The Toronto connection: Poverty, perceived ability, and access to education equity

This study explores the educational opportunities available to secondary high school students in the Toronto District School Board (TDSB), using both public TDSB and Ontario Ministry of Education data. Family income, parental education, and student participation in special education (excluding Gifted) are key units of analysis, as are the types of programs that the TDSB provides. The research found that low income students, students whose parents lack university education, and students in special education have less access to socially valued educational programs. The research found a significant overrepresentation of low income students receiving special education services and in other programs that offer few options for post-secondary education. Work-oriented programs were found to be most prominently available in the lowest income neighbourhoods in Toronto.Key words: Neoliberalism, education, streaming, Toronto, disability, poverty, vocationalCette étude explore les opportunités éducatives offertes aux élèves des écoles secondaires du conseil scolaire du district de Toronto (TDSB), utilisant à la fois des données provenant de ce même conseil scolaire et du ministère de l'Éducation de l'Ontario. Le revenu de la famille, l'éducation parentale, et la particiation des étudiant à des programmes d'éducation spécialisée (excluant les élèves surdoués) sont des unités clés de l'analyse, ainsi que les types de programmes proposés par le conseil scolaire du district de Toronto. La recherche a révélé que les étudiants à faible revenu, ceux dont les parents n'ont pas de diplôme universitaire, et les étudiants en éducation spécialisée, ont moins accès aux programmes éducatifs socialement valorisés. La recherche a constaté une surreprésentation importante des étudiants à faible revenu qui reçoivent des services de l'éducation spécialisée et inscrits dans d'autres programmes qui n'offrent que peu de possibilités pour une éducation postsecondaire. Les programmes professionalisants se sont révélés être les plus présents et disponibles dans les quartiers les plus pauvres de Toronto.   Mots clés: néolibéralisme, éducation, répartition, Toronto, handicap, pauvreté, formation professionnelle &nbsp

Novel approaches to understanding client behaviour within an employee wellbeing service

In today’s ever-changing workplace landscape, organisations are increasingly recognising the pivotal role of employee wellbeing in fostering productivity, positive relationships and engagement, and how it impacts on absenteeism and presenteeism in the workplace. As such, there is a growing demand for cost-effective, evidence-based, scalable innovative solutions for employee wellbeing. This work presents an ongoing study with Inspire, a social enterprise that specialises in providing employee assistance programmes, including an online support platform, 24/7 helpline, and face-to-face counselling. We present a comprehensive, novel approach to understanding client behaviour within an employee wellbeing service, leveraging advanced analysis techniques including descriptive analytics, time-series analysis, association rule mining, clustering, and process mining. By applying association rule mining to an employee wellbeing digital platform dataset, it was possible to further understand the relationship between different components and resources utilised on the digital employee wellbeing platform. Prominent association rules were found to include sessions with chatbot or mood tracker events. An unsupervised machine learning technique called K-means clustering helped identify 3 distinct user groups, short-term, intermediate, and long-term users, by analysing user tenure, total interactions, daily interactions, and unique days on the platform. Time series analysis was used to examine patterns and trends in referrals, mental health scales, and client engagement with the employee wellbeing service. The majority of interactions on the employee wellbeing digital platform (80.47%) occurred between 9am and 5pm, peaking at 11am. Process mining offered a holistic view of a client’s journey through the employee wellbeing service and uncovered inefficiencies or bottlenecks which could impact on their experience, and their wellbeing, offering recommendations for improvement. These analysis techniques allow us to gain valuable insights into the client’s journey through all components of an employee wellbeing service, enabling the creation of more effective and personalised solutions

Digital Mental Health Interventions in the Workplace:Insights from an Employee Wellbeing Support Hub

DigiFest 2023 AbstractEngaging in meaningful work can improve our mental health and promote well-being, however over 15% of people in the workplace may experience symptoms indicative of a mental health condition. In 2021 to 2022, stress, anxiety and depression in the workplace resulted in 17 million working days lost in the UK. Digital mental health interventions can provide support to individuals, in a potentially low cost, efficient and scalable way. Digital interventions that have been generalised from clinical or community settings, to the workplace, primarily cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), stress-management, and Mindfulness-based stress reduction programs have shown promise. The Inspire Support Hub is a web based platform, providing tools and psychoeducation to employees. Event logging has been built into the Inspire Support Hub platform, anonymously recording page and button clicks, mood and sleep tracks, self-assessment results using validated tools such as the GAD7 for anxiety, PHQ9 for depression, and the Perceived Stress Scale for stress.The platform’s event logs were analysed between February 2019 and June 2022. R studio was used to analyse the event logs collected. K-means clustering, an unsupervised machine learning technique was utilised to identify clusters in the dataset, finding 3 distinct groups of users based on their user tenure, number of total interactions, number of daily interactions and unique days spent on the platform.The data reveals three user groups: short-term, intermediate, and long-term users (Figure 1). The majority (95.5%) are short-term users, with an average tenure of 3.1 days and 1.2 unique platform days. This aligns with other digital mental health studies, showing high sign-ups but fewer long-term users. Results from this study demonstrate how a digital mental health intervention is used in real-world workplace settings, and offers actionable insights to continuously improve the platform

Opening lines of communication: book ordering and reading lists, the academics view

This article outlines and assesses the research into resource management and ordering processes at the University of Northampton and academics’ knowledge of these processes. The aim of the research was to identify ways of streamlining the service, to improve communication between academic and library staff, with the objective of an enhanced student experience. The focus groups highlighted concerns around growing spoon-feeding in Higher Education and the ongoing communication barriers between academic and library staff. This article will evaluate the current debates, research and practices within the sector and present and analyse the findings of the research

Pharmacokinetic Profile of Plasma Levobupivacaine Following Fascia Iliaca Compartment Block for Proximal Femoral Fracture in Older Patients

This article was extracted from the PhD. thesis of Rebecca Parr in Scotia Biologics Ltd. LC-MS/MS.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

RUNX-mediated growth arrest and senescence are attenuated by diverse mechanisms in cells expressing RUNX1 fusion oncoproteins

RUNX gene over-expression inhibits growth of primary cells but transforms cells with tumor suppressor defects, consistent with reported associations with tumor progression. In contrast, chromosomal translocations involving RUNX1 are detectable in utero, suggesting an initiating role in leukemias. How do cells expressing RUNX1 fusion oncoproteins evade RUNX-mediated growth suppression? Previous studies showed that the TEL-RUNX1 fusion from t(12;21) B-ALLs is unable to induce senescence-like growth arrest (SLGA) in primary fibroblasts while potent activity is displayed by the RUNX1-ETO fusion found in t(8;21) AMLs. We now show that SLGA potential is suppressed in TEL-RUNX1 but reactivated by deletion of the TEL HLH domain or mutation of a key residue (K99R). Attenuation of SLGA activity is also a feature of RUNX1-ETO9a, a minor product of t(8;21) translocations with increased leukemogenicity. Finally, while RUNX1-ETO induces SLGA it also drives a potent senescence-associated secretory phenotype (SASP), and promotes the immortalisation of rare cells that escape SLGA. Moreover, the RUNX1-ETO SASP is not strictly linked to growth arrest as it is largely suppressed by RUNX1 and partially activated by RUNX1-ETO9a. These findings underline the heterogeneous nature of premature senescence and the multiple mechanisms by which this failsafe process is subverted in cells expressing RUNX1 oncoproteins

Educating for Indigenous health equity: An international consensus statement

The determinants of health inequities between Indigenous and non-Indigenous populations include factors amenable to medical education’s influence, for example, the competence of the medical workforce to provide effective and equitable care to Indigenous populations. Medical education institutions have an important role to play in eliminating these inequities. However, there is evidence that medical education is not adequately fulfilling this role, and in fact may be complicit in perpetuating inequities. This article seeks to examine the factors underpinning medical education’s role in Indigenous health inequity, in order to inform interventions to address these factors. The authors developed a consensus statement that synthesizes evidence from research, evaluation, and the collective experience of an international research collaboration including experts in Indigenous medical education. The statement describes foundational processes that limit Indigenous health development in medical education and articulates key principles that can be applied at multiple levels to advance Indigenous health equity. The authors recognize colonization, racism, and privilege as fundamental determinants of Indigenous health that are also deeply embedded in Western medical education. In order to contribute effectively to Indigenous health development, medical education institutions must engage in decolonization processes and address racism and privilege at curricular and institutional levels. Indigenous health curricula must be formalized and comprehensive, and must be consistently reinforced in all educational environments. Institutions’ responsibilities extend to advocacy for health system and broader societal reform to reduce and eliminate health inequities. These activities must be adequately resourced and underpinned by investment in infrastructure and Indigenous leadership