A Healthier Balance of Expertise: An Innovative Model for Community-University Alliances in Health Research

As a research model, the Healthy Balance Research Program stands as a successful alliance between researchers, community organizations and policymakers. Its advisory bodies (equity-seeking populations and policymakers) provide checks and balances to traditional academic research structures, and overall help ensure information uptake and community engagement with unpaid caregivers in Nova Scotia. Résumé En tant que modèle de recherche le Healthy Balance Research Program est vu comme une alliance avec succès entre les chercheurs, les organismes communautaires, et les décisionnaires. Ses comités consultatifs (population et les décisionnaires qui recherchent l'équité) offre les contrôles des structures de recherches académiques traditionnelles, et en général aide à assurer la distribution de l'information et l'engagement de la collectivité avec les personnes qui ne sont pas payées pour donner des soins à un proche en Nouvelle-Écosse

Looking for Evidence of Public Health's Role for Long-Term Evacuees

Many Canadians have had personal experience of a major emergency or disaster at some point in their lifetime and close to a third of those affected were evacuated from their homes or communities. Most evacuations have lasted less than 2 weeks, but in some instances, people have been displaced for months or years. For example, hundreds of residents evacuated following flooding in Lake St. Martin, Manitoba in 2011, remain displaced today. In order to learn more about the roles and responses of public health for long-term evacuees (LTEs) in Canada, we conducted a narrative review of published English-language documents, beginning with literature specific to Canada and then expanding to include literature on other high-income countries. We found that while researchers have explored public health considerations in emergency preparedness, acute disaster management, and resettlement in these contexts there is a dearth of published evidence regarding the public health implications of prolonged evacuation and the public health responses to long-term evacuation in Canada and in other high-income countries. Because the public health needs of diverse populations of LTEs have not been fully investigated, it is likely that they are neither well-understood nor adequately addressed in public health policy and practice

Chapter Twelve. Gender and HIV/AIDS

In my view, ...the most vexing and intolerable dimension of the pandemic is what is happening to women. ... Gender inequality is driving the pandemic, and we will never subdue the gruesome force of AIDS until the rights of women become paramount in the struggle. ... I challenge you, [therefore] to enter the fray against gender inequality. There is no more honourable and productive calling. There is nothing of greater import in this world. All roads lead from women to social change, and that i..

Characterization of a Mouse-Adapted <i>Staphylococcus aureus</i> Strain

<div><p>More effective antibiotics and a protective vaccine are desperately needed to combat the ‘superbug’ <i>Staphylococcus aureus.</i> While in vivo pathogenicity studies routinely involve infection of mice with human <i>S. aureus</i> isolates, recent genetic studies have demonstrated that <i>S. aureus</i> lineages are largely host-specific. The use of such animal-adapted <i>S. aureus</i> strains may therefore be a promising approach for developing more clinically relevant animal infection models. We have isolated a mouse-adapted <i>S. aureus</i> strain (JSNZ) which caused a severe outbreak of preputial gland abscesses among male C57BL/6J mice. We aimed to extensively characterize this strain on a genomic level and determine its virulence potential in murine colonization and infection models. JSNZ belongs to the MLST type ST88, rare among human isolates, and lacks an <i>hlb</i>-converting phage encoding human-specific immune evasion factors. Naive mice were found to be more susceptible to nasal and gastrointestinal colonization with JSNZ than with the human-derived Newman strain. Furthermore, naïve mice required antibiotic pre-treatment to become colonized with Newman. In contrast, JSNZ was able to colonize mice in the absence of antibiotic treatment suggesting that this strain can compete with the natural flora for space and nutrients. In a renal abscess model, JSNZ caused more severe disease than Newman with greater weight loss and bacterial burden. In contrast to most other clinical isolates, JSNZ can also be readily genetically modified by phage transduction and electroporation. In conclusion, the mouse-adapted strain JSNZ may represent a valuable tool for studying aspects of mucosal colonization and for screening novel vaccines and therapies directed at preventing colonization.</p></div

DNA microarray analysis of JSNZ and human CC88 isolates.

<p>DNA microarray analysis of JSNZ and human CC88 isolates.</p

Confronting Discrimination and Inequality in China

Confronting Discrimination and Inequality in China focuses on the most challenging areas of discrimination and inequality in China, including discrimination faced by HIV/AIDS afflicted individuals, rural populations, migrant workers, women, people with disabilities, and ethnic minorities. The Canadian contributors offer rich regional, national, and international perspectives on how constitutions, laws, policies, and practices, both in Canada and in other parts of the world, battle discrimination and the conflicts that rise out of it. The Chinese contributors include some of the most independent-minded scholars and practitioners in China. Their assessments of the challenges facing China in the areas of discrimination and inequality not only attest to their personal courage and intellectual freedom but also add an important perspective on this emerging superpower

JSNZ efficiently colonizes the nose and gastrointestinal tract of CD1 mice.

<p>Female CD1 mice were intranasally inoculated with 10⁸ CFUs <i>S. aureus</i> JSNZ Sm^R and Newman Sm^R. Mice were pre-treated with Sm to reduce the natural flora (filled symbols) or left untreated (empty symbols). Bacterial loads in the nose (A) and feces (B) were determined at indicated time points and the median is shown. Data were compared using a two-tailed Mann Whitney test (A, p = 0.0338 for Sm-treated JSNZ <i>versus</i> Newman and p = 0.0168 for Sm-untreated JSNZ <i>versus</i> Newman) or a Friedman test followed by Dunn's correction for multiple comparisons (B, p = 0.0455 for Sm-treated JSNZ <i>versus</i> Newman and p = 0.0003 for Sm-untreated JSNZ <i>versus</i> Newman). Culture negative samples were plotted at the detection limit (dashed line). One representative experiment out of two is shown.</p