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The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted university faculty in profound ways, particularly those who are marginalized by gender. While social and institutional injustices have always existed for these faculty, stressors related to caregiving during a global pandemic have exacerbated inequities related to distribution of care work at home and teaching and caring for students. This amplification of inequities has affected the health and well-being of gender-marginalized faculty, as well as their professional careers. The multi-method qualitative research study described in this report, through a survey and follow-up interviews, examined the impact of caregiving on gender-marginalized faculty at Brandon University during the COVID-19 pandemic. Findings from the study illustrate the problematic nature of caregiving for faculty marginalized by gender, the toll it has taken during a global crisis, and the imperative to equitably recognize, value, and compensate such work.

Background: There is a clinical need for treatments that can slow or prevent the growth of an abdominal aortic aneurysm, not only to reduce the need for surgery, but to provide a means to treat those who cannot undergo surgery. Methods: Analysis of the UK Aneurysm Growth Study (UKAGS) prospective cohort was conducted to test for an association between cardiometabolic medications and the growth of an abdominal aortic aneurysm above 30 mm in diameter, using linear mixed-effect models. Results: A total of 3670 male participants with data available on abdominal aortic aneurysm growth, smoking status, co-morbidities, and medication history were included. The mean age at recruitment was 69.5 years, the median number of surveillance scans was 6, and the mean(s.e.) unadjusted abdominal aortic aneurysm growth rate was 1.75(0.03) mm/year. In a multivariate linear mixed-effect model, smoking (mean(s.e.) +0.305(0.07) mm/year, P = 0.00003) and antiplatelet use (mean(s.e.) +0.235(0.06) mm/year, P = 0.00018) were found to be associated with more rapid abdominal aortic aneurysm growth, whilst metformin was strongly associated with slower abdominal aortic aneurysm growth (mean(s.e.) −0.38(0.1) mm/year, P = 0.00019), as were angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors (mean(s.e.) −0.243(0.07) mm/year, P = 0.0004), angiotensin II receptor antagonists (mean(s.e.) −0.253(0.08) mm/year, P = 0.00255), and thiazides/related diuretics (mean(s.e.) −0.307(0.09) mm/year, P = 0.00078). Conclusion: The strong association of metformin with slower abdominal aortic aneurysm growth highlights the importance of the ongoing clinical trials assessing the effectiveness of metformin with regard to the prevention of abdominal aortic aneurysm growth and/or rupture. The association of angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors, angiotensin II receptor antagonists, and diuretics with slower abdominal aortic aneurysm growth points to the possibility that optimization of cardiovascular risk management as part of abdominal aortic aneurysm surveillance may have the secondary benefit of also reducing abdominal aortic aneurysm growth rates. Abdominal aortic aneurysm growth rates were compared with smoking status, co-morbidities, and medication history in the UK Aneurysm Growth Study (UKAGS) prospective cohort. It was found that: smoking and antiplatelet use were associated with a more rapid abdominal aortic aneurysm growth rate; the drug metformin was strongly associated with a slower abdominal aortic aneurysm growth rate; and drugs in the angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor, angiotensin II receptor antagonist, and thiazide/related diuretic classes were also associated with a slower abdominal aortic aneurysm growth rate. These results suggest that common cardiometabolic medications may be useful therapeutic options to slow abdominal aortic aneurysm growth rates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Considering how Hamburg-Wilhelmsburg has been stigmatized for decades, and recently targeted for redevelopment, you would hardly guess from the outside that the neighborhood is beloved by racialized long-time residents, and considered to be a warm, welcoming Heimat: a space of belonging, where you do not have to justify your presence. This identification is tied to the neighborhood's racialization; the qualities that have been labeled as problems to be transformed through social mix make it a space of relative safety and security, in a context in which many residents experience attempted exclusions from German identity. Based on interviews with racialized long-time residents, contextualized within racialization in Germany, the racialized displaceability embedded in social mix policy, the contested meaning of Heimat, and the experiences of Wilhelmsburg residents with migrantization, I argue that this emphatic claim is a strength that is threatened by the current process of social mix gentrification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The primary purpose of the current study was to determine the relationship between third- and fifth-grade students' beat competencies and their reading abilities using their combined baseline nonlocomotor and locomotor movement scores and their reading scores. Beat competency was operationally defined as the ability to independently perform either microbeat or macrobeat throughout a musical selection using baseline nonlocomotor and locomotor movements. To examine further the relationship between beat competency and reading abilities, students' abilities to perform baseline nonlocomotor and locomotor movements to a steady beat and their individual relationship to reading abilities were examined separately. Effects of nonmusical factors that have been identified in the research literature as variables affecting students' reading abilities also were examined including age, gender, intelligence, socioeconomic status, and parents' education. For exploratory purposes, students' performances on the beat competency measure and their relationship with students' participation in educational programs were examined Seventy-six students from four intact third- and fifth-grade classes served as subjects for the present study. Students' reading abilities were measured by Advantage Learning Systems' (1996) STAR Reading™ (STAR) computer adaptive standardized test. The beat competency measure for the present study was an adapted form of Weikart's (1987) Beat Competence Analysis Test (ABCAT). The current study revealed significant correlations between students' composite ABCAT scores (-.27, p = .02), nonlocomotor ABCA T scores (-.26, p = .02), and locomotor ABCAT scores (-24, p = .04) and students' reading abilities as represented by their STAR reading test scores. Because the Spearman rank-order correlations indicated inverse relationships, students with high reading scores, or high reading abilities, tended to have low beat scores which represented greater beat competency abilities, and conversely. Since the strength of the relationships between students' beat competency scores and their reading scores was moderate, the researcher concluded with caution that beat competency and reading abilities are somewhat related. Results of the multiple regression analysis revealed that students' IQ scores were a significant predictor (p < .001) of reading abilities, accounting for 37% of the variance. The combined variance, 40%, of students' IQ scores and students' nonlocomotor ABCAT scores was not a significant (p = .099) predictor of reading abilities. Therefore, when contributions of other nonmusical factors were considered, students' beat competency abilities were not a significant predictor of students' reading abilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Women receiving chemotherapy for breast cancer experience high levels of fatigue. Adhering to a sleep intervention early in chemotherapy may prevent the distressing side effect of fatigue. This analysis will determine if women are able to adhere to a behavioral intervention designed to improve sleep and reduce fatigue at this time. To evaluate self-reported adherence to a tailored four component behavioral sleep intervention, beginning two days before and for seven days after chemotherapy treatments (Tx) 1-4. Piper's Integrated Fatigue Model Randomized control trial comparing a behavioral sleep intervention (N=89) to healthy eating control; postoperative, with Stage I/II/IIIA breast cancer, receiving adjuvant chemotherapy; mean age =51; most married and employed The Individual Sleep Promotion Plan (ISPP(c)) was used to self-report adherence to the tailored intervention. Descriptive statistics and RM-ANOVA were conducted. Adherence to each of the components of the ISPP was: Sleep restriction mean at Tx 1-4 was 66.7%-68.4 % (SD=19); Stimulus control mean at Tx 1-4 was 84.9%-88.6% (SD =20); Relaxation mean at Tx 1 was 85.4% (SD=27.4) and atTx 2-4 was 91.7%- 93.2 % (SD=17); Sleep Hygiene mean at Tx 1 was 84.4% (SD=16.5) and at Tx 2-4 was 89.2%-91.6% (SD=12). RM-ANOVA revealed that adherence to all four components improved significantly over time (p=0.003); and from Tx 1-2 (p=0.05) and Tx 1-4 (p=0.001). Adherence to the relaxation component improved from Tx 1-4 (p=0.05). Adherence to sleep hygiene improved significantly over time (p<0.001) and also Tx 1 to each subsequent treatment (p<0.002). There was greater than 65% mean adherence at all treatments. Adherence to relaxation and sleep hygiene components improved after Tx 1, but adherence to sleep restriction remained the most difficult component to adhere to over time. Women were willing to act as co-scientists developing and revising the ISPP. They were able to follow the four component sleep intervention but need reinforcement on adoption of regular bed and wake-up times. The ISPP will be compared to actigraphy sleep data to verify self-report at the end of the study. Funding Sources: National Institutes of Health/National Institute of Nursing Research R01 NR7762-05 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]