This paper discusses the stages involved in developing an intelligent system for evaluating multiple-level test tasks using fuzzy logic in the MATLAB application package. It first presents the advantages and disadvantages of existing approaches to fuzzy assessment of test methods. Then, it describes two methods for assessing students, using fuzzy sets and corresponding membership functions, and fuzzy estimation and generalized fuzzy estimation methods. Next, the Segino production model is used as the closest to natural language, allowing for closer interaction with a subject matter expert in building well-understood, easily interpreted inference systems. The structure of a fuzzy system, its functions and mechanisms of model building are described. The system is presented in the form of a block diagram of fuzzy logical nodes and consists of four inputs, corresponding to different levels of knowledge assimilation and one initial variable. The surface of the response of the fuzzy system reflects the dependence of the final grade on the level of difficulty of the task and the degree of correctness of the task. The structure and functions of the fuzzy system are indicated. The modeled intelligent system for assessing multiple-level test tasks based on fuzzy logic makes it possible. This article was authored by Ivan M. Sidolo, Sirhi Osamerikov, Tashiana Igargula and others. We are article.tv, links in the description below.


مِ اللَّهِ الرَّحْمَانَ الرَّحِيمَ الْحَمْضُ لِلَّهِ رَبِّ الْعَلَمِينَ والصَّلَاتُ والسَّلَامَ لَاشْرَفِ الْأَنْبِيَةَ والمرسَلِينَ سَيْدِنَا مُحَمَّدْ وَأَلَا آلِهِ وَسَحَابَتِهِ أَجْمَعِينَ اللَّهُمْ مَا أَلَّمْنَا مَا يَنْفَعُنَا وَاَنْفَعْنَا بِمَا أَلَّمْتَنَا وَزِدْنَا اِلْمَنْ يَنْفَعُنَا So we've been talking about the nafs and the stages of the nafs, how to nudge the nafs forward to help us reach our goals and break our habits. The important thing to understand is the nafs can change. So Allah says in the Qur'an قَدْ أَفْلَحَ مَنْ زَكَّهَ The successful one is the one that can purify the nafs. So success is attached to handling the nafs and getting it under control. But the more important, an important part here is that the nafs can change. So however hopeless it feels, however long it feels like we've been going at this, the nafs can change. And also sometimes we can misinterpret or understand things as if we're just born in a certain way. There's something that might be deficient about us. True. We might have been born into a certain circumstance, family, community. We might be born with some predispositions in terms of our personality and just our makeup, but the nafs can change. And the nafs goes through stages in order to make that change. We talked about last time the nafs is part of insan that consists of their desires, their drives. The nafs has animal like qualities. And what's interesting about this, as many of the scholars in our tradition would liken the nafs to an animal. So many of the scholars talk about it in this way. For example, Imam al-Ghazali says he has a section on the nafs in his book, Menhaj al-Abideen, and he describes the nafs as adab, a writing animal. So a horse mule donkey type writing animal and how to manage an unruly defiant nafs, adabatul jamur, the unruly nafs that doesn't listen to you. So just like our scholars studied the human nafs and its behavior, contemporary neuroscientists also study human behavior. And just like scholars use animals as a teaching tool to understand the nafs, neuroscientists also use animals to understand the nafs. So our scholars use animals available to them when they were formulating their ideas and communicating them. Contemporary neuroscientists have studied human behavior and animals as well, but they've used animals that are convenient for their experiments. So neuroscientists, they've done studies on monkeys, dogs, rapids, spiders to look at behavior and habits. But much of the research on habits have been done on rodents, like laboratory rats and also laboratory mice. You know, one of the questions that come up is why has the research been done on rats and mice? So there's a couple of interesting points here. Most of the scientific interest is on bad habits. You know, although there's good habits and the way we understand habits today can be used to build good habits. But then also, once you understand how habits work, we can break down bad habits. But most of the scientific interest has been in how do we break bad habits? And it just wouldn't be ethical to give humans bad habits to study them. Maybe interesting, but not ethical. It would also take too long to ingrain habits into humans because habits take a long time to develop in humans. Where rodents live in a lab, they can be trained hours daily and develop a habit, like the habit of lever pressing.  And there's a lot that we can learn from them. But also there's differences as well, of course. So all of this information at our disposal is important for us to utilize to break our habits. And when we understand how habits are formed, we can understand how to break them. So last session, we discussed triggers as part of habits. These are things that are constantly associated with our habit, like waking up in the morning and then I brush my teeth, which is the behavior and waking up in the morning is the trigger. Closing the door and then automatically just lock it. That's a behavior that triggers closing the door. And one thing triggers the other behavior to happen subconsciously without our conscious awareness of it. Now, the triggers can be people, places and things, but they can also be emotions like we discussed. So a certain emotion happens like we're trying to quit eating in an unhealthy way. We're trying to quit smoking. We're trying to quit smoking cannabis. So anytime we're stressed, that might trigger us to engage in our behavior and habit. And that's something we talked about last time. This session, we talk about rewards. On page 84, it talks about the behavior chain and how habits work. And once you understand that chain, we kind of introduced it a little bit last week. But what I want to do is talk about a little bit more. The first slide is how our habits formed. There's a paradox between our intentions and our habits. So this is where we talk in our tradition. It talks about the rider and the animal and the metaphor extends to raining that animal in, raining that unruly animal in. So simply put, if you want to go right, your animal wants to go left and it's not obeying you. The idea is to come up with different strategies to rain that animal in. Neuroscientists, behavioral economists look at it like the intention habit paradox. So I intend to go right, but my habits pull me to go left. And so to understand how intentions work, that's simple. We consciously just desire to do something. But then to understand how habits work, why does that animal pull us left? Once we understand the mechanics of it, then we can break it down and start pulling it to the right. So for example, in the slide, it says, new behaviors take conscious attention. So in the past, we talked about cars. When you first drive, you have to be consciously aware of how you drive. You feel the cars zipping past you, the accelerators, something you're consciously aware of, though the wheel is something you're constantly aware of, the stick, everything left side, right side for. It's very like anxiety, a provoking experience. You're almost like, how are we going? How does this even work that these vehicles move at 60 miles per hour? And how has this been something that's worked for so long? So it's a new behavior over time. The second point, after repetition, over and over and over again, behavior becomes automatic. You're doing it without thinking about it. You're doing it without thinking about it. And then the decision making part of your brain goes to sleep. The rider goes to sleep. The beast is just walking on. So repetition makes the behavior become automatic. And on the second slide, it talks about how this is a good thing. So there's a good side to habits and there's a bad side to habits. So now when our actions are automated, our brain can work on something else. That's good. So I can multitask now. So I can drive on autopilot. I can drive the car on autopilot. And now I can take a phone call or I can listen to a podcast. I'm a commute to work or I can review notes for work. So that's a good thing. But there's a bad side to it. And that's the inability to switch off bad habits that you no longer want to continue. So you start a new diet, but somehow you're still snacking on autopilot.  You don't even know how it happens. Maybe you were triggered by a long day of work, a stressful day of work, so on and so forth. You want to reduce your screen time. But every time you hear a phone buzz, you just check your pocket. It's on autopilot. You're not even thinking about it. It just happens. So how do these habits work then? And on the next slide, this is really important to understand how habits work. All habits have these four components. This is on page 84 of the book, but then also it's on this slide. All habits have a trigger or a cue. They have a craving. It's a strong urge that drives us, that commands us within us. And then there's a behavior. Either you respond to that urge or you don't respond to that urge. And then once you do the behavior, you get a reward. And that's important. It's actually all about the reward. But let's pause for a moment. When you understand these four components. When you understand these four components of a habit, then you have four opportunities to break that habit. Either you can break the habit at the trigger stage so you can eliminate the triggers. And that's what we've been talking about, eliminating people, places and things, eliminating things that trigger us to use, working on emotions that trigger us to use so you can eliminate the cue or the trigger and your habit will never start. You can go to the next stage, which is you can reduce the craving. You can challenge the thoughts that are driving the habit. So cravings are feelings, but they're thoughts. I want to use right now. I want to do this right now. And it's also this feeling, this drive. It's like a magnet pulls us. So you can reduce that craving. By challenging those thoughts and also just by being mindful of those feelings. If you can just be aware of those feelings, it decouples it from the automatic behavior. It goes from subconscious to conscious and it decouples it from the automatic behavior. And there's a lot of literature on mindfulness based relapse, prevention and mindfulness based strategies to deal with addictions. And that's simply how it works. It's by becoming mindful of subconscious unconscious behaviors. So now at least you have a target you can hit. So now the third point is the behavior, the response. So let's say you eliminate the trigger, you fought with the cravings and thoughts, and now you still have the response and behavior. If you make the behavior difficult, you won't be able to do it. If you make the behavior difficult to do, you won't be able to do it. So let's say pornography or cannabis or a food habit. Let's say you're triggered, you have the thought urge, and then you have the behavior. If you make the behavior difficult, it's going to be hard to do. So with cannabis, let's say you get rid of all the lighters, ashtrays, foils, pipes, whatever in the house. You got triggered, stressful day at work, you have thoughts and cravings. But now it's like, how do I even put this together? I have no way to do it. The behavior is harder to do. I got to put more organization and thought into do it. Same thing with pornography. If you put all the software and make all the limitations and restrictions, then it's harder to do that behavior and with food the same way. If you're triggered emotionally, stressful day at work, you want to eat your feelings. If the food is in the garage, if the junk food is in the garage, if the junk food is in the back of your trunk, the junk food is just 10 feet farther away. It becomes harder to engage in that behavior. And then finally, the last part is the reward. And that's what we're talking about today. If the reward of your habit fails to satisfy your desire, you'll have no reason to do it in the future. So the main point, the moral of the story, without the first three steps, a behavior will not occur. Without all four, a behavior will not be repeated. So if it's not rewarding, it's going to diminish how a trigger works, craving works. It's going to diminish your desire to want to do that in the future. So if you look at the next slide, the habit loop, this is an example of trigger craving behavior reward. The trigger is, let's say, a cell phone buzzing. The craving is you have a cell phone in your pocket, it buzzes, it vibrates, it rings. And then the craving is you have this strong urge to just pull it out of the pocket and look at what happens. What's going on? Is it the phone call? Is it an update? The behavior is then to open the phone and bring it out. And the reward is being entertained, distracted. If you disrupt any of these things, let's say the cell phone buzz, you turn it off, vibrate, out of sight, out of mind. It's not on vibrate, it's not on ring, it's just completely off. So you don't hear the buzz or the phone is away. Let's say you wake up in the morning, the phone's not right next to your bed to look at, to grab, it's downstairs or it's in another room charging. It disrupts that habit. Then the second, the craving. You have that urge to pick up the phone. If you're able to have that inner dialogue with yourself to say, well, no, I did make a commitment to myself that for four hours I'm not gonna look at my phone, I'm gonna spend time with whatever of my kids. And then you have the inner dialogue with yourself. You can diminish those thoughts cravings. If the behavior is hard to do, like picking your phone out of your pocket and looking at it, if that's hard to do, then it's gonna make that habit even more difficult. And then the reward. If you diminish the reward, then that is gonna be even more difficult as well. So the next slide, how can I make the trigger out of reach? The next one is with craving and thoughts. How do I challenge these thoughts to make them less desirable? The next one is with the behavior, how do I become more conscious of this unconscious behavior? How do I become more mindful of it and harder to carry out? And by the way, the last one and this one we'll spend a little more time on next week. And then how do I make the reward less rewarding? You can look at this whole habit loop. Remember, the nuffs can change. And the nuffs is what's driving us to go left when we wanna go right. And these four components are the components of how that drive operates. But they all in the end of the day are chasing a carrot. They're chasing a reward. It's like the rider with a carrot on the end of it taunting or driving their animal. Rewards are the end goal of every habit. The trigger is actually just, the trigger being the first component of this habit loop. The trigger is actually just about noticing the reward. The trigger is about noticing that a reward is possible. The craving is about wanting the reward. The behavior is about obtaining the reward. So if you can obtain that reward through some other means that behavior diminishes and you go to another behavior. Without the reward, there's no behavior. If you look at laboratory rats, the common way to study laboratory rats is by putting them in a box with a lever.  And they give them food as a reward. And what they find out is the more rewarding the reward is, the faster the behavior gets set up. Once they train them to push the lever, if they give them amphetamines, methamphetamine, heroin, opioids, cocaine, which they do in the studies, they use all these chemicals. If they give them these really highly rewarding things, they learn how to push the lever quickly. So they teach them how to push the lever, then they press the lever, they get the reward. As they get more and more reward, they continue to push the lever so much so that they stop exercising, they stop thinking about food and they become preoccupied and quote unquote express the addiction and are focused on pushing the lever to their own detriment of their health and their lifestyle, their life. And now what happens is, and this is important, people get caught up in the lever as if the lever is what it's all about. When they take the drug away and they're just pushing the lever and they're not getting the reward now, what they find is over a period of weeks, the lever pressing extinguishes, it goes away.  So it's not about the behavior, it's not about the lever pressing, it's not about the marijuana, it's not about the whatever. It's about the reward you get from it. And once you understand that, then you understand so much. You understand so much, whether you're 10 years out from your habit, 20 years out from your head, then you start realizing, well, I was addicted to heroin, then I got addicted to cannabis, then I stopped that and I went to pornography, then I had a eating problem, then I had a relationship problem, then I just workaholic, that's because it's a different lever you're pressing, but you're getting the same reward in different ways. Because it's all about the same principle, about developing habits that are healthy and balanced. If you think about dopamine, dopamine is the neurotransmitter that mediates reward. Dopamine is the buzzword nowadays. All of these different chemicals, whether it be heroin, marijuana, all of them, any of these behaviors that are constantly repeated, dopamine is what's released in the reward pathway to drive those rewards. So for example, you can use heroin, you can inject it in IV, it'll go into your blood, go into your brain, but in the brain it's translated into your reward pathway in a release in dopamine. Heroin releases dopamine in supra normal, unnaturally normal amounts that natural rewards can't compete with. Same thing with cannabis. The fallacy is that cannabis is benign, safe thing. It's an excellent marketing, but it's just not science. So cannabis also releases dopamine and supra physiologic, supra normal amounts in the brain that natural rewards can't compete with. So it's also releasing dopamine and hijacking this reward pathway.  That's where it all happens. Dopamine's released in the brain and the reward and motivation occurs. You look at something like pornography. Pornography hits your eye, your retina. It's bypasses all the blood delivery. It goes directly into your brain, releases dopamine. And unnatural amounts. Pornography is a reward that is not like any natural reward. There's a lot of confusion about that. It's an unnatural reward because the amount of variety and novelty. And then also food. Food oftentimes is a processed unnatural reward. It's the perfect amount of salt, sugar, fat in order to keep you coming back and provide unnatural rewards to keep you coming back. Drugs, pornography, cannabis, overeating. But one of the things is like, oh, I smoke cannabis. I don't do heroin or I'm looking at pornography. I'm not doing drugs or I have a problem eating. I don't have a problem doing drugs. All of it is they're all a reward. They're all just different intensities of rewards. And that's why these principles are helpful for everybody. The other principle about understanding rewards is number one, abstinence is important. Just letting yourself get a break from the reward will then break the habit. The lever pressing extinguishes after a period of time.  They'll create natural rewards that will then hone our neurobiology and infrastructure towards seeking out those natural rewards away from our unnatural or harmful rewards. Okay, so a period of abstinence is important. And again, the laboratory rats, when you think about them, oftentimes after the lever pressing has extinguished, the behavior is gone, what they do is they don't leave these poor laboratory rats alone. Then they will inject a little bit of the substance. Remember, the laboratory rat wasn't looking for it. They weren't pushing the lever. There was no habit returning. They just inject a little of the substances. What they find is once that reward comes back, then the habit comes back. So they start pressing the lever and becoming preoccupied with the lever again. But then they realize they're not getting it anymore and then the habit extinguishes. So a period of abstinence to allow your reward pathway to reset is incredibly important. And it's hard to circumvent that. Okay, so that's that. The second thing is that if you can make your reward less rewarding, however that can be, a less of a dose of your substance. So it doesn't have to be all or nothing. If you can make your reward less rewarding, like a healthier food, a less potency cannabis, and just like less of the reward of the behavior, that's a win. That's a win. And do it.  And that's a success. The third thing and the final thing is that if you can create competing rewards, if you can create competing rewards, then you can reduce the behavior. You can reduce the behavior. And inshallah, with that, we'll close up. And we can just open it up and check in.


Hi there, it's Monica Wahee giving you my usual unsolicited advice about combining public health and data science. One focus I have is trying to teach people who analyze data about how applications are built and their structure. Nowadays, there is this expectation that people who analyze data can just figure out how to analyze data that originate in applications like web applications and apps on your phone that you can use. But actually, it can be very hard for people trained in biostatistics and public health to figure out how to analyze data originating in an app. That's why you will see I have a lot of educational content on my YouTube channel and my blog explaining applications to people in public health. I feel like if you study public health and you don't study business, you can easily miss some very basic concepts when it comes to applications. Okay, now we get to another basic concept that relates to applications and that has to do with the structure used to store the data in the backend. There are basically two structures, normal form, which is also called relational, and flat. Since normal form is popular now, let's start by talking about normal form. Normal form started getting popular in about the year 2000, and this was mainly due to technological advancement. Structured query language, known as SQL or SQL, had already been contemplated and invented, but it didn't work very well before 2000. That's because it is based on a structure with a lot of different tables connected by keys or indexes. If you want to join a bunch of tables when you execute a query, you are going to need a lot of technological power, and we just didn't have that power until about 2000. So now, let's briefly look at the right side of the slide and talk about our so-called legacy structure, which is the flat structure. I say legacy because it is old, but also because some of these flat databases are still running, and we are still using them in our daily work. But new databases set up today are never flat anymore, because it is just too hard to run a flat data system today.  They literally never crash. So why don't we make all of the databases flat if they are so fast, even today, and they never crash? Well, like I said, it's because it's just too expensive. It is really expensive to keep the old ones running, and eventually, they will probably have to be replaced. The main problem with flat databases is it is a huge deal to modify them, even in minor ways. If you want to add another field to your database anywhere, it's like a Broadway production.  Now imagine certain cells are cordoned off to hold a table of data, like maybe a list of providers at a clinic. We decide we're going to allocate a set of cells consisting of so many rows and so many columns, and that patch of cells needs to hold all the columns and rows we will ever need to express the providers at this clinic, ever in the history of the database. And all the other sections of this huge theoretical spreadsheet are cordoned off and designated for different data. So I thought I'd give you an example of the same data in two different formats so you could better visualize what I mean when I say normal data versus flat data. In one of my videos, I mentioned a ride sharing app. I take ride sharing trips in Boston, and the drivers told me that they can download their data from their trips using an app. So that's what's on the left side of the slide, my concept of what the ride sharing drivers might have access to as far as data from their trips. Now what the ride sharing company has in its data stores is a table with a list of drivers who are operating. Each of those drivers makes multiple trips, and each trip has multiple attributes, like time of trip, customer taking the trip, and the beginning and ending locations. But the driver is the same driver each time. Let's say the driver's name is Mariel, and her driver ID is 1234. Let's say Mariel drives a Black Honda Accord. So for each trip where the driver is Mariel, it's going to be driver 1234, and it's going to be a Black Honda Accord. Which is why that information about Mariel the driver is kept separately from the trip information in the normal setting on the left side of the slide. It's because Mariel's information about her is always the same and does not need to be repeated. But if you look at her trips, each trip has unique attributes. So each trip needs its own row in the ride sharing trips database. And how we link them is through a field called an index. Another name for this field is a key. So each of these databases has a primary key, which is a unique value for each row. I think for Mariel, in the ride sharing drivers database, her primary key is 1234, because that's her ID. And then let's look at the ride sharing trips database again. So that has its own primary key, which is unique for each row. But it also has a foreign key, meaning a field linking each row to the correct driver in the ride sharing drivers database. So for all of Mariel's trips in the ride sharing trips database, it has a foreign key field that says it's for driver 1234. Okay, so that's how the database is structured if it is normalized. If it is flat on the right side of the slide, what happens is that we basically start with the larger database, the ride sharing trips database. That's larger because there are obviously more trips than drivers. So we have that whole table, and then we tack on a few fields from the ride sharing drivers database. We already have the primary key, which is the foreign key in the ride sharing trips database, and for Mariel, that's 1234. But we can add other fields, like we can add her name, Mariel, and that she drives a black Honda Accord. But since there is only one big flat table, those values will be repeated in each row for Mariel. And that leads us to the challenge of dealing with data from databases that were not properly normalized. So you can't tell if you are dealing with duplicate data or what's going on. Or it also brings up the challenge of dealing with data that come from multiple relational tables, and it's hard to figure out how to put it together. These are data science challenges. If you are into health data analytics and you want to tackle data science challenges, consider taking my online applications basics course. This is one of the first courses you will take if you join my online group mentoring program aimed at people in health data analytics who want to go into data science. If you have a background in public health or health care and want to take your career in a more data science direction, then check out my mentoring program. I'll put links to the course and information on the mentoring program in the description to this video. Thank you for watching, and I hope you learned a little thing or two about using data coming from applications today. If you did, please hit the like button and leave a comment about what you learned. Thanks and have a great day. Thank you for watching this video, which is part of the Public Health to Data Science rebrand program. If you are interested in joining the program, please sign up for a 30 minute Zoom interview using the link in the description.


Before I had children I used to think how do people who have children work challenging jobs and then come home and deal with the demands of a kid and now I realize it's actually sort of a secret weapon. You come home and you get this breath of fresh air from this little person who loves you and is exploring the world and I think I smile more than I ever thought I could. I was actually one of the first Coast Guard mothers to benefit from the reservist backbill program that allowed me to take expanded convalescent leave and primary care give relief. My boss, my supervisor and my co-workers were amazing. They were so excited for me to have a baby. The program allowed me to focus on my health and on my new baby without worrying about work at all. The reservist who came in was incredible. Not only did she meet all of the needs of the office but she became a mentor and a friend to me as I went through maternity leave and then returned to work. It made me feel empowered. I didn't feel like I had to choose between putting in a dream sheet for a job that was good for my career or a job that would be good for being a parent. It's certainly a challenge to balance both but the parental leave program with the reservist backfill enables members to do that without being disadvantaged themselves or having their command bearing the burden. Nobody and nothing can prepare you for being a new parent and especially being a working parent. I'm excited to stay in the Coast Guard as my family grows. Baby number two is due any day.


It's therefore time for Member Statements and Member from Bruce Gray Owen Salmon. Thank you very much Mr. Speaker. I'm honored to rise and speak about an important event that took place last Thursday. International Childhood Cancer Day is recognized every February 15th to raise awareness and express support for children and youth with cancer, survivors and their families. It is also a call for action to address the growing challenge posed by this disease. According to the World Health Organization, who recognized International Childhood Cancer Day, one child dies of cancer every three minutes globally and 300,000 who are 19 years and under are diagnosed with cancer every year. Cancer is the leading cause of non-communicable disease death in children globally. In Canada, cancer is the leading cause of death in children, second only to death by accident. With so many children and too many children dying of cancer, we need to continue to ensure we provide access to cutting-edge cancer therapies. Mr. Speaker, I support the call to make childhood cancer a child health priority in Ontario, Canada and across the world. The fight against childhood cancer should never be fought alone. This is why I was pleased with members of this House, when this was pleased the members of this House voted unanimously in 2016 to pass my resolution and proclaim the month of September as Childhood Cancer Awareness Month in Ontario. This was our way of showing that we stand united to conquer childhood cancer. We stand united with all the great champions for this fight. From the Pediatric Oncology Group of Ontario, the MAGGI Project, Ag Advocacy for Canadian Childhood Oncology Research Network and many others. Every one of us here has a constituent, a hospital, an individual or corporate donors and research partners in our writings who are either taking action or working tirelessly or doing both to ensure a brighter and healthier future for all of our children. In the case of Bruce Graydon Sound, Neil Rourke has won. Neil works every day to call for action helping build a future free from cancer. I ask all of us to continue to support them and to keep fighting for a world free from childhood cancer because, as in the words of my hero Terry Fox, somewhere the hurting must stop. Thank you Mr. Speaker. Thank you. Member Stavis, the member from Oshawa. 2018 is the 65th anniversary year of Community Living Oshawa Clarrington and I would like to congratulate and thank Board President Patrick Grist, Executive Director Terry Gray, the Board and the whole clock team for their tremendous work in our community. Community Living Oshawa Clarrington was started in 1953 by a few parents concerned for their developmentally disabled children. Now 65 years later, clock has a workforce of more than 350 and provides support and services for more than 450 people living with developmental disabilities. Its vision is for a community where everyone belongs, is listened to, is treated fairly and can make informed choices. Clock believes in self-determination and the achievement of personal goals. Everyone deserves to live a meaningful life in their community. Judy Quail is one of our bright, vibrant Community Living neighbors. She spoke at the anniversary event and shared, quote, Many years ago I lived in an institution where I wasn't allowed to do what I wanted to do. I was told when to sleep, when to eat and what I was going to eat. I was not allowed to go to school or get a job. I was not able to go out when I wanted to. When I left the institution, Community Living was there to help me. They have supported me by helping me learn the skills that I needed to be able to live in my own apartment, to get my own groceries and cook and eat what I want, go to sleep and wake up when I feel like it. They helped to teach me the skills I needed to get a job. I go out for coffee whenever I feel like it. I am part of many of clock's committees. Clock helps us to be as independent as we want to be. And I know that they have made a big difference in the lives of hundreds of other people and their families over the past 65 years. Happy anniversary, clock. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It's a pleasure for me to rise in the house today to honor Black History Month. This month provides us with a wonderful opportunity to recognize and celebrate the historical contributions of our Black population that has defined our great country for over 400 years. From a political perspective, I can think of Lincoln Alexander, the first Black MP, the first Black Cabinet Minister, and the first Black Lieutenant Governor of Ontario, Leonard Berthwaite, the first Black MPP elected in 1963, Gina Gosti in the first African-Canadian woman to be elected to the Canadian House of Commons, and the first to serve in the Federal Cabinet, Mary Ann Chambers, first Black woman, Liberal Cabinet Minister, and Zanana Akande, the first Black woman elected to the Legislative Assembly of Ontario and the first Black woman to serve as a Cabinet Minister in Canada. Not only is this month important for looking back, but it also gives us the opportunity to look forward at what we can do to deliver better outcomes to Black communities across Ontario. Currently, the province is working on a number of items that aims to address anti-Black racism and level the playing field so that people from the Black community have the same opportunities as everyone else to be successful and thrive in our great province. Just a few months ago, we announced that we will invest over one million for public awareness campaign that will address racial prejudice and promote strength in the Black community. Mr. Speaker, it is vital that we make these important investments that we can take time to celebrate the accomplishment, rich diverse history, resiliency, creativity, and innovation of the Black community. It's also equally important to recognize Black history as Ontario's history and as everyone's history. Thank you. Thank you. Speaker, I rise to pay tribute to Robert Lawn, the beloved former Mayor of Prescott who died earlier this month at age 83. A long-time teacher and principal, Robert was Prescott's mayor from 2002 to 2006 and a municipal councillor from 2010 to 2014. Robert's quiet dignity and passion for his community and its people endeared him to the residents of the 410. His passing on February the 10th was a loss felt by everyone. As an educator, Robert's kindness and genuine interest in his students inspired generations of young people to do great things. Their heartfelt tributes to him over the past week are a testament to the impression he made on them. Robert loved Prescott from his arrival in 1966 and he remained relentlessly optimistic about the town's future. So it was natural that in retirement he turned his considerable wisdom towards making it a better community by getting involved in municipal politics and as a volunteer. He was also an early champion on what would become Prescott's signature summer event, the St. Lawrence Shakespeare Festival. As an educator, community builder and especially as a husband and father, Robert Lawn made all whose lives he touched better for the time with him.  I want to thank them for allowing us to share Robert with them. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Good to member statements, a member from London Fanshawe. Today I stand on behalf of my community to express my dismay at this government's decision not to step in to save an important health program at London Health Sciences Centre. For 37 years the cardiac fitness institute or CFI has helped patients who have suffered a serious cardiac event with long term rehab services with no cut off timelines for treatment. Despite the success of this program, LHSC has decided to shut down the program and the government has decided not to step in. Hundreds of people are worried for their health. They are wondering and cannot understand why a good program would not have been supported by this Liberal government. They are frustrated that they cannot count on getting the healthcare they need to be there when they need it. They are angry about the decision that removes their access to a program that has proven to be a lifeline in London. Their families are worried too and everyone in London is disappointed that this Liberal government will not stand up and fight for London and maintain that the CFI services that our cardiac patients need at LHSC. What I want people to know, the people of London to know is that Londoners don't have to settle for this. When I met with patients of CFI they put it best when they said I would not be here today if it weren't for this program. On behalf of the current and future patients of this program I stand today demanding this government do the right thing and step in to ensure this program is not shut down. Thank you. Thank you. I would like to further remember statements from the member from Scarborough Lachin Court. Thank you Mr. Speaker. The implementation of the new OHIP Plus Children and Youth Pharmacare is recognized as an important public health initiative for Ontario's youngest citizen. Young people under 25 now have access to over 4,400 medications with no upfront cost. These medications treat many health conditions such as allergies, diabetes, depressions, cancers, epilepsy and asthma. When families and young people do not have to worry about the cost of prescription medications we reduce the demands of our health care system while keeping Ontarians healthy. Sheila, a constituent of Scarborough Lachin Court and a student at UTSC stated that, quote, I witnessed numerous stress with access to prescription drugs. OHIP Plus provides me with financial ease and confidence we proactive with my health and the pro. Speaker, my writing of Scarborough Lachin Court is extremely diverse and have a large newcomer population. OHIP Plus enables newcomers, young students, people and unemployed Ontarians have access to prescription medications. Since January the 1st an estimated 1.2 million Ontarians have used this program. Dr. Jordan Cheskis and entomologists in Scarborough indicated, quote, OHIP Plus enable many families to access medication for their children and will likely improve medication compliance for young patients to achieve better health outcomes. End of quote. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank Minister Hoskin for championing OHIP Plus and ensuring Ontario's younger citizens have greater access and equity to health care. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you. Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I'm pleased to rise today to welcome two young people from here in Bruce. They're participants in this week's Ontario Legislative Assembly model parliament program. Chantil Gill is from Tiverton and Kushali Shah is from Concordant. And some of you may remember Kushali as she served as a page a couple of years ago. They'll both be representing the great writing of here in Bruce as well as Simcoe Gray with more than 100 students from across the province. I look forward to meeting both of these young ambitious people as they acquire an appreciation for what we all do right here in the legislature and to get some firsthand experience about what life in politics is all about. And I'd like to quote Chantil Gill for a moment from her wonderful essay. In it, she wrote about the program and I will quote. This model parliament will provide me with opportunities to meet various like-minded people who share the same passion for democratic values. And, Speaker, I couldn't have said it better myself. And Kushali wrote, and I quote, I believe immoral values crave to learn about current events, value relationships, and I am eager to face new challenges. Speaker, I look forward to being at model parliament reception tomorrow and to welcome these two promising young people from here in Bruce along with all the other participants from across the province. And I look forward to all of us seeing and greeting these young people and sharing our parliamentary experiences with them to make this experience as rewarding as possible for all of them. Thank you. And I assume on our best behavior, right? Okay, that's just what I'd ask that question. Members, thank you. From Kingston in the audience. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And I'd like to welcome everyone back from their respective writings. Over the past few years, I've had many wonderful conversations and very meaningful ones about chronic homelessness with constituents and stakeholders from across the province. This condition impacts Ontario's most vulnerable citizens in all of our writings. And today I'm thrilled that we're joined by leading healthcare professionals, respected homeless service providers, and key executives from across this province to shed light on this complex societal challenge. Chronic homelessness is an issue that is very dear to my heart. And it is important to recognize that each person living with this condition has a unique story and history. Many experience serious mental illness, dementia, developmental disabilities, acquired brain injuries, and substance abuse, isolationism, and despair. Remembering that each one of these individuals is a human being, that they feel pain, that they have goals, they deserve compassion, and have the right to be treated equally and fairly is so incredibly important. And as such, we have a shared responsibility to work together on chronic homelessness. Mr. Speaker, I'm proud of our government's goal to end chronic homelessness by 2025. And importantly, Ontario is supporting 48 community-led projects through the Local Poverty Reduction Fund with an investment of over $16 million. I would like to welcome everyone to our reception in the dining room tonight at 5.30 to 7.30. Thank you very much. Thank you. Further remembers. So, stay next to the member from Lansing. Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I am proud to congratulate Team Canada's Flag Bearers and the most decorated figure skaters in Olympic history. Scott won the Olympic Ice Dance Competition. Their second gold medal of the 2018 Olympic Games. It was a thrilling and fitting finale to their tremendous career. Ilderton, Scott's hometown, and the home of the Skating Club where Scott and Tessa became partners, has been decked out in red and white in support of their hometown heroes. And I think the excitement from the Ilderton Community Centre last night was heard across Lampton, Kent, Middlesex, and across our entire nation. Watching Tessa and Scott skate together, it's easy for fans and casual viewers alike to see it's something incredibly special. Partners, since they were only seven and nine years old, these skaters and their families have made tremendous sacrifices to pursue their passion. They invested blood, sweat, and tears into a career that has brought them national and international glory in more titles and medals than they have time to list. But perhaps more importantly, they've inspired people all over the world with the beauty of their craft and the tenacity with which they have pursued their dreams. I'm sure I speak for everyone in here and saying thank you. Scott and Tessa for bringing so much excitement, passion, and pride not only to your hometown but to the sport of figure skating into all of Canada. Thank you. Thank all members for their statements.