Continuing care in rural Alberta: a scoping review

This is an open-access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License, which permits use and distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non-commercial and no modification or adaptations are made.Across Canada the demand for continuing care services is increasing. However, little is known about the implications this has for rural communities. This scoping review identifies several key themes in the literature related to continuing care in Alberta. These include contextual factors, quality assurance and improvement, and workforce issues. We identify the ways in which rural dynamics are included in, or omitted from, this literature and recommend areas for future research on rural continuing care provision. Further research on residential care services in rural communities should work towards bridging the rural health, academic, and organizational literature on continuing care. This synthesis will help to position rurality as a determinant of health and to situate continuing care services in specific rural settings.Ye

Opportunities for better use of collective action theory in research and governance for invasive species management

Sònia Graham va finalitzar el seu treball quan treballava a l'ICTA, que ha col·laborat al seu finançament amb fons Maria de Maeztu.Unidad de excelencia María de Maeztu MdM-2015-0552Controlling invasive species presents a public-good dilemma. Although environmental, social, and economic benefits of control accrue to society, costs are borne by only a few individuals and organizations. For decades, policy makers have used incentives and sanctions to encourage or coerce individual actors to contribute to the public good, with limited success. Diverse, subnational efforts to collectively manage invasive plants, insects, and animals provide effective alternatives to traditional command-and-control approaches. Despite this work, there has been little systematic evaluation of collective efforts to determine whether there are consistent principles underpinning success. We reviewed 32 studies to identify the extent to which collectiveaction theories from related agricultural and environmental fields explain collaborative invasive species management approaches; describe and differentiate emergent invasive species collective-action efforts; and provide guidance on how to enable more collaborative approaches to invasive species management. We identified 4 types of collective action aimed at invasive species-externally led, community led, comanaged, and organizational coalitions-that provide blueprints for future invasive species management. Existing collective-action theories could explain the importance attributed to developing shared knowledge of the socialecological system and the need for social capital. Yet, collection action on invasive species requires different types of monitoring, sanctions, and boundary definitions. We argue that future government policies can benefit from establishing flexible boundaries that encourage social learning and enable colocated individuals and organizations to identify common goals, pool resources, and coordinate efforts

Generation of Priority Research Questions to Inform Conservation Policy and Management at a National Level

Integrating knowledge from across the natural and social sciences is necessary to effectively address societal tradeoffs between human use of biological diversity and its preservation. Collaborative processes can change the ways decision makers think about scientific evidence, enhance levels of mutual trust and credibility, and advance the conservation policy discourse. Canada has responsibility for a large fraction of some major ecosystems, such as boreal forests, Arctic tundra, wetlands, and temperate and Arctic oceans. Stressors to biological diversity within these ecosystems arise from activities of the country's resource-based economy, as well as external drivers of environmental change. Effective management is complicated by incongruence between ecological and political boundaries and conflicting perspectives on social and economic goals. Many knowledge gaps about stressors and their management might be reduced through targeted, timely research. We identify 40 questions that, if addressed or answered, would advance research that has a high probability of supporting development of effective policies and management strategies for species, ecosystems, and ecological processes in Canada. A total of 396 candidate questions drawn from natural and social science disciplines were contributed by individuals with diverse organizational affiliations. These were collaboratively winnowed to 40 by our team of collaborators. The questions emphasize understanding ecosystems, the effects and mitigation of climate change, coordinating governance and management efforts across multiple jurisdictions, and examining relations between conservation policy and the social and economic well-being of Aboriginal peoples. The questions we identified provide potential links between evidence from the conservation sciences and formulation of policies for conservation and resource management. Our collaborative process of communication and engagement between scientists and decision makers for generating and prioritizing research questions at a national level could be a model for similar efforts beyond Canada

Pharmaceuticals and personal care products in the environment: What are the big questions?

Background: Over the past 10-15 years, a substantial amount of work has been done by the scientific, regulatory, and business communities to elucidate the effects and risks of pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs) in the environment. Objective: This review was undertaken to identify key outstanding issues regarding the effects of PPCPs on human and ecological health in order to ensure that future resources will be focused on the most important areas. Data sources: To better understand and manage the risks of PPCPs in the environment, we used the "key question" approach to identify the principle issues that need to be addressed. Initially, questions were solicited from academic, government, and business communities around the world. A list of 101 questions was then discussed at an international expert workshop, and a top-20 list was developed. Following the workshop, workshop attendees ranked the 20 questions by importance. Data synthesis: The top 20 priority questions fell into seven categories: a) prioritization of substances for assessment, b) pathways of exposure, c) bioavailability and uptake, d) effects characterization, e) risk and relative risk, f) antibiotic resistance, and g) risk management. Conclusions: A large body of information is now available on PPCPs in the environment. This exercise prioritized the most critical questions to aid in development of future research programs on the topic.Centro de Investigaciones del Medioambient

Machine Learning Techniques for the Detection of Shockable Rhythms in Automated External Defibrillators

Early recognition of ventricular fibrillation (VF) and electrical therapy are key for the survivalof out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) patients treated with automated external defibrilla-tors (AED). AED algorithms for VF-detection are customarily assessed using Holter record-ings from public electrocardiogram (ECG) databases, which may be different from the ECGseen during OHCA events. This study evaluates VF-detection using data from both OHCApatients and public Holter recordings. ECG-segments of 4-s and 8-s duration were ana-lyzed. For each segment 30 features were computed and fed to state of the art machinelearning (ML) algorithms. ML-algorithms with built-in feature selection capabilities wereused to determine the optimal feature subsets for both databases. Patient-wise bootstraptechniques were used to evaluate algorithm performance in terms of sensitivity (Se), speci-ficity (Sp) and balanced error rate (BER). Performance was significantly better for publicdata with a mean Se of 96.6%, Sp of 98.8% and BER 2.2% compared to a mean Se of94.7%, Sp of 96.5% and BER 4.4% for OHCA data. OHCA data required two times morefeatures than the data from public databases for an accurate detection (6 vs 3). No signifi-cant differences in performance were found for different segment lengths, the BER differ-ences were below 0.5-points in all cases. Our results show that VF-detection is morechallenging for OHCA data than for data from public databases, and that accurate VF-detection is possible with segments as short as 4-s

Rural Governmentality in Alberta: A Case Study of Neoliberalism in Rural Canada

Rural communities in Canada have faced a long history of capital and labour flight, resource extraction, and political marginalization. At the same time, despite decades of efforts toward rural development and economic/social diversification, there is little evidence of change or improved resilience in rural Canada. This article seeks to examine this lack of change against the backdrop of that developmental history, and the underlying logics that have informed rural policy-making. Focusing on Alberta, this paper argues that rural communities face a third phase of developmental approaches embedded within a neoliberal governmentality, one that emphasizes equality of opportunity, competition, capacity-building, and collaboration. This approach is simultaneously situated within a broader neoliberal objective of defining both citizens and rural communities as economic actors. In turn, this article examines the scope, scale, and role of energy and agricultural investments as a demonstration of how neoliberal governmentality structures not only how rural development is framed, but constructs economic agency for rural communities as “the only game in town” for the very populations that bear the costs. As a result, the historical failure of rural development is unlikely to change, yet, rather than be understood as problematic, will increasingly be seen as a failure on the part of rural communities themselves.Les collectivités rurales du Canada connaissent depuis longtemps la fuite des capitaux et de la main-d’oeuvre, l’extraction des ressources et la marginalisation politique. En même temps, malgré des décennies d’efforts de développement rural et de diversification économique et sociale, il y a peu de signes de changement ou d’amélioration de la résilience dans le Canada rural. Le présent article cherche à examiner cette absence de changement à la lumière de cette histoire du développement et des logiques sous-jacentes qui ont guidé l’élaboration des politiques rurales. En se concentrant sur l’Alberta, cet article soutient que les collectivités rurales font face à une troisième phase d’approches de développement ancrées dans une gouvernance néolibérale, qui met l’accent sur l’égalité des chances, la concurrence, le renforcement des capacités et la collaboration. En même temps, cette approche s’inscrit dans un objectif néolibéral plus large qui consiste à définir les citoyens et les communautés rurales comme des acteurs économiques. Cet article examine à son tour la portée, l’ampleur et le rôle des investissements dans les secteurs de l’énergie et de l’agriculture afin de montrer comment la gouvernance néolibérale structure non seulement le développement rural, mais fait de l’autonomie économique des communautés rurales « la seule option possible », y compris pour les populations qui en subissent le coût. Par conséquent, il est peu probable que l’échec historique du développement rural change, mais plutôt que d’être considéré comme problématique, il sera de plus en plus perçu comme un échec par les communautés rurales elles-mêmes

Paradox of Policy: European Enlargement and Democratic Consolidation in the Czech Republic and Poland

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of the enlargement of the European Union to include the Czech Republic and Poland on democratic participation in policy-making. While integration into the EU has the potential to benefit the CEECs by providing economic prosperity and political stability, the patterns of decision-making and influence that have come to characterize the EU are also acting to alienate and distance key groups from policy-making. This alienation, a consequence of the export of the “democratic deficit” and the socio-cultural legacy of Soviet control, is believed to counter in part those elements of European integration that can contribute to democratic consolidation, changing the speed of transition in these countries. In the present study, both interview and survey data were used to trace the democratic responses that policy officials and environmental groups have had to integration since the early 1990s. It was found that while there are strong similarities between the two countries for the first five to seven years after beginning the integration and enlargement process, the final years of the 1990s show important differences. Specifically, while both countries initially show declines in terms of democratic involvement in politics, participation, and trust, Poland has made considerable increases in this regard at both the general level, and within environmental policy-making since the late 1990s. In contrast, while the Czech Republic has adopted democratic institutions, the political history under Communism and the effects of lustration are slowing or perhaps even negating the Czech move to a more participatory culture of politics and policy-making

Fostering Evidence-Informed Decision-Making for Protected Areas through the Alberta Parks Social Science Working Group

Since 2012, the Alberta Parks division in the Province of Alberta, Canada has been engaged in a process of building scientific, research, and evidence-informed capacity and practices across the parks system. Following a series of priority-setting workshops and agreements with the research, Parks management, and local communities, Alberta Parks has adopted a working group approach and subsequent framework, to support the research and decision-making goals of parks and protected areas management, and the research communities. This Social Science Framework is an innovative way to support evidence-informed decision-making in the public sphere by explicitly linking data-specific needs (benchmark data in social, natural, and applied sciences) with both established and emerging policy and research priorities. It is also a way to situate those needs within a broader goal of inter-organizational collaboration. This paper presents the background and developmental context to the framework, and its structure and desired functionality. The paper concludes with an assessment of the anticipated benefits and potential liabilities of this direction for linking academic and policy agents and organizations in a more formalized structure for environmental policy