Smart Cities in Canada: Digital Dreams, Corporate Designs edited by Mariana Valverde and Alexandra Flynn

Canada received an early and important education in smart cities but has been slow to distill the lessons to be learned from it. The challenge lies in conducting an objective post-mortem of the collapse of Sidewalk Toronto, a joint venture between Alphabet subsidiary Sidewalk Labs and tri-level government entity Waterfront Toronto. The latter was originally established in 2001 to develop a site south of the Gardiner Expressway in Toronto. The site, known as Quayside, had languished in development hell for decades. Originally purposed as part of a possible bid by Toronto for the 2008 Summer Olympics, the site had continued to languish after the collapse of that bid. When Sidewalk Labs showed an interest in the site as a banner project for smart cities, Waterfront Toronto barely concealed its excitement (and eagerness to bypass regulatory hurdles) by entering a hastily conceived joint venture with the Alphabet affiliate

Book Review: Mike Zajko, Telecom Tension: Internet Service Providers and Public Policy in Canada*

The world of telecommunications, writes Mike Zajko in this timely analysis of internet service providers (ISPs), “is a world many of us have never wondered about, just as we are rarely curious about where our sewage goes or how the electricity grid is configured.” Yet ISPs are not just conduits of fast-traveling light pulses that deliver the internet; they transmit, channel, form, and express a multitude of public policy issues, and they have an important level of agency in the construction and exercise of those policies, too. These dynamics have implications for a large bandwidth of topics relevant to Canadians, including the market, competition, education, socio-cultural development, and security. Applying a sociological framework interwoven with historical and legal analysis, Zajko’s Telecom Tensions describes the internet as contemporary society’s “connective tissue” and examines the ways in which ISPs serve as its “intermediaries,” constituting social relationships of control and power. He provides insight into an infrastructure that is often invisible (the banal fac ̧ ade of 151 Front St. West in Toronto serving as an illuminating metaphor for this lack of visibility), which nonetheless bears heavily on our broader social wellbeing

PRETA Air: Hazardous Air Pollutants

This report shows that people living in a 10-county region of southwestern Pennsylvania have a significantly higher than acceptable risk of developing cancer due to exposure to toxic air pollution released by manufacturing processes, energy production and diesel combustionThe Pittsburgh Regional Environmental Threats Analysis Report -- funded by The Heinz Endowments -- analyzes publicly available data on hazardous air pollutants (HAPs), also known as air toxics. Air toxics include approximately 200 pollutants identified by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as known or suspected to cause cancer or other serious health effects, such as respiratory, neurological and reproductive disorders. The report is the third in a series as part of a project examining major threats to human health and the environment in southwestern Pennsylvania

Modeling Surface and Subsurface Pesticide Transport Under Three Field Conditions Using PRZM-3 and GLEAMS

Contaminant transport models should be evaluated over a wide range of conditions to determine their limitations. The models PRZM and GLEAMS have been evaluated many times, but few studies are available in which predicted movement in runoff and percolate were simultaneously evaluated against field data. Studies of this type are essential because pesticide leaching and runoff are mutually dependent processes. For this reason, PRZM-3 and GLEAMS were evaluated for their ability to predict metribuzin concentrations in runoff, sediment, subsurface soil, and pan lysimeters under three field conditions (yard waste compost amended, no-till, and conventional-till) on a Lowell silt loam soil. Sensitive input parameters were either site specific (climatic, soil, and chemical) or calibrated (K-factor, C-factor, curve number). In general, both models under-predicted metribuzin concentration in runoff water, runoff sediment, subplow layer soil (15-75 cm), and pan lysimeter water (75 cm). Contrary to field data, both models predicted that a large percentage (\u3e 50%) of metribuzin would move below the “mixing zone” (top 1 cm) during the first rainfall event after application. Relatively little metribuzin was predicted to move beyond the plow layer (top 15 cm) into the pan lysimeters or subsurface soil throughout the simulation period, possibly due to the lack of a macropore component in the models. High metribuzin concentrations in sediment (field data) indicated that relatively little metribuzin moved below the “mixing zone”, possibly because of hysteresis but much of the metribuzin that did move was quickly transported into the pan lysimeters, probably due to macropore flow. GLEAMS more accurately predicted pesticide concentration in sediment and PRZM predicted subsurface soil concentration somewhat more accurately than GLEAMS. Little difference in accuracy was detected between models on metribuzin concentration in runoff or metribuzin concentration in percolate. Although both models generally under-predicted metribuzin concentration in runoff, runoff transport (mass of metribuzin in runoff) for the study period was over-predicted by both models which emphasizes the importance of accurately predicting herbicide concentration and runoff volume soon after application when the surface pesticide concentrations are highest

Wellbeing perception and the impact on external training output among elite soccer players

Objectives: The objective of the investigation was to observe the impact of player wellbeing on the training output of elite soccer players. Design: Prospective cohort design. Methods: Forty-eight soccer players (age: 25.3 ± 3.1 years; height: 183 ± 7 cm; mass: 72 ± 7 kg) were involved in this single season observational study across two teams. Each morning, pre-training, players completed customised perceived wellbeing questionnaires. Global positioning technology devices were used to measure external load (total distance, total high-speed running distance, high speed running, player load, player load slow, maximal velocity, maximal velocity exposures). Players reported ratings of perceived exertion using the modified Borg CR-10 scale. Integrated training load ratios were also analysed for total distance:RPE, total high speed distance:RPE player load:RPE and player load slow:RPE respectively. Results: Mixed-effect linear models revealed significant effects of wellbeing Z-score on external and integrated training load measures. A wellbeing Z-score of −1 corresponded to a −18 ± 2 m (−3.5 ± 1.1%), 4 ± 1 m (−4.9 ± 2.1%,) 0.9 ± 0.1 km h−1 (−3.1 ± 2.1%), 1 ± 1 (−4.6 ± 2.9%), 25 ± 3 AU (−4.9 ± 3.1%) and 11 ± 0.5 AU (−8.9 ± 2.9%) reduction in total high speed distance, high speed distance, maximal velocity, maximal velocity exposures, player load and player load slow respectively. A reduction in wellbeing impacted external:internal training load ratios and resulted in −0.49 ± 0.12 m min−1, −1.20 ± 0.08 m min−1,−0.02 ± 0.01 AU min−1 in total distance:RPE, total high speed distance:RPE and player load slow:RPE respectively. Conclusions: The results suggest that systematic monitoring of player wellbeing within soccer cohorts can provide coaches with information about the training output that can be expected from individual players during a training session

Genetic associations of nonsynonymous exonic variants with psychophysiological endophenotypes

We mapped ∼85,000 rare nonsynonymous exonic single nucleotide polymorphisms ( SNPs ) to 17 psychophysiological endophenotypes in 4,905 individuals, including antisaccade eye movements, resting EEG , P 300 amplitude, electrodermal activity, affect‐modulated startle eye blink. Nonsynonymous SNPs are predicted to directly change or disrupt proteins encoded by genes and are expected to have significant biological consequences. Most such variants are rare, and new technologies can efficiently assay them on a large scale. We assayed 247,870 mostly rare SNPs on an Illumina exome array. Approximately 85,000 of the SNPs were polymorphic, rare ( MAF  < .05), and nonsynonymous. Single variant association tests identified a SNP in the PARD 3 gene associated with theta resting EEG power. The sequence kernel association test, a gene‐based test, identified a gene PNPLA 7 associated with pleasant difference startle, the difference in startle magnitude between pleasant and neutral images. No other single nonsynonymous variant, or gene‐based group of variants, was strongly associated with any endophenotype.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/109617/1/psyp12349.pd

MP758: East Regional Potato Trials 2006: Summary of NE1014 Regional Project Field Testing of New Potato Clones

The objectives of this regional potato trial are (1) to develop pest-resistant, early-maturing, long-dormant potato varieties that will process from cold storage; (2) to evaluate new and specialty variet­ies developed in the Northeast; (3) to determine climatic effects on performance to develop pre­dictive models for potato improvement; and (4) determine heritability/linkage relationships and improve the genetic base of tetraploid cultivated varieties. The results presented in this report reflect a portion of the activity directed toward objectives 1, 2 and 3.https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/aes_miscpubs/1017/thumbnail.jp

MP760: East Regional Potato Trials 2007: Summary of NE1014 Regional Project Field Testing of New Potato Clones

The objectives of this regional potato trial are (1) to develop pest-resistant, early-maturing, long-dormant potato varieties that will process from cold storage; (2) to evaluate new and specialty variet­ies developed in the Northeast; (3) to determine climatic effects on performance to develop pre­dictive models for potato improvement; and (4) determine heritability/linkage relationships and improve the genetic base of tetraploid cultivated varieties. The results presented in this report reflect a portion of the activity directed toward objectives 1, 2 and 3.https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/aes_miscpubs/1016/thumbnail.jp

MP757: Eastern Regional Potato Trials 2005: Summary of NE1014 Regional Project Field Testing of New Potato Clones

The objectives of this regional potato trial are (1) to develop pest-resistant, early-maturing, long-dormant potato varieties that will process from cold storage; (2) to evaluate new and specialty variet­ies developed in the Northeast; (3) to determine climatic effects on performance to develop pre­dictive models for potato improvement; and (4) determine heritability/linkage relationships and improve the genetic base of tetraploid cultivated varieties. The results presented in this report reflect a portion of the activity directed toward objectives 1, 2 and 3.https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/aes_miscpubs/1018/thumbnail.jp

Randomised Controlled Trial of Real-Time Feedback and Brief Coaching to Reduce Indoor Smoking

Background: Previous secondhand smoke (SHS) reduction interventions have provided only delayed feedback on reported smoking behaviour, such as coaching, or presenting results from child cotinine assays or air particle counters. Design: This SHS reduction trial assigned families at random to brief coaching and continuous real-time feedback (intervention) or measurement-only (control) groups. Participants: We enrolled 298 families with a resident tobacco smoker and a child under age 14. Intervention: We installed air particle monitors in all homes. For the intervention homes, immediate light and sound feedback was contingent on elevated indoor particle levels, and up to four coaching sessions used prompts and praise contingent on smoking outdoors. Mean intervention duration was 64 days. Measures: The primary outcome was \u27particle events\u27 (PEs) which were patterns of air particle concentrations indicative of the occurrence of particle-generating behaviours such as smoking cigarettes or burning candles. Other measures included indoor air nicotine concentrations and participant reports of particle-generating behaviour. Results: PEs were significantly correlated with air nicotine levels (r=0.60) and reported indoor cigarette smoking (r=0.51). Interrupted time-series analyses showed an immediate intervention effect, with reduced PEs the day following intervention initiation. The trajectory of daily PEs over the intervention period declined significantly faster in intervention homes than in control homes. Pretest to post-test, air nicotine levels, cigarette smoking and e-cigarette use decreased more in intervention homes than in control homes. Conclusions: Results suggest that real-time particle feedback and coaching contingencies reduced PEs generated by cigarette smoking and other sources