From Accessibility and Exposure to Engagement: A Multi-scalar Approach to Measuring Environmental Determinants of Children’s Health Using Geographic Information Systems

A growing body of research suggests that increasing the accessibility to health-related environmental features and increasing exposure to and engagement in outdoor environments leads to positive benefits for the overall health and well-being of children. Additionally, research over the last twenty-five years has documented a decline in the time children spend outdoors. Outdoor activity in children is associated with increased levels of physical fitness, and cognitive well-being. Despite acknowledging this connection, problems occur for researchers when attempting to identify the child’s location and to measure whether a child has made use of an accessible health-related facility, or where, when and for how long a child spends time outdoors. The purpose of this thesis is to measure children’s accessibility to, exposure to, and engagement with health-promoting features of their environment. The research on the environment-health link aims to meet two objectives: 1) to quantify the magnitude of positional discrepancies and accessibility misclassification that result from using several commonly-used address proxies; and 2) to examine how individual-level, household-level, and neighbourhood-level factors are associated with the quantity of time children spend outdoors. This will be achieved by employing the use of GPS tracking to objectively quantify the time spent outdoors using a novel machine learning algorithm, and by applying a hexagonal grid to extract built environment measures. This study aims to identify the impact of positional discrepancies when measuring accessibility by examining misclassification of address proxies to several health-related facilities throughout the City of London and Middlesex County, Ontario, Canada. Positional errors are quantified by multiple neighbourhood types. Findings indicate that the shorter the threshold distance used to measure accessibility between subject population and health-related facility, the higher the proportion of misclassified addresses. Using address proxies based on large aggregated units, such as centroids of census tracts or dissemination areas, can result in vast positional discrepancies, and therefore should be avoided in spatial epidemiologic research. To reduce the misclassification, and positional errors, the use of individual portable passive GPS receivers were employed to objectively track the spatial patterns, and quantify the time spent outdoors of children (aged 7 to 13 years) in London, Ontario across multiple neighbourhood types. On the whole, children spent most of their outdoor time during school hours (recess time) and the non-school time outdoors in areas immediately surrounding their home. From these findings, policymakers, educators, and parents can support children’s health by making greater efforts to promote outdoor activities for improved health and quality of life in children. This thesis aims to advance our understanding of the environment and health-link and suggests practical steps for more well-informed decision making by combining novel classification and mapping techniques

The impact of acute loud noise on the behaviour of laboratory birds

Funding: The Roslin Institute is funded by a BBSRC Institute Strategic Program Grant BB/P013759/1.Husbandry procedures and facility settings, such as low-frequency fire alarms, can produce noises in a laboratory environment that cause stress to animals used in research. However, most of the data demonstrating harmful effects that have, consequently, led to adaptations to management, have largely come from laboratory rodents with little known of the impacts on avian behavior and physiology. Here we examined whether exposure to a routine laboratory noise, a low-frequency fire alarm test, induced behavioral changes in laboratory zebra finches (Taeniopygia guttata). Twenty-four breeding pairs of zebra finches were randomly selected and exposed to the low-frequency fire alarm (sounding for 10–20 s) or no noise (control) on separate test days. All birds were filmed before and after the alarm sounded and on a control day (without the alarm). The zebra finches decreased their general activity and increased stationary and social behaviors after exposure to the alarm. Brief exposure to a low-frequency alarm disrupted the birds' behavior for at least 15 min. The induction of this behavioral stress response suggests that low-frequency sound alarms in laboratory facilities have the potential to compromise the welfare of laboratory birds.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

The Impact of Tree Planting Program Governance Structure on Tree Survivorship and Vigor: A Case Study using the Massachusetts Greening the Gateway Cities Program

Trees in urban neighborhoods benefit residents by reducing building energy costs, providing cleaner air, decreasing surface runoff, and improving quality of life. However, tree canopy cover is not evenly distributed across neighborhoods in many mid-sized American cities which leads to higher air and surface temperatures, and increased energy bills for residents who are the most economically vulnerable. The state of Massachusetts (USA) created the Greening the Gateway Cities (GGC) program to increase tree canopy cover by 10% in post-industrial, midsized cities with lower educational attainment and lower income than state averages. The study posed two questions: what is the governance structure of the GGC program? How successful is the program using annual survivorship and vigor of the trees? This research examines the GGC program as a case study for a governance structure that fosters connections between the city, community and residents can create the social and environmental infrastructure to support increased tree canopy in urban neighborhoods. Data was collected in four gateway cities in Massachusetts: Chicopee, Fall River, Holyoke and Chelsea. 49 residents who received trees as part of the program were interviewed as well as two DCR foresters, three city planners, one head of the city’s community maintenance (Department of Public Works), and two paid staff and three volunteers of community partners. These interviews informed the creation of a governance framework for the GGC program. Tree survivorship, annual mortality and vigor of 3459 trees were used to measure the initial success of the planting program and to forecast potential benefits to residents. Results show how the GGC planting program can produce increased sense of ownership between cities, communities and individuals in the planting zones. The governance model, with an emphasis on stewardship, showed high rates of annual survivorship (~96.5%), low annual mortality rates (~3.5%) and average vigor rating of 1.5 (1 being healthy, 5 being dead)

The development of the management function in professional association football in England

This thesis is a study of the development of the management function in professional association football in England from the earliest days of codified and organised football to the present day. I have deployed the theoretical lens of figurational sociology, as formulated and described by Norbert Elias and his followers, notably Eric Dunning. This requires identification and analysis of the interdependencies and power relationships between the emergent function of football management and others forming the broader football figuration. As the game became a professional sport, the manager figure did not exist. Administrators eventually had their title changed from secretary to secretary-manager. In time this became simply ‘manager.’ The primary interdependencies were those of the manager with owners/directors and also with players. I divided the total timeframe for the function into five easily identifiable periods from the 1860s to the present time. My work, from a methodological perspective, was historical/documentary. My sources included existing socio-historical manuscripts, biographies, and autobiographies of former players, managers and directors as well as newspaper accounts and football magazines. I also carried out twelve interviews with former players and managers from the English professional game. The findings illustrate how the function developed from one with low level power chances to one in which there was substantial autonomy during a period when managers’ powers had increased relative to those with whom they shared interdependencies. More recent, wholly unplanned changes within the game led to changes in the management function, with more specific but more limited responsibilities and a loss of functions which had appeared embedded, principally control over transfer activity. In addition, I also illustrate and explain how the broader British habitus which was linked to Britain’s position in the figuration of nations, shaped and affected the management function in professional football

Sex differences in performance on a cognitive bias task in Norway rats

This research was supported by summer vacation scholarships from the Carnegie Trust (S.M.) and Experimental Psychology Society (P.C.).Cognitive biases, which are defined as distortions in cognitive processes that are influenced by a background emotional state, can provide information about an individual’s affective state. For instance, negative cognitive biases, where individuals assess ambiguous situations as unrewarding, are commonly found in humans suffering from anxiety disorders. Cognitive biases are also increasingly used as indicators of affective state in animals. As it is not clear whether female and male animals differ in performance on cognitive bias tasks, we used a spatial location task to examine cognitive bias in female and male adult Norway rats (Rattus norvegicus). We trained the rats to distinguish between reward and unrewarded locations, and then provided food pots at ambiguous, intermediate positions. We found that, during testing, females were slowest to approach the unrewarded location, while they approached ambiguous and rewarded locations similarly quickly. In contrast, the males approached all locations quickly. This sex difference is consistent with previous evidence that male rats are quicker than females to extinguish previously learned associations. Cognitive bias tasks could therefore be used to examine sex differences in learning strategies, as well as providing opportunities to test predictions about sex differences in welfare requirements.PostprintPeer reviewe

Attachment and coping as theoretical frameworks for understanding adjustment to university for local and international students

For most students, coming to university is among their first major life transitions, presenting them with many adaptational demands for which they may or may not be adequately prepared. Theoretical views of stress and coping would suggest that adjustment to university will be influenced by individual resources for coping,their social resources and the adaptational demands of the new environment. Attachment theory and research, on the other hand, would suggest that early attachment experiences help shape internal working models that determine how individuals view themselves and their expectations in adolescence and beyond. A secure attachment base allows individuals to explore new situations with the internal resources to evaluate and cope with the anxiety inherent in such new situations. Peer relationships during this transition period are seen as an extension of the form and quality of those relationships within the family. There is debate in the literature as to the applicability of attachment theory across cultures, with much of the contemporary research focused on western populations. Student attrition is a major area of concern for universities. Helping students successfully make the adjustment is of primary importance in addressing a large part of the reasons for attrition. Academic factors explain only a small proportion of the reasons for students leaving university. A greater understanding of the role of attachment relationships and coping style in adjustment to university by both local and international students will help to better inform the design of appropriate interventions and support structures for students