BACKGROUND Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the third most commonly diagnosed cancer in Canada and accounts for 11.9% of all cancer-related mortality. Fortunately, previous studies have provided evidence of improved outcomes from access to timely and appropriate health services along the disease trajectory in CRC. As a result, the CIHR/CCNS Team in Access to Colorectal Cancer Services in Nova Scotia ...

Fuzzy logic and linear programming find optimal solutions for meteorological problems, term paper for Fuzzy Logic course at Technical University of Nova Scotia.

BACKGROUND With the goal of preventing open neural tube defects (NTDs), recommendations for folic acid supplementation before conception were introduced in Canada in 1994, and by November 1998 Canadian grain products were being fortified with folic acid. We wished to determine whether the annual incidence of open NTDs in Nova Scotia, including those in stillbirths and terminated pregnancies, ch...

OBJECTIVE Public health policies promote healthy nutrition but evaluations of children's adherence to dietary recommendations and studies of risk factors of poor nutrition are scarce, despite the importance of diet for the temporal increase in the prevalence of childhood obesity. Here we examine dietary intake and risk factors for poor diet quality among children in Nova Scotia to provide direc...

BACKGROUND After a diagnosis of lung carcinoma, survival is poor for all patients. We sought to assess 10-year survival and predictors of outcome after surgery for lung cancer in Nova Scotia. METHODS We identified all patients n = 130) undergoing resection for lung cancer in Nova Scotia in 1994 from the Nova Scotia Cancer Registry and hospital charts and followed them prospectively for 10 yea...

BACKGROUND Black Canadian youth remain disproportionally affected by an array of social and health issues, including sexually transmitted infections. While research exists in support of the involvement of parents as a key means to prevent or modify harmful behaviours among youth, less is known about how parent-child communication can serve as a prevention intervention strategy within Black fami...

BACKGROUND Paracetamol (acetaminophen) is generally considered a safe medication, but is associated with hepatotoxicity at doses above doses of 4.0 g/day, and even below this daily dose in certain populations. METHODS The Nova Scotia Prescription Monitoring Program (NSPMP) in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia is a legislated organization that collects dispensing information on all out-of-h...

Protozoa, such as Cryptosporidium parvum and Giardia lamblia, pose a human health risk when present in drinking water. To minimize health risks, the Nova Scotia Treatment Standards for surface water and groundwater under the direct influence of surface water require a 3-log reduction for Giardia cysts and Cryptosporidium oocysts. This study determined the protozoan risk of municipal surface sou...

Background. Norovirus is the leading cause of viral gastroenteritis, with GII.4 being the most common circulating genotype. Recently, outbreaks in China revealed that norovirus GII.17 GII.P17 had become predominant. Objective. This study aimed to characterize the distribution of norovirus genotypes circulating in Nova Scotia. Methods. Stool specimens were collected from gastrointestinal outbrea...

In the early spring of 2014, an unusually large amount of sea ice drifted from the Gulf of St. Lawrence, where it had been produced, towards the open Atlantic Ocean through the Cabot Strait, between Nova Scotia and Newfoundland, Canada. In early April, significant amounts of drift ice reached the Atlantic coast of mainland Nova Scotia. The ice floes persisted in those coastal waters for up to 1...