Priority setting for the overdose crisis: Challenges and opportunities for peer engagement in British Columbia

In recent years, decision-makers in BC have engaged people who use(d) drugs (PWUD) and the general public for their input on strategic directions regarding the overdose crisis. Given the oft-politicized nature of substance use, it is important for the response to centre around people with lived experience and to be grounded by the best available evidence. By engaging PWUD or “peers” as essential partners, the resulting policies and services may better reflect the community’s needs. Meaningful engagement can be challenging due to stigma and a multitude of systemic barriers. Special considerations must be taken to ensure participatory processes are inclusive and ethical. BC’s worsening overdose crisis demands that we reevaluate our drug policies and spending priorities across health and other social sectors. PWUD have identified several key priority areas, including expansion of harm reduction, controlled pharmaceutical prescribing, and drug decriminalization, some of which have ignited considerable debate among stakeholders

The effect of capture, confinement and immobilisation on acute phase protein, ands immune and haemostatic responses in the impala( aepyceros melampus)

Dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science (Med) Wildlife Stress PhysiologyBackground: Environmental and anthropogenic disturbances have a variety of direct and indirect impacts on wildlife. Various methods have been proposed to identify and quantify stressors that negatively impact wildlife. Objectives: In this review, we examined the physiological stress response elicited during capture, confinement, and immobilisation on the acute phase response (APR), and immune and haemostatic responses in the impala. Method: Blood- and faecal-centric approaches were used to determine: (1) the hypothalamicpituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis activity by measuring cortisol in blood using a radioimmunoassay (RIA) and faecal glucocorticoid metabolites (FGM) using an RIA for corticosterone validated in many species, (2) the innate immune activity by measuring the circulating levels of leukocytes using manual white blood cell (WBC) counts and a haemocytometer, and leukocyte coping capacity (LCC) in response to challenges using reactive oxygen species (ROS) assay, (3) the secretion of acute phase proteins (APP) by measuring circulating levels of haptoglobin (Hp) and serum amyloid A (SAA) using an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), and (4) the coagulation potential by measuring the intrinsic pathway using an activated partial thromboplastin time (aPTT) assay, the extrinsic pathway using a prothrombin time (PT) assay, fibrinogen conversion using a thrombin time (TT) assay, and fibrinogen concentration using a fibrinogen assay. Results: In response to the chronic effects of confinement and the repeated stress of immobilisation we observed an initial increase in HPA activity and common coagulation pathway activity, and resultant depletion in body reserves. There was a decline in HPA activity as the trials progressed and corresponding immunesuppression. Thereafter, as animals habituated to stressors, we found that several of the parameters measured in the impala showed recovery to initial levels (including body weight and condition, FGM concentration, ROS generating capability of whole blood, and coagulability). In response to 30 min of immobilisation the impala showed decreased HPA activity and coagulability, and immune-enhancement. IV Conclusion: These results demonstrate the feasibility of using physiological examinations to progress the understanding of short- and long-term impacts of anthropogenic disturbances on wildlife fitness, and improve animal welfare during conservation interventions.GR201

Decolonising the Eye: Visual Sovereignty in Sámi Film and Storytelling

The Sámi indigenous people, who hail from the northernmost territories of Norway, Sweden, Finland, and the Kola Peninsula of Russia, have in recent years undergone a burgeoning of productivity in their visual media and cinema industries. This proliferation of creative material has been accompanied by a significant amount of international attention, collaboration, acclaim, and honours at both mainstream and indigenous film festivals, from Sundance in Salt Lake City, Utah, U.S.A. to the imagiNATIVE Media Arts Festival in Toronto, Canada. However, this primacy of Sámi narrative agency, as well as input and ownership over their portrayals in broader global media, is relatively new and has emerged only within the last few decades. Indeed, prior to the 1960s and 70s, roughly, depictions of indigenous peoples, their lives, and traditions were largely dominated by outsiders. As a consequence, the Sámi and other global indigenous groups have been forced to grapple with the widespread misapprehensions of majority cultures as well as stereotypical, simplistic, and reductive depictions of their lives, epistemologies, and identities in both ethnographic media and other forms of global cinema. In this thesis, I will emphasise that the stereotypes that populate Nordic mainstream media, which often depict Sámi characters as victims, alcoholics, slum-dwellers, mystics, or as little more than combatants in territorial disputes, have emerged in part from narratives that have stemmed from the domestic colonial legacies of the nations they inhabit. Specifically, I will argue that Norwegianisation, a colonial paradigm that defined Norwegian politics from roughly 1850 to 1980 and aimed to acculturate and “civilise” the Sámi people for the benefit of the newly sovereign nation, still leaves a narrative trace that paints a reductive picture of the Sámi minority, and that this influence continues to impact the Sámi presence – or lack thereof – in Nordic media. Conversely, and perhaps more importantly, I will also explore how Sámi cinema constitutes a form of storytelling emancipation as well as visual sovereignty for indigenous peoples, allowing them to consume alternative, humanising, and diversified narratives and imagery related to their historical and contemporary lives and cultures. In this way, I will suggest that Sámi creativity is intimately related to a decolonial endeavour that has been blossoming since the events and activities associated with the Sámi Cultural Revival of the 1970s and 80s, one which champions self- determination, dignity, and the survival of indigenous epistemologies in Sámi communities

Effects of passive immobilization on locomotor recovery after spinal cord injury in adult rats.

Background: Spontaneous locomotor recovery in spinal rats has been attributed to animals moving freely in-cage. Environmental enrichment has been shown to increase in-cage movement and functional recovery subsequently. Anxiety has been shown to decrease overnight activity in rats. Methods: Rats were double-housed in medium cages (MC) or single-housed in tiny sized cages (TC). Slotted dividers allowed for partial isolation in TC. Overnight activity was monitored bi-weekly. The open field test and BBB’s were taken weekly. Gait analysis was performed at weeks six and eight. Results: MC showed higher overnight activity and improved gait overtime. No differences were found in BBB scores. Differences in anxiety began to show in the last few weeks of the study. Discussion: The opportunity for movement in MC led to these animals having higher in-cage activity and an improvement in gait. A more severe injury than anticipated perhaps caused low BBB scores. MC animals may have been anxious due to unwanted stressors

Developing risk assessment maps for Schistosoma haematobium in Kenya based on climate grids and remotely sensed data

It is important to be able to predict the potential spread of water borne diseases when building dams or redirecting rivers. This study was designed to test whether the use of a growing degree day (GDD) climate model and remotely sensed data (RS) within a geographic information system (GIS), could be used to predict both the distribution and severity of Schistosoma haematobium. Growing degree days are defined as the number of degrees centigrade over the minimum temperature required for development. The base temperature and the number of GDD required to complete one generation varies for each species. A monthly climate surface grid containing the high and low temperature, rainfall, potential evapotranspiration (PET), and the ratio of rain to PET was used to calculate the total number of GDD provisional on suitable moisture content in the soil. The latitude and longitude for known snail locations were used to create a point file. A 5km buffer was made around each point. Mean values were extracted from buffer areas for Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) data on maximum land surface temperature (Tmax) and normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI). The values for Tmax ranged from 15-28 and the NDVI values were 130-157. A map query found all areas that meet both criteria and produced a model surface showing the potential distribution of the vectors for this disease. Results indicate that the GDD and AVHRR models can be used together to define both the distribution range and relative risk of S.haematobium in anticipated water development projects and for control program planning and better allocation of health resources in endemic vs. non-endemic areas

More party competitive states have more polarized legislatures

Despite America’s traditional model of bipartisan cooperation, the US is more politically polarized than ever before. In areas of close party competition, we might expect Democrats and Republicans to search for areas of agreement to work collectively on, given that neither has an outstanding mandate. As Kelsey Hinchliffe and Frances Lee find, however, the opposite is true – borne out of the threat of close elections, party polarization is greater in more electorally competitive states, and this results in less bipartisanship than we might expect

Bonnie Lee Ashby

Dr. Ashby completed her undergraduate studies at Wilson College before attending Jefferson Medical College, where she graduated in 1968. She did both her internship and residency at Bryn Mawr Hospital before accepting an infectious disease fellowship at Lankenau Hospital. Dr. Ashby is still in practice today as a general practitioner and Infectious Disease specialist in Bryn Mawr. She is also the Medical Director of the Quadrangle Life Care Community in Haverford, PA.https://jdc.jefferson.edu/oral_histories/1006/thumbnail.jp

Smart Packing With QR - Improving Cal Poly\u27s Parking System for All Users

Cal Poly Smart Parking, herein referred to as CPSP QR Code Initiative, is developed to reduce the wait times student, staff, and guest drivers experience when searching for a parking spot on campus. Cal Poly is currently undergoing a large growth in student population, and, as a result, is experiencing congestion in parking lots. Drivers will commonly spend frustrating amounts of time vulturing these parking lots for an open spot. CPSP QR Code Initiative consists of a database that is controlled by user submitted data through QR codes scanned on a user’s smartphone. This system will provide drivers with a convenient tool that allows them to visualize which parking spots are available in each respective lot. The entire concept has been experimentally implemented on a Windows Server 2008 RS host using ASP.NET programs to interact with a smartphone which has QR Reader application installed at Cal Poly parking lot H-12