Sub- and supratherapeutic efavirenz plasma concentrations with risk for HIV therapy failure are mainly genetically explained in Ugandan children: The prospective GENEFA cohort study
Interindividual variations in efavirenz (EFV) plasma concentrations are extensive, but paediatric data on its consequences for viral control are scarce. The aim of this study was to explore the role of genetic variation in achieving therapeutic efavirenz plasma concentrations in a cohort of Ugandan children and the linkage between genetic CYP2B6 variants, EFV plasma variability, viral resistance and viral outcome.
The place of the public under COVID-19
Over the past several decades, scholars have lamented the erosion of "true" public space through the rise of semi-public and private spaces where access is determined, and usage is increasingly regulated (e.g., through curfews and restrictions on use). Writing in the midst of the sixth wave of COVID-19, the importance of inclusive, open spaces in Canadian urban centres is evident: these are spaces that allow for movement and participation (ideally) across axes of identity and difference. Yet, public spaces are also bound up with the heightened regulation of bodies to supress contagion through social distancing and restrictions on use. While some bodies are in place (and take up space) in public in this context, other bodies face limitations pertaining to discrimination, surveillance, health, and access. This viewpoint highlights the importance of retaining and producing inclusive public spaces and the need to think critically about the urban experience under COVID-19.
The simulation of urban system dynamics in Atlantic Canada, 1951-1991
"A dynamic urban model is used to study the post-war evolution of the Atlantic Canada urban system. The computer-based simulation model is calibrated for the period 1951-86 and then employed to predict the 1991 population of each CMA and CA within the system. The simulation results show that, to a large extent, the evolution of the system can be understood in terms of endogenous system dynamics rather than exogenous events. Specifically, competition among the cities of the region is a significant factor in the urban system evolution. The high degree of abstraction of the model means that data requirements for application are minimal, and the calibration procedure is relatively simple. The successful predictions show that the model can yield useful results in spite of its simplicity." (SUMMARY IN FRE)
Closed windows, open doors: geopolitics and post-1949 mainland Chinese immigration to Canada
Closed windows, open doors: geopolitics and post-1949 Mainland Chinese immigration to Canada
Geographical patterns of fertility decline in Guangdong: China's population policy through the censuses of 1982 and 1990
[Francophone migratory flows between Quebec and Ontario: toward spatio-linguistic polarization?]
"The link between linguistic mobility and spatial mobility is investigated through the analysis of francophone migratory flows between Quebec and Ontario during the 1981-1986 period. Using 1986 census data, the analysis shows that these flows are indeed part of a more polarized spatio-linguistic situation. However, the results also show that this phenomenon is closely related to another one, that is to the return migration flow toward Quebec. Due to this relation, the role of Quebec as a true migration pole for French population outside Quebec is more problematic." (SUMMARY IN ENG)
Interregional migration in the USSR, a final update
"This research note is a follow-up to a comparative study of Soviet interregional migration during the years 1971-75 and 1981-85.... The recent publication of the last (and scarce) statistical yearbook for the U.S.S.R....makes it possible to calculate regional net migration balances for the final five-year period of the Soviet Union's existence (1986-1990)...on the basis of the residual method, and to compare the results with those for 1981-85 in the original study. This will be the last such update, not only because the U.S.S.R. no longer exists and no more Soviet statistical yearbooks will be issued, but also because the amount of error entailed by the residual method as a result of increased emigration would be unacceptable."
Using tweets to understand changes in the spatial crime distribution for hockey events in Vancouver
The use of social media data for the spatial analysis of crime patterns during social events has proven to be instructive. This study analyzes the geography of crime considering hockey game days, criminal behaviour, and Twitter activity. Specifically, we consider the relationship between geolocated crime-related Twitter activity and crime. We analyze six property crime types that are aggregated to the dissemination area base unit in Vancouver, for two hockey seasons through a game and non-game temporal resolution. Using the same method, geolocated Twitter messages and environmental variables are aggregated to dissemination areas. We employ spatial clustering, dictionary-based mining for tweets, spatial autocorrelation, and global and local regression models (spatial lag and geographically weighted regression). Findings show an important influence of Twitter data for theft-from-vehicle and mischief, mostly on hockey game days. Relationships from the geographically weighted regression models indicate that tweets are a valuable independent variable that can be used in explaining and understanding crime patterns.
The feminist economic geographies of working from home and "digital by default" in Canada before, during, and after COVID-19
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Mining sick: Creatively unsettling normative narratives about industry, environment, extraction, and the health geographies of rural, remote, northern, and Indigenous communities in British Columbia
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Street vendors in Lima in the time of COVID-19: Guilty or oppressed?
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Places of paid work and unpaid work: Caregiving and work-from-home during COVID-19
Eldercare and places of eldercare have been radicalized with the advent of COVID-19. Growing concerns about the safety of long-term care homes, coupled with the continuation of stay-at-home orders, mean that carers are reconstructing new meanings and places of care provision. Increasingly for many Canadians, the home is rapidly becoming the nexus of one's domestic, work, and caregiving world. By interviewing working carers (n = 5) living throughout Canada, this study investigates the changing meanings of home as a place for care during the COVID-19 pandemic. Drawing upon lived experiences of informal carers engaged in the workforce, we observe a blurring of spatial and temporal boundaries between places of work and places of care. Specifically, we note that the integration of carescapes and workscapes into a single domain presents both benefits and tensions to carers, such as increased schedule flexibility and disruptions at work, respectively. Parallel to this, we also explore how previous places of safety and respite, such as independent senior residences and long-term care homes, are perceived as sites of danger and anxiety due to the vulnerability of seniors to COVID-19. This dynamic is likely to continue well into the future, as long-term care homes fall out of favour and carers adopt a more integrated approach to caregiving within their daily lives.
International migration and remittances to a Lebanese village
"A number of hypotheses concerning remittances from foreign emigrants are developed and tested using questionnaire survey data from Lala, a Lebanese village. According to the theory, a rural family engages in an implicit insurance-type contract with the potential migrant because both are averse to risk.... Results from testing the hypotheses are somewhat consistent with the proposition that, after a period of adjustment, migrants do begin to remit, thereby providing their families with an insurance against the uncertainties of life in the country of origin. However, the level of remittances does not appear to depend on the potential to inherit from a family's wealth. Moreover, families do not seem to invest in their migrants so as to improve their farm lands and to undertake risky agricultural techniques. The long-term remittance commitment of migrants to their residual families suggests that migrants' altruism may be a more significant motivating factor than self-interest." (SUMMARY IN FRE)
Return and onward migrations in Canada, 1976-1981: an explanation based on personal and ecological variables
"This paper applies a three-level nested logit model to the micro data of the 1981 Canadian census to explain the 1976-81 interprovincial migration choices of the non-natives (those whose province of residence was different from province of birth), aged 20 to 44, by personal factors and provincial attributes. Important personal factors include mother tongue, level of education, family type, and age. Influential provincial attributes include economic variables (income level, employment growth, and unemployment), distance, and cultural similarity. The main finding is that not only onward migrants but also return migrants were sensitive to the interprovincial variation in economic opportunities." (SUMMARY IN FRE)
ASSESSING THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN PHYSICIAN AVAILABILITY AND VIRAL LOAD SUPPRESSION IN BRITISH COLUMBIA
In 2014, the Joint United Nations Programme HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) set the target of dramatically reducing the burden of HIV through expansion of access to timely HIV treatment. In order to achieve this target it is necessary to expand access to care along the HIV cascade of care. This study examines the relationship between viral suppression and the availability of physicians providing HIV treatment in British Columbia, Canada.
Reimagining GIScience for relational spaces
A mismatch between largely absolute Newtonian models of space in GIScience and the relational spaces of critical human geography has contributed to mutual disinterest between the fields. Critical GIS has offered an intellectual critique of GIScience without substantially altering how particular key geographical concepts are expressed in data structures. Although keystone ideas in GIScience such as Tobler's "First Law" and the modifiable areal unit problem speak to enduring concerns of human geography, they have drawn little interest from that field. Here, we suggest one way to reformulate the computational approach to the region for relational space, so that regions emerge not through proximity in an absolute space or similarities in intensive properties, but according to their similarities in relations. We show how this might operate theoretically and empirically, working through three illustrative examples. Our approach gestures toward reformulating key terms in GIScience like distance, proximity, networks, and spatial building blocks such as the polygon. Re-engaging the challenges of representing geographical concepts computationally can yield new kinds of GIS and GIScience resonant with theoretical ideas in human geography, and also lead to critical human geographic practices less antagonistic to computation.
Domesticating dialysis: A feminist political economy analysis of informal renal care in rural British Columbia
Drawing from a case study in rural British Columbia, this article examines the experiences of individuals providing unpaid care for family members on hemodialysis and how these experiences fit within larger political and socio-economic policy contexts. We suggest that the current shift towards home-based renal care, the "domestication of dialysis," reflects a broader trend toward a reduction of public health services, assumptions about the feasibility of unpaid care work in rural settings, and an increasing reliance on individuals-rather than the state-to support dependency and produce healthy citizens. This article confirms the challenges that come with providing daily care to a family member with a chronic disease and the gendered nature of unpaid care work. It also extends discussions of unpaid care to include how these challenges can be applied to renal care and complicated by rural residence.