The Future Station: Sustaining Multidisciplinary, Community-Engaged Research, Teaching and Outreach at the Bonne Bay Marine Station

The Bonne Bay Marine Station (BBMS) is a prize asset of Memorial University. It actively contributes to the three University pillars: Research, Teaching and Engagement. Bonne Bay -- a small fjord on the west coast of Newfoundland at the base of the Great Northern Peninsula and in the heart of Gros Morne National Park -- is ecologically unique. It has a very wide number of marine habitats and species, ranging from sub-arctic to temperate. In 1969, because of this, the BBMS was established to take advantage of the exciting opportunities for marine research that it presented; at that time, it carried out research and training in marine biology. In 2003, with funding from the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency (ACOA), the province and Memorial University, the new station was transformed into a community-partnered institution with a formal mandate for public outreach. The new BBMS and its mandate were designed to support the development of the local economy, including tourism. As a result, the BBMS now offers a marine ecology field school with multiple courses that run between April and September. In 2011 it attracted almost 11,000 visitors who came to tour the visitors centre

Ecological and societal context of catch and discards: identifying opportunities for bycatch mitigation in swordfish and tuna pelagic longline fisheries

Bycatch, defined here as catch discarded for regulatory, economic or personal reasons, from pelagic longline fisheries has contributed to wide spread population declines of sharks and sea turtles. Opportunities to reduce impacts in these fisheries occur throughout the fishing process and depend upon the fishing practices within fleets, and upon the behaviour of target and bycatch species. The overall objective of this thesis was to identify bycatch mitigation opportunities within the Canadian Atlantic pelagic longline fishery, which targets swordfish (Xiphias gladius), warm-water tunas (bigeye, Thunnus obesus; yellowfin T. albacares; and albacore, T. alalunga) and mahi-mahi (Coryphaena hippurus). Bycatch includes common sharks and rays (blue shark, Prionace glauca; pelagic stingray, Pteroplatytrygon violacea), and endangered sea turtles (leatherback Dermochelys coriacea; loggerhead, Caretta caretta). Bycatch mitigation approaches such as shifting to circle hooks, increased the likelihood that shark bycatch would be released alive and with less severe hooking injuries. Shorter longline soak times also increased hooking survival among most of the common bycatch species. Shorter soak times would not decrease catch of the most common landed species (swordfish), but this shift in fishing practices could negatively impact fisher safety. Interviews with active longline captains revealed operational difficulties and unintended ecological impacts with proposed bycatch mitigation approaches. Longline captains also reported innovative uses of bycatch mitigation tools that could increase post-release survival of common bycatch species in this and other pelagic longline fleets. Finally, the combined analysis of fisheries observer data, qualitative data from fishers' knowledge interviews, and concurrent environmental data suggested that high blue shark catch rates were related to local oceanography - and did not reflect behavioural differences between blue shark and swordfish. Clearly, there are opportunities for bycatch mitigation within the Canadian pelagic longline fishery for swordfish and tunas. However, the process of interviewing pelagic longline captains revealed both interest in reducing bycatch, but also suspicion of research efforts. Such trust issues will need to be addressed in subsequent research as the combined use of fishery assessments, detailed oceanographic data, practical fishing knowledge, and on-the-water observations will be needed to decrease the amount of and harm to discarded bycatch

“Employment and arthritis: making it work” a randomized controlled trial evaluating an online program to help people with inflammatory arthritis maintain employment (study protocol)

Abstract Background Arthritis and musculoskeletal conditions are the leading cause of long-term work disability (WD), an outcome with a major impact on quality of life and a high cost to society. The importance of decreased at-work productivity has also recently been recognized. Despite the importance of these problems, few interventions have been developed to reduce the impact of arthritis on employment. We have developed a novel intervention called “Making It Work”, a program to help people with inflammatory arthritis (IA) deal with employment issues, prevent WD and improve at-work productivity. After favorable results in a proof-of-concept study, we converted the program to a web-based format for broader dissemination and improved accessibility. The objectives of this study are: 1) to evaluate in a randomized controlled trial (RCT) the effectiveness of the program at preventing work cessation and improving at-work productivity; 2) to perform a cost-utility analysis of the intervention. Methods/Design 526 participants with IA will be recruited from British Columbia, Alberta, and Ontario in Canada. The intervention consists of a) 5 online group sessions; b) 5 web-based e-learning modules; c) consultations with an occupational therapist for an ergonomic work assessment and a vocational rehabilitation counselor. Questionnaires will be administered online at baseline and every 6 months to collect information about demographics, disease measures, costs, work-related risk factors for WD, quality of life, and work outcomes. Primary outcomes include at-work productivity and time to work cessation of > 6 months for any reason. Secondary outcomes include temporary work cessation, number of days missed from work per year, reduction in hours worked per week, quality adjusted life year for the cost utility analysis, and changes from baseline in employment risk factors. Analysis of Variance will evaluate the intervention’s effect on at-work productivity, and multivariable Cox regression models will estimate the risk of work cessation associated with the intervention after controlling for risk factors for WD and other important predictors imbalanced at baseline. Discussion This program fills an important gap in arthritis health services and addresses an important and costly problem. Knowledge gained from the RCT will be useful to health care professionals, policy planners and arthritis stakeholders. Trial registration ClinicalTrials.gov NCT01852851 ; registered April 13, 2012; first participant randomized on July 6, 2013

Differential effects of anti-CD20 therapy on CD4 and CD8 T cells and implication of CD20-expressing CD8 T cells in MS disease activity

A small proportion of multiple sclerosis (MS) patients develop new disease activity soon after starting anti-CD20 therapy. This activity does not recur with further dosing, possibly reflecting deeper depletion of CD20-expressing cells with repeat infusions. We assessed cellular immune profiles and their association with transient disease activity following anti-CD20 initiation as a window into relapsing disease biology. Peripheral blood mononuclear cells from independent discovery and validation cohorts of MS patients initiating ocrelizumab were assessed for phenotypic and functional profiles using multiparametric flow cytometry. Pretreatment CD20-expressing T cells, especially CD20dimCD8+ T cells with a highly inflammatory and central nervous system (CNS)-homing phenotype, were significantly inversely correlated with pretreatment MRI gadolinium-lesion counts, and also predictive of early disease activity observed after anti-CD20 initiation. Direct removal of pretreatment proinflammatory CD20dimCD8+ T cells had a greater contribution to treatment-associated changes in the CD8+ T cell pool than was the case for CD4+ T cells. Early disease activity following anti-CD20 initiation was not associated with reconstituting CD20dimCD8+ T cells, which were less proinflammatory compared with pretreatment. Similarly, this disease activity did not correlate with early reconstituting B cells, which were predominantly transitional CD19+CD24highCD38high with a more anti-inflammatory profile. We provide insights into the mode-of-action of anti-CD20 and highlight a potential role for CD20dimCD8+ T cells in MS relapse biology; their strong inverse correlation with both pretreatment and early posttreatment disease activity suggests that CD20-expressing CD8+ T cells leaving the circulation (possibly to the CNS) play a particularly early role in the immune cascades involved in relapse development

“Employment and arthritis: making it work” a randomized controlled trial evaluating an online program to help people with inflammatory arthritis maintain employment (study protocol)

Background: Arthritis and musculoskeletal conditions are the leading cause of long-term work disability (WD), an outcome with a major impact on quality of life and a high cost to society. The importance of decreased at-work productivity has also recently been recognized. Despite the importance of these problems, few interventions have been developed to reduce the impact of arthritis on employment. We have developed a novel intervention called “Making It Work”, a program to help people with inflammatory arthritis (IA) deal with employment issues, prevent WD and improve at-work productivity. After favorable results in a proof-of-concept study, we converted the program to a web-based format for broader dissemination and improved accessibility. The objectives of this study are: 1) to evaluate in a randomized controlled trial (RCT) the effectiveness of the program at preventing work cessation and improving at-work productivity; 2) to perform a cost-utility analysis of the intervention. Methods/Design 526 participants with IA will be recruited from British Columbia, Alberta, and Ontario in Canada. The intervention consists of a) 5 online group sessions; b) 5 web-based e-learning modules; c) consultations with an occupational therapist for an ergonomic work assessment and a vocational rehabilitation counselor. Questionnaires will be administered online at baseline and every 6 months to collect information about demographics, disease measures, costs, work-related risk factors for WD, quality of life, and work outcomes. Primary outcomes include at-work productivity and time to work cessation of > 6 months for any reason. Secondary outcomes include temporary work cessation, number of days missed from work per year, reduction in hours worked per week, quality adjusted life year for the cost utility analysis, and changes from baseline in employment risk factors. Analysis of Variance will evaluate the intervention’s effect on at-work productivity, and multivariable Cox regression models will estimate the risk of work cessation associated with the intervention after controlling for risk factors for WD and other important predictors imbalanced at baseline. Discussion This program fills an important gap in arthritis health services and addresses an important and costly problem. Knowledge gained from the RCT will be useful to health care professionals, policy planners and arthritis stakeholders. Trial registration ClinicalTrials.gov NCT01852851 ; registered April 13, 2012; first participant randomized on July 6, 2013.Medicine, Department ofOccupational Science and Occupational Therapy, Department ofPhysical Therapy, Department ofPopulation and Public Health (SPPH), School ofRheumatology, Division ofNon UBCMedicine, Faculty ofReviewedFacult