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Background: The number of citations a paper receives reflects its impact on the scientific community. We aimed to identify and explore the characteristics of the most cited papers on total anomalous pulmonary venous connection (TAPVC). Methods: Web of Science Core Collection Expanded Science Citation Index (1900 to present) was searched and papers on TAPVC were reviewed. Articles were ranked by the number of citations and the 100 most cited papers were analyzed. Results: The 100 most cited papers were published between 1952 and 2018 with a mean number of citations of 52 (range 26 to 148). The 1990s was the most productive decade. All articles except one were written in English. The 100 most cited articles were published in 24 journals, led by Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery (21 articles), followed by Annals of Thoracic Surgery (20 articles), and Circulation (16 articles). The United States of America contributed most of the 100 most cited papers (60 articles). Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto led the list of citation classics with six papers. Christopher A. Caldarone, John W. Kirklin, and P. E. F. Daubeney were the most productive authors with 3 articles each. More than half of the papers were cohort studies (51 articles). Surgery, radiology and etiology were the main topics. Thirty-one articles were funded by public foundations, and none received support from commercial companies. Conclusions: The bibliometric analysis gives a historical perspective on scientific progress in the field of TAPVC and lays the foundation for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of TESL Canada Journal / Revue TESL du Canada is the property of TESL Canada Journal and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Describes the planning, implementation and assessment of the Term Paper Clinic (TPC) reference service in academic libraries due to shrinking budgets and expanding enrollments. Exploration of innovative ways in academic libraries to provide individualized services to clients; Conduction of the TPC for undergraduates at the University of Toronto.

The article presents a call for persons interested in presenting a paper at the 1998 meeting of the American Association for the History of Medicine (AAHM). The 1998 meeting of the AAHM will be held May 7 through 10, 1998, in Toronto, Ontario. Those interested in presenting a paper at this meeting are invited to submit an abstract, with seven copies of the original format. Any subject in the history of medicine is suitable for presentation, but the paper must represent original work not already published or in press. Presentations are limited to 20 minutes. Abstracts must be typed single-spaced on one sheet of paper and must not exceed 350 words in length. Abstracts should include not only a statement of a research question but also findings and conclusions to allow assessment by the committee.

Background: The use of the Internet to administer questionnaires has many potential advantages over the use of pen-and-paper administration. Yet it is important to validate Internet administration, as most questionnaires were initially developed and validated for pen-and-paper delivery. While some have been validated for use over the Internet, these questionnaires have predominately been used amongst the healthy general population. To date, information is lacking on the validity of questionnaires administered over the Internet in patients with chronic diseases such as heart failure. Objectives: To determine the validity of three heart failure questionnaires administered over the Internet compared to pen-and-paper administration in patients with heart failure. Methods: We conducted a prospective randomized study using test-retest design comparing administration via the Internet to pen-and-paper administration for three heart failure questionnaires provided to patients recruited from a heart failure clinic in Toronto, Ontario, Canada: the Kansas City Cardiomyopathy Questionnaire (KCCQ), the Minnesota Living with Heart Failure Questionnaire (MLHFQ), and the Self-Care Heart Failure Index (SCHFI). Results: Of the 58 subjects enrolled, 34 completed all three questionnaires. The mean difference and confidence intervals for the summary scores of the KCCQ, MLHFQ, and SCHFI were 1.2 (CI -1.5 to 4.0, scale from 0 to 100), 4.0 (CI -1.98 to 10.04, scale from 0 to 105), and 10.1 (CI 1.18 to 19.07, scale from 66.7 to 300), respectively. Conclusions: Internet administration of the KCCQ appears to be equivalent to pen-and-paper administration. For the MLHFQ and SCHFI, we were unable to demonstrate equivalence. Further research is necessary to determine if the administration methods are equivalent for these instruments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: As evaluations becomes more responsive to the recent focus on issues of diversity, equity, Indigeneity, accessibility, and inclusion, we believe that scholarship and practice of evaluation can be strengthened by engagement with fields such as Hawaiian epistemology. Purpose: This paper explores the implications of Hawaiian epistemology in guiding a decolonizing approach in evaluation practice. Data Collection and Analysis: The paper utilizes multiple sources of information: The writings of a leading Hawaiian epistemologist Manulani Aluli Meyer; our personal experiences in evaluation in varied settings; a webinar we conducted with former students from the Doctor of Education program at the University of Hawaii; and our experiences using the example of evaluations we conducted of a Drop-in center serving homeless and marginally housed individuals in Toronto, Canada. Findings: We identify the following themes from Hawaiian epistemology as being relevant to evaluation practice: (1) embracing heterogeneity and diversity¾moving away from homogeneous standardized approaches; (2) understanding identity, cultural context, and knowledge; (3) ‘aina and a sense of place; (4) valuing relationships; (5) causation and complexity; and (6) aesthetics and valuing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Within the context of a (post-)COVID-19 pandemic world, there is an urgent need to critically explore how bicycle-related activities may contribute to an environmentally sustainable and equitable world for vulnerable populations. In recent years, mutual aid projects have surged globally, with scholars pointing to the COVID-19 pandemic as a key driver of communities being forced to respond to the unfolding social and environmental crises, alongside state abandonment. In this paper, we discuss how cycling has been taken up by communities disproportionately harmed by colonial systems. Using a decolonial feminist participatory action research approach, the authors collaborated with The Bike Brigade, a non-profit bicycle delivery organization that partners with mutual aid organizations. Using arts-based methods and semi-structured interviews, we draw on the perspectives of 2SLGBTQ+ and racialized cyclists who volunteer with The Bike Brigade. A key theme of the research was the unique way in which research colleagues used bicycles to participate in community care by embodying mutual aid values: community thriving, resource reallocation and solidarity. Thus, this paper puts forth mutual aid as a potential framework for understanding radical mobility practices to foster community care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Painful diabetic neuropathy (PDN) is a common chronic neurological complication of diabetes mellitus. Medications are often used to relieve pain, but with significant side effects. Acupuncture is now a component of pragmatic and integrative treatment for PDN. An increasing number of relevant randomized controlled trials have been published in recent years, but a comprehensive meta-analysis has not yet been performed. The aim of this paper is to verify the effectiveness and safety of acupuncture for PDN by metaanalysis and trial sequential analysis (TSA). Methods: All participants in this study should have had a PDN diagnosis and the trial group was treated with acupuncture. Eight databases, including EMbase, PubMed, Web of science, Cochrane Library, China Biology Medicine disc (CBM), China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), Wanfang and Chongqing VIP (CQVIP) were retrieved from inception to 5 April 2023. Meta-analysis was conducted utilizing RevMan 5.3 and Stata 15.0. TSA was performed to assess the adequacy of sample size for the outcomes. Results: A total of 36 studies, comprising 2,739 PDN patients, were included. Among them, 1,393 patients were assigned to the trial group and 1,346 patients were treated in the control group. Outcomes covers the primary indicator Total effective rate (RR = 1.42, 95%CI [1.34, 1.52], p < 0.00001), with 21 studies reported, Pain intensity (SMD = -1.27, 95%CI [-1.58, -0.95], p < 0.00001), with 23 studies reported, and other outcomes, including motor nerve conduction velocity (MCV; MD = 3.58, 95%CI [2.77, 4.38], p < 0.00001), sensory nerve conduction velocity (SCV; MD = 3.62, 95%CI [2.75, 4.49], p < 0.00001), Depression score (SMD = -1.02, 95%CI [1.58, 0.46]), Toronto clinical scoring system (TCSS; MD = -2.41, 95%CI [-3.37, -1.45], p < 0.00001), Quality of life (SMD = 1.06, 95%CI [0.66, 1.46]), traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) syndrome score (MD = -4.99, 95%CI [-6.79, -3.18], p < 0.00001), suggesting that acupuncture have an ameliorating effect on PDN in various respect. Egger's test revealed publication bias for four outcomes. TSA showed that as for Total effective rate, Pain Intensity, MCV and SCV, the number of included studies was sufficient to support the conclusions. Conclusion: Acupuncture demonstrates significant effectiveness in improving PDN outcomes, including Total effective rate, Pain intensity, MCV, SCV, Depression score, TCSS, Quality of life, TCM syndrome score. But the Adverse events rate is no different in trail group and control group. The publication bias presented in Total effective rate, Pain intensity, MCV and SCV can be remedied by Trim and filling method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a novel decomposition approach for measuring deterrence motives in dynamic oligopoly games. Our approach yields a formalized, scale-free, and interpretable measure of deterrence motives that informs researchers about the proportion for which deterrence motives account of all entry motives. In addition, the decomposition leads to a set of conditions for counterfactual analysis where hypothetical scenarios with deterrence motives eliminated can be explored. We illustrate the use of our measure and counterfactual by conducting an empirical case study about the dynamics of coffee chain stores in Toronto, Canada. The inferred deterrence motives suggest that a noticeable proportion of entry motives can be attributed to deterrence; it can be as high as 43% for the increasingly dominant coffee chain, Starbucks, in certain types of markets. Finally, counterfactual analysis confirms that deterrence motives are indeed associated with Starbucks' aggressive presence as the number of its outlets and its market share are markedly lower once these motives are eliminated. This paper was accepted by Matthew Shum, marketing. Supplemental Material: The data files and online appendix are available at https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2023.4864. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Speech emotion recognition (SER) has gained significant attention due to its several application fields, such as mental health, education, and human-computer interaction. However, the accuracy of SER systems is hindered by high-dimensional feature sets that may contain irrelevant and redundant information. To overcome this challenge, this study proposes an iterative feature boosting approach for SER that emphasizes feature relevance and explainability to enhance machine learning model performance. Our approach involves meticulous feature selection and analysis to build efficient SER systems. In addressing our main problem through model explainability, we employ a feature evaluation loop with Shapley values to iteratively refine feature sets. This process strikes a balance between model performance and transparency, which enables a comprehensive understanding of the model's predictions. The proposed approach offers several advantages, including the identification and removal of irrelevant and redundant features, leading to a more effective model. Additionally, it promotes explainability, facilitating comprehension of the model's predictions and the identification of crucial features for emotion determination. The effectiveness of the proposed method is validated on the SER benchmarks Toronto emotional speech set (TESS), Berlin Database of Emotional Speech (EMO-DB), Ryerson Audio-Visual Database of Emotional Speech and Song (RAVDESS), and Surrey Audio-Visual Expressed Emotion (SAVEE) dataset, outperforming state-of-the-art methods. These results highlight the potential of the proposed technique in developing accurate and explainable SER systems. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first work to incorporate model explainability into an SER framework. The source code of this paper is publicly available via this https://github.com/alaaNfissi/Unveiling-Hidden-Factors-Explainable-AI-for-Feature-Boosting-in-Speech-Emotion-Recognition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On 15–16 June 2023, healthcare professionals and breast cancer patients and advocates from across Canada met in Toronto, Ontario, for the 2023 Canadian Breast Cancer Symposium (CBSC.). The CBSC. is a national, multidisciplinary event that occurs every 2 years with the goal of developing a personalized approach to the management of breast cancer in Canada. Experts provided state-of-the-art information to help optimally manage breast cancer patients, including etiology, prevention, diagnosis, experimental biology, and therapy of breast cancer and premalignant breast disease. The symposium also had the objectives of increasing communication and collaboration among breast cancer healthcare providers nationwide and providing a comprehensive and real-life review of the many facets of breast cancer. The sessions covered the patient voice, the top breast cancer papers from different disciplines in 2022, artificial intelligence in breast cancer, systemic therapy updates, the management of central nervous system metastases, multidisciplinary management of ductal carcinoma in situ, special populations, optimization-based individual prognostic factors, toxicity management of novel therapeutics, survivorship, and updates in surgical oncology. The key takeaways of these sessions have been summarized in this conference report. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Russian's six cases and multiple noun classes make case marking potentially challenging ground for heritage speakers. Indeed, morphological levelling, "probably the best-described feature of language loss", has been substantiated. One study from 2006 showed that Heritage Russian speakers in the USA produced canonical or prescribed markers for only 13% of preposition+nominal sequences. Conversely, another study from 2020 found that Heritage Russian speakers in Toronto produce a 94% canonical case marker rate in conversational speech. To explore the effects of methodological differences across several studies, the current paper circumscribes the context to preposition+nominal sequences in Heritage Russian speech from the same Toronto corpus as used by the 2020 study but mirroring the domain investigated by Polinsky and including a Homeland comparison to consider changes in both the rates of use of canonical case marking and distributional patterns of non-canonical use. Regression models show more canonical case marking in more frequent words, an independent effect of slightly more mismatch by later generations, but less morphological levelling than reported by Polinsky. Lexicon size does not predict case marking rates as strongly as language usage patterns do, but generation, since immigration, is the best-fitting social predictor. We confirm (small) rate changes in Heritage (vs. Homeland) Russian canonical case marking but not in patterns of levelling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tropospheric NO2 vertical column densities were retrieved for the first time in Toronto, Canada using three methods of differing spatial scales. Remotely-sensed NO2 vertical column densities, retrieved from multi-axis differential optical absorption spectroscopy and satellite remote sensing, were evaluated by comparison with in situ vertical column densities derived using a pair of chemiluminescence monitors situated 0.01 and 0.5km above ground level. The chemiluminescence measurements were corrected for the influence of NO2, which reduced the NO2 concentrations at 0.01 and 0.5 km by 8±1% and 12±1 %, respectively. The average absolute decrease in the chemiluminescence NO2 measurement as a result of this correction was less than 1 ppb. Good correlation was observed between the remotely sensed and in situ NO2 vertical column densities (Pearson R ranging from 0.68 to 0.79), but the in situ vertical column densities were 27% to 55% greater than the remotely-sensed columns. These results indicate that NO2 horizontal heterogeneity strongly impacted the magnitude of the remotely-sensed columns. The in situ columns reflected an urban environment with major traffic sources, while the remotely-sensed NO2 vertical column densities were representative of the region, which included spatial heterogeneity introduced by residential neighbourhoods and Lake Ontario. Despite the difference in absolute values, the reasonable correlation between the vertical column densities determined by three distinct methods increased confidence in the validity of the values provided by each of the methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Speech signals involve speakers' emotional states and language information, which is very important for human–computer interaction that recognizes speakers' emotions. Feature selection is a common method for improving recognition accuracy. In this paper, we propose a multi-objective optimization method based on differential evolution (MODE-NSF) that maximizes recognition accuracy and minimizes the number of selected features (NSF). First, the Mel-frequency cepstral coefficient (MFCC) features and pitch features are extracted from speech signals. Then, the proposed algorithm implements feature selection where the NSF guides the initialization, crossover, and mutation of the algorithm. We used four English speech emotion datasets, and K-nearest neighbor (KNN) and random forest (RF) classifiers to validate the performance of the proposed algorithm. The results illustrate that MODE-NSF is superior to other multi-objective algorithms in terms of the hypervolume (HV), inverted generational distance (IGD), Pareto optimal solutions, and running time. MODE-NSF achieved an accuracy of 49% using eNTERFACE05, 53% using the Ryerson audio-visual database of emotional speech and song (RAVDESS), 76% using Surrey audio-visual expressed emotion (SAVEE) database, and 98% using the Toronto emotional speech set (TESS). MODE-NSF obtained good recognition results, which provides a basis for the establishment of emotional models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Research co-design is recommended to reduce misalignment between researcher and end-user needs and priorities for healthcare innovation. Engagement of intensive care unit patients, clinicians, and other stakeholders in co-design has historically relied upon face-to-face meetings. Here, we report on our co-design processes for the development of a bundled intensive care unit patient communication intervention that used exclusively virtual meeting methods in response to COVID-19 pandemic social distancing restrictions. Methods: We conducted a series of virtual co-design sessions with a committee of stakeholder participants recruited from a medical-surgical intensive care unit of a community teaching hospital in Toronto, Canada. Published recommendations for co-design methods were used with exclusively virtual adaptations to improve ease of stakeholder participation as well as the quality and consistency of co-design project set-up, facilitation, and evaluation. Virtual adaptations included the use of email for distributing information, videos, and electronic evaluations as well as the use of a videoconferencing platform for synchronous meetings. We used a flexible meeting plan including asynchronous virtual methods to reduce attendance barriers for time-constrained participants. Results: Co-design participants included a patient and a family member (n = 2) and professionally diverse healthcare providers (n = 9), plus a facilitator. Overall, participants were engaged and reported a positive experience with the virtually adapted co-design process. Reported benefits included incorporation of diverse viewpoints in the communication intervention design and implementation plan. Challenges related to lack of hands-on time during development of the co-designed intervention and participant availability to meet regularly albeit virtually. Conclusions: This report describes the methods, benefits, and challenges of adapting in-person co-design methods to a virtual environment to produce a bundled communication intervention for use in the adult intensive care unit during the COVID-19 pandemic. Adapting recommended co-design methods to a virtual environment can provide further opportunities for stakeholder participation in intervention design. Plain English summary: Background: Modifications to co-design methods were necessary during pandemic conditions but can also be useful when needing to overcome geographic and time restrictions or operating with limited resources. This report describes virtual adaptations made during the co-design of a communication intervention for patients requiring critical care. Modifications included use of a video platform for meetings, email correspondence and flexible meeting approach. Methods: Together with a critical care patient, family, and healthcare providers we developed a communication intervention and made virtual modifications to recommended co-design methods. Results: Overall, participants were engaged and described having a positive experience with the co-design process. This design also had some limitations including ongoing challenges with time availability for busy clinician participants. Conclusions: This paper may be useful for those seeking to use virtual co-design methods for intervention development and health research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To ensure that public infrastructure can safely provide essential services and support economic activities in seasonal frost regions, the design of their foundation systems must be updated and/or adapted to the impacts of climate change. This objective can only be achieved, if the impact of global warming on the soil thermal behaviour in Canadian seasonal frost regions is well-known and can be predicted. In the present paper, the results of a modeling study to assess and predict the effect of global warming on the thermal regimes of grounds in three Canadian seasonal frost regions (Ottawa, Sudbury, Toronto) are presented and discussed. The results show that future climate changes will significantly affect the soil thermal regimes in seasonal frost Canadian areas. The simulation results indicated a gradual loss in the frost penetration depth due to the climate change, in the three representative sites. The frost period duration will be shorter due to climate change in the three selected regions and will completely disappear in Ottawa and Toronto. However, the impact of climate change would not appear clearly in the first 40 years "up to 2060". The response of the ground to the effect of climate change is a function of the geotechnical characteristics of the ground and the climate conditions. The numerical tool developed and results obtained will be useful for the geotechnical design of climate-adaptive transportation structures in Canadian seasonal frost areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is a reflection on 3 years of youth engagement in neighbourhood-based geographic research on the state of social infrastructure in East Scarborough, Toronto, Canada. It revolves around the evolution of LIFT, a youth-led advocacy group with the mandate to engage youth in community-based research to identify gaps in resources and inform local organizations about youth priorities. Using critical reflection as research method, we explore how community geography can be a responsive approach to the needs of youth to analyze their lived experience and collect data to influence decision-making in their communities. We articulate a series of propositions and core assumptions to inform a non-adultist, youth-focused community geography, highlight the ethical dimensions of this work, as well as discuss the often-complicated institutional and interpersonal dynamics that shape the success and sustainability of youth-led community geography. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a study which analyzes the composition as well as the growth kinetics of cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) in Toronto, Ontario. The instruments used in the study are highlighted which include a pumped counterflow virtual impactor (PCVI), Aerodyne time-of-flight mass spectrometer (AMS) and a continuos-flow thermal-gradient diffusion chamber (TGDC). Measurements of urban aerosol are also emphasized which identified an external mixture of CCN-active particles.

Autonomous navigation requires multi-sensor fusion to achieve a high level of accuracy in different environments. Global navigation satellite system (GNSS) receivers are the main components in most navigation systems. However, GNSS signals are subject to blockage and multipath effects in challenging areas, e.g., tunnels, underground parking, and downtown or urban areas. Therefore, different sensors, such as inertial navigation systems (INSs) and radar, can be used to compensate for GNSS signal deterioration and to meet continuity requirements. In this paper, a novel algorithm was applied to improve land vehicle navigation in GNSS-challenging environments through radar/INS integration and map matching. Four radar units were utilized in this work. Two units were used to estimate the vehicle's forward velocity, and the four units were used together to estimate the vehicle's position. The integrated solution was estimated in two steps. First, the radar solution was fused with an INS through an extended Kalman filter (EKF). Second, map matching was used to correct the radar/INS integrated position using OpenStreetMap (OSM). The developed algorithm was evaluated using real data collected in Calgary's urban area and downtown Toronto. The results show the efficiency of the proposed method, which had a horizontal position RMS error percentage of less than 1% of the distance traveled for three minutes of a simulated GNSS outage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Canadian Geographer is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Canadian Jewish Studies / Études Juives Canadiennes is the property of Association for Canadian Jewish Studies and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Background: Patient engagement strategies in health service delivery have become more common in recent years. However, many healthcare organizations are challenged in identifying the best methods to engage patients in health information technology (IT) initiatives. Engaging with important stakeholders to identify effective opportunities can inform the development of a resource that addresses this issue and supports organizations in their endeavors. The purpose of this paper is to share our experience and lessons learned from applying a novel consensus-building technique in order to identify key elements for effective patient engagement in health IT initiatives. This will be done through a case study approach. Methods: Patients, family members of patients, health professionals, researchers, students, vendor representatives and individuals who work in health IT roles in health organizations were engaged through a one-day symposium in Toronto, Canada in September, 2018. During the symposium, the Group Priority Sort technique was used to obtain structured feedback from symposium attendees in the context of small group discussions. Descriptive statistics and a content analysis were undertaken to analyze the data collected through the Group Priority Sort as well as participant feedback following the symposium. Results: A total of 37 participants attended the symposium from a variety of settings and organizations. Using the Group Priority Sort technique, 30 topics were classified by priority to be included in a future resource. Participant feedback pertaining to the symposium and research methods was largely positive. Several areas of improvement, such as clarity of items, were identified from this case study. Conclusions: The Group Priority Sort technique was an efficient method for obtaining valuable suggestions from a diverse group of stakeholders, including patients and family members. The specific priorities and feedback obtained from the symposium will be incorporated into a resource for healthcare organizations to aid them in engaging patients in health IT initiatives. Additionally, five important considerations were identified when conducting future work with the Group Priority Sort technique and are outlined in this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An object-based forecasting, nowcasting, and alerting system prototype was demonstrated during the summer 2015 Environment Canada Pan Am Science Showcase (ECPASS) in Toronto. Part of this demonstration involved the generation of experimental thunderstorm threat areas by both automated NWP postprocessing algorithms and by a pair of human forecasters. This paper first develops a rigorous verification methodology for the intercomparison of continuous as well as categorical probabilistic thunderstorm forecasts. The methodology is then applied to the intercomparison of thunderstorm forecasts made during ECPASS. Statistical postprocessing of forecasts by smoothing with optimal bandwidth followed by recalibration is found to improve the skill scores of all thunderstorm forecasts studied at all lead times between 6 and 48 h. In addition, the calibrated ensemble mean forecasts are found to be better than the calibrated deterministic thunderstorm forecasts for all lead times considered, though postprocessing of the convective rain-rate forecast gives results that are statistically comparable with the ensemble mean forecast. Thunderstorm threat areas that were automatically generated by thresholding the output of NWP-based postprocessed algorithms have better scores than those generated by human forecasters for most lead times beyond 9 h, indicating that they could be integrated as an automated tool for providing high-quality "first-guess" thunderstorm threat areas in an object-based forecasting, nowcasting, and alerting system. A unique contribution of this paper is a novel verification methodology for the fair comparison between continuous and categorical probabilistic forecasts, a methodology that could be used for other experiments involving human- and automatically generated object-based forecasts derived from probabilistic forecasts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Children experience and grapple with the ongoing effects of climate change in their daily lives. While they did not cause climate change nor should they have to solve it, children deserve educational opportunities to understand why and how it occurs as they prepare to address it. In this Methods and Strategies article, we share how children engaged in place-based art, science, and literacy activities designed to support them in further cultivating relationships with their ecological community and to communicate their findings with other children engaging in the same process across the three coastal communities of Boston, Toronto, and San Diego. Specifically, we highlight how crafting representations of their noticings and wonderings from family walks in their ecological communities supported children to analyze the interactions within ecosystems and express concern and care for the natural world as they engaged in the science practice of asking questions. We share how elementary teachers can support children in cultivating relationships with their local community as they make observations and ask questions to understand how climate change impacts their ecological communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Canadian Journal of Bioethics / Revue canadienne de bioéthique is the property of Ecole de Sante Publique de l'Universite de Montreal and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Citizen participation in smart cities has come under ever more scrutiny in recent years. Whilst smart city projects across the world have proclaimed themselves as citizen-centric, scholars have found that these claims are still framed within a neoliberal, post-political conception of citizenship, whereby citizens are afforded little agency. In evaluating such projects and in aid of developing a better understanding of the citizen's role in smart cities, scholars have developed various heuristics. This paper aims to further both empirical and theoretical developments in the field to evaluate citizen participation in Quayside, Toronto's first smart city neighbourhood, using Cardullo and Kitchin's Scaffold of Smart Citizen Participation. A document analysis of seventeen citizen engagement summary reports and advertisements, corresponding to eight citizen engagement initiatives, has revealed that the quality of citizen participation varied substantially according to individual initiatives in Quayside. It was also discovered that Cardullo and Kitchin's scaffold was ineffective at capturing the complexity of citizen engagement in smart city planning. In light of this, a new heuristic which assesses the post-political spaces of citizen engagement has been developed. This heuristic can provide a productive foundation for further research in the field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The importance of verification for software products is being increasingly appreciated in industry, although still not to the level to make it a standard approach to high quality software in industry. Since 2005, a global initiative has been underway, started by eminent researchers in both industry and academia, with the aim of establishing and disseminating a culture of software verification from first principles by means of theories, tools and experiments. This special section contains a selection of contributions originally presented at the 2008 Workshop on Tools at VSTTE 2008, the conference on Verified Software: Theories, Tools and Experiments, in Toronto. The VSTTE series of conferences and workshops focuses on the challenge of verifying software systems. Within VSTTE, the scope of the Tools workshop are implementations and enabling techniques for program verifiers, which are important ingredients for the dissemination of principles and techniques among industrial practitioners. This special section complements a sister special section of the Journal on Formal Aspects of computing, Springer. While the FACJ papers address more foundational aspects of tool-based verification and tool construction, the present section presents two toolsets, reflections on usability for verification tools and a novel abstraction technique. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Canadian Geographer is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The article discusses Annual Meeting of the American Risk and Insurance Association to be held in Toronto, Ontario from August 6-9, 2017.

This paper explores the timelines of large transportation infrastructure delivery, from first proposal to construction and opening in London, UK and Toronto, Canada. The goal of the paper is to identify both how long it takes projects to go from idea to delivery, the relative time of different stages in the delivery process, and if projects with long timelines see physical or technological changes in their design. This work contributes to two ongoing discussions around the speed of infrastructure delivery, one that argues infrastructure moves too slowly and major efforts are needed to speed delivery and another that argues that good infrastructure thinking requires time to breathe and care should be taken in rushing through the delivery process. Detailed delivery timelines from initial proposal to construction or operation are developed for 26 transportation projects (16 in Toronto and 10 in London) between the years 2000 and 2018. For each project the timelines of inception, approval, planning, procurement, environmental assessment, construction and operational phases are identified and compared. Long informal gestation periods are identified for many projects, particularly for linear projects. In many instances the informal gestation period dwarfs the time projects spent in formal planning. This research highlights the need to expand the conception of timeliness of infrastructure delivery to include the lengthy periods of informal debate and planning that can span years and build up community expectations about the imminence of a project, even before it has received formal assessment or approval. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Road geometric information and a digital model based on light detection and ranging (LiDAR) can perform accurate geometric inventories and three-dimensional (3D) descriptions for as-built roads and infrastructures. However, unorganized point clouds and complex road scenarios would reduce the accuracy of geometric information extraction and digital modeling. There is a standardization need for information extraction and 3D model construction that integrates point cloud processing and digital modeling. This paper develops a framework from semantic segmentation to geometric information extraction and digital modeling based on LiDAR data. A semantic segmentation network is improved for the purpose of dividing the road surface and infrastructure. The road boundary and centerline are extracted by the alpha-shape and Voronoi diagram methods based on the semantic segmentation results. The road geometric information is obtained by a coordinate transformation matrix and the least square method. Subsequently, adaptive road components are constructed using Revit software. Thereafter, the road route, road entity model, and various infrastructure components are generated by the extracted geometric information through Dynamo and Revit software. Finally, a detailed digital model of the road scenario is developed. The Toronto-3D and Semantic3D datasets are utilized for analysis through training and testing. The overall accuracy (OA) of the proposed net for the two datasets is 95.3 and 95.0%, whereas the IoU of segmented road surfaces is 95.7 and 97.9%. This indicates that the proposed net could accomplish superior performance for semantic segmentation of point clouds. The mean absolute errors between the extracted and manually measured geometric information are marginal. This demonstrates the effectiveness and accuracy of the proposed extraction methods. Thus, the proposed framework could provide a reference for accurate extraction and modeling from LiDAR data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research on territorial stigmatization has gained considerable traction in the past decade as urban inequalities accelerate under neoliberal urbanization. While the production of territorial stigmatization is complex and multifaceted, central to this process is the perception and representation of places by outsiders, particularly the media. Through an analysis of crime news articles and crime statistics in Toronto, this paper identifies media coverage as one pathway by which certain neighbourhoods can become known for criminal activity, a key discourse associated with place-based stigma. A systematic search of news articles from major newspapers between 2015 and 2019 was conducted, focusing on terms related to three types of violent crime; robbery, homicide, and assault. Analysis reveals a spatial significance to the coverage of the crimes, with the majority of identified neighbourhoods located in the peripheral North York area and Downtown Toronto. Rates of coverage in the media were then statistically examined in relation to actual crime rates, revealing that several neighbourhoods receive disproportionate coverage as sites of crime by the media, particularly in the district of North York. These findings point to a suburbanization of media-driven perceptions of crime in Toronto, and to the possibility of territorial destigmatization for gentrifying neighbourhoods. Overall, this work highlights the necessity of critiquing not only defamatory discourses in the media, but also the extent to which the media covers criminal activities, because level of coverage is itself likely to be an important determinant of territorial stigmatization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is part IV of "towards a model of urban evolution". It demonstrates how the Toronto Urban Evolution Model (TUEM) can be used to encode city data, illuminate key features, demonstrate how formetic distance can be used to discover how spatial areas change over time, and identify similar spatial areas within and between cities. The data used in this study are reviews from Yelp. Each review can be interpreted as a formeme where the category of the business is a form, the reviewer is a group and the review is an activity. Yelp data from neighbourhoods in both Toronto and Montreal are encoded. A method for aggregating reviewers into groups with multiple members is introduced. Longitudinal analysis is performed for all Toronto neighbourhoods. Transversal analysis is performed between neighbourhoods within Toronto and between Toronto and Montreal. Similar neighbourhoods are identified validating formetic distance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the developments related to Economic History Association (EHA). An announcement is being made by Gary Libecap, 2005/06 EHA President, that the sixty-sixth annual meeting of the EHA will be held in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, September 15-17, 2006, at the Omni William Penn Hotel. Nominations are being invited by the Committee on Education of the EHA for the Jonathan Hughes Prize for Excellence in Teaching Economic History. It also highlights the prizes that were awarded at the sixty-fifth annual meeting of the EHA, held in Toronto, Ontario, September 16-18, 2005.

Many image‐to‐image computer vision approaches have made great progress by an end‐to‐end framework with the encoder–decoder architecture. However, the same image‐to‐image eye fixation prediction task is not the same as those computer vision tasks in that it focuses more on salient regions rather than precise predictions for every pixel. Thus, it is not appropriate to directly apply the end‐to‐end encoder–decoder to the eye fixation prediction task. In addition, although high‐level feature is important, the contribution of low‐level feature should also be kept and balanced in computational model. Nevertheless, some low‐level features that attract attention are easily neglected while transiting through the deep network. Therefore, the effective way to integrate low‐level and high‐level features for improving eye fixation prediction performance is still a challenging task. In this paper, a coarse‐to‐fine network (CFN) that encompasses two pathways with different training strategies are proposed: coarse perceiving network (CFN‐Coarse) can be a simple encoder network or any of the existing pretrained network to capture the distribution of salient regions and generate high‐quality feature maps; fine integrating network (CFN‐Fine) uses fixed parameters from the CFN‐Coarse and combines features from deep to shallow in the deconvolution process by adding skip connections between down‐sampling and up‐sampling paths to efficiently integrate deep and shallow features. The saliency map obtained by the method is evaluated over 6 standard benchmark datasets, namely SALICON, MIT1003, MIT300, Toronto, OSIE, and SUN500. The results demonstrate that the method can surpass the state‐of‐the‐art accuracy of eye fixation prediction and achieves the competitive performance to date under most evaluation metrics on SALICON Saliency Prediction Challenge (LSUN2017). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, I lay out the possibilities for community-engaged education as a tool for countering school disengagement with marginalized youth in Toronto. Using interviews and observations with staff, youth, and parents who participate in a community-based tutoring and mentoring program, I explore how the program's grassroots commitments work to minimize marginalization and the pushout of students within the Latinx and Portuguese communities in Toronto. By building relationships based on trust and responding to the community's needs, parental engagement, and academic-community partnerships, the program creates a space of community engagement that involves the whole family in changing narratives about both communities and their place within the public education system. I posit that this type of community-engaged education is effective in increasing access to postsecondary education for traditionally marginalized students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Canadian Journal for the Study of Adult Education is the property of Canadian Journal for the Study of Adult Education and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Simple Summary: Due to climate change and human interference, many species are now without habitats and on the brink of extinction. Zoos and other conservation spaces allow for non-human animal preservation and public education about endangered species and ecosystems. Monitoring the health and well-being of animals in care, while providing species-specific environments, is critical for zoo and conservation staff. In order to best provide such care, keepers and researchers need to gather as much information as possible about individual animals and species as a whole. This paper focuses on existing technology to monitor animals, providing a review on the history of technology, including recent technological advancements and current limitations. Subsequently, we provide a brief introduction to our proposed novel computer software: an artificial intelligence software capable of unobtrusively and non-invasively tracking individuals' location, estimating position, and analyzing behaviour. This innovative technology is currently being trained with orangutans at the Toronto Zoo and will allow for mass data collection, permitting keepers and researchers to closely monitor individual animal welfare, learn about the variables impacting behaviour and provide additional enrichment or interventions accordingly. With many advancements, technologies are now capable of recording non-human animals' location, heart rate, and movement, often using a device that is physically attached to the monitored animals. However, to our knowledge, there is currently no technology that is able to do this unobtrusively and non-invasively. Here, we review the history of technology for use with animals, recent technological advancements, current limitations, and a brief introduction to our proposed novel software. Canadian tech mogul EAIGLE Inc. has developed an artificial intelligence (AI) software solution capable of determining where people and assets are within public places or attractions for operational intelligence, security, and health and safety applications. The solution also monitors individual temperatures to reduce the potential spread of COVID-19. This technology has been adapted for use at the Toronto Zoo, initiated with a focus on Sumatran orangutans (Pongo abelii) given the close physical similarity between orangutans and humans as great ape species. This technology will be capable of mass data collection, individual identification, pose estimation, behaviour monitoring and tracking orangutans' locations, in real time on a 24/7 basis, benefitting both zookeepers and researchers looking to review this information. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Automatic road extraction from remote sensing imagery is very useful for many applications involved with geographic information. For road extraction of urban areas, road intersections offer stable and reliable information for extraction of road network, with higher completeness and accuracy. In this paper, a segmentation-shape analysis based method is proposed to detect road intersections and their branch directions from an image. In the region of interest, it uses the contour shape of the segmented-intersection area to form a feature vector representing its geometric information. The extracted feature vector is then matched with some template vectors in order to find the best matched intersection pattern, obtain the type of intersection and the direction of connected roads. The experimental analysis are carried out with ISPRS Vaihingen and Toronto images. The experimental results show that the proposed method can extract most of the road intersections correctly. For the Vaihingen image, the the completeness and correctness are 81% and 87%, respectfully, while for the Toronto image, the the completeness and correctness are 78% and 85%, respectfully. It can help to build more correct and complete road network. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores how women and non-binary Latinx Community Workers (LCWs) in Toronto, Canada, negotiate their identities, citizenship practices and politics in relation to settler colonialism and decolonization. We demonstrate how LCWs enact a Latinx decolonial politic of belonging, an alternative way of practicing citizenship that strives to simultaneously challenge both Canadian and Latin American settler colonialism. This can be seen when LCWs refuse to be recognized on white settler terms as "proud Canadians," and create community-based learning initiatives that incite conversations among everyday Latinx community members around Canada's settler colonial history and present, Indigenous worldviews, as well as race and settler colonialism in Latin America. We consider how LCWs' enactments of a Latinx decolonial politic of belonging serve as small, incomplete, but crucial steps towards decolonization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increasing processing times for immigration applications, increasing numbers of people admitted on temporary visas, and delays processing refugee claims mean that more newcomers spend longer periods of time living in Canada with precarious immigration status. This paper uses qualitative research to examine how people with precarious immigration status exercise agency in the face of restrictions to their rights and risk of deportability, as well as the extent to which agency is able to transform people's everyday realities. The research shows that regimes of immigration control construct people with precarious immigration status as un-belonging and undesirable as members of Canadian society. The research identifies two ways that research participants exert autonomy over their lives: persistent presence and critiquing their construction as un-belonging and undesirable. Both forms of agency involve the creation of counterpublics to build networks for practical support and recognition of the legitimacy of their presence in Canada. While agency made it easier for participants to sustain themselves, the research shows that participants internalized discourses hostile to people with precarious immigration status, suggesting that agency is both necessary but also limited in its capacity to mitigate the harm caused by the construction of them as un-belonging and undesirable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Canadian Jewish Studies / Études Juives Canadiennes is the property of Association for Canadian Jewish Studies and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Canadian Jewish Studies / Études Juives Canadiennes is the property of Association for Canadian Jewish Studies and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Urban agriculture continues to gain traction in cities across North America. Many such efforts pursue social justice objectives with mixed success. This paper examines two urban agriculture projects in Toronto, Canada, to demonstrate the challenges of pursuing social justice goals via urban agriculture. Despite a long history of municipal and civil society support for urban agriculture in Toronto, stakeholders continually face bureaucratic obstacles that make growing food on public land inaccessible for groups without significant resources. Relying on Swyngedouw's theories of the post-political condition, this paper finds that a seemingly depoliticized food governance focusing exclusively on processes of urban agriculture obscures questions about who benefits from such processes, which can pave the way for uneven development. This research contributes to literature on environmental justice and food governance by attending to municipal challenges to achieving social justice goals in urban agriculture projects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: To examine adjustment after stroke in adolescence from the perspective of affected young people. Method: Fourteen participants (10 female) aged 13 to 25 years with a history of ischemic or hemorrhagic stroke in adolescence participated in one‐on‐one semi‐structured interviews at the Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Canada. Interviews were audio‐recorded and transcribed verbatim. Two independent coders conducted a reflexive thematic analysis. Results: Five themes were identified as representative of adjustment after stroke: (1) 'Processing the story'; (2) 'Loss and challenges'; (3) 'I've changed'; (4) 'Keys to recovery'; and (5) 'Adjustment and acceptance'. Interpretation: This qualitative study provides medical professionals with a personal, patient‐driven lens through which to better understand the challenges of adjusting to life after pediatric stroke. Findings highlight the need to provide mental health support to patients to assist them in processing their stroke and adapting to long‐lasting sequelae. What this paper adds: Processing the onset event is a key component of adjustment to stroke.Feelings of anxiety, sadness, frustration, and self‐consciousness impede adjustment to stroke.Young people may feel overwhelmed academically owing to neurocognitive deficits.Sequelae may rid young people of hobbies and passions, and alter plans for the future.To adjust to stroke, survivors draw on resilience, patience, determination, and social support. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Segregation of visible minorities has persisted throughout time in Toronto. In examining these concentrations, the literature has been heavily focused on the notion that visible minorities are choosing to live in proximity to their respective ethno‐racial groups and that these are spaces of aspiration rather than marginalization in Canada. This paper raises questions about the assertion of "self‐segregation" by emphasizing affordability constraints on residential choices that are often rooted in discrimination in the labour market. Census data from 2016 and an adopted neighbourhood classification scheme were used to understand the spatial patterning of visible minorities in the Toronto census metropolitan area and highlight differences in the socio‐economic characteristics of visible minority dominant and white dominant census tracts. The findings invite the inference that economic opportunities play a critical role in the residential choices of visible minorities and raise concerns about the quality of life in visible minority neighbourhoods. This research contributes to our understanding of how social inequalities have impacted the socio‐spatial organization of the city of Toronto. Key messages: Visible minority dominant neighbourhoods have lower labour market participation, educational attainment, and income, as well as higher unemployment rates than white dominant neighbourhoods.Although homeownership rates are high in visible minority concentrations, the data indicate that visible minority groups may be making sacrifices in terms of suitability, space, and location due to financial constraints.Housing prices are a likely factor propelling visible minority concentrations in the Toronto census metropolitan area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Canadian Geographer is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

As several commentators and researchers have noted since late spring 2020, COVID-19 has laid bare the connections between entrenched structurally generated inequalities on one hand, and on the other hand relatively high degrees of susceptibility to contracting COVID-19 on the part of economically marginalized population segments. Far from running along the tracks of race neutrality, studies have demonstrated that the pandemic is affecting Black people more than Whites in the U.S.A. and U.K., where reliable racially-disaggregated data are available. While the situation in Canada seems to follow the same pattern, race-specific data on COVID-19 are hard to come by. At present, there is no federal mandate to collect race-based data on COVID-19, though, in Ontario, at the municipal level, the City of Toronto has been releasing such data. This paper examines the entanglements of race, immigration status and the COVID-19 pandemic in Canada with particular emphasis on Black immigrants and non-immigrants in Toronto, using multiple forms of data pertaining to income, housing, immigration, employment and COVID-19 infections and deaths. Our findings show that the pandemic has had a disproportionate negative impact on Black people and other racialized people in Toronto and, indeed, Canada. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the effect of a major Canadian tax reform on the ex-dividend day behavior of companies on the Toronto Stock Exchange. The results are inconsistent with the hypothesis that price changes on ex-dividend days reflect the relative taxation of dividends and capital gains for the “representative” investor, but are consistent with the hypothesis that ex-dividend day price behavior reflects short-term trading activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]