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Microbial communities inhabit spatial architectures that divide a global environment into isolated or semi-isolated local environments, which leads to the partitioning of a microbial community into a collection of local communities. Despite its ubiquity and great interest in related processes, how and to what extent spatial partitioning affects the structures and dynamics of microbial communities are poorly understood. Using modeling and quantitative experiments with simple and complex microbial communities, we demonstrate that spatial partitioning modulates the community dynamics by altering the local interaction types and global interaction strength. Partitioning promotes the persistence of populations with negative interactions but suppresses those with positive interactions. For a community consisting of populations with both positive and negative interactions, an intermediate level of partitioning maximizes the overall diversity of the community. Our results reveal a general mechanism underlying the maintenance of microbial diversity and have implications for natural and engineered communities.

Lifestyle factors are modifiable habits that shape the way in which individuals live their lives and can influence mental health. This study examined the associations between lifestyle factors and mental well-being among baccalaureate nursing students at one Canadian university. A cross-sectional, observational online survey was distributed at one urban university campus in Ontario, Canada. Baccalaureate nursing students (n = 147) completed the survey containing questions for demographic variables, sleep quality, dietary pattern, alcohol use, physical activity, sitting time, cigarette smoking, depression, anxiety and stress. Linear regression analysis revealed that more sitting time, poor sleep quality, and low dairy consumption were associated with higher scores in depression, anxiety, and psychological stress. In conclusion, poor lifestyle behaviors such as sedentary lifestyle, poor sleep, and low dairy consumption may reduce the mental well-being of baccalaureate nursing students. Future efforts should aim to establish a causal relationship between lifestyle and mental well-being, which would contribute to the development of lifestyle interventions to promote mental health.

Background During the COVID-19 pandemic, there have been significant variations in the level of adoption of public health recommendations across international jurisdictions and between cultural groups. Such variations have contributed to the dissimilar levels of risks associated with this world-changing viral infection and have highlighted the potential role of culture in assigning meaning and importance to personal protective behaviours. The purpose of this study is to describe the cultural factors during the COVID-19 pandemic that shaped protective health behaviours in the Chinese-Canadian community, one of the largest Chinese diasporas outside of Asia. Methods A qualitative descriptive design was employed. Content analysis was used to analyze the data from semi-structured virtual interviews conducted with 83 adult Chinese-Canadian participants residing in a metropolitan area in the Province of Ontario, Canada. Findings The cultural factors of collectivism, information seeking behaviour, symbolism of masks, and previous experience with severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) emerged as themes driving the early adoption of personal protective behaviours within the Chinese-Canadian community during the first wave of COVID-19. These protective behaviours that emerged prior to the first nation-wide lockdown in Canada included physical distancing, mask use, and self-quarantine beyond what was required at the time. Conclusion These findings have implications for the development of future public health interventions and campaigns targeting personal protective behaviours in this population and other ethnic minority populations with similar characteristics.

Background Ukraine has been embroiled in an increasingly war since February 2022. In addition to Ukrainians, the Russo-Ukraine war has affected Poles due to the refugee crisis and the Taiwanese, who are facing a potential crisis with China. We examined the mental health status and associated factors in Ukraine, Poland and Taiwan. The data will be used for future reference as the war is still ongoing. Methods From March 8 to April 26, 2022, we conducted an online survey using snowball sampling techniques in Ukraine, Poland and Taiwan. Depression, anxiety and stress were measured using the Depression, Anxiety and Stress (DASS)-21 item scale; post-traumatic stress symptoms by the Impact of Event Scale-Revised (IES-R) and coping strategies by the Coping Orientation to Problems Experienced Inventory (Brief-COPE). We used univariate and multivariate linear regression to identify factors associated with DASS-21 and IES-R scores. Results There were 1625 participants (Poland: 1053; Ukraine: 385; Taiwan: 188) in this study. Ukrainian participants reported significantly higher DASS-21 (p p = 0.029) after adjustment of other variables. Taiwanese reported significantly higher avoidance score (1.60 ± 0.47) than the Polish (0.87 ± 0.53) and Ukrainian (0.91 ± 0.5) participants (p p

Cancer caregiving can result in increased psychosocial distress and poor health-related quality of life (QOL). Psychoeducation has been shown to be effective in enhancing caregiving-oriented outcomes. A systematic assessment of the overall effect of psychoeducational intervention (PEI) and identification of individual intervention characteristics that may contribute to the effectiveness of PEI is needed.For this meta-analysis, relevant articles were identified through electronic databases using key search terms and their medical subject heading such as "family caregiver," "cancer," and "psychoeducational intervention."Twenty-eight controlled trials with 3876 participants were included. PEIs had beneficial effect on depression (Standardized Mean Difference [SMD] -0.26; 95% CI = -0.50 to -0.01, p 0.04), anxiety (SMD -0.41; 95% CI = -0.82 to 0.01, p 0.05), caregiver burden (SMD -0.84; 95% CI = -1.22 to -0.46, p 0.0001) and QOL (SMD 0.59, 95% CI 0.24-0.93; p 0.0009) at the immediate post-intervention period. At longer-term follow-up, the effectiveness of PEI was maintained on QOL (SMD 0.39, 95% CI = -0.00 to -0.77, p 0.05), and anxiety (SMD -0.57; 95% CI = -1.09 to -0.06, p 0.03). Moderation analysis showed that intervention characteristics such as studies conducted in high-income countries, group intervention and studies that focused on specific and mixed cancers explain some of the high variations observed among the included studies.PEI may benefit caregivers of cancer patients through the significant effects on caregiver burden, QOL, anxiety, and depression. The findings from the moderation analysis may be important for the design of future interventions.

Parenting is a demanding undertaking, requiring continuous vigilance to ensure children's emotional, physical, and spiritual well-being. It has become even more challenging in the context of COVID-19 restrictions that have led to drastic changes in family life. Based on the results of a qualitative interpretive descriptive study that aimed to understand the experiences of immigrants living in apartment buildings in the Greater Toronto Area, Ontario, Canada, this paper reports the experiences of 50 immigrant parents. During the summer and fall of 2020, semi-structured interviews were conducted by phone or virtually, audio-recorded, then translated and transcribed. The transcripts were analyzed using thematic analysis. Results revealed that parenting experiences during the pandemic entailed dealing with changing relationships, coping with added burdens and pressures, living in persistent fear and anxiety, and rethinking lifestyles and habits. Amid these changes and challenges, some parents managed to create opportunities for their children to improve their diet, take a break from their rushed lives, get in touch with their cultural and linguistic backgrounds, and spend more quality time with their family. While immigrant parents exhibit remarkable resilience in dealing with the pandemic-related meso and macro-levels restrictions, funding and programs are urgently needed to support them in addressing the impact of these at the micro level.

Ecosystems are under threat from anthropogenic and natural disturbances, yet little is known about how these disturbances alter mutualistic interactions. Many mutualistic interactions are highly context dependent and dynamic due to "ongoing" partner choice, impeding our understanding of how disturbances might influence mutualistic systems. Previously we showed that in the absence of additional known mechanisms of competitive coexistence, mutualistic fungi can coexist in a system where the plant community associates dynamically with two empirically defined arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal types: a cheap kind that provides low nutrient benefits, and an expensive type that provides high nutrient benefits. We built on this framework to ask how disturbances of different types, frequencies, amplitudes, and predictabilities alter ongoing partner choice and thereby influence the coexistence of mutualists. We found that the effects of disturbances depend on the type, amplitude, and predictability of disturbances and, to a lesser extent, on their frequency. Disturbance can disrupt mutualist coexistence by enabling hosts more efficiently to exclude partners that behave as parasites. Disturbance can also promote coexistence by altering the strength and direction of consumer-resource interactions. Predicting the effects of disturbance on the mutualist community therefore requires us to understand better the consumer-resource relationships under various environmental conditions. We show how, through such context-dependent effects, disturbance and ongoing partner choice can together generate relative nonlinearity and investment in future benefit, introducing fluctuation-dependent mechanisms of competitive coexistence. Our findings support a broadening of the conceptual framework regarding disturbances and competition to include fluctuation-dependent mechanisms alongside the spatiotemporal intermediate disturbance hypothesis.

Final-year baccalaureate nursing students can experience a significant amount of stress that negatively impacts their well-being, academic performance, and transition to professional practice.This pilot study aimed to evaluate the impact of a Virtual Peer Mentoring (VPM) program using alumni mentors in addressing mental well-being, self-compassion, and professional development needs of final-year baccalaureate nursing students.An explanatory sequential mixed-methods design was employed. The quantitative research used a quasi-experimental pretest-posttest design and quantitative data was collected using three validated instruments to assess mental well-being and self-compassion. The qualitative research used an individual and focus group interview design. Twenty-three mentees and eight mentors participated in the VPM program during the 2018-2019 academic year.Quantitative results showed that while mental well-being and self-compassion scores improved post-intervention, the change was not statistically significant. Qualitative analysis uncovered new insights into the participants' experiences and revealed three categories: (1) Continuation of the Mentoring Relationship; (2) Growth as a Recipient of Mentorship; and (3) Continual Development by Being a Mentor. The categories illustrate how mentees perceived benefits to their professional socialization, academic expectations, and well-being while mentors similarly expressed enrichment with their personal growth and professional development as a result of VPM.VPM was well-received by participants and show promise in supporting nursing students to manage academic, practice, and socialization challenges. Both mentors and mentees described gaining mutual benefits and professional and personal growth.

Resumo Objetivos Descrever a experiência da implementação de um programa de treinamento de assistente de pesquisa voluntário para graduandos canadenses de Enfermagem, objetivando o desenvolvimento de habilidades de comunicação verbal e escrita, métodos de pesquisa e análise de dados, pensamento crítico e resolução de problemas, assim como o planejamento de suas carreiras e o avanço de seus papéis relacionados à pesquisa e às oportunidades administrativas e de liderança. Método Estudo descritivo com relato de experiência sobre o processo de treinamento para um novo papel profissional relativo ao engajamento dos graduandos em 11 oficinas, cada uma com duração de uma hora e o processo de apoiá-los para assumir papéis profissionais e de liderança. Resultados Os graduandos demonstraram comprometimento em todas as fases do treinamento. Destaca-se, ainda, o interesse por assumirem a liderança em atividades práticas que redefinem seu perfil profissional. Essa experiência contribuiu para construir e nutrir relações intelectuais docentes-graduandos. Os graduandos expandiram suas redes profissionais e a relação com o mentor de carreira, estão desenvolvendo suas habilidades práticas e relataram confiança em se candidatar para cargos de assistentes de pesquisa. Conclusão e implicações para a prática O treinamento pode instrumentalizá-los para escolhas de planos de carreira, ingresso no mercado de trabalho e a construção de plano para desenvolvimento profissional. O desejo genuíno dos docentes de Enfermagem, apoiando uma nova geração de enfermeiros, culminou nessa experiência de empoderamento mútuo.

Background Clinical practicums are regarded as one of the most anxiety-producing aspects of the curriculum by nursing students. Practicum-associated anxiety has negative impacts on learning, performance, and well-being. Little is known about what makes final year nursing students anxious during their practicum experience and the impact of clinical and student characteristics on their level of anxiety. Objectives The objectives of the study were (1) to explore which clinical situations final year nursing students perceive as anxiety-producing; (2) to identify if perceived level of anxiety associated with clinical tasks differ by clinical and student characteristics; and (3) to determine the relationship between clinical and student characteristics and perceived level of anxiety among nursing students. Design Descriptive, cross-sectional survey. Setting One university in Ontario, Canada. Participants A convenience sample of 93 final year undergraduate nursing students. Methods The Clinical Experience Anxiety Form (CEAF) was administered to assess perceived level of anxiety associated with common practicum tasks. Descriptive statistics, one-way analysis of variance, and Pearson's correlation tests were used to address the research questions. Content analysis was conducted for open-ended questions. Results Participants reported the following three situations as most anxiety-producing: fear of making mistakes, being observed by instructors, and initial clinical experience on a unit. Differences were noted between younger (18 to 24 years-old) and older (25 to 34 years-old) students, with the older student group reporting lower levels of anxiety associated with the following clinical situations: being observed by instructors and asking questions of faculty. Age was also found to be negatively correlated with CEAF scores wherein younger students reported higher CEAF scores. Content analysis indicated common areas that worried participants most about their practicum and their academic year. Conclusions Findings emphasize the importance of nursing educators to recognize anxiety-producing practicum situations and develop anxiety management interventions to ensure optimal learning.

Background: The purpose of this paper is to review existing literature regarding the use of guest speakers in multidisciplinary education and discuss the implication of the findings in nursing education. Method: An integrative review including 18 papers from 13 disciplines. Results: The evidence indicates that guest speakers can be invited by a variety of stakeholders with various motivations. Individuals from both discipline-related practical fields and academic institutions are frequently invited. Guest speakers have the ability to promote better teaching outcomes. Having a database of potential speakers decreases the work of selecting future guest speakers. Guest speakers can also be virtual with the use of guest speakers growing. A flow model of using guest speakers, including seven steps, has been articulated. Involving guest speakers promotes reciprocal benefits, where guest speakers, students, and professors have dual roles and contribute to and gain from each other. Conclusion: Findings from multiple disciplines regarding guest speakers in higher education can inform the best possible practices and procedures in how to get the best use of guest speakers in undergraduate nursing education. However, further research and study are warranted within the discipline of nursing to produce findings directly applicable to nursing education.

Malignant wounds as a result of cancer are under-recognized for the physical and emotional distress they cause patients and their families. Unfortunately, there is a lack of valid and reliable screening and assessment tools to aid in the management of malignant wounds. This study aims to validate a patient-reported outcome measurement tool, Malignant Wound Assessment Tool - Research (MWAT-R). Eight patients were recruited and interviewed using the cognitive interviewing methodology to validate this tool. Patients’ understanding and overall impression of the MWAT-R were explored. Our findings showed that the wording and response options posed challenges for patients in completing the tool. Overall, participants felt that questions captured the key issues related to dealing with a malignant wound and accounted for the patients’ perspective. Establishing the content and face validity of the MWAT-R from the patients’ perspectives using cognitive interviews has provided further evidence to the validity of this tool.

Objectives Patients adapt to cancer through self-management, which requires collaboration between patients and their healthcare providers. We aimed to describe patterns of patient-provider collaboration during radiotherapy and examine associations among patient-provider collaboration, self-management and well-being. Methods An observational, cross-sectional study was conducted at a cancer centre in the province of Ontario, Canada. Cancer patients (N = 130) completed a one-time questionnaire during their radiotherapy. The questionnaire assessed three variables: collaboration with healthcare providers, self-management and well-being. Patterns of collaboration were analysed using descriptive statistics. Associations among study variables were assessed through structural equation modelling (SEM). Separate models were tested for patient-nurse and patient-oncologist collaboration. Results Participants reported greater collaboration with oncologists than with nurses or radiation therapists. Most participants reported no collaboration with other providers within healthcare teams (e.g. social workers, dietitians). SEM revealed different patterns for the patient-nurse and patient-oncologist collaboration models, where collaboration predicted one self-management aspect, and both physical and mental well-being. Conclusion During radiotherapy, patients collaborated mainly with doctors, nurses and radiation therapists. Collaborative relationships between patients and providers may enhance patient outcomes by fostering their self-management skills. Initiatives to strengthen patient-provider relationships and support self-management should be developed and applied to interprofessional-cancer-care teams. Impact This is the first known study to empirically support the links among patient-provider collaboration, self-management and patient outcomes. The study results can enhance practice, research and education.

Demographic analysis can elucidate how driving factors, such as climate or species interactions, affect populations. One important question is how growth would respond to future changes in the mean intensity of a driving factor or in its variability, such as might be expected in a fluctuating and shifting climate. Here I develop an approach to computing new stochastic elasticities to address this question. The linchpin of this novel approach is the multidimensional demographic difference that expresses how a population responds to change in the driving factor between two discrete levels of intensity. I use this difference to design a perturbation matrix that links data from common empirical sampling schemes with rigorous theory for stochastic elasticities. Although the starting point is a difference, the products of this synthesis are true derivatives: they are elasticity with respect to the mean intensity of a driving factor, and elasticity with respect to variability in a driving factor. Applying the methods to published data, I demonstrate how these new elasticities can shed light on growth rate response within and at the boundary of the previously observed range of the driving factor, thus helpfully indicating nonlinearity in the observed and in the potential future response. The stochastic approach simplifies in a fixed environment, yielding a compact formula for deterministic elasticity to a driving factor.

Understanding soil systems is critical because they form the structural and nutritional foundation for plants and thus every terrestrial habitat and agricultural system. In this paper, we encourage increased use of mathematical models to drive forward understanding of interactions in soil ecological systems. We discuss several distinctive features of soil ecosystems and empirical studies of them. We explore some perceptions that have previously deterred more extensive use of models in soil ecology and some advances that have already been made using models to elucidate soil ecological interactions. We provide examples where mathematical models have been used to test the plausibility of hypothesized mechanisms, to explore systems where experimental manipulations are currently impossible, or to determine the most important variables to measure in experimental and natural systems. To aid in the development of theory in this field, we present a table describing major soil ecology topics, the theory previously used, and providing key terms for theoretical approaches that could potentially address them. We then provide examples from the table that may either contribute to important incremental developments in soil science or potentially revolutionize our understanding of plant–soil systems. We challenge scientists and mathematicians to push theoretical explorations in soil systems further and highlight three major areas for the development of mathematical models in soil ecology: theory spanning scales and ecological hierarchies, processes, and evolution.

Approximately 30–40 million undocumented immigrants worldwide suffer restricted health care. A scoping review was conducted to determine what is known about this population’s palliative end-of-life care experiences. The scoping review followed Arksey and O’Malley’s methodological framework. Databases searched included CINAHL, Medline, ProQuest, Scopus, and PHRED. Search terms included uninsured care, palliative care, undocumented immigrants, and terminally ill. The search revealed limited peer-reviewed and grey literature on the topic. A total of six articles met inclusion criteria, of which four were case descriptions. Barriers to palliative care included lack of advanced care planning, lack of health insurance, poverty, fear of deportation, and limited English ability. Undocumented immigrants were more likely to have delayed access to and inadequate palliative end-of-life care. If palliative care is a human right, it is imperative that further research be conducted and policies put in place to better serve this vulnerable population at end-of-life.

Due to the geographic origins of the first major outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, individuals of Chinese ethnic origin around the world have experienced discrimination, xenophobia, and racism during the pandemic. Discriminatory actions have ranged from outright physical aggression to subtle microaggressions. While reports (both media and academic) have highlighted such incidents, this paper argues that when the conversation starts and stops at the reporting of experiences of stigma, the narrative remains as the victimization of the community. Instead, instances of COVID-19 stigma and discrimination are only one aspect of this story, where other aspects include a deeper understanding of the community itself along with an awareness of the capacity that the Chinese diaspora community brings forward to help overcome COVID-19. We focus our discussion on the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) in Canada, a global urban center that has a sizeable ethnic Chinese diaspora community, and argue that highlighting the early actions that the community took to help broader society in dealing with COVID-19 at the start of the pandemic may help to reframe anti-Chinese stigma during the pandemic. These early actions include physical distancing, mask-wearing, sanitation and advocacy. Findings for this case-study are informed by media monitoring and interviews with 83 individuals identifying as ethnically Chinese living across the GTA.

Coarse-grained rules are widely used in chemistry, physics and engineering. In biology, however, such rules are less common and under-appreciated. This gap can be attributed to the difficulty in establishing general rules to encompass the immense diversity and complexity of biological systems. Furthermore, even when a rule is established, it is often challenging to map it to mechanistic details and to quantify these details. Here we report a framework that addresses these challenges for mutualistic systems. We first deduce a general rule that predicts the various outcomes of mutualistic systems, including coexistence and productivity. We further develop a standardized machine-learning-based calibration procedure to use the rule without the need to fully elucidate or characterize their mechanistic underpinnings. Our approach consistently provides explanatory and predictive power with various simulated and experimental mutualistic systems. Our strategy can pave the way for establishing and implementing other simple rules for biological systems.

Coarse-grained rules are widely used in chemistry, physics and engineering. In biology, however, such rules are less common and under-appreciated. This gap can be attributed to the difficulty in establishing general rules to encompass the immense diversity and complexity of biological systems. Even when a rule is established, it is often challenging to map it to mechanistic details and to quantify these details. We here address these challenges on a study of mutualism, an essential type of ecological interaction in nature. Using an appropriate level of abstraction, we deduced a general rule that predicts the outcomes of mutualistic systems, including coexistence and productivity. We further developed a standardized calibration procedure to apply the rule to mutualistic systems without the need to fully elucidate or characterize their mechanistic underpinnings. Our approach consistently provides explanatory and predictive power with various simulated and experimental mutualistic systems. Our strategy can pave the way for establishing and implementing other simple rules for biological systems.

Background: Healthcare operations require collaboration between healthcare and non-healthcare professionals. Objectives: To examine: a) the effectiveness of a case-based interprofessional education (IPE) workshop, and b) the association between emotional intelligence (EI) and teamwork skills in nursing and industrial engineering trainees. Methods: Undergraduate nursing and industrial engineering students (N = 42) participated in a workshop that requires the integration of knowledge from both disciplines. Previously validated instruments were used to assess EI, empathic listening and teamwork skills pre- and post-workshop. Findings: While results of the multivariate analysis of variance suggested no difference in study variables before and after the workshop, findings from Pearson’s correlation revealed more pairs of significant correlations post-workshop. Positive association between EI and teamwork skills was found post-workshop. Conclusion: IPE workshops beyond conventional healthcare professions are feasible and welcomed by trainees. EI should be considered an antecedent of teamwork.

Although continuing nursing education is crucial to improve professional and patient outcomes, programs in oncology nursing remain scarce, piecemeal, and focused on one modality of treatment, which limits the effectiveness of education interventions. The objectives of this paper are to describe the development and implementation of a longitudinal specialized oncology nursing education pathway program, and the evaluation results of a year-long pilot of the first stage of the program at a large university-affiliated cancer centre. Preliminary findings indicated that participants' perceived competence in health assessment and symptom management was improved after one year of enrolment in the education pathway. Next steps following this pilot, including implications for participants with regards to attaining oncology certification are also discussed.

Introduction: Radiation therapy (RT) is a key treatment modality for cancer. Because cancer patients return to home immediately following each treatment day, they are expected to assume most responsibilities in managing illness. Thus, successful self-management strategies are important much like other chronic illnesses.An attribute of self-management that has not been well explored is patient-provider collaboration.Study Aim:a) To explore pattern(s) of collaborative patient-provider relationships during RT;b) To validate the associations among patient-provider collaboration, self-management and well-being in this population.Methods: An observational, cross-sectional survey study was conducted between September, 2014 and December, 2016 at a cancer centre in Canada. A total of 125 patients undergoing RT completed a one-time questionnaire. Using previously validated instruments, this questionnaire assessed three variables: collaboration with healthcare providers (e.g., physicians, nurses), self-management (e.g., adherence, self-efficacy) and patient well-being (e.g., social difficulty, general health, anxiety, symptom distress).Pattern(s) of collaborative relationship is described through descriptive statistics. Associations among study variables will be assessed using structural equation modeling once the entire dataset is entered. Pearson's product-moment correlation and multiple regression are used in the meantime to address the second research aim.Results: At the time of submission, we analysed a dataset of 71 participants.First, participants perceived moderate to high levels of collaboration with their physicians, nurses and radiation therapist (means range: 2.95 to 3.93 out of 5, 5 being the most positive). A majority of participants reported no collaboration with other providers within the allied health team such as social worker and dietitians (81.2%-86.8%). Participants reported little cancer-related symptoms (means range: 0.40 to 2.21 out of 10, 10 being the most severe).Significant associations were found between: patient-physician collaboration and well-being measure of social difficulty (r=-0.26, p

With increased demands for medical aesthetics procedures and the sudden profusion of newly licensed, and unlicensed, providers who are performing these medical aesthetics procedures also comes the responsibility to shift to collective competence. Collective competence refers to what occurs among professionals in action, emphasizing the sharing of experiences, knowledge, and perceptions among those who are providing services to the medical aesthetics client. Registered nurses and medical students are not taught to perform cosmetic procedures in basic nursing or medical programs and thus require a post-entry-level education to validate their competency. The current medical aesthetics apprenticeship training approach of see one, do one, and teach one focuses on teaching technical skills and thus does not sufficiently address the ever-changing health care context and the ambiguity in practitioner role. Recent scholars highlight that when health care failed or an error has been identified, it is rarely adduced to an individual's competence but rather is more likely to be a failure of the collective team. In this article, we are advocating for a change in how medical aesthetics practitioners are trained. In particular, it advocates creating opportunities within the curricula to train practitioners as a collective body, as opposed to providing training that focuses on the individual's competence and technical skills alone.

Evidence accumulates about the role of arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi in shaping plant communities, but little is known about the factors determining the biomass and coexistence of several types of AM fungi in a plant community. Here, using a consumer-resource framework that treats the relationship between plants and fungi as simultaneous, reciprocal exploitation, we investigated what patterns of dynamic preferential plant carbon allocation to empirically-defined fungal types (on-going partner choice) would be optimal for plants, and how these patterns depend on successional dynamics. We found that ruderal AM fungi can dominate under low steady-state nutrient availability, and competitor AM fungi can dominate at higher steady-state nutrient availability; these are conditions characteristic of early and late succession, respectively. We also found that dynamic preferential allocation alone can maintain a diversity of mutualists, suggesting that on-going partner choice is a new coexistence mechanism for mutualists. Our model can therefore explain both mutualist coexistence and successional strategy, providing a powerful tool to derive testable predictions.

18 Background: Cancer self-management involves active partnership between patients and their informal caregivers (ICs). There is a dearth of literature on ICs to lung cancer patients. Multi-modality treatment and profound challenges in symptom management and lifestyle adjustment are hallmarks of this population. This study aimed to describe the characteristics of, and resources utilized by ICs to lung cancer patients and examine the association between symptom severity and a) caregiver burden and b) perceived support. Methods: This study was conducted at a cancer centre north of Toronto, Canada. Dyads of lung cancer patients receiving outpatient treatment and their self-identified ICs (N = 39) were recruited. Upon consent, participants completed a one-time survey which assessed study variables employing previously validated instruments, including: patient’s functional status, caregiver burden, caregiver’s perceived social support and utilization of resources to enhance self-management. Descriptive analysis was used to describe our sample and frequency of resource utilization. Pearson’s correlation was used to examine the association between symptom severity and a) caregiver burden and b) perceived support. Results: The study sample consisted of middle-aged patients and caregivers (median 55-64 years). A majority of caregivers were female (76.2%), received education above college level (56.1%) and were immediate family members (80.9%). The most frequently utilized resources were the lung cancer patient handbook (48.8%), followed by personal support worker (29.3%). Caregiver support group was the least utilized (10%) resource. Patient’s symptom severity was negatively correlated with one aspect of caregiver burden, caregiver’s self-esteem (r = -0.36, p < 0.05). Conclusions: Findings indicated similarities in caregiver demographics to carers of other patient populations. Informational support and material aid appeared to be the most important resources. Patients’ well-being had the greatest impact on caregivers’ self-esteem, indicating implications on person-centred care and collaborative patient-provider relationships to support patient self-management.

Correctional nurses hold a unique position within the nursing profession as their work environment combines the demands of two systems, corrections and health care. Nurses working within these settings must be constantly aware of security issues while ensuring that quality care is provided. The primary role of nurses in correctional health care underscores the importance of understanding nurses' perceptions about their work. The purpose of this study was to examine the work environment of nurses working in provincial correctional facilities. A mixed-methods design was used. Interviews were conducted with 13 nurses and healthcare managers (HCMs) from five facilities. Surveys were distributed to 511 nurses and HCMs in all provincial facilities across the province of Ontario, Canada. The final sample consisted of 270 nurses and 27 HCMs with completed surveys. Participants identified several key issues in their work environments, including inadequate staffing and heavy workloads, limited control over practice and scope of practice, limited resources, and challenging workplace relationships. Work environment interventions are needed to address these issues and subsequently improve the recruitment and retention of correctional nurses.

High rates of nonmedical exemptions (NMEs) from required childhood vaccinations have contributed to outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases, such as measles and pertussis. Understanding the parental decision to obtain an NME could help health professionals and public health programs improve vaccination rates in areas with high vaccine refusal. Using a 2002-2003 multi-state survey of parents of school age children (​n=2445), this study found that parental distrust of the government and of healthcare providers is a significant factor related to a number of vaccine-related beliefs and behaviors. The odds that parents who distrust the government have seen a complementary/alternative medicine (CAM) provider were 2.11 times greater than those of parents who trust the government (70.1% vs 52.6%; OR, 2.11; 95% CI, 1.59-2.84; P

The Malthusian and Boserupian phases of population change, and how these are linked to long-term processes of agricultural intensification, are themes of long-standing interest to anthropologists, archaeologists, demographers, economists, ecologists, and others. The Hawai’i Biocomplexity Project has used the Hawaiian archipelago and more specifically the Leeward Kohala Field System (LKFS) as a model system to investigate the dynamic, often non-linear interactions among soils, agricultural systems, populations, and sociopolitical systems over time scales of several centuries. Two major models have been developed: (1) a model of spatial and temporal variability in agricultural production; and (2) a model of food availability and its linkages to population fertility and mortality. Empirically derived field data were used both to parameterize the models, and to test their predictions. Archaeological data on the distribution and variation in ancient agricultural field infrastructure, derived from high-resolution LiDAR images, were used to test predictions of agricultural production and intensity. Similarly, chronological data on numbers of ancient households derived from archaeological excavation and radiocarbon dating were used to test model predictions of population growth over time. This iterative process of building and testing models has led to improved understanding of how pre-industrial agricultural systems were intensified, and how expansion and intensification were dynamically linked to demographic changes in farming populations.

Current competition theory does not adequately address the fact that competitors may affect the survival, growth, and re- productive rates of their resources. Ecologically important interac- tions in which consumers affect resource vital rates range from par- asitism and herbivory to mutualism. We present a general model of competition that explicitly includes consumer-dependent resource vital rates. We build on the classic MacArthur model of competition for multiple resources, allowing direct comparison with expectations from established concepts of resource-use overlap. Consumers share a stage- structured resource population but may use the different stages to different extents, as they do the different independent resources in the classic model. Here, however, the stages are dynamically linked via consumer-dependent vital rates. We show that consumers' effects on resource vital rates result in two important departures from classic results. First, consumers can coexist despite identical use of resource stages, provided each competitor shifts the resource stage distribution toward stages that benefit other species. Second, consumers specializing on different resource stages can compete strongly, possibly resulting in competitive exclusion despite a lack of resource stage-use overlap. Our model framework demonstrates the critical role that consumer- dependent resource vital rates can play in competitive dynamics in a wide range of biological systems.

Competitive coexistence depends on dynamic interactions between competitor and resource populations, including mutualism between the resource and each competitor. We add mutualism to a well-known model of resource competition and show that it can powerfully stabilize competitive coexistence in the absence or presence of resource heterogeneity. We use a transition matrix approach to describe lottery competition, while allowing each of two competitors to affect the population dynamics of their shared resource. For example, two plant-defending ant species may compete for nesting space within ant-adapted (myrmecophytic) plants. We show that mutualism between consumers and a resource species can stabilize competitive coexistence of the consumers by allowing each competitor to influence resource dynamics in a way that benefits the other. The effect of this novel coexistence mechanism depends on a mutualism's biological details: for example, altering myrmecophyte fecundity affects competing ant species differently than does altering plant survival. Finally, we consider a heterogeneous resource (e.g., two types of nest site) and show how niche partitioning can stabilize coexistence in the absence of resource dynamics. When resource heterogeneity is dynamic (e.g., small and large plants of the same species), niche partitioning also provides new routes for additional stabilization via mutualism.

Student leadership in interprofessional education is known to bring positive influences to learning collaborative skills for nursing and other health professional trainees. Yet a scarce number of student-led interprofessional activities are described in the literature. This report describes one student-led interprofessional education workshop that is facilitated by personnel from a faculty interprofessional education program. Undergraduate students (N = 23) from nursing, allied health and social service training programs at one university in Toronto, Canada, participated in a one-time workshop regarding conflict management style. Findings from our evaluation survey showed that the workshop was well-received by participants and demonstrated utility and feasibility. Such outcomes provide supportive evidence for fostering student leadership in designing and implementing interprofessional teaching.