812 research outputs found
Down but Not Out: Reforming Social Assistance Rules that Punish the Poor for Saving
No full textReform is required for social program rules that prevent the poor from saving in Registered Retirement Savings Plans (RRSPs) and Tax Free Savings Accounts (TFSAs), according to this study. The author says that encouraging asset accumulation, even in small amounts, is crucial in helping to lift people out of poverty. Yet most Canadian welfare, disability and social service programs deny or cancel benefits if applicants or recipients place a modest level of savings in an RRSP or TFSA. Barring a province-led effort at reform, says Stapleton, the federal government should take the lead by calling on provinces and territories to exempt meaningful RRSP and TFSA amounts from their welfare asset rules, leaving individual jurisdictions to decide the appropriate levels.Social Policy, Registered Retirement Savings Plan (RRSP), Tax Free Savings Account (TFSA), social assistance
Thomas Stapleton
No full textIn 1620, twenty-two years after his death, Thomas Stapleton received the tribute hoped for, I suppose, by many, if not all professors. Four of his friends collected together his works and published them. His Opera Omnia fill four folio volumes: translation, controversy, the fruit of his years of lecturing worked over and set out in lengthy, ordered dissertations, history, biography, moral instruction, panegyric, speeches made on academic occasions, commentaries on the Sunday, feast-day and Lenten gospels. The whole was prefaced by a life of the author written in Latin verse by Henry Holland. The best preserved and best cared-for copy is to be found in Lambeth Palace library.</jats:p
Shifting the response terrain
No full textCo-published with the Institute for Social and Environmental Transition-Nepal (ISET-N)An important lesson drawn from this project is the difficulty inherent in communicating different types of knowledge across major cultural, educational and other boundaries. The study explored uses and limitations of available climate information products in the development of strategies for adapting to climate change in locations across India and Nepal. Shared learning dialogues (SLDs) served as a basis for identifying courses of action that can assist local areas in responding to projected consequences of climate change. The book summarizes the project, methodology, outcomes and outputs
Martin Opitz’ "New Year’s Gift with Song”
No full textAt the turn of the year 1623/24, Martin Opitz published a song of praise honouring Christ’s birth in German Alexandrine verse: Lobgesang Uber den Frewdenreichen Geburtstag Unseres Herren und Heilandes Jesu Christi [Song of praise about the joyous birthday of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ]. This example of erudition is also very personal: The author speaks about his troubles during the gruesome Thirty Years War. It concludes with a Latin Sapphic ode petitioning for absolution and peace. Scholars have never appreciated the ode’s function: It derives its full meaning from the intended melody, which was well-known to the dedicatee.
Amazingly, many poets copied Opitz in writing epic-dramatic poems including song(s) to honour friends or superiors with a New Year’s dedication; they imitated his motifs and even his title by way of “aemulatio”. When Opitz’ tendency towards dramatic representation and visualisation is enhanced, we find the work comes close to another musical epic-dramatic genre, the actus. We encounter this in several academic communities, its finest example being a hardly known musical composition by Johann Rosenmüller to words by Johann Ziegler.Non UBCUnreviewedFacult
De novo nonsense mutations in ASXL1 cause Bohring-Opitz syndrome
No full textBohring-Opitz syndrome is characterized by severe intellectual disability, distinctive facial features and multiple congenital malformations. We sequenced the exomes of three individuals with Bohring-Opitz syndrome and in each identified heterozygous de novo nonsense mutations in ASXL1, which is required for maintenance of both activation and silencing of Hox genes. In total, 7 out of 13 subjects with a Bohring-Opitz phenotype had de novo ASXL1 mutations, suggesting that the syndrome is genetically heterogeneous
Assessing cognitive toxicity in early Phase Trials ‐ what are we missing?
No full textObjectives: novel therapies, such as, small protein molecule inhibitors and immunotherapies are first tested clinically in Phase I trials. Moving on to later phase trials and ultimately standard practice. A key aim of these early clinical trials is to define a toxicity profile; however, the emphasis is often on safety. The concern is cognitive toxicity is poorly studied in this context and may be under-reported. The aim of this review is to map evidence of cognitive assessment, toxicity, and confounding factors within reports from Phase I trials and consider putative mechanisms of impairment aligned with mechanisms of novel therapies. Methods: a scoping review methodology was applied to the search of databases, including Embase, MEDLINE, Clinicaltrials.gov. A [keyword search was conducted, results screened for duplication then inclusion/exclusion criteria applied. Articles were further screened for relevance; data organised into categories and charted in a tabular format]. Evidence was collated and summarised into a narrative synthesis. Results: despite the availability of robust ways to assess cognitive function, these are not routinely included in the conduct of early clinical trials. Reports of cognitive toxicity in early Phase I trials are limited and available evidence on this shows that a proportion of patients experience impaired cognitive function over the course of participating in a Phase I trial. Links are identified between the targeted action of some novel therapies and putative mechanisms of cognitive impairment. Conclusion: the review provides rationale for research investigating cognitive function in this context. A study exploring the cognitive function of patients on Phase I trials and the feasibility of formally assessing this within early clinical trials is currently underway at the Royal Marsden.</p
Hypothesizing about Reading Recovery
No full textProfessor Opitz\u27s article is one of two in this special issue not written by a Reading Recovery trained teacher. The author has examined the literature on Reading Recovery and attempted to puzzle out the reason(s) for its success. Trained Reading Recovery teachers will find both points of agreement and disagreement, and many points on which to establish a discussion. Opitz writes, ...we do not, I believe, know why the program works. Yet as Clay suggests in this issue, answers are learned in the year-long and continuing contact training sessions. Our understanding of why the program works does not come from information or research alone, but from reflec tive practice. Reading Recovery teachers continue to re flect on their learning and practice, and implicit in the whole Reading Recovery process is ongoing research and evaluation. We have chosen the article because it reflects questions raised by those who have searched the literature on Reading Recovery and are contemplat ing involvement in the program. Professor Opitz\u27s hy pothesizing is based on wide reading in the literature about Reading Recovery, and should generate many powerful questions for the dialogue between trained Reading Recovery personnel and educators considering program implementation
What is the impact of targeted therapies given within phase I trials on the cognitive function of patients with advanced cancer: a mixed-methods exploratory study conducted in an early clinical trials unit
No full textIntroduction Novel therapies such as small protein molecule inhibitors and immunotherapies are tested in early phase trials before moving to later phase trials and ultimately standard practice. A key aim of these clinical trials is to define a toxicity profile, however, the emphasis is often on safety with measurements of organ toxicity. Other subjective side effects can be under-reported because they are not measured formally within the trial protocols. The concern from clinical practice is that cognitive toxicity is poorly studied and may be under-reported in this context. This could lead to toxicity profiles of new treatments not being fully described and patients with unmet need in terms of acknowledgement and support of symptoms. This protocol outlines a framework of an exploratory study with feasibility aspects to investigate the impact and experience of cognitive changes for patients on phase I trials. Methods and analysis This is a mixed-methods study, combining quantitative and qualitative approaches. The sample is 30 patients with advanced cancer who are participating in phase I trials of novel therapies in the early clinical trials unit of a specialist cancer centre. A test battery of validated cognitive assessments will be taken alongside patient reported outcome measures at three time points from baseline, day eight and day 28 post start of treatment. At day 28, a semi-structured interview will be conducted and the narrative thematically analysed. Results will be integrated to offer a comprehensive description of cognitive function in this patient group. Ethics and dissemination The study has received full HRA and ethical approval. It is the first study to introduce formal cognitive assessments in a cancer phase I trial context. The study has the potential to highlight previously unreported side effects and more importantly unmet need in terms of care for patients who are participating in the trials.</p
Diagrammatic Representation and Inference
No full textThis book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 10th International Conference on the Theory and Application of Diagrams, Diagrams 2018, held in Edinburgh, UK, in June 2018. The 26 revised full papers and 28 short papers presented together with 32 posters were carefully reviewed and selected from 124 submissions. The papers are organized in the following topical sections: generating and drawing Euler diagrams; diagrams in mathematics; diagram design, principles and classification; reasoning with diagrams; Euler and Venn diagrams; empirical studies and cognition; Peirce and existential graphs; and logic and diagrams
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