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The latitudinal herbivory-defense hypothesis (LHDH) predicts that plants near the equator will be more heavily defended against herbivores than are plants at higher latitudes. Although this idea is widely found in the literature, recent studies have called this biogeographic pattern into question. We sought to evaluate the LHDH in a high-latitude terrestrial ecosystem where fire and mammalian herbivores may contribute to selection for higher levels of defensive chemistry. To address this objective, we collected seeds of Alaska paper birch (Betula neoalaskana) from nine locations along two north-south transects between 55 degrees N and 62 degrees N latitudes in western, interior Canada. The birch seeds were planted in pots in a common garden in Madison, Wisconsin, USA. From the resulting seedlings, we determined levels of chemical defense by assessing the density of resin glands, which have been shown to be negatively correlated with browsing. To assess plant architectural traits such as height, mean individual leaf area, and root-to-shoot ratio, we harvested a subset of the birch seedlings. Further, we used these traits to examine growth-defense trade-offs. Contrary to the LHDH, we found a positive correlation between chemical defense and latitude. Investigating relationships with fire, we found a strong positive correlation between resin gland density and percentage of area annually burned (PAAB) around each collection location and also between PAAB and latitude. Additionally, birch seedlings originating from higher latitudes were shorter, smaller-leaved, and rootier than their lower-latitude counterparts. Growth-defense trade-offs were observed in negative correlations between resin gland density and height and leaf size. Seedlings with higher resin gland densities also allocated less biomass to shoots and more to roots. These results further call into question the LHDH and provide specific information about latitudinal trends in plant defense at high, northern latitudes where fire is a major ecosystem driver and mammals are the main herbivores of deciduous trees such as birches. We propose that these interconnected relationships are the key drivers of the positive correlation between defense and latitude in B. neoalaskana. Understanding patterns of boreal plant defense and growth is especially important because high latitude ecosystems are particularly susceptible to climate change. Key words: Alaska paper birch; Betula neoalaskana; biogeography; chemical defense; grotvth-defense trade-offs; inherent growth rate; latitude; latitudinal herbivory-defense hypothesis; papyr'feric acid; plant ar- chitecture; resin glands; root-to-shoot ratio.

Top-down approaches to measure total integrated emissions provide verification of bottom-up, temporally-resolved, inventory-based estimations. Aircraft-based measurements of air pollutants from sources in the Canadian oil sands were made in support of the Joint Canada-Alberta Implementation Plan on Oil Sands Monitoring during a summer intensive field campaign between 13 August and 7 September 2013. The measurements contribute to knowledge needed in support of the Joint Canada-Alberta Implementation Plan on Oil Sands Monitoring. This paper describes a Top-down Emission Rate Retrieval Algorithm (TERRA) to determine facility emissions of pollutants, using SO2 and CH4 as examples, based on the aircraft measurements. In this algorithm, the flight path around a facility at multiple heights is mapped to a two-dimensional vertical screen surrounding the facility. The total transport of SO2 and CH4 through this screen is calculated using aircraft wind measurements, and facility emissions are then calculated based on the divergence theorem with estimations of box-top losses, hori zontal and vertical turbulent fluxes, surface deposition, and apparent losses due to air densification and chemical reaction. Example calculations for two separate flights are presented. During an upset condition of SO2 emissions on one day, these calculations are within 5% of the industry-reported, bottom-up measurements. During a return to normal operating conditions, the SO2 emissions are within 11% of industry-reported, bottom-up measurements. CH4 emissions calculated with the algorithm are relatively constant within the range of uncertainties. Uncertainty of the emission rates is estimated as 20 %, which is primarily due to the unknown SO2 and CH4 mixing ratios near the surface below the lowest flight level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The extraction and development of oil sands in Alberta, Canada, present a complex interplay between economic growth and environmental sustainability. Alberta boasts the world's largest concentration of oil sands, with approximately 1.7 trillion barrels of bitumen in place across its three major areas: Athabasca, Peace River, and Cold Lake. Alberta's oil sands, particularly in the Athabasca Basin, hold substantial reserves, necessitating specialized extraction technologies and great environmental challenges. The economic benefits including job creation and contributions to Canada's GDP are juxtaposed with the volatility of oil prices and the environmental costs. This review provides a comprehensive analysis of the geological history, technological advancements, and a brief review of the environmental and socio-economic impact of Alberta's oil sands industry. This paper is to provide a comprehensive report on how the industrial revolution took place from 1980 to the present, detailing all operators, types of industries, project statuses, and oil sand regions. The GIS maps further illustrate a visual representation of the industry's evolution. The analysis concludes with a discussion on the future trajectory of the oil sands industry, underscoring the imperative for sustainable development amid global climate change pressures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims: To investigate the feasibility and acceptability of a serious mobile-game intervention on older adults' engagement, affect, and cognitive function. Methods: In this single-subject design, twenty older adults, six of whom living with dementia, participated in a 16-session mobile-game intervention. Before and after the intervention, participants had sessions involving traditional paper-based cognitive activities. Engagement and affect were measured in each session. Cognitive measures were administered before and after the intervention. Acceptability was explored through interviews. Results: After the intervention, there was a statistically significant increase in engagement in 37% of participants, and in affect in 21% of participants. Participants preferred the mobile games to the paper-based activities. Cognitive measures showed improvement in four participants with dementia. Conclusions: Although not conclusive, participants experienced higher levels of engagement and positive affect while playing the mobile games compared to paper-based activities. The results indicate feasibility and acceptability of the mobile game intervention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Canadian Journal of Midwifery Research & Practice is the property of Canadian Association of Midwives 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.)

This article empirically examines the ways in which Initial Teacher Education in Scotland and Alberta, Canada, seeks to 'get students in', 'get them out and into the workforce', 'get on with teaching future teachers' and how it should 'get on with students'. Using Adams' (2016) policy heuristic, which posits that policy can be discerned in three realms: frame; explanation; and formation, this paper considers the middle realm: that of policy explanation. Here, attempts to position policy through public pronouncement, policy directive, mandate and/or missive are examined in the context of ITE in Scotland and Alberta. By analysing policy explanations, the paper marks out how both jurisdictions should begin to attempt to craft ITE located in career-long, professional learning and development that understands and acknowledges tensions between ITE and later teacher-education phases. Finally, the paper makes a tentative proposal as to what such ITE might hope to achieve and how it might contribute to a well-developed workforce, so that both locations and other jurisdictions might orient initial teacher development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the benefits that experiential learning affords both students and organizations where there is sharing and participating in "real world learning." Mount Royal University Calgary, Alberta, seeks to incorporate experiential learning opportunities in most undergraduate degree programs, for example, the Department of Economics, Justice and Policy Studies, and the Department of Child Studies and Social Work. Experiential Service learning is geared toward improving student engagement and leadership. In the summer of 2021, students collaboratively developed a policy paper on how police could improve their capacity to investigate and combat cyber crimes. The policy paper was developed during COVID-19, which required creativity associated with remote learning. Drawing on literature that highlights experiential learning, this paper highlights the experience of students in Justice Policy Studies who benefitted by integrating critical course content and collaborating with community stakeholders. [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 majority of previous studies on reliability-based highway design focussed on assessing the risk associated with only one mode of non-compliance (i.e. insufficient sight distance on horizontal curves using 2 D sight distance calculations). Only a handful number of studies established a link between risk levels and collisions. This paper calibrates safety-based design charts for horizontal curves considering a system reliability analysis (i.e., multi-mode) where the non-compliance could result from limited sight distance and vehicle skidding. The paper first utilised LiDAR data to collect curve attributes and assess the Available Sight Distance in a 3 D environment on 244 horizontal curves in Alberta, Canada. Monte Carlo Simulation was then used to calculate the associated risk levels, and full-Bayes multivariate Poisson lognormal regression was utilised to develop statistically significant safety performance functions that relate risk levels to collisions. Safety-based design charts were calibrated to relate curve attributes to risk levels and collisions. The calibrated charts showed the importance of using multi-mode reliability analysis. An example of using the calibrated charts in estimating the expected safety benefits of geometric improvements was introduced. The developed charts can offer designers a tool to estimate the safety consequences of design alternatives and aid the decision-making process of rehabilitation projects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The notion that Housing First (HF) is a human-rights based approach to housing some of society's most vulnerable citizens is often alluded to in the literature, but seldom interrogated. In this paper, we examine whether HF in Alberta, Canada is practiced in a way that realizes the right to housing for chronically homeless people. We do so using four human rights principles identified by Fukuda-Parr: non-discrimination, participation, adequate progress and remedy. Based on interviews with staff of 14 HF programs in three cities, we identify constraints to a human rights-based approach, including time-limited support, which necessitates a strong emphasis on housing sustainability. We also identify positive practices, such as client participation in decision-making and tenant rights education. The paper also provides a model for systematically assessing whether HF programs respect, protect and fulfil the right to housing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers small businesses as an effective sector that solves current problems in the structure of the economy. The study aims to develop a set of measures (tools) for involving small businesses in stabilizing Alberta's economy. The methodology includes the monitoring of the economy within Alberta's regional borders over time; statistical analysis of the small business sector before and during the pandemic in the structure of the economy; as well as grouping and converting quantitative measurements into a qualitative summary of the main economic principles. These steps are aimed at developing a set of measures (tools) for involving small businesses in the economy of the province and the country as a whole. The growth of small enterprises ensures a practice focused on productivity, innovation, and society, which is confirmed by the dominant share of small businesses in the gross domestic product created by the dominant share of small businesses in the gross domestic product created by the private sector of the province. Thus, focusing on the economic principles of small businesses, a complex of measures is proposed for mobilization to maximize the economic result at the provincial level in the context of strengthening the national economy. In practice, the findings will help the local government to determine a set of beneficial policies, contributing to the utilization of the advantages of the local economy in the sphere of business production. Entrepreneurs are provided with an opportunity to qualitatively utilize economic opportunities, recognizing the risks of the external environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Effective winter road maintenance relies on precise road friction estimation. Machine learning (ML) models have shown significant promise in this; however, their inherent complexity makes understanding their inner workings challenging. This paper addresses this issue by conducting a comparative analysis of road friction estimation models using four ML methods, including regression tree, random forest, eXtreme Gradient Boosting (XGBoost), and support vector regression (SVR). We then employ the SHapley Additive exPlanations (SHAP) explainable artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance model interpretability. Our analysis on an Alberta dataset reveals that the XGBoost model performs best with an accuracy of 91.39%. The SHAP analysis illustrates the logical relationships between predictor features and friction within all three tree-based models, but it also uncovers inconsistencies within the SVR model, potentially attributed to insufficient feature interactions. Thus, this paper not only showcase the role of explainable AI in improving the ML interpretability of models for road friction estimation, but also provides practical insights that could improve winter road maintenance decisions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A number of sentinel species are regularly sampled from the environment near the Oil Sands Region (OSR) in Alberta, Canada. In particular, trout-perch are sampled as a proxy for the health of the aquatic ecosystem. As the development of the OSR began before the environmental monitoring program was in place, there is currently no established measure for the baseline health of the local ecosystem. A common solution is to calculate normal ranges for fish endpoints. Observations found to be outside the normal range are then flagged, alerting researchers to the potential presence of stressors in the local environment. The quality of the normal ranges is dependent on the accuracy of the estimates used to calculate them. This paper explores the use of neural networks and regularized regression for improving the prediction accuracy of fish endpoints. We also consider the trade-off between the prediction accuracy and interpretability of each model. We find that neural networks can provide increased prediction accuracy, but this improvement in accuracy may not be worth the loss in interpretability in some ecological studies. The elastic net offers both good prediction accuracy and interpretability, making it a safe choice for many ecological applications. A hybridized method combining both the neural network and elastic net offers high prediction accuracy as well as some interpretability, and therefore it is the recommended method for this application. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This review paper investigates the landscape of wildfire-related studies with a focus on infrastructure and evacuations across Canadian provinces, revealing a predominant focus on Alberta, particularly after the 2016 Fort McMurray wildfire. The aftermath of this event has heightened attention to the unique challenges faced during evacuations, emphasizing the urgent need for heightened awareness and preparedness, especially in the vulnerable northern communities of Alberta. Studies beyond Alberta contribute to understanding Canadian wildfire dynamics. However, a noticeable research gap in British Columbia raises concerns about research prioritization and resource allocation despite heightened wildfire activity. The fact that some provinces are contributing less than 4.2%, such as Quebec, Saskatchewan, Ontario, Northwest Territories, Yukon, and the Prairies, might be attributed to regional variations influenced by historical wildfire frequency and population density. Thematic analysis categorizing studies into "community support/resilience", "evacuation efficiency", and "infrastructure protection/raising awareness" provides nuanced insights. The dominance of the "community support/resilience" category, comprising over 40% of studies, signifies a societal shift towards proactive community engagement. Balanced representation in the "evacuation efficiency" and "infrastructure protection/raising awareness" categories, each contributing over 29%, reflects a collective effort to glean lessons from past evacuations and enhance community preparedness. Temporal trends and thematic analyses spotlight a commitment to continuous improvement, adaptability to emerging challenges, and a growing recognition of the multifaceted aspects of wildfire management. The evolving emphasis on community involvement, responsiveness to changing evacuation dynamics, and heightened awareness of infrastructure protection underscores the proactive stance of the research community, providing insights for shaping future research priorities, policy frameworks, and community resilience strategies in the face of evolving wildfire threats in Canada. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD) was legalized in Canada in 2016 and amended in 2021. At the time that this study was conducted, the federal government was considering expanding the eligibility criteria to include patients whose death was not reasonably foreseeable. The purpose of this study was to better understand rural healthcare professionals' experiences with assisted dying set against the backdrop of legislative expansion. Methods: A qualitative exploratory study was undertaken with general rural practice physicians, nurse practitioners, registered nurses, ethicists, patients, and patient families in rural Southern Alberta, Canada. For this paper, data from 18 audio-recorded and transcribed semi-structured interviews with healthcare professionals were analyzed using thematic analysis. Categories and patterns of shared meaning that linked to an overarching theme were identified. Results: Between the binary positions of full support for and conscientious objection to assisted dying, rural healthcare professionals' decisions to participate in MAiD was based on their moral convictions, various contextual factors, and their participation thresholds. Factors including patient suffering; personal and professional values and beliefs; relationships with colleagues, patients and family, and community; and changing MAiD policy and legislation created nuances that informed their decision-making. Conclusions: The interplay of multiple factors and their degree of influence on healthcare professionals' decision-making create multiple decision points between full support for and participation in MAiD processes and complete opposition and/or abstention. Moreover, our findings suggest evolving policy and legislation have the potential to increase rural healthcare professionals' uncertainty and level of discomfort in providing services. We propose that the binary language typically used in the MAiD discourse be reframed to reflect that decision-making processes and actions are often fluid and situational. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The COVID-19 (C19) pandemic shocked primary care systems around the world. Those systems responded by supporting patients in the community, and acute care facilities in crisis. In Canada, the Patient Medical Home (PMH) is a widely adopted care model that aims to operationalize the tenets and principles of Primary Health Care (PHC) as developed since the Alma-Ata Declaration. This paper describes how personnel working in and with Primary Care Networks (PCNs) in Alberta, Canada deployed the PMH model and its underlying PHC principles to frame and respond to the C19 shock. Methods: Using purposive and snowball sampling techniques, we interviewed 57 participants who worked in public health and primary care, including community-based family physicians. We used interpretive description to analyze the interviews. Results: PCN staff and physicians described how the PMH model was foundational to normal operations, and how C19 responses were framed by the patient-centric, team-delivered, and continuous care principles the model shares with PHC. Specifically, participants described ensuring access to care, addressing the social determinants of health, being patient centered, and redeploying and expanding PHC teams to accomplish these goals. Discussion: Delivering PHC through the PMH allowed physicians and allied health staff to deliver patient-centered, team-based, holistic bio-medical services to Albertans. In tailoring services to meet the specific social and health needs of the populations served by each PCN, healthcare providers were able to ensure relevant support remained available and accessible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pope Francis's dream for a synodal Church has implications for Catholic schools globally, but what exactly are these consequences? This paper explores Francis's vision in the context of Canadian Catholic schools in Alberta, Saskatchewan, and the Northwest Territories (NWT), where these schools are fully-funded by the government and enroll nearly a quarter million students. Ten exploratory interviews with chief superintendents from these schools—which formed the basis of a larger study—were analyzed to understand potential connections to Francis's vision and his four commitments to synodality: focusing on relationships, a culture of encounter, the essentials of the Christian faith, and local decision-making. The pope differentiates synodality from democratic forms of leadership and demands a communal form of listening and discerning God's Spirit. While the superintendents' style of leadership appeared to mirror synodality in many ways, predominant issues remain to be explored: an emphasis on relationships upends the status quo and gives new directions for the schools; encountering others will inevitably demand prophetic leadership by the system leaders; leading with the essentials of faith will not please everyone in Catholic schooling; and shared authority among the superintendents, bishops, and trustees requires further dialogue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Fall 2020, all universities in Alberta went with remote delivery of classes due to COVID-19 restrictions. This provided not only teaching challenges, but also opportunities. Professors at three Canadian universities teaching similar undergraduate courses in international political economy decided to use the challenges/opportunities of COVID-19 restrictions to experiment with a World Trade Organization (WTO) simulation across three campuses through remote delivery. Simulations are frequently used for teaching in political science, but what was unusual was doing it through remote delivery. This paper assesses the effectiveness of the experiment. It traces the origins/evolution of the idea, learning objectives for the students, preparation by the professors to design the WTO simulation, and the experience of the actual simulation. It also addresses the challenges (technological, timing, assignments, grading, student anxiety, etc.). In addition, it identifies the steps that were taken to reduce and mitigate the challenges. It also acknowledges the mistakes that were made by the professors in designing and implementing the assignment. These observations and reflections are informed by the materials that the professors prepared, their thoughts on the experience, and the feedback from participating students (through official student evaluations as well as a special survey instrument). It provides lessons for future online simulations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the past decade, a large volume of peer‐reviewed papers has examined the potential impacts of oil and gas resource extraction in the Canadian oil sands (OS). A large proportion focuses on terrestrial biology: wildlife, birds, and vegetation. We provide a qualitative synthesis of the condition of the environment in the oil sands region (OSR) from 2009 to 2020 to identify gaps and progress cumulative effects assessments. Our objectives were to (1) qualitatively synthesize and critically review knowledge from the OSR; (2) identify consistent trends and generalizable conclusions; and (3) pinpoint gaps in need of greater monitoring or research effort. We visualize knowledge and terrestrial monitoring foci by allocating papers to a conceptual model for the OS. Despite a recent increase in publications, focus has remained concentrated on a few key stressors, especially landscape disturbance, and a few taxa of interest. Stressor and response monitoring is well represented, but direct monitoring of pathways (linkages between stressors and responses) is limited. Important knowledge gaps include understanding effects at multiple spatial scales, mammal health effects monitoring, focused monitoring of local resources important to Indigenous communities, and geospatial coverage and availability, including higher attribute resolution in human footprint, comprehensive land cover mapping, and up‐to‐date LiDAR coverage. Causal attribution based on spatial proximity to operations or spatial orientation of monitoring in the region is common but may be limited in the strength of inference that it provides. Integr Environ Assess Manag 2022;18:388–406. © 2021 The Authors. Integrated Environmental Assessment and Management published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of Society of Environmental Toxicology & Chemistry (SETAC). KEY POINTS: We provide a qualitative synthesis of the condition of the environment in the Canadian oil sands region (OSR) in northeastern Alberta from 2009 to 2020 to identify gaps and progress cumulative effects assessments. Despite a recent increase in publications, focus has remained concentrated on a few key stressors and a few taxa of interest, for which monitoring is well represented, though direct monitoring of pathways (linkages between stressors and responses) is limited. Important gaps include a lack of understanding of effects at multiple spatial scales, a lack of focused monitoring of local resources important to Indigenous communities, and geospatial data resolution and availability. Causal attribution based on spatial proximity to oil sands operations or spatial orientation of monitoring in the OSR is common but may be limited in the strength of inference that it provides. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The desire to document and understand the cumulative implications of oil sands (OS) development in the ambient environment of northeastern Alberta has motivated increased investment and release of information in the past decade. Here, we summarize the knowledge presented in the theme‐based review papers in this special series, including air, surface water, terrestrial biology, and Indigenous community‐based monitoring in order to (1) consolidate knowledge gained to date, (2) highlight key commonalities and gaps, and (3) leverage this knowledge to assess the state of integration in environmental monitoring efforts in the OS region and suggest next steps. Among air, water, and land studies, the individual reviews identified a clear focus on describing stressors, including primarily (1) contaminant emission, transport, transformation, deposition, and exposure, and (2) landscape disturbance. These emphases are generally partitioned by theme; air and water studies focus heavily on chemical stressors, whereas terrestrial monitoring focuses on biological change and landscape disturbance. Causal attribution is often stated as a high priority objective across all themes. However, studies often rely on spatial proximity to attribute cause to industrial activity, leaving causal attribution potentially confounded by spatial covariance of both OS‐ and non‐OS‐related stressors in the region, and by the complexity of interacting pathways between sources of environmental change and ecological receptors. Geospatial and modeling approaches are common across themes and may represent clear integration opportunities, particularly to help inform investigation‐of‐cause, but are not a replacement for robust field monitoring designs. Cumulative effects assessment remains a common focus of regional monitoring, but is limited in the peer‐reviewed literature, potentially reflecting a lack of integration among monitoring efforts beyond narrow integrated interpretations of results. Addressing this requires greater emphasis on a priori integrated data collection and integrated analyses focused on the main residual exposure pathways, such as atmospheric deposition. Integr Environ Assess Manag 2022;18:428–441. © 2021 The Authors. Integrated Environmental Assessment and Management published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of Society of Environmental Toxicology & Chemistry (SETAC). KEY POINTS: Our summary of the peer‐reviewed literature since 2010 from the Alberta oil sands region reveals an emphasis on chemical stressors and their association with atmospheric emissions, transport, transformation, and deposition, as well as an emphasis on landscape disturbance and associated effects.System‐wide gaps in the literature, including topics of concern to local Indigenous communities, derive from a disconnect between theme areas (air, water, land), contribute to an incomplete knowledge of functional linkages, and may undermine the ability to inform regulatory or policy action.Combining papers not explicitly designed together creates interpretative and analytical challenges, and overcoming these may require future optimization of and integration between targeted monitoring projects and entire theme areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past decades, concerns regarding the local and cumulative impacts of oil sands development have been increasing. These concerns reflect the industry's emissions, land disturbance, water use, and the resulting impacts to Indigenous Rights. Effective environmental management is essential to address and ultimately manage these concerns. A series of ambient regional monitoring programs in the oil sands region (OSR) have struggled with scope and governance. In the last 10 years, monitoring has evolved from a regulatory‐driven exercise implemented by industry into a focused, collaborative, multistakeholder program that attempts to integrate rigorous science from a multitude of disciplines and ways of knowing. Monitoring in the region continues to grapple with leadership, governance, data management, scope, and effective analysis and reporting. This special series, "A Decade of Research and Monitoring in the Oil Sands Region of Alberta, Canada," provides a series of critical reviews that synthesize 10 years of published monitoring results to identify patterns of consistent ecological responses or effects, significant gaps in knowledge, and recommendations for improved monitoring, assessment, and management of the region. The special series considered over 300 peer‐reviewed papers and represents the first integrated critical review of the published literature from the region. This introductory paper of the series introduces the history of ambient environmental monitoring in the OSR and discusses historic and ongoing challenges with the environmental monitoring effort. While significant progress has been made in areas of governance, expanded geographical scope, and inclusion of Indigenous communities in monitoring in the region, significant issues remain regarding a lack of integrated reporting on environmental conditions, public access to data, and continuity of monitoring efforts over time. Integr Environ Assess Manag 2022;18:319–332. © 2021 The Authors. Integrated Environmental Assessment and Management published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of Society of Environmental Toxicology & Chemistry (SETAC). KEY POINTS: This article introduces a special series that reviews over 300 manuscripts published over 10 years across environmental disciplines in the oil sands region of Alberta.The series is the first integrated critical review of published literature in the region.We discuss the history of ambient environmental monitoring in the region and the historic and ongoing challenges including how western science and Indigenous knowledge have been considered.While some progress has been made, significant issues remain regarding a lack of integrated reporting on environmental conditions, lack of public access to data, and discontinuity of monitoring efforts over time due, in part, to political influence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This study examines the competencies delineated by the Chartered Professional Accountants (CPA) in Canada and explores the gap between what universities provide, represented by the students' confidence in the knowledge acquired—and what the accounting profession in Canada requires and deems necessary. Design/methodology/approach: Using the 44 sub-competencies listed under the main seven competencies set by CPA, a pair of questionnaires were drafted. The first questionnaire asked post-secondary accounting students to rate their perceived confidence in these 44 sub-competencies and received 105 responses. The second questionnaire asked accounting professionals to rate the frequency and degree of use of each sub-competency in their workplace and received 72 responses. The responses to the two questionnaires were used to compare perceived student competencies with industry expectations. Findings: The study suggests an industry-neutral framework that employers and post-secondary institutions (PSIs) can use to determine where knowledge gaps exist between students' qualifications and professionals' requirements. The paper concludes that while there are synergies in many competencies in the accounting field in Canada, there are also areas of discord. Research limitations/implications: The study relies on one accredited PSI. Relying on one case study limits the ability to generalize the findings. Nevertheless, the in-depth nature of the study allows it to shed light on many key issues related to accounting education and the profession in Alberta, Canada. Originality/value: This paper adds to the existing literature by exploring the gap between what students learn and what the profession needs in the accounting field in Canada. Studying Canada adds to the accounting knowledge and draws attention to gaps that could exist in other countries. To the authors' knowledge, this is the first paper to focus on Canada from this perspective. The paper also proposes a curriculum development model that is based on market needs and applicable to all fields of knowledge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Basal gravel and sand mantling the bedrock floors of buried valleys throughout the Canadian Interior Plains, and conformably overlying proglacial lacustrine sediment, comprise the Empress Group. While previously conceptualized as stratigraphically equivalent deposits of preglacial rivers prior to the first and most extensive continental and montane glaciations, subsequent stratigraphic studies indicated that buried valley basal gravel must have been deposited between, or during, progressively more extensive continental glaciations and could not be stratigraphically equivalent throughout the buried valley network. However, in the general absence of formation-rank stratigraphic description of basal gravel units that might better inform the geologic history of the deposits, most workers simply consider Empress Group sediments time-transgressive. In this paper, we examine basal gravel at provincial and regional scales to understand its genesis and geologic history. At the provincial scale, we map basal gravel in three dimensions using a novel machine learning approach. At the regional scale, we formally define basal gravel formations at either end of the largest buried valley system in Alberta, which informs its glacial history and physiographic development and shows the importance of formation-rank stratigraphic description. Our results indicate that the buried valley network across Alberta is palimpsest in genesis and basal gravel units within it are chronostratigraphically intercalated between tills. We advocate that the Empress Group definition be extended across Alberta with modifications to improve its clarity and utility, and formally define the Old Fort, Unchaga, Ipiatik, and Winefred formations as part of the Empress Group. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

(1) Background: Transitioning from mental health inpatient care to community care is often a vulnerable time in the treatment process where additional risks and anxiety may arise. We collected data for this study as part of a pragmatic cluster-randomized, longitudinal approach in Alberta. As the first phase of the ongoing innovative supportive program, this paper assessed the progression of mental health symptoms in patients six weeks after hospital discharge. Factors that may contribute to the presence or absence of anxiety and depression symptoms, as well as well-being, following return to the community were investigated. This provides evidence and baseline data for future phases of the project. (2) Methods: An observational study design was adopted for this study. Data on a variety of sociodemographic and clinical factors were collected at discharge and six weeks after via REDCap. Anxiety, depression, and well-being symptoms were assessed using the Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD-7) questionnaire, the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9), and the World Health Organization-Five Well-Being Index (WHO-5), respectively. Descriptive, chi-square, independent t-tests, and multivariate regression analyses were conducted. (3) Result: The survey was completed by 88 out of 306 participants (28.8% response rate). The chi-square/Fisher exact test and independent t-test revealed no significant change in the mental health conditions from baseline to six weeks after discharge. It was found that the only significant factor predicting symptoms six weeks after discharge from inpatient treatment was the baseline symptoms in all three logistic regression models. It was four times more likely for those who experienced anxiety and depression at baseline to experience anxiety and depression symptoms six weeks after discharge (OR = 4.27; 95% CI: 1.38–13.20) (OR = 4.04; 95% CI: 1.25–13.05). Those with poor baseline well-being were almost 12 times more likely to experience poor well-being six weeks after discharge (OR = 11.75; 95% CI: 3.21–42.99). (4) Conclusions: Study results found no significant change in mental health conditions in the short term following hospital discharge. It is essential that researchers and policymakers collaborate in order to implement effective interventions to support and maintain the mental health conditions of patients following discharge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Canadian Journal of Civil Engineering is the property of Canadian Science Publishing 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.)

Objectives: To evaluate a new prenatal education program evaluation tool, the UpStart Parent Survey – Prenatal, in terms of: (a) reliability and validity; (b) sensitivity to change over time; (c) whether results differed for mothers versus fathers; and (d) whether results differed when using an electronic tablet‐computer versus a paper survey. Design and Sample: Psychometric study. Participants were 277 expectant mothers (n = 161) and fathers (n = 106) enrolled in Childbirth Essentials, a 6‐week prenatal education program. Measures: The UpStart Parent Survey – Prenatal is a retrospective pretest/posttest survey with three scales: Parenting Knowledge, Parenting Experience, and Program Satisfaction, and three open‐ended questions. Results: The UpStart Parent Survey – Prenatal is sensitive to change and demonstrated significant positive differences in parenting knowledge and parenting experience. There was no difference in results whether the survey was completed by mothers or fathers. Results were similar whether paper or electronic formats were used. The survey was easy to complete. Conclusion: The UpStart Parent Survey – Prenatal holds promise as a reliable and valid evaluation tool to capture outcomes of brief prenatal education programs that target the general population of expectant parents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of the paper was to draw lessons for the field of adapted physical activity from the interrelated literatures on interdisciplinarity, creativity, and team research. In each of these literatures, strategies have been identified that have been found to be useful by previous researchers. Lack of familiarity with these strategies can result in unsuccessful research projects or in the devotion of scarce resources to the reinvention of such strategies. The first section in the paper in particular addresses questions that arose at the 2016 North American Federation of Adapted Physical Activity symposium in Edmonton, Alberta. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Wood ash from Alberta's pulp and paper industry is used in lieu of Portland cement. • Cement-based foams are cast to achieve density ranging from 1000 to 1400 kg/m3. • Mechanical, thermal and acoustic properties are examined here. • Wood ash lowers thermal conductivity and noise, with minor drop in strength. • For indoor insulation, wood ash may replace cement at 10% for optimal effect. This study characterizes a Portland cement based cellular system prepared with a preformed foam. Wood ash, locally sourced from pulp and paper mills, was first characterized and later, blended at up to 20% of the binder. The resulting mixtures were cast at three densities between 1000 and 1400 kg/m3 and examined for mechanical, thermal and acoustic properties. A phase analysis was performed using X-ray diffraction to identify the components of the wood ash and again, in the hydrated system. The thermal constants were measured using the Transient Plane Heat Source (TPS) technique per ISO 22007-2. Sound absorption and noise reduction coefficients were evaluated using the impedance tube method per ASTM C384-04. The results show that although blending wood ash led to lower compressive strength and elastic modulus, the drop in strength was within 20%. While not as effective in reducing noise, the wood ash led to 20% lower thermal conductivity. These findings offer wood ash as a viable, replenishable and sustainable substitute for Portland cement in insulating foams. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two years ago, the Alberta government put in place a temporary oil-production quota. However, the quota's impact could well be felt in the province's oil production for years to come. The quota applied only to firms producing more than 10,000 barrels of oil per day and was instituted as a response to pipeline constraints that caused Alberta oil prices to be much lower than prices elsewhere. Production from both oilsands mines and oil wells dropped as soon as the government announced the quotas. The media warned that the quotas would force production to transfer to Saskatchewan, but the research for this paper found that this never occurred. The quota policy was announced in December 2018 and a week later, the price of Alberta oil had jumped from $29.09/bbl to $50.08 bbl, a 72 per cent rise. When the quota policy actually took effect the first of January 2019, the price increased again, but by much less. The anticipation of the quota alone was enough to create the desired price increase. The quota, which set limits for the total combined crude oil and bitumen permitted to be produced, was assigned to individual operators and designed to provide an 8.5 per cent reduction in oil production. The total quota was fixed at 3.56 million barrels a day in January 2019, but individual quotas could be traded across eligible operators, minimizing the overall costs of achieving the total goal. However, total production continued falling even when the quota was eventually relaxed; the market and a low world price created a scenario in which production fell below the amount permitted by the quota. All the oil companies reduced their production regardless of whether they fell within the quota's guidelines or not; however, the firms that were subject to the quota reduced their production more than the others. The quota was lifted in December 2020 when export capacity again became sufficient. While curtailing production had the desired result of raising Alberta oil prices and resolving the differential between local prices and the world benchmark, its ripple effects may well be felt in the longer term. This paper finds that fewer wells are being drilled and more wells are suspending production. Tradition dictates that when a well becomes inactive, it is rarely returned to a productive state. Those firms that resorted to low levels of drilling in order to meet the quota have created a situation that could affect Alberta oil production in the years ahead. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The COVID-19 pandemic led to major service disruptions in the healthcare sector, especially regarding sexual and reproductive health services. However, the impact of the pandemic on Canadian adolescents is relatively unknown. This study aimed to investigate the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and associated public health measures on the sexual and reproductive health (SRH) of adolescents in Alberta, Canada. Methods: A qualitative study using an interpretive description (ID) approach and community-based participatory research principles was conducted to capture the subjective experience and perceptions of adolescents and service providers. With the collaboration of the Adolescent Advisory Group and community partners, 18 adolescents and 15 service providers were recruited for the study through purposive sampling. Findings from the qualitative interviews were analyzed using thematic analysis. Results: Three major themes emerged from the analysis: (1) COVID-19 SRH experience, (2) barriers to SRH, and (3) adolescent SRH strategies. Our findings highlight numerous barriers and challenges that prevented adolescents from accessing SRH education, products, and services. Conclusion: The COVID-19 pandemic had a profound impact on the SRH and the well-being of adolescents. Our study reflects the need for diverse SRH strategies to maintain continued access to SRH resources during disruptive events, such as the pandemic. Plain language summary: Access to sexual and reproductive health (SRH) services is a basic human right. All individuals require access to appropriate SRH services to maintain their optimal sexual and reproductive health. Adolescents require special guidance, support, and youth-friendly services in matters of SRH as they enter puberty and explore their sexual identity. However, during the COVID-19 pandemic, many health and SRH services were suspended. Access to SRH products and services became difficult due to public health restrictions, which has possible negative consequences for adolescents' SRH. The experiences of adolescents during the COVID-19 pandemic regarding their SRH are not reported in Alberta, Canada. Therefore, we explored the impacts of these public health restrictions on adolescents' SRH. We performed qualitative interviews with adolescents and SRH service providers to know their perspectives on how the pandemic influenced the SRH of adolescents. This paper provides insights into the barriers faced by adolescents while accessing SRH services during the pandemic, as well as their perceptions of digital strategies, such as mobile applications, and other recommendations for supporting SRH education and services. Based on the study findings, an adolescent-friendly mobile application will be developed to provide a virtual platform connecting adolescents to SRH educational resources, services, and support. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The transition from hospital to community settings for most mental health service users is often hindered by challenges that affect community adjustment and continuity of care. The first few weeks and days after discharge from mental health inpatient units represent a critical phase for many service users. This paper aims to evaluate the changes in the resilience, personal recovery, and quality of life status of individuals with mental health challenges recently discharged from acute mental health care into the community. Methods: Data for this study were collected as part of a pragmatic stepped-wedge cluster-randomized, longitudinal approach in Alberta. A paired sample t-test and Chi-squared/Fisher test were deployed to assess changes from baseline to six weeks in the recovery assessment scale (RAS), brief resilience scale (BRS), and EuroQol-5d (EQ-5D), using an online questionnaire. Results: A total of 306 service users were recruited and 88 completed both baseline and six weeks, giving a response rate of 28.8%. There was no statistically significant change in the level of resilience, recovery and quality of life as measured with the brief resilience scale, recovery assessment scale and EQ-5D from baseline to six weeks (p > 0.05). Conclusions: The study showed that there was neither an improvement nor deterioration in resilience, recovery, or quality of life status of service users six weeks post-discharge from inpatient mental health care. The lack of further progress calls into question whether the support available in the community when patient's leave inpatient care is adequate to promote full recovery. The results justify investigations into the effectiveness of innovative and cost-effective programs such as peer and text-based supportive interventions for service users discharged from inpatient psychiatric care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The impact of cancer in Alberta is expected to grow considerably, largely driven by population growth and aging. The Future of Cancer Impact (FOCI) initiative offers an overview of the present state of cancer care in Alberta and highlights potential opportunities for research and innovation across the continuum. In this paper, we present a series of detailed projections and analyses regarding cancer epidemiological estimates in Alberta, Canada. Data on cancer incidence and mortality in Alberta (1998–2018) and limited-duration cancer prevalence in Alberta (2000–2019) were collected from the Alberta Cancer Registry. We used the Canproj package in the R software to project these epidemiological estimates up to the year 2040. To estimate the direct management costs, we ran a series of microsimulations using the OncoSim All Cancers Model. Our findings indicate that from 2020, the total number of annual new cancer cases and cancer-related deaths are projected to increase by 56% and 49% by 2040, respectively. From 2019, the five-year prevalence of all cancers in Alberta is projected to increase by 86% by 2040. In line with these trends, the overall direct cost of cancer management is estimated to increase by 53% in 2040. These estimates and projections are integral to future strategic planning and investment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Construction crew productivity is affected by the motivation of the crew performing given activities and by situational/contextual factors forming the dynamic construction environment. The literature lacks a comprehensive analysis of causal relationships between crew motivation and situational/contextual factors for dynamic modelling of crew productivity. The contributions of this paper are (1) identifying a set of criteria for performing expert weight assignment for heterogenous group experts in productivity research, (2) proposing an integrated fuzzy analytic hierarchy process–fuzzy decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory approach that provides a systematic, structured method for determining causal relationship mapping between factors affecting crew productivity, and (3) proposing an approach for identifying cause-and-effect groups among the situational/contextual factors and crew motivation, which can further be used to formulate strategic productivity improvement solutions. The proposed methodology is demonstrated using a case study on an actual industrial construction project in Alberta, Canada. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Birding is one of the most popular recreational activities, but bird populations have been declining worldwide. Understanding how much people benefit from local bird populations levels, species richness and their preferences can help inform bird conservation management. This paper uses eBird data and random utility models to assess the birders' preferences and welfare for trips to local areas. The sample eBird citizen science data includes 35,656 trips by 290 individual birders to 1227 unique birding hotspots in Alberta, Canada. The economic value of seeing one additional bird species during a trip is estimated to be $0.68 on average. We estimated a nonlinear relationship between the utility and number of bird species suggesting satiation in recreation preferences, and the highest MWTP is estimated to be in the summer and fall seasons. Bird species at risk, based on Alberta's strategy for the management of species at risk, are valued almost ten times higher as seeing other types of bird species. We also estimate individualized choice models and find that preference for species richness is heterogeneous across birders. Results of a combinatorial test find that the individualized choice models produce average welfare estimates that are 67% higher than the single model but the difference is not statistically significant. The members of eBird represent a convenience sample that may not constitute the general population. Thus along with proper weighting, these benefit estimates produced in this research can help inform future bird conservation management decisions including alternative funding mechanisms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper further explores the findings of a 2020 case study focused on the perspectives of parents of children aged 5–9 years old attending elementary schools in French language programs during the 2020 school closure and the potential legacy of the Coronavirus pandemic on education. In March 2020, the school learning of elementary school children in different school boards in Alberta moved to a novelty style of temporary 'homeschooling' format through virtual learning aided by parental support. Parents played an essential role during this learning process; ten parents shared their experiences in this study. Such experiences may be key to integrating more effective teaching and virtual learning practices and pinpointing potential shortcomings as students return to in-person learning. This paper focuses on three main aspects of coronavirus-induced 'homeschooling': The role of parental support, parents' perspectives of how young children learn in virtual learning environments, and pedagogical practices from curriculum design to implementation of differentiated learning practices. The study is significant as it may contribute to further understanding of how young children learn in virtual settings, the effectiveness of current educational practices, and the problematic legacy of the coronavirus for the future of education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we explore how the power wielded by regional incumbents has impacted subnational innovation agendas. Our findings suggest that the design of mission-oriented innovation policies should be more attentive to regional innovation policies and their relationship to how innovation may serve to bolster incumbents and not undermine them. We use a case-study of innovation in fossil fuels. Recently, innovation policy literature has explored innovation policy and global climate as a major topic. On the one hand, carbon lock-in has been used to explain why there has been such difficulty in reducing carbon emissions, in many cases, despite an increasing emphasis of mission-innovation policies. On the other hand, mission-innovation policies are believed to be a key to the development of disruptive innovations that could break this carbon intensive path dependency. Although the two literatures explore the same problem, there could be more integration. While carbon lock-in is being considered in the mission-innovation literature, it nevertheless has been largely overlooked at the mission-setting stage. On the other hand, the lock-in literature has tended to overlook the findings of mission-oriented innovation literature in offering solutions, which suggests that there is a more productive role for mission-oriented innovations in breaking free of previous constraints to serve in the low-carbon energy transition. To make our case, we argue it is important to distinguish among the various impacts disruptive innovations have on the market shares of incumbents'. We propose the following three schema: new market, market rewarding and market destroying. By variegating the potential impact of innovations, we suggest that mission-oriented innovation polices may be designed to only support certain types of innovations that do not directly undermine the market share of incumbents. Using a detailed case study of the Province of Alberta, Canada, we then explore the role of the province's mission-oriented policy in the development of technology to produce the Canadian oil sands. The case study illustrates how incumbents influenced the establishment and direction of the mission's goal. Shifts in incumbency opposition toward the province's mission-oriented innovation policy coincided with the changing impact of the innovation from being market destroying to market rewarding. We suggest that future research should be more attentive to the role of incumbents in influencing mission-oriented innovation policy and the importance of their influence at the mission-setting stage. Furthermore, we suggest that to meet the grand challenge of addressing climate change through mission-oriented innovation policies, these policies must be designed to break free of these institutional constraints. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Inflammatory bowel diseases (IBDs) are chronic gastrointestinal diseases that negatively affect the enjoyment of food and engagement in social and cultural gatherings. Such experiences may promote psychosocial challenges, an aspect of IBD often overlooked and under‐supported in clinical settings and research. Objectives: This study explored the psychosocial experiences that young adults with IBD have with food via a qualitative patient‐led research process. Methods: Trained patient researchers conducted this study by engaging peers via semi‐structured interviews and focus groups in a three‐step co‐design process. Participants (n = 9) identified the research topic (SET), explored the topic and identified emerging themes (COLLECT), refined themes and made recommendations for healthcare system change (REFLECT). Results: Themes that emerged included: 'Experimenting with Food', 'Evolution Over Time', 'Diet Changes are Emotional' and 'Role of Stigma'. Participants identified the significance and frustrations of repeated testing and experimenting with food compatibility, and noted nuances in food relationships as they gain knowledge and experience over time. They emphasized the importance of maintaining a sense of hope throughout and wished to impart this to newly diagnosed patients. Conclusion: Participants experience numerous psychosocial challenges as they strive to manage their diet, noting gaps in support available from IBD practitioners. Participants made practical recommendations for healthcare system change to improve patient outcomes, highlighting the importance of sharing stories and collaboratively including patients in the development of new services and protocols. Authors recommend further research in this area to build a body of knowledge and support that helps IBD patients maintain hope while navigating challenges with food. Patient or Public Contribution: The first four authors on this paper were the lead researchers in this study's design and analysis and identify as patients; they conducted the research with this identity at the forefront following a peer‐to‐peer research model. These authors were mentored by patient researchers who also contributed to the manuscript, and the research process itself was co‐lead and directed by other patient participants and consultants. Results and recommendations coming from this paper came directly from patient participants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The bid/no-bid decision is critical to the success of construction contractors. The factors affecting the bid/no-bid decision are either qualitative or quantitative. Previous studies on modeling the bidding decision have not extensively focused on distinguishing qualitative and quantitative factors. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to improve the bidding decision in construction projects by developing tools that consider both qualitative and quantitative factors affecting the bidding decision. Design/methodology/approach: This study proposes a mixed qualitative-quantitative approach to deal with both qualitative and quantitative factors. The mixed qualitative-quantitative approach is developed by combining a rule-based expert system and fuzzy-based expert system. The rule-based expert system is used to evaluate the project based on qualitative factors and the fuzzy expert system is used to evaluate the project based on the quantitative factors in order to reach the comprehensive bid/no-bid decision. Findings: Three real bidding projects are used to investigate the applicability and functionality of the proposed mixed approach and are tested with experts of a construction company in Alberta, Canada. The results demonstrate that the mixed approach provides a more reliable, accurate and practical tool that can assist decision-makers involved in the bid/no-bid decision. Originality/value: This study contributes theoretically to the body of knowledge by (1) proposing a novel approach capable of modeling all types of factors (either qualitative or quantitative) affecting the bidding decision, and (2) providing means to acquire, store and reuse expert knowledge. Practical contribution of this paper is to provide decision-makers with a comprehensive model that mimics the decision-making process and stores experts' knowledge in the form of rules. Therefore, the model reduces the administrative burden on the decision-makers, saves time and effort and reduces bias and human errors during the bidding process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Assessing the reliability and resiliency of transportation infrastructure is critical to improving the safety and sustainability of roadways. Such information, particularly when available on a network level helps transportation agencies identify vulnerable locations on their road network and make more informed decisions when managing infrastructure and when introducing design improvements. To that end, many design experts have promoted integrating the risk of failure of roadway design elements to satisfy road user demand (i.e., reliability measures) into the highway design process. In fact, previous work has established a link between design reliability and safety. Although exploring such relationships provides extremely valuable insights on the impacts of meeting or deviating from design requirements, it does not provide much information on where the most (and least) reliable road segments exist on a network. To overcome these critical shortcomings, this paper proposes the adoption of hot spot analysis and spatial interpolation to assess reliability of compliance with sight distance requirements on an aggregate network level. Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) data was first used to quantify available sight distance on 220 curved segments, and design reliability to sight distance requirements was then assessed at each location. Hot spot analysis and spatial interpolation using the inverse distance weighting method were then employed to identify regions of the Alberta road network where low or high design reliability existed or could be expected. The analysis revealed that the highest-risk regions on the Alberta highway network existed in areas of mountainous in the western region of the province as well as areas of rolling terrain in south Calgary. In contrast, it was found that curved road segments in the prairie region had a significantly higher design reliability to sight distance. The clustering of unreliable roadway segments in mountainous regions and regions of rolling terrain indicates that more effort is required to improve design reliability in those regions. Such important inferences are only possible when conducting an aggregate reliability assessment such as the one proposed in this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Due to its key role in the successful delivery of construction projects, construction productivity is one of the most researched topics in construction domain. While the majority of previous research is focused on the productivity of labor-intensive activities, there is a lack of research on the productivity of equipment-intensive activities. The purpose of this paper is to address this research gap by developing a comprehensive list of factors influencing the productivity of equipment-intensive activities and determining the most influential factors through interview surveys. Design/methodology/approach: A list of 201 factors influencing the productivity of equipment-intensive activities was developed through the review of 287 articles, selected from the ten top-ranked construction journals, by searching for construction productivity in the articles' titles, abstracts or keywords. Next, the most influential factors were determined by conducting interview surveys with 35 construction experts. To ensure that the interviewees were aware of the research objectives and the distinction between labor- and equipment-intensive activities, an information session was held prior to conducting the surveys, and the surveys were conducted in interview format to allow for clarification and discussion throughout the process. Findings: Project management respondents identified foreman-, safety- and crew-related factors as the categories with the most influence on productivity; tradespeople respondents identified foreman-, equipment- and crew-related factors as the most influential categories. In total, 14 factors were identified, for which there was a significant difference between the perspectives of project management and tradespeople regarding the factors' influence on productivity. Originality/value: This paper provides a comprehensive list of factors influencing the productivity of equipment-intensive activities. It identifies the most influential factors through an interview survey of 35 construction experts, who are familiar with the challenges of equipment-intensive activities based on their experience with such activities in the industrial construction sector of Alberta, Canada. Additionally, the differences between the factors that influence the productivity of labor- and equipment-intensive activities are discussed by comparing the findings of this paper with previous research focused on labor intensive activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD) is a motor disorder affecting coordination and performance in daily tasks. Studies regarding design and implementation of knowledge translation strategies effecting DCD practice changes in pediatric rehabilitation settings is limited and DCD remains under-recognized and under-diagnosed with an under-utilization of evidence-based practice. This knowledge-to-practice gap was identified in central Alberta, Canada when a lower caseload of clients with DCD and a lower rate of DCD referrals to a neurodevelopmental assessment clinic was observed, given its 5-6% prevalence in children. This paper describes and discusses the development and implementation of a replicable process of knowledge translation for integrating DCD evidence into frontline practice. Methods: Structures such as the Knowledge to Action framework were retrofitted and used to describe activities that occurred during the knowledge translation process. Main activities consisted of: information dissemination; education; addition of DCD to a neurodevelopmental assessment clinic; and development of a Community of Practice. Outcome evaluation methods included surveys, interviews, referral tracking, and database creation. Results: Knowledge translation strategy implementation resulted in increased knowledge among clinicians and community stakeholders, process standardization, increased referrals querying DCD, established knowledge brokers, and practice change. Conclusion: Pre-determined and systematic implementation strategy design is essential for embedding evidence into frontline practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Now, more than ever, governments and the public are recognizing the importance of health innovation. Precision health (PH) is the next frontier in medicine, enabling individually tailored ways to diagnose, treat and prevent disease in place of today's one-size-fits-all approach. Exploring new opportunities for economic growth is a priority in Alberta given the roller-coaster in recent years from reliance on hydrocarbon royalties coupled with resource-based economic divestment. PH offers Alberta the chance to diversify its economy by developing technology, attracting investment and creating a new health-care industry. As discussed in greater detail in a policy communiqué released alongside this research paper, PH comes with tremendous benefits. Foremost among these benefits is the ability to narrow health disparities among population groups and support social services in times of crisis. Plus, an Alberta-grown PH sector will fuel economic growth, innovation and lasting prosperity. Opportunities are expanding as the global PH market is forecast to grow by 11.3 per cent annually, reaching $141 billion in value by 2026. With a unified health system and many clinical and research strengths, Alberta is well placed to make great strides in PH. Government and universities are already working on PH strategies. However, success is not assured. The province is already dealing with severe fiscal constraints, especially in health care. This paper identifies several other policy issues, based on interviews with leaders in the public and private sectors. There are four main areas where Alberta faces challenges: innovation networks; facilitating discovery; governance and decision- making; and risk and procurement. Alberta's innovation networks are too fragmented, with too much competition and not enough collaboration. There is also a lack of supports and commercialization channels; entrepreneurs don't know where to turn or whom to talk to. Motivating researchers to develop and commercialize products is an especially contentious problem. Projects range from those with high commercial potential to theoretical concepts providing the foundation for future discovery. The interviews for this paper revealed a powerful divide between academics, who want the freedom to research their interests, and government and funding agency participants, who want specific goals and health-care challenges to receive the bulk of the dollars. Executing and co-ordinating a provincial PH strategy is another area where change is necessary. Governance is unclear and many participants are worried about the vagaries of politics affecting funding decisions. Research incentives are often misaligned or structured to produce impacts within one election cycle. This doesn't mean a single authority is required, since that likely would not align with existing structures in place. However, a central group charged with making high-level decisions about priorities might be a valuable resource. Finally, there's procurement and the tolerance of risk. AHS as a single service provider is beneficial in that it cuts down on duplication and overspending. But the system is also rigid and risk-averse, so it's not the ideal customer for SMEs or early-stage ventures. PH is far from a mature industry, meaning results are not guaranteed. There's a need to expand the comfort zones of the powers that be, so they are more willing to bet on innovations. There's also a need to bring promising products to their attention. Health care is not a traditional market with individual consumers, and administrators remote from clinical practice may not grasp the value of new technologies. This paper summarizes the findings of many interviews with decision-makers in health care, academia, government circles and the innovation sector. Much like PH, it presents solutions to specific problems confronting Albertans. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 2019 MacKinnon report, commissioned by the Alberta government, recommended ending fee-for-service (FFS) as the model for paying primary care physicians because of its significant and inherent inefficiencies. Since then, the COVID-19 pandemic has also demonstrated the value of moving Alberta's family physicians to an alternative payment (APP) model. While the MacKinnon report was in favour of enacting legislation to change the compensation model, this paper instead recommends offering physicians a choice of alternative payment programs as an incentive to move on voluntarily from an FFS system. Other provinces have attempted to reform physicians' pay using a quadruple aim model for health-care improvement, which identifies the major points policy-makers must examine in instituting a replacement for FFS. The quadruple aim model is four-pronged and encompasses patient experience, population health, care team wellbeing and cost reductions. Alberta Health Services already uses the quadruple aim model to improve patient care and quality outcomes, although the MacKinnon report focused primarily on reducing costs. However, reforming doctors' compensation is not just about the amount they should be paid; it must also consider that the method of compensation has a profound impact on both cost and quality of care received. Meanwhile, the self-isolation and social distancing measures for both doctors and patients, established with the arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic, have put Alberta's doctors on a policy roller-coaster. Applying the FFS compensation model during the pandemic has resulted in the use of virtual care codes such as telehealth billing and in-person limited assessment codes. However, these codes were immediately problematic because they do not adequately account for complex patient care that requires longer visits, after-hours premiums and the Rural Remote Northern Program. During a pandemic is not the right time to embark on physician compensation reform. This gives the government time to reconsider the controversial approach taken prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. The need for compensation reform in Alberta is driven by the reality that Alberta has the highest proportion of physicians on FFS along with some of the highest FFS payments per physician in Canada. Meanwhile, family physicians in other provinces are now more likely to be covered by an APP rather than the former FFS system. The problem with FFS is that it tends to encourage physicians to create volume in number of patients seen per day, in order to increase compensation. Thus, it also encourages more diagnostic testing, which increases costs to the health-care system. In general, physicians compensated under FFS have much less incentive to consider costs when treating patients. The argument for legislating pay reform is poorly justified. No other province has legislated physicians out of the FFS system, and that is not a route Alberta should take, either. Nova Scotia has brought in a one-size-fits-all APP, while Ontario implemented a menu of higher paying APPs that produced greater downstream cost savings, making APPs an increasingly attractive payment option to family physicians. Ontario's approach would be better for Alberta because it improves patients' overall experience with primary care, their care outcomes and the wellbeing of those who care for the patients. Alberta should offer a menu of APP models tailored to primary care so that the family doctors themselves can choose the best model for their own practices. As this paper has demonstrated in its comparison of the experiences of other provinces, and as the COVID-19 affirms, the menu approach is the model most strongly aligned with the goals of quadruple aim. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2016, Canada was ordered to implement Jordan's Principle by the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal. In response to the order, Canada created the Child First Initiative to provide federal funding for provincial and territorial organizations supporting First Nations children's health, education, and social service needs, including service coordination. In the shifting national landscape of Child First Initiative funding, there is a lack of evidence on how pediatric healthcare services are addressing the serious health and healthcare inequities experienced by many First Nations children. This paper describes the implementation of a Child First Initiative by the First Nations Health Consortium in the Alberta region and research findings that provide insights into the complexity and challenges of advancing First Nations children's health and health equity within the current federal Child First Initiative mandate in this province. This paper highlights the need for transformative pediatric healthcare approaches that expand beyond an individual and demand-driven system and orient towards practices and policies that are sociallyresponsive. Also, this paper highlights that First Nations leaders and Jordan's Principle initiatives play a leading role in the design and delivery of all pediatric healthcare services with First Nations communities, families, and children across Canada. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A paper published in this journal, 'Measuring the short-term impact of fluoridation cessation on dental caries in Grade 2 children using tooth surface indices,' by McLaren et al had shortcomings in study design and interpretation of results, and did not include important pertinent data. Its pre-post cross-sectional design relied on comparison of decay rates in two cities: Calgary, which ceased fluoridation, and Edmonton, which maintained fluoridation. Dental health surveys conducted in both cities about 6.5 years prior to fluoridation cessation in Calgary provided the baseline. They were compared to decay rates determined about 2.5 years after cessation in a second set of surveys in both cities. A key shortcoming was the failure to use data from a Calgary dental health survey conducted about 1.5 years prior to cessation. When this third data set is considered, the rate of increase of decay in Calgary is found to be the same before and after cessation of fluoridation, thus contradicting the main conclusion of the paper that cessation was associated with an adverse effect on oral health. Furthermore, the study design is vulnerable to confounding by caries risk factors other than fluoridation: The two cities differed substantially in baseline decay rates, other health indicators, and demographic characteristics associated with caries risk, and these risk factors were not shown to shift in parallel in Edmonton and Calgary through time. An additional weakness was low participation rates in the dental surveys and lack of analysis to check whether this may have resulted in selection biases. Owing to these weaknesses, the study has limited ability to assess whether fluoridation cessation caused an increase in decay. The study's findings, when considered with the additional information from the third Calgary survey, more strongly support the conclusion that cessation of fluoridation had no effect on decay rate. Consideration of the limitations of this study can stimulate improvement in the quality of future fluoridation effectiveness studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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This review is part of a series synthesizing peer‐reviewed literature from the past decade on environmental monitoring in the oil sands region (OSR) of northeastern Alberta. It focuses on atmospheric emissions, air quality, and deposition in and downwind of the OSR. Most published monitoring and research activities were concentrated in the surface‐mineable region in the Athabasca OSR. Substantial progress has been made in understanding oil sands (OS)‐related emission sources using multiple approaches: airborne measurements, satellite measurements, source emission testing, deterministic modeling, and source apportionment modeling. These approaches generally yield consistent results, indicating OS‐related sources are regional contributors to nearly all air pollutants. Most pollutants exhibit enhanced air concentrations within ~20 km of surface‐mining activities, with some enhanced >100 km downwind. Some pollutants (e.g., sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides) undergo transformations as they are transported through the atmosphere. Deposition rates of OS‐related substances primarily emitted as fugitive dust are enhanced within ~30 km of surface‐mining activities, whereas gaseous and fine particulate emissions have a more diffuse deposition enhancement pattern extending hundreds of kilometers downwind. In general, air quality guidelines are not exceeded, although these single‐pollutant thresholds are not comprehensive indicators of air quality. Odor events have occurred in communities near OS industrial activities, although it can be difficult to attribute events to specific pollutants or sources. Nitrogen, sulfur, polycyclic aromatic compounds (PACs), and base cations from OS sources occur in the environment, but explicit and deleterious responses of organisms to these pollutants are not as apparent across all study environments; details of biological monitoring are discussed further in other papers in this special series. However, modeling of critical load exceedances suggests that, at continued emission levels, ecological change may occur in future. Knowledge gaps and recommendations for future work to address these gaps are also presented. Integr Environ Assess Manag 2022;18:333–360. © 2021 The Authors. Integrated Environmental Assessment and Management published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of Society of Environmental Toxicology & Chemistry (SETAC). KEY POINTS: Air emissions from oil sands activities are regional contributors to nearly all air pollutants, with most exhibiting enhanced concentrations within ~20 km of surface‐mining activities, and some enhanced at greater distances (>100 km) downwind.Temporal trends identified in ambient air‐monitoring data vary with the statistical analysis applied; existing ambient air quality guidelines and standards are rarely exceeded; however, single‐pollutant thresholds are not comprehensive indicators of air quality.Co‐located deposition‐ and ecological‐effects monitoring identify a link between nitrogen deposition and ecological changes in jack pine, bog, and poor fen ecosystems—there is limited evidence of acidification to date, but predictive modeling indicates areas exceeding critical loads of acidification.Knowledge gaps are synthesized and recommendations for future work to address these gaps are presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Historically, environmental research and monitoring in the Alberta oil sands region (OSR) located in northeastern Alberta, Canada, have largely neglected, meaningful Indigenous participation. Through years of experience on the land, Indigenous knowledge (IK) holders recognize change on the landscape, drawing on inextricable links between environmental health and practicing traditional rights. The cumulative impacts of crude oil production are of great concern to Indigenous communities, and monitoring initiatives in the OSR provide unique opportunities to develop Indigenous community‐based monitoring (ICBM). A review of ICBM literature on the OSR from 2009 to 2020 was completed. Based on this review, we identify best practices in ICBM and propose governance structures and a framework to support meaningful integration of ICBM into regulatory environmental monitoring. Because it involves multimedia monitoring and produces data and insights that integrate many aspects of the environment, ICBM is important for natural science research. ICBM can enhance the relevance of environmental monitoring by examining relationships between physical and chemical stressors and culturally relevant indicators, so improving predictions of long‐term changes in the environment. Unfortunately, many Indigenous communities distrust researchers owing to previous experiences of exploitive use of IK. In the present paper, we recommend important practices for the integration of IK into regional environmental monitoring programs. ICBM is important to communities because it includes conditions to which communities can exercise traditional rights, and highlight how industrial activities affect this ability. Equally important, ICBM can generate a resurgence of Indigenous languages and subsequently traditional practices; it can also revive the connection with traditional lands and improve food security. Integr Environ Assess Manag 2022;18:407‐427. © 2021 The Authors. Integrated Environmental Assessment and Management published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of Society of Environmental Toxicology & Chemistry (SETAC). KEY POINTS: The paper provides a unique way of organizing the integration of Indigenous knowledge (IK) and Western science (WS) using a conceptual model, which can allow regional monitoring programs to constantly evaluate research objectives and identify gaps.It is not the intention of this paper to adapt IK or WS to any model or monitoring program, but to discuss the integrative ability of both to better understand pressure/stressor‐pathways and response relationships of environmental impacts in the oil sands region.Contextualizing each program into the conceptual model is useful for large monitoring programs, such as the Oil Sands Monitoring (OSM) program, to integrate large amounts of data assessing different aspects of the environment over time and space.Indigenous community‐based monitoring approaches, such as those led by the Mikisew Cree and Athabasca Chipewyan First Nations, support regional monitoring where data are easily captured in regional‐scale models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]