Tag: learning

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Extreme heat events are becoming more common, and communities are learning to adapt

Extreme heat events are becoming more common, and communities are learning to adapt

People who attended the Hinterland Music Festival this summer spent a day outside watching performances in 106-degree heat.

With climate change, extreme weather events are becoming increasingly common, and extreme heat is part of the package. Some people are coming up with creative — and sometimes expensive — ways to cope. IPR’s Lindsey Moon revisits the Hinterland music festival to find out about one of those.

We’ll also find out what extreme heat does to our bodies and what we can do to protect ourselves, plus the connection between climate change and public health and why extreme heat disproportionately affects some communities more than others.

Guests:

  • Joe Sciarrotta| co-owner of Hawkeye Medical Services
  • Michell Sciarrotta| co-owner of Hawkeye Medical Services
  • Mackenzie Udelhoven | nurse
  • Hans House | MD, MACM, FACEP, Professor, Department of Emergency Medicine
  • Lina Tucker Reinders| Executive Director Iowa Public Health Association
  • Tam Marcus | Linn County Sustainability Director

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Niagara schools taking nuanced approach to teaching current events

Niagara schools taking nuanced approach to teaching current events

The war in Ukraine, the COVID-19 pandemic, anti-Black racism, the impact of residential schools — there has been no shortage of concerns or topics of reflection in classrooms the past few years.

In response, Niagara school boards said they have taken a nuanced and thorough approach in bringing discussions about current events into the classroom.

That means relying on the relationships between faculty and students, and giving teachers tools and space to determine the best option to create a safe learning environment, said Michael St. John, superintendent of special education and mental health and well-being for District School Board of Niagara.

“The teachers in our system really pride themselves on, and take care in, knowing each of their students … knowing their learning, knowing their background, knowing their culture, knowing a great deal about their family,” said St. John.

“We don’t go in to teach about Ukraine, we respond to the needs of the students and the questions they may have, some of their natural curiosity and some of their musings and thinking.”

DSBN said its system works to create a foundation and a balance when it comes to world events such as Ukraine or Black Lives Matter, using resources from mental health and well-being teams in combination with resources that come from its curriculum department.

But it’s about more than academics, with teachers learning to how to identify struggling students, and how to appropriately respond.

It may involve a phone call home, or bringing in a counsellor, either for an individual student or for the entire classroom, to work on resiliency and social emotional learning, “which is a big part of our curriculum for kids and their mental health and well-being,” said St. John.

“It really is going to be a mixture and a balance and it’s pretty fluid with regards to what can, and is, being presented to acknowledge and honour all of the kids in the class.”

Jennifer Pellegrini, communications officer for Niagara Catholic District School Board, said students are encouraged to come forward about Ukraine or other global events, with conversations from a faith-based perspective, “focusing on the need for humanitarian aid, justice, compassion and empathy.”

“Questions and conversations may focus on the politics behind the war, and the history of the region. They may also focus on the importance of critical thinking about the information students are consuming online,” she said.

Conseil scolaire Viamonde, the public French school board, said in an email when it comes to the response to current world events, it relies solely on curriculum provided by the Ministry of Education.

DSBN student trustee Salony Sharma said the past few years have brought about “so much discussion and uncertainty” but has created a unique environment to learn and grow, especially as a high school student.

“It’s not like you’re reflecting on history, you’re reflecting on current events and news happening in the context of our own lives,” she said. “You’re starting to form your own perspectives and viewpoints on these things and be experiencing them in real time.”

Sharma, who is in her final year at Westlane Secondary in Niagara Falls, said those discussions have allowed students to use the classroom as “a hub of different perspectives.”

She credited teachers for that freedom, and for encouraging student-led conversations.

“That lets us have a very open conversation without the pressure of the teacher’s opinion or how that might be perceived as a student in their class,” she said.

“To have those conversations helped solidify my own voice … and make me think outside my own privilege or my own bubble.”

Jennifer McArthur, Niagara president of Elementary Ontario English Catholic Teachers’ Association, said teachers use their professional judgment and knowledge of their students to determine how and when to respond to current events.

Some engage students through visual arts by creating a lesson of painting sunflowers, while another may include the Ukraine war as a choice for a topic on written reflection.

But it goes beyond the age or grade of the student and their development, with teachers considering students’ social-emotional needs to make sure they “feel safe.” They also take into consideration the amount of understanding or exposure to current events students may have.

“A teacher with students who are refugees would consider previous and potential trauma that may affect how students react to the topic of Ukraine,” she said.

“If a child has friends or relatives directly affected, their understanding will be vastly different from a student living in a house where it is not being discussed.”

Ontario Secondary Schools Teachers’ Federation District 22 president Shannon Smith said teachers throughout the province engage students in ongoing conversations about current events as an opportunity to teach critical thinking.

“They engage students in ways that are pertinent to their subject area. Whether it’s learning traditional folk music from different countries or incorporating more inclusive novels in their English class, teachers present students with opportunities to expand their understanding of history and social justice,” said Smith.

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Learning and Healing Together events being held in Forest

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Three days of Learning and Healing Together events begin Friday evening with film screenings, speakers, food and vendors at the Kineto Theatre in Forest.

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Apr 21, 2022  •  11 minutes ago  •  2 minute read  •  Join the conversation

We are Still Here and Aftershock, documentaries by Sarnia filmmaker Dwayne Cloes, will be screened Friday evening at the Kineto Theatre in Forest as part of a weekend of Learning and Healing Together events.
We are Still Here and Aftershock, documentaries by Sarnia filmmaker Dwayne Cloes, will be screened Friday evening at the Kineto Theatre in Forest as part of a weekend of Learning and Healing Together events. Photo by File photo /Postmedia Network

Three days of Learning and Healing Together events begin Friday evening with film screenings, speakers, food and vendors at the Kineto Theatre in Forest.

The special events continue Saturday evening at the theatre and Sunday morning at the United Church in Forest as part of a long-running project by the Wiiwkwedong Arts Collective of Kettle and Stony Point First Nation and the Kiwanis Club of Forest.

“It has been a number of years now that we’ve been bringing some awareness of the Indigenous arts, stories, culture,” as well as “sharing and having this great partnership,” said Candace Scott-Moore, artistic producer with the collective.

The aim is to bring the two communities together to “share and learn from each other,” she said.

The upcoming events are aimed at educating the communities about the Truth and Reconciliation process involving Canada’s former residential schools, as well as celebrating Indigenous artists, stories and culture, she said.

Friday evening’s event at the Kineto Theatre begins at 6:15 p.m.

“You can come early for dinner at the theatre,” Scott-Moore said.

The Monague family will be selling tacos for $10, and there will be displays of local art there both Friday and Saturday evenings.

At 7 p.m. Friday, the theatre will screen Sarnia filmmaker Dwayne Cloes’ documentaries, We Are Still Here and Aftershock, about local survivors of residential schools and their descendants.

There will be a question-and-answer session with Cloes following the screenings. Scott-Moore said there will also be emotional supports available that evening.

“These are real stories” and about local residents, she said.

Admission is “pay what you can” Friday and $8 for Saturday, Scott-Moore said.

On Saturday, the doors of the theatre open again at 6:15 p.m. for a screening of the feature film, Run Woman Run.

The film’s story is about a single mom who learns to reclaim her dreams, family and honour after being convinced by the ghostly appearance of the late legendary runner, Tom Longboat, to compete in a marathon.

“It has been winning awards all over the world,” Scott-Moore said. “It’s a comedy; it’s a drama. You’ll laugh. You’ll cry.”

The film’s executive producer is Laura Milliken from Kettle and Stony Point, and the screening is also an opportunity to celebrate her, Scott-Moore said.

The film talks about the issue of diabetes, so the North Lambton Community Health Centre and the Kettle and Stony Health Centre will be providing diabetes awareness and prevention information that evening, she said.

Sunday’s event is at the United Church of Forest and begins at 10:30 a.m. with a sharing and celebrating of Indigenous culture. The Monague family will be taking part, performing Ojibwa hymns.

“I definitely feel this is super important work that we’re doing, creating awareness and creating these celebrations,” Scott-Moore said.

Attendance from both communities has been growing through the years at the events, she said.

“It’s just nice to see that people are interested . . . and wanting to learn about our stories,” Scott-Moore said. “It’s just a beautiful thing that’s happening in our communities.”

“We’re breaking those barriers – we’re stopping that isolation and we are actually growing together – and that’s what we really need.”

pmorden@postmedia.com

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Machine learning models for prediction of adverse events after percutaneous coronary intervention – Scientific Reports

Data source

The Japan Cardiovascular Database-Keio Interhospital Cardiovascular Studies (JCD-KiCS) is a large, ongoing, prospective multicenter (n = 15) PCI registry to collect clinical data of consecutive patients undergoing PCI in Japan that developed in collaboration with the National Cardiovascular Data Registry (NCDR) CathPCI9,10,11. In JCD-KiCS, all PCI procedures were conducted under the direction of the intervention team of each participating hospital according to standard care. Participating hospitals were instructed to register data from consecutive PCI using an electronic data-capturing software system equipped with a data query engine and validations to maintain data quality. Data entry was conducted by dedicated clinical research coordinators who trained for JCD-KiCS specifically. Data quality was ensured through the use of an automatic validation system and bimonthly standardized education and training for the clinical research coordinators. The senior study coordinator (I.U.) and extensive on-site auditing by the investigator (S.K.) ensured proper registration of each patient. The protocol of this study was under the principles of the Declaration of Helsinki and approved by the Keio University School of Medicine Ethics Committee and the committee of each participating hospital (National Hospital Organization Review Board for Clinical Trials; the Eiju General Hospital Ethics Committee; the Ethics Committee of Saiseikai Utsunomiya Hospital; the Research Ethics Committee, Tokyo Saiseikai Central Hospital; the Japanese Red Cross Ashikaga Hospital Ethics Committee; Kawasaki Municipal Hospital Institutional Review Board; Saitama City Hospital Ethical Review Board; Isehara Kyodo Hospital Institutional Review Board; Tokyo Dental College Ichikawa General Hospital Institutional Review Board; the Independent Ethics Committee of Hiratsuka City Hospital; The Saint Luke’s Health System Institutional Review Board; the Hino Municipal Hospital Institutional Review Board; and the Ethics Committee of Yokohama Municipal Citizen’s Hospital). All participants were provided verbal or written consent for the baseline data collection, and informed consent was obtained from all participants individually.

Study population

We extracted 24,848 consecutive patients who underwent PCI between July 2008 and September 2020. Because several parameters are applied as input variables for one model and the exclusion criteria of other models (e.g., hemodialysis before PCI is an input variable of the in-hospital mortality model and exclusion criteria of the AKI model), we made each outcome-specific cohort using a two-step procedure. First, we excluded patients with missing indications (n = 967), those without pre- and post-procedure hemoglobin (n = 901), and those without pre- and post-procedure serum creatinine (n = 22) (analytic cohort). Next, we applied outcome-specific exclusion criteria, followed by the imputation of missing values to make each cohort (detailed in Fig. 1). Each population was randomly split into a training set of 75% of the patients and a test set of the remaining 25% of the patients with approximately the same proportion of events.

Figure 1
figure 1

Study flowchart. Abbreviations: CAD, coronary artery disease; PCI, percutaneous coronary intervention; JCD-KiCS, The Japan Cardiovascular Database-Keio Interhospital Cardiovascular Studies; Hb, aemoglobin; Cr, creatinine; AKI, acute kidney injury; LR logistic regression model; XGB, extreme gradient boosting model.

Definitions and outcomes

The definition of AKI, bleeding, and in-hospital mortality were consistent with original NCDR-CathPCI models4,5,6. Briefly, AKI was defined as a ≥ 0.3 mg/dl absolute or as a ≥ 1.5-fold relative increase in post-PCI creatinine or new dialysis initiation. Bleeding was defined as any of the following occurring within 72 h after PCI or before hospital discharge (whichever occurs first): site-reported arterial access site bleeding; retroperitoneal, gastrointestinal, genitourinary bleeding, intracranial hemorrhage, cardiac tamponade, or post-procedure hemoglobin decrease of 3 g/dl in patients with pre-procedure haemoglobin ≤ 16 g/dl, or post-procedure non-bypass surgery-related blood transfusion for patients with a pre-procedure haemoglobin ≥ 8 g/dl. In-hospital mortality was defined as any post-procedural death at the same hospital admission. Because JCD-KiCS was developed in collaboration with NCDR-Cath PCI, the majority of clinical variables were defined in accord with the data dictionary (version 4.1)9. For example, cardiogenic shock was defined as a sustained (> 30 min) episode of systolic blood pressure of < 90 mm Hg, and/or cardiac index of < 2.2 L/min/m2 determined to be secondary to cardiac dysfunction, and/or the requirement for intravenous inotropic or vasopressor agents or mechanical support to maintain the blood pressure and cardiac index above the specified levels within 24 h after the procedure.

Handling missing data

After enrollment of the analytic cohort, we imputed the missing value of pre-procedural hemoglobin with the value of post-procedural hemoglobin for the developed AKI and in-hospital mortality model, and imputed missing values of pre-procedural creatinine with those of post-procedural creatinine for the developed bleeding and in-hospital mortality models. Given that the absence rate was < 5% for any other variables, we handled the missing values to use a median imputation for the continuous variables and mode imputation for the categorical variables.

Model development

We developed two models: LR models and extreme gradient descent boosting (XGB) models. XGB is an ML algorithm that creates a series of relatively simple decision trees combined with boosting methods to develop more robust final predictions. In the LR model, we used the same categorized variables of the original NCDR-CathPCI risk scores (original model), and in the XGB model, we used the same variables but treated raw continuous variables that were categorized in the original models. The full list of variables was as follows:

  1. 1.

    AKI model: age (categorized as < 50, 50–59, 60–69, 70–79, 80–89, and ≥ 90 years), heart failure within 2 weeks, estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) (categorized as < 30, 30–44, 45–59, and ≥ 60 ml/min/1.73 m2), diabetes mellitus, prior heart failure, prior cerebrovascular disease, non ST-elevation acute coronary syndrome (NSTEACS), ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI), cardiogenic shock at presentation, cardiopulmonary arrest at presentation, anemia defined as hemoglobin at admission of less than 10 g/dL, and use of IABP.

  2. 2.

    Bleeding model: STEMI, age (categorized as < 60, 60–70, 71–79, and ≥ 80 years), BMI (categorized as < 20, 20–30, 30–39, and ≥ 40 kg/m2), prior PCI, eGFR (categorized as < 30, 30–44, 45–59, and ≥ 60 ml/min/1.73 m2), cardiogenic shock at presentation, female sex, hemoglobin at presentation (categorized as < 13, 13–15, ≥ 15 g/dL), and PCI status (Emergency, Salvage, Urgency, and Elective).

  3. 3.

    In-hospital mortality model: age (categorized as < 60, 60–69, 70–79, and ≥ 80 years), cardiogenic shock at presentation, prior heart failure, peripheral artery disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, estimated GFR (categorized as < 30, 30–44, 45–59, 60–89, and ≥ 90 ml/min/1.73 m2), NYHA classification IV at presentation, STEMI, and PCI status (emergency, salvage, urgency, and elective).

To optimize the hyperparameters of the XGB model, we used a stratified threefold cross-validation with a random search. After determining the best hyperparameters, XGB models were developed using the entire training set (hold-out methods, Supplementary Material for a more detailed explanation). In addition, we constructed the expanded LR and XGB models using additional variables selected by clinical significance. The additional variables were as follows:

  • Expanded AKI model: contrast volume and timing of PCI (i.e., during working or holiday times).

  • Expanded bleeding model: number of antiplatelet agents, use of anticoagulants at PCI, and timing of PCI.

  • Expanded in-hospital mortality model: technical failure of PCI, defined as failure to cross the guidewires or when the TIMI grade after PCI was 1 or 0 (slow flow or no flow), and the timing of PCI.

Statistics and key metrics

Continuous variables were summarized as medians with interquartile ranges and compared using Mann–Whitney U tests, and categorical variables were summarized as frequencies and compared using chi-square tests or Fisher’s exact tests, as appropriate.

The C-statistics with 95% confidence intervals (95%CIs) based on the Delong method and the area under the precision-recall area under curve (PRAUC) were used to estimate the model discrimination. Model calibration was assessed using the Brier score and calibration plot. The Brier score is defined as the mean squared difference between the observed and predicted outcomes and ranges from 0 to 1.00, with 0 representing the best possible calibration. The two primary components decomposed from the Brier score, i.e., reliability and resolution, were also evaluated. Calibration plots were used to plot the mean risk score relative to the observed outcome rate for a given quintile of the predicted risk. Furthermore, we used the net reclassification index (NRI) to evaluate the clinical utility of the LR and XGB models with cut-off values of 10%, 4%, and 2.5% for AKI, bleeding, and in-hospital mortality, respectively. A P value of < 0.05 was considered statistically significant. This study is based on the transparent reporting of a multivariable prediction model for individual prognosis or diagnosis (TRIPOD) guidelines.

Sensitivity analysis

We used a multiple imputation method to handle missing values instead of a median imputation method. The multiple imputation model included all prespecified predictors and outcomes as recommended12. Ten imputed datasets were generated, and the C-statistics were combined using Rubin’s rules.

Software Implementation

All analyses were conducted in R (version 4.0.4; R Project for Statistical Computing, Vienna, Austria) with tidymodels (version 0.1.2) bundle of packages for data pre-processing, hyperparameter tuning, learning, and performance metrics13,14,15. We used xgboost (version 1.3.2.1) for extreme gradient descent boosting16, pROC (version 1.17.0.1) to calculating C-statistics17, verification (version 1.42) to calculate Brier scores18, predictABEL (version 1.2.4) to calculate the NRI19 mice (version 3.14.0) to perform multiple imputation20.

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‘Threat to learning activities’: Tripura bans political events on school grounds

Tripura, Tripura bans political events on school grounds, Tripura politics on school ground, Tripura BJP, indian express

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led government in Tripura has issued an order banning political parties from using school resources, including playgrounds, to hold political events or rallies.

In an order issued on Saturday, director of school education Chandni Chandran notified guidelines for using school buildings, classrooms, school premises, school playgrounds, conference halls and auditoriums saying, “…. no school resources including playground shall be used by any political party/organizer to conduct political functions/rallies etc..”.

The order also said that a no-objection certificate (NOC) from the director of secondary or elementary education directorate or the concerned district education officer may be obtained for conducting other programmes, that too only on holidays or after school hours.

The order also mentioned that a few headmasters or teachers-in-charge of schools were found to have approved the use of school grounds for political gatherings during school hours. It added that the department would hold such actions “completely unacceptable” as they pose “serious threat to teaching-learning activities” and violate the norms of the department, especially since the schools have now reopened after long breaks owing to Covid-19.

Action will be taken against headmasters or teachers-in-charge for violations already committed, said the order and warned against violations in the future.

The order stated that headmasters or teachers-in-charges would be held responsible to inform the inspector of schools or district education officers if any event is planned. It would be immediately taken up with local administration and police authorities, asking for cancelling the concerned programme, said the order.

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Biological events occurring during puberty trigger sex differences in learning and memory

Biological events occurring during puberty trigger sex differences in learning and memory

New research from the University of California, Irvine reveals that sex differences in learning and memory mechanisms are triggered by biological events occurring during puberty. Findings show prepubescent female rodents have much better hippocampal long-term potentiation (LTP) and spatial learning than same-age males, but puberty has opposite consequences for synaptic plasticity in the two sexes.

The study, titled “Prepubescent female rodents have enhanced hippocampal LTP and learning relative to males, reversing in adulthood as inhibition increases” was recently published in Nature Neuroscience.

Since the late 19th century, the general consensus in the scientific community has been that men outperform women on spatial tasks, while women excel in learning tasks involving verbal material, while the general debate has been about why there is a difference.

The surprising conclusion from our results is that the polarization of sex differences in hippocampal synapses and related learning reverses in females and males from before to after puberty. This occurs because of distinct developmental changes. Thresholds for plasticity and encoding spatial information increase in females and decease in males.”


Christine Gall, PhD, co-corresponding author, and distinguished professor and chair of anatomy and neurobiology at the UCI School of Medicine

Puberty is a critical landmark in brain maturation and results in a wide variety of sex differences in behavior, but little is known about how it affects the substrates for memory encoding. Researchers identified a female-specific mechanism that increases the LTP threshold and decreases spatial memory from before to after puberty. Sex differences were demonstrated for hippocampus-dependent processes and driven by different underlying mechanisms.

In females only, inhibitory synapses in the CA1 field of the hippocampus exhibit an increase in levels of GABAA receptors containing the α5 subunit; this increase is associated with greater inhibition of synaptic activity critical for synaptic plasticity and memory. The α5 receptors have been linked to anxiety which also undergoes changes at the onset of the estrous cycle. Researchers found that pharmacological suppression of α5-GABAA receptors restored LTP and memory encoding in females to levels observed before puberty.

“Our team proposes that the emergent female pattern may favor learning in complex circumstances while the emergent male pattern favors rapid acquisition of simpler material. This idea suggests that optimal teaching strategies need to reflect previously unsuspected brain differences between the sexes and how these are dramatically adjusted during puberty,” Gall said. “The vast majority of studies have begun with analyses of young adult male rodents. Females use somewhat different memory mechanisms than do males and therefore may respond differently to drugs and gene mutations. This new research demonstrates the need for new sexually differentiated approaches for the development of therapeutic treatments and their applications at different life stages.”

Further research will be conducted to determine if the sex-specific LTP threshold changes identified in hippocampus during the transition to postpubertal life are evident in other brain areas and influence the encoding of different types of memories.

Source:

University of California, Irvine

Journal reference:

Le, A.A., et al. (2022) Prepubescent female rodents have enhanced hippocampal LTP and learning relative to males, reversing in adulthood as inhibition increases. Nature Neuroscience. doi.org/10.1038/s41593-021-01001-5.

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Spotify chief content officer calls Joe Rogan events a ‘learning experience’

Spotify chief content officer calls Joe Rogan events a 'learning experience'

Joe Rogan’s Spotify profile is seen in front of displayed Spotify logo in this photo illustration taken, February 7, 2022. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration

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Feb 9 (Reuters) – Spotify’s (SPOT.N) chief content officer Dawn Ostroff told advertisers at a conference on Wednesday that the backlash around popular U.S. podcaster Joe Rogan’s podcast had been a “real learning experience” for the streaming service.

“We do feel that we have a responsibility to support creator expression, but also balance that creator expression with safety for our users and for our advertisers,” said Ostroff, who has been a key driver in Spotify’s work to turn the platform into a top podcast hub, speaking at an Interactive Advertising Bureau annual conference in New York.

The streaming giant has been under fire after Rogan, who signed a $100-million deal with Spotify in 2020, aired controversial COVID-19 views on his show and drew protests from artists Neil Young, Joni Mitchell and India Arie. Young said Spotify had “become the home of life-threatening COVID misinformation.”

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Last week, Rogan apologized and Spotify said it would add a content advisory to any podcast episodes on its platform with discussion of the virus. On Saturday, Rogan apologized again for using racial slurs after a montage video surfaced showing him repeatedly saying the N-word.

“We have been speaking to Joe Rogan and to his team about some of the content … of his shows, particularly his history of racially insensitive language, and Joe decided to take episodes off of our platform,” Ostroff said. She said Spotify does not have editorial control over “The Joe Rogan Experience” podcast but that it supported this decision.

Spotify’s Chief Executive Officer Daniel Ek said in a recent letter to staff seen by Reuters that he condemns racial slurs and other comments made by Rogan but would not be removing him from the platform.

The controversy marks the latest instance of a major tech company facing furor over its content moderation practices. Social media platforms such as Meta Platforms Inc’s (FB.O) Facebook, video sites like Alphabet’s (GOOGL.O) YouTube and streaming service Netflix have all come under scrutiny over the material they allow on their services.

Ostroff called “the dilemma of moderation versus censorship” the biggest challenge facing “every single platform today.” She said there was no silver bullet but that Spotify’s team was always looking to see how it could do better.

She also urged advertisers to participate and help in the company’s evolution, saying “we really want to be able to be good partners.”

Spotify has invested over $1 billion in the podcasting business. Last week, it posted higher than expected fourth quarter revenue and reported 406 million active monthly users, up 18 percent from last year, though its subscriber forecasts for the current quarter came in lower than Wall Street estimates. read more

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Reporting by Elizabeth Culliford
Editing by Nick Zieminski

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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UPDATE 1-Spotify chief content officer calls Joe Rogan events a ‘learning experience’

UPDATE 1-Spotify chief content officer calls Joe Rogan events a 'learning experience'

(Adds Ostroff quote, details on Rogan backlash)

By Elizabeth Culliford

Feb 9 (Reuters) – Spotify’s chief content officer Dawn Ostroff told advertisers at a conference on Wednesday that the backlash around popular U.S. podcaster Joe Rogan’s podcast had been a “real learning experience” for the streaming service.

“We do feel that we have a responsibility to support creator expression, but also balance that creator expression with safety for our users and for our advertisers,” said Ostroff, who has been a key driver in Spotify’s work to turn the platform into a top podcast hub, speaking at an Interactive Advertising Bureau annual conference in New York.

The streaming giant has been under fire after Rogan, who signed a $100-million deal with Spotify in 2020, aired controversial COVID-19 views on his show and drew protests from artists Neil Young, Joni Mitchell and India Arie. Young said Spotify had “become the home of life threatening COVID misinformation.”

Last week, Rogan apologized and Spotify said it would add a content advisory to any podcast episodes on its platform with discussion of the virus. On Saturday, Rogan apologized again for using racial slurs after a montage video surfaced showing him repeatedly saying the N-word. (Reporting by Elizabeth Culliford Editing by Nick Zieminski)