Are University Co-operative Education Students Safe? Perceptions of Risk to Students on Work Terms

As students venture off campus for university-sponsored activities, are they at risk, given that universities are better able to control risk factors on campus than they can for their off-campus activities? Co-operative education is a formalized and longstanding academic program that often sees students spend upwards of a third of their time off campus during the completion of a degree; thus, a discussion of the risks in co-operative education could provide a basis for assessing levels of risk for other off-campus activities. This qualitative, descriptive case study examines co-operative education co-ordinators’ perceptions of the risks to students in co-operative education programs in Canadian universities. Fourteen co-ordinators from across Canada participated in one-on-one interviews. Co-ordinators acknowledged that of the partners in co-operative education, the student is the most at risk. However, they viewed co-operative education as a safe endeavour for students, and there was agreement that the actual risk to students is minimal. The risk factors identified by co-ordinators included personal safety, harassment, youth or limited life experience, and mental health.  Puisque les universités contrôlent mieux les facteurs de risque des activiteurqu’elles parrainent qui ont lieu sur campus plutôt que hors campus, les étudiants sont-ils à risque lorsqu’ils s’aventurent hors campus pour de telles activités? Établi depuis longtemps, l’Éducation coopérative est un programme académique structuré qui voit souvent des étudiants passer plus du tiers de leur temps hors campus pendant leurs lôment. Une analyse des risques en matière d’éducation coopérative pourrait donc fournir une base d’évaluation des niveaux de risque des autres activités hors campus. Cette étude de cas à description qualitative examine les perceptions des coordonnateurs en éducation coopérative quant aux risques encourus par les étudiants des programmes d’éducation coopérative des universités canadiennes. Quatorze coordonnateurs de partout au Canada ont participé à des entrevues individuelles. Ceux-ci reconnaissent que de tous les partenaires en éducation coopérative, l’étudiant est le plus à risque. Ils considèrent toutefois l’éducation coopérative comme un effort relativement sûr pour les élèvesion, et ils s’entendent pour dire que le risque réel pour les étudiants est minime. Les facteurs de risque relevif par les coordonnateurs sont liés à la protection personnelle, au harcèlement, à la jeunesse ou au peu d’expérience de vie, et à la santé mentale

John Blair Deaver, M.D., and his marvelous retractor.

John Blair Deaver was born near Buck, Pennsylvania, in Lancaster County on July 25, 1855, to Dr. Joshua Montgomery Deaver and Elizabeth Clair Moore. The elder Deaver was a reputable country physician, educated at the University of Maryland, who fathered three physicians and a college president. John Blair Deaver (Fig. 1) went to boarding school at West Nottingham Academy in Maryland. After boarding school he taught in Lancaster County country schools to raise funds to attend the nation’s first medical school, the University of Pennsylvania. On receiving his M.D. degree in 1878, Dr. Deaver completed 1-year internships at both Germantown Hospital and Philadelphia Children’s Hospital, after which he embarked into clinical practice. Alongside his brother, Dr. Harry Clay Deaver, he made home visits to patients to perform surgeries as well as managed a busy 16th Street and Vine Street Philadelphia office

Communication, Relationships, and Priorities: Parental and Provider Experiences of Infant Feeding Support on the Northeast Avalon

Infant feeding is a subject of great interest and importance to those who advocate for the health and wellness of parents and babies. The infant feeding journey begins in pregnancy, as most pregnant individuals decide how they intend to feed their child before they give birth. Moreover, acquiring knowledge about the realities of infant feeding before birth is a key to success, however defined. Drawing on a longitudinal study in the Northeast Avalon region of Newfoundland, this report presents seven recommended actions to better support infant feeding, from a perspective within a province with the lowest breastfeeding rates in Canada. Informed by feminist participatory action research, the recommendations may be insightful for other regions struggling to better support infant feeding

The Road to “Severe Obesity”: Weight Loss Surgery Candidates Talk About Their Histories of Weight Gain

Much research focuses on the causes of weight gain, but few studies examine the perspectives of those who have been categorized as “severely obese.” This paper discusses the findings of 54 interviews with weight loss surgery candidates in Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. We explore participants’ perspectives on their histories of weight gain, focusing on their explanations for weight gain as well as the emotions surrounding their weight gain experiences. We find that the dominant individualized, medicalized construction of obesity both (1) adds to the burden of blame for weight loss surgery candidates, with potential emotional health implications, and (2) overlooks key social determinants of health

Natural killer cells generate memory-type responses to human cytomegalovirus-infected fibroblasts

Natural killer (NK) cells are cytotoxic lymphocytes that selectively respond against abnormal cells. Human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) infection causes expansion of NKG2C⁺CD57⁺ NK cells in vivo and NKG2C⁺ NK cells proliferate when cultured with HCMV-infected cells. This raises the possibility of an NK-cell subset selectively responding against a specific pathogen and accruing memory. To test this possibility, we compared proliferation, natural cytotoxicity and interferon-γ (IFN-γ) production of NK cells from HCMV-seropositive and HCMV-seronegative individuals co-cultured with HCMV-infected or uninfected MRC-5 cells. There was no significant difference in proliferation of NK cells from HCMV-seropositive or seronegative individuals against uninfected MRC-5 cells, but significantly more NK cells from the HCMV-seropositive groups proliferated in response to HCMV-infected MRC-5 cells. Natural cytotoxicity of NK cells against K562 cells increased following co-culture with HCMV-infected versus uninfected MRC-5 cells only for the HCMV-seropositive group. After co-culture with HCMV-infected MRC-5 cells, proliferating NK cells from HCMV-seropositive donors selectively produced IFN-γ when re-exposed to HCMV-infected MRC-5 cells. Both NKG2C⁺ and NKG2C⁻ NK cells proliferated in co-culture with HCMV-infected MRC-5 cells, with the fraction of proliferating NKG2C⁺ NK cells directly correlating with the circulating NKG2C⁺ fraction. These data illustrate an at least partly NKG2C-independent human NK-cell memory-type response against HCMV

A sociolinguistic study of Burnt Islands, Newfoundland

This study investigated how the social factors of age and gender co-varied with nine linguistic variables (eight phonological and one grammatical) in Burnt Islands, a rural Newfoundland community. Twelve participants were divided into three age groups in which both genders were represented. The interviews were tape-recorded, and consisted of both casual and formal components in order to examine the effects of speech style on the usage of the linguistic variants. In order to determine the significance of the independent variables, an ANOVA 2 x 2 design (Age x Gender) was employed. -- Variation was found in the speech of individuals, as well as across social groups. In casual style, gender proved to be the most significant social factor in variant selection, while age affected approximately half of the variables. Formal style results revealed that speakers in the overall sample displayed style shifting for most of the features examined. Younger females were marked by their avoidance of local variants in both casual and formal speech, while older males tended use local forms the most often. The general pattern of the decreasing usage of local features among successive generations suggests that supralocal norms are encroaching on the distinctive Burnt Islands dialect

Report of a counselling internship at Cabot College of Applied Arts, Technology and Continuing Education including a research report on the career counselling needs of college students based on gender, age, and level of education

This report provides an overview of a counselling internship at Cabot College of Applied Arts, Technology, and Continuing Education. The primary activities described are those of individual counselling, research in the area of adult career development, and inservice training received by the student. The research project concentrated on the career counselling needs of adult students categorized according to gender, age, and level of education. Using a measure of career maturity – the Career Development Inventory (CDI) College and University Form – to help identify career counselling needs, results indicated several significant findings. The female students’ mean score on the Career Planning scale was significantly lower than the male students’ mean score, indicating a potential career counselling need. On the cognitive scales of the Career Development Inventory, mean scores increased as the level of education increased. No significant differences were evident on either of the eight CDI scales based on the variable of age. As discussed in the review of the literature, further research on the topic of adult career development and career maturity is needed