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Effects of Rapid Maxillary Expansion on Serum Insulin-Like Growth Factor I and Pharyngeal Airway in a Prepubertal Population with Maxillary Constriction
No full textIntroduction:
Rapid maxillary expansion (RME) is a common treatment in orthodontics to correct transverse maxillary deficiencies manifested in posterior crossbites. Maxillary expansion improves the upper airway morphology by causing lateral movement of the walls of the nasal cavity which could potentially contribute to the improvement of airflow. However, it is unclear whether there is an overall increase in the pharyngeal volume after treatment. Adenotonsillar hypertrophy has been identified as a potential cause of mouth breathing in children, which, when resected with surgery, has been shown to promote growth through the increase of IGF-1, a potent hormone responsible for growth and development.(Nosetti et al. 2023) Currently, there have been no studies that have determined the effect of RME on serum concentrations of IGF-1. The objectives of this study are to determine the effect of RME on the pharyngeal volume as well as serum IGF-1 concentrations in prepubertal children with a maxillary transverse discrepancy over a period of 12 months. Materials and Methods: Forty-three individuals between the ages of 6 and 12 with maxillary skeletal constriction presented in unilateral or bilateral crossbite and crossbite tendency were selected. They were of prepubertal status and void of any medical conditions. The control group consisted of children who did not undergo skeletal expansion, whereas the treatment group received the rapid maxillary expansion with a hyrax appliance. Blood was drawn and CBCTs were taken at the start of the trial (T0) and approximately 12 months after acquiring the first set of data (T1). Blood samples were acquired and analyzed for IGF-1 levels the same day by a commercial laboratory, DynaLife Medical Labs (Edmonton, Canada). Digital Imaging and Communication in Medicine (DICOM) format files were generated from T0 and T1 CBCT scans which were subsequently imported and analyzed by the Slicer© software.
Results:
No statistically significant effect of maxillary expansion achieved on serum levels of IGF-1 and airway volume due to the p-values being greater than 0.05. The mean difference in IGF-1 levels were 39.2ug/L and 74.2ug/L in the control and treatment groups, respectively. The mean change in airway volumes for the control and treatment group, respectively, were 9299.6mm3 and 12231.9 mm3. Mean difference in IMW for the control and expander group were 0.36mm and 4.17mm.
Conclusion:
The treatment group did not experience an increase in pharyngeal volume when compared to the control group. Similarly, RME did not produce an increase serum IGF-1 in the treatment group when compared to the control group as well. Therefore, the findings of this research suggest that RME does not produce significant changes in the pharyngeal volume and may not increase IGF-1 levels in children. However, due to sample size and imaging protocols, future studies are required to obtain a more definitive conclusion in this area of study
Lake-mediated climate buffering in Canada’s western boreal forest
No full textAs climate change affects Canada’s boreal forest, cold-adapted species face threats from warming temperatures and competition from encroaching tree species, particularly on the south boundary where some degree of forest compositional change occurs. Climate-change refugia, or areas projected to experience the effects of climate change more gradually, can serve as remnant suitable habitat or as stepping stones for species to disperse in latitude and altitude. Large, deep lakes can act as climate-change refugia along their shorelines, as cold water brought to the surface during annual turnover or upwellings result in the cooling of shoreline temperatures. The largest lake in the world by surface area, Lake Superior, serves as a model system for lake-mediated temperature buffering, as its cool water temperatures and wave action have maintained shoreline habitats suitable for disjunct populations of arctic-alpine plants since deglaciation. While lake-mediated cooling is a well-known phenomenon, the degree and extent of temperature buffering at most lakes is unknown. In this thesis, I quantify temperature buffering for a network of lakes across the boreal forest region of western Canada, identify environmental factors affecting buffering, and assess the effect on cold-adapted plant species. Using Lake Superior as a model system, I first sought to explain the spatial patterns and environmental drivers of disjunct arctic-alpine plant refugia on its shores under current conditions and projected future warming scenarios, using known occurrence records as indicators of refugia. I used an ecological niche model (ENM) to predict the presence of all disjunct species and individual species distribution models (SDMs) for species-specific predictions for 20 common disjunct species to identify hotspots of disjunct species richness. I found that bedrock type, elevation above the water, distance from shore, mean July daytime temperature, and the depth of near-shore waters best predicted disjunct occurrence, and that the highly exposed north-central and north-east shore of the lake had the highest richness of disjunct species. I predicted 2236 km of the shoreline (51%) as potentially suitable disjunct refugia habitat today, but this was reduced to 20% and 7% with moderate (894 km) and warmest (313 km) climate warming scenarios. Second, I determined the effects of macroclimatic variables and localized site conditions on disjunct arctic-alpine plant species richness. In the field, I measured macroclimate variables and local site conditions for 43 shoreline sites across Lake Superior’s north shore. I fitted a piecewise structural equation model (SEM) and found that disjunct richness was directly affected by shore width, elevation above the water, mean July temperature, and bedrock type. I found that richness of common boreal species was not significantly correlated with richness of disjunct arctic-alpine species, and thus that current open bedrock habitats are not limited by competition. Third, I examined the extent, degree, and patterns of temperature buffering at Lake Superior using temperature logger transects away from shorelines, and predicted drivers of buffering using generalized linear models (GLMs). I found the magnitude of cooling varied geographically, with the exposed north-central shore showing the highest temperature anomaly from interior reference sites. In this region, shoreline sites were 5.8 °C cooler than interior reference sites during July, and had a shortened growing season. The nearest similar July temperatures are found approximately 1000 km further north (~54°N). Temperature anomaly was best predicted by elevation above the water, shore width, nearshore July water surface temperature, and nearshore water depth. Finally, I examined the temperature buffering effects at a network of 11 lakes across western Canada’s boreal forest. Using the same study design as at Lake Superior, I predicted the effects of varying lake characteristics on mean July temperature anomaly, spring ice-off period and fall ice-on period temperature anomaly, and the proportion of coniferous trees at sites. July temperatures were coolest on the downwind side of lakes, within 10 km of shore, and at high volume lakes. Ice-off temperature anomalies were best predicted by the interaction between lake area and lake depth, while the proportion of coniferous trees at sites was best predicted by average July temperature. Knowledge of the extent and magnitude of lake-mediated cooling and drivers of lakeshore refugia at lakes across western boreal Canada may inform regional climate models, as well as guide for conservation and management of cold-adapted species, and protected areas under a changing climate
Advancing Environmental Sustainability at Canadian Festivals
No full textStudy 1: A Scoping Review of Environmental Communication at Festivals
Environmental communication, a sub-category of sustainability communication, has been increasingly adopted in festival settings to promote pro-environmental behaviors among stakeholders, shape a green image, and enhance an organization’s reputation. This study reviewed 37 articles published in English to identify dominant trends in this area of research. This scoping review revealed that music festivals have received the most research attention compared to other types of festivals. Attendees are often considered as the primary audience for environmental communication, with their perspectives and responses being the most frequently documented. Festivals serve as an educational platform for communicating a variety of environmental topics, with waste management and climate change receiving comparatively more attention. While some studies have explored the effectiveness of different message frames on attendees’ pro-environmental intentions, this area remains under-researched. Future studies are encouraged to test a broader range of theory-informed environmental communication interventions to advance the field further.
Study 2: Understanding How Canadian Festivals Address Environmental Sustainability through the Lens of the UN SDGs
This study explored how Canadian festivals have aligned with and incorporated the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in their festival management through a multiple case study research design. All festivals included in this research demonstrated a wide range of commitments to environmental sustainability. While two festivals have voluntarily aligned with the SDGs to position themselves within a broader global discourse, most did not perceive this adoption as an urgent priority. Common challenges to this adoption included limited organizational capacity, the lack of practical value of the SDGs, minimal pressure from external stakeholders, and insufficient resource support in terms of budget and education resources. Importantly, engagement with the SDGs was not driven by external requirements, but more by intrinsic motivations and perceived relevance to their stakeholders. This study contributes to the growing literature on environmental sustainability in festival management by presenting the challenges involved in localizing global frameworks like the SDGs within local festival contexts. Study 3: Canadian Festivals’ Commitment to Environmental Sustainability: A Volunteer Perspective
As a key internal stakeholder group, volunteers play an important but underexplored role in advancing environmental sustainability at festivals in Canada. This study drew on survey responses from volunteers and interviews with volunteer managers of three festivals. By applying Green Human Resource Management (GHRM) framework, this study investigated how volunteers perceive their festival’s organizational culture around environmental sustainability and how these perceptions related to their intention to return. Overall, volunteers showed a strong willingness to return. Their perceptions of a festival’s environmental commitment were weakly but significantly associated with their retention. This study also examined volunteers’ on-site pro-environmental behaviours, both private-sphere (e.g., recycling, using public transportation) and social-environmental (e.g., peer advocacy), and the types of organizational support that encouraged these behaviours. Findings highlighted the importance of infrastructures in supporting private-sphere pro-environmental behaviours, while social-environmental behaviours are more strongly influenced by perceived organizational culture, organizational support, leadership, and peer involvement. Overall, this study extended workplace environmental psychology to festival settings, which highlighted opportunities to include sustainability more deeply into volunteer experiences and volunteer management practices. For example, one important approach is to provide clear communication about the festival’s environmental initiatives across all volunteer groups, facilitated by staff and peer volunteers
Balancing the Whole Self Within Online, Indigenized Teacher Education: Exploring The Case of ATEP
No full textThe Alberta Teacher Education Program (ATEP) is a culturally responsive teacher education program at the University of Alberta that supports Indigenous preservice teachers through community-centered, culturally grounded, and accessible approaches. Offering both online and on-campus options, ATEP fosters student success through cohort-based learning, close faculty mentorship, and engagement with traditional practices and Indigenous languages.
This study examines the research question: What does online Indigenous Bachelor of Education programming need to include to minimize institutional barriers and support students’ academic, professional, and personal goals? Findings highlight six key factors contributing to student success: family and community support, culturally grounding curriculum, clear employment pathways, strong relationships with educators and staff, intentional scheduling, and Indigenous assessment practices that emphasize self-reflection and holistic learning. Areas for further development include attending to technological needs, supporting local community connections, and promoting broader engagement across cohorts. These insights inform best practices for online Indigenous teacher education and provide guidance for enhancing inclusion, belonging, and professional readiness
Minimizing Aerodynamic Disturbances and Particle Release Risk of Fibrous Filters of a Novel Air Purification System
No full textThis study investigates the aerodynamic performance of a novel heat-based air disinfection system equipped with pleated fibrous filters. A key feature of the system is the presence of mechanical gates located upstream and downstream of the disinfection units. These gates are essential parts of the system, as they regulate airflow and isolate the units during the disinfection process. However, their movement can generate aerodynamic disturbances, which may lead to the release of particles entrapped within the filters. Thus, numerical and experimental tests were employed to investigate how gates and their movement affect the airflow. The number of gates and the rotation period during their opening and closing substantially affect the flow pattern. Thus, configurations with 1 to 4 gates on each side of the units, along with three gate movement durations, were tested. The goal was to find the best arrangement that results in the least flow agitation. Numerical simulations were conducted to analyze the transient flow characteristics. It is known that high flow acceleration, velocity, and turbulent kinetic energy (TKE) can increase aerodynamic forces on particles within the filters and therefore release particles from them. Thus, they were monitored and minimized on the filter surface by testing the different gate configurations and rotation periods. The results demonstrate that the unit with 4-gates has the least aerodynamic disturbances, and it consistently yields considerably lower TKE, maximum velocity, and acceleration compared to the other setups. Additionally, longer gate movement periods significantly reduced flow acceleration and turbulence growth, which further reduces the particle release risk. Experimental tests also confirmed that rapid gate movement triggers particle emissions from loaded filters. A 10-time rapid gate movement led to about 5% re-entrainment of the particles within the filter, and reducing the gate movement period yielded 10 times lower particle release. Overall, the results provide practical insights for the design and operation of the disinfection system with minimal hazardous particle release risk
Introduction to Academic Writing
No full textIntroduction to Academic Writing is a Canadian open educational resource designed to help first-year university students understand and navigate the principles and practices of academic writing in the age of Generative AI. Written by Dr. Nancy Bray, the textbook adopts a research-informed approach that emphasizes writing as a human, social, and rhetorical activity. The textbook is organized into five major sections, introducing students to the purpose of human writing, the writing process, academic writing conventions, working with sources, and key rhetorical strategies. Special attention is given to responsible and ethical uses of Generative AI, the development of rhetorical strategies, and the adaptation of writing for disciplinary contexts. This resource is suitable for students writing at the university level for the first time
SCAT3 Symptom Reporting and Screening for Mental Health Disorders in Student-Athletes
No full textAthlete mental health disorders have gained increasing attention over the past two decades, yet accurate prevalence rates of depression and anxiety remain unclear due to inconsistent terminology, reporting biases, and reliance on self-report measures. In contrast, sport-related concussion (SRC) protocols, including mandatory baseline assessments such as the Sport Concussion Assessment Tool (SCAT), are well established across sport organizations. This dissertation explored the feasibility of hybridizing baseline SRC tools as mental health screeners for post-secondary athletes. Using data from the Active Rehabilitation study, a multi-site international project, baseline assessments from 1,638 Canadian U Sports and U.S. NCAA athletes were analyzed. Predictor variables included the four SCAT3 mood items (more emotional, irritability, sadness, nervousness/anxious), while outcome variables were depression and anxiety symptom severity measured by the Brief Symptom Inventory-18 (BSI-18).
Bivariate correlations demonstrated significant positive associations between all SCAT3 mood items and both BSI-18 depression and anxiety subscales, independent of demographic factors such as sex and concussion history. Stepwise multiple regression analyses revealed that sadness, nervousness/anxious, and irritability were the strongest predictors of depression, while nervousness/anxious and more emotional were the strongest predictors of anxiety. Binary logistic regression analyses further showed that SCAT3 items, particularly nervousness/anxious, significantly increased the odds of meeting clinical thresholds for depression and anxiety.
These findings suggest that routinely administered SCAT mood items have utility as preliminary screeners for mental health risk, particularly for anxiety symptoms, in post-secondary athletes. This hybridized approach may advance preventive, data-driven, and athlete-centred care in high-performance sport
Public Health Unit Funding and Emergency Department Visits due to Self-Harm, Alcohol, and Drug Poisoning Before and During COVID-19 in Ontario, Canada
No full textBackground: Self-harm, alcohol use, and drug poisoning harms (SAD) are major public health concerns in Canada. Since the early 2000s, SAD deaths, hospitalizations, and ED visits have increased over time, and it was predicted that the COVID-19 pandemic may have exacerbated these conditions in Canada. Current research suggest that increased government public health funding towards mental health and substance use programs was associated with decreased rates of SAD hospitalization and emergency department (ED) visits. However, this research consists of mainly ecological or simulated studies, with a lack of observational cohort data that examines whether public health funding is associated with individual risks of these health outcomes. Objectives: The study objectives were to: 1) estimate the association between local public health unit (PHU) funding per capita with SAD ED visits among individuals aged 15+ years living in Ontario, Canada between April 1st 2018-March 31st 2020 (before COVID-19) and April 1st 2020-March 31st 2022 (during COVID-19), and 2) to test for effect modification and determine whether the observed associations were heterogeneous across age, gender, ethnicity, rurality, and socio-economic status. Method: This was a cohort study using data from the Canadian Census Health and Environmental Cohorts (CanCHEC) which includes individuals from the 2016 Census linked to National Ambulatory Care Reporting System (NACRS) for follow up on ED visits. Individuals in this study were linked to Ontario Public Health Information Database (OPHID) using the location of the PHU in which they resided at the start of baseline in order to determine their exposure to PHU funding at the start of follow-up. Socioeconomic characteristics of this cohort were obtained from census respondents of CanCHEC 2016. Multilevel mixed effects survival models were conducted. Survey weights were applied to generalize the findings.
Results: There were 34 PHUs in 2018 and 33 PHUs in 2020 for analysis. The unweighted baseline samples (rounded to the nearest 5) included 2,435,300 individuals in 2018 and 2,417,640 individuals in 2020 aged 15 and over. A small proportion, <1% of the sample, had a SAD ED visit. A 2 was associated with decreased hazards of alcohol ED visits (aHR: 0.93; 95% CI: 0.85-1.01) before COVID-19 and decreased hazards of self-harm ED visits (aHR: 0.95; 95% CI: 0.92-0.98) during COVID-19. Cross-level interactions indicated that increased PHU funding per capita was associated with: decreased self-harm and drug poisoning ED visits among youth aged 15-24, decreased alcohol ED visits among males and middle adults aged 45-64, and decreased SAD ED visits among those with moderate income and residing in mixed, rural, and northern PHU regions.
Conclusion: Increased PHU funding was associated with decreased self-harm and alcohol attributable ED visits. Increased PHU funding was mainly associated with groups at highest risk of SAD ED visits, such as young females and middle adult males living in northern or rural PHUs, with exception to those with low income. Although PHU funding may be an important tool to enhance mental health and substance services in Ontario, further research is needed to apply health equity to low-income groups
Jennifer Stadwieser - Abstract 17 - Innovate Conference 2025
No full textWomen’s heart health clinics (WHHC) provide specialized care for women experiencing heart health concerns. Heart disease has notable impacts on women’s physical and psychological health, with depression and anxiety contributing to and resulting from heart disease. The psychological impact of heart disease on women is significant, highlighting a need for a holistic approach to women’s heart health care. There is presently no comprehensive list of WHHCs
Megumi Hayes - Abstract 50 - Innovate Conference 2025
No full textThe ECHO research program has developed several knowledge translation (KT) tools to better support parents by providing evidence-based health information in easily understandable formats. To meet the needs of a diverse population, KT tools need to be linguistically adapted, which is a time and resource intensive process