The Relationship between Airport Infrastructure and Flight Arrivals in Remote Northern Canadian Communities

Much of Canada’s northern population resides in communities that are inaccessible by road for a substantial portion of the year. Residents of these “fly-in” communities rely on aircraft to provide a wide range of social, economic, and transportation services. However, for numerous reasons, including the often extreme environmental conditions in the circumpolar regions of Canada, a substantial number of flights to these communities are cancelled or diverted. Using a dataset from two airlines that serve the western portion of this region with information about schedules, delays, and cancellations of more than 18 500 flights, we examined the links between airport infrastructure, flight arrival reliability, and a variety of socioeconomic variables in 23 northern communities. Results show that runway length has a significant impact on the reliability of flight arrival, but also that the reliability of flights may not affect the cost of food in the communities included in our analysis. These findings provide evidence that lengthening runways could improve air service in the Canadian North. Une grande partie de la population du Nord canadien réside dans des localités inaccessibles par voie terrestre pendant une grande partie de l’année. Les habitants de ces localités desservies par voie aérienne dépendent des avions pour une vaste gamme de services sociaux, économiques et de transport. Toutefois, pour maintes raisons, dont les conditions environnementales souvent extrêmes qui sévissent dans les régions circumpolaires du Canada, un grand nombre de vols à destination de ces localités est annulé ou dévié. En nous appuyant sur des données en provenance de deux sociétés aériennes qui desservent ces régions, données portant sur les horaires de vol, les retards et les annulations concernant plus de 18 500 vols, nous avons examiné les liens entre les infrastructures aéroportuaires, la fiabilité de l’arrivée des vols et un éventail de variables socioéconomiques propres à 23 localités nordiques. Les résultats ont permis de constater que la longueur des pistes exerce une grande incidence sur la fiabilité de l’arrivée des vols, mais aussi, que la fiabilité des vols n’a pas nécessairement d’influence sur le coût des aliments dans les localités visées par notre analyse. Grâce à ces constatations, nous pouvons soutenir que l’allongement des pistes pourrait améliorer les dessertes aériennes dans le Nord canadien

Comparing Household and Individual Measures of Access through a Food Environment Lens: What Household Food Opportunities Are Missed When Measuring Access to Food Retail at the Individual Level?

Geographers and public health researchers have long been interested in social, spatial, and economic factors that drive access and exposure to food retail. A growing body of evidence draws on mobility data to capture locations accessed by individuals beyond the home address. Given that food-related activities are shared by household members and often gendered, taking an individual-level approach might limit researchers’ ability to accurately describe access to food retail. Using data that includes Global Positioning System trajectories of forty-six adults from twenty-one households in Toronto, this study compares access to food retailers at the individual and household levels and evaluates measurement issues that arise when relying on one household member. Spatial and spatiotemporal measures of access were derived from individual and total household activity spaces. Differences in access were tested for men and women and moderating effects of neighborhood, shopping responsibility, car access, and employment status were investigated. Supermarket density was greater for women when compared with men in the household, as well as their total household measure. Additionally, within-household differences in counts of supermarkets were moderated by neighborhood. Future research should consider the role of place and the contributions of household members when measuring access to food at the individual level

A pan-Canadian dataset of neighbourhood retail food environment measures using Statistics Canada's Business Register.

BACKGROUND: The objective of this study was to create the Canadian Food Environment Dataset (Can-FED) and to demonstrate its validity. DATA AND METHODS: Food outlet data were extracted from Statistics Canada's Business Register (BR) in 2018. Retail food environment access measures (both absolute and relative measures) were calculated using network buffers around the centroid of 56,589 dissemination areas in Canada. A k-medians clustering approach was used to create categorical food environment variables that were easy to use and amenable to dissemination. Validity of the measures was assessed by comparing the food environment measures from Can-FED with measures created using Enhanced Points of Interest data by DMTI Spatial Inc. and data from a municipal health inspection list. Validity was also assessed by calculating the geographic variability in food environments across census metropolitan areas (CMAs) and assessing associations between CMA-level food environments and CMA-level health indicators. RESULTS: Two versions of Can-FED were created: a researcher file that must be accessed within a secure Statistics Canada environment and a general-use file available online. Agreement between Can-FED food environment measures and those derived from a proprietary dataset and a municipal health inspection list ranged from rs=0.28 for convenience store density and rs=0.53 for restaurant density. At the CMA level, there is wide geographic variation in the food environment with evidence of patterning by health indicators. INTERPRETATION: Can-FED is a valid and accessible dataset of pan-Canadian food environment measures that was created from the BR, a data source that has not been explored fully for health research

Who’s cooking tonight? A time-use study of coupled adults in Toronto, Canada

Understanding how coupled adults arrange food-related labor in relation to their daily time allocation is of great importance because different arrangements may have implications for diet-related health and gender equity. Studies from the time-use perspective argue that daily activities such as work, caregiving, and non-food-related housework can potentially compete for time with foodwork. However, studies in this regard are mostly centered on individual-level analyses. They fail to consider cohabiting partners’ time spent on foodwork and non-food-related activities, a factor that could be helpful in explaining how coupled partners decide to allocate time to food activities. Using 108 daily time-use logs from seventeen opposite-gender couples living in Toronto, Canada, this paper examines how male and female partners’ time spent on non-food-related activities impact the total amount of time spent on foodwork by coupled adults and the difference in time spent on foodwork between coupled women and men. Results show that both male and female partners took a higher portion of foodwork when their partner worked longer. When men worked for additional time, the couple-level duration of foodwork decreased. Without a significant impact on the gender difference in foodwork duration, women’s increased caregiving duration was associated with a reduction of total time spent on foodwork by couples. An increase in caregiving and non-food-related chores by men was associated with an increased difference in duration of foodwork between women and men, which helped secure a constant total amount of foodwork at the couple level. These behavioral variations between men and women demonstrate the gender differences in one’s responsiveness to the change of partners’ non-food-related tasks. The associations found among non-food-related activities and foodwork are suggestive of a need to account for partners’ time allocation when studying the time-use dynamics of foodwork and other daily activities

Modeling Policy and Agricultural Decisions in Afghanistan

Afghanistan is responsible for the majority of the world's supply of poppy crops, which are often used to produce illegal narcotics like heroin. This paper presents an agent-based model that simulates policy scenarios to characterize how the production of poppy can be dampened and replaced with licit crops over time. The model is initialized with spatial data, including transportation network and satellite-derived land use data. Parameters representing national subsidies, insurgent influence, and trafficking blockades are varied to represent different conditions that might encourage or discourage poppy agriculture. Our model shows that boundary-level interventions, such as targeted trafficking blockades at border locations, are critical in reducing the attractiveness of growing this illicit crop. The principle of least effort implies that interventions decrease to a minimal non-regressive point, leading to the prediction that increases in insurgency or other changes are likely to lead to worsening conditions, and improvements require substantial jumps in intervention resources.Comment: 16 pages, 5 figures; GeoJournal, 2012, 10.1007/s10708-012-9453-

Differences between <i>Trypanosoma brucei gambiense</i> groups 1 and 2 in their resistance to killing by Trypanolytic factor 1

&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Background:&lt;/b&gt; The three sub-species of &lt;i&gt;Trypanosoma brucei&lt;/i&gt; are important pathogens of sub-Saharan Africa. &lt;i&gt;T. b. brucei&lt;/i&gt; is unable to infect humans due to sensitivity to trypanosome lytic factors (TLF) 1 and 2 found in human serum. &lt;i&gt;T. b. rhodesiense&lt;/i&gt; and &lt;i&gt;T. b. gambiense&lt;/i&gt; are able to resist lysis by TLF. There are two distinct sub-groups of &lt;i&gt;T. b. gambiense&lt;/i&gt; that differ genetically and by human serum resistance phenotypes. Group 1 &lt;i&gt;T. b. gambiense&lt;/i&gt; have an invariant phenotype whereas group 2 show variable resistance. Previous data indicated that group 1 &lt;i&gt;T. b. gambiense&lt;/i&gt; are resistant to TLF-1 due in-part to reduced uptake of TLF-1 mediated by reduced expression of the TLF-1 receptor (the haptoglobin-hemoglobin receptor (&lt;i&gt;HpHbR&lt;/i&gt;)) gene. Here we investigate if this is also true in group 2 parasites.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Methodology:&lt;/b&gt; Isogenic resistant and sensitive group 2 &lt;i&gt;T. b. gambiense&lt;/i&gt; were derived and compared to other T. brucei parasites. Both resistant and sensitive lines express the &lt;i&gt;HpHbR&lt;/i&gt; gene at similar levels and internalized fluorescently labeled TLF-1 similar fashion to &lt;i&gt;T. b. brucei&lt;/i&gt;. Both resistant and sensitive group 2, as well as group 1 &lt;i&gt;T. b. gambiense&lt;/i&gt;, internalize recombinant APOL1, but only sensitive group 2 parasites are lysed.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Conclusions:&lt;/b&gt; Our data indicate that, despite group 1 &lt;i&gt;T. b. gambiense&lt;/i&gt; avoiding TLF-1, it is resistant to the main lytic component, APOL1. Similarly group 2 &lt;i&gt;T. b. gambiense&lt;/i&gt; is innately resistant to APOL1, which could be based on the same mechanism. However, group 2 &lt;i&gt;T. b. gambiense&lt;/i&gt; variably displays this phenotype and expression does not appear to correlate with a change in expression site or expression of &lt;i&gt;HpHbR&lt;/i&gt;. Thus there are differences in the mechanism of human serum resistance between &lt;i&gt;T. b. gambiense&lt;/i&gt; groups 1 and 2.&lt;/p&gt

The Canadian Urban Environmental Health Research Consortium - A protocol for building a national environmental exposure data platform for integrated analyses of urban form and health

Background: Multiple external environmental exposures related to residential location and urban form including, air pollutants, noise, greenness, and walkability have been linked to health impacts or benefits. The Canadian Urban Environmental Health Research Consortium (CANUE) was established to facilitate the linkage of extensive geospatial exposure data to existing Canadian cohorts and administrative health data holdings. We hypothesize that this linkage will enable investigators to test a variety of their own hypotheses related to the interdependent associations of built environment features with diverse health outcomes encompassed by the cohorts and administrative data. Methods: We developed a protocol for compiling measures of built environment features that quantify exposure; vary spatially on the urban and suburban scale; and can be modified through changes in policy or individual behaviour to benefit health. These measures fall into six domains: air quality, noise, greenness, weather/climate, and transportation and neighbourhood factors; and will be indexed to six-digit postal codes to facilitate merging with health databases. Initial efforts focus on existing data and include estimates of air pollutants, greenness, temperature extremes, and neighbourhood walkability and socioeconomic characteristics. Key gaps will be addressed for noise exposure, with a new national model being developed, and for transportation-related exposures, with detailed estimates of truck volumes and diesel emissions now underway in selected cities. Improvements to existing exposure estimates are planned, primarily by increasing temporal and/or spatial resolution given new satellite-based sensors and more detailed national air quality modelling. Novel metrics are also planned for walkability and food environments, green space access and function and life-long climate-related exposures based on local climate zones. Critical challenges exist, for example, the quantity and quality of input data to many of the models and metrics has changed over time, making it difficult to develop and validate historical exposures. Discussion: CANUE represents a unique effort to coordinate and leverage substantial research investments and will enable a more focused effort on filling gaps in exposure information, improving the range of exposures quantified, their precision and mechanistic relevance to health. Epidemiological studies may be better able to explore the common theme of urban form and health in an integrated manner, ultimately contributing new knowledge informing policies that enhance healthy urban living