A national study of Indigenous youth homelessness in Canada.

OBJECTIVE: This study was designed to address the need for more detailed information about Indigenous homeless youth, a group overrepresented in the homeless population, using a national-level data set. STUDY DESIGN: The study used a cross-sectional, self-report survey design. METHODS: Surveys were used to gather demographic, mental health, and quality of life data from a sample of 1103 Canadian youth accessing homeless services with data collected in 2015. This article focused on the 332 Indigenous respondents, using both comparisons with non-Indigenous youth and within-group comparisons across key domains. RESULTS: These findings suggested greater mental health and addiction challenges among Indigenous homeless youth compared with non-Indigenous respondents as well as evidence of a more problematic role of child protection. Within-group comparisons suggested that female and sexual and gender minority youth are particularly at risk among Indigenous youth with some added child protection and justice implications for reserve-raised youth. Child protection history and street-victimization were particularly relevant to the current distress levels. CONCLUSION: Overall, such findings reinforce calls for Indigenous-specific interventions for these populations-including policy-driven prevention initiatives to address the legacy of colonization.

Analysis of factors related to illegal tobacco sales to young people in Ontario.

OBJECTIVE: To identify and to discuss factors influencing illegal merchant sales of tobacco to underage people in Ontario, Canada. DESIGN: Results were obtained through random retail compliance checks of tobacco merchants. A multivariate analysis specified the relationship between selected independent variables and the willingness of tobacco merchants to sell to minors. The selected independent variables included retail operation type, community population size, the presence of tobacco production, signage, sex and age of volunteers, smoking prevalence rates, and enforcement rates. PARTICIPANTS: A random, stratified sample of 438 tobacco retailers in 186 communities in Ontario. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE: Willingness of merchants to sell tobacco to minors. RESULTS: Older youths and girls were more likely to be sold tobacco products. Purchase attempts carried out in tobacco-producing regions were also statistically related to illegal sales. CONCLUSIONS: Policy efforts to control youth access to tobacco in Canada may need to invoke legislation requiring merchants to request proper identification from customers who appear to be under the age of 25, and who seek to purchase tobacco products. Further attention could also be directed at tobacco control policies and enforcement strategies that need to consider the unique challenges faced by jurisdictions where the tobacco industry is a powerful presence.

Increased accuracy and speed of absorption cytometric DNA measurements by automatic corrections for nuclear darkness.

We have developed a method of calculating the average local absorbance (ALA) of a nucleus from the integrated nuclear absorbance and area. One can use the ALA, along with nuclear areas measured at different point absorbance thresholds, to determine whether a nucleus is stained too lightly or too darkly for accurate absorption measurements; this allows selection of an optimal light wavelength for the performance of these measurements. The ALA can also be used for automatic and instantaneous correction of integrated absorbance values from darkly stained cells. This allows the rapid measurement of the integrated absorbances of a large number of nuclei that are heterogeneous in stain intensity. Coefficients of variation of approximately 3% are obtained for the integrated absorbances of nuclei of nontransformed G0/G1 cells. This correction method can be applied with any image densitometer that generates both integrated absorbance and area values.