Karen Brebner(Dean of Arts)Bobbi Morrison(Dean of Business, acting)St. Francis Xavier University is a public undergraduate liberal arts university located in Antigonish, Nova Scotia, Canada. It is a member of the Maple League, a group of primarily undergraduate universities in Eastern Canada..
Knowing how to create inclusive business schools is crucial for the development of leaders navigating the workforce. This research examines co-curricular First-Year Experience (FYE) programming as an approach to supporting student integration, learning, and experiences. Using a quasi-experimental design, two studies examined academic performance and perceived transition success, belonging, self-efficacy, outcome expectations, and time management behaviours across in-person and online learning contexts. In Study 1, in-person students demonstrated higher academic performance and perceived transition success than online students. At the end of the semester, online and in-person students were comparable in outcome expectations, university belonging, self-efficacy, and time management. General belonging was lower among online students across the two measurement occasions however, this difference was already present at baseline and did not change significantly over time. General belonging, university belonging, self-efficacy, and time management were positively associated with perceived transition success, whereas outcome expectations were not a significant unique correlate. Study 2 identified exploratory within-format patterns across co-curricular in-person, bespoke in-person, and bespoke online course formats, with university belonging emerging as a significant correlate of perceived transition success across all three. Together, these findings position co-curricular and bespoke FYE approaches as promising frameworks for supporting inclusive business education while highlighting the central role of belonging in students’ transition experiences.
Winter poses harsh physiological challenges for insects living in temperate ponds due to the combination of low temperatures and reduced oxygen levels (hypoxia). Despite these stressors, water boatmen (Hesperocorixa sp.), backswimmers (Notonecta sp.) and diving beetles (Laccophilus maculosus) remain active year-round in eastern Nova Scotia, including in ice-covered ponds. However, the underlying mechanisms that allow pond insects to survive overwintering have not been widely studied. We hypothesized that cold and hypoxia tolerance would improve from September to March in these insects, with changes in whole-animal and biochemical correlates of tolerance to both stressors. We collected insects from the field and stocked them in outdoor freshwater mesocosms. Every two months, between September 2023 and April 2024, we characterized whole animal responses and biochemical changes. Whole insect cold tolerance assays indicated a trend of improved ability to sustain voluntary muscle control (critical thermal minimum) at lower temperatures in winter-collected insects and higher internal fluid freezing temperatures (supercooling points). There were no changes in whole animal correlates of hypoxia tolerance over time (surface respiration frequency, submersion and surface time). Concentrations of potential cryoprotectants like proline, myo-inositol and trehalose increased in multiple insect taxa during winter but were relatively low compared to terrestrial insect studies. As lactate dehydrogenase activity did not change, there is little evidence that the insects experienced functional hypoxia sufficient to induce anaerobic metabolism. Overall, this research has established a baseline cold and hypoxia tolerance dataset in understudied pond insects.
Under the digital wave, urban governance faces new opportunities and challenges. This study investigates the impact of digital governance on urban environmental quality among RCEP member countries through comprehensive theoretical and empirical analysis. Using a novel evaluation index system, environmental performance is measured by air quality index (AQI), carbon emission allowance (CEA), and renewable energy usage rate (REUR), with digital governance policies as the core variable. Employing difference-in-differences analysis with panel data from 2013 to 2023, this study finds that digital governance significantly improved air quality, while showing non-significant downward trends for carbon emission allowances and a significant positive effect on renewable energy usage rates in the baseline analysis, but a negative effect when trade openness is below the threshold. Mediation effect analysis reveals that industrial structure optimization and technological innovation serve as crucial transmission channels. Threshold effect analysis demonstrates that trade openness (threshold: 0.55) significantly moderates the digital governance-environment relationship, with differential policy effectiveness above and below this threshold. These findings provide targeted policy implications for developing economies: implementing differentiated strategies based on trade openness levels, strengthening regional cooperation mechanisms, and coordinating industrial transformation with innovation ecosystem development.
Research suggests that tyramine and octopamine have complementary distributions and roles in invertebrates somewhat analogous to those of norepinephrine and epinephrine in vertebrates. Interestingly, these groups of neurotransmitters/hormones share similar biosynthetic pathways that include the apparently homologous enzymes tyramine-β hydroxylase (TBH) and dopamine-β hydroxylase (DBH), which convert tyramine to octopamine and dopamine to norepinephrine, respectively. In this paper we report sequence alignments and Western blots that support the homology of TBH and DBH, as well as validate the use of an antibody raised against a DBH target sequence for immunohistochemical analysis of octopaminergic neural elements in molluscs. Accordingly, we found that DBH and octopamine immunoreactivities did indeed colocalize in several, but not all, neurons in the buccal, cerebral, and pedal ganglia of the pond snail Lymnaea stagnalis. Additional, apparently off-target labeling was also observed that warrants future examination. It was noteworthy, however, that no colocalization was found between DBH and tyrosine hydroxylase immunoreactivities, thus providing no evidence for norepinephrine synthesis within the central nervous system of this mollusc. These results expand on previous descriptions of neuroanatomical examinations of L. stagnalis and reinforce the argument that DBH and TBH are homologous proteins, thus supporting DBH/TBH as a target to investigate octopaminergic localization and function in molluscs and, more broadly, among invertebrates.
Social sanctioning for real or perceived sexual or sexualized behavior is commonly referred to as slut-shaming. While slut-shaming is common in school contexts, gaps remain in understanding both the individual and school-climate factors associated with slut-shaming and the consequences of slut-shaming for school outcomes like school attendance. Employing a sample of 1200 youth (ages 12-18; M = 14.69, SD = 1.87), this study linked slut-shaming victimization with (a) individual and school-level characteristics relating to bias-based victimization and safety for marginalized students, and (b) skipping school for safety concerns accounting for demographic factors, school context, and overlapping constructs (i.e. peer victimization, sexual harassment, and bias-based victimization). Findings suggest the need to address slut-shaming specifically in intervention and prevention approaches aimed at improving school climate.
