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The University of Manitoba’s science librarians developed a three-credit, second-year course entitled “Information Skills for the Sciences” that was delivered for the first time in the fall of 2020. The culminating project of the course was a scientific poster session where students shared their research project as a poster presentation with their instructors and classmates. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the course was moved to online synchronous delivery and all assignments needed to be adapted for the online format. We designed a virtual poster session simulating an in-person event, hosting the poster session on Zoom for a class of twenty students using breakout rooms to separate presentations. Our poster details the methods used to deliver an online in-class poster session in an undergraduate setting with visualizations to illustrate the experience. Despite the conditions of remote learning, the poster presentation session allowed students to engage meaningfully with the research of their classmates demonstrating that an exciting end-of-semester event like an in-person poster session was possible in an online environment. We discuss the challenges we encountered creating the poster session as well as our reflections on what worked and what might be improved in the future.

Despite ongoing relationship building efforts at the community level, Indigenous and immigrant and refugee newcomer communities in Canada continue to experience a fractured relationship characterized by misperceptions, misunderstandings and tension. One of the predominant reasons for this ongoing fractured relationship is the lack of community-driven, decolonial information that each community receives about the other. This project sought to respond to this reality, by exploring the experience of an online relationship building Talking Circle and video-making process, where Indigenous and newcomer youth reflected on their identities as newcomer or Indigenous peoples and the possibilities for transformed relationships between both communities. The video that was created then went on to be shared with Indigenous and newcomer serving organizations within Winnipeg and was posted free online, becoming a potential community-driven, decolonial relationship building resource for community members to access. This project was guided by an Indigenous research paradigm, as well as the visiting way, storytelling and arts-based methodologies. Overall, this project found an imbalance in perceptions between both communities, alongside relationship building possibilities within increasing opportunities for community-driven, decolonial information to be transferred, shared minority experiences and cultural strengths, and the need for both formal and informal relationship building opportunities. Several key implications for social work practice are discussed and recommendations for bridging relations between Indigenous and newcomer communities are proposed.

La pandemia en el contexto de una crisis cultural ¿que reto teológico?. Panel"Theology and the global crisis caused by COVID-19": Forum mondial théologie et libération. Evénement sur Zoom, Montréal, Canada

The Covid-19 Pandemic has highlighted how important the healthcare sector is as critical infrastructure. It has also revealed how vulnerable the healthcare critical infrastructure is to malicious cyber operations. The number of cyber operations against the healthcare sector has increased substantially since the onset of the pandemic, seemingly unregulated by international law, particularly jus ad bellum. This paper argues that cyber operations that target or intend to target healthcare critical infrastructure should be treated as a use of force and armed attack because any intentional disruption to business continuity can and will cause physical harm and potential loss of life. Using the 2017 WannaCry Ransomware attack on the United Kingdom as a case study, this paper analyzes four approaches to classifying a cyber operation as a use of force and armed attack. The first approach is the Instrument Based Approach, which emphasizes a textual reading of the United Nations Charter. The second approach is the Strict Liability Approach, which treats all cyber operations against critical infrastructure as an armed attack. Third, the Effects Based Approach endorsed by the Tallinn Manual 2.0 on the International Law Applicable to Cyberspace, which emphasizes the scale and effect of a cyber operation. Fourth, the Cyber Physical System Approach, which emphasizes the intent of the attack. Finding these approaches insufficient, this paper advocates for a Healthcare Based Approach which would consider any cyber operation rising above the level of espionage on healthcare critical infrastructure as an armed attack.

Thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Honour’s Psychology, B.A.

L’accessibilité des sites Web des bibliothèques universitaires est devenue de plus en plus importante à mesure que ceux-ci ont occupé davantage de place pour les communautés d’usagères et d’usagers. La pandémie de COVID-19 a permis de comprendre le caractère essentiel de l’accessibilité en ligne, puisque les contacts numériques sont devenus les seuls possibles pendant un temps. Malgré l’instauration de politiques dans les institutions et aux différents paliers de gouvernements, les recherches précédentes démontrent que les lacunes à ce niveau sont grandes. Ce travail, réalisé pendant le premier confinement au Canada, évalue l’accessibilité des sites Web des bibliothèques des 15 universités canadiennes les plus importantes en recherche (U15) grâce à une grille d’évaluation conçue à partir de la revue de littérature. Un système de pointage permet de réaliser que les bibliothèques dont les institutions ont des politiques d’accessibilité en ligne ont des sites Web répondant mieux aux critères d’accessibilité que les autres. Même s’il reste du travail à faire pour effacer les obstacles en ligne, l’augmentation du nombre de politiques institutionnelles à ce sujet semble démontrer que les bibliothèques universitaires sont sur la bonne voie pour améliorer l’accessibilité de leur site Web. Travail réalisé à l’EBSI, Université de Montréal, sous la direction de M. Jean-Sébastien Sauvé dans le cadre du cours SCI6772 - Séminaire : bibliothèques de recherche, à l'hiver 2020.

Background and aims: Since mid-March 2020, over 3 billion people have been confined as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Problematic eating behaviors are likely to be impacted by the pandemic through multiple pathways. This study examined the relationships between stress related to lockdown measures and binge eating and dietary restriction in a population of French students during the first week of confinement. Methods: A sample of undergraduate students (N 5 5,738) completed an online questionnaire 7 days after lockdown measures were introduced. The survey comprised variables related to lockdown measures and the COVID-19-pandemic, mood, stress, body image, binge eating and dietary restriction during the past 7 days, as well as intent to binge eat and restrict in the following 15 days. Results: Stress related to the lockdown was associated with greater likelihood of binge eating and dietary restriction over the past week and intentions to binge eat and restrict over the next 15 days. Greater exposure to COVID-19-related media was associated with increased eating restriction over the past week. Binge eating and restriction (past and intentions) were associated with established risk factors, including female gender, low impulse regulation, high body dissatisfaction, and having a concurrent probable eating disorder. Discussion and conclusion: The higher the stress related to the first week of confinement, the higher the risk of problematic eating behaviors among students, particularly those characterized by eating-related concerns. Screening for risk factors and providing targeted interventions might help decrease problematic eating behaviors among those who are most vulnerable.

The estimation of multinomial cell probabilities is a challenging problem for sparse multinomial data, where many cells have small and/or zero counts. Borrowing information from other multinomial populations is an approach that allows the derivation of improved estimators, and in particular of estimators that can handle the sparsity. We develop three methodologies which use different type of borrowing techniques for sparse multinomial data to improve the estimation of cell probabilities. First, we propose a semi-parametric Bayesian approach that uses the Dirichlet process to borrow information from other multinomial populations using a natural clustering mechanism. Secondly, we use a weighted likelihood approach that borrows information across similar populations. The likelihood weights for the populations are calculated based on the similarity with the target population. The resulting estimator based on the weighted likelihood approach is a James-Stein type shrinkage estimator. Finally, a Bayesian approach using the smoothed Dirichlet distribution is developed. Specifically, using this family of prior distributions, we develop a different type of scaled shrinkage estimator that allows simultaneous inference for many multinomial populations and the sharing of relevant information between those populations, and across cell categories to provide improved inference under sparsity. The proposed methods are applied to the analysis of T20I cricket bowlers data, of batting metrics in major league baseball, and of the age distribution of early cases of COVID-19 across Canada.

Objectives: To determine whether single use Transbond Plus™ self-etching primer (SEP) (3M Unitek, Monrovia, Calif) in vitro shear bond strength (SBS) will be affected if used multiple times over a prolonged period, for cost-effectiveness. Materials and Methods: Transbond ™ Plus SEP was used to bond brackets to 120 extracted human teeth at three different time points after opening the SEP package: immediately- (as recommended by manufacturer), 4 hours-, and 24 hours after opening. Samples were debonded with a universal testing machine after 24 hours to assess short term SBS, and after 2 months to assess bond maturation. Results: No statistically significant difference in SBS was found in the 24-hour debond group between the different time points of package opening, but there was a significant statistical difference for the 2-month debond group (p<0.05), which also showed an increased coefficient of variation range. SBS matured from the 24-hour debond group to the 2-month debond group but decreased or stayed the same when manufacturer guidelines were not followed. Conclusions: Short term SBS is not affected when using an opened SEP package multiple times after 24 hours, but more long term SBS is affected, and shows more variable and inconsistent values. However, no group’s minimum value decreased below the “clinically acceptable” standard of 6-8 MPa for in vitro SBS testing, suggesting a more cost-effective bonding protocol might be possible with Transbond ™ Plus SEP. It remains vital to pumice teeth before bonding with a SEP during the Covid-19 pandemic, even though pumicing is considered an aerosol generating procedure.