The lower quarter Y-Balance Test (YBT-LQ) is associated with injury risk; however, ankle range of motion impacts YBT-LQ. Arch height and foot sensation impact static balance, but these characteristics have not yet been evaluated relative to YBT-LQ. Determine if arch height index (AHI), forefoot sensation (SEN), and ankle dorsiflexion predict YBT-LQ composite score (CS). Descriptive cohort. Athletic training laboratory. Twenty general population (14 females and 6 males; mean [SD]: age 35 [18] y, weight 70.02 [16.76] kg, height 1.68 [0.12] m) participated in this study. AHI measurement system assessed arch height in 10% (AHI10) and 90% (AHI90) weight-bearing. Two-point discrim-a-gon discs assessed sensation (SEN) at the plantar great toe, third and fifth metatarsal heads. Biplane goniometer and weight-bearing lunge tests were used to measure static and weight-bearing dorsiflexion, respectively. The YBT-LQ assessed dynamic single-leg balance. For right-limb dynamic single-leg balance, AHI90 and SEN were included in the final sequential prediction equation; however, neither model significantly (P = .052 and .074) predicted variance in YBT-LQ CS. For left-limb dynamic single-leg balance, both SEN and weight-bearing lunge test were included in the final sequential prediction equation. The regression model (SEN and weight-bearing lunge test) significantly (P = .047) predicted 22% of the variance in YBT-LQ CS. This study demonstrates that foot characteristics may play a role in YBT-LQ CS. The authors did not assess limb dominance in this study; therefore, the authors are unable to determine which limb would be the stance versus kicking limb. However, altered SEN and weight-bearing dorsiflexion appear to be contributing factors to YBT-LQ CS.

One photo album and one scrapbook containing photographs, postcards, and travel manuscripts of a Massachusetts woman and her friends as they travelled to Ontario, New York, Maine, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, and Illinois from 1929 to 1934. The photo album and scrapbook document several separate trips, including two different visits to Niagara Falls.

Six order books. Four of these belong to the Queen’s Own Rifles (QOR). The remaining two belong to the 48th Highlanders of Canada.

How can parental leave design be more socially inclusive? Should all parents be entitled to parental benefits or only those parents who are eligible based on a particular level of labour market participation? To think through questions of social inclusion in parental leave policy design, particularly issues related to entitlements to benefits, I make three arguments. First, aiming to extend Dobrotić and Blum’s work on entitlements to parental benefits, I argue that ‘mixed systems’ that include both citizenship‐based and employment‐based benefits are just and socially inclusive approaches to parental leaves and citizenship. Second, to build a robust conceptual scaffolding for a ‘mixed’ benefits approach, I argue that that we need to attend to the histories and relationalities of the concepts and conceptual narratives that implicitly or explicitly inform parental leave policies and scholarship. Third, and more broadly, I argue that a metanarrative of care and work binaries underpins most scholarship and public and policy discourses on care work and paid work and on social policies, including parental leave policies. In this article, I outline revisioned conceptual narratives of care and work relationalities, arguing that they can begin to chip away at this metanarrative and that this kind of un‐thinking and rethinking can help us to envi‐ sion parental leave beyond employment policy—as care and work policy. Specifically, I focus on conceptual narratives that combine (1) care and work intra‐connections, (2) ethics of care and justice, and (3) ‘social care,’ ‘caring with,’ transforma‐ tive social protection, and social citizenship. Methodologically and epistemologically, this article is guided by my reading of Margaret Somers’ genealogical and relational approach to concepts, conceptual narratives, and metanarratives, and it is written in a Global North socio‐economic context marked by the COVID‐19 pandemic and 21st century neoliberalism.

Skeletal muscle is composed of fiber types that differ in mitochondrial content, antioxidant capacity, and susceptibility to apoptosis. Ceramides have been linked to oxidative stress-mediated apoptotic intracellular signalling and the enzyme neutral sphingomyelinase (nSMase) is, in part, responsible for generating these ceramides through the hydrolysis of sphingomyelin. Despite the role of ceramides in mediating apoptosis, there is a gap in the literature regarding nSMase in skeletal muscle mitochondria. This study aimed to characterize total nSMase activity and individual isoform expression in isolated subsarcolemmal (SS) mitochondria from soleus, diaphragm, plantaris, and extensor digitorum longus (EDL). Total nSMase activity did not differ between muscle types. nSMase2 content was detectable in all muscles and higher in EDL, soleus, and plantaris compared to diaphragm whereas nSMase3 was undetectable in all muscles. Finally, total nSMase activity positively correlated to nSMase2 protein content in soleus but not the other muscles.These findings suggest that nSMase associated with SS mitochondria may play a role in intracellular signalling processes involving ceramides in skeletal muscle and nSMase2 may be the key isoform, specifically in slow twitch muscle like soleus. Further studies are needed to fully elucidate the specific contribution of nSMase, along with the role of the various isoforms and mitochondrial subpopulation in generating mitochondrial ceramides in skeletal muscle, and its potential effects on mediating apoptosis.

In this third episode, I am pleased to present Sound Artist and Researcher Kevin Curtis-Norcross. Over the course of his career, he has captured forest ecologies in 18 countries over the past 40 years. From Sweden to central and South America and across Canada, Kevin has documented various ecosystems that draw our attention to the real wonders of the world - those being the life forces of insects, animals and plants that populate and continue to negotiate the changing biodiversity in the Anthropocene. Kevin’s recordings are usually done in an acoustically uncontrolled environment (traditionally called the “field”) hence field recording, which presents various challenges even to professional sound artists. In the work of Kevin Curtis-Norcross we get a glimpse of how biodiverse our planet really is because we are following the narrative of the species that make up our surroundings. His acoustic ecology recordings also act as a record of the vanishing sonic environments that have flourished over millennia to be captured in the here and now.

The purpose of this paper is to gain an in-depth understanding of beliefs, attitudes, and reasons for decision making about colorectal cancer (CRC) screening among South Asian (SA) immigrants. Design/methodology/approach – Six focus groups conducted in English, Punjabi, and Urdu were held with 42 SA immigrants, 50-74 years old and at average risk for CRC, from November 2012 to May 2013. All focus group discussions were audio-taped and transcribed verbatim. Data analysis used an inductive and systematic approach employing constant comparison techniques. Findings – Three dominant themes emerged. Beliefs and attitudes towards cancer and screening represented SA immigrant’s perceptions that early detection was beneficial; screening was not necessary in the absence of symptoms; cancer was scary; and the loss of previously established bowel practices upon immigration as potential risks for CRC. Knowledge and awareness focused on unscreened participants’ cancer stories; screened participants’ knowledge of CRC, risk factors, and screening; experiential learning from focus groups; and screened participants’ strategies to promote screening. Support and accessibility concentrated on physician support and responsibility to provide information, explanation, and recommend screening to facilitate access. Originality/value – Findings provide novel insights on socio-cultural context, beliefs, and barriers to CRC screening among SA immigrants. Culturally appropriate community-based strategies included story-telling, the use of social networks, and greater physician engagement. Enhancing collaborative partnerships with physicians and public health may minimize structural barriers and reduce health disparities. Future research could explore effectiveness of outreach strategies including these collaborations.

I study the relationship between CEO incentive compensation and firm performance in the presence of CEO dominance to examine how incentive compensation improves firm performance by reducing agency conflicts between shareholders and managers. I estimate pay-performance sensitivity (PPS) as a measure of CEO incentive compensation and the CEO pay slice (CPS) as a measure of CEO dominance. Controlling for standard control variables, I conduct multiple OLS regressions and find that at the high level of CPS, PPS improves firm performance, but at the low level of CPS, impact of PPS diminishes. This shows that determining stand-alone associations of PPS or CPS to firm value—a popular practice in the literature—might not be adequate because of an unexplored interaction effect between executive incentive and executive dominance. To address the potential endogeneity issues, I conduct robustness check by employing instrumental variables with a two-stage least square (2SLS) estimation procedure. As an additional robustness check, I account for the year effect and confirm that the results still stand to the same level of significance.

Investigation of Catharanthus roseus monoterpenoid indole alkaloid (MIA) biosynthesis and accumulation has been important in elucidating the formation of the antineoplastic drugs, vinblastine and vincristine. These pharmaceuticals are formed by the condensation of the MIAs catharanthine and vindoline, which accumulate in C. roseus leaves. While we had completed and expressed the seven-step pathway from the aspidosperma-type MIA (-)-tabersonine to vindoline in yeast, little was known about the reactions involved in the metabolism of aspidosperma-type MIAs in roots. C. roseus roots convert (-)-tabersonine to lochnericine, the precursor for a major root alkaloid hörhammericine, and the reasons for the production of different aspidosperma MIAs in above and below ground plant organs is unknown. The molecular and biochemical characterization of minovincinine-19-O-acetyltransferase (MAT), tabersonine-19-hydroxylase (T19H), tabersonine-6,7-epoxidase (TEX1/2), and tabersonine 19-O-acetyltransferase (TAT) suggests that biosynthesis of hörhammericine and its derivative, 19-O-acetyl-hörhammericine, involves an ordered series of reactions. Bioinformatic analysis led to the identification of a root specific homolog of tabersonine-3-oxygenase (T3O), a cytochrome P450 (P450) involved in the formation of tabersonine 2,3-epoxides, as part of the vindoline pathway in leaves. Characterization of the T3O-homolog revealed that it converts (+)-vincadifformine to its 19-hydroxyderivative, (+)-minovincinine, and it was named (+)-vincadifformine 19-hydroxylase (V19H). V19H did not accept (-)-tabersonine or tabersonine-derived (-)-vincadifformine. T19H, another root-specific P450, hydroxylates (-)-tabersonine and its derivatives, including (-)-vincadifformine, to their respective 19-hydroxyderivatives, but does not accept (+)-vincadifformine. TAT will only acetylate the (-)-tabersonine derivatives, whereas MAT only turns over the (+)-vincadifformine derivative to form (+)-echitovenine. This shows that two distinct aspidosperma pathways exist in C. roseus since endogenous vincadifformine must be the (+)-enantiomer instead of the tabersonine derived (-)-vincadifformine. Modelling studies revealed that V19H activity is competitively inhibited by (-)-vincadifformine, suggesting that the (-)-aspidosperma backbone could still be incorporated into the binding site, albeit without hydroxylation. Models of T3O and T19H were generated to compare their binding pockets with that of V19H, and there were four conserved residues in T3O and T19H that were missing in V19H. Using site-directed mutagenesis (SDM) of V19H at those four residues, the binding pocket became more T3O-like, and V19H gained T3O-like activity without the loss of V19H activity.

In this first episode, I present Artist and Researcher David Bobier. David has worked in the field of disability art for decades. As a hard-of-hearing and (dis)abled media artist, his creative practice is centred on researching and expanding vibrotactile technology as a creative medium. In 2014 he founded VibraFusion Lab (now renamed Vibrafusion Lab Collective - VFLC) that aims to provide access to inclusive technologies for supporting greater accessibility in the arts. In this podcast, David speaks about his own experiences with (dis)abilities and foregrounds some of the organizations and people he has worked with along the way.