Grassroots Urbanism: Community involvement and Participation towards the Making of the City. Innovative research processes in India and Canada

This innovative project addresses the issue of users’ participation towards urban development and policies. It is through a transdisciplinary action research that we plan to investigate this issue. Our intention is to develop a community-based methodology taking principles from community psychology and participatory urbanism. This collective research ambitions to be ground-based from the early beginning, identifying non-academic actors and making them co-researchers. Our goal is to generate spatial and social change by empowering communities in regard to urban issues

Social Representations of Indigenous People within a sample of non-Indigenous Young in Quebec, Canada

Relations between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people in Quebec have been characterized by cultural and political domination by European-Canadian populations. Recently, a pro-reconciliation political movement has emerged and is trying to ease these relations. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the extent to which the pro-reconciliation discourse has succeeded in being integrated into the social representations of the youngest Quebeckers. Using a qualitative methodology, we have highlighted that a paternalistic discourse remains, as well as elements of representation that identify indigenous people as diseased, helpless and freeloaders. The discussion focuses on the dangers of a reconciliation approach that would only emphasize the place of Indigenous people without taking into account the obstacles generated by the implicit prejudice of social representations

Social Representations of Indigenous People within a sample of non-Indigenous Young in Quebec, Canada

Relations between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people in Quebec have been characterized by cultural and political domination by European-Canadian populations. Recently, a pro-reconciliation political movement has emerged and is trying to ease these relations. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the extent to which the pro-reconciliation discourse has succeeded in being integrated into the social representations of the youngest Quebeckers. Using a qualitative methodology, we have highlighted that a paternalistic discourse remains, as well as elements of representation that identify indigenous people as diseased, helpless and freeloaders. The discussion focuses on the dangers of a reconciliation approach that would only emphasize the place of Indigenous people without taking into account the obstacles generated by the implicit prejudice of social representations

Agenda Setting During Follow-Up Encounters in a University Primary Care Outpatient Clinic.

At the beginning of the medical encounter, clinicians should elicit patients' agendas several times using open-ended questions. Little is known, however, about how many times physicians really solicit a patient's agenda during follow-up encounters. The objective was to analyze the number of agenda solicitations by physicians, of agendas initiated by physicians, and of patients' spontaneous agendas during the beginning and the entire encounter. We analyzed 68 videotaped follow-up encounters at a university primary care outpatient clinic. The number of different types of agenda setting was searched for and analyzed using negative binomial regression or logistic regression models. Physicians solicited agendas a mean ± SD of 0.8 ± 0.7 times/patient during the first 5 minutes and 1.7 ± 1.2 times/patient during the entire encounter. Physicians in 32.4% of encounters did not solicit the patient agenda, and there were never more than two physician's solicitations during the first 5 minutes. The mean number of physician's solicitations of the patients' agenda was 42% lower among female physicians during the first 5 minutes and 34% lower during the entire encounter. The number of agendas initiated by physicians was 1.2 ± 1.2/patient during the beginning and 3.2 ± 2.3/patient during the entire encounter. In 58.8% of the encounters, patients communicated their agendas spontaneously. There were twice as many patient spontaneous agendas (IRR = 2.12, p = .002) with female physicians than with males. This study showed that agenda solicitation with open-ended questions in follow-up encounters does not occur as often as recommended. There is thus a risk of missing new agendas or agendas that are important to the patient

Blockade of A(2A) receptors potently suppresses the metastasis of CD73(+) tumors

CD73 inhibits antitumor immunity through the activation of adenosine receptors expressed on multiple immune subsets. CD73 also enhances tumor metastasis, although the nature of the immune subsets and adenosine receptor subtypes involved in this process are largely unknown. In this study, we revealed that A/A receptor antagonists were effective in reducing the metastasis of tumors expressing CD73 endogenously (4T1.2 breast tumors) and when CD73 was ectopically expressed (B16F10 melanoma). A mice were strongly protected against tumor metastasis, indicating that host A receptors enhanced tumor metastasis. A2A blockade enhanced natural killer (NK) cell maturation and cytotoxic function in vitro, reduced metastasis in a perforin-dependent manner, and enhanced NK cell expression of granzyme B in vivo, strongly suggesting that the antimetastatic effect of A blockade was due to enhanced NK cell function. Interestingly, A blockade had no effect on NK cell cytotoxicity, indicating that an NK cell-independent mechanism also contributed to the increased metastasis of CD73 tumors. Our results thus revealed that CD73 promotes tumor metastasis through multiple mechanisms, including suppression of NK cell function. Furthermore, our data strongly suggest that A or A antagonists may be useful for the treatment of metastatic disease. Overall, our study has potential therapeutic implications given that A/A receptor antagonists have already entered clinical trials in other therapeutic settings