Background Numerous studies have found negative outcomes between shift work and physical, emotional, and mental health. Many professional caregivers are required to work shifts outside of the typical 9 am to 5 pm workday. Here, we explore whether shift work affects the health and wellbeing of long-term care (LTC) and assisted-living (AL) professional caregivers. Method The Caring for Professional Caregivers research study was conducted across 39 LTC and AL facilities in Alberta, Canada. Of the 1385 questionnaires distributed, 933 surveys (67.4%) were returned completed. After identifying 49 questions that significantly explained variances in the reported health status of caregivers, we examined whether there was a relationship between these questions and reported health status of caregivers working night shifts. Results We found significant differences between responses from those working different shifts across six of seven domains, including physical health, health conditions, mental/emotional health, quality of life, and health behaviors. In particular, we found that night shift caregivers were more likely to report incidents of poor heath (i.e., they lacked energy, had regular presences of neck and back pain, regular or infrequent incidents of fatigue or low energy, had difficulty falling asleep, and that they never do exercise) and less likely to report incidents of good health (i.e., did not expect their health to improve, were not satisfied with their health, do not have high self-esteem/were happy, were unhappy with their physical appearance, and do not get a good night’s sleep), compared to caregivers working other shifts. Conclusions Our study shows that professional caregivers working the night shift experience poor health status, providing further evidence that night shift workers’ health is at risk. In particular, caregivers reported negative evaluations of their physical, mental/emotional health, lower ratings of their quality of life, and negative responses to questions concerning whether they engage in healthy behaviors. Our findings can support healthcare stakeholders outline future policies that ensure caregivers are adequately supported so that they provide quality care.

Muzzle contact, where one animal brings its muzzle into close proximity to that of another, has often been hypothesized as a straightforward means of socially mediated food investigation. Using 2,707 observations of muzzle contact occurring across 3 troops of wild vervet monkeys (Chlorocebus pygerythrus), we tested this social learning hypothesis. We first explored the social structuring of muzzle contact by analyzing the characteristics of initiators and receivers. Similar to previous research, juveniles initiated contact at higher rates than adults, particularly toward adult females and animals with lower dominance rankings. The highest number of contacts occurred between kin compared to contacts between nonkin. However, on the whole, contacts occurred at low rates, even among kin dyads. We next determined whether muzzle contact was used as a means to learn socially, specifically by animals seeking foraging information. We found that initiators did not overwhelmingly target foragers, meaning animals do not appear to directly seek information about food during muzzle contact. However, animals that contacted foragers were more likely forage themselves in comparison to those that contacted nonforagers, suggesting that foragers do provide food information. These findings indicate that both kin and low-ranking animals serve as discriminative stimuli for social tolerance and that foraging animals serve as discriminative stimuli for food availability. We conclude that broad social tolerance, rather than the recipient's knowledge, is the most likely antecedent to muzzle contact and that animals engage in this behavior as a low-cost means of maintaining a baseline level of information about their environment.

There is a paucity of research into the prevalence of academic dishonesty within Canada compared to other countries. Recently, there has been a call for a better understanding of the particular characteristics of educational integrity in Canada so that Canada can more meaningfully contribute to current discussions surrounding academic integrity. Here, we present findings from student (N = 1142) and faculty (N = 130) surveys conducted within a medium-sized (~ 8700 students) Canadian university. These surveys probed perceptions towards, and experiences with, academic dishonesty, in which we aimed to understand how students and faculty regarded academically dishonest practices during their postsecondary careers. We also aimed to understand how often students engaged in, and faculty had witnessed, academic dishonesty, whether or not witnessing incidents of academic dishonesty corresponded with gender, year of experience, highest level of educational attainment, discipline, or their personal perceptions towards the importance of academic honesty, and whether students had been adequately taught what constitutes academic dishonesty. We found that an overwhelming majority of students viewed academic honesty as important, and that most students reported not engaging in academic dishonesty themselves despite 45.8% reporting that they had witnessed others engage in academic dishonesty. We also found that students were more likely to witness cheating as their postsecondary experience increased, that witnessing varied across disciplines and educational attainment, and that witnessing varied with student perceptions. However, we found no such patterns in faculty responses, but found that faculty are split on whether or not they believe incidents of academic honesty are increasing.

Objectives We consider the relative contributions of maternal rank and sociability to the survival of infant vervet monkeys (Chlorocebus pygerythrus) to nutritional independence (~210 days) in a generally resource‐poor environment. Methods We analyzed survival data from 153 infants born to 60 mothers across three free‐ranging troops and 10 yearly birth cohorts at a South African research site experiencing general but variable resource scarcity. Results The population was characterized by a pre‐weaning mortality of 30% (Range: 9%–85%), with a median age at death of 50 days. In addition to the consequences of resource availability, increased infant survival was independently and equivalently positively associated with higher maternal rank and a greater number of maternal spatial partners. Discussion We use this outcome to suggest that apparent discrepancies across sites and species in the relative importance of different maternal attributes in determining reproductive outcomes may be resolved by considering more closely local sources of infant mortality.