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Library Link: June events highlight Canada’s multiculturalism
June is a busy month for celebrating important and commemorative days in Canada.
A simple Internet search reveals just how many of these days there are, and while each one is observed in some fashion throughout Alberta, they also reflect the larger scope of Canadian multiculturalism.
Canadians come from a wide range of races, religions, and nations, all of which makes for a diverse population, and many opportunities to celebrate.
To begin, June is recognized as National Indigenous History Month, a time to recognize the long and rich history, heritage, resilience and diversity of Canada’s First Nations, Inuit, and Métis Peoples.
In terms of Airdrie, the city is situated on the lands of Treaty 7 territory, the traditional lands of the Siksika, Kainai, Piikani, Stoney Nakoda, and Tsuut’ina peoples, and on the homelands of the Métis Nation, Region 3.
June 21 is also National Indigenous Peoples Day, a date chosen to reflect the spiritual importance of the summer solstice to Indigenous people across Canada.
June 24 is Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day, celebrated in Quebec and by French Canadians across the country, including here in Alberta. The day’s celebrations often include parades, fireworks, feasting, and music concerts.
June 27 is Canadian Multiculturism Day, a time to celebrate our country’s cultural diversity and to reaffirm our commitment to equity, inclusion, and mutual respect.
Speaking of multiculturalism, June is also a time when Italian, Filipino, and Portuguese communities showcase the invaluable contributions they have made to the social, economic, and cultural fabric of Canada.
Finally, June 1 marked the launch of Pride Month, which features a wide range of events that take place from June to September. Locally, Airdrie is hosting a Solidarity Walk on June 18, which will be followed by the Airdrie Pride Society’s Pride in the Park event at Nose Creek Regional Park.
Here at Airdrie Public Library (APL), we’ll be participating in one way or another in these celebrations through our collections, programs, and events. Watch for book displays celebrating these various important and commemorative days and look for us at Pride in the Park on June 18.
For more information on APL programs and events, visit www.airdriepubliclibrary.ca
Potential Link Found Between Thrombotic Events, Mortality in Patients With PV, ET
Patients with polycythemia vera (PV) or essential thrombocythemia (ET) had a higher risk of thrombotic events than the general population, which was associated with mortality in a recent study.
Patients with polycythemia vera (PV) or essential thrombocythemia (ET) have a greater thrombotic risk vs the general population, and a recent study published in Leukemia Research found that among patients with PV or ET who had thrombotic events (TEs), mortality risk was higher and survival was shorter compared with those who did not have TEs in the study period.
PV and ET are characterized by the overproduction of erythrocytes and platelets, respectively, and both are rare. Symptoms can include fatigue, night sweats, concentration issues, bone pain, and various clinical features that can make it difficult to accurately diagnose. Shorter overall survival and increased TE risk compared with the general population also affect patients with PV or ET.
Based on Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) registry data, estimated median overall survival is 12 years and 5-year mortality is 19% for both conditions. High rates of arterial and venous TEs are a known cause of morbidity and mortality in these patients, although study authors note that few contemporary studies have assessed the effect that TEs have on mortality in patients with PV and ET.
The current study aimed to assess mortality risk in patients with high-risk PV and intermediate- to high-risk ET who experienced a TE vs those who did not experience a TE during the study period.
This retrospective, observational study included 50,405 Medicare fee-for-service (FFS) beneficiaries with PV and 124,569 with ET. All data were based on the Medicare FFS claims database, and eligible patients had either a PV or ET diagnosis and at least 1 inpatient or at least 2 outpatient claims between January 1, 2010, and December 31, 2017.
The median patient age was 73 years in the PV group and 76 in the ET cohort. A total of 6268 patients (12.4%) in the PV cohort had a history of TEs before PV diagnosis. Median follow-ups were 34.5 months for the PV cohort and 25.5 months in the ET cohort.
In the ET cohort, 23,908 patients (19.2%) had a history of TEs pre diagnosis. During follow-up, 6023 (12.0%) patients with PV and 14,156 (11.4%) with ET received hydroxyurea. In the PV cohort, 14,571 patients with PV (28.9%) underwent at least 1 phlebotomy.
Although past studies have shown that TEs are common among those with PV or ET, this study showed a particularly high occurrence of TEs despite shorter follow-up times vs previous analyses.
“Notably, most of these prior analyses included substantial proportions of low-risk patients,” the study authors wrote. “Patients included in the current analyses were generally older than previous cohort studies and had high rates of comorbidities, likely due to the age thresholds applied for eligibility for the analysis (≥ 65 years), which may have contributed to increased frequency of vascular complications.”
Of the patients with PV, 14,334 (28.4%) experienced a TE in the follow-up period, with the most common being ischemic stroke (46.0%), transient ischemic attack (TIA; 30.7%), and acute myocardial infarction (AMI; 29.9%). In the ET group, 30,478 patients (24.5%) experienced a postdiagnosis TE. Ischemic stroke (42.5%), AMI (25.9%), and TIA (24.8%) were the most common TEs in this cohort.
After adjusting for other patient characteristics, those in the PV group who experienced a postdiagnosis TE were at an increased risk of mortality than those who did not (adjusted HR [aHR], 18.6; 95% CI, 16.1-21.6; P < 0.001). Patients who experienced pre-index TEs were at an even higher risk (aHR, 34.4; 95% CI, 24.0-49.4; P < 0.001).
In the ET cohort, patients who experienced a TE post diagnosis were also at an increased risk compared with those who did not (aHR, 25.2; 95% CI, 23.1-27.5; P < 0.001). Similar to findings in the PV cohort, patients with ET who had a prediagnosis TE were at a greater risk of mortality than those who did not have a prediagnosis TE (aHR, 37.5; 95% CI, 31.7-44.3).
In both cohorts, hyperlipidemia was a common comorbidity and the authors noted it might also be associated with TE prevalence. Despite the study’s limitations, including reliance on claims data and the lack of treatment data analysis for the overall cohort, the findings suggest that mortality risk was significantly higher in patients who experienced TEs in tandem with PV or ET, they added.
“Thrombosis risk mitigation remains an important management goal in patients with PV and ET, particularly among those with a history of thrombotic events,” the authors wrote, adding, “More studies are needed to better define and understand ET and PV thrombotic event rates in various high-risk populations in a real-world setting.”
Reference
Pemmaraju N, Gerds AT, Yu J, et al. Thrombotic events and mortality risk in patients with newly diagnosed polycythemia vera or essential thrombocythemia. Leuk Res. Published online February 16, 2022. doi:10.1016/j.leukres.2022.106809
Impossible to link meteorological and climate events? bloomer
This article is part of the Rumor Detector section, click here for other articles.
The root of the problem
At first, it is natural that scientists traditionally hesitate to confuse meteorology and climatology: although they are related, they are Two distinct branches of science. The first refers to the study of atmospheric phenomena to predict the weather in a short time and in a particular place. The second relates to studying trends over a long period of time (at least 30 years). Climate scientists’ projections also cover large geographic areas, even the entire planet.
Thus what distinguishes weather from climate is the temporal scale (short term vs long term) and the spatial scale (limited areas on one hand, extending on the other).
In addition, scientists are not the only ones reluctant to make links between extreme weather events and climate change. Media too: There are rarely any reports linking these events to the main trend of global warming.
2017 study It concluded, for example, that less than 10% of articles in major US media go into this region regarding historical wildfires or floods, while 33% of articles link climate change to extreme heat waves, and 24% to droughts standard.
Attribution
However, if even 15 years ago it was impossible to attribute meteorological events to climate change, today it is less and less the case. A modern branch of climatology is devoted exclusively to this. Thanks to increasingly sophisticated climate models, climate scientists – like these from Refer the weather in the world – Calculate in a very short time The probability of an extreme weather event occurring without climate change.
More than 400 studies Attribution studies published to date have overwhelmingly concluded – about 70% – that weather-related disasters in the past decade have been more likely or more severe due to human-caused climate change. Many of the most devastating weather events in Canada since the early 2010s are listed among the links illustrated by this approach, which has also entitlement From eulogy In the last years. Attributing an extreme event to climate is now “routine” and constitutes a “reliable science”, Introductory judgment from the magazine temper nature in 2018.
European researchers For example concluded That the 2018 heatwaves — which, among other things, caused 74 deaths in Quebec — would have been nearly impossible without climate change. There was a wildfire in 2016 in Fort McMurray up to six times more due to climate change. It was the 2017 wildfire season in British Columbia two to four times more impressive.
This led to the issuance of experts from the World Meteorological Organization Recommendations To help scientists better explain the role of climate change in the recent weather event to the media. Instead of starting with the usual caveats […]talk of attribution of extreme conditions should begin with a reminder of how anthropogenic climate change affects the type of phenomenon involved,” they argue.
It’s hard to say if the whole thing really affected communication. study Published in 2020, which looked at how a small sample of one-fifth of California’s media attributed droughts in California to the climate, concluding that there was “interest” from its journalists, but it was hard to see a trend there.
This is because the science of attribution works in terms of probabilities – such an event is four or six times as likely due to warming. By comparison, the temptation for journalists and the public often remains to reduce the problem to a binary answer – the extreme event is caused solely by global warming, or not – as Explains Wolfgang BlauCo-founder of the new Reuters Institute Program for the Study of Journalism at the University of Oxford (Oxford Climate Press Network).
Image credits: Port Arthur, Texas, after Hurricane Harvey, August 2017 / SC National Guard / Wikipedia Commons
