Improving Public Understanding of Large-Scale Transit Projects: A case study of the Region of Waterloo’s ION

In light of increasing social, economic and environmental costs associated with automobile use, Canadian municipalities are facing mounting transportation pressures and many mid-size cities are investing in larger scale public transit improvement projects. Given that automobile dependence is still pervasive, there is concern over attracting sufficient ridership. Hence it is increasingly important to understand what factors influence individuals’ support for a public transit improvement project. Through the use of a survey and focus group sessions, this study examines factors that may influence the effectiveness of communication practices for increasing public support for a light rail transit project before operation through enhanced public understanding; The ION in the Region of Waterloo. Specifically, the influence of socio-demographic characteristics, project branding, and the provision of personalized trip information are examined in terms of their influence on the level of support. While the provision multimodal travel time did not have a strong influence on participants’ level of support for the project, findings suggest that it is beneficial for municipalities to include defined personal benefits, in addition to broader community benefits in their communication strategy. Furthermore, that branding can be used to enhance public understanding of a transit improvement project. The project brand must be nestled within the municipality’s broader public transit brand and speak to the diverse needs of residents. Municipalities should also target undecided residents to increase public support (women and residents under 30 in the Region of Waterloo). Results from this study can be used to improve marketing materials and enhance the perception of the ION and other subsequent transit investments by informing future outreach campaigns, both in the Region of Waterloo and other mid-size Canadian cities

Orthogonal inactivation of influenza and the creation of detergent resistant viral aggregates: towards a novel vaccine strategy

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>It has been previously shown that enveloped viruses can be inactivated using aryl azides, such as 1-iodo-5-azidonaphthalene (INA), plus UVA irradiation with preservation of surface epitopes in the inactivated virus preparations. Prolonged UVA irradiation in the presence of INA results in ROS-species formation, which in turn results in detergent resistant viral protein fractions.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Herein, we characterize the applicability of this technique to inactivate influenza. It is shown that influenza virus + INA (100 micromolar) + UVA irradiation for 30 minutes results in a significant (<it>p </it>< 0.05) increase in pelletablehemagglutinin after Triton X-100 treatment followed by ultracentrifugation. Additionally, characterization of the virus suspension by immunogold labeling in cryo-EM, and viral pellet characterization via immunoprecipitation with a neutralizing antibody, shows preservation of neutralization epitopes after this treatment.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>These orthogonally inactivated viral preparations with detergent resistant fractions are being explored as a novel route for safe, effective inactivated vaccines generated from a variety of enveloped viruses.</p

Young children’s use of syntactic cues to learn proper names and count nouns

In 6 experiments, 144 toddlers were tested in groups ranging in mean age from 20 to 37 months. In all experiments, children learned a novel label for a doll or a stuffed animal. The label was modeled syntactically as either a count noun (e.g., &quot;This is a ZAV&quot;) or a proper name (e.g., &quot;This is ZAV&quot;). The object was then moved to a new location in front of the child, and a second identical-looking object was placed nearby. The children&apos;s task was to choose 1 of the 2 objects as a referent for the novel word. By 24 months, both girls (Experiment 2) and boys (Experiment 5) were significantly more likely to select the labeled object if they heard a proper name than if they heard a count noun. At 20 months, neither girls (Experiments 1 and 6) nor boys (Experiment 1) demonstrated this effect. By their 2nd birthdays, children can use syntactic information to distinguish appropriately between labels for individual objects and those for object categories. Any object in the world (e.g., a cat) can be conceptualized as a member of a category (e.g., as a cat) or as an individual in its own right (e.g., as Felix), and a sensitivity to this distinction is fundamental to human cognition (e.g., In a seminal study, Macnamara and his colleagues This research was supported by an operating grant from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada. A portion of this work was reported in Sharon C. Lee&apos;s honors thesis submitted to the Department of Psychology, University of British Columbia, and was presented at the Boston University Conference on Language Development, Boston, MA, November 1999. We thank Elizabeth Job, Hana Motozono, Jodi Pawluski, Kelley Persoage, and Jennifer Wide for their assistance with all aspects of the work and Susan Graham for helpful comments on a previous version of this article. Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to D. Geoffrey Hall, Department of Psychology, University of British Columbia, 2136 West Mall, Vancouver, British Columbia V6T 1Z4, Canada. Electronic mail may be sent to [email protected]. noun (CN) condition or the proper name (PN) condition. In the CN condition, children heard the novel word modeled in the sentence &quot;This is a ZAV&quot; and applied to one of two dolls that differed in hair color (and that differed in both hair and dress color in a follow-up experiment). These children were expected to interpret the word as a count noun, designating an entire category (e.g., DOLL). As a result, they were expected to select each doll about half the time when subsequently asked to extend the word ZAV. In the PN condition, children heard the same word applied to the same doll, but it was modeled in the sentence &quot;This is ZAV.&quot; These children were expected to interpret the word as a proper name designating the labeled doll. As a result, they were expected to choose only the labeled doll when subsequently asked to extend the word ZAV. A key result from the studies by Macnamara and his colleagues is that girls as young as 17 months of age chose the labeled doll significantly more often in the PN condition than in the CN conditio

Flavanone-rich citrus beverages counteract the transient decline in postprandial endothelial function in humans: a randomised, controlled, double-masked, cross-over intervention study

Specific flavonoid-rich foods/beverages are reported to exert positive effects on vascular function; however, data relating to effects in the postprandial state are limited. The present study investigated the postprandial, time-dependent (0–7 h) impact of citrus flavanone intake on vascular function. An acute, randomised, controlled, double-masked, cross-over intervention study was conducted by including middle-aged healthy men (30–65 years, n 28) to assess the impact of flavanone intake (orange juice: 128·9 mg; flavanone-rich orange juice: 272·1 mg; homogenised whole orange: 452·8 mg; isoenergetic control: 0 mg flavanones) on postprandial (double meal delivering a total of 81 g of fat) endothelial function. Endothelial function was assessed by flow-mediated dilatation (FMD) of the brachial artery at 0, 2, 5 and 7 h. Plasma levels of paringenin/hesperetin metabolites (sulphates and glucuronides) and nitric oxide species were also measured. All flavanone interventions were effective at attenuating transient impairments in FMD induced by the double meal (7 h post intake; P <0·05), but no dose–response effects were observed. The effects on FMD coincided with the peak of naringenin/hesperetin metabolites in circulation (7 h) and sustained levels of plasma nitrite. In summary, citrus flavanones are effective at counteracting the negative impact of a sequential double meal on human vascular function, potentially through the actions of flavanone metabolites on nitric oxide

Enumerating pelvic recurrence following radical cystectomy for bladder cancer: A canadian multi-institutional study

Introduction: We aimed to enumerate the rate of pelvic recurrence following radical cystectomy at university-affiliated hospitals in Canada. Methods: Canadian, university-affiliated hospitals were invited to participate. They were asked to identify the first 10 consecutive patients undergoing radical cystectomy starting January 1, 2005, who had urothelial carcinoma stages pT3/T4 N0-2 M0. The first 10 consecutive cases starting January 1, 2005 who met these criteria were the patients submitted by that institution with information regarding tumour stage, age, number of nodes removed, and last known clinical status in regard to recurrence and patterns of failure. Results: Of the 111 patients, 80% had pT3 and 20% pT4 disease, with 62% being node-negative, 14% pN1, and 27% pN2; 57% had 10 or more nodes removed. Cumulative incidence of pelvic relapse was 40% among the entire group Conclusions: This review demonstrates a high rate of pelvic tumour recurrence following radical cystectomy for pT3/T4 urothelial cancer

Birth cohorts in asthma and allergic diseases: Report of a NIAID/NHLBI/MeDALL joint workshop

Population-based birth cohorts on asthma and allergies increasingly provide new insights into the development and natural history of the diseases. Over 130 birth cohorts focusing on asthma and allergy have been initiated in the last 30 years. A NIAID (National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases), NHLBI (National Heart Lung and Blood Institute), MeDALL (Mechanisms of the Development of Allergy, Framework Programme 7 of the European Commission) joint workshop was held in Bethesda, MD, USA September 11–12, 2012 with 3 objectives (1) documenting the knowledge that asthma/allergy birth cohorts have provided, (2) identifying the knowledge gaps and inconsistencies and (3) developing strategies for moving forward, including potential new study designs and the harmonization of existing asthma birth cohort data. The meeting was organized around the presentations of 5 distinct workgroups: (1) clinical phenotypes, (2) risk factors, (3) immune development of asthma and allergy, (4) pulmonary development and (5) harmonization of existing birth cohorts. This manuscript presents the workgroup reports and provides web links (AsthmaBirthCohorts.niaid.nih.gov or www.medall-fp7.eu) where the reader will find tables describing the characteristics of the birth cohorts included in this report, type of data collected at differing ages, and a selected bibliography provided by the participating birth cohorts

A Reduced Astrocyte Response to β-Amyloid Plaques in the Ageing Brain Associates with Cognitive Impairment

Aims β-amyloid (Aβ) plaques are a key feature of Alzheimer’s disease pathology but correlate poorly with dementia. They are associated with astrocytes which may modulate the effect of Aβ-deposition on the neuropil. This study characterised the astrocyte response to Aβ plaque subtypes, and investigated their association with cognitive impairment. Methods Aβ plaque subtypes were identified in the cingulate gyrus using dual labelling immunohistochemistry to Aβ and GFAP+ astrocytes, and quantitated in two cortical areas: the area of densest plaque burden and the deep cortex near the white matter border (layer VI). Three subtypes were defined for both diffuse and compact plaques (also known as classical or core-plaques): Aβ plaque with (1) no associated astrocytes, (2) focal astrogliosis or (3) circumferential astrogliosis. Results In the area of densest burden, diffuse plaques with no astrogliosis (β = -0.05, p = 0.001) and with focal astrogliosis (β = -0.27, p = 0.009) significantly associated with lower MMSE scores when controlling for sex and age at death. In the deep cortex (layer VI), both diffuse and compact plaques without astrogliosis associated with lower MMSE scores (β = -0.15, p = 0.017 and β = -0.81, p = 0.03, respectively). Diffuse plaques with no astrogliosis in layer VI related to dementia status (OR = 1.05, p = 0.025). In the area of densest burden, diffuse plaques with no astrogliosis or with focal astrogliosis associated with increasing Braak stage (β = 0.01, p<0.001 and β = 0.07, p<0.001, respectively), and ApoEε4 genotype (OR = 1.02, p = 0.001 and OR = 1.10, p = 0.016, respectively). In layer VI all plaque subtypes associated with Braak stage, and compact amyloid plaques with little and no associated astrogliosis associated with ApoEε4 genotype (OR = 1.50, p = 0.014 and OR = 0.10, p = 0.003, respectively). Conclusions Reactive astrocytes in close proximity to either diffuse or compact plaques may have a neuroprotective role in the ageing brain, and possession of at least one copy of the ApoEε4 allele impacts the astroglial response to Aβ plaques