January 2023: Volume 7 Issue 3

Research about early- and mid-childhood factors that lead to criminality has been studied across many countries and demographics. However, the rare occurrence of a Canadian woman participating in a rape and murder of a child has not been explored. This article will address the 2009 kidnapping and murder of eight-year-old Victoria Elizabeth Stafford, committed by Terri-Lynne McClintic and Michael Rafferty, as well as a discussion around the nonconformist perspective on human nature and social control theory and a psychological discussion around the formative years of McClintic’s youth. Within this paper, McClintic’s psychology will be explored from a nonconformist perspective, where it is shown that she lacks the social controls to restrain her from committing crimes. Specifically, early- and midchildhood factors offer insight into McClintic’s antisocial and deadly behaviour. The peer rejection by those at the many schools McClintic attended and early exposure to substance abuse by her adoptive mother, Carol McClintic, led to a higher likelihood of criminal and antisocial behaviour, as well as mood and anxiety disorders. While the exact factors that caused Terri-Lynne McClintic to murder Stafford remain speculative, understanding her childhood risk factors and their psychological effects offers insight into a unique and rare occurrence of the rape and murder of Victoria Elizabeth Stafford by Terri-Lynne McClintic and Michael Rafferty.

Pain prevention and comfort positioning are vital components of pediatric care, as they can help improve the experience of pediatric patients undergoing painful and/or traumatic medical procedures. A search of the literature was conducted for the purpose of assessing current best practice for comfort positioning and pain prevention in pediatric care facilities. Databases used in the search included CINAHL, US National Library of Medicine, National Institute of Health, and PubMed. The synthesis of findings from this search suggested a reaffirmation of the benefits of comfort positioning. It also suggests that pain prevention in pediatrics is extremely vital, as painful procedures without adequate comfort measures have been connected to the development of a fear of treatments and subsequently, avoidance of medical care. Outpatient clinics were observed for the purpose of assessing current practices to further assess healthcare workers’ current knowledge of comfort positioning and determine next steps to further enhance pain prevention methods in pediatric care through practice standards. The observational findings highlight that there is an informal standard for comfort positioning within this hospital, despite no formal policy or practice guideline. It was observed that comfort positioning seems to be less effective for older children. Instead, they tend to prefer to be thoroughly educated on the procedure with open and honest communication to implement a feeling of having control. This suggests that comfort measures should expand beyond physical positioning, and instead expand into the way that healthcare professionals approach and speak about the procedures. These themes highlight a need to implement a set of guidelines for comfort positioning and pain prevention in pediatric facilities. Formal guidelines would encourage standardized and evidence-informed practice for pain management strategies.

Applying to medical schools in North America is a highly competitive and complex process which requires years of preparation. With the widespread implementation of lockdowns and restrictions to curb the spread of COVID-19, medical school aspirants faced additional hardships applying to medical schools in North America during the pandemic. This review examines the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on North American medical school aspirants based on literature published before July 2021. Medical school applicants in North America faced disruption to elements of the medical school application, including the Medical College Admission Test (MCAT), non-academic activities, and the diminished ability for physical interaction and attendance of classes. Multiple aspects of the medical school application process have been drastically impacted and augmented by an increase in financial stress, with a ripple effect on mental health in the student population. These effects are being addressed by eliminating MCAT rescheduling and cancellation costs, offering virtual volunteering opportunities, holistically evaluating medical school applicants, and raising awareness about mental health services.

Leptin and estrogen are key hormones in regulating feeding, metabolic health, and body weight. In this review, we explore how the interaction between leptin and estrogen may modulate body weight through changes in metabolism and feeding behaviour. A significant proportion of arcuate neurons co-express receptors for leptin and estrogen, providing ample opportunity for signal crosstalk to occur in the brain. We conducted a narrative literature review and identified the major mechanisms through which leptin and estrogen interact, with a focus on signal transduction pathways. G-protein coupled receptor 30 (GPR30) is a good candidate for an inter-pathway connection because it interacts with estrogen receptors and affects the activation of signal transducer and activator of transcription (STAT3), an important downstream factor in both estrogen and leptin signaling pathways in the hypothalamus. Evidence suggests that estrogen and leptin receptors both utilize hypothalamic STAT3-activating pathways to modulate appetite and lipid storage, and that these pathways may depend on one another for adequate activation. While there are some physiological results to support this point of connection, the cellular and biochemical details remain unclear. Better understanding how leptin and estrogen interact will better inform the treatment of metabolic disorders, including type 2 diabetes, obesity, and post-menopausal weight gain.

All-you-can-eat buffet is a long-standing favourite for gourmands and restaurateurs. In behavioural economics, literature shows mixed findings in how price interacts with customers’ perceived food quality and consumption. Some research found that lower payment led to higher food consumption and worse ratings, while others found that this phenomenon to be associated with higher payment. This inconsistency may be due to the difference of experimental design; namely, whether participants were aware that different prices are available to choose from. If individuals can choose between two sets of two different prices, individuals who choose the cheaper set may consider their meal more cost-effective and will not push themselves to consume more, only to make up for the price. This study proposal aims to use Korean BBQ buffet to understand how the presence of choice impacts consumers’ behaviour. We hypothesize that individuals in both the standard and the premium set condition will show similar results in all three variables — number of dishes ordered, level of perceived food quality, and level of satisfaction in dining experiences — when a choice is given. Conversely, when individuals do not have a choice, those who are assigned with the standard set will consume more food and give more negative ratings than those assigned to the premium set. If this hypothesis is confirmed, results will have strong implications for food industries and government policymakers. For businesses, this implies that choice architecture can nudge consumers to make decisions that both lower operation costs and maintain customer satisfaction. For public welfare, the presence of choice can encourage an autonomous attitude in consuming healthy food.

Human-caused pollutants are continuing to show their impacts on the environment. For decades, scientists have been studying these effects and what they mean for life on Earth. Such effects on nature include increased species extinction rates and climate change. However, these two elements are interconnected, and as a result, an interdisciplinary approach to conservation is necessary to solve these problems. Coral conservation is a prominent issue in both the media and the lab. Thus, using coral to explore an interdisciplinary approach allows scientists and the public to see what each discipline can bring to the table in determining how to effectively proceed in conservation efforts. Though generally there are a continually increasing number of scientific disciplines, this article will focus on marine biology, cell biology, ecology, physics, chemistry, conservation, environmental science, and climate science.

The media have often portrayed prisons and prisoners in a distorted manner. Prisoners are often portrayed as more dangerous and violent than they typically are, and prisons as necessary institutions that function effectively. Using a qualitative content analysis of 84 newspaper articles published online by Canadian news outlets, this study explores how the news media portrayed Correctional Service Canada (CSC) federal penitentiaries and prisoners detained in these institutions during the first 11-months of the COVID-19 pandemic. The results reveal that the media portrayed prisoners as human beings that are entitled to exercise their rights until they were prioritized for vaccinations, at which point there was a shift towards their portrayal as an undeserving dangerous underclass. CSC was portrayed as having failed to address and protect prisoners’ needs and rights during the pandemic. The media ultimately portrayed federal imprisonment as a system that is broken and incarceration as an ineffective response to criminal behaviour. The implications of these findings – including the need for a “radical rethink” of federal imprisonment – and suggestions for future research are discussed.