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Academic labor has expanded beyond the walls of academic institutions. Academics are expected to communicate with students online, use digital tools to complete their work, and share their research with broad audiences--often through online spaces like social media. Academics also face technology-facilitated violence and abuse (TFVA) in these same spaces. When this happens, employers have a responsibility to protect and support workers. However, recent events have shown that universities are not always prepared to do so. We use data from a discourse analysis of harassment and discrimination policies and interviews with university managers (including Vice President Academics/Provost, Faculty Deans, and directors of human rights offices) to examine how prepared Canadian universities and colleges are to support academics targeted by TFVA. We found that institutions are unprepared in three ways: first, they focus on physical safety over non-contact harms; second, they envision perpetrators to be named, local, and part of the campus community; and third, the reporting process is cumbersome and outpaced by the speed and frequency with which TFVA occurs. We consider these findings in the context of work-overflow and context collapse to demonstrate how the institutional apparatus for maintaining a safe and respectful working environment has not expanded in kind with the extensification of contemporary academic labor.

• Abetalipoproteinemia (ABL) is a rare monogenic familial hypobetalipoproteinemia caused by bi-allelic variants in MTTP gene. • We identified four French-Canadian patients homozygous for the same MTTP variant. • The ABL carrier frequency in Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean is estimated at 1:203. • This represents the 2nd highest worldwide carrier estimates for ABL. • Screening for ABL should be considered in this population. Abetalipoproteinemia (ABL) is a rare recessive genetic disease caused by bi-allelic pathogenic variants in the microsomal triglyceride transfer protein (MTTP) gene. This disease is characterized by a deficiency in the secretion of apolipoprotein B-containing lipoproteins. Patients with ABL present with neurological, hematological, and gastrointestinal symptoms due to fat malabsorption and a deficiency in liposoluble vitamins. In this report, we present a total of four ABL cases, including three new cases, all originating from the same French-Canadian founder population in Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean, Québec, Canada. These individuals are homozygous for the same pathogenic variant in the MTTP gene (c.419dup, p.Asn140Lysfs*2). We found that this variant is more common than anticipated in this population, with an estimated carrier frequency of 1:203. Early diagnosis is essential to initiate treatment known to prevent complications associated with ABL. Population carrier screening or newborn screening for ABL should be considered in this French-Canadian founder population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a perceived shortage of male teachers in education, particularly at the primary/junior (P/J) level where male teachers in Canada account for a dwindling minority. Included among the many factors inhibiting males from becoming P/J teachers are perceptions that males might be unduly vulnerable to false accusations of inappropriate conduct with pupils, frequently of a sexual nature. This paper highlights findings of research exploring the experiences of male P/J teachers in Ontario. Results of an online survey completed by 223 male P/J teachers are discussed; 28 of these teachers reported they had been suspected of having had inappropriate contact with pupils and wrote online comments outlining their experience. The findings are discussed in the context of what it means to be a male assuming a non-traditional role of working with young children in today's milieu. (Contains 3 notes.)

The authors examined how the grading scheme affects learning and students' reactions to the Immediate Feedback Assessment Technique (IFAT), an answer form providing immediate feedback on multiple-choice questions. Undergraduate students (N = 141) took a general-knowledge multiple-choice test of low, medium, or high difficulty. They used the IFAT with a number-correct (NC), partial-credit (PC), or correction-for-guessing (CG) grading scheme. After 1 week, they retook the test using a traditional response form with an NC scheme. When the authors used the NC or PC scheme for Test 1, the number of correct answers increased by more than 30% on Test 2. However, the increase was only about half as large with the CG scheme, suggesting that it interferes with the IFAT's learning benefits. Responses to questionnaire items provided no strong clues regarding the origin of this difference. Participants in all treatment conditions had positive attitudes toward the IFAT. (Contains 5 tables.)

Describes a project that evaluated the academic effectiveness of 2-way interactive video as a means for delivering class lectures in an introductory psychology course. Finds that the students at the campus studio and remote site all achieved the same academically and expressed positive attitudes about the course. (CMK)

Stubborn societal prejudices persist that inhibit this enlargement of gender roles for boys and men. Portrayals of men in popular culture tend to be brutish, ignorant, and violent--often in sexual and predatory ways. Boys in school are subjected to homophobia, racism, classism, and shame, as a means of policing their burgeoning identities and stifling anything that may be construed as "feminine", so that being studious becomes considered "gay" or "sissy" or even "white". Such narrow social expectations and a lack of options for enacting socially acceptable masculinities are at the root of contemporary struggles for boys and men, and risk becoming negative self-fulfilling prophecies. Increasingly, researchers in the growing field of boys' and men's studies are challenging traditions that perpetuate a patriarchal perception of boys and men, and instead subscribe to "masculinities", or validating varied ways of being "male". (Contains 10 endnotes.)

BACKGROUND: Adults with cystic fibrosis (CF) must continuously manage their condition, while working for a living, and want a normal life. Adherence rates to treatments/medications are less than optimal. Existing theory offers little to explain adherence rates. The purpose of this study was to develop a theory to further the understanding of how people with CF manage their condition in an adherence-driven health care system. METHODS: Constructivist Grounded Theory methodology was used to conduct 27 semistructured interviews with adults with CF, family members, and health care providers. Data collection and analysis were simultaneous, using constant comparative methods, initial and focused coding, and category identification and reduction to develop a theory. RESULTS: Doing what works to balance life and CF is the theory generated from this study. The main concern of participants was to be seen as normal. The theory depicts what participants with CF and their family members do about their concerns and involves 4 interrelated processes: working overtime, receiving support, passing as normal, and facing disease progression. CONCLUSION: Participants did not relate to the term nonadherent; rather they described working overtime to manage CF, to work, and to have a normal life. Health care provider and researcher perspectives on adherence differ from those of people with CF. Engaging adults with CF and health care providers in a dialogue in which expectations are shared may lead to individualized treatment regimens that work, because adults with CF will do what works. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Changes to ecosystems caused by introduced herbivores can be predictable, stepwise transitions or unpredictable and even irreversible state changes. This study''s objectives were to explore effects on forest succession and soil development 5 years after moose (Alces alces L.) were fenced out of areas within and adjacent to a national park in Newfoundland, Canada. Study plots spanned a range of understorey broadleaf plant associations with regenerating balsam fir (Abies balsamea (L.) Mill.), an important winter forage plant for moose and a dominant canopy tree throughout Newfoundland. After 5 years, height–diameter ratios were significantly larger for larger basal diameters of understorey balsam fir in unfenced, but not in fenced subplots, suggesting that growth of the conifer is compromised within the exclosure. In contrast, for most broadleaf trees and shrubs, moose removal by fencing results in greater heights and basal diameters than in control subplots. The competitive advantage of broadleaf trees and shrubs over balsam fir in the short-term may be a result of past sustained heavy moose browsing benefiting plants that are better at investing resources into below-ground growth or benefiting plants that have broader leaf canopies. It is not clear how long the broadleaf transition state we document will continue. Restorative actions intended to mimic usual patterns of forest regeneration in this region of Newfoundland might best consider moose removal with site preparation and/or planting to historic densities. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

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The article offers information related to the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association in Canada in 2011. The 28th Canadian Presiding Officers' Conference was held in Nunavut from January 20-23. Gordie Gosse was the elected Speaker of the Nova Scotia Legislature on January 18. The 49th Canadian Regional Conference will be held in Prince Edward Island from July 13-19.