Spatial analysis of the association of alcohol outlets and alcohol-related pedestrian/bicyclist injuries in New York City

Background Pedestrian and bicyclist injury is an important public health issue. The retail environment, particularly the presence of alcohol outlets, may contribute the the risk of pedestrian or bicyclist injury, but this association is poorly understood. Methods This study quantifies the spatial risk of alcohol-related pedestrian injury in New York City at the census tract level over a recent 10-year period using a Bayesian hierarchical spatial regression model with Integrated Nested Laplace approximations. The analysis measures local risk, and estimates the association between the presence of alcohol outlets in a census tract and alcohol-involved pedestrian/bicyclist injury after controlling for social, economic and traffic-related variables. Results Holding all other covariates to zero and adjusting for both random and spatial variation, the presence of at least one alcohol outlet in a census tract increased the risk of a pedestrian or bicyclist being struck by a car by 47 % (IDR = 1.47, 95 % Credible Interval (CrI) 1.13, 1.91). Conclusions The presence of one or more alcohol outlets in a census tract in an urban environment increases the risk of bicyclist/pedestrian injury in important and meaningful ways. Identifying areas of increased risk due to alcohol allows the targeting of interventions to prevent and control alcohol-related pedestrian and bicyclist injuries

Motivations, Enablers and Barriers to Conservation and Demand Management Activities of Industrial, Commercial and Institutional Organizations: A Milton, Ontario (Canada) Case Study

In 2009, Ontario’s electricity system is in the midst of redevelopment to be sustainable, competitive and reliable. To advance this goal, conservation and demand management (CDM) is a key part of the plan. For CDM plans to be successful, it is necessary to understand why organizations undertake CDM activities. This thesis presents a case study, from 2001 to 2006, investigating organizations’ motivations, enablers and barriers associated with conservation, efficiency and demand response activities. Participants included general service customers with loads greater than 50 kW in Milton, Ontario (Canada). Interviews with representatives from 17 organizations included industrial, commercial and institutional customers. Observations at Milton Hydro Energy Drill Program events, analyses of participants’ electricity usage data, and investigations of the participants’ public profiles were included in the case study. All participants reported undertaking at least one CDM activity. The primary motivation was financial benefit. Customer satisfaction was also an important motivator for some participants. Adhering to business policies and objectives and environmental benefit were complimentary to these main motivations. The Energy Drill Program, in some cases, led to increased conservation and efficiency by encouraging a focus on internal systems and practices as well as by providing an opportunity for businesses to save on operating costs while benefiting from an associated positive public image. The commercial and industrial participants were interested in CDM activities as long as they fit within their business financial management requirements and/or contributed to their business’s competitiveness through improved image or otherwise. The social and/or environmental benefits were seen as complimentary, yet not enough to drive the activities on their own. Most of the institutional participants emphasized the community contribution as an enabler of their participation in the demand response program, however, two of the four such participants did not appear to participate in the program on a regular basis, based on the program impact reports. This incongruity between reported and actual behaviour in this sector may be an interesting area for further research. The barriers reported were for known opportunities and these included the inadequate and uncertain financial benefits, technological uncertainty, and, particularly for the small to medium sized businesses, the limited capacity to further investigate and pursue opportunities. Future research could investigate each sector and/or CDM activity sub-category independently for more specific insights

Diminished FoxP2 Levels Affect Dopaminergic Modulation of Corticostriatal Signaling Important to Song Variability

SummaryMutations of the FOXP2 gene impair speech and language development in humans and shRNA-mediated suppression of the avian ortholog FoxP2 disrupts song learning in juvenile zebra finches. How diminished FoxP2 levels affect vocal control and alter the function of neural circuits important to learned vocalizations remains unclear. Here we show that FoxP2 knockdown in the songbird striatum disrupts developmental and social modulation of song variability. Recordings in anesthetized birds show that FoxP2 knockdown interferes with D1R-dependent modulation of activity propagation in a corticostriatal pathway important to song variability, an effect that may be partly attributable to reduced D1R and DARPP-32 protein levels. Furthermore, recordings in singing birds reveal that FoxP2 knockdown prevents social modulation of singing-related activity in this pathway. These findings show that reduced FoxP2 levels interfere with the dopaminergic modulation of vocal variability, which may impede song and speech development by disrupting reinforcement learning mechanisms

The Impact of Built and Social Environment on Physical Activity among Older Adults

Physical activity, defined as bodily movement produced by skeletal muscles that results in energy expenditure, has many known mental and physical health benefits for older adults. However, as of 2008, only 22.6% of older adults in the United States reported meeting recommended physical activity guidelines. This dissertation examines the role of the built and social environment on physical activity among older adults, with particular focus on physical disorder, or the visual indications of neighborhood deterioration. All empirical analyses use data from the New York City Neighborhood and Mental Health in the Elderly Study (NYCNAMES-II), a three-wave longitudinal study of about 3,500 older adults living in New York City. We first systematically review the existing literature concerning physical disorder as an influence on physical activity among adults of all ages. We find that most prior studies of disorder and activity have been cross-sectional and that disorder has not consistently been associated with less activity across all studies. However, we also find indications that older adults’ activity levels may be more negatively impacted by disorder than younger adults’ activity levels. Next, we use a longitudinal analysis to estimate the association between neighborhood disorder and total physical activity among the NYCNAMES-II cohort. In multivariable mixed regression models accounting for individual and neighborhood factors, for missing data, and for loss to follow-up, we find that each standard deviation increase in neighborhood disorder was associated with an estimated 3.0 units (95% CI: 1.9, 4.2) lower PASE score at baseline, or the equivalent of about 10 minutes of walking per day. There was no significant interaction between physical disorder and changes in PASE score over two years of follow-up. We next apply a latent transition analysis to identify patterns of types of physical activity the same cohort, identifying seven latent classes of activity. Of these seven classes, three pairs of classes were roughly equivalent except for participation in exercise. About three quarters of subjects remained within each latent class between waves; most transitions that did occur were between classes defined by exercise to the parallel class without exercise or vice-versa. More neighborhood disorder was modestly associated with moving out of a sports and recreation class (Relative Risk = 1.27, 95% CI = 1.00, 1.61 between waves 1 and 2, Relative Risk = 1.28, 95% CI = 0.85, 1.93 between waves 2 and 3). Finally, we develop the Neighborhood Environment-Wide Association Study (NE-WAS), an agnostic approach to systematically explore the plethora of neighborhood measures available to modern researchers equipped with geographic information systems (GIS) software. We find that only neighborhood socioeconomic status and disorder measures were associated with total activity and gardening, whereas a broader range of measures was associated with walking. Substantively, we conclude that more physical disorder was associated with less physical activity, potentially due to decreases in sports and recreation among those living amidst physical disorder, though latent transition analysis estimates were too imprecise to rule out chance. Future longitudinal research on physical disorder as an influence on physical activity would benefit from longer periods of follow-up in which more subjects moved between neighborhoods. Methodologically, the NE-WAS approach appears to be a promising way to systematize neighborhood research as the scale of available spatially located administrative data continues to grow. Future NE-WASes might profitably focus on comparing the spatial scale of neighborhood measures

Ecosystem Services in Decision Making: Time to Deliver

Over the past decade, efforts to value and protect ecosystem services have been promoted by many as the last, best hope for making conservation mainstream – attractive and commonplace worldwide. In theory, if we can help individuals and institutions to recognize the value of nature, then this should greatly increase investments in conservation, while at the same time fostering human well-being. In practice, however, we have not yet developed the scientific basis, nor the policy and finance mechanisms, for incorporating natural capital into resource- and land-use decisions on a large scale. Here, we propose a conceptual framework and sketch out a strategic plan for delivering on the promise of ecosystem services, drawing on emerging examples from Hawai‘i. We describe key advances in the science and practice of accounting for natural capital in the decisions of individuals, communities, corporations, and governments

Ecosystem Services in Decision Making: Time to Deliver

Over the past decade, efforts to value and protect ecosystem services have been promoted by many as the last, best hope for making conservation mainstream – attractive and commonplace worldwide. In theory, if we can help individuals and institutions to recognize the value of nature, then this should greatly increase investments in conservation, while at the same time fostering human well-being. In practice, however, we have not yet developed the scientific basis, nor the policy and finance mechanisms, for incorporating natural capital into resource- and land-use decisions on a large scale. Here, we propose a conceptual framework and sketch out a strategic plan for delivering on the promise of ecosystem services, drawing on emerging examples from Hawai‘i. We describe key advances in the science and practice of accounting for natural capital in the decisions of individuals, communities, corporations, and governments

Cause and context: place-based approaches to investigate how environments affect mental health

Objectives Our surroundings affect our mood, our recovery from stress, our behavior, and, ultimately, our mental health. Understanding how our surroundings influence mental health is central to creating healthy cities. However, the traditional observational methods now dominant in the psychiatric epidemiology literature are not sufficient to advance such an understanding. In this essay we consider potential alternative strategies, such as randomizing people to places, randomizing places to change, or harnessing natural experiments that mimic randomized experiments. Methods We discuss the strengths and weaknesses of these methodological approaches with respect to (1) defining the most relevant scale and characteristics of context, (2) disentangling the effects of context from the effects of individuals’ preferences and prior health, and (3) generalizing causal effects beyond the study setting. Results Promising alternative strategies include creating many small-scale randomized place-based trials, using the deployment of place-based changes over time as natural experiments, and using fluctuations in the changes in our surroundings in combination with emerging data collection technologies to better understand how surroundings influence mood, behavior, and mental health. Conclusions Improving existing research strategies will require interdisciplinary partnerships between those specialized in mental health, those advancing new methods for place effects on health, and those who seek to optimize the design of local environments