Search

"Erdoğan: a graphic biography: the rise of Turkey's modern autocrat" is a graphic novel written by Can Dündar and illustrated by Anwar. The book focuses on the rise of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, covering his upbringing, entry into politics, and his complicated relationship with Necmettin Erbakan. The biography portrays Erdoğan as a Machiavellian figure who uses democracy as a means to obtain power, with no true commitment to democratic principles. While the book presents strong arguments, some claims cannot be definitively proven. Overall, it is an impressive and important work that deserves a wide audience. [Extracted from the article]

Introduction: Drug checking services for harm reduction and overdose prevention have been implemented in many jurisdictions as a public health intervention in response to the opioid overdose crisis. This study demonstrates the first on‐site use of paper spray mass spectrometry for quantitative drug checking to address the limitations of current on‐site drug testing technologies. Methods: Paper spray mass spectrometry was used to provide on‐site drug checking services at a supervised consumption site in the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada during a 2‐day pilot test in August 2019. The method included the targeted quantitative measurement of 49 drugs and an untargeted full scan to assist in identifying unknown/unexpected components. Results: During the pilot, 113 samples were submitted for analysis, with 88 (78%) containing the client expected substance. Fentanyl was detected in 45 of 59 expected fentanyl samples, and in 50 (44%) samples overall at a median concentration of 3.6% (w/w%). The synthetic precursor of fentanyl, 4‐anilino‐N‐phenethyl‐piperidine (4‐ANPP), was found in 74.0% of all fentanyl samples at a median concentration of 2.2%, suggesting widespread poor manufacturing practices. Etizolam was detected in 10 submitted samples anticipated to be fentanyl at a median concentration of 2.5%. No clients submitting these samples expected etizolam or a benzodiazepine in their sample. In three instances, it was co‐measured with fentanyl, and in seven cases it was detected alone. Discussion and Conclusions: The quantitative capabilities and low detection limits demonstrated by paper spray mass spectrometry offer distinct benefits over existing on‐site drug checking methods and harm reduction services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a case study of the obstacles to green infrastructure implementation in the City of Vancouver. This case study has two aims, 1) to better understand the planning and decision-making processes hindering the widespread implementation of green infrastructure across the City of Vancouver, and 2) propose solutions to facilitate the uptake of GI. This paper begins by reviewing existing literature on barriers to green infrastructure implementation. Then, it investigates current perceptions of GI in the City of Vancouver, and what barriers exist to its implementation through document analysis and semi-structured interviews. Proposed solutions to green infrastructure implementation are reviewed and recommendations are provided for the City of Vancouver. It ends with a short discussion on the applicability of lessons learned from the study of Vancouver for other municipalities seeking to overcome barriers to green infrastructure implementation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores some of the conversations currently taking place within Asian Canadian studies as they relate to coalitional spaces and community building. Specifically, I look at a co-op radio program from Vancouver called Pender Guy which aired in the 1970s. The members of Pender Guy were comprised of artists and activists from the Asian Canadian community attempting to establish and solidify their own collective identity during a time when minority communities and people of color were often sidelined or else considered as "surplus" to a national narrative that privileged Anglo- and Franco-Canadian identities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Within the applications of spatial point processes, it is increasingly becoming common that events are labelled by marks, prompting an exploration beyond the spatial distribution of events by incorporating the marks in the undertaken analysis. In this paper, we first consider marked spatial point processes in R 2 , where marks are either integer-valued, real-valued, or object-valued, and review the state-of-the-art to analyze the spatial structure and type of interaction/correlation between marks. More specifically, we review cross/dot-type summary characteristics, mark-weighted summary characteristics, various mark correlation functions, and frequency domain approaches. We also propose novel cross/dot-type higher-order summary characteristics, mark-weighted summary characteristics, and mark correlation functions for marked point processes on linear networks. Through a simulation study, we show that ignoring the underlying network gives rise to erroneous conclusions about the interaction/correlation between marks. Finally, we consider two applications: the locations of two different proteins on the membranes of cells infected with the influenza virus and the locations of public trees along the street network of Vancouver, Canada, where trees are labelled by their diameters at breast height. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines restaurant managements' (owners, managers, or the chefs) perceptions, motivations, and constraints in buying local food ingredients from local farmers' market vendors (farmer vendors) in a study conducted in Vancouver, Canada and Christchurch, New Zealand. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with restaurants (31 in Vancouver and 28 in Christchurch). Results revealed that purchasing local food from farmers' market vendors was perceived as beneficial by restaurants, but they experienced challenges with purchasing. This study further presented evidence that restaurants satisfaction with wholesale distributors is an important purchasing factor in local food purchasing decisions while sustainable production products were not the main motivation among restaurants in both the samples. In the light of empirical findings, theoretical and practical implications are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In response to the increasing need for sustainable construction materials, numerous innovative timber-based structural systems have been developed in the past two decades. While timber-based shear-walls are popular, moment-resisting timber frames have received less attention in recent studies. However, with the availability of ductile and resilient beam-column joints (BCJs), timber frames can now be effectively used either independently or in combination with others. This study explores the feasibility of a dual system, consisting of cross-laminated timber (CLT) balloon shear-wall and glulam moment-resisting frame (CLTW-GMRF), and investigates the potential interaction between the two systems under seismic loading. The building features ductile and energy-dissipative BCJs and hold-downs. A seismic design procedure, based on a targeted moment proportion (MP) between the two systems, is presented and applied on a 10-story building. The building is assumed to be located in Vancouver, Canada, and its seismic performance is examined using 30 ground motion records in OpenSees. The system's efficiency with respect to engineering demand parameters is studied under different wall-to-frame MP values (50%–50% and 60%–40%) and ductility-related modification factors (2, 3, and 4). The study also investigates the system's performance with two BCJs and hold-down alternatives with bilinear hysteretic and self-centering energy-dissipative responses. Given the availability of resilient connections, the result highlights that the CLTW-GMRF coupled system is a viable alternative for high-rise hybrid timber construction. Moreover, the system's performance has significantly improved by using self-centering energy-dissipative systems. This paper unveils an innovative design approach and practical application for a CLTW-GMRF dual system. This innovative system incorporates energy-dissipative components that are designed and tested in existing literature: (1) the utilization of replaceable steel damper BCJs and buckling-restrained brace hold-downs, providing high ductility with large energy-dissipative capacity; and (2) the employment of hybrid BCJs made up of post-tensioned tendons and mild steel dissipators, along with hybrid brace hold-downs made up of pretensioned tendons and friction surfaces, which reduce residual deformations following seismic events. Utilizing these systems, the research introduces a versatile seismic design method congruent with existing codes and design standards, while offering flexibility through adjustable wall-to-frame moment proportions. The research also underlines the need for careful consideration of the interaction within the timber wall-frame systems. The implications are substantial amidst the growing trend of high-rise timber construction, aiming to fully exploit the potential of CLT and Glulam frames. Moreover, the research has the potential to serve as an essential resource for engineers aiming to optimize the sustainability and resilience of timber structures, particularly in seismic-prone regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: The purpose of this study was to report mid-term clinical and radiographic results after hip arthroplasty revision in Vancouver type B2 femoral periprosthetic fractures (PPFx). Specifical focus of the paper is as follows: (1) the description of a standardized and reproducible surgical technique, (2) functional outcomes presentation and (3) type and number of complications and implants' survival rate analysis. Methods: We retrospectively reviewed all patients treated for hip revision with non-modular tapered fluted titanium stem in patients with Vancouver type B2 femur PPFx at a single institution. At least 18 months' follow-up period was required. Harris Hip Scores and SF-12 were obtained, and radiographical follow-up was performed. Complications were reported and analyzed. Results: The authors included 114 patients (114 hips) with a mean follow-up of 62.8 ± 30.6 months. All patients were treated with Wagner SL revision hip stem (Zimmer-Biomet), metal cerclage wires ± trochanteric plate. The mean HHS and SF-12 score at the last follow-up evaluation were respectively 81.3 ± 9.7 and 32.5 ± 7.6. Seventeen (14.9%) complications occurred. We observed five cases of dislocations, two of periprosthetic joint infections and six cases of new PPFx. The stem-related revision rate for any cause at the final FU was 1.7%, due to PJI. No patients underwent stem revision surgery for aseptic loosening. Fracture healed in all the included patients with a union-rate of 100%. The re-operation rate for any cause was 9.6%, with an implant survival rate for overall failure of 96.5%. Conclusion: The presented standard and reproducible surgical technique obtains optimal clinical and radiological results with limited complication rate at mid-term follow up. Preoperative planning as well as careful intraoperative surgical technique is of a paramount importance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On-demand ride-hailing is among the first in a new wave of technology-enabled transportation services to shape cities around the world. Due to ensuing disruption of established transportation systems, policymakers and planners have introduced various regulatory responses. This paper presents findings from expert interviews to understand the underlying processes associated with policymaking and planning for on-demand ride-hailing in Toronto and Vancouver, Canada. Interviews are conducted with planning practitioners and policymakers from local, regional, provincial, and private sector entities involved in regulating and planning related to on-demand ride hailing. Interviews are assessed using coding and thematic analysis and results suggest that both structural and experiential factors influence policymaking and planning in this area. Four themes emerge from interviews, highlighting that policymaking responses and processes stemmed from planners' processes of perception, prioritization, role interpretation, and anticipation of broader impacts. Results point to a significant pattern of regulating on-demand ride-hailing using already available policy tools – implying that while on-demand ride-hailing may represent dramatic changes, policy responses represent only incremental shifts. Should other emerging transportation technologies follow a similar trajectory, they may also become integrated into existing structures as policymakers respond to future challenges. • Both structural and experiential factors influence on-demand ride hailing policy and planning in Toronto and Vancouver. • On-demand ride-hailing has become integrated into existing regulatory structures. • Existing regulatory structures are flexible in accommodating emerging transportation technologies and services. • The outlook is positive for other emerging transportation technologies to be integrated into existing policy structures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Globally, the construction, renovation, and demolition sectors are increasingly responsible for growing resource demand and structural waste, even given progress in energy efficient technologies, 'green' building design, and local planning regulations. In response, the Circular Economy has become a popular agenda in the construction, renovation, and demolition sector as it offers a new model that not only maximizes materials reuse and recovery but also reframes urban systems and the built environment in a closed-loop (cradle-to-cradle) paradigm. In particular, popular visions of the Circular Economy promote, among other actions, 'optimizing' the end-of-the-life of buildings and their materials. Deconstruction (i.e. piece-by-piece demolition) is one key optimization strategy that has received increasing, yet limited, attention by researchers. This paper traces the development of an incipient deconstruction sector in Vancouver, focusing on the possibilities and challenges of deconstruction and material recovery practices as viable strategies for a transformative Circular Economy. I investigate two related aspects: first, the emerging policy landscape surrounding green demolition, and second, the development of 'unbuilding' practices and more formal 'Deconstruction Hubs'. Overall, the paper finds that while these developments represent fundamental steps towards a more sustainable built environment, there remain a number of significant social, political and economic limitations that must be confronted if we are to meet the growing demands for more radical sustainability and 'circularity' not only in Canadian construction, renovation, and demolition sectors, but across Canadian cities and beyond. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most previous research on seismic performance of cross-laminated timber (CLT) structures focused on platform-type construction. This paper investigates the seismic performance and collapse risk of a balloon-framed CLT school building, designed for Vancouver, Canada. Incremental dynamic analysis was performed using a three-dimensional numerical model. Experimental data from connection- and wall-level tests were used to calibrate and validate the model. Twenty-one ground motions (crustal, subduction inslab, and interface) were selected. The results showed the building well met the 2% design drift limit. It had 4.2% probability of collapse at design level by considering uncertainties with a collapse margin ratio of 3.18. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Home is often dually conceptualized as a physical space of living and a psycho-social place of belonging. To engage with this dual nature of home, housing scholars refer to the concept of ontological security to understand how different forms of housing affect subjective well-being. This paper extends the scope of this research. Developing a framework inspired by the psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan, we aim to understand what kind of psycho-spatial arrangements of home-making are involved in establishing ontological security. Based on empirical research in Vancouver, BC, Canada, we suggest three modalities involved in home-making: the need for shelter as the most basic psychic relation to survival, the demand for housing as a psycho-social arrangement with the Other, and the desire for home as a psycho-spatial constitution in the fantasy. Through this, the paper calls for a deeper understanding of how the subject is inscribed actively and dynamically into their social and built environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 1953, Bellingham's KVOS-TV aired its first broadcast--Queen Elizabeth II's coronation--to audiences in northwest Washington State and southwest British Columbia. KVOS was the second television station in Washington and the first in British Columbia. As the station--and the popularity of television--grew, KVOS turned a persistent focus to attracting television audiences in the Vancouver metropolitan region and Vancouver Island. The station established a subsidiary in Vancouver in 1960 to produce commercials for local Canadian advertisers. This subsidiary grew into a full-fledged film production studio, Canawest Film Productions, which produced commercials, industrial films and animation for clients on both sides of the border. For a brief period, KVOS and Canawest fostered a unique relationship among an American broadcaster, Canadian and American advertisers, and cross-border audiences. Canawest was shuttered in 1977 after the Canadian legislature passed Bill C-58, ending tax deductions for Canadian companies advertising on American TV stations. This paper gives insight into the cross-border design of KVOS as well as Canawest's role in producing audiovisual material in the 1960s and 1970s. In doing so, this paper reflects on the tensions between culture and economics in the face of financial incentive and policy intervention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While scholars acknowledge the important role played by regulators in managing ride hailing and its impacts on cities, few studies have explored the implications for developing ride hailing regulations at different levels of governance. This paper examines regulatory approaches to ride hailing in Canada's three largest metropolitan regions: Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver. Though united by a national border, these three regions are subject to unique governance approaches, histories, and trajectories. Although ground transportation in Canada usually falls within local or municipal authority, only Toronto, amongst these three city‐regions, treats the regulation of ground transportation as a local responsibility. In both Montreal and Vancouver, which are subject to different regulatory and governance structures, ride hailing is primarily regulated at the provincial level. As a more detailed examination reveals, we can further distinguish the three metropolitan areas based on the extent of intraregional coordination and regional mobility. By introducing these two concepts, the paper explores both the intended and unintended regional impacts of ride hailing regulations. These findings are relevant not only to ride hailing, but also to broader questions about governing both regional mobility and the platform economy. Key Messages: This research examines how government authority for ground transportation in Canada's three largest metropolitan regions impacts the regulation of ride hailing.Distinctions regarding the level of government responsible for regulating ride hailing persist when comparing the Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver city‐regions.While provincial government regulatory authority can positively influence regional transportation planning and policy, municipal‐led approaches to ride hailing enable place‐based responsiveness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the last years, computer vision-based diagnosis systems have been widely used in several hospitals and dermatology clinics, aiming mostly at the early detection of malignant melanoma tumor, which is among the most frequent types of skin cancer, versus other types of nonmalignant cutaneous diseases. They grow in melanocytes, the cells responsible for pigmentation. This type of cancer is increasing rapidly and its related mortality rate is increasing more modestly, and inversely proportional to the tumor's thickness. The mortality rate can be decreased by earlier detection of suspicious lesions and better prevention. In this work, we are interested in extracting all specific attributes which can be used for computer-aided diagnosis of melanoma. In the first step of the proposed work, we applied the Dull Razor [Lee T et al., Dullrazor: A software approach to hair removal from images, Cancer Control Research, British Columbia Cancer Agency, Vancouver, Canada, Vol. 21, No. 6, pp. 533–543, 1997] technique to images to reduce the influence of small structures, hairs, bubbles, light reflection. In the second step, a new fuzzy level set algorithm is proposed in order to facilitate the medical image segmentation task. It is able to directly evolve from the initial segmentation proposed that uses a spatial fuzzy clustering approach. The controlling parameters of the level set evolution are also estimated from the results of the fuzzy clustering step. This step is essential to characterize the shape of the lesion and also to locate the tumor to be analyzed. In this paper, we have also treated the necessity to extract all the specific attributes used to develop a characterization methodology that enables specialists to take the best possible diagnosis. For this purpose, our proposal relies largely on visual observation of the tumor while dealing with some characteristics as color, texture or form. The method used in this paper is called ABCD. It requires calculating four factors: Asymmetry (A) , Border (B) , Color (C) , and Diversity (D). Finally, these parameters are used to construct a classification module based on artificial neural network for the recognition of malignant melanoma. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The process of urbanization resulting from population growth is causing a transformation of natural landscapes into built environments, and contributing to a significant rise in air and surface temperatures in urban areas, resulting in what is known as the urban heat island (UHI). Ignoring the UHI effect and use of weather data from open fields and airport locations for energy and thermal comfort analysis can lead to over- and underestimation of heating and cooling loads, improper sizing of equipment, inefficiencies in the mechanical systems operation, and occupants' thermal discomfort. There is a need for computationally efficient urban canopy temperature prediction models that account for the urban morphology and characteristics of the study area. This paper presents the development and application of an artificial neural network (ANN)-based method for generating hourly urban canopy temperature and local wind speed for energy simulation. It was used to predict the urban canopy temperature of a neighborhood in downtown Vancouver and the resulting building energy consumption and indoor temperature in a typical building in the area. The results showed that the UHI effect increased the total cooling energy demand by 23% and decreased the total heating energy consumption by 29%, resulting in an overall negative effect on the total energy demand of the building, which was 18% higher in the urban area. The UHI effect also increased the number of hours of indoor temperature above the cooling set point by 7.6%. The methodology can be applied to determine the urban canopy temperature of neighborhoods in different climate zones and determine the varying urban heat island effects associated with the locations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper situates a ten-year period of political upheaval in addressing the problem of Single Room Occupancy (SRO) housing in Vancouver, Canada, within an epistemic transformation of public health. Until 1970, the Vancouver Health Department exemplified a colonial history of public health in establishing the city's skid road as a cordon sanitaire. But the 1970s saw a sudden fading of the Department's authority just as a more collaborative approach to housing policy was emerging. The sunsetting of sanitary enforcement was driven in part by the arrival of a "new public health" that became primarily concerned with defining public health problems and solutions through the regulation of racialized bodies and behaviors—a cordon thérapeutique. By the 1980s, this shift constituted an epistemic and regulatory abandonment of SRO housing, leading to the accelerated deterioration of the entire housing stock and costing incalculable human suffering and the loss of lives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper brings an urban communication lens to bear on the geographies of platformisation in cities. It does so by drawing on three select instances of platformised materialities in Toronto and Vancouver that represent familiar contours of urban platformisation: mobility (bike and car sharing), last‐mile logistics (on‐demand delivery), and labour (gig work). These examples are worked through Aiello and Tosoni's heuristic of cities as constituting the mediums, content, and contexts of urban communication, respectively. As mediums, platformised materialities in the form of street signs designate exclusive uses of public space by mobility platforms, communicating the spatial conditions of platform urbanism. As the contents of communication, stickers and signs advertising on‐demand meal delivery available at a restaurant venue express the platform‐driven transformation of the social relations that make the delivered meal take place. And as context, broader trends of the platformisation of labour render communication by other, non‐platform‐based materialities – such as posters calling on urban gig workers to unionise – meaningful. An urban communication perspective contributes to geographical scholarship on platform urbanism by nuancing our understandings of how platforms and platform technology capital secure and sustain themselves in cities through their material communicative capacities. Platforms have established themselves as visible fixtures of urban built environments. The physical forms that platforms assume in cityscapes constitute the mediums, content, and contexts of urban communication. Engaging platforms as expressing material communicative capacities nuances our understanding of how platforms and platform technology capital secure and sustain themselves in cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although literary geography has become an established subfield, to date, there are no in-depth geographical studies on literary groups that gather to celebrate a specific author and/or genre. To address this lacuna, my paper investigates Vancouver's official Sherlock Holmes society, The Stormy Petrels of British Columbia (hereafter Petrels). Drawing on the methods of participant observation and semi-structured interviews, as well as Jacques Lacan's concept of 'le sinthome' (hereafter sinthome), which defines how creative modes of (un)conscious enjoyment knot together psychical and social space, I explore three ways through which the Petrels' enjoyment of Sherlock Holmes gives consistency to their individual and collective lives: first, through 'nomination' wherein the Petrels identify with Sherlockian characters and make names for themselves; second, through what Lacan refers to as 'lalangue,' that is, enigmatic meanings produced by the musical flows and babbles of speech; and third, through the surplus accumulation of memorabilia, what I call 'sintholmes,' which hold a powerful attraction as sublime objects of Sherlockiana. The article concludes by considering the political dimensions of the sinthome in terms of the changes in the Petrels' demographics and the wider context of Sherlock Holmes fandom. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cross-laminated timber (CLT) is one of the most important mass timber materials that are commonly used in mid-rise or even high-rise timber buildings. However, exposure to moisture during construction may increase the moisture damage risks, and impact the durability performance of CLT buildings. To investigate potential solutions for avoiding wetting of CLT components during construction, CLT specimens having different moisture protection measures were tested in the damp and mild wintertime climate in Vancouver. This follow-up work focuses on two-dimensional (2-D) hygrothermal modeling of the wetting and drying behavior of bare CLT (without any protection) and the validation with measurements from the field exposure test, emphasizing the influence of material properties. The hygrothermal models are firstly calibrated for two CLT specimens positioned horizontally, with and without a butt joint, by using material properties from different laboratory tests, and assuming different rain penetration paths. The calibrated models are then applied to simulate CLT specimens positioned vertically, which have end grain directly exposed to rain or damp concrete in the test. The work reveals that the moisture storage function above RH 95%, which includes the saturation water content reported in different literature, has a significant influence on the hygrothermal simulation results; meanwhile, assigning different water absorption coefficients for the transverse and longitudinal directions of wood significantly improves the accuracy of the hygrothermal model created for simulating rainwater penetration into the CLT panel. This paper provides a recommendation on how to properly model the CLT panels exposed to rainwater, which often occurs during construction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: In May 2018, St. Paul's Hospital (SPH) in Vancouver (Canada) opened an outdoor peer-led overdose prevention site (OPS) operated in partnership with Vancouver Coastal Health and RainCity Housing. At the end of 2020, the partnered OPS moved to a new location, which created a gap in service for SPH inpatients and outpatients. To address this gap, which was magnified by the COVID-19 pandemic, SPH opened a nurse-led OPS in February 2021. This paper describes the steps leading to the implementation of the nurse-led OPS, its impact, and lessons learned. Methods: Four steps paved the way for the opening of the OPS: (1) identifying the problem, (2) seeking ethics guidance, (3) adapting policies and practices, and (4) supporting and training staff. Results: The OPS is open between 10:00 and 20:00 and staffed by two nurses per shift. It is accessible to all patients including inpatients, patients in the Emergency Department, and patients attending outpatient services. Between February 1, 2021 and October 23, 2021, the OPS recorded 1612 visits for the purpose of injection, for an average weekly visit number of 42. A total of 46 overdoses were recorded in that 9-month period. Thirty-seven (80%) required administration of naloxone and 12 (26%) required a code blue response. Conclusions: Due to the unique nature of our OPS, we learned many important lessons in the process leading to the opening of the site and the months that followed. We conclude the paper with lessons learned grouped into six main categories, namely engagement, communication, access, staff education and support, data collection, and safety. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: In May 2018, St. Paul's Hospital (SPH) in Vancouver (Canada) opened an outdoor peer-led overdose prevention site (OPS) operated in partnership with Vancouver Coastal Health and RainCity Housing. At the end of 2020, the partnered OPS moved to a new location, which created a gap in service for SPH inpatients and outpatients. To address this gap, which was magnified by the COVID-19 pandemic, SPH opened a nurse-led OPS in February 2021. This paper describes the steps leading to the implementation of the nurse-led OPS, its impact, and lessons learned. Methods: Four steps paved the way for the opening of the OPS: (1) identifying the problem, (2) seeking ethics guidance, (3) adapting policies and practices, and (4) supporting and training staff. Results: The OPS is open between 10:00 and 20:00 and staffed by two nurses per shift. It is accessible to all patients including inpatients, patients in the Emergency Department, and patients attending outpatient services. Between February 1, 2021 and October 23, 2021, the OPS recorded 1612 visits for the purpose of injection, for an average weekly visit number of 42. A total of 46 overdoses were recorded in that 9-month period. Thirty-seven (80%) required administration of naloxone and 12 (26%) required a code blue response. Conclusions: Due to the unique nature of our OPS, we learned many important lessons in the process leading to the opening of the site and the months that followed. We conclude the paper with lessons learned grouped into six main categories, namely engagement, communication, access, staff education and support, data collection, and safety. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims: The primary aim was to determine if the Nottingham Hip Fracture Score (NHFS) could be used to stratify 1-year mortality risk amongst periprosthetic hip fracture patients. The secondary aim was to identify 1year mortality rates amongst surgically managed periprosthetic hip fractures.Methods: Our electronic fracture database was interrogated for all Vancouver B or C periprosthetic fractures between September 2009 to April 2019; 83 patients were identified. All available data was then collected from radiographic, electronic and paper notes. The NHFS was retrospectively calculated for each patient. Statistical analysis was performed to identify factors significantly affecting 12month mortality using Akaike's information criterion corrected for small sample sizes (AICc), binomial logistic regression was performed using each variable; the p-values presented are for the coefficients of the regressor.Results: Periprosthetic fractures have a 1year mortality risk of 26.5%, 30 day mortality was 4.82%. The NHFS was found to be highly predictive of 1-year mortality amongst this patient cohort (p = 0.0001). We find that each unit increase in the NHFS is correlated with a 2.7times increase in mortality rate. There was no evidence that time lag from presentation to surgery led to an increased mortality (p = 0.455).Conclusion: The NHFS can be used to stratify the 1-year mortality risk amongst patients who have periprosthetic hip fracture; this is a new finding not previously published to our knowledge. Given that time to surgery does not correlate with mortality, patients should be risk stratified on admission with NHFS. Time is then available to conduct a multi-disciplinary approach to optimize the patient, personnel and equipment. The introduction of a parallel multidisciplinary pathway to neck of femur fractures is long overdue and must be expedited. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on the perspectives of minority/racialized students in urban high schools. It is based on findings of interviews with 85 students in six secondary schools in Toronto and Vancouver, Canada, and in Melbourne, Australia, during 2016–2019. While there has been increasing attention to closing the racial achievement gap and some minority students' underachievement in education, there are limited studies that centre the voices of students and their experiences with provincial and nationally mandated testing. This paper is not an investigation into minority students' achievement; rather it seeks to understand how minority students perceive and experience this new form of test-based accountability. Grounding the analysis within theories of policy sociology and neoliberal accountability, this paper concludes that current policies of standardized testing have catalysed further inequities and segregation of students based on their 'race' and social class. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the large amounts of available traffic data, it becomes necessary to develop tools that can perform several tasks related to the collected data. These tasks include storing the data in a standard format, filtering the data/flagging suspicious records, processing the data and calculating useful quantitative traffic indices, and finally, visualizing the outcomes. In this paper, a data-driven, yet novel, data-filtering approach was proposed to flag outliers in daily cycling counts at automatic traffic counters (ATCs). The approach was motivated by the spatiotemporal relationship of cycling counts collected at permanent count stations. The proposed approach is flexible because it assumes no prior knowledge about which locations may experience sensor malfunction (i.e., outliers). The approach was tested using a large data set of more than 111,000 daily bicycle volumes collected in 4 years (2016-2019) at more than 60 different permanent count stations in the City of Vancouver, Canada. The approach was validated using complete annual sets of data at four count stations in 2016. Scenarios of undercounting and overcounting were simulated using different percentages of the actual counts. The results showed that the proposed approach has a strong ability in detecting and removing most outliers, especially for cases of substantial undercounting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While opposition to the Trans Mountain pipeline extends far beyond British Columbia's southwest coast, Vancouver provides a specific site to explore the intersections of platform, place, and anti-pipeline sentiment in Instagrammed expression surrounding a controversy embedded in colonial extraction. A city located on Indigenous lands yet shaped by an elite settler imaginary of sustainability, outdoor recreation, and west coast lifestyles, Vancouver-based anti-pipeline resistance sees the uneven geographic intersection of the pipeline with various social, environmental, and climate concerns, including Canada's failure to acknowledge Indigenous sovereignty on pipeline-affected lands. Through the patterns revealed by digital methods and visual methodologies centered on Instagram's location tag, this paper reveals how settler colonialism infuses the platformed and grounded components in place-based issue expression -- and also how it is resisted, reconfiguring relations both on the land and in the digital realm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An essential consideration in urban transit facility planning is service efficiency and accessibility. Previous research has shown that reducing the number of facilities along a route may increase efficiency but decrease accessibility. Striking a balance between these two is a critical consideration in transit planning. Transit facility consolidation is a cost-effective way to improve the quality of service by strategically determining the desirable allocation of a limited number of facilities. This paper develops an optimization framework that integrates Geographical Information systems (GIS), decision-making analysis, and quantum technologies for addressing the problem of facility consolidation. Our proposed framework includes a novel mathematical model that captures non-linear interactions between facilities and surrounding demand nodes, inter-facility competition, ridership demand and spatial coverage. The developed model can harness the power of quantum effects such as superposition and quantum tunnelling and enables transportation planners to utilize the most recent hardware solutions such as quantum and digital annealers, coherent Ising Machines and gate-based universal quantum computers. This study presents a real-world application of the framework to the public transit facility redundancy problem in the British Columbia Vancouver metropolitan area. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our framework by reducing the number of facilities by 40% while maintaining the same service accessibility. Additionally, we showcase the ability of the proposed mathematical model to take advantage of quantum annealing and classical optimization techniques. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the impact of revised seismic hazard values in the National Building Code of Canada (NBCC 2015) on the design of reinforced-concrete (RC) shear wall buildings. Five buildings with different heights located in three cities in Canada are selected. Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver are selected to represent low, medium, and high seismic hazard zones. The buildings are designed according to the NBCC 2010 and then checked against the updated design spectral accelerations of the NBCC 2015. The seismic demands are compared, and the need for retrofit of existing walls is evaluated. The analyses showed that the maximum interstory drift ratios increased specially for buildings in Vancouver. The shear force and bending moment demands increased for most buildings in Vancouver by up to 32% and 60%, respectively. A significant decline in the moment overstrength ratio was noticed for walls in Vancouver, which indicates that flexural strengthening might be mandatory for these walls. Moreover, the code changes had a great negative impact on the walls' ductility for buildings in Vancouver due to the higher deformations exhibited. Several retrofit techniques available in the literature were discussed to enhance the flexural strength and ductility of RC shear walls as remedies for the consequences of the updated seismic hazard in Canada. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Walkability is an important measure with strong ties to our health. However, there are existing gaps in the literature. Our previous work proposed new approaches to address existing limitations. This paper explores new ways of applying transferability using transfer-learning. Road networks, POIs, and road-related characteristics grow/change over time. Moreover, calculating walkability for all locations in all cities is very time-consuming. Transferability enables reuse of already-learned knowledge for continued learning, reduce training time, resource consumption, training labels and improve prediction accuracy. We propose ALF-Score++, that reuses trained models to generate transferable models capable of predicting walkability score for cities not seen in the process. We trained transfer-learned models for St. John's NL and Montréal QC and used them to predict walkability scores for Kingston ON and Vancouver BC. MAE error of 13.87 units (ranging 0–100) was achieved for transfer-learning using MLP and 4.56 units for direct-training (random forest) on personalized clusters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In structural health monitoring (SHM), measuring and evaluating structural dynamic responses are critical for safety management of civil infrastructures. Particularly, online forecasting of the structural responses under extreme external loading conditions (e.g., earthquakes) takes a significant role in SHM to provide early warning and ensure safe operation. In practice, complex causality and intrinsic interactions between seismic excitation and structural response make it challenging to establish a reliable predictive scheme. The present paper proposes a novel deep recurrent neural network (RNN) model implemented in the architecture of a time-series attention-based RNN encoder–decoder (TSA-RNN-ED), for predictive analysis of structural responses under seismic excitation. In the proposed data-driven model, upcoming sequential responses are predicted through sequence-to-sequence learning from historical multivariate time-series signals. A time-series attention mechanism is proposed to exploit the heterogeneous, but directly related, hidden features between the seismic loads and the corresponding structural responses. The proposed architecture can reliably regress excitation-response interactions to predict dynamic responses subjected to future earthquakes while satisfying the need of real-time forecasting for on-site practical implementation. This article systematically evaluates the proposed model by using two real-world structural cases: 1) the tallest building in China, the Shanghai Tower and 2) a woodframe classroom on a shake table at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada. The experimental results demonstrate the accurate and efficient performance of the proposed methodology in forecasting the seismic responses of the structures under investigation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Community-based participatory research (CBPR) is increasingly standard practice for critical qualitative health research with young people who use(d) drugs in Vancouver, Canada. One aim of CBPR in this context is to redress the essentialization, erasure, and exploitation of people who use(d) drugs in health research. In this paper, we reflect on a partnership that began in 2018 between three university researchers and roughly ten young people (ages 17–28) who have current or past experience with drug use and homelessness in Greater Vancouver. We focus on moments when our guiding principles of shared leadership, safety, and inclusion became fraught in practice, forcing us in some cases to re-imagine these principles, and in others to accept that certain ethical dilemmas in research can never be fully resolved. We argue that this messiness can be traced to the complex and diverse positionalities of each person on our team, including young people. As such, creating space for mess was ethically necessary and empirically valuable for our CBPR project. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports on the findings of an empirical study of the street‐level visual spatialities of urban platforms in three Canadian cities: Toronto, Vancouver, and Montreal. Enumerating, typologizing, and spatially analyzing incidences of platforms in these three cities, we find platforms to be concentrated in neighbourhoods classified as "gentrified," "gentrifying," and "gentrifiable," while being largely absent from established affluent enclaves. We theorize the significance of these spatialities in three ways. First, we suggest that the emplaced visibility of platforms functions to cue expenditures of digital spatial capital—the ability to stake claims to space through engagements with digital technologies—in neighbourhoods where these platformized materialities are visually encountered. Second, we argue that these expenditures of spatial capital are associated with the ways in which platforms glamorize mundane urban consumption practices (the aestheticization of consumption) while decoupling acts of consumption from face‐to‐face interaction (the anaestheticization of social relations). And third, we identify propositions for how these an/aesthetic dynamics may potentially influence the further densification of platforms on city streets in transitioned (gentrified) and transitional (gentrifying and gentrifiable) urban enclaves. Key Messages: Material presences that cue interaction with digital platforms are concentrated in gentrified, gentrifying, and gentrifiable neighbourhoods in Toronto, Vancouver, and Montreal, while being largely absent from established affluent enclaves.Platformized materialities cue expenditures of digital spatial capital—the capacity to stake claims to space through digital technologies—in the urban spaces where they are visually encountered.Digital platforms glamorize everyday consumption practices and decouple acts of consumption from face‐to‐face interactions in ways that fit the spatial, lifestyle, and self‐actualization ambitions of advantaged, tech‐savvy urban dwellers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study systematically compares how new growth is directed to the urbanized area in the metropolitan regions of Seattle (USA), Vancouver (Canada), and Stuttgart (Germany). This study is based on a review of planning documents and qualitative interviews with planners at the local, county, regional, and state level. This paper focusses on how the state legislation for land use governance shapes the ability to direct growth to locations favorable from a climate perspective. State legislators, particularly, have a crucial role in drafting overarching rules that enable regional, county, and local decision-makers to work together on directing growth in metropolitan areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pollution, resource depletion, and to a lesser extent, global warming called into question mass consumption. Public policies, media broadcasters, tech giants, and supranational entities (e.g., United Nations) nudged societies into alternative consumption forms that have been deemed more sustainable, such as collaborative consumption (CC). This paper aims at proposing a theoretical–empirical model that explains the materiality of sustainable collaborative practices through bike-sharing. The study further analyzes how connections, mediations, and inductions occur between individuals, platforms, and providers in bike-sharing systems of Porto Alegre in Southern Brazil and Vancouver's bike-sharing in Canada. We tracked these actants using the Actor–Network Theory through 30 interviews with consumers and managers. The findings suggest a dynamic ecosystem of mechanisms that mediate interactions and enact "sustainable collaborative consumption (SCC)" through digital solutions and physical equipment. The results illustrate that SCC is positively influenced by three avenues: (1) sustainable individual actions, (2) digital platforms, and (3) sustainable physical equipment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Employment improves mental health and well-being by providing financial security, daily structure, a sense of identity and purpose, and social engagement. However, securing and sustaining employment is exceptionally challenging for vulnerable populations who experience persistent and multiple barriers, such as mental illness, homelessness, food and housing insecurity, and marginalization. Evidence-based supported employment programs, most notably individual placement and support (IPS) are becoming a more common approach for addressing the needs of these high-risk individuals. The aim of this paper is to outline the protocol for evaluating an IPS program in Vancouver's downtown and Downtown Eastside (DTES). Methods and design: This prospective quasi-experimental study of persons with persistent and multiple barriers to employment will use a mixed-methods approach for evaluating a novel IPS program. The evaluation will consist of survey packages and interviews that will capture outcomes related to employment and well-being, as well as the experiential process of receiving individualized and integrated supports through the IPS program. A mixed-methods approach is appropriate for this study as quantitative data will provide an objective assessment of program impacts on employment and well-being outcomes over time, while qualitative data will provide an in-depth understanding of continued barriers and experiences. Discussion: The results from this evaluation will contribute evidence within a local British Columbian (BC) context that may increase access to meaningful employment for those with long-term experience of complex barriers to employment. Further, the findings will support continued improvements, and guide decision-making around practices and policy for future implementation of IPS and employment supports across BC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Moderately ductile steel moment frames (SMF) are a common lateral load resisting system (LLRS). They allow for a flexible architectural design for low- and mid-rise buildings but become uneconomical for high-rises due to the large member sections to satisfy the drift requirement. In contrast, lightweight cross laminated timber (CLT) shear walls provide adequate stiffness for resisting lateral loads and controlling drift in high-rise construction. A hybrid structural system combining SMF with balloon-type CLT shearwalls offers an innovative solution for economic and sustainable LLRS for mid- to high-rise buildings. In the research presented in this paper, three hybrid buildings (8-, 12-, and 16-story tall) were designed for the seismicity of Vancouver, Canada, and their performance was compared with benchmark SMF buildings. Ductile connections were used for joining the CLT panels to the steel frame and as hold-downs. The overstrength- and ductility-related force reductions factors of the hybrid system were developed based on the FEMA P695 approach. Nonlinear static and time history analyses were carried out to evaluate the structures' seismic performance. In the hybrid systems, the use of steel was reduced by 40%–50%, and the maximum interstory drifts were reduced by up to 60% compared with the SMF buildings, demonstrating the potential of combining CLT shear walls with conventional SMF systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Neighbourhood associations are major players in urban politics throughout North American cities and increasingly are becoming a political force in other parts of the world. However, while there is a rich and well-developed literature on the role played by neighbourhood associations in urban politics, few studies examine whether their membership reflects the socio-demographic composition and interests of the broader public. This paper addresses this gap in the literature using survey data from voters conducted during the Vancouver and Toronto 2018 municipal elections. We compare the responses of participants who identify as members of neighbourhood associations (or their equivalents) with those of the broader voting public. We find that members of neighbourhood associations in both cities are not representative of the broader population. They are more likely to be white, older and have higher education than the average voter. In addition, while the ideology of neighbourhood association members differs little from that of the broader public, their policy priorities are different from those of the majority of voters in both cities. Our findings suggest that neighbourhood associations fail in providing descriptive representation and may not offer substantive representation. These findings raise important questions about the role of neighbourhood associations in local governance. Our study also demonstrates the merit of using individual-level surveys to learn more about the composition and policy preferences of neighbourhood associations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Our paper reveals a significant under-reported emergent phenomenon: the graduates of the well-established 'Elite Traditional International Schools' worldwide are beginning to cluster in certain universities, in certain 'global cities'. As one might expect, New York and London are central to this clustering, alongside Boston, Toronto and Vancouver. Surprisingly, these destinations are not the world's top, elite universities, showing that the forms of class reasoning which we might expect of the 'Trans-National Capitalist Class' do not seemingly apply to this model of elite education. We explore the emerging evidence, and discuss its character and implications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wind-Driven Rain (WDR) loading on building facades is a crucial factor for designing sustainable and climate-resilient buildings and preserving historical buildings. WDR loading on buildings has been studied previously but results for such a multi-parameter problem are not generally conclusive. Thus, the relevant provisions of ISO semi-empirical model cannot be applied with confidence for complex building configurations, such as those in urban areas given that the estimated WDR can be more than twice of the field measurements. This paper aims to evaluate the effectiveness of two WDR techniques, namely Lagrangian Particle Tracking (LPT) and Eulerian Multiphase (EM), combined with the steady-state standard k-ω RANS turbulence model (referred to as RANS-LPT and RANS-EM). The results obtained from the RANS-EM approach are compared with the RANS-LPT results reported in the literature for a six-story mid-rise residential building located in Vancouver, Canada. The study considers 13 distinct rainfall events, including stand-alone and urban area configurations with and without overhangs. The RANS-EM and RANS-LPT approaches are evaluated by comparing modeled wind and WDR against wind-tunnel and on-site WDR measurements, respectively. The study found that the RANS-EM requires less computational time and provides more accurate results for the test building situated in an urban area compared to the RANS-LPT. • Quantification of Wind-Driven Rain (WDR) loading on an urban area configuration. • Effects of surrounding buildings on the WDR loading in an urban area. • A comparison of WDR techniques (LPT and EM) in both stand-alone and urban areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present paper proposes a hybrid building system with the buckling-restrained brace and Glulam frames (BRBGF). For a highly seismic location of Vancouver, Canada, an 18-story building is designed with BRBGF as the lateral load-resisting system for the seismic hazard of NBC 2020. A nonlinear analytical model is developed and validated with the experimental data. Further, 30 pairs of ground motion records are selected to represent the complex seismicity of Southern British Columbia consisting of Shallow Crustal, Subduction Interface, and In-slab faulting mechanisms. The BRBGF system is found to achieve the target of maximum inter-story drift of 2.5% for the 2,475-year return period event. The building also passes the FEMA P695 criteria for acceptable collapse margin for seismic force modification factors of R d = 4 and R o = 1. 2. The results from the study indicate the feasibility of high-rise timber buildings in highly seismic regions. • A high-rise hybrid lateral force-resisting system with mass timber is developed. • An existing building is repurposed as an 18-story BRBGF in Vancouver, Canada. • Vancouver's complex seismicity is characterized using NBC 2020-consistent records. • High-rise timber building's seismic collapse and modification factors are estimated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a novel multigenerational integrated system that is able to produce five useful commodities, such as freshwater, space heating, hot water, power and hydrogen for a community, is proposed and investigated. The system uniquely covers heat storage by molten salt heat storage along with hydrogen production by magnesium-chlorine (Mg–Cl) based thermochemical cycle. Additionally, the present system has a multi-effect desalination plant to provide freshwater community needs. A solar power tower is offered due to its capability of harvesting high energy levels. The heat recovered by the solar power receiver is passed through an organic Rankine cycle (ORC) to meet the need for the high-temperature level that is required for the thermochemical cycle. The molten salt storage tanks are used to offset the mismatch between demand and supply for the necessary energy to run the system in case of the absence of solar irradiation. The suggested system is intended to leverage solar and geothermal energy sources to generate practical necessities like power, heat, and hot water for residential applications of a projected community. The system is then analyzed in detail thermodynamically in the context of exergy and energy approaches. In addition, the subsystems are analyzed parametrically to study the performance of the overall system to observe how the ambient and working conditions change the system efficiencies. The city of Vancouver in Canada is selected as the potential location where the system performance assessment is carried out accordingly. As a result of the present thermodynamic analysis, the energetic and exergetic efficiencies for the system are obtained as 45.45% and 52.32%. The total exergy destruction rate is another exergy metric to compare both versions, where the rate of 163967.39 kW exergy destruction is obtained for the overall system. • A novel multigenerational integrated system developed with the Mg–Cl thermochemical cycle • Energy and exergy approaches and thermodynamics used to analyze the system efficiencies • Parametric study is carried out to observe the various effects on system performance. • The energy and exergy efficiencies found 45.45% and 49.65% to produce hydrogen, power, fresh water, and heat. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The first CLT building in North America adopting self-centering HD was investigated. • An advanced 3D numerical model of the building was developed in OpenSees. • Building with the novel HD showed higher resilience than that with traditional HD. Balloon-framed cross-laminated timber (CLT) construction has a number of advantages when compared to platform-type construction; however, many international standards only include provisions for the latter as there is little research reported on the seismic performance of the former. In this paper, a seismic fragility assessment of a 4-storey balloon-framed CLT building in Vancouver, Canada, is presented. This structure is the first in North America that adopts a self-centering friction-based technology for the hold-downs (HDs). The seismic performance of the building was assessed by performing incremental dynamic analysis (IDA) on a three-dimensional finite element model using Cascadia Subduction Zone ground motions, and compared to a second building model with conventional dowel-type HDs. The analyses at the design intensity level showed that the self-centering building had an average maximum inter-story drift ratio of 0.67%, well below the 2.5% drift limit specified in the National Building Code of Canada. Based on the IDA and taking into account uncertainties, the building had a collapse margin ratio of 2.96 and a 5.2% probability of collapse at the design level. Compared to the conventional HDs, the friction-based HDs did not improve the building's collapse capacity, but reduced the building drift by more than 20% at lower damage states, demonstrating the effectiveness of designing balloon-framed CLT structures with a resilient self-centering HDs in high seismic zones. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• A novel dual-pinned self-centering coupled CLT shear wall (DSCW) is introduced. • An equivalent energy design procedure (EEDP) is proposed for the DSCW. • The EEDP is used to design the DSCWs of a 12-story prototype building. • A detailed finite element model of the DSCW is developed. • The seismic performance of the DSCW is assessed using NTHA and IDA. The use of mass timber structures has considerably grown in recent years. This has increased the demand for sustainable, resilient and high-performance mass timber structural systems. In this paper, a novel self-centering balloon-type cross-laminated timber (CLT) shear wall system, called the dual-pinned self-centering coupled CLT shear wall (DSCW), is proposed for tall building applications. The DSCW consists of two sets of CLT panels that are coupled to one another using self-centering friction dampers and are either pinned at their base or sit on V-shaped truss assemblies. This paper also introduces an equivalent energy design procedure (EEDP) that can be used to design the DSCW such that it meets different performance objectives and roof displacement targets at various earthquake intensities. The procedure was used to design the DSCWs of a 12-story prototype building located in Vancouver (Canada). The DSCWs of the prototype building were numerically modeled and subjected to extensive nonlinear time history and incremental dynamic analyses. The results of these analyses show that the proposed EEDP can be efficiently used to design the DSCW such that it achieves the target roof displacements and performance objectives. The results also show that the DSCWs of the prototype building meet the seismic performance requirements of FEMA P695. Overall, the results presented in this paper demonstrate that EEDP-designed DSCWs have excellent seismic performance and can be safely used in tall buildings located in high-seismicity regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The growth in the international smart city market over the past decade has been tremendous. Fuelled by private vendors and consultants, adoption of smart city technology in many cities has been rapid. How well does the adoption of this technology and the overall design of smart cities align with the needs and preferences of residents? In this paper we examine this question using data from a unique survey of residents in three large Canadian cities: Vancouver, Montreal and Toronto. The survey includes perceptions of both the importance and maturity of 23 policy or service areas, grouped along four dimensions (Services, Governance, Social and Economic). The results indicate that there is a misalignment in certain service and policy areas between the types of projects that cities are pursuing and the preferences of residents, indicating the need for broader and deeper engagement with the community in the design and implementation of smart city plans. • Survey results highlight disparities between residents and their municipal governments in smart city development • A gap exists between the preferences that residents place on certain smart city initiatives and where local government direct investment • Cities are aligned with technocratic institutional logic, underpinned by a close collaboration with the private sector [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As one of Vancouver's oldest neighbourhoods and the historical heart of the city, Downtown Eastside (DTES) has been home to many low-income residents and has been challenged by factors such as high crime rates, drug use, unemployment, housing issues, and loss of businesses in the community. Although a variety of studies have explored the causes and effects of DTES's social dilemma and indicated that crimes are closely related to the spatial configuration of the underlying street network, how DTES's underlying street network affects the spatial distribution of different types of crime remains unclear. Focusing on the relationship between the street network and the crime rate of DTES, the authors make three hypotheses regarding the connections between the street network of DTES and the distribution patterns of crimes, and employ the space syntax methods to analyse the street network of DTES and test the hypotheses. The results indicate that the spatial configuration of street network can be helpful in explaining where different crimes may occur, thus providing a spatial perspective to figure out approaches to addressing DTES's social issues. At last, this paper, combining spatial and social perspectives, puts forward strategies for making DTES a more liveable place, and is likely to work as a reference for academics and practitioners to further understand gentrification and urbanisation related issues. [Display omitted] • Crimes occurred in DTES are associated with its spatial configuration. • The distribution patterns of crime are related to the land use of DTES. • COVID-19 led to a decrease in crime, with the distribution patterns not affected. • Agular Choice at the radius of 1500m relates to most crime types in DTES. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Seismic design parameters are proposed for the Moment-resisting Knee-braced Frame. • The study is carried out within the framework of Canadian standards. • All potential hazard sources expected on the Canadian west coast are considered. • The MKF shall be designed as a moderately ductile system. • Overstrength and ductility factors of 1.6 and 3.0 are proposed for the MKF system. • The proposed seismic design parameters are verified by comprehensive nonlinear analyses. This paper proposes and verifies the seismic design parameters, including overstrength-related force modification factor, ductility-related force modification factor, deflection amplification factor, and design period, for the steel Moment-resisting Knee-braced Frame (MKF) system. The building selected in this study is an office located in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, in which MKFs act as the lateral load-resisting system. 14 prototype frames spanning a wide range of geometrical configurations are designed following the requirements of the 2015 National Building Code (2015 NBC) of Canada. Nonlinear static analyses are carried out on the prototype frames to determine the preliminary ductility and overstrength factors. Six new MKFs (assessment frames) are designed using the proposed overstrength and ductility factors, and their seismic and collapse performances are examined by comprehensive numerical analyses, considering the effects of the potential sources of ground motion expected on the Canadian west coast, namely subduction intraslab, subduction interface and shallow crustal events. The results of this study suggest that the MKF system shall be designed as a moderately ductile system using overstrength and ductility factors of 1.60 and 3.0, respectively, with a height not exceeding 40 m in regions of high seismicity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The deployment of a mobile air quality monitoring laboratory requires advanced real-time instrument monitoring and data management software, which can be prohibitively expensive. In this work we present the PLUME Dashboard: a software package built in Python designed specifically for mobile air quality monitoring purposes. It aims to provide a free and open-source alternative to comparable commercial packages, thus reducing the barrier to entry of conducting such research. This paper outlines the development of the PLUME Dashboard and justifies the design choices that were made while also providing thorough documentation and explanation for how the software works. Functionality includes real-time data display, real-time peak identification, baseline subtraction, real-time air quality and self-sampling alerts (based on wind direction and vehicle speed), and post-processing tools such as peak identification and map merging with GPS data. The functionality of PLUME Dashboard is tested using real-world data collected in Toronto and Vancouver Canada. [Display omitted] • Open-source Python script for air pollution mobile monitoring. • Integration with Modbus-TCP data loggers to stream real-time data. • Real-time data processing tools: peak identification, threshold exceedance alerting. • Post-processing tools: baseline detection, GPS map merging, peak identification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Built environment interventions have the potential to improve population health and reduce health inequities. The objective of this paper is to present the first wave of the INTErventions, Research, and Action in Cities Team (INTERACT) cohort studies in Victoria, Vancouver, Saskatoon, and Montreal, Canada. We examine how our cohorts compared to Canadian census data and present summary data for our outcomes of interest (physical activity, well-being, and social connectedness). We also compare location data and activity spaces from survey data, research-grade GPS and accelerometer devices, and a smartphone app, and compile measures of proximity to select built environment interventions. • The INTERACT study is evaluating four natural built environment experiments in Canada. • Wave 1 results for physical activity, well-being, and social participation are presented. • Comparisons between location data collected using two different methods is discussed. • Samples recruited are not representative of the population. • Methodological advancements are needed analyze data from smartphone apps. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]