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The COVID-19 pandemic has contributed to worsening mental health among the general population. Those with psychosis spectrum disorders may be especially susceptible to mental health impacts given greater pre-pandemic social isolation and increased vulnerability to stress. Few studies exploring the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on social functioning and mental health have included individuals with psychosis. Utilizing data from a transdiagnostic sample spanning the psychosis spectrum, this longitudinal study investigated whether perceptions of social relationships and psychiatric symptoms changed during the COVID-19 pandemic, whether pandemic-related impacts were associated with social perceptions and symptomatology, and whether paranoid ideation was related to perceptions of the government response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Results indicated that perceived rejection and hostility increased during the COVID-19 pandemic and participants who experienced more pandemic-related impacts reported poorer social perceptions, greater negative affect, and greater paranoid ideation. Paranoid ideation was related to more negative perceptions of the government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic. These findings demonstrate how the COVID-19 pandemic impacted social perceptions and psychiatric symptomatology along the psychosis spectrum and suggest that those high in paranoid ideation may be reluctant to engage in government recommended protective health behaviors to limit the spread of COVID-19.

In psychotic disorders, motivation and pleasure (MAP) deficits are associated with decreased social affiliation and functional impairment. We leveraged a transdiagnostic sample enriched for psychosis and a multi-method approach to test the hypothesis that MAP deficits undermine the benefits of social affiliation. Participants completed the Social Affiliation Enhancement Task (SAET) to cultivate affiliation with an experimental partner. While the SAET increased affiliation and mood, individuals with greater MAP deficits derived smaller emotional benefits from the partners indexed by subjective report and objective facial behavior. Following the SAET, we used the Handholding fMRI paradigm—combining a threat-anticipation manipulation with varying degrees of affiliative contact—to determine whether MAP deficits undermine the social regulation of distress. Individuals with greater MAP deficits showed diminished neural ‘benefits’—reduced dampening of threat-elicited activation from affiliative contact in key frontoparietal nodes of the Dorsal Attention Network. In short, MAP symptoms disrupt the emotional and neuroregulatory benefits of social affiliation.

Despite the efficacy of methadone to treat opioid use disorder (OUD), retention is an urgent priority, particularly among low-income, minoritized populations. Peer recovery specialists are well-positioned to engage vulnerable patients, particularly when trained in an evidence-based intervention to promote retention. This hybrid effectiveness-implementation pilot trial aimed to demonstrate the proof of concept of a peer recovery specialist-delivered behavioral activation and problem solving-based approach (Peer Activate) to improve methadone retention.Implementation outcomes included feasibility, acceptability, and fidelity. Feasibility and acceptability were defined by the percentage of participants who initiated the intervention (≥75%) and completed ≥75% of core sessions, respectively. Fidelity was assessed via independent rating of a randomly selected 20% of sessions. The primary effectiveness outcome was methadone retention at three-months post-intervention vs. a comparison cohort initiating methadone during the same time period. Secondary outcomes included methadone adherence, substance use frequency, and substance use-related problems.Benchmarks for feasibility and acceptability were surpassed: 86.5% (32/37) initiated the intervention, and 81.3% of participants who initiated attended ≥75% of core sessions. The mean independent rater fidelity score was 87.9%, indicating high peer fidelity. For effectiveness outcomes, 88.6% of participants in Peer Activate were retained in methadone treatment at three-months post-intervention-28.9% higher than individuals initiating methadone treatment alone in the same time period [χGiven the rapid scale-up of peer recovery specialist programs nationwide and the urgent need to promote methadone retention, these results, although preliminary, have important potential clinical significance. The next steps are to conduct a Type 1 hybrid effectiveness-implementation randomized trial with a larger sample size and longer-term follow-up to further establish the implementation and effectiveness of the Peer Activate approach.

For many engaged in qualitative research with human participants, a common question can often arise: What happens when gatekeepers block access to participants? The multitude of themes of resistance used by school administrators to prevent public school teachers across Canada from taking part in an investigation of personal perspectives of secularism in their professional workspace is explored in depth. This research dilemma was overcome by the use of critical inquiry and the development of a “tree of responses” to respond to each attempt to halt professional dialogue nationwide. With this approach, our target of 120 teacher participants was achieved, allowing us to not only delve into secularism in schools but also consider the notions of teachers’ rights to participate in research along with the fear and confusion that can arise with the alleged sensitivity and controversy this topic raises in some of the minds of today’s educational leaders.

The marketization of higher education and focus on graduate employability and earnings data has raised questions about how students perceive their roles and responsibilities while studying for their degree. Of particular concern is the extent to which students identify themselves as consumers of their higher education, for example, whether they view their degree as a purchasable commodity to improve future earnings. This is because research has found that students with a stronger consumer identity perform less well academically. This study examined whether the negative impact of a consumer identity on academic performance could be explained by the impact of a consumer identity on the extent to which students adopt deep, surface, or strategic approaches to learning. The hypotheses were that the relation between consumer identity and academic performance would be mediated by approaches to learning, whereby a consumer identity would be associated with adopting a more surface approach and a less deep and less strategic approach. Undergraduates completed an online questionnaire that assessed the extent to which they identified as a consumer, their approaches to learning, and academic performance. The analysis partly supported the hypotheses: a stronger consumer identity was related to a more surface approach to learning. However, a surface approach to learning did not mediate the relation between consumer identity and academic performance. Conversely, a deep approach to learning mediated the relation between consumer identity and academic performance, whereby a stronger consumer identity was associated with poorer academic performance through its negative impact on a deep approach to learning. There was no relation between consumer identity and strategic approach to learning. Implications for students identifying themselves as consumers of their higher education are discussed.

In response to the global movement of neoliberal values, the rise of mega-ships has produced a shift towards a vacation trend that is promoted as offering everything you could need … for any age, style or mood. These extravagant floating cities package a vacation where you can be everywhere and nowhere simultaneously. In addition to a borderless onboard multisensory shops, theatres, wine cellars, bars, spas, pools, fitness centres, symphonies, libraries, art galleries, eclectic restaurants, display of rooftop grassy parks and crew ‘from every corner of the world’, passengers also consume offshore itineraries at multiple ports of call. This market-driven industry of cultural fantasy tourism is what Andrew Wood calls an ‘omnitopia’, defined as ‘an architectural and perceptual enclave whose apparently distinct locales (and locals) convey inhabitants to a singular place’ (Wood 2005: 318). These lavish omnitopian palaces are ideal spaces for fuelling unreflexive consuming behaviours that evoke Mikhail Bakhtin’...

Dynamic load modeling has been a forefront topic in power systems research for decades. Studies have shown that accurate load models are needed to capture the true behavior of the grid to certain events. However, in the Eastern Interconnection (EI) Multi-regional Modeling Working Group (MMWG) 2030 power grid model, static load models are still commonly used. This paper discusses the process to develop and implement an interconnection-level dynamic load model using the complex load (CLOD) model in PSSE. The model is applied to 25,000 loads in the EI MMWG case and the frequency response is analyzed and compared between the existing static load model and the dynamic CLOD model. Considering a case study of 4.5 GW loss of generation, the CLOD model introduces larger inter-area oscillations that impact system stability. The parameters developed for the CLOD model have been validated against real frequency measurements captured using the FNET/Grideye system and are found to have higher accuracy than the static load model.

While resolution is believed to switch inflammation off and return the affected tissues back to homeostasis, we found that it triggers a prolonged phase of immune suppression. During resolution of acute inflammation (∼72h) CD4+ and CD8+ lymphocytes as well as natural killer (NK) cells migrated into tissues secreting IFNγ from day 6. IFNγ carried out two distinct functions: firstly, through IP-10, IFNγ indirectly triggered monocyte infiltration, which differentiated into macrophages (moMϕs). Secondly, moMϕs were directly acted upon by IFNγ to express microsomal prostaglandin E synthase-1 (mPGES-1) alongside cyclooxygenase (COX 1) resulting in sustained prostaglandin (PG)E2 synthesis peaking at day 14 and lasting for several weeks. PGE2 suppressed innate immune responses to bacterial infection opening a prolonged window of postresolution infectious opportunity within the host. At the same time, it also differentially modulated multiple aspect of the adaptive immune system including suppressing lymphocyte function whilst also generating myeloid-derived suppressor cells, the net effect of which was impaired uptake/presentation of exogenous antigens. Therefore, we have defined a novel sequence of post-resolution events starting with IFNγ and culminating in sustained PGE2, which we propose dampens the propensity to develop autoimmune responses to endogenous antigens at the cost of local tissue infection.

My review of Sara Jane Bailes’ Performance Theatre and the Poetics of Failure will depart periodically from a standard appraisal to take up a subjective artist-scholar position that reflects the bo...

“Domestic Train Wreck: A Radical Utopia” by Melanie Bennett uses the emerging discourse of failure in art practice to discuss $u:Domestic Train Wreck$eu:, a partly autobiographic/partly participatory event performed as a Shift during the Performance Studies International conference at the University of Leeds in June 2012. Written and performed by the author with sound artist Aaron Collier and directed by Richie Wilcox,$u:Domestic Train Wreck$eu:transformsBennett's grandmothers' and mother's domestic heirlooms and private rituals into a performance that pays homage to invisible and failed utopian housewives. Using an autoethnographic trajectory, this article discusses how the live event gave value to otherwise invisible women by reanimating two differing kinds of domestic labour manifested in the author's grandmothers and mother. Bennett'stwo grandmothers' labour of domestic proficiency and the pleasure they derived from it is presented as a legitimate act of artistry despite its contemporary and negative ...

Lipids are potent signaling molecules that regulate a multitude of cellular responses, including cell growth and death and inflammation/infection, via receptor-mediated pathways. Derived from polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs), such as arachidonic acid (AA), eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA), and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), each lipid displays unique properties, thus making their role in inflammation distinct from that of other lipids derived from the same PUFA. This diversity arises from their synthesis, which occurs via discrete enzymatic pathways and because they elicit responses via different receptors. This review will collate the bioactive lipid research to date and summarize the major pathways involved in their biosynthesis and role in inflammation. Specifically, lipids derived from AA (prostanoids, leukotrienes, 5-oxo-6,8,11,14-eicosatetraenoic acid, lipoxins, and epoxyeicosatrienoic acids), EPA (E-series resolvins), and DHA (D-series resolvins, protectins, and maresins) will be discussed herein.

Since 2008, the Global North universities and the rural district of Chilanga, Kasungu in Malawi, have endeavored to create a dialogic, inclusive, and reciprocal knowledge-transfer project. Numerous years of consultation with community members resulted in the creation of Transformative Praxis: Malawi, a project dedicated to bettering human conditions in one of the most impoverished areas of the world. Through participatory action research (PAR), the Malawian community strongly indicated the need to foster critical thinking, creativity, and social entrepreneurship in the areas of Education, Health, and Development. Although local women were prominent in all stakeholder meetings, a growing suspicion emerged that the inclusive intent of our research-based work was actually supporting existing male-oriented power structures, which exist despite ongoing assurances of the active participation of women in decision-making, and the purported matrilineal societal nature of Malawi. Through a progressive series of critical incidents connected to literature on PAR and women in impoverished communities, this chapter chronicles the manner in which local Chilanga women unexpectedly and unconventionally solidified their participation and authentic leadership in a Global North and South initiative based in Malawi.

Garden/ /Suburbia is an mp3-led sound and live performance walk conceived by Melanie Bennett with the collaboration of Hartley Jafine, Aaron Collier, and Andy Houston. A partly site-specific/partly ethnographic performance walk, it took place in and around the north Toronto neighbourhood of Lawrence Park in April 2010 as a workshop and then again in June 2010 for the Performance Studies International conference. The event was a research-led project that combined strategies of auto-ethnography, site-specificity, and participatory practices as an attempt to create a performance that was reflexive and intersubjective. This article will describe how auto-ethnography was used in Garden/ /Suburbia to generate alternative fictions to the uncontested histories and ‘realities’ embedded into Lawrence Park's discourse.

Legion of Memory is a site-specific performance co-created by Melanie Bennett and Andrew Houston, which was staged in an abandoned legion hall in downtown Kitchener, Ontario. Launched in June 2006 and remounted in April 2007, Legion of Memory attempts to animate the cultural displacement of the war veteran and refugee, while also exploring issues surrounding war memorials in Canada today. Resume Legion of Memory est un spectacle cree par Melanie Bennett et Andrew Houston dans une filiale abandonnee de la Legion, au centre-ville de Kitchener, en Ontario. Presente pour la premiere fois en juin 2006 et repris en avril 2007, ce spectacle localise cherche a illustrer le deplacement que vivent sur le plan culturel les anciens combattants et les refugies de guerre tout en explorant les enjeux actuels autour des monuments de guerre au Canada.

Audience enters through the front door of the old legion hall at 48 Ontario Street North in Kitchener, Ontario. In the office just inside the building, a video is playing on an old TV.While the film is playing, a REFUGEE is in the chapel adjacent to the office. She is dressed in tights and a black t-shirt that reads, “You know you’re Serbian when…,” and sitting in a chair surrounded by lit tea lights. A smashed photo of a Serbian family hangs behind her with a spotlight on it.A suitcase filled with dolls is lying open on the floor.A wind-up lullaby is playing. She is performing a series of physical gestures that emulate waiting, thinking, and expecting. She then picks up one of the candles, holding it in the palms of her hands with outstretched arms. As a symbol of reverence, she performs three gestures with the candle.First, she holds the candle to the right towards the photograph of her family to show reverence towards family. She then turns the candle to the left towards a blank wall to show reverence for loss. Finally, she moves the candle in front of her towards the spectators as an act of summoning.