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Researcher investigates safety of vaping ingredients UWindsor professor Drew Marquardt says his research will help pinpoint which ingredients found in vapes and e-cigarettes are contributing to severe lung illness in users. His project “Vaping-Associated Lung Injury: Insight into Mechanisms of Action” received $15,000 as part of the Breathing as One Young Investigators Research Award, a Canadian Lung Association program led by the Lung Health Foundation. “Lung injury from vaping was established as an epidemic mere months before the COVID pandemic struck and since then has largely flown under the radar,” says Dr. Marquardt, assistant professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, cross-appointed to the Department of Physics. “Yet there’s been a surge in young people aged 18 to 30 who are vaping and a large number of them are getting sick, so we are interested in how ingredients like Vitamin E acetate interact with the lungs, contributing to this dangerous alveolar, or lung, injury.” Marquardt and his team are investigating…
Report details quarterly successes of WE-Spark Health Institute WE-Spark Health Institute has released its quarterly report detailing achievements along key metrics from May to July 2021. WE-Spark Health Institute has released its quarterly report detailing achievements along key metrics from May to July 2021. Highlights include: increased membership by 54 new members for a total of 731; awarded 14 grants totaling $287,000; launched a network with 20 active volunteers logging 600+ hours; expanded its health resource hub to include transgender and gender diverse, and mental health resources; piloted an app for researchers to connect using a mobile device; hosted five events, including Think Tanks and Knowledge Translation workshops; and created a medical research associate position formalizing how Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry – Windsor Campus medical students integrate with the local research community. WE-Spark Health Institute is supported by the University of Windsor, Hôtel-Dieu Grace Healthcare, Windsor Regional Hospital, and St.…
Windsor study finds irritability, anxiety on the rise in kids during pandemic The newly-published study from the WE-SPARK Health Institute — a partnership between local hospitals, St. Clair College and the University of Windsor — measured the mental health impact of the pandemic on 190 families with kids aged eight to 13 in Windsor and Essex. It found that 51 per cent of kids reported clinically significant irritability, as many as 34 per cent reported anxiety and 25 per cent reported clinically significant depression. “There was a lot of speculation at the (start of the pandemic) that the pandemic reflected a trauma or loss because childrenwere missing out on activities,” said Dr. Lance Rappaport, lead investigator on the study. “My goal was to shed light on and identify how is this affecting kids and what are they struggling with so we can better help them and really use that information and science to guide how we help them recover.” Dr. Lance Rappaport, the lead investigator on a new Windsor-based study that found irritability, anxiety and depression…
Pandemic making broad impact on children’s mental health, researchers find Professor Lance Rappaport led one of Canada's first studies on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the mental health of children. Irritability, anxiety, and depression are among the symptoms reported by children in a new study that documents the pervasive impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on children’s mental health. Led by UWindsor psychology professor Lance Rappaport, a team of researchers surveyed children aged 8 to 13 from 190 families in the Windsor-Essex region and their parents or guardians. “The first goal was to establish a baseline to measure the acute effect of the pandemic,” said Dr. Rappaport, director of the Development and Etiology of Anxiety and Related conditions (DEAR) Lab. “We then focused on establishing whether the impact on children was limited to PTSD-related symptoms consistent with trauma or included broader impacts consistent with chronic stress,” he said. “Understanding the exact effect of the pandemic allows us to now design new treatments…
Researcher to explore issues of LGBTQ+ students in science and tech Michael Godfrey has received a postdoctoral fellowship to explore improving equity, diversity, and inclusion within science. Michael Godfrey (BHK 2014) has secured the first-ever Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) postdoctoral fellowship in the UWindsor Faculty of Science with his application: “Campus climate and persistence of LGBTQ+ students in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.” Dr. Godfrey says he was hopeful when he applied, but knew the awards are extremely competitive. He enjoyed an “extraordinary feeling” when he received the second-highest score in his disciplinary committee. “This kind of fellowship really recognizes your capability as a scholar and the importance of your program of research at the federal level,” he says. This is only the second SSHRC Postdoctoral Fellowship to be awarded to a UWindsor researcher. The fellowship supports the most promising Canadian new scholars by assisting them in establishing a research…
Contest offering prizes for joining vaccine campaign Graduate Student Society president Adam Pillon gets in the ring in the fight against COVID-19. UWindsor students, staff, and faculty will have a chance to win a share of 55 prizes valued at more than $17,400 through a contest encouraging others to do their part to K.O. COVID by getting the COVID vaccine. The Get Social about the Jab to Win! contest opens at 1 p.m. Monday, Aug. 9, and offers prizes that include tuition vouchers, Amazon gift cards, and an Apple laptop or iPad Air tablet computer. To enter weekly draws, “like” a post on the UWindsor Facebook or Instagram accounts with the #TakeAJabUWindsor or #KOCOVID hashtag, explaining why you decided to get the COVID-19 vaccine. Larger prizes are available for sharing a photo, video, or text message supporting the #TakeaJab campaign. Find details, including contest rules and eligibility, an entry form, and a calendar of prize draws, on the “Get Social about the Jab to Win” website. Courtesy: https://www.uwindsor.ca/dailynews/2021-08-06/contest-offering-prizes-joining-vaccine-campaign
Study finds pandemic driving nurses out of the profession In follow-up interviews as a part of a study into the pandemic’s effects on local nurses working on both sides of the border, many who haven’t already left the profession say they are looking for a way out. Nurses are exhausted. Follow-up interviews that were part of a University of Windsor study into the pandemic’s effect on local nurses has found many of them have left the profession in the past year, while others said they were counting down the days to retirement. “Most nurses we spoke to were tired, depressed, angry, and looking to get out, if they hadn't left already,” said UWindsor researcher Dana Ménard, one of four UWindsor faculty members conducting the study. “They are burnt out and beaten down.” The research project began in 2020 with interviews of 36 registered nurses working in Windsor or Michigan. The research team of psychology professors Dr. Ménard and Kendall Soucie and nursing professors Jody Ralph and Laurie Freeman re-interviewed 19 of the nurses…
UWindsor study shows nurses ae feeling 'disposable' and 'burned out' Photo: (monkeybusinessimages / iStock) A study on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has had on local nurses and their profession shows that many have left their jobs and others are counting down the days to retirement. Research began in 2020, when a team of UWindsor researchers interviewed 36 registered nurses working in Windsor or Michigan. Head researcher Dr. Dana Menard says the pandemic was relatively new and there was still optimism after the first round of interviews. The latest findings come from 19 interviews one year later. She says they paint a grim picture. "Our participants were almost universally exhausted, depressed, burned out, frustrated," she says. "They felt disposable, expendable and a lot of them were really expressing these doubts of fears that things would ever get back to any semblance of normal." Menard says many nurses felt they could no longer spend adequate time with patients due to understaffing. "In some cases people told us that…
$287,000 Awarded for Local Health Research WE-SPARK Health Institute and its funding partners have awarded 14 research grants totaling $287,000 to tackle local health challenges. The grants provide funding to promote the development of early-stage, innovative health research and health education projects in Windsor-Essex and support other health research programs to increase their prospects for future funding. Projects include studies related to emerging topics in health, addressing gaps in healthcare needs, igniting new ideas, generating and disseminating knowledge, and sparking collaborations. The grants involve collaborators across WE-SPARK’s four partner institutions — Hôtel-Dieu Grace Healthcare, St. Clair College, the University of Windsor and Windsor Regional Hospital — along with numerous community members, students and volunteers across Windsor-Essex. “Grants are the fuel that allows researchers to put together a team, to move their idea forward and tackle the biggest health problems that impact society” said…
