Athabasca University
  • Athabasca, Canada
Recent publications
The five-item World Health Organization Well-Being Index (WHO-5) is among the most frequently used brief standard measures to assess hedonic well-being. Numerous studies have investigated different facets of its psychometric properties in adult populations. However, whether these results apply to adolescents is uncertain, and only few psychometric studies employed adolescent populations. Thus, the current study aimed to conduct an in-depth psychometric item response theory analysis of the WHO-5 among adolescents from 43 countries using the Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) 2022 data set and investigated its (a) dimensionality and measurement structure, (b) test information values and marginal reliability, (c) cross-country measurement invariance and differential item/test functioning, and (d) convergent validity with other measures related to mental health and well-being across countries. The WHO-5 showed a unidimensional measurement structure and overall high test information values and marginal reliability. Furthermore, although a large proportion of parameters were flagged as non-invariant, differential test functioning of the WHO-5 was only modest. Moreover, the WHO-5 mainly showed a concurring nomological network with the other measures related to mental health and well-being across countries, although with some differences in effect sizes. The WHO-5 Well-Being Index is a psychometrically sound measure that has shown promise for cross-cultural research among adolescents in the included European, Central Asia, and North American countries. The translated versions of the WHO-5 are available at https://osf.io/pbexq.
The beauty of tulips has enchanted mankind for centuries. The striped variety has attracted particular attention for its intricate and unpredictable patterns. A good understanding of the mechanism driving the striped pattern formation of broken tulips has been missing since the 17th century. It has been known since 1928 that these patterned tulips suffer from a viral infection by the tulip breaking virus. Here, we present a mathematical model to understand how a virus infection of the petals can lead to stripes, thereby providing a possible explanation of a 350 year-old mystery. The model, which describes the viral inhibition of pigment expression (anthocyanins) and their interaction with viral reproduction, incorporates a pattern formation mechanism identified as an activator-substrate mechanism, similar to the well-known Turing instability, working together with Wolpert’s positional information mechanism. The model is solved on a growing tulip petal-shaped domain, whereby we introduce a new method to describe the tulip petal growth explicitly. This work shows how a viral infection that inhibits pigment production can lead to beautiful tulip patterns.
In the era of widespread Internet use and extensive social media interaction, the digital realm is accumulating vast amounts of unstructured text data. This unstructured data often contain undesirable information, necessitating time-consuming manual classification efforts. An intelligent text classification system capable of automatically categorizing digitized texts based on semantic meaning is crucial. However, this task is particularly challenging for low-resource languages like Bengali due to a shortage of annotated corpora, issues with out-of-vocabulary words, lack of domain-specific hyperparameter tuning, limited ability to extract generalized text features, and class imbalances within the corpus. AFuNet: an attention-based fusion network to classify texts in a resource-constrained language. AFuNet undergoes a comprehensive four-phase experimental process, including baseline model evaluation and hyperparameter tuning, late fusion and model selection, attention-based early fusion and model identification, and an ablation study with impact analysis. Fine-tuned based on five Bengali text classification corpora, AFuNet achieves impressive accuracies: 96.60 ± 0.2 (BTCC11), 85.37 ± 0.2 (OSBC), 97.35 ± 0.2 (BARD), 93.74 ± 0.2 (IndicNLP), and 96.51 ± 0.2 (ProthomAlo). In comparison with previous state-of-the-art models on these corpora, AFuNet demonstrates significant accuracy improvements ranging from 0.54% to 4.49%, showcasing its effectiveness in advancing text classification capabilities for the Bengali language.
Background Irrespective of where nurses work, they may provide care to individuals with substance use disorders. Unfortunately, some nurses may not understand how to work with these individuals and stigmatisation may occur. Aim To explore how to provide effective care for these individuals. Method A qualitative descriptive study examining helpful interventions for individuals with substance use disorders through interviewing four substance abuse specialist nurses. Findings Findings consider person-centred care, such as how to create a therapeutic relationship with individuals with substance use disorders, empowerment of these individuals and providing hope, and employing a holistic approach. Conclusion Nurses may encounter individuals with substance use disorders and may benefit from knowledge of how best to intervene.
Teen relevant and open access health information for building vaccine confidence With the abundance of health information about vaccines online, there is a need for an open educational resource (OER) that empowers youth to understand the importance of vaccines and make informed medical choices. In today’s digital age, where online information is abundant and conflicting, young people are challenged to find evidence-based and developmentally appropriate information to make decisions about vaccinations. Their decisions will impact not only themselves but also the next generation. Once beliefs are instilled, they are difficult to challenge and change.
We aimed to understand how experiences with vaccine-related information and communication challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic impacted motivations and behaviors among Canadian adults regarding future vaccines. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with participants purposively selected to ensure diversity in age, sex at birth, self-identified gender, and region. Data were analyzed using thematic analysis; findings were mapped to the Information-Motivation-Behavioral Skills Model focusing on factors affecting vaccine hesitancy and uptake. Of 62 interviews completed, most were with woman (n = 32, 51.6%) and residents of Ontario (n = 36, 58.1%); the median age was 43.5 yr (interquartile range 23.3 yr). Themes included: 1) accessibility of information, 2) ability to assess information accuracy and validity, 3) trust in communications from practitioners and decision-makers, and 4) information seeking behaviors. Participants expressed various concerns about vaccines, including fears about potential side effects, particularly regarding the long-term effects of novel vaccinations. These concerns may reflect broader societal anxieties, which have been intensified by widespread misinformation and an overload of vaccine information. Moreover, participants highlighted a lack of trust in the information provided by government agencies and pharmaceutical companies, primarily driven by concerns regarding their underlying motives. Concerns about COVID-19 vaccine safety and effectiveness negatively impacted future vaccine attitudes and behaviors. Vaccine hesitancy studies should consider how individuals receive, perceive, and seek information within social contexts and risk profiles.
Background Understanding factors associated with antimicrobial resistance (AMR) distribution across populations is a necessary step in planning mitigation measures. While associations between AMR and socioeconomic-status (SES), including employment and education have been increasingly recognized in low- and middle-income settings, connections are less clear in high-income countries where SES remains an important influence on other health outcomes. Methods We explored the relationship between SES and AMR in Calgary, Canada using spatially-resolved wastewater-based surveillance of resistomes detected by metagenomics across eight socio-economically diverse urban neighborhoods. Resistomes were established by shotgun-sequencing of wastewater pellets, and qPCR of targeted-AMR genes. SES status was established using 2021 Canadian census data. Conducting this comparison during the height of COVID-related international travel restrictions (Dec. 2020–Oct. 2021) allowed the hypotheses linking SES and AMR to be assessed with limited confounding. These were compared with sewage metagenomes from 244 cities around the world, linked with Human Development Index (HDI). Results Wastewater metagenomes from Calgary’s socioeconomically diverse neighborhoods exhibit highly similar resistomes, with no quantitative differences (p > 0.05), low Bray-Curtis dissimilarity, and no significant correlations with SES. By comparison, dissimilarity is observed between globally-sourced resistomes (p < 0.05), underscoring the homogeneity of resistomes in Calgary’s sub-populations. The analysis of globally-sourced resistomes alongside Calgary’s resistome further reveals lower AMR burden in Calgary relative to other cities around the world. This is particularly pronounced for the most clinically-relevant AMR genes (e.g., beta-lactamases, macrolide-lincosamide-streptogramin). Conclusions This work showcases the effectiveness of inclusive and comprehensive wastewater-based surveillance for exploring the interplay between SES and AMR.
Hemoglobin is an integral part of blood, and its abnormality indicates various diseases. Different noninvasive methods are developed to predict the concentration of hemoglobin. Previous studies verified the potential of photoplethysmogram (PPG) signals in estimating the health parameter. Though different hardware tools have been used to develop digital systems over the years, they lack the reconfigurability feature needed to develop a point-of-care (POC) system. In this study, a field programmable gate array (FPGA)-based reconfigurable hardware system including preprocessor, memory & control, feature extractor and classifier subsystems is designed targeting Zynq 7000 Zedboard. The system utilizes six features extracted from the PPG signals collected using DCM08 PPG sensor and linear regression classifier model for prediction. PPG signals based on four different wavelengths of light are tested and the best result has been achieved with infrared light having a wavelength of 940 nm, which will help to design PPG sensors for wearable and medical devices. The mean absolute error (MAE) with this wavelength is 2.55 g/L with an error rate of 1.78%. The power consumption analysis validates the designed system to be a low-power device. The designed processor can be used as a POC system, and due to its reconfigurable advantage, the system can be further improved by adding other health parameter predictions and disease detection.
Background: Genomics is a foundational element of precision health and can be used to identify inherited cancers, cancer related risks, therapeutic decisions, and to address health disparities. However, there are structural barriers across the cancer care continuum, including an underprepared nursing workforce, long wait times for service, and inadequate policy infrastructure that limit equitable access to the benefits of genomic discoveries. These barriers have persisted for decades, yet they are modifiable. Two distinct waves of efforts to integrate genomics into nursing practice are analyzed. Drawing on research and observations during these waves, this discussion paper explores additional approaches to accelerate workforce development and health system transformation. Results: Three recommendations for a third wave of efforts to integrate genomics are explored. (1) Collaborate across the domains of nursing practice, professions, and sectors to reset priorities in response to emerging evidence, (2) Education in leadership, policy and practice for rapid scale-up of workforce and health system transformation, and (3) Create a research framework that generates evidence to guide nursing practice. Conclusions: Preparing nurses to lead and practice at the forefront of innovation requires concerted efforts by nurses in all five domains of practice and can optimize health outcomes. Leveraging nursing as a global profession with new strategies can advance genomics-informed nursing.
The paper examines the long run movement between Canadian dollar and US dollar exchange rates. The study uses monthly data for the period 1995:01 to 2008:08 and employs the Engle-Granger cointegration test. Our analysis suggests that the absolute purchasing power parity (PPP) does not hold, indicating no long run relationship between the observed exchange rate and PPP rate. The result shows that there is no cointegration between actual exchange rate and PPP rate, suggesting that there is no long run relationship between Canadian dollar and US dollar exchange rates. A close examination of the data shows that output prices move more slowly, and is evidence against PPP in the short run. We acknowledge that the study period may be small to capture the existence of a long run relationship. However, our regression analysis suggests that the relative price movements are significant in explaining the actual exchange rate between US and Canada.
This paper analyses the trends and directions of exports and imports of Canada using the time series data for the period 1981 to 2014. Instantaneous and compound growth rates are calculated by using the log-linear regression model in conjunction with an autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) model for forecasting future exports and imports. The results of this study show that there is an increasing trend for both exports and imports. As far as the growth rates are concerned, the two estimated log-linear models depict a comprehensive annual picture of Canadian merchandise trade. The exports grow at an instantaneous rate of 4.46% and at a slightly higher than compound annual growth rate of 4.6%. The overall growth rate of imports is 5.41% and compound annual growth rate is 5.27%. The compound growth rate is marginally higher than the instantaneous growth rate.The results of the Johansen test for analyzing the long-run relationship between export, import and GDP have further demonstrated that the variables are co-integrated, and have established a long-run association among them.
Canada has made significant historical commitments towards implementing gender equality policies, programs, and legislation after the findings of the Abella Commission were released in 1984 (Abella, 1984). Since then, gender wage gaps have been decreasing in many parts of the country. Two of the Canadian prairie provinces, Alberta and Saskatchewan, have not experienced the same degree of measureable gender equity at the national level, as the other provinces. This paper will therefore examine the gender wage gaps in these two provinces. To investigate gender wage gaps in Alberta and Saskatchewan, the paper examines two industries in each of the two provinces that are fundamentally different in terms of the gender of their workforce composition. In particular, the study compares the oil and gas industry, which is predominantly male dominant, with the predominantly female dominant healthcare and social assistance industry in order to discover whether wage gaps are industry specific, and can be explained by the size of worker-affiliated organizations in particular provinces and industries. The study also investigates the effects of years of job tenure on gender wage gaps. The results demonstrate that, in both provinces, regardless of industry, the size of the organization proves significant in explaining gender wage gaps, while years of tenure are insignificant. this study showed that students who have learned through the E-book method achieve design efficiently better in their post-test scores than those in the traditional method. Students at the internal motivation level perform design efficiently better in their post-test scores than those at external motivation level. The E-book method proved to help students with external motivation in their post-test score motivation.
Food insecurity is not a new issue in Nunavut, Canada, but it is one that is not yet resolved. In Nunavut, the Government of Canada primarily through Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada manages food security. In 2011, to aid the issue of food insecurity, the Government of Canada created the program called Nutrition North Canada (NNC). This paper will identify the values and mandate of Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada and Government of Nunavut and state the current status, challenges, and health impact of food security in Nunavut. Lastly, it will determine if the Government of Canada is following the principles of good governance with the Nutrition North program, and suggest improving competencies like innovativeness, strategic thinking and building collaborative relationships by expanding agriculture and aquaculture in Nunavut to assist in tackling food insecurity.
Climate change is a major threat to global health. Its effects on physical health are increasingly recognised, but mental health impacts have received less attention. The mental health effects of climate change can be direct (resulting from personal exposure to acute and chronic climatic changes), indirect (via the impact on various socioeconomic, political and environmental determinants of mental health) and overarching (via knowledge, education and awareness of climate change). These impacts are unequally distributed according to long-standing structural inequities which are exacerbated by climate change. We outline key concepts and pathways through which climate change may affect mental health and explore the responses to climate change at different levels, from emotions to politics, to highlight the need for multilevel action. We provide a broad reference to help guide researchers, practitioners and policy-makers in the use and understanding of different terms in this rapidly growing interdisciplinary field.
This article explores how the language used in cancer, diagnosis, and treatment can shape and constrain patients' experiences, often limiting personal agency. By analyzing verbatim excerpts from conversations between the authors, it highlights how dominant discourses in the medical field, such as positive thinking and war metaphors, can impose psychological burdens. The authors advocate for incorporating curiosity and flexibility in patient interactions to enhance agency and personalization of care.
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Shawn Lewenza
  • Centre for Science
Maiga Chang
  • School of Computing and Information Systems
Jennifer Knopp-Sihota
  • Faculty of Health Disciplines
Oscar Lin
  • School of Computing and Information Systems
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