Publications

These publications are examples of research made possible with data from CanPath and its regional cohorts.

2014

Geostatistical modelling of arsenic in drinking water wells and related toenail arsenic concentrations across Nova Scotia, Canada.

Authors: Trevor Dummer, Z.M. Yu, L. Nauta., J.D. Murimboh, L. Parker

This paper looked at the spatial variation of toenail arsenic concentration, they found that because of geological and environmental contaminants in well water there are higher levels of arsenic concentraion in human bodies.

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2014

Genetically encoded impairment of neuronal KCC2 cotransporter function in human idiopathic generalized epilepsy

Authors: Kristopher Kahle, Nancy Merner, Perrine Friedel, Liliya Silayeva, Bo Liang, Arjun Khanna, Yuze Shang, Pamela LaChance-Touchette, Cynthia Bourassa, Annie Levert, Patrick Dion, Brian Walcott, Dan Spiegelman, Alexandre Dionne-Laporte, Alan Hodgkinson, Philip Awadalla, Hamid Nikbakht, Jacek Majewski, Patrick Cossette, Tarek Deeb, Stephen Moss, Igor Medina, Guy Rouleau

These data describe a novel KCC2 variant significantly associated with a human disease and suggest genetically encoded impairment of KCC2 functional regulation may be a risk factor for the development of human IGE.

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2014

High-Resolution Genomic Analysis of Human Mitochondrial RNA Sequence Variation

Authors: Alan Hodgkinson, Youssef Idaghdour, Elias Gbeha, Jean-Christophe Grenier, Eloide Hip-Ki, Vanessa Bruat, Jean-Philippe Goulet, Thibault de Malliard, Philip Awadalla

The researchers sequenced ~1000 individuals mitochondrial RNA and a significant variation of sequences that show patterns of posttranscriptional modication. CARTaGENE samples were used to identify this information.

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2014

What is the role of obesity in the aetiology of arsenic-related disease?

Authors: Zhijie M.Yu BryanFung John D.Murimboh LouiseParker Trevor J.B.Dummer

They took a large number of samples from people in Nova Scotia and determined that those who were obese had lower levels of arsenic concentrations in their bodies. The samples were taken from 960 people aged 35-60 between 2009-2010. Dietary patterns were also assessed along with drinking water.

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2014

Understanding the translation of scientific knowledge about arsenic risk exposure among private well water users in Nova Scotia

Authors: Heather Chappells, Norma Campbell, John Drage, Conrad Fernandez, Louise Parker, Trevor Dummer

This article explored the knowledge of arsenic risk exposure among a well users in 5 areas of Nova Scotia assessed to be at risk of arsenic occurrence in groundwater. The risk ranged from low-high and was assessed over time. It was found that more women were at risk, where 71% of affected well-users were women. About 74% had a really good knowledge of the well water. A fair number of these people use their water as their drinking and 33% seemed confident the water was safe to drink.

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2014

Intrapersonal and social environment correlates of leisure-time physical activity for cancer prevention: a cross-sectional study among Canadian adults.

Authors: Fabiola Aparicio-Ting, Christine Friedenreich, Karen Kopciuk, Ronald Plotnikoff, Heather Bryant

This study looked at physical activity and cancer prevention . The study team used self-administered questionnares and monitored how much exercise each test subject got. The were able to determine that adults do not really get enough exercise for cancer risk reduction.

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2014

Prevalence, Awareness, and Management of CKD and Cardiovascular Risk Factors in Publicly Funded Health Care

Authors: Jacobien C. Verhave, Stéphan Troyanov, Frédéric Mongeau, Lorraine Fradette, Josée Bouchard, Philip Awadalla and François Madore

The CARTaGENE study evaluated BP, lipid, and diabetes profiles as well as various treatments over 20,000 random individuals between ages 40-69. Many patiens were not aware of their health conditions or how best to achieve their targets to achieve better health. Study concluded that self-awareness is quite low.

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2013

Relationship between drinking water and toenail arsenic concentrations among a cohort of Nova Scotians

Authors: Zhijie Yu, Trevor Dummer, Aimee Adams, John Murimboh, Lousie Parker

They evaluated the relationship between arsenic concentrations in drinking water and toenail clippings among a cohort of Nova Scotians. A total of 960 men and women aged 35 to 69 years provided home drinking water and toenail clipping sample. They determined that those who were obese had lower concentrations of arsenic in their bodies than those in normal weight ranges.

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2013

Cognitive Testing of the STAR-Q: Insights in Activity and Sedentary Time Reporting

Authors: H Neilson, R. Ullman, P Robson, C. Friedenreich., I Csizmadi

STAR-Q is essentially a questionnare that determines how to assess overall activity/sedendary behaviour. The reason for this study was that they wanted to see how active people are. Participants from the Alberta Tomorrow Project were used.

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2013

Whole-Exome Sequencing Reveals a Rapid Change in the Frequency of Rare Functional Variants in a Founding Population of Humans

Authors: Ferran Casals ,Alan Hodgkinson ,Julie Hussin,Youssef Idaghdour,Vanessa Bruat,Thibault de Maillard,Jean-Cristophe Grenier,Elias Gbeha,Fadi F. Hamdan,Simon Girard,Jean-François Spinella,Mathieu Larivière,Virginie Saillour,Philip Awadalla

This study indicated that French populations contain a larger proportion of putatively damaging functional variants which could explain incidence of genetic disease in the province. There is a need for deep cataloguing of genetic variants by rescheduling worldwide human populations in order to truly assess disease risk.

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