Using Tickets in Employment Standards Inspections: Deterrence as Effective Enforcement in Ontario, Canada?

It is widely agreed that there is a crisis in labour/employment standards enforcement. A key issue is the role of deterrence measures that penalise violations. Employment standards enforcement in Ontario, like in most jurisdictions, is based mainly on a compliance framework promoting voluntary resolution of complaints and, if that fails, ordering restitution. Deterrence measures that penalise violations are rarely invoked. However, the Ontario government has recently increased the role of proactive inspections and tickets, a low-level deterrence measure which imposes fines of $295 plus victim surcharges. In examining the effectiveness of the use of tickets in inspections, we begin by looking at this development in the broader context of employment standards enforcement and its historical trajectory. Then, using administrative data from the Ministry of Labour, we examine when and why tickets are issued in the course of workplace inspections. After demonstrating that even when ticketable violations are detected, tickets are issued only rarely, we explore factors associated with an increased likelihood of an inspector issuing a ticket. Finally, we consider how the overall deterrent effect of workplace inspections is influenced by the use or non-use of deterrence tools

Carrying Little Sticks: Is There a ‘Deterrence Gap’ in Employment Standards Enforcement in Ontario, Canada?

This article assesses whether a deterrence gap exists in the enforcement of the Ontario Employment Standards Act (ESA), which sets minimum conditions of employment in areas such as minimum wage, overtime pay and leaves. Drawing on a unique administrative data set, the article measures the use of deterrence in Ontario’s ESA enforcement regime against the role of deterrence within two influential models of enforcement: responsive regulation and strategic enforcement. The article finds that the use of deterrence is below its prescribed role in either model of enforcement. We conclude that there is a deterrence gap in Ontario

From snapshots to manifolds - a tale of shear flows

We propose a novel nonlinear manifold learning from snapshot data and demonstrate its superiority over proper orthogonal decomposition (POD) for shedding-dominated shear flows. Key enablers are isometric feature mapping, Isomap, as encoder and, K-nearest neighbours (KNN) algorithm as decoder. The proposed technique is applied to numerical and experimental datasets including the fluidic pinball, a swirling jet and the wake behind a couple of tandem cylinders. Analysing the fluidic pinball, the manifold is able to describe the pitchfork bifurcation and the chaotic regime with only three feature coordinates. These coordinates are linked to the vortex-shedding phases and the force coefficients. The manifold coordinates of the swirling jet are comparable to the POD mode amplitudes, yet allow for a more distinct and less noise-sensitive manifold identification. A similar observation is made for the wake of two tandem cylinders. The tandem cylinders are aligned and located at a streamwise distance which corresponds to the transition between the single bluff body and the reattachment regimes of vortex shedding. Isomap unveils these two shedding regimes while the Lissajous plot of the first two POD mode amplitudes features a single circle. The reconstruction error of the manifold model is small compared with the fluctuation level, indicating that the low embedding dimensions contain the coherent structure dynamics. The proposed Isomap-KNN manifold learner is expected to be of great importance in estimation, dynamic modelling and control for a large range of configurations with dominant coherent structures.This work has been supported by the Madrid Government (Comunidad de Madrid) under the Multiannual Agreement with Universidad Carlos III de Madrid in the line of 'Fostering Young Doctors Research' (PITUFLOW-CM-UC3M), and in the context of the V PRICIT (Regional Programme of Research and Technological Innovation). This work has also been partially supported by the project ARTURO, ref. PID2019-109717RBI00/AEI/10.13039/501100011033, funded by the Spanish State Research Agency. B.R.N. and N.D. acknowledge funding by the National Science Foundation of China (NSFC) through grants 12172109 and 12172111 and 12202121, by the Guandgong province, China, via the Natural Science and Engineering grant 2022A1515011492, by the Shenzhen Research Foundation for Basic Research, China, via grant JCYJ20220531095605012, and HangHua company (Dalian, China) for their scientific support. The authors warmly thank Dr F. Lückoff and Dr M. Raiola for providing the swirling jet and the tandem cylinder data sets. Funding for APC: Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (Read and Publish Carlos III University of Madrid)

Attitudes about science and conceptual physics learning in university introductory physics courses

This paper examines the results of the repeated administration of the Colorado Learning Attitudes about Science Survey (CLASS) in a large introductory physics course at a midsize, metropolitan Canadian university. We compare the results to those obtained previously in comparable courses at the University of British Columbia (Canada) and the University of Colorado (U.S.). Atypically, students in this study exhibited a positive shift in their attitudes about science over the semester. The change in students' attitudes across the term appears to be moderated by their educational background-specifically, whether they had taken grade 12 physics or not. The correlation between students' attitudes and their conceptual knowledge also appears to be influenced by students' educational background. The results have pedagogical implications for instructors of introductory college and university physics and potentially for other science courses

Improving Employment Standards and their Enforcement in Ontario: A Research Brief Addressing Options Identified in the Interim Report of the Changing Workplaces Review

The quality of employment available to Ontarians is a growing concern among legislators, policymakers, and the general public alike. There is widespread recognition that precarious employment and the challenges posed by the associated realignment of risks, costs and power relations between employees and employers require improvements to employees’ legislative protection. Ontario’s Changing Workplaces Review (CWR) affords us an opportunity to take stock of important changes taking place the province’s labour market. As the Terms of Reference introduced at the outset of the CWR note, “far too many workers are experiencing greater precariousness” in employment in Ontario today than in the recent past. Accordingly, with the aim of “creating decent work in Ontario, particularly [for] those who have been made vulnerable by changes in our economy and workplaces,” such terms directed the Special Advisors to investigate the dynamics underlying the magnitude of precariousness in the province’s labour market and to pose options for mitigating this fundamental social and economic problem through reforms to Ontario’s Labour Relations Act (LRA) and Employment Standards Act (ESA)

Closing the Employment Standards Enforcement Gap, An Agenda for Change

Precarious employment is increasing in Ontario. A growing share of Ontario’s private sector employees earns low wages while a shrinking portion belongs to unions. These trends are fueled by changes in the structure of Ontario’s labour force. In many industries, including accommodation and food services, administrative services, and cleaning, workplaces are being transformed through greater use of contracting out, franchising, and extended supply chains. These ways of structuring work contribute to driving working conditions downward

Drug-induced trafficking of p-glycoprotein in human brain capillary endothelial cells as demonstrated by exposure to mitomycin C.

P-glycoprotein (Pgp; ABCB1/MDR1) is a major efflux transporter at the blood-brain barrier (BBB), restricting the penetration of various compounds. In other tissues, trafficking of Pgp from subcellular stores to the cell surface has been demonstrated and may constitute a rapid way of the cell to respond to toxic compounds by functional membrane insertion of the transporter. It is not known whether drug-induced Pgp trafficking also occurs in brain capillary endothelial cells that form the BBB. In this study, trafficking of Pgp was investigated in human brain capillary endothelial cells (hCMEC/D3) that were stably transfected with a doxycycline-inducible MDR1-EGFP fusion plasmid. In the presence of doxycycline, these cells exhibited a 15-fold increase in Pgp-EGFP fusion protein expression, which was associated with an increased efflux of the Pgp substrate rhodamine 123 (Rho123). The chemotherapeutic agent mitomycin C (MMC) was used to study drug-induced trafficking of Pgp. Confocal fluorescence microscopy of single hCMEC/D3-MDR1-EGFP cells revealed that Pgp redistribution from intracellular pools to the cell surface occurred within 2 h of MMC exposure. Pgp-EGFP exhibited a punctuate pattern at the cell surface compatible with concentrated regions of the fusion protein in membrane microdomains, i.e., lipid rafts, which was confirmed by Western blot analysis of biotinylated cell surface proteins in Lubrol-resistant membranes. MMC exposure also increased the functionality of Pgp as assessed in three functional assays with Pgp substrates (Rho123, eFluxx-ID Gold, calcein-AM). However, this increase occurred with some delay after the increased Pgp expression and coincided with the release of Pgp from the Lubrol-resistant membrane complexes. Disrupting rafts by depleting the membrane of cholesterol increased the functionality of Pgp. Our data present the first direct evidence of drug-induced Pgp trafficking at the human BBB and indicate that Pgp has to be released from lipid rafts to gain its full functionality

European registry of type A aortic dissection (ERTAAD) - rationale, design and definition criteria

Correction: Volume16 Issue1 Article Number225 DOI10.1186/s13019-021-01606-8Background: Acute Stanford type A aortic dissection (TAAD) is a life-threatening condition. Surgery is usually performed as a salvage procedure and is associated with significant postoperative early mortality and morbidity. Understanding the patient's conditions and treatment strategies which are associated with these adverse events is essential for an appropriate management of acute TAAD. Methods: Nineteen centers of cardiac surgery from seven European countries have collaborated to create a multicentre observational registry (ERTAAD), which will enroll consecutive patients who underwent surgery for acute TAAD from January 2005 to March 2021. Analysis of the impact of patient's comorbidities, conditions at referral, surgical strategies and perioperative treatment on the early and late adverse events will be performed. The investigators have developed a classification of the urgency of the procedure based on the severity of preoperative hemodynamic conditions and malperfusion secondary to acute TAAD. The primary clinical outcomes will be in-hospital mortality, late mortality and reoperations on the aorta. Secondary outcomes will be stroke, acute kidney injury, surgical site infection, reoperation for bleeding, blood transfusion and length of stay in the intensive care unit. Discussion: The analysis of this multicentre registry will allow conclusive results on the prognostic importance of critical preoperative conditions and the value of different treatment strategies to reduce the risk of early adverse events after surgery for acute TAAD. This registry is expected to provide insights into the long-term durability of different strategies of surgical repair for TAAD.Peer reviewe

Transapical mitral valve implantation for treatment of symptomatic mitral valve disease: a real-world multicentre experience.

AIMS Transcatheter mitral valve implantation (TMVI) is a new treatment option for patients with symptomatic mitral valve (MV) disease. Real-world data have not yet been reported. This study aimed to assess procedural and 30-day outcomes of TMVI in a real-world patient cohort. METHOD AND RESULTS All consecutive patients undergoing implantation of a transapically delivered self-expanding valve at 26 European centres from January 2020 to April 2021 were included in this retrospective observational registry. Among 108 surgical high-risk patients included (43% female, mean age 75 ± 7 years, mean STS-PROM 7.2 ± 5.3%), 25% was treated for an off-label indication (e.g. previous MV intervention or surgery, mitral stenosis, mitral annular calcification). Patients were highly symptomatic (New York Heart Association [NYHA] functional class III/IV in 86%) and mitral regurgitation (MR) was graded 3+/4+ in 95% (38% primary, 37% secondary, and 25% mixed aetiology). Technical success rate was 96%, and MR reduction to ≤1+ was achieved in all patients with successful implantation. There were two procedural deaths and 30-day all-cause mortality was 12%. At early clinical follow-up, MR reduction was sustained and there were significant reductions of pulmonary pressure (systolic pulmonary artery pressure 52 vs. 42 mmHg, p < 0.001), and tricuspid regurgitation severity (p = 0.013). Heart failure symptoms improved significantly (73% in NYHA class I/II, p < 0.001). Procedural success rate according to MVARC criteria was 80% and was not different in patients treated for an off-label indication (74% vs. 81% for off- vs. on-label, p = 0.41). CONCLUSION In a real-world patient population, TMVI has a high technical and procedural success rate with efficient and durable MR reduction and symptomatic improvement