Metropolitan Area Of Montreal Research Articles

Influence of local versus national datasets on seismic loss estimates: A case study for residential buildings in the metropolitan area of Montreal, Canada

Assessing seismic losses requires information on ground shaking levels, a comprehensive inventory of elements at risk and their asset values to evaluate repair/reconstruction costs. The uncertainties associated with these parameters are often significant and the available data are often incomplete. This study aims to assess the value and utility of detailed data in refining seismic risk estimates. Over several years, detailed site conditions and residential exposure datasets were compiled for Greater Montreal. These models were used to estimate building damage and associated losses for various seismic scenarios. Recently, Natural Resources Canada developed a national exposure model to provide a National Earthquake Risk Profile using data derived from existing sources such as topographic maps and census data. This paper compares seismic loss projections for residential buildings using the local dataset as a baseline with those from the national model using OpenQuake and the latest Seismic Hazard Model. The local site model is based on in situ data and site measurements, while the global, proxy-based model relies on USGS correlations between slope topography and site classification. Results show that the global model overestimates seismic hazards, resulting in 30% higher residential losses than the local model. Absolute losses are increased by a factor of 3.6–5.6 depending on the building classification when using the national exposure model compared to the local inventory while relative losses are increased by a factor of 1.1–1.5. These results emphasize the need to develop detailed seismic risk assessment databases for accurate risk assessments, and for selecting appropriate risk reduction measures.

Positive Correlation between DYFI Intensity Data and Microzonation Site Classes for Ottawa, Quebec City, and the Metropolitan Area of Montreal

Abstract At the local scale, seismic risk is often poorly estimated when considering equal hazard values across any given community. Indeed, past damaging earthquakes have shown that site conditions, which may amplify or deamplify ground shaking, have an influence on the spatial distribution of damage in urban areas. In eastern Canada, Leda clay deposits from the old Champlain Sea are of particular concern for strong site effects in many parts of Quebec and Ontario. To capture the variability in seismic site response, microzonation maps characterizing average shear wave velocity for the upper 30 m of soil, and predominant resonance frequency have been developed for Montreal, Ottawa, and Quebec City. The maps derived from seismic and borehole measurements have been used to develop shake map scenarios but have not been validated, because there have not been any significantly large, close earthquakes in recent years, and because the seismograph network coverage is not adequate to provide a detailed picture of variations in shaking across a city. Nevertheless, all the three cities are in or near active seismic zones, and felt reports, although less accurate than instrumental data, are numerous and provide a dense dataset showing relative shaking levels across a region. Using intensity data for several moderate earthquakes collected largely via the Canadian internet “Did You Feel It?” page, we systematically compare reported shaking levels to soil conditions indicated by the microzonation maps. This study shows a clear correlation between high-reported intensities and soft soils for Montreal where the number of observations is the largest. The results suggest that intensity data collected via the internet and social media could provide a viable method for validating microzonation maps and shaking scenarios.

Home-grown food: How do urban form, socio-economic status, and ethnicity influence food gardens in Montreal?

• We map residential food gardens at the lot level in the metropolitan area of Montreal, using visual interpretation of images. • We find nearly 7,500 gardens with important spatial clusters, representing 5%–13% of residential lots. • The number of gardens is significantly associated with urban form variables (density, single-family houses). • The number of gardens is higher in zones with more low-income households, more children, and fewer university degree holders. • Gardens are more numerous in zones with higher concentrations of Southern European and South Asian immigrants . • Policy of residential urban agriculture should be adaptive to this diversity of gardeners .

Prehabilitation in Thoracic Cancer Surgery: From Research to Standard of Care

To determine whether personalized, stepped prehabilitation care is a feasible, safe, and effective implementation strategy. Quality improvement project. Data collected prospectively from August 2018 to December 2019 were analyzed retrospectively to describe the clinical implementation of a prehabilitation care program for elective lung cancer surgery. Single center, tertiary university hospital. Eighty-one consecutive adult patients living in the metropolitan area of Montreal were included if an elective resection of suspected or confirmed lung cancer was planned. At the earliest contemplation of surgery, the whole cohort was screened for impaired physical, nutritional, and/or psychological status. Patients screened at higher risk received dedicated assessmentand personalized prehabilitation care upon specific needs. Patients' specific needs and their access and flow through the different services were described. Prehabilitation effectiveness was evaluated using walking and exercise tests, and adverse events were monitored. Eighty-one patients were screened for functional impairments. Forty patients showed reduction of physical function, seven of them refused the specific assessment, one refused in-hospital exercise; 48 patients showed nutritional risk, eight of them refused or did not comply with nutritional therapy. Overall, 45 high-risk patients received a one-month personalized prehabilitation program: 16 partook in a trimodal program (exercise, nutrition, and psychological), and 22 received a program with both nutrition and exercise. No adverse events occurred during the study period. After prehabilitation, six-minute waking distance improved by 29.9 meters (standard deviation 47.3 m) (n = 35; p = 0.001) and the oxygen uptake at the anaerobic threshold improved by 1.6 (1.7) mL/kg/min (n = 13; p = 0.004). Length of hospital stay was two (interquartile range one-four) days in prehabilitated patients versus three (two-seven) days in the usual care group (p = 0.101). A personalized, stepped prehabilitation program targeting high-risk patients undergoing elective lung cancer surgery was feasible, safe, and effective.

Correlating DYFI Data With Seismic Microzonation in the Region of Montreal

The Western Quebec seismic zone has moderate seismic activity with few historical damaging earthquakes. Nevertheless, recent risk analyses have shown that the combination of a high level of urbanization with soft soil deposits in the metropolitan area of Montreal could lead to significant damage and economic losses. Over the two decades, several projects have been completed to develop a seismic microzonation to identify zones where seismic waves could be amplified. During the same period, Natural Resources Canada developed an internet application to collect reports from the population after an earthquake and to convert them to the Modified Mercalli Intensity scale (MMI). This paper presents a first comparison of the MMI data compiled after eight recent earthquakes felt in Montreal area with the existing zonation in terms of soil classes. It shows that the MMI from individual reports increases when the observer is located in a soft soil zone. Statistics on average MMI over a regular grid confirms this trend. The numerous reports collected through the internet application, and future applications based on data collected from social media, could become a very useful source of information to complement seismic field measurements when developing and validating seismic microzonation maps.

0161 Greater Negative Affectivity Predicts Shorter Infant Sleep Duration

Abstract Introduction Certain temperament characteristics in infants have been shown to be associated with infant sleep patterns. However, other sleep-related practices, such as co-sleeping and breastfeeding, are also known to be associated with sleep in infancy and are not always taken into account in studies assessing the association between temperament and sleep. Thus, this study aims to examine the associations between infant temperament and sleep parameters at six months of age, while controlling for co-sleeping and breastfeeding practices. Methods Mother-infant dyads (n=60) were recruited in the metropolitan Montreal area and consented to participate in the study. Infant sleep was reported by mothers at six months of age (±1 month) using sleep diaries (two-week period). Total nocturnal and longest consecutive sleep duration were retrieved from the diaries and averaged through the two-week period. Temperament was measured with the Infant Behaviour Questionnaire-Revised (IBQ-R). Sleep-related parental practices (co-sleeping and breastfeeding) were measured using the Sleep Practices Questionnaire (SPQ). Multiple regression analyses were conducted to determine the degree to which the temperament composite negative affectivity predicted total nocturnal and longest consecutive sleep duration while controlling for breastfeeding and co-sleeping practices. Results Regression analyses revealed significant regression models for total nocturnal (F(3,44)=6.25, p=.001, R2=.30), and longest consecutive sleep duration (F(3,44)=6.26, p=.001, R2=.30). Greater infant negative affectivity predicted shorter nocturnal sleep duration (β;;=-0.28, p=.034) and shorter longest consecutive sleep duration (β;;=-0.34, p=.010) after adjusting for breastfeeding and co-sleeping practices. Conclusion Findings suggest infants with greater negative affectivity sleep for fewer hours during the night and have shorter periods of consecutive sleep, even when sleep-related parental practices are considered. These results provide further support for the relationship between infant temperament and sleep at six months of age. Future research should investigate the relationship between infant temperament and sleep using paternal report in addition to maternal report. Support SSHRC

Uncovering social and psychosocial health factors through participatory qualitative research with low-income adults in a suburb of Montreal, Quebec

ObjectivesThe association between social status and health is well established, but the psychosocial factors and mechanisms underlying this association are not fully understood. This study aims to identify and describe...

An Area-Level Indicator of Latent Soda Demand: Spatial Statistical Modeling of Grocery Store Transaction Data to Characterize the Nutritional Landscape in Montreal, Canada.

Measurement of neighborhood dietary patterns at high spatial resolution allows public health agencies to identify and monitor communities with an elevated risk of nutrition-related chronic diseases. Currently, data on diet are obtained primarily through nutrition surveys, which produce measurements at low spatial resolutions. The availability of store-level grocery transaction data provides an opportunity to refine the measurement of neighborhood dietary patterns. We used these data to develop an indicator of area-level latent demand for soda in the Census Metropolitan Area of Montreal in 2012 by applying a hierarchical Bayesian spatial model to data on soda sales from 1,097 chain retail food outlets. The utility of the indicator of latent soda demand was evaluated by assessing its association with the neighborhood relative risk of prevalent type 2 diabetes mellitus. The indicator improved the fit of the disease-mapping model (deviance information criterion: 2,140 with the indicator and 2,148 without) and enables a novel approach to nutrition surveillance.

Spatial modeling of daily concentrations of ground-level ozone in Montreal, Canada: A comparison of geostatistical approaches

Ground-level ozone (O3) is a powerful oxidizing agent and a harmful pollutant affecting human health, forests and crops. Estimating O3 exposure is a challenge because it exhibits complex spatiotemporal patterns. The aim in this study was to provide high-resolution maps (100 × 100 m) of O3 for the metropolitan area of Montreal, Canada. We assessed the kriging with external drift (KED) model to estimate O3 concentration by synoptic weather classes for 2010. We compared these results with ordinary kriging (OK), and a simple average of 12 monitoring stations. We also compared the estimates obtained for the 2010 summer with those from a Bayesian maximum entropy (BME) model reported in the literature (Adam-Poupart et al., 2014). The KED model with road and vegetation density as covariates showed good performance for all six synoptic classes (daily R2 estimates ranging from 0.77 to 0.92 and RMSE from 2.79 to 3.37 ppb). For the summer of 2010, the model using KED demonstrated the best results (R2 = 0.92; RMSE = 3.14 ppb), followed by the OK model (R2 = 0.85, RMSE = 4 ppb). Our results showed that errors appear to be substantially reduced with the KED model. This may increase our capacity of linking O3 levels to health problems by means of improved assessments of ambient exposures. However, future work integrating the temporal dependency in the data is needed to not overstate the performance of the KED model.

Estimating spatial patterning of dietary behaviors using grocery transaction data

ObjectiveTo demonstrate a method for estimating neighborhood foodselection with secondary use of digital marketing data; grocerytransaction records and retail business registry.IntroductionUnhealthy diet is becoming the most important preventablecause of chronic disease burden (1). Dietary patterns vary acrossneighborhoods as a function of policy, marketing, social support,economy, and the commercial food environment (2). Assessmentof community-specific response to these socio-ecological factorsis critical for the development and evaluation policy interventionsand identification of nutrition inequality. Mass administration ofdietary surveys is impractical and prohibitory expensive, and surveystypically fail to address variation of food selection at high geographicresolution. Marketing companies such as the Nielsen cooperationcontinuously collect and centralize scanned grocery transactionrecords from a geographically representative sample of retail foodoutlets to guide product promotions. These data can be harnessed todevelop a model for the demand of specific foods using store andneighborhood attributes, providing a rich and detailed picture of the“foodscape” in an urban environment. In this study, we generated aspatial profile of food selection from estimated sales in food outletsin the Census Metropolitan Area (CMA) of Montreal, Canada,using regular carbonated soft drinks (i.e. non-diet soda) as an initialexample.MethodsFrom the Nielsen cooperation, we obtained weekly grocerytransaction data generated by a sample of 86 grocery stores and 42pharmacies in the Montreal CMA in 2012. Extracted store-specificsoda sales were standardized to a single serving size (240ml) andaveraged across 52 weeks, resulting in 128 data points. Using linearregression, natural log-transformed soda sales were modelled as afunction of store type (grocery vs. pharmacies), chain identificationcode and socio-demographic attributes of store neighborhood, whichare median family income, proportion of individuals who receivedpost-secondary diplomas, and population density as measured by the2011 Canadian Household Survey. Selection of the predictors andfirst-order interaction terms was guided by the minimization of themean squared error using 10-fold cross-validation. The final modelwas applied to all operating chain grocery stores and pharmacies in2012 (n=980) recorded in a comprehensive and commonly availablebusiness establishment database. The resulting predicted store-specific weekly average soda sales was spatially interpolated toprovide a graphical representation of the soda sales (representing anunhealthy foodscape) across the Montreal CMA.ResultsFigure 2 demonstrates the spatial distribution of the predicted sodasales in the Montreal CMA.ConclusionsThe current lack of neighborhood-level dietary surveillanceimpedes effective public health actions aimed at encouraging healthyfood selection and subsequent reduction of chronic illness. Ourmethod leverages existing grocery transaction data and store locationinformation to address the gap in population monitoring of nutritionstatus and urban foodscapes. Future applications of our methodologyto other store types (e.g. convenience stores) and food productsacross multiple time points (e.g. mouths and years) will permit acomprehensive, timely and automated assessment of dietary trends,identification of neighborhoods in special dietary needs, developmentof tailored community health promotions, and the measurement ofneighbourhood-specific response to nutrition policies and unhealthyfood advertising.

Does the effect of walkable built environments vary by neighborhood socioeconomic status?

ObjectiveTo examine socioeconomic status as a moderator of the relationship between the built environment and active transportation such as walking or cycling using measures of built environment exposure derived from individuals transport trips. MethodsThe 2008 Montreal Origin–destination (OD) survey provided origin–destination coordinates for a sample of 156,700 participants. We selected participants from this survey that had traveled within the census metropolitan area of Montreal the day preceding the interview, and that were between 18–65years of age. Measures of connectivity, land-use mix, and density of business and services were collected using 400-m buffers of the trip routes. Logistic regression was used to model the relationship between built environment variables and active transportation. ResultsTrip routes in the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th quartile of density of business and services or connectivity translated into greater odds of taking AT (compared to a trip in the lowest quartile). Trip routes in the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th quartile of land-use mix translated into lower odds of taking AT. Trips in the highest quartiles of connectivity and density of business and services were found to have a weaker association with active transportation if the individual undergoing the trip was from a low SES neighborhood. ConclusionOur results suggest that previous studies finding no effect modification may have been due to the limitation of measurements of exposures to the residential neighborhood.

Les Québécois perçoivent-ils le français montréalais comme une variete topolectale distincte ? Résultats d’une analyse perceptuelle exploratoire

AbstractGiven its status as the social, economic, and cultural center of Quebec, the metropolitan area of Montreal plays a rather important role with respect to the sociolinguistic dynamics of the province as a whole. For instance, certain changes that have affected Quebec French over time are believed to have appeared in Montreal before having spread to other regions of the province. Such a scenario entails that Quebeckers perceive certain linguistic features as being part of Montreal French — sometimes without even being aware of it — and that these dialect markers take on social values that are prone to their further diffusion. This article aims to look further into this hypothesis by presenting the results of an exploratory dialect identification task. The perceptual test is part of a research program whose scope is to study the distribution of nasal vowels in Montreal French in general and that of the nasal vowel /ã/ in particular.

Geographical variation of Crohn's disease residual incidence in the Province of Quebec, Canada

BackgroundCrohn's disease (CD) is clinically expressed as a chronic affection of the gastrointestinal tract currently known to have a multifactorial etiology involving a complex pathophysiological host response modulated by genetic susceptibilities, demographic determinants and environmental factors. With more than 20 cases per 100,000 person-years, the province of Quebec, Canada is among regions of the world with highest reported occurrence of CD in relation to other places where comparable estimates are available. This ecological study was designed to provide a medium-scale spatial exploration of CD incidence after accounting for the influence of known population and regional determinants. Health records of consulting patients in southern Quebec were compiled from 1995 to 2000 and used to estimate age and sex standardized rates per health area (n = 156). Various statistical models taking into account the regional effect of Jewish ethnicity, aboriginal ancestry, material deprivation, prescription for oral contraceptives, reportable enteric infection incidence, smoking as well as latitude and longitude locations were fitted.ResultsThe final regression model presented a coefficient of determination of 22.8% and there was evidence of an eastern trend in the residual incidence (p = 0.018). Overall, the smoothed residual incidence presented a heterogeneous spatial pattern with evidence of patches (multiple health areas) of high, low and contrasting values. Health areas with most extreme incidence residuals where also distributed over the whole province including one area in the metropolitan area of Montreal and others in surrounding areas.ConclusionsThese findings suggest that known populational and regional factors derived through census information only explain a limited fraction of the geographical variation of CD incidence and lead to speculate that the effects of these factors may be incompletely captured (imperfect construction of proxy variables) or that other important factors remain unmeasured. In this view, markers of genetic profiles of homogeneous sub-populations, and other factors linked to agroenvironmental microbial exposure should be further investigated. Once accounting for known factors, it would also be worth comparing adjacent geographical areas demonstrating abrupt changes in residual incidence rates to further explore effect linked to regional factors from those resulting from various reporting systems.

Conformity of commercial oral single solid unit dose packages in hospital pharmacy practice

There are limited published data on the labelling of single unit dose packages in hospitals. The study was conducted in three large hospitals (two adult and one paediatric) in the metropolitan Montreal area, Quebec, Canada. The objective is to evaluate the labelling of commercial oral single solid unit dose packages available in Canadian urban hospital pharmacy practice. The study endpoint was the labelling conformity of each unit dose package for each criterion and overall for each manufacturer. Complete labelling of unit dose packages should include the following information: (1) brand name, (2) international non-proprietary name or generic name, (3) dosage, (4) pharmaceutical form, (5) manufacturer's name, (6) expiry date, (7) batch number and (8) drug identification number. We also evaluated the ease with which a single unit dose package is detached from a multiple unit dose package for quick, easy and safe use by pharmacy staff. Conformity levels were compared between brand-name and generic packages. A total of 124 different unit dose packages were evaluated. The level of conformity of each criterion varied between 19 and 50%. Only 43% of unit dose packages provided an easy-to-detach system for single doses. Among the 14 manufacturers with three or more unit dose packages evaluated, eight (57%) had a conformity level less than 50%. This study describes the conformity of commercial oral single solid unit dose packages in hospital pharmacy practice in Quebec. A large proportion of unit dose packages do not conform to a set of nine criteria set out in the guidelines of the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists and the Canadian Society of Hospital Pharmacists.

Le comportement démographique des groupes linguistiques à Montréal

The author examines trends in fertility, internal migration, and mortality among the principal linguistic groups in Montreal, Canada. "Certain non-negligible disparities exist in demographic behaviour of linguistic groups on the Montreal and Jesus Islands. On the other hand, in the rest of the metropolitan Montreal area, linguistic disparities in demographic behaviour are noticeably smaller: the three groups have the same fertility level and the same propensity to migrate; only differentials in mortality can be observed. The natural growth rate of francophones on the Island of Montreal was (in 1985-1987) slightly inferior to that of the other two groups, but in the metropolitan region it was superior. On the whole however, taking into account internal migration, the group of francophones of the Islands of Montreal and Jesus had the highest growth rate and the anglophone group the lowest rate (in fact negative)." (SUMMARY IN ENG AND SPA)

Evaluating three trace metal contaminated sites: a field and laboratory investigation

Selecting guidelines to evaluate elevated metals in urban brownfields is hindered by the lack of information for these sites on ecosystem structure and function. A study was performed to compare three trace metal-contaminated sites in the metropolitan Montreal area. The goal was to obtain an idea of the organisms that may be present on urban brownfields and to measure if elevated metals alter the presence and activity of the indigenous biota. Field and laboratory studies were conducted using simple methodologies to determine the extent to which microbial activity affected by trace metal content, to assess diversity of plant and soil invertebrate communities and to measure phytoaccumulation of trace metals. It was found that microbial activity, as measured by substrate-induced respiration (SIR) and nitrification, was not affected by the levels of soil Cd, Cu, Ni, Pb and Zn recorded on the sites. Seven of the 12 invertebrate groups collected were sampled on soils with similar Cd, Cu, Ni, Pb and Zn concentrations. Diversity of plant species increased as a function of the length of time the sites had been inactive. Levels of metals in plant tissue were influenced by soil characteristics and not by total soil Cd, Cu, Ni, Pb and Zn.

Psychotropic medication and insomnia complaints in two epidemiological studies.

This study compared prescribed psychotropic medication patterns for reported sleep disorders in French and Quebec samples. The first study was undertaken in France (N = 5622) and the second in the metropolitan area of Montreal (N = 1722). Lay interviewers used a specialized knowledge-based system for the purpose of evaluating sleep disorders by telephone. Results showed similar prevalence of insomnia complaints in both samples (20.1% and 17.8%, respectively). A higher level of psychotropic consumption was found in France (11.7% [95% confidence interval (CI), 10.9 to 12.5]) compared with Quebec, however, where consumption was less than half the French rate (5.5% [95% CI, 4.4 to 6.6]). Both studies identified females and the elderly as the primary consumers of these drugs. For approximately two-thirds of both samples, sleep-promoting medications were prescribed for a year or longer, revealing a chronicity of the consumption. Approximately 4 out of 5 prescriptions for sleeping medications were ordered by general practitioners in both samples. These findings clearly show a higher prevalence of psychotropic drug use in the French compared with the Quebec population. The patterns of consumption and prescription, however, are quite similar in both studies.

Insomnia and psychotropic drug consumption

1. 1. During an epidemiological study conducted by telephone on sleep disorders in the metropolitan area of Montreal (Quebec, Canada), the authors found that 5% of subjects used psychotropic drugs. These drugs were usually prescribed by a general practitioner (72.9%). 2. 2. From this population, the authors drew three groups of subjects: users with sleeping difficulties (USD); non users with sleeping difficulties (NUSD) and, non users without sleeping difficulties (NUWSD). 3. 3. Results showed that the utilization of psychotropics was usually chronic and more frequent among the elderly and women. 4. 4. In multivariate models, when users were compared to NUWSD, the authors found eight variables significantly associated with psychotropic consumption: age ( ≥ 55), sex (female), presence of physical illness, medical consultation, dissatisfaction with sleep onset period and sleep quantity, sleep onset period greater than 15 minutes, and to never or rarely dream. 5. 5. When users were compared to NUSD, three variables were found to be associated with psychotropic consumption: age, to be formerly married, and to experience regular nighttime awakenings. 6. 6. It appears that the utilization of psychotropic drugs does not increase the quality of sleep when consumers are compared to non treated insomniacs (NUSD) on parameters of sleep satisfaction.

L'aide à domicile aux personnes âgées dépendantes de la région de Montréal: analyse secondaire de l'enquête ESLA, 1986–1987

ABSTRACTSecondary analysis of data from the Health and Activity Limitations Survey (HALS) in the metropolitan Montreal area shows that 3.5 out of 10 elderly persons living in a household had a disability. In this descriptive research, we locate the dependency level according to the attributes of the elderly and of their residence. Approximately three out of four elderly with a disability receive help and one out of three are assessed as needing more help. Assistance varies with the person who helps. The family mostly helps for everyday activities, friends for shopping, and private or governmental services for personal care and household tasks. Assistance varies also with the marital status of the elderly person. Finally, the presence of special devices is associated with type of housing.

A randomized clinical trial of negative pressure ventilation in severe chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: Design and methods

This report documents the design and methods of a randomized clinical trial designed to test the effectiveness of home negative pressure ventilation in patients with severe chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Active negative pressure ventilation was compared with a sham version of the treatment after a pre-trial assessment had indicated the feasibility of the latter. Over 1200 patients in the metropolitan Montreal area were screened. Of these, 348 patients were recruited to enter a 4-week stabilization period, and 184 were subsequently randomized to receive either active or sham negative pressure ventilation. A 5-day in-hospital period was used to train patients in ventilator use and obtain baseline measures of exercise capacity, lung function, respiratory symptoms, and quality of life. Home ventilation treatment took place during a following 12-week period. Respirator use was recorded both from patient logs and from concealed meters installed in the units. Patients received four home visits by physiotherapists during the 12-week period and returned for follow-up to the hospital 4 and 12 weeks post-discharge for reassessment.