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In this article we offer a comparative analysis of vocational education and training (VET) in two rural regional locations by situating the pragmatic problem of advising rural students against the backdrop of differently structured market-oriented vocational education systems in Canada and Australia, respectively. Each of these jurisdictions offers a particular vision of the place of VET in the context of compulsory education. In rural/regional Canada and Australia, we argue, the socio-material situation within which students live can provide what Bourdieu called "coherent and convenient" educational choices for students to challenge educators to create the conditions for an engaging and non-binary (academic-vocational) approach to compulsory schooling. We conclude, given the constantly changing nature of contemporary occupational opportunities and labour markets, that the goals of the new vocationalism will only be achieved in rural areas through challenging programming that focuses on capabilities, change, and multiple integrated literacies that span and expand the academic-vocational binary.

This article was developed from Michael Corbett's 2020 Rural Education Special Interest Group (SIG) Career Achievement Award Lecture. There has been an encouraging influx of new work, both in the United States and in other anglophone settler societies, as well as in Europe in the emerging field of rural education, influenced by developments in sociology, geography, political science, and area studies. The development of the field in terms of its assumed core pragmatist and idealist sociogeographic theorizations, which remains mired in 19th- and early 20th-century ideascapes that are no longer up for the task of helping to appropriately understand the current moment. An important component of this lingering modernist discourse is a vision of spatial transformation that juxtaposed ascendent urbanism and a parallel rural decline, which has in turn generated a defensive and exceptionalist place-based rural literature that misunderstands and even distorts the complexity of contemporary spatial relations. the box and building back better beyond the pandemic. For those in the field of rural education, this mindset might mean accepting the ambivalent realization that the comfort, hominess, attractions, and seductions of treasured places can inhibit ones ability to look outside them to see how they relate to other places and to look within them with unforgetting eyes to investigate carefully how they came to be what they are. He theorizes an inward-looking rural education field will ossify and become irrelevant. Connecting the multiple layers of place, from home to globe, is essential to building the kinds of understanding required for an inclusive and sustainable future. For this to work, he thinks they need to look outside their disciplinary homeplace and their pragmatic sensibilities to search for the new ideas that will connect to the movements that might help critically engage the concerns of currently and create bold new territory. [Paper presented at the American Educational Research Association (AERA) (Online, Apr 13, 2021).]

Objectives: Mild behavioral impairment (MBI) is a dementia risk indicator in older adults characterized by later‐life emergent and persistent neuropsychiatric symptoms. Quality of life (QoL) is a multi‐dimensional concept encompassing physical, spiritual, and emotional well‐being. QoL aims to measure and quantify perceptions of individual health, well‐being, standard of living, personal fulfillment, and satisfaction. As MBI symptoms may arise from early‐stage neurodegenerative disease, MBI may contribute to declining QoL before dementia onset. In this study, we investigated the relationship between symptoms of MBI and QoL in older adults. Methods: The sample comprised 1107 individuals aged ≥ 50 years from the Canadian Platform for Research Online to Investigate Health, Quality of Life, Cognition, Behavior, Function, and Caregiving in Aging (CAN‐PROTECT). Multivariable linear regressions were used to model the associations between MBI symptom severity (exposure), measured using the MBI Checklist (MBI‐C), and QoL (outcome) assessed by the EuroQol‐5D (EQ‐5D, higher score = poorer QoL) and the novel Quality of Life and Function Five Domain Scale (QFS‐5) (QFS‐5, lower score = poorer QoL). Covariates were age, sex, cognition, education, ethnocultural origin, marital status, employment status, high blood pressure, heart disease, and diabetes. Moderation analysis explored potential sex differences. A sensitivity analysis was performed removing anxiety/depression items from the EQ‐5D score. Results: Across the sample (mean age = 64.4 ± 7.2, 79.4% female) every 1‐point increase in MBI‐C score was associated with a 0.06‐point standard deviation (SD) increase in EQ‐5D score (95% confidence interval (CI): 0.05–0.06, p < 0.001) and 0.08 SD decrease in QFS‐5 score (95% CI: −0.09 to −0.08, p < 0.001). Neither association depended on sex (p = 0.59 and p = 0.41, respectively). The association remained significant after removing anxiety/depression items from the EQ‐5D score (β = 0.04, 95% CI: 0.03– 0.04, p < 0.001). Conclusions: The study shows that MBI is associated with poorer QoL, independent of sex, on two QoL scales. We addressed depression/anxiety items in the EQ‐5D as a potential confounder for the observed MBI‐QoL association by conducting a sensitivity analysis that excluded those items from the EQ‐5D total score and by employing a novel measure of QoL (QFS‐5) that excludes psychiatric symptoms from measurement of QoL. Associations of MBI with the novel QFS‐5 were similar to associations between MBI and the EQ‐5D. Finding interventions to reduce the burden of MBI symptoms might improve quality of life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Up to 80% of women living with chronic kidney disease (CKD) experience sexual dysfunction, though its link with sexual activity and sexual satisfaction is not well understood. Among older women with CKD treated with hemodialysis, the majority report sexual inactivity, though few describe sexual difficulty and most report high sexual satisfaction. Whether this applies to reproductive-aged females living with CKD is yet unknown. This study aimed to assess the sexual activity, function, and satisfaction of reproductive-aged females living with CKD. Self-identified females aged 18–51 years with CKD were recruited from nephrology clinics in Calgary, Canada. Sexual activity, function, and satisfaction were assessed with a modified version of the Female Sexual Function Index. Fifty-seven participants were recruited (35% CKD without kidney replacement therapy, 44% CKD treated with hemodialysis, 9% CKD treated with peritoneal dialysis, 12% CKD treated with kidney transplant) and nearly half (47%) reported sexual activity. Among sexually active participants, there was a high prevalence of sexual dysfunction (67%) and only 25% of participants reported sexual satisfaction. A strong relationship between sexual function and satisfaction was identified. Reproductive-aged females living with CKD are sexually active, though experience high rates of sexual dysfunction and dissatisfaction. These findings emphasize the importance of recognition and management of sexual dysfunction in this important population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Despite the suggested benefits of shared decision-making (SDM), its implementation in policy and practice has been slow and inconsistent. Use of complex adaptive systems (CAS) theory may provide understanding of how healthcare system factors influence implementation of SDM. Methods: Using the example of choice of mode of birth after a previous caesarean section, in-depth, semi-structured interviews were conducted with patients, providers, and decision makers in British Columbia, Canada, to explore the system characteristics and processes that influence implementation of SDM. Implementation and knowledge translation principles guided study design, and constructionist grounded theory informed iterative data collection and analysis. Findings: Analysis of interviews (n=58) revealed that patients formed early preferences for mode of delivery (after the primary caesarean) through careful deliberation of social risks and benefits. Physicians acted as information providers of clinical risks and benefits, while decision makers revealed concerns related to liability and patient safety. These concerns stemmed from perceptions of limited access to surgical resources, which had resulted from budget constraints. Discussion and conclusions: To facilitate the effective implementation of SDM in policy and practice it may be critical to initiate SDM once patients become aware of their healthcare options, assist patients to address the social risks that influence their preferences, manage perceptions of risk related to patient safety and litigation among physicians, and enhance access to healthcare resources.

The field of rural education has not been significantly developed in Canada and the marginal status of the rural itself has contributed to this peripheral status. The emergence of geography and spatial thinking generally in social theory and in educational thought represents an opportunity to re-evaluate the importance of space and place in educational theory and policy discourse. Rather than a space formal education leaves behind, or as the location of impoverishment, isolation, and deficit, I argue that rural communities occupy an important place on the Canadian educational landscape. Given the economic, political, and cultural challenges they face, I suggest rural schools may produce higher quality educational outcomes than are generally attributed to them.

This essay is a response to a question about school desegregation in Nova Scotia, Canada posed by my sister in 2008. I argue that the question itself illustrates the extent to which critical analysis of the politics of race in Canadian schools, particularly in rural areas, is seldom taken up. This feeds into a persistent mythology of a racially integrated, benevolent Nova Scotia where nasty problems of race were taken care of in the historic past. The reality in many rural regions of Canada is, I argue, quite the opposite and it may be precisely the friendly, homespun imagery which support the persistence of exclusive educational and social practices, as well as persistent regional economic disadvantage. It is in these apparently non-diverse places that diversity education is perhaps most desperately needed.

This analysis draws on interview data from a three-year study of educational decision making of youth living in a coastal community in Atlantic Canada. Students whose educational and mobility aspirations extend outside the known spaces of the community develop the ability to negotiate multiple social spaces in and out of school. The school- successful "floater" identity position is assumed by youth comfortable in a variety of social groups and situations ranging from peer cliques to interactions with teachers and other institutional authority figures. This contrasts with more localized identity positions, marked by strong and exclusive identification with local networks. (Contains 5 notes.)

We argue here that critical educational scholarship is crucial to developing educational analysis attuned to the nuances of place, mobility, and change in rural locations. Critical sociological analysis, we argue, can also nuance and complicate simplistic portrayals of rural communities and their social, economic, and cultural character. Two central narratives in rural education today relate first, to the economic and social problems faced by challenged "left behind" communities faced by depopulation and restructuring, and second, "boomtown" communities that experience rapid infusions of wealth and population. We offer two linked case studies from Australia and Canada that draw on what we call a rural sociological imagination to interrogate how education is framed in contemporary convergences of history and biography in rural locations. These framings complicate and even confound meritocratic and human capital assumptions that underpin contemporary educational policy discourse, particularly as it relates to rural education.

There is a growing interest in the application of digital games to enhance learning across many educational levels. This paper investigates pre-service teachers' ability to operationalize the learning principles that are considered part of a good digital game (Gee, 2007) by designing digital games in Scratch. Forty pre-service teachers, enrolled in an optional educational technology course, designed and constructed their own digital games in an authentic learning context. The course was structured to prepare pre-service teachers to use game design and construction in their future pedagogical practice. These pre-service teachers had various levels of game-playing experience, but little-to-no previous game-design/building experience. To evaluate the digital games, we created the Game Design Assessment Survey, which determined the degree to which a core set of learning principles, identified from the literature, were present in the digital games constructed by the pre-service teachers. Results suggested that pre-service teachers were generally unaware of the learning principles that should be included in the design of a good digital game, but were familiar with quality principles of interface usability. In addition, no relationship was found between the amount of time pre-service teachers played digital games and their ability to design and construct a good game.

The position of small rural schools is precarious in much of rural Canada today. What is to be done about small schools in rural communities which are often experiencing population decline and aging, economic restructuring, and the loss of employment and services? We argue this issue is a classic "wicked" policy problem. Small schools activists have a worldview that is focused on maintaining infrastructure and even community survival, while school boards are mandated to focus on the efficient provision of educational services across wider geographies. Is it even possible to mitigate the predictable conflict and zero-sum games that arise with the decision to close small schools? That is the subject of this paper, which draws on poststructural and actor network theory. We suggest that wicked problems cannot be addressed satisfactorily through formulas and data-driven technical-rational processes. They can only be addressed through flexible, dialogical policy spaces that allow people who have radically different worldviews to create dynamic, bridging conversations. Fundamentally, we argue that what is required are new spaces and modes of governance that are sufficiently networked, open, and flexible to manage the complexity and the mutability of genuinely participatory democracy.

Rural communities contain a largely unacknowledged innovative capacity founded on improvisational traditions. These traditions may be rooted in work practices in agriculture and other rurally-based productive activities but today they have expanded into other lifeworld locations, particularly virtual spaces that accelerate time-space compression. I make the case here that in the networked world of high modernity or postmodernity, both the nature of rurality and the potential of rural education need to be theorized differently. I begin with a critique of Richard Florida's metrocentric idea of the creative class, then move to reconceptualizing rurality as a real and imagined space, and conclude by analyzing a film and video project in an Atlantic Canadian school that used improvisation in literacy curriculum work. I argue that improvisation is a potentially productive metaphor for curriculum, one which draws on rural traditions and local funds of knowledge while at the same time incorporating a productive, forward-looking engagement with new technologies.

With the rise of network society, consumerism, individualization, globalization and contemporary change forces, students are pressured to both perform well in standardized academic assessments while at the same time constructing a non-standard, unique project of the self. I argue that this generates a particular set of place-based tensions for rural students. The paper analyses data from a three-year study of youth educational decision-making to explore the tensions between place-based habitus and the mobility imperative in formal schooling. (Contains 3 notes.)

In my book "Learning to Leave: The Irony of Schooling in a Coastal Community" (Corbett, 2007) I make the claim that there is a deep and established connection between formal education and mobility out of rural areas. The book reports on a study undertaken in a coastal community in Atlantic Canada focusing on the educational and life experiences of those who persisted and those who left the community during the economic and social changes from the late 1950s to the late 1990s. The book argues that place matters in a multitude of ways despite persistent attempts to erase and neutralize its influence in educational thought, policy, pedagogical practice and curriculum. Because I want to resist the abstract academic conventions also resisted by my informants, and because I want to argue that place should occupy a more central place in the way we think about and deliver education, this article situates my own analysis of what I think the book means in the actual places that grounded its conception. (Contains 16 footnotes.)

In this article, the author offers his responses to the commentaries made by Arlie Woodrum (2009), Susan Faircloth (2009), David Greenwood (2009), and Ursula Kelly (2009) on his book "Learning to Leave," as well as his article, "Rural Schooling in Mobile Modernity: Returning to the Places I've Been." Each of the commentators speaks to questions of educational equity. While the large conversation around equity has been in motion for some decades now, the author asserts that there is considerable evidence that schools continue to reinforce and contribute to multiple forms of social inequity much as they always have. The author concludes by suggesting that one might take heed of Ulrich Beck and Arjun Appadurai's sense of the cosmopolitan in rural education. By cosmopolitanism means that while one lives physically in some place, it is still possible to achieve many forms of connection to other places and spaces in addition to (rather than instead of) more strictly local connections.

This essay is a critical reflection on educational standardization, particularly the standardization of assessment flowing down from major international assessment projects like the OECD's Project for International Student Assessment to national and sub-national school systems. I argue that the establishment of an increasingly uniform metric to measure educational performance has developed out of the mental measurement movement from the 19th century and scientific management from the early 20th century. As this movement is articulated with commodification and neoliberalism, I use the image of an ongoing quest for a standardized educational measurement instrument similar to a thermometer or a speedometer. I call this quest the search for an edumometer and argue that it is by now well advanced and draw on Canadian examples to illustrate the argument. (Contains 8 notes.)

Rural researchers have found that women leave rural communities at a higher rate than men. Rural education researchers have also found that young women are significantly more successful in formal education than their male counterparts. Few studies though attempt to explain why this is so. This work presents data and analysis from two studies of education and out-migration from a rural-coastal community in Nova Scotia Canada. The questions I investigate in this session are: (1) why are women more likely to leave rural communities? (2) how have contemporary change forces like globalization and network society influenced the gender balance regarding rural out-migration? and (3) how has young rural women's relative success in formal education related to their higher rates of out-migration? Given the recent concern about boy's education, I raise some critical questions about the parallel notion that girls are doing just fine.

A focus on rurality has been largely absent from much contemporary educational policy discussion. At best, rural education is a peripheral concern just as rural areas are increasingly considered marginal to the development of a globalized, networked, fast capitalism. In Canada rural, coastal, northern, and single-industry communities that were built around primary resource extraction are constructed as social and educational problem spaces partly because their residents are often attached to these places long after they have served their economic purpose as natural resource deposits for the interests of capital. In fact rurality and rusticity are typically seen as one face of the kind of localized social condition that formal education is designed to normalize and transform by fostering outmigration and a general orientation to urban life and to mobility. In this analysis I use Derrida's idea of spectrology to examine some images of rurality as persistent, place-attached ghosts haunting the educational project of modernity.

To help accommodate the surge in severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARSCoV-2) clinical testing due to the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic, the decentralization of testing from provincial public health laboratories to regional laboratories and private facilities was necessary. To further support the growing number of test sites in Canada, the National Microbiology Laboratory developed a proficiency test program for the detection of SARSCoV-2 using nucleic acid amplification tests and administered it under an arm of the Canadian Laboratory Response Network (CLRN). Since its conception in May 2020, CLRN has conducted three proficiency test schemes, from May 2020 to June 2021, and has observed an increase in participation of more than 400%. This article will explore the evolution of CLRN's SARS-CoV-2 Proficiency Test Program and its support of the Canadian pandemic response. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

North American sunfishes (Family Centrarchidae) are among the most popular sportfish throughout the United States and Canada. Despite the popularity of sunfishes, their ecological importance, and their extensive stocking and aquacultural history, few molecular studies have examined the evolutionary relationships and species boundaries among members of this group, many of which are known to hybridize. Here, we describe a chromosome-scale genome assembly representing Bluegill (Lepomis macrochirus), one of the most widespread centrarchid species. By combining long-read, Oxford Nanopore sequencing data with short-insert, whole-genome and HiC sequence reads, we produced an assembly (Lm_LA_1.1) having a total length of 889 Mb including 1,841 scaffolds and having a scaffold N50 of 36 Mb, L50 of 12, N90 of 29 Mb, and L90 of 22. We detected 99% (eukaryota_odb10) and 98% (actinopterygii_odb10) universal single-copy orthologs (BUSCOs), and ab initio gene prediction performed using this new assembly identified a set of 17,233 genes that were supported by external (OrthoDB v10) data. This new assembly provides an important addition to the growing set of assemblies already available for spinyrayed fishes (Acanthomorpha), and it will serve as a resource for future studies that focus on the complex evolutionary history of centrarchids. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It has been nearly fifty years since the publication of "So Little for the Mind," Hilda Neatby's controversial conservative attack on what she understood as "progressive education." This paper argues that Neatby's book remains important reading despite its limitations and its context. Neatby's work represents what I call a "big dream" in educational thought. It is an educational text that is passionately anti-scientific in its structure and argument; it represents a fundamental liberal humanist critique of educational theory and research. Neatby's work is important for the way in which it initiates contemporary conservative educational critique in Canada, but also because it anticipates post-structural arguments about the radical intrusiveness of a focus on the "whole child" in the context of the modern educational apparatus. Finally, I critique some of Neatby's key assumptions and relate these to an autobiographical account of the educational experience of one small-town Nova Scotian family from the 1920s. (Contains 17 endnotes.)

Family or friend caregivers' concerns about assisted living (AL) residents' mental health are reflective of poor resident and caregiver mental health. COVID-19-related visiting restrictions increased caregiver concerns, but research on these issues in AL is limited. Using web-based surveys with 673 caregivers of AL residents in Western Canada, we assessed the prevalence and correlates of moderate to severe caregiver concerns about residents' depressed mood, loneliness, and anxiety in the 3 months before and after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Caregiver concerns doubled after the start of the pandemic (resident depressed mood: 23%–50%, loneliness: 29%–62%, anxiety: 24%–47%). Generalized linear mixed models identified various modifiable risk factors for caregiver concerns (e.g., caregivers' perception that residents lacked access to counseling services or not feeling well informed about and involved in resident care). These modifiable factors can be targeted in efforts to prevent or mitigate caregiver concerns and resident mental health issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tuberculosis is a significant cause of morbidity worldwide and is a priority at the provincial and federal levels in Canada. It is known that tuberculosis transmission networks are complex and span many years as well as different jurisdictions and countries. MIRU-VNTR is a universal tuberculosis genotyping method that utilizes a 24-loci pattern and it has shown promise in identifying inter and intrajurisdictional clusters within Canada. MIRU-VNTR data collected over 10 years from the National Reference Centre for Mycobacteriology (NRCM) were analyzed in this study. Some clusters were unique to a single province/territory, while others spanned multiple provinces and/or territories in Canada. The use of a universal laboratory test can enhance contact tracing, provide geographical information on circulating genotypes, and hence, aid in tuberculosis investigation by public health. The housing of all data on one platform, technical ease of the method, easy exchange of data between jurisdictions, and strong collaboration with laboratories and surveillance units at the provincial and federal levels have the potential to identify possible outbreaks in real time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

People living with HIV are ageing with a combination of physical, mental and social health challenges, known as disability. Although rehabilitation can address disability, the field is still emerging. Our aim was to identify similar disability experiences across complex chronic conditions and establish recommendations for future rehabilitation research and practice to advance healthy ageing with HIV. We conducted a consultation with 77 stakeholders from the United Kingdom, Canada, and Ireland with expertise in the fields of rehabilitation and HIV, cancer, cardiovascular disease, renal disease, or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease who attended a one-day symposium. We used facilitated discussions to identify how rehabilitation issues in complex chronic disease translate to people ageing with HIV, and prioritised recommendations for future practice and research. Disability issues experienced across HIV and other complex chronic diseases included: (i) frailty, (ii) uncertainty and worrying about the future ageing with complex chronic disease, (iii) mental health, (iv) pain, and (v) stigma. We highlight six recommendations for clinical practice and research to advance healthy ageing with HIV. Opportunities for cross-collaboration exist with other more established areas of chronic disease management and rehabilitation. Recommendations can be used to inform future HIV clinical practice and research in this emerging field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reviews six books about the dynamics of urban change in Canada. Common themes dealing with complex urban structures, citizen participation in policy making, and other issues are discussed along with implications for the future of Canada. (EB)

• The NLSCY survey provides data on composite measures of behavior in children. • Relationship between NDD and behavior was examined in 2- to 3-year-olds. • The NDDs were epilepsy, cerebral palsy (CP), and intellectual disability (ID). • The ID group showed more hyperactivity and anxiety and less prosociality than controls. • The CP group showed more separation anxiety and less prosociality than controls. • Children with epilepsy did not differ from controls. Canada's National Longitudinal Study of Children and Youth survey data provide insights into chronic health conditions in children. Children with neurodevelopmental disabilities (NDD) are at increased risk for adverse behavioral outcomes. We examined data from 3 cycles of Canada's National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth for the presence of epilepsy (Epi), cerebral palsy (CP), and intellectual disability (ID) in 2- to 3-year-olds. We then examined the relationship of NDD to composite measures of behavior: hyperactivity-inattention (HI), prosocial behaviors (PS), emotional disorder-anxiety (EA), physical aggression oppositional behavior (AO), and separation anxiety (SA). There were 15 children with Epi, 25 with CP and 28 with ID in a sample of 10,879, which represented a population of 756,848 2- to 3-year-old Canadian children. Comparison of mean scores of the NDD groups and controls (Welch's ANOVA), indicated statistically significant differences in HI, PS, EA, and SA at the p < 0.001 level. Post hoc analysis showed significant intergroup differences. Children with epilepsy did not differ from controls on any of the behavioral measures. However, in comparison to controls, children with intellectual disability had higher EA and SA scores and lower PS scores, and those with cerebral palsy had lower PS scores. Children with NDD show differences in behavioral outcomes at a very early age when compared with controls. Screening for these behaviors and early intervention programs may help avoid longer term psychiatric comorbidity associated with these disabilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study examines an understudied potential warning sign of school shootings: violence against women (VAW). Utilizing the social–ecological model of violence prevention, we employed directed content analysis to determine the prevalence of acts and social–ecological features of VAW among profiles of 59 boys/men who perpetrated school shootings between 1966 and 2018. The majority of shootings profiled occurred in the United States (47, 79.7%), followed by Canada (five, 8.5%), Finland (two, 3.4%), Germany (two, 3.4%), Brazil (one, 1.7%), Scotland (one, 1.7%), and Ukraine (one, 1.7%). Results demonstrated a strong presence of VAW among profiled school shooters, with almost 70% perpetrating VAW and the identification of frequent features of VAW that cut across the social–ecological levels, most notably (the enactment of and failure to meet expectations of) hegemonic masculinity and normalization of violence. Implications for research and intervention are discussed. Public Significance Statement: Nearly 70% of profiled school shooters perpetrated acts of violence against women, including intimate partner violence and sexual assault. Thus, violence against women and its related social–ecological features, including hegemonic masculinity (e.g., expectations of toughness, antifemininity, and status among men, as well as the failure to meet these expectations) and normalization of violence (e.g., ignoring everyday acts of violence), are critical avenues for intervention in the prevention of school shootings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: This retrospective clinical audit compared changes in community mental health service utilization before and during an economic recession in an oil sands region in Canada which was characterized by a doubling of unemployment rates and poor economic outlook. Methods: Sociodemographic descriptors, psychiatric antecedents, clinical characteristics and follow-up care were compared before and during the recession for newly assessed patients in community mental health clinics located across a Northern Alberta oil mining region. Data were collected retrospectively as part of a clinical audit process and then analysed with descriptive statistics, cross-tabular univariate analyses with chi-square tests using SPSS version 20. Results: A total of 1,465 patients were included. Sociodemographic factors disproportionately elevated during the recession included male sex, Caucasian ethnicity, own home ownership, higher levels of education and unemployment. More patients seeking mental health care were already taking psychotropic medications (e.g. antipsychotics, benzodiazepines and stimulants). At the same time, disproportionately fewer patients engaged in substance abuse or had a prior formal history of mental health problems. The referral reasons during recession were less likely to be associated with substance abuse or mood concerns and more likely for ‘other’ reasons. The patients seeking psychiatric help during a recession were disproportionately likely to be diagnosed with personality disorders and ‘other’ less common diagnostic categories and less likely to suffer from mood or trauma-related diagnoses. Referrals for counselling and social services were also disproportionately more common during the recession. Conclusion: This study provides a comprehensive description of longitudinal patterns of mental health service utilization before and during a recession. The findings provide important evidence for policy and planning decisions to encourage resource allocation to help promote accessibility of the most needed community mental health resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is increasingly acknowledged that open data has the potential to change the way that government, citizens, and organizations exchange, access, and use data. Canada's Open Government Initiative directly supports a more transparent, accountable, and participatory approach to freely licensed, machine readable data at all levels of government. Our research presents an analysis of British Columbia's current open data initiatives. We have developed and tested a heuristic evaluation tool that we applied to all municipal open data websites in British Columbia. The technique assesses the content, accessibility, and functionality of these sites and their associated data. We argue that there is a lack of attention paid to the usability of open data portals in current evaluation tools. In addition, using metrics developed by the Open Data Barometer, we qualitatively assess the data found for specific usability characteristics. Finally, following research on how smaller municipal governments conceive of open data, we test if there is a link between the size of a municipality and the efficacy of their open data portal. Through this analysis, we aim to provide a clearer understanding of how Canada's open data movement is being translated at the smaller and mid-sized city scale in British Columbia. Réduction d'échelle : Comprendre l'influence des initiatives de données ouvertes dans les villes de taille intermédiaire et plus petite en Colombie-Britannique, au Canada Il est de plus en plus admis que les données ouvertes sont susceptibles de changer la façon dont le gouvernement, les citoyens et les organisations échangent, ont accès et utilisent les données. L'initiative de gouvernement ouvert du Canada appuie directement une approche plus transparente, plus responsable et plus participative à l'égard des données sous licence libre, lisibles par des machines à tous les niveaux du gouvernement. Notre recherche présente une analyse des initiatives actuelles de données ouvertes en Colombie-Britannique. Nous avons développé et testé un outil d'évaluation heuristique que nous avons appliqué à tous les sites Web municipaux de données ouvertes en Colombie-Britannique. La technique évalue le contenu, l'accessibilité et la fonctionnalité de ces sites et leurs données connexes. Nous soutenons qu'on ne porte pas suffisamment attention à la convivialité des portails de données ouvertes dans les outils d'évaluation actuels. De plus, en utilisant les paramètres développés par le Baromètre des données ouvertes, nous évaluons qualitativement les données trouvées pour des caractéristiques particulières de convivialité. Finalement, à la suite de la recherche sur la façon dont les plus petites administrations municipales conçoivent leurs données ouvertes, nous avons vérifié s'il existait un lien entre la taille d'une municipalité et l'efficacité de son portail de données ouvertes. Par le biais de cette analyse, notre objectif est d'améliorer la compréhension de la façon dont le mouvement des données ouvertes du Canada se traduit à l'échelle des villes de taille intermédiaire et plus petite en Colombie-Britannique. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Screening for oral cancer and other mucosal conditions is a knowledge-to-action objective that should be easy: there is supportive evidence, it is fast and non-invasive, and the oral cavity is easy to visualize. However, over 60% of oral cancers are diagnosed late, when treatment is complex and prognosis poor. Adjunctive screening devices (ASDs), e.g. toluidine blue (TB), fluorescence visualization (FV), chemiluminescence (CL) and brush biopsies, were designed to assess risk of oral lesions or aid in identification and localization of oral premalignant and malignant lesions. Little is known on how clinicians feel about using ASDs. Objectives To evaluate use and level of comfort in using ASDs for oral cancer screening among dental hygienists. Methods Online email survey of a stratified random sample of nearly 3000 dental hygienists from four Canadian provinces. Results A total of 369 hygienists responded about ASDs. Ninety-three (25%) had used an ASD. Use was associated with six or more continuing education ( CE) courses per year ( P = 0.030), having a CE course in oral pathology within the last 3 years ( P = 0.003) and having a screening protocol ( P = 0.008). The most commonly used ASD is FV, which was the tool hygienists felt most comfortable using. Few used brush biopsies. Older graduates were more comfortable using TB ( P = 0.014) and CL (0.033). Conclusion Current evidence and education through CE appears to bolster knowledge translation efforts for hygienists to become more comfortable in the use of ASDs. ASDs with minimal supporting evidence and not specifically targeted to hygienists, such as the brush biopsies, are not well utilized. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Past research on the association between insomnia and suicidal ideation (SI) has produced mixed findings. The current study explored the relationship between insomnia, SI, and past-year mental health status among a large Canadian Forces (CF) sample. Method: Data was obtained from the 2013 Canadian Forces Mental Health Survey (CFMHS), and included a large representative sample of Canadian Regular Forces personnel (N = 6700). A series of univariate logistic regressions were conducted to test individual associations between past-year mental health status, insomnia, and potential confounds and SI. Mental health status included three groups: 0, 1, or two or more probable diagnoses of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), major depressive disorder (MDD), generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), panic disorder (PD) and alcohol abuse/dependence. Stepwise multivariate logistic regression was used to assess the relationship between insomnia and SI with mental health status as a moderator. Results: 40.8% of respondents reported experiencing insomnia. Both insomnia and number of mental health conditions incrementally increased the risk of SI. However, past-year mental health status was a significant moderator of this relationship, such that for CF personnel with either no (AOR = 1.61, 1.37-1.89) or only one past-year mental health condition (AOR = 1.39, 1.12-1.73), an incremental increase in insomnia was associated with an increased likelihood of SI. However, in personnel with two or more past-year mental health disorders, insomnia was no longer significantly associated with SI (AOR = 1.04, 0.81-1.33). Conclusions: Insomnia significantly increased the odds of SI, but only among individuals with no or one mental health condition. Findings highlight the importance of assessing insomnia among CF members in order to further suicide prevention efforts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background Repeat cesarean delivery is the single largest contributor to the escalating cesarean rate worldwide. Approximately 80 percent of women with a past cesarean are candidates for vaginal birth after a cesarean ( VBAC), but in Canada less than one-third plan VBAC. Emerging evidence suggests that these trends may be due in part to nonclinical factors, including care provider practice patterns and delays in access to surgical and anesthesia services. This study sought to explore maternity care providers' and decision makers' attitudes toward and experiences with providing and planning services for women with a previous cesarean. Methods In-depth, semi-structured interviews were conducted with family physicians, midwives, obstetricians, nurses, anesthetists, and health service decision makers recruited from three rural and two urban Canadian communities. Constructivist grounded theory informed iterative data collection and analysis. Results Analysis of interviews ( n = 35) revealed that the factors influencing decisions resulted from interactions between the clinical, organizational, and policy levels of the health care system. Physicians acted as information providers of clinical risks and benefits, with limited discussion of patient preferences. Decision makers serving large hospitals revealed concerns related to liability and patient safety. These stemmed from competing access to surgical resources. Conclusions To facilitate women's increased access to planned VBAC, it is necessary to address the barriers perceived by care providers and decision makers. Strategies to mitigate concerns include initiating decision support immediately after the primary cesarean, addressing the social risks that influence women's preferences, and managing perceptions of patient and litigation risks through shared decision making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The history of rural education in North America can be understood as a history of school closure, amalgamation, and consolidation of schools. Typically, historical and geographical arguments have converged in debates about whether or not to close small community schools, which are positioned as the victims of the march of time and reconfiguration of space. In this paper, we analyse the archetypical positioning of rural parents in the 'school wars' as emotional and irrational participants who want to turn back time and who fail or refuse to understand and accept what is alleged to be the inevitable transformation of rural space. We then analyse the political strategy and tactics engaged in by school governance officials and community agents in these struggles over the meaning and future of rural space. We argue that the confrontational politics that ensues do not support strong rural development conversations and that the unilateral search for what we call 'trump cards' to settle arguments with data and rational or emotional 'appeals' has led to ongoing tension in rural communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Medical tourism, growing worldwide, includes Canadians coming to the United States for medical treatment. For U.S. healthcare providers to take advantage of the potential economic benefits of cash-paying Canadian medical tourists, they must comply with U.S. federal and state laws governing fraud and abuse, including the federal Stark Law and Anti-Kickback Statute (AKS), and state-level analogs. These laws may restrict the ability of U.S. healthcare providers to compensate foreign medical tourism brokers, who play an important role in the growth of medical tourism by providing patients with assistance arranging travel and medical services. Using a hypothetical arrangement among U.S. healthcare providers and a Canadian medical practice that not only provides the typical broker services, but also serves to identify appropriate cases for referral from a medical perspective, this article demonstrates how to reduce or even eliminate potential fraud and abuse liability, while improving the quality of the experience for both patients and U.S. providers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the roles that municipal government open data personnel play in the open data movement, and how their emerging roles can increase the societal and economic benefits of open data as well as increase citizen engagement. It then demonstrates how these roles are affected by the "scale effects" of the municipality. By interviewing municipal government open data personnel in western Canada and assessing current open data policies, we look at how open data initiatives are developing and identify where gaps can occur between governments and citizens from the government perspective. Finally, we look at how the size of municipalities affects how open data is developing at different-size municipalities. Currently, there has been limited research into municipal open data initiatives that take into account differences in size. We discuss three issues to emerge from this research that represent the way that government open data initiatives shape the interaction between governments and citizens. These include not knowing who open data users are, the jurisdictional nature of the way that data is managed, and the way that governments perceive what constitutes open data. We hope that by understanding how size is implicated in open data, governments will be more effective in their initiatives and provide better open data services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective The aim of this study was to compare parents' expectations for their children crossing streets' with children s actual crossing behaviours and determine how accurately parents judge their own children's pedestrian behaviours to be. Method Using a fully immersive virtual reality system interfaced with a 3D movement measurement system, younger (7-9 years) and older (10-12 years) children's crossing behaviours were assessed. The parent viewed the same traffic conditions and indicated if their child would cross and how successful she/he expected the child would be when doing so. Results Comparing children's performance with what their parents expected they would do revealed that parents significantly overestimated the inter-vehicle gap threshold of their children, erroneously assuming that children would show safer pedestrian behaviours and select larger inter-vehicle gaps to cross into than they actually did; there were no effects of child age or sex. Child and parent scores were not correlated and a logistic regression indicated these were independent of one another. Conclusions Parents were not accurate in estimating the traffic conditions under which their children would try and cross the street. If parents are not adequately supervising when children cross streets, they may be placing their children at risk of pedestrian injury because they are assuming their children will select larger (safer) inter-vehicle gaps when crossing than children actually do. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Francisella tularensis is ubiquitous in the Northern Hemisphere. Yet, little is known about the disease and its ecology within Canada as few serological studies have shown exposure to the disease and fewer case studies have been reported. This report is the first to describe the molecular subtyping of F. tularensis isolates within eastern Canada using multiple-locus variable-number tandem-repeat analysis. From 1998 to 2011, a total of 73 specimens were isolated from unique human and animal sources. As expected, F. tularensis subsp. tularensis AI and F. tularensis subsp. holarctica subtypes were observed, corresponding to the known geographical division within this species. The majority of human isolates (78%) and all animal (hare) isolates were of the more virulent, AI type. Half of the B isolates were isolated from patients living in a region of Quebec where muskrat densities are known to be high. A relatively high level of marker diversity was found, suggestive of multiple introductions of the organism to the region, or more likely ongoing endemicity. There was no evidence of ongoing outbreaks or transmission, and the bulk of cases were likely due to interaction between human activity and the environment (e.g. hunting/trapping activities). Significance and Impact of the Study This study reveals the diversity of Francisella tularensis in eastern Canada using multiple-locus variable-number tandem-repeat analysis. It was initiated to further the understanding of the species within North America as previous studies elucidating the diversity and phylogeography of the species have consisted mostly of specimens from the United States. Type A tularaemia, the most life-threatening subtype of the species and a Category A biothreat agent, is restricted to North America, and this study serves to broaden the knowledge of the epidemiology and diversity of the organism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Canada's participation in the Galaxy Serpent Virtual Tabletop Exercise (V-TTX) was aimed primarily at evaluating our current capabilities in the application of chemometrics (a subset of multivariate statistics) for the development of multistage pattern recognition algorithms for nuclear material attribution. To that end, Canada took a two-pronged approach in its library development and analysis methodology to determine whether or not a hypothetically seized spent nuclear fuel (SNF) sample originates from its assigned SNF inventory. The first approach involved the construction a spreadsheet-based library of the assigned SNF inventory isotopic measurements and ratios in a manner suited for the application of chemometrics. Here, measurements of the seized sample are interrogated and compared against inventory measurements using a multivariate statistics-based pattern recognition algorithm in order to establish an attribution probability. The second approach established a library of key isotopic correlations based on well-understood isotopic evolutions as a function of fuel burnup, against which similar correlations constructed from measurements of the seized sample are compared. The two approaches were applied independently of each other by two separate teams. Each team was able to conclusively attribute the seized sample to Canada's assigned SNF inventory. This paper examines the methods and results of each approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study relies on the 2010 Canadian Internet Use Survey to investigate differences in people's access to the internet and level of online activity. The study not only revisits the digital divide in the Canadian context, but also expands current investigations by including an analysis of how demographic factors affect social networking site (SNS) adoption. The findings demonstrate that access to the internet reflects existing inequalities in society with income, education, rural/urban, immigration status, and age all affecting adoption patterns. Furthermore, the results show that inequality in access to the internet is now being mimicked in the level of online activity of internet users. More recent immigrants to Canada have lower rates of internet access; however, recent immigrants who are online have significantly higher levels of online activity than Canadian born residents and earlier immigrants. Additionally, women perform fewer activities online than men. People's use of SNSs differs in terms of education, gender, and age. Women were significantly more likely to use SNSs than men. Interestingly, high school graduates had the lowest percentage of adoption compared to all other education categories. Current students were by far the group that utilized SNSs the most. Canadian born, recent, and early immigrants all showed similar adoption rates of SNSs. Age is a strong predictor of SNS usage, with young people relying heavily on SNSs in comparison to those aged 55+. The findings demonstrate that the digital divide not only persists, but has expanded to include inequality in the level of online activity and SNS usage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To determine reproductive services offered to lesbian patients by Canadian fertility clinics, policies of practice, ease of access to these services, and sensitivity of clinics to this population of patients. Design: Survey sent to assisted reproductive technology (ART) clinic directors. Setting: Academic medical center, university-based ethics institute. Patient(s): None. Intervention(s): None. Main Outcome Measure(s): The percentage of Canadian fertility clinics that will provide reproductive services to lesbian patients; services offered; the presence of clinic policies on lesbian care; and the presence on web sites of heteronormative material. Result(s): Completed surveys were received from 71% (24/34) of clinics. All clinics surveyed provided reproductive services to lesbian patients, with the exception of one clinic. Five of 24 (21%) clinics have a written policy on care for lesbian patients; 29% (7/24) will provide services to lesbian patients without prior investigations. All clinics will offer IUI and cycle monitoring to lesbian patients. Twenty-three of 24 clinics (96%) will offer IVF services when required. Fourteen of 32 clinic web sites (44%) make mention of lesbian patients and 27% (8/30) have heteronormative information only. Conclusion(s): Lesbians encounter several barriers to accessing reproductive services in Canada. Addressing these issues could improve experiences of lesbian women and couples seeking care at fertility clinics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This paper draws on an analysis of migration from a coastal community in Atlantic Canada through the fisheries crisis of the last decade. Despite a persistent rhetoric of crisis and decline, the community remains difficult to leave for many young people. This paper examines the dimensions of this difficulty and the way that formal education sets up expectations for outmigration but few supports to families who have multi-generational linkages to local communities. Ironically the very discourse of crisis that is meant to propel youth out of the community may end up playing into a parallel discourse that has long predicted the collapse of urban economic and social structures. This in turn generates and propels a survivalism that inflects educational decision-making in ways that create deeply ambivalent and problematic conceptions of place and mobility for rural youth. This discourse in turn complicates simplistic neoliberal notions of educational choice. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The author outlines several issues that the literature on small rural schools raise in Canada. He says that there is no proof that small elementary schools perform any less well than large schools regardless of how school size or performance is determined. He adds that small rural schools can support academic achievement and social integration. He believes that it is possible to see small schools as opportunities and not as liabilities for communities and for the province.

The article discusses a study to explore the experiences of primary stakeholders involved in the integration of internationally educated occupational therapists (IEOTs) in British Columbia (BC). Topics discussed include interviews with stakeholders, emphasis on workforce integration for IEOTs, and benefits of hiring IEOTs. It also mentions the significance of peer relationship in enhancing the learning process of IEOTs.