St. Francis Xavier University

Background Nurses engage in continuing professional education (CPE) to remain current in their knowledge and competencies, and to learn in ways that help them navigate an increasingly complex healthcare system. Recent trends indicate that CPE has shifted away from nurses’ education to be more directed toward organizational and regulatory needs, which impacts nurses’ professional learning. Purpose The purpose of this research was to understand the influences that shape nurses’ CPE choices and professional learning pathways, and the ways in which nurses learn. Methods This was an exploratory case study of later career nurses in Nova Scotia, Canada, that analyzed data from semi-structured interviews, participant artifacts, and government and regulatory policy documents. Critical and post-structural feminist lenses were applied to the data analysis. Results Three themes encompassing the key influences on nurses’ CPE choices and learning pathways were identified: sociocultural context, structural/systems context, and shifting knowledge forms. The findings suggest that educational discourse embedded in the broader regulatory, government, and employer policy worked to direct the participants into CPE for employment and regulatory requirements, shaping nursing knowledge that reflects organizational needs. Conclusion This study revealed sources of influence on nurses’ CPE choices and professional learning pathways, such as sociocultural expectations for women to assume most family responsibilities. Structural influences within healthcare and regulation exert considerable influence on nurses’ CPE and learning pathways to align with system needs. This study highlighted the limitations of these influences and the need for CPE programs and learning for nurses that enable rather than constrain their continued professional development.

Third-party punishment of unfairness shows striking cross-societal variation in adults, yet we know little about where and when in development this variation starts to emerge. When do children across societies begin to pay a cost to prevent unfair sharing? We present an experimental study of third-party punishment of unfair sharing across N = 535 children aged 5–15 from communities in six diverse countries: Canada, India, Peru, Uganda, USA, and Vanuatu. We tested whether children were more likely to punish equal or selfish (maximally unequal) distributions between two absent peers. We also tested whether decisions depended on whether such punishment was costly—participants had to sacrifice their own rewards to punish—or free. Our study generated three main findings. First, children across societies engaged in third-party punishment of selfishness: they were more likely to punish selfish than equal distributions. Second, older children were more likely than younger children to punish selfish sharing in Canada, India, Peru, and the USA. Third, children in Canada and the USA punished more in general in the Free condition than in the Costly condition, whereas children in Uganda punished selfishness more in the Costly condition. These findings show that children from six diverse societal contexts consistently took a stance against unfair sharing, in some cases even sacrificing their own rewards to intervene against selfishness in their peers. We highlight and discuss similarities and differences in cross-societal patterns of age-related differences in third-party punishment and suggest potential explanations for these patterns.

Nonnegative CANDECOMP/PARAFAC (CP) factorization of incomplete tensors is a powerful technique for finding meaningful and physically interpretable latent factor matrices to achieve nonnegative tensor completion. However, most existing nonnegative CP models rely on manually predefined tensor ranks, which introduces uncertainty and leads the models to overfit or underfit. Although the presence of CP models within the probabilistic framework can estimate rank better, they lack the ability to learn nonnegative factors from incomplete data. In addition, existing approaches tend to focus on point estimation and ignore estimating uncertainty. To address these issues within a unified framework, we propose a fully Bayesian treatment of nonnegative tensor completion with automatic rank determination. Benefitting from the Bayesian framework and the hierarchical sparsity-inducing priors, the model can provide uncertainty estimates of nonnegative latent factors and effectively obtain low-rank structures from incomplete tensors. Additionally, the proposed model can mitigate problems of parameter selection and overfitting. For model learning, we develop two fully Bayesian inference methods for posterior estimation and propose a hybrid computing strategy that reduces the time overhead for large-scale data significantly. Extensive simulations on synthetic data demonstrate that our model can recover missing data with high precision and automatically estimate CP rank from incomplete tensors. Moreover, results from real-world applications demonstrate that our model is superior to state-of-the-art methods in image and video inpainting. The code is available at https://github.com/zecanyang/BNTC.

This study evaluated the bidirectional associations between peer defending and social status (perceived popularity and likability) as well as gender and grade differences in these associations. Cross‐lagged panel models were used to assess these longitudinal relationships in a sample comprised of elementary school students (Grades 5–8, N = 301, M age = 12.38, collected in May and November 2019) and high school students (Grades 9–12, N = 296, M age = 15.69, collected in November 2022 and May 2023) collected from five schools in southern Ontario, Canada. Findings revealed that overall, popularity and likability predicted future peer defending, and students who defended others became more liked over time. Additionally, our exploratory analyses indicated that boys in elementary school who defended became more popular overtime. These findings extend previous investigations into the bidirectional associations between social status and peer defending, while considering the impacts of gender and cohort. Implications of these findings are discussed in terms of their novelty and considerations for bullying prevention programs.

Objective The aim of the present study was to psychometrically test and validate the Well-being Coaching Inventory (WCI), a proposed measure of interconnected, whole-person well-being in the context of health and wellness coaching (HWC). Methods Initially 49 items, the WCI was conceived with 4 dimensions: Mind, Body, Work, and Life. The inventory was evaluated in 3 sequential studies to test: (a) face validity, (b) convergent validity, and (c) predictive validity. Expert judgment, correlational analyses, and factor analyses were techniques applied to collected WCI data. Results After statistical evaluation (n = 261) of fit to each dimension, the WCI was shortened to 20 items that demonstrated convergent validity. Further use of confirmatory factor analyses and exploratory structural equation model in a large sample study (n = 531) provided additional support for the inventory’s convergent validity. Through correlation analyses to theoretically related concepts predictive validity was established. Conclusions The WCI is a valid, applicable, and reliable scale for use in HWC research and practice. It is an instrument that will aid HWC practitioners and researchers as a central outcome measure for their practice.

Maternal mind‐mindedness, which examines mothers' representational capacity to treat their children as individuals with their own minds, has traditionally been operationalized by coding mothers' mental state comments to or about their children. Mind‐mindedness has been studied predominantly in Western cultures, where it predicts children's social‐cognitive developments. However, in many non‐Western cultures, mothers do not readily talk about their children's mental states; they may use nonverbal behaviors to manifest their mind‐mindedness. Nonverbal behaviors may also be the way mind‐mindedness is conveyed to young infants. Theorists have been puzzled by the fact that mind‐mindedness in mothers' speech prior to when infants understand language predicts infants' later social‐cognitive developments. In this article, I call for mind‐mindedness measures to include nonverbal behaviors. Such measures may reveal behaviors involved in communicating mind‐mindedness to infants and provide an avenue to equitable investigations of mind‐mindedness in diverse cultures, thus advancing the theory and scope of the field.

Background Advancing health equity is a global priority within public health, requiring a focus on structural determinants of health and power imbalances. Community organizing is one strategy to cultivate community power and advance health equity by challenging oppressive systems. While examples of public health partnering with community-organizing groups and utilizing organizing methods can be found in the literature, these strategies remain an underdeveloped area for practice. This rapid review aims to uncover the benefits, challenges, and outcomes of governmental, non-profit, and academic public health partnering with community organizers and/or applying community-organizing methods. Methods A rapid review was conducted using PubMed and Cochrane databases. Articles were included if they focused on public health applying community-organizing methods and/or partnering with community-organizing groups, and if they reported benefits, limitations, and/or outcomes for community and/or public health. Eligible articles were primary research, practice reports, or systematic reviews, and were published between 2000 and August 10, 2023. Articles were excluded if they were published outside of Canada, United States, Europe, Australia, or New Zealand; not in English or available online; and unrelated to public health and community organizing. Results Twenty-four articles met inclusion criteria, including 17 primary research studies and seven practice reports. Topics varied, with environmental health and justice being the most common. Three quantitative articles investigated social capital. Qualitative outcomes revealed 10 themes describing seven benefits and three challenges for public health. Benefits include increased public health effectiveness, set or changed priorities, built community power, enhanced data collection and research, policy changes, built community capacity, and increased social capital. Challenges include administrative barriers, approach differences, and challenges associated with community organizing. Overall, the evidence base reveals a scarcity of research on public health partnering with community organizers or utilizing community-organizing methods. Conclusion The review underscores the capacity of community organizing to advance health equity, enhance public health effectiveness, and contribute diverse benefits to communities. It emphasizes the value of community-organizing partnerships and methods as promising approaches for public health practice, revealing alignment in addressing social and structural determinants of health. The full French translation of this article is available via https://nccdh.ca/fr/resources/entry/community-organizing-and-public-health-a-rapid-review.

Background During the COVID-19 pandemic, long-term care (LTC) facilities in Canada were confronted with many rapidly changing public health safety guidelines. Based on the guidelines, LTC facilities had to implement a series of virus containment and mitigation measures, presenting significant challenges for both workers and residents. This research aims to provide insights that could be used to guide improvements in the experiences of LTC workers, and of residents, in future pandemic crises. Methods A qualitative multi-case study was used to explore the pandemic experiences of a demographically diverse group of LTC workers in Canada, focusing on how public health safety guidelines impacted them, and their perceptions of challenges faced by residents. Fourteen workers were engaged from facilities in Nova Scotia and British Columbia, which are regions distinct geographically and with differences in safety guidelines and implementation. Semi-structured interviews were conducted between April to October 2021. Using thematic analysis, we identified patterns within and across the interview transcripts. Results The thematic analysis provided an understanding of the experiences and perspectives of LTC workers. There were four key themes: (1) Tangling with Uncertainty, that describes the effects of ambiguous messaging and shifting COVID-19 safety guidance on workers; (2) Finding Voice, that highlights how workers coped with feelings of helplessness during the healthcare crisis; (3) Ripple Effects, of pandemic pressures on workers beyond resident care, that included strengthening of inter-colleague support as well as financial challenges, and; (4) Loss of Home, where workers perceived that protection of residents led to a loss of the residents’ home environment, personal freedom, and autonomy. Conclusions The findings suggest that LTC workers’ experiences during future pandemics may be improved by their inclusion in the development of public health safety guidelines, facilitating inter-colleague support systems, and ensuring worker financial stability. A balance should be found between preventing infection in LTC facilities and retaining the principles of holistic and resident-centered care for workers’ and residents’ mental health benefits.

Background Hand-arm vibration syndrome (HAVS) is an occupational disease associated with long-term exposure to power tools leading to hand-transmitted vibration exposure. Prior research has focussed on physical manifestations with little known about the psychological impacts of HAVS. Aims To examine if HAVS severity and/or functional impairment is associated with psychological outcomes. Methods We conducted a cross-sectional study collecting data through a survey and retrospective chart review of workers being assessed for HAVS at an occupational medicine clinic. We collected information on demographics, work conditions, disease characteristics and physical and psychological outcomes as measured through validated instruments (SF-12, QuickDASH, GAD-2, PHQ-2). Descriptive statistics and bivariate analyses were followed by multivariable models to explore associations between mental health outcomes and predictor variables. Results Participants (N = 94; 56% response rate) were male with a mean age of 48.2 years. The majority (62%) worked in the mining sector, and 27% of participants reported feeling depressed and 35% reported showing little interest in or pleasure in doing things, while 28% reported clinically significant anxiety symptoms. In multivariable models, the QuickDASH, a measure of upper-extremity function and disability, was the only significant predictor of psychological outcomes. Conclusions Workers with HAVS have poorer mental health and physical functioning outcomes in comparison to the general population. Employers should consider tailored policies and interventions to address the mental health of workers with HAVS.

OBJECTIVE The Eat, Sleep, Console (ESC) model of care is an innovative care approach for infants diagnosed with neonatal abstinence syndrome, improving patient and health system outcomes for this equity-deserving population. Little is known about sustainably implementing this model into practice. The objective is to map evidence on implementing the ESC model into clinical practice, including strategies, barriers and facilitators to implementation, and evaluation outcomes. METHODS Data sources include MEDLINE, Embase, CINAHL, PsycINFO, Google Scholar, and websites identified by a Google search. The study selection included articles exploring the implementation or evaluation of the ESC model in clinical practice since its 2017 conception. Two reviewers independently screened each study using a predetermined screening tool. Data were extracted by 2 independent reviewers from included articles. RESULTS The review identified 34 studies. Barriers to implementing the ESC model include resource limitations and systemic oppression and bias. Facilitators include health care provider education and empowerment of parent engagement. The most reported cluster of strategies (31.6%) included training and educating stakeholders. Gaps were noted in the exploration of implementation outcomes/processes, and equity implications on implementation. CONCLUSIONS The ESC model of care has been successfully implemented in various settings with positive patient and health system outcomes, including decreased hospital stay and pharmacological treatment of infants. However, there is a gap in exploring implementation processes and outcomes. Future research should explore the contextual elements of the implementation by equitably examining implementation outcomes specific to the ESC model of care.

We examine factors affecting Canadian government health expenditure during 1968–2022. Our data provide evidence on expenditure decisions from 10 autonomous but similar healthcare systems operating under common standards and regulations. We show that expenditure-income elasticity as measured in the literature is sensitive to controls for the social determinants of health, rising from 0.23 to 0.35. We also extend the literature with novel results for total and for specific expenditure categories that have grown unevenly in recent decades finding higher elasticity for physician than for drug or hospital spending. Physician supply increases both hospital and physician expenditures. Mid-life population shares, often overlooked in the literature, explain changes in the rapidly growing drug expenditure category. Our relatively long time series allows us to illustrate the sensitivity of results to dynamic specifications, account for a structural break in 1996 and show that income elasticity has risen over time.

Background Implementation Science research completed with equity-deserving populations is not well understood or explored. The current opioid epidemic challenges healthcare systems to improve existing practices through implementation of evidence-based interventions. Pregnant persons diagnosed with opioid use disorder (OUD) is an equity-deserving population that continues to experience stigmatization within our healthcare system. Efforts are being made to implement novel approaches to care for this population; however, the implementation research continues to leave the voices of pregnant persons unheard, compounding the existing stigma and marginalization experienced. Methods This debate paper highlights a specific case that explores the implementation of the Eat, Sleep, Console (ESC) model of care, a function-based empowerment model used to guide the care for pregnant persons diagnosed with OUD and their infants. We establish our debate within the conceptual discussion of Nguyen and colleagues (2020), and critically analyze the collaborative research approaches, engaged scholarship, Mode 2 research, co-production, participatory research and IKT, within the context of engaging equity-deserving populations in research. We completed a literature search in CINAHL, Google Scholar, PubMed and Embase using keywords including collaborative research, engagement, equity-deserving, marginalized populations, birthparents, substance use and opioid use disorder with Boolean operators, to support our debate. Discussion IKT and Community Based Participatory Action Research (CBPR) were deemed the most aligned approaches within the case, and boast many similarities; however, they are fundamentally distinct. Although CBPR’s intentional methods to address social injustices are essential to consider in research with pregnant persons diagnosed with OUD, IKT aligned best within the implementation science inquiry due to its neutral philosophical underpinning and congruent aims in exploring complex implementation science inquiries. A fundamental gap was noted in IKT’s intentional considerations to empowerment and equitable engagement of equity-deserving populations in research; therefore, we proposed informing an IKT approach with Edelman’s Trauma and Resilience Informed Research Principles and Practice (TRIRPP) Framework.

Sexual and romantic rejection are issues that humans have faced for centuries. Recently, experiences such as these have developed into a form of identity and community rallying point. Involuntary celibates (incels) are one example of this phenomenon; however, the group have achieved notoriety for their association with violent attacks and promotion of misogyny in response to their frustration. While recent work has identified that incels suffer from more mental and relational health issues, what is left to be determined is why individuals who are experiencing romantic or sexual rejection would adopt the incel label, given the infamy of the group. Using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis, the present study explored the psychosocial influences and drivers behind incel identity development via interviews with self-identified incels. Six superordinate themes were identified, including a history of social exclusion, blame attribution, psychosocial insights, responses to rejection, the value placed on feeling included, and the development of a (threatened) social identity. These results reveal how social rejection and exclusion impact incel identity formation suggesting that theories like interpersonal rejection theory, social identity theory, and attribution theory may help explain why some men adopt the incel label. Overall, the study highlights the complexity of the incel phenomenon and the need to provide more effective support for self-identified incels.

Software-defined networking (SDN) is envisioned to be a main pillar in the management of emerging networks such as satellite networks (SatNets), vehicular ad hoc networks (VANET), and the Internet of Things (IoT). The concept of SDN decouples data and control planes. This allows for flexible management and configuration of network resources, enabling more efficient and dynamic network operations. The location of the controller(s) is a significant design concern for the SDN control plane, impacting several network performance parameters including latency, resiliency, energy efficiency, load balancing, etc. Several solutions have been proposed to address the controller placement problem (CPP). In this paper, we explain the CPP in SDN and discuss its importance before presenting a complete review of the CPP in software-defined emerging networks (SDEN). The problem was addressed in different ways in different emerging networks. This is due to the differences in characteristics and environment among the various types of emerging networks. However, there are some similar characteristics among VANETs, SatNet, and IoT. This allows some CPP solutions to be adopted from other emerging networks. For instance, both VANETs and SatNets are dynamic networks, thus some CPP solutions in VANETs can be adopted and adapted to work in SatNets. Throughout this review, we discuss the influencing factors and environmental requirements which should be considered while placing controllers in SatNets, VANETs, and IoT. Also, we discussed the limitations of existing solutions. Finally, the review concludes with a discussion on critical issues in CPP and potential future research directions.

Over the past few years, multiview attributed graph clustering has achieved promising performance via various data augmentation strategies. However, we observe that the aggregation of node information in multilayer graph autoencoder (GAE) is prone to deviation, especially when edges or node attributes are randomly perturbed. To this end, we innovatively propose a tensor-representation-based multiview attributed graph clustering framework with smooth structure (MV_AGC) to avoid the bias caused by random view construction. Specifically, we first design a novel tensor-product-based high-order graph attention network (GAT) with structural constraints to realize efficient attribute fusion and semantic consistency encoding. By imposing attribute augmentation mechanisms and smooth constraints (SCs) on the proposed high-order graph attention autoencoder simultaneously, MV_AGC effectively eliminates the instability of reconstructed graph structures and learns a more compact node representation during training. In addition, we also theoretically analyze the stronger generality and expressiveness of the proposed tensor-product-based attention mechanism over the classical GAT and establish an intuitive connection between them. Furthermore, to address the performance degradation caused by clustering distribution updating, we further develop a simple yet effective clustering objective function-guided self-optimizing module for the final clustering performance improvement. Experimental results on the six benchmark datasets have demonstrated that our proposed method can achieve state-of-the-art clustering performance.

Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions (CO2, CH4, N2O) were measured in the two years prior to, and the year of, the hydrological restoration of the ditched Big Meadow Bog (BMB). The total greenhouse gas emission from the south of BMB in recovery succession after abandonment of the area by nesting Herring Gulls 20 years earlier (‘BMB Recovering’) was twice that of the pristine raised ‘Reference Bog’. The emissions from the north of BMB, the zone of current gull nesting (‘BMB Gull’), was twice that of the ‘BMB Recovering’ site. The coefficient of variation (CV) for CO2 evolution measurements at all sites was comparatively low (average = 36%) but extreme for N2O and CH4 (average in each case = 139%); regardless, for each measurement year, the N2O values (17–92 CO2 equivalent units) at BMB Gull were significantly greater than either the Reference Bog or BMB Recovering sites. While CO2 evolution accounted for nearly all (88–100%) of total GHG emissions prior to blocking the ditches (hydrological restoration) N2O levels were greatest (92 CO2 eq.) in the restoration year when the water table was elevated. Phosphate levels in peat at the two BMB sites—the legacy of gull guano inputs—accounted for 73% of CO2 evolution variation in its measurement year (2016). Three types of nitrogen in peat (NO3, NH4 and total soluble N) accounted for less variation (r2 = 42–52%) in N2O than phosphate (r2 = 66%). Overall, greenhouse gas emissions have been exacerbated by the changing hydrology and eutrophication of BMB; however, the long-term management goal of reducing gull numbers could return BMB to a carbon sink.

The endangered plant Geum peckii has found refuge on Brier Island, but is likely being put in peril by significant climate change. We evaluated climate change since the 1960s in the context of regional atmospheric and oceanic influences. On the outer southern edge of the Bay of Fundy, Brier Island sits in an ocean hotspot that has warmed at least 2 °C since the 1990s. This 2 °C rise in ocean temperature is reflected in the elevated mean air temperature of 1.9 °C on Brier Island in the same period. This change was double the change of 1 °C over the last 60 years at the nearby sites of Grand Manan, on the north side of the Bay of Fundy, and Yarmouth near the southwestern extreme of mainland Nova Scotia. Temperature changes are presented along with an analysis of precipitation and wind. The underlying causes of these changes can be attributed to both local and global climatic influences, especially in light of ocean warming. These results suggest a changing climate regime for G. peckii, in which higher temperatures may be decreasing its competitive abilities through the more vigorous growth of shrubs in its primary microhabitats on Brier Island. These climate changes, in addition to changes in hydrology and eutrophication of its primary habitat in the Big Meadow Bog, add further risk to the long-term survival of G. peckii on Brier Island.

The ecology of the Eastern Mountain Avens (Geum peckii), Endangered in Canada and Imperiled globally, was examined on Brier Island, Nova Scotia, to inform its conservation management and prospect for long-term survival in situ in Canada. Over ten years of study, a picture emerged of a plant adapted to growth in naturally stressed wetland habitats where the interspecific competition (e.g., from shrubs) is low. In-field measurements and experimentation at the adult (transplantations) and regenerative (pollination and germination) stages have provided an understanding of the survival strategy of the plant, and how this may be affected by alterations in drainage, nutrient availability, disturbance and climate (temperature). In the Avens’ principal Canadian habitat, the evolution of the landscape of Big Meadow Bog on Brier Island created a lagg (peatland margin) where the Avens thrived in low biomass, waterlogged fens. In 1958, ditching lowered the water table which brought on a suite of ecological changes, including the colonization of the bog by thousands of Herring Gulls, increasing nutrient inputs. Our studies have informed the restoration of the bog’s hydrology as well as an adaptive management approach to augmenting the population of the Avens. They have also, in combination with the monitoring of climate change on the island, raised the specter that without interventions and ex situ techniques, the future climate and resultant shrubification of its remaining habitat could eradicate Avens from Canada.