Green and facile synthesis of lignin/HKUST-1 as a novel hybrid biopolymer metal-organic-framework for a pH-controlled drug release system.

This manuscript describes the synthesis and characterization of a hybrid polymer/HKUST-1 composite for oral drug delivery. A green, one-pot approach was employed to synthesize the modified metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) composite using alkali lignin as a novel pH-responsive biopolymer carrier for the simulated oral delivery system. Several analytical techniques, including Fourier transform infrared (FTIR), X-ray powder diffraction (XRPD), Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) were used to analyze the chemical and crystalline structure of HKUST-1 and L/HKUST-1 composite.

Protecting the public interest while regulating health professionals providing virtual care: A scoping review.

Technology is transforming service delivery in many health professions, particularly with the rapid shift to virtual care during the COVID-19 pandemic. Health profession regulators must navigate legal and ethical complexities to facilitate virtual care while upholding their mandate to protect the public interest. The objectives of this scoping review were to examine how the public interest is protected when regulating health professionals who provide virtual care, discuss policy and practice implications of virtual care, and make recommendations for future research.

Circulating cytokine levels in systemic sclerosis related interstitial lung disease and idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis.

Exploration of cytokine levels in systemic sclerosis-associated interstitial lung disease (SSc-ILD) and idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is needed to find common and diverse biomolecular pathways. Circulating levels of 87 cytokines were compared amongst 19 healthy controls and consecutive patients with SSc-ILD (n = 39), SSc without ILD (n = 29), and IPF (n = 17) recruited from a Canadian centre using a log-linear model adjusted for age, sex, baseline forced vital capacity (FVC), and immunosuppressive or anti-fibrotic treatment at time of sampling. Also examined was annualized change in FVC.

Regulating During Crisis: A Qualitative Comparative Case Study of Nursing Regulatory Responses to the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic placed intense pressure on nursing regulatory bodies to ensure an adequate healthcare workforce while maintaining public safety.

Purpose: Our objectives were to analyze regulatory bodies' responses during the pandemic, examine how nursing regulators conceptualize the public interest during a public health crisis, and explore the influence of a public health crisis on the balancing of regulatory principles. We aimed to develop a clearer understanding of regulating during a crisis by identifying themes within regulatory responses.

Socio-ecological challenges and food security in the 'salad bowl' of Fiji, Sigatoka Valley.

This article examines food security in the Sigatoka Valley, one of the most productive food regions in Fiji, in the context of recent socio-ecological challenges through a case study of Narewa village. Data were collected using semi-structured interviews ( = 25), a fixed question food insecurity experience survey ( = 25), and a free listing exercise about preferred and consumed foods ( = 24). Results revealed that while most households had access to sufficient food, the increased frequency and intensity of droughts, tropical cyclones, and flooding caused almost half to worry about meeting their future food needs.

Vitamin D is associated with visual memory in young northern adolescents.

Background: Vitamin D status has been linked to visual memory in adults. We hypothesized a similar association in young adolescents.

Methods: Participants were 9-13 years.

Perceptions of COVID-19 risk, vaccine access and confidence: a qualitative description of South Asians in Canada.

Objectives: In the first full year of the COVID-19 pandemic (2020), South Asians living in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area (GTHA) and Greater Vancouver area (GVA) experienced specific barriers to accessing SARS-CoV-2 testing and reliable health information. However, between June 2021 and February 2022, the proportion of people having received at least one COVID-19 vaccine dose was higher among this group (96%) than among individuals who were not visible minorities (93%). A better understanding of successful approaches and the challenges experienced by those who remain unvaccinated among this highly vaccinated group may improve public health outreach in subsequent waves of the current pandemic or for future pandemic planning.

Extensive regional variation in the phenology of insects and their response to temperature across North America.

Climate change models often assume similar responses to temperatures across the range of a species, but local adaptation or phenotypic plasticity can lead plants and animals to respond differently to temperature in different parts of their range. To date, there have been few tests of this assumption at the scale of continents, so it is unclear if this is a large-scale problem. Here, we examined the assumption that insect taxa show similar responses to temperature at 96 sites in grassy habitats across North America.

Naïve Pine Terpene Response to the Mountain Pine Beetle (Dendroctonus ponderosae) through the Seasons.

Insect herbivores must contend with constitutive and induced plant defenses. The mountain pine beetle, Dendroctonus ponderosae Hopkins (Coleoptera: Curculionidae, Scolytinae) has expanded its range east of the Rocky Mountains into the western boreal forest and is encountering evolutionarily naïve lodgepole pines (Pinus contorta) and jack pines (Pinus banksiana). Pinus contorta and P.

Multiple sclerosis in Indigenous Peoples of the Americas: A systematic review of incidence, prevalence, and outcomes.

Introduction: The incidence, prevalence and outcomes of multiple sclerosis (MS) are unclear in Indigenous Peoples (IP) who are more likely to be underrepresented in research. We completed a systematic review of MS in IP of the Americas.

Methods: A systematic review was conducted using PubMed, Web of Science, and Cochrane databases as well as references of retrieved papers.

Impact of Canada's cannabis legalisation on youth emergency department visits for cannabis-related disorders and poisoning in Ontario and Alberta, 2015-2019.

Introduction: Although there is momentum towards legalising adult recreational cannabis use worldwide, the extent of youth cannabis-related harm associated with legalisation is still uncertain. The current study aimed to assess whether the initial implementation of Canada's cannabis legalisation (via the Cannabis Act) on 17 October 2018 might be associated with youth harm, as assessed by emergency department visits for cannabis-related disorders/poisoning.

Methods: We used Ontario and Alberta, Canada emergency department data from 1 April 2015 to 31 December 2019.

Grounding Wellness: Coloniality, Placeism, Land, and a Critique of "Social" Determinants of Indigenous Mental Health in the Canadian Context.

Authored by a small team of settler and Indigenous researchers, all of whom are deeply involved in scholarship and activism interrogating ongoing processes of coloniality in lands now known to many as Canada, this paper critically examines "social" and grounded determinants of Indigenous mental health and wellness. After placing ourselves on the grounds from which we write, we begin by providing an overview of the social determinants of health (SDOH), a conceptual framework with deep roots in colonial Canada. Though important in pushing against biomedical framings of Indigenous health and wellness, we argue that the SDOH framework nevertheless risks re-entrenching deeply colonial ways of thinking about and providing health services for Indigenous people: SDOH, we suggest, do not ultimately reckon with ecological, environmental, place-based, or geographic determinants of health in colonial states that continue to occupy stolen land.

Characterization of the short-term temporal variability of road dust chemical mixtures and meteorological profiles in a near-road urban site in British Columbia.

: Non-tailpipe emissions driven by springtime road dust in northern latitude communities is increasing in importance for air pollution control and improving our understanding of the health effects of chemical mixtures from particulate matter exposure. High-volume samples from a near-road site indicated that days affected by springtime road dust are substantively different from other days with respect to particulate matter mixture composition and meteorological drivers. The high load of trace elements in PM on high road dust days has important implications for the acute toxicity of inhaled air and subsequent health effects.

Protecting the public interest when regulating health professionals providing virtual care: a scoping review protocol.

Background: Virtual care is transforming the nature of healthcare, particularly with the accelerated shift to telehealth and virtual care during the COVID-19 pandemic. Health profession regulators face intense pressures to safely facilitate this type of healthcare while upholding their legislative mandate to protect the public. Challenges for health profession regulators have included providing practice guidance for virtual care, changing entry-to-practice requirements to include digital competencies, facilitating interjurisdictional virtual care through licensure and liability insurance requirements, and adapting disciplinary procedures.

Digital Practices by Citizens During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Findings From an International Multisite Study.

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic brought digital practices and engagement to the forefront of society, which were based on behavioral changes associated with adhering to different government mandates. Further behavioral changes included transitioning from working in the office to working from home, with the use of various social media and communication platforms to maintain a level of social connectedness, especially given that many people who were living in different types of communities, such as rural, urban, and city spaces, were socially isolated from friends, family members, and community groups. Although there is a growing body of research exploring how technology is being used by people, there is limited information and insight about the digital practices employed across different age cohorts living in different physical spaces and residing in different countries.

Exploring the intersection of hermeneutics and implementation: a scoping review.

Background: An enduring challenge remains about how to effectively implement programs, services, or practices. Too often, implementation does not achieve its intended effectiveness, fidelity, and sustainability, even when frameworks or theories determine implementation strategies and actions. A different approach is needed.

The Canadian Landscape of Genetics and Genomics in Nursing: A Policy Document Analysis.

Background: Genetics and genomics (GG) are transforming approaches to healthcare in Canada and around the globe. Canadian nurses must be prepared to integrate GG in their practice, but modest research in this area suggests that Canadian nurses have limited GG competency. Countries that have integrated GG across nursing provided guidance to nurses about the practice implications of GG through regional nursing policy documents.

Indicators of physical activity and nutritional status among children and adolescents in Zimbabwe: Findings from three global matrix initiatives.

Background: Regular physical activity is associated with several benefits among children and adolescents. Globally, only limited surveillance data, collected using harmonized approaches to accurately compare levels of physical activity among children and adolescents are available. Through its Global Matrix initiatives, Active Health Kids Global Alliance provides an opportunity for participating countries/jurisdictions to compare physical activity levels of children and adolescents based on ten common indicators.

A comparison of reactor configuration using a fruit waste fed two-stage anaerobic up-flow leachate reactor microbial fuel cell and a single-stage microbial fuel cell.

Food waste generation and its consequent environmental impacts are increasing due to rapid urbanization, the global population, and associated food demand. Microbial fuel cells (MFCs) are a sustainable technology through which this food waste can be treated and used to produce bioelectricity. This study used two MFC configurations, a two-stage anaerobic up-flow leachate reactor MFC and a single-stage MFC, comparing the potential to treat solid fruit waste and fruit waste leachate.

Social Suffering: Indigenous Peoples' Experiences of Accessing Mental Health and Substance Use Services.

In this paper, we present findings from a qualitative study that explored Indigenous people's experiences of mental health and addictions care in the context of an inner-city area in Western Canada. Using an ethnographic design, a total of 39 clients accessing 5 community-based mental health care agencies were interviewed, including 18 in-depth individual interviews and 4 focus groups. Health care providers also were interviewed (n = 24).

Predicting areas important for ecological connectivity throughout Canada.

Governments around the world have acknowledged that urgent action is needed to conserve and restore ecological connectivity to help reverse the decline of biodiversity. In this study we tested the hypothesis that functional connectivity for multiple species can be estimated across Canada using a single, upstream connectivity model. We developed a movement cost layer with cost values assigned using expert opinion to anthropogenic land cover features and natural features based on their known and assumed effects on the movement of terrestrial, non-volant fauna.

Effect of ultrasonic homogenization on crude oil-water emulsion stability.

This research aims to evaluate the effect of ultrasonic processing parameters (power and sonication time), emulsion characteristics (water salinity and pH) and their interaction on oil-in-water emulsion stability for Cold Lake Blend (CLB) crude oil. Response surface methodology was used to design experimental runs, in which the parameters were investigated at five levels. Emulsion stability was evaluated by measuring creaming index, emulsion turbidity and microscopic image analysis.

Antiproliferative -terphenyl derivatives isolated from the fungus .

The ethanol extract of the fungus collected from north-central British Columbia, Canada, showed strong antiproliferative activity. Bioassay-guided purification using liquid-liquid extraction and Sephadex LH-20 size-exclusion chromatography, followed by HPLC-MS and 1D/2D NMR analyses, led to the isolation of five known compounds; four -terphenyl (-) derivatives and one phenolic aldehyde (). Compounds , , and were isolated for the first time from the genus.