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Category Archives: Epidemiology

It is Time to Put an End to the Daily Spectical of Political Theatre in Canada

“We have chosen to help the most vulnerable….”

This scripted line has been repeated by The Right Honourable Justin Trudeau, Prime Minister of Canada, almost every morning for how many weeks now?  I have lost count.

The most vulnerable, the most frail of the elderly, are now dying in their beds.  Not of age, not of COVID-19, of starvation.

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“No Canadian should need to go without food…”

By refusing to hear the pleas of business and press agents, Trudeau is ignoring another vulnerable sector of society.  Businesses.

By handing out money, freely, to workers.  By ignoring the needs of the employers (not the businesses, those are pieces of paper – the employers, the people who run the businesses) you are failing those vulnerable people whose payrolls keep this country running.  It is people who keep the payrolls happening; bi-weekly payroll after bi-weekly payroll.

By supporting only the workers you are almost guaranteeing that there will be little work to go back to.

By not supporting farming in a way that gets qualified people out working on farms, you, Trudeau, are leading us into what could be – famine.

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“The most important people in this country, right now, are the frontline workers!”

Doctors, nurses, paramedics, ambulance attendants, care aids and janitorial staff are important.  Are they more important than the chemists who put the drugs into their hands to administer to the sick?  Are they more important than the carpenters, brick layers, boilermakers, iron workers, fabricators, boat builders, payroll clerks, realtors, etc.?  Are front line workers more important than the kid at the drive thru window handing out a cup of coffee to a front line worker who just finished a shift?

The frontline workers are very important and need our support.  So is the chain of supply.  That has been broken.  The support that was there to keep hospitals, pharmacies and doctors offices running efficiently has been broken – by those who have taken command.

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“There is a $40,000 loan available to small businesses…”

But, only if there is a payroll.  There is always a way out for the government.  This is an empty promise.  Think about this one.  Where does money come from?  My second year economics professor has been telling every student that passes through his classes the answer to this one.  Simplified – money comes from debt.  More debt, more money…

The money isn’t going out to small businesses until they have built enough debt to sustain a handout.  This is a slippery slope that leads, most often, to mass inflation.

Why the need for a payroll?  I know so many people who have a business that has no employees and no payroll.  They earn enough to support themselves and then, at the end of the year, they pay their taxes.  There is no payroll.  There is no need for a payroll.

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Businesses are failing.  Not just small ones.  The Canada Pension Fund is about to be in serious trouble.  Canada is in trouble.

Canadians need leadership.

Canadians do not need any more of the political theatre that is currently being pumped out in the garden of a 22 room cottage.

 

 

Voices from the Past – Article Link to writings on Poverty, I wonder how much has changed in 15 years….

I am placing the link information for these articles here with the thought that easier access to free e-books such as this will encourage reading and open discussion.  This is also an open invitation for you to write a precis on this book (or, on any other article or book or section of such, that you find necessary or interesting)….

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e-Book:  Voices of the Poor:  Can Anyone Hear Us?  Voices From 47 Countries.

Author:  Deepa Narayan with Raj Patel, Kai Schaffi, Anne Rademacher, and Sarah Koch-Schulte.  pdf

Published in:  1999

This is a published study that was funded by the Poverty Group, PREM, World Bank.

My copy was downloaded in November, 2014.  I found it here

Click to access vol1.pdf

Find more of Deepa Narayan’s writing here  –  Publications Link

If the link does not work, please contact me and I will try to help you find a copy.

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Here are a couple more articles that I have found to be of interest in a “connections” sort of way.  I hope that you might find them interesting too.

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Article:  Causal Stories and the Formation of Policy Agendas.  pdf

Author:  Deborah A. Stone

Published in:  1989

Journal:  Political Science Quarterly, Vol. 104, No. 2 (Summer, 1989), pages 281-300.

My copy was downloaded in November, 2014.  I found it here http://www.wilf.org/Sapir/stonecausalstories.pdf

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Article:  Do the Weak Stand a Chance?  Distribution of Resources in a Competitive Environment.  pdf

Authors:  Judith Avrahami and Yaakov Kareev.

Published in:  2009

Journal:  Cognitive Science, Vol. 33, Issue 5, pages 940-950.

My copy was downloaded in November, 2014.  I found it here http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1111/%28ISSN%291551-6709/issues

Find more of Judith Avrahami’s writing here  –  Publications List

Find more of Yaakov Kareev’s writing here  –  Publications List

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If any of these links do not work, please contact me and I will try to help you find the article or book that you are looking for.

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If you find any broken links on this blog, please leave a comment or send me a note so that it can be repaired.  Thank  you….

Article Link: Evolution in Action by Richard E. Lenski, 2011

I am placing the link information for this article here with the thought that easier access to articles such as this will encourage reading and open discussion.  This is also an open invitation for you to write a precis on this article (or, any other article that you find necessary or interesting)….

Older articles such as this one can be used for comparison with the data in newer articles.

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Article:  Evolution in Action:  A 50,000-Generation Salute to Charles Darwin.

Authors:  Richard E. Lenski

Journal:  Microbe.  Vol. 6, No. 1, pages 30-33.

Published in:  2011

My copy was downloaded in November, 2014.  I found it here http://www.usc.edu/org/cosee-west/Nov30_2011/Evolution%20Lenski.pdf.  If the link does not work, please contact me and I will try to help you find a copy.

I think that this is an absolutely fascinating experiment.  The documentation is written in both scientific, you-need-to-know-the-vocabulary style papers as well as reader friendly (this paper!) style.

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Annotated List (with Links) of University Lab, Publications Lists – This is a Work in Progress…

This is a Work in Progress…

Searching is easy, until we can’t find something that we need….  This list might help.  It takes us to places that Google generally cannot get into unless you know very specific key words to use.  This is usually the entire title of the article!  In fact, if there is something on one of these list that you have trouble finding, try copying and pasting the ‘entire’ title into this search box.  If that doesn’t work, send me a note and I will try to help….

This will be a very long list and it will be added to whenever I find new and interesting lists to add to it!  If you know of a publication list that you would like to see added here, please let me know  —  this type of list can be really hard to find….

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Anthropology

Kwantlen Polytechnic University 

The Anthropology Faculty  –  Most of the instructors and professors in this department and are published.  Most have also provided at least a partial list of their writing and there is some very interesting writing here!

Anthropology Department Resource List  –  There are some amazing links here.  If you are looking for information on pretty much anything anthropology related, spend a few free clicks through this page.

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Biology

Michigan State University

Richard E. Lenski  –  The Experimental Evolution page is a very long list of some incredibly amazing work!  Track the progress of the 50,000 Generation Project by going back through time (and articles) to get real details and real information!

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Chemistry

Kwantlen Polytechnic University  –  There is a good list of web sites, databases and other university chemistry departments here.    I will be checking some of these links out soon.

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Classical Studies

University of Winnipeg

Classic Studies Faculty  –  Full and partial publication lists of faculty members.  I just found these lists and have not gone through them too thoroughly yet.

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Criminology

Kwantlen Polytechnic University  –  There is only one faculty showing off their writing skills here.  Greg Jenion.   However, the Resources page here is fairly well stocked with good links!

University of Winnipeg  –  Criminal Justice Department Resource List.  I have checked out a few of these links and, if you are willing to put in a few clicks, you may find some publications lists that are absolutely amazing!

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Ecology

University of British Columbia  –  The Hinch Lab is an incredible source of information on Wild Salmon!   The articles listed here are from 1986 to present and every article I have looked at is well written with an excellent reference list!

University of Winnipeg  – 

The Publications List at the Lingle Lab is a good source for interesting local information.

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Environmental Protection

Kwantlen Polytechnic University  –  A good starting place for information on protecting the environment and staying safe doing it!

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Gender Studies

University of Winnipeg  –  Most of the professors and instructors listed here have a biography which includes some very interesting publications lists.

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Geography

Kwantlen Polytechnic University  –  The Geography Department has a fair resources page.    Several of the links will take you to resources pages of larger universities.  I will be checking them out!

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History

University of Winnipeg  –  There are a couple of professors teaching Mennonite history here.  There are publications lists.

–  German-Canadian Studies.  This department has compiled an excellent list of articles and books.

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Mathematics

Kwantlen Polytechnic University  –  There are some sources here that you will find very helpful whether you are studying for exams or just trying to figure out the math that the local newspaper is using to convince you of something (well, maybe not…)

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Political Science

University of Winnipeg  –  The faculty list has a bio for every professor and many of the bios do include publication lists.

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Urban and Inner-City Studies

University of Winnipeg  –  This goes to the  faculty page for Urban and Inner-City Studies.  There are some well published professors here.

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Exploration Before Population – A Precis on a Hospital Microbiome Study Planning Session

I heard about the microbiome study and did a quick search, printed something out (these aren’t always easy to find) and added the article to my reading pile.  I don’t read at the computer.  I find that it is kind of like trying to read the writing on a light bulb – while the bulb is turned on….  My screen is turned down quite a bit but, that just delays the reading fatigue.  Hmmm…. maybe there is an article on this?

Anyways, the paper I printed turned out to be the minutes of a meeting on the planning of the hospital microbiome project at the University of Chicago Medical Center.  It is an interesting read!

 

The Article:

Smith, D., Alverdy, J., An, G., Coleman, M., Garcia-Houchins, S., Green, J., Keegan, K., Kelley, S.T., Kirkup, B.C., Kociolek, L., Levin, H., Landon, E., Olsiewski, P., Knight, R., Siegel, J., Weber, S., and Gilbert, J.  2013.  The Hospital Microbiome Project:  Meeting Report for the 1st Hospital Microbiome Project Workshop on Sampling Design and Building Science Measurements, Chicago, USA, June 7th-8th 2012.  Standards in Genomic Sciences  8(1), 112-117.  Published Online Apr 15, 2013.  doi:  10.4056/sigs.3717348

 

My Precis

This is a planning discussion for a study that will sample the environment of a hospital and its occupants, beginning before construction is complete to look at how hospital acquired infections are contracted and transmitted.

 

My Precis Expanded:

A lack of research into how hospital acquired infections are acquired and transmitted has prompted an investigation in a new hospital pavilion with the research scheduled to begin before the pavilion opens. When the building opens the building itself will then be exposed to health care workers, patients and visitors. This paper discusses how a systematic exploration, beginning with the architectural design and maintenance of the building and utilities could be used to track the progress of microbial community succession.

The planning meeting of this long-term research project included discussion on the architectural design and maintenance of the building and utilities as well as the materials and processes used and to be used. It was decided that two rooms were to be sampled daily and another 18 rooms on a weekly schedule and that the schedule would include the collecting of any “samples of interest.” The current tracking of staff between rooms and staff self-tracking in their usage of items such as glove boxes was added to the sampling schedules.

Another meeting will be held after the project has begun.

 

 

I found the original article here:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3739179/

If you have any trouble locating the article please contact me or, call your local college or university library for assistance.

 

There is a wonderful website here:  http://hospitalmicrobiome.com/