full textIntroduction. There are many individual and systemic barriers that prevent people with lower limb amputations (LLAs) from receiving effective nonpharmacological treatment for their phantom limb pain (PLP), such as low patient buy-in and long outpatient wait times. Early administration of effective treatments, such as graded motor imagery (GMI), via virtual reality (VR) may improve access and efficacy. To address this gap, our multidisciplinary team developed a VR GMI program using an iterative, patient-centered approach. This study aimed to assess the feasibility of administering a longitudinal VR GMI program immediately after LLA through one-month follow-up.
Methods. I recruited inpatients who underwent a major LLA within two months of surgery at a large tertiary care hospital to trial the VR GMI program for 17 days. Feasibility was assessed across three domains: (1) procedural feasibility (interest, eligibility, retention, and follow-up rates compared to predefined thresholds); (2) intervention feasibility (acceptability, adverse events, and average session length); and (3) pilot outcomes (exploratory correlations between the number of sessions completed and/or PLP intensity/interference at follow-up). Qualitative description contextualized reasons for ineligibility, disinterest, and session/study withdrawal.
Results. Of 111 patients screened, 54.44% were eligible and 48.33% were interested. Exclusions could primarily be attributed to patient preference to focus on recovery and physical comorbidities precluding VR engagement. Seventeen participants enrolled; only three (17.65%) completed the full recommended treatment dose (17 days) and nine (52.94%) responded at one-month follow-up. Participants generally rated the intervention as acceptable and engaged for the recommended amount of time. However, adverse events were more frequent than hypothesized. Low retention and follow-up rates yielded insufficient sample sizes to conduct pilot and exploratory analyses.
Discussion. Findings suggest current recruitment and VR GMI administration procedures are not feasible in the immediate postoperative period and require significant modification. Procedural feasibility may be improved by addressing early discharge, shifting implementation timing, and improving the follow-up procedures. Future adaptations, including stage-specific gamification, may enhance engagement and retention for a future randomized controlled trial.Winnipeg Foundation Innovation Fund (PI: El-Gabalawy); 327146-340100-2000
Canadian Behavioural Interventions and Trials Network Scholars Program, 2024 - 2025 (Awardee: Crooks)October 202
Space-time spectral methods for PDEs on irregular domains
No full textSpectral methods are used to solve partial differential equations numerically. When the solution is analytic, the rate of convergence of the numerical solution is exponential; that is, the error decays exponentially.
In time-dependent PDEs, low-order finite difference schemes and spectral schemes have traditionally been used for the time and spatial derivatives, respectively. However, applying spectral schemes in both space and time has been thought of recently. These methods have spectral convergence in both spatial and temporal domains. This study consists of two main parts.
The first part focuses on the analysis of space-time spectral methods for the stream function formulation of the unsteady Stokes equations. In this part, proofs of the condition number estimate and convergence analysis of the Stokes operator are discussed.
The second part of this study focuses on solving PDEs in irregular domains using space-time spectral collocation methods. One major drawback of classical spectral methods is their inability to handle irregularly shaped domains, which is why they have only been used sparingly in many engineering problems. In order to overcome this, we propose a numerical method to approximate the solution of PDEs in irregular domains using space-time spectral collocation methods. The main idea here is to embed the irregular domain in a regular one and extend the data from the physical domain to the larger regular domain. To achieve this, Huybrechs' method was implemented for 1D Fourier extension of the non-homogeneous term with exponential accuracy. Further, we also successfully implemented a one-dimensional non-periodic extension by modifying the Huybrechs' method. For 2D domains, a new method named ‘Alternating Non-periodic Extension’ was developed. This algorithm uses non-periodic extensions combined with domain embedding to achieve a practical solution methodology. Implementations for the 2D Poisson, Heat, Wave, unsteady Stokes, Allen–Cahn, Schrödinger and Navier–Stokes equations on convex and non-convex domains demonstrate spectral convergence. Convergence analysis of this non-periodic extension is also discussed in this part.University of Manitoba Graduate Fellowship, University of Manitoba
Department of Mathematics, University of Manitoba
Faculty of Graduate Studies, University of ManitobaOctober 202
Protecting rivers: validation and extraction of pesticides in a biobed system's water and biomixture fractions using UHPLC-MS/MS
No full textThis research developed rapid analytical methods to quantify up to eighty-five current-use pesticide active ingredients in spray tank rinsate, effluents, and biomatrices of biobed systems designed to capture and degrade pesticide residues. AMPs (aminophosphonates) method focused on two hydrophilic herbicides (glyphosate and glufosinate) and AMPA (2-amino-3-(3-hydroxy-5-methyl-isoxazol-4-yl) propanoic acid), the primary metabolite of glyphosate. The Broad-Spectrum Method examined eight herbicides, 53 insecticides, 22 fungicides, and one adjuvant. Using UHPLC-MS/MS, pesticide concentrations were determined in 2022 and 2023 from a dual-cell biobed in Carman, Manitoba, Canada. Limits of detection (LODs) and quantification (LOQs) were in the parts per trillion for the AMPs method and in the parts per billion for all other compounds. Detected in the biobed system was glyphosate, glufosinate, AMPA, and twelve other pesticide active ingredients. Atrazine, bentazon, clopyralid, imazethapyr, and metolachlor were detected in all twenty-seven samples collected in 2023. The concentrations for most pesticides significantly or numerically decreased in order of rinsate > primary effluent > final effluent. AMPA, dicamba, imazamox, and chlorantraniliprole were only periodically detected in final effluent. 2,4-D, boscalid, tebuconazole, and pyraclostrobin were never detected in the final effluent. Data suggest that biobeds are effective tools at reducing rinsate pesticide concentrations; however, bentazon and clopyralid were consistently quantified in final effluent. This is the first study in Canada to also closely monitor for pesticide persistence within biomixtures of dual-cell biobeds. Some herbicides (imazethapyr) appeared to accumulate within the biomixture, whereas other herbicides (2,4-D, imazamox) were never detected, confirming rapid dissipation. The remaining eight pesticides had higher concentrations within cell one than two while seven pesticides had greater concentrations in 2023 than 2022, suggesting accumulation over time; in contrast, boscalid concentrations were greatest in 2022 then dissipated over the 2023 field season. Glyphosate showed rapid degradation as AMPA biomatrix concentrations were larger than that of glyphosate. Methods developed can be used to monitor biobed systems in Canada and support additional work to improve on the efficiency and longevity of biobeds in processing rinsate into clean water.NSERC-CGS-M Micheal Smith Foreign Studies Supplement
MZTRA Soil Conservation Fellowship
Orval G. Caldwell and H. Ruth Gardner Fellowship in Sustainable Agriculture/Agroecology
University of Manitoba's First-Year Stipend for NSERC CGS-M Students
University of Manitoba's Tri-Agency Masters Award SupplementOctober 202
Extreme precipitation in Greenland and the Baffin Bay region: changes, drivers, and impacts on land ice
No full textSmall shifts in mean precipitation conditions can lead to larger changes in the most intense events, meaning that there is potential for increasing extreme precipitation in the Arctic as temperatures rise. Extreme precipitation can have substantial impacts on local communities and the physical climate system, including the surface mass balance (SMB) of land ice. This thesis investigates characteristics of extreme precipitation days (EPDs; > 95th percentile of wet days), focusing on their projected changes and impact on land ice SMB. Greenland and the eastern Canadian Arctic are the focus of this work due to the presence of numerous communities and large quantities of land ice that may be impacted. The research is divided into three studies;
Firstly, the ability of three atmospheric reanalyses to reproduce observed EPDs is evaluated. Despite challenges in matching the timing and location of individual events, the reanalyses generally reproduce the seasonality of EPDs and provide insight into the climatological statistics of events.
Next, the projected future changes in EPDs in the region are examined using Variable-Resolution Community Earth System Model (VR-CESM) simulations following a high emissions scenario and their connections to extratropical cyclones and atmospheric rivers (ARs) are explored. Most of the region sees large projected increases in EPD accumulations (>100 mm/year), particularly in the warm season tied to increasing AR occurrence. Conversely, southeastern Greenland sees a decrease, thought to be tied to reduced cyclone activity.
Finally, the role of EPDs in the seasonal SMB of the region’s land ice is explored. Historically, EPDs contributed positively to seasonal SMB. Future EPDs continue to result in SMB increases in high elevation areas. However, they may lead to more variable and often negative SMB responses in the warm season in lower elevations, particularly in southwestern Greenland.
Together, this work provides an exploration of EPDs in the study region and their influence on the SMB of land ice. A better understanding of these processes allows for improved estimates of both the potential risks to communities related to EPDs and whether these events may accelerate or decelerate the contribution of the region’s land ice to global sea level rise.Canada 150 Research Chairs Program - Grant Number: 50296October 202
Investigating the postprandial glycemic response to wild rice cakes using a randomized crossover controlled trial
No full textBackground: Diabetes is a leading cause of mortality worldwide, with a prevalence of ~11% in Canada, linked to poor diets and an increasingly sedentary lifestyle. Therefore, designing novel ready-to-eat foods that could manage blood glucose (BG) concentrations is of interest. Wild rice (WR), a traditional staple food for many Indigenous people in North America, contains higher levels of antioxidants, fibre, and protein, and lower fat and calorie content compared to white or brown rice, which may contribute to its satiety and potential for regulating BG. However, no study has investigated the effects of WR cakes on post-prandial BG and satiety responses in humans.
Design: In a crossover trial, 18 healthy adults (9 males, 9 females) consumed test products. BG was measured at 0-120 min post-consumption. A dosing error in the white bread control led to a non-randomized fourth period with corrected carbohydrate matching (30 g). Test products included: 32 g white bread (15 g carb), 40 g BR cakes (100% BR), 40 g WR blend (25% WR, 75% BR), and 66 g white bread (30 g carb). All were consumed with 250 ml of water. Appetite and palatability were rated via visual analog scales.
Results: Effects of time, treatment, and time-by-treatment interactions on blood glucose over 120 minutes (p ≤ 0.05) were observed for both the analyses with the white bread at 32 g and 66g. No differences in BG response were observed between the rice cakes (p >0.05). White bread consumption (32 g) resulted in lower BG at 30, 45, 60, and 90 minutes, as well as a lower blood glucose iAUC and appetite compared to the rice cakes (p 0.05). The blood glucose iAUC after bread was very linear in terms of carbohydrate content with the 32 g serving having approximately half the iAUC of the 66 g serving.
Conclusion: Inclusion of 25% wild rice into a brown rice cake did not meaningfully impact blood glucose response.October 202