surg w2012

Studies by Undergraduate Researchers at Guelph

Vol. 5, No. 2, Winter 2012, 2

2

The SURG Team

Editor

Robert Fieldhouse

Associate Editors

Anita Acai

Bethany Philpott

Lee-Anne Huber

Moez Valliani

Assistant Editor

Sara Wilmshurst

Director, Research Communications

Owen Roberts

Project Management

Sara Avoledo

Scholarly Communication Librarians

Jane Burpee

Wayne Johnston

About SURG


(SURG, pronounced "surge") is a refereed, multi-disciplinary

online journal that publishes research and review articles by

University of Guelph undergraduate students. It was

developed through co-operation of the University’s Office of

Research, the McLaughlin Library and the Office of

Graduate Studies. SURG is open-access – available for free

to everyone.

Open Access

This journal provides open access to all of its content

on the principle that making research freely available to the

public supports a greater global exchange of knowledge.

Such access is associated with increased readership and

increased citation of an author's work. For more information

on this approach, see the Public Knowledge Project

(www.pkp.ubc.ca), which has designed this system to

improve the scholarly and public quality of research, and

which freely distributes the journal system as well as other

software to support the open access publishing of scholarly

resources.

Student papers are licensed under a Creative Commons

Attribution-Noncommercial 2.5 Canada License.

Support

SURG recognizes the ongoing support for research

infrastructure -- equipment, materials and personnel -- at the

University of Guelph, from the Natural Sciences and

Engineering Research Council, the Canadian Institutes of

Health Research, the Social Sciences and Humanities

Research Council and the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture,

Food and Rural Affairs, among others.

Call for Papers

Eligibility

Undergraduate students from all disciplines at the

University of Guelph are eligible to submit a paper to SURG.

Most submissions will be based on summer research or

fourth-year research courses. However, we encourage

submissions from all undergraduates engaging in research.

Requirements

SURG accepts both original articles and reviews. All

submissions must be approved by a faculty supervisor.

Please visit our website www.uoguelph.ca/~surg for author

guidelines. Pre-submission inquiries may be sent to

[email protected].

Call for Editorial Staff

SURG is looking for students interested in research and

publishing to volunteer their time as editorial staff. Duties

will include copy editing, layout editing, and assisting with

day-to-day operations of the journal. Requirements include

superior literacy skills and knowledge of Microsoft Office

and/or HTML. Previous research experience is a plus.

Interested students should contact the SURG editorial team.

Contact SURG Editor

Research Communications

Office of Research, Room 437, University Centre

University of Guelph, Guelph, ON

N1G 2W1

www.uoguelph.ca/~surg

[email protected]


Vol. 5, No. 2, Winter 2012, 3

3

Table of Contents

WELCOME

Welcome from the SURG editor ................................................................................................................................................... 4

Robert Fieldhouse

ARTICLES

University students’ propensity towards white-collar versus street crime .................................................................................. 5

Rochelle Watt

The Porfiriato: The stability and growth Mexico needed ......................................................................................................... 13

Travis Lee Evens

Imperial contradictions in Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Sign of Four ....................................................................................... 19

Jennifer Fraser

Land fragmentation in southern Ontario: A spatial tragedy of the anticommons ................................................................... 22

Victoria Robson

Effect of road salt application on soil conductivity in Canmore, Alberta ................................................................................ 28

Michael K. Zima

Cassini- and Catalan-like formulas for polygonal numbers and simplex numbers ................................................................. 37

Thomas Jeffery

REVIEWS

Mobile customer relationship management: Factors affecting consumer mobile technology adoption within the hotel

industry ....................................................................................................................................................................................... 44

Tina Y. T. Chan

Links between food price behaviour and nutrition in the developing world ............................................................................ 51

Bethany Woods

Applications of electrospun nanofibers in the biomedical field ................................................................................................ 63

Nishath Khan

ABSTRACTS

Research highlights from the Ontario Veterinary College summer leadership and research program .................................. 74

SLRP Students


Vol. 5, No. 2, Winter 2012, 4

4

Welcome from the SURG editor

SURG has reached an incredible tenth issue! As always, we continue our tradition of highlighting undergraduate research from

throughout the University of Guelph.

Guelph students have wide-ranging interests, reflected in the diverse selection of topics covered here. You’ll find a study on

the influences of personality on propensity for white-collar vs. street crime, an essay that takes a fresh look at former Mexican

President Porfirio Diaz, an examination of attitudes toward British imperialism through a literary lens, a study of how land

fragmentation in Ontario affects farm and ecosystem productivity, an assessment of salinity in the environment due to road

salting, mathematics that applies the theory of Fibonacci numbers to other number types, a look at mobile technology adoption

within the hotel industry, a review of the link between food price and micronutrient nutrition in the developing world, and even

a look at nanofibers in biomedicine as they relate to tissue engineering, drug delivery and enzyme immobilization.

I’d like to thank the student researchers, faculty supervisors, reviewers, journal advisors and our readers. I’d also particularly

like to thank all members of our editorial team – their exceptional contributions have made SURG stronger than ever. We look

forward to maintaining SURG as the go-to venue for sharing undergraduate research from all disciplines.

Sincerely,

Robert Fieldhouse

Editor-in-Chief


Vol. 5, No. 2, Winter 2012, 5-12

5

University students’ propensity towards

white-collar versus street crime

Rochelle Watt

This study was conducted under the supervision of Professor Carolyn Yule,

Sociology and Anthropology, College of Social and Applied Human Sciences,

University of Guelph

While several traditional criminological theories have been used to explain the causes of white-collar crime, few

research studies have examined the role that personality plays in explaining the causes of these types of crimes.

University students were measured on two personality scales, self-control and desire for control, to determine the

extent to which these factors affect the propensity to commit either street crime or white-collar crime. The findings

indicate that self-control has the most significant effect on offending, but only when students indicated that they were

willing to commit both street crime and white-collar crime. On the other hand, desire for control did not predict a

propensity towards committing either type of crime.

umerous traditional criminological theories have been

used to explain white-collar crimes, which are defined

as “violations of the law committed in the course of a

legitimate occupation or financial pursuit of persons who

hold respected positions in their communities” [1]. The

theories that have been used in explaining these crimes

include rational choice, neutralization, control, and

differential association [2]. In general, offenders are found to

be psychologically stable. Thus, it is believed that if they

possess no psychological defects then there is no need to

examine their personality factors to explain why they commit

crimes. As a result, little theoretical work has been conducted

to examine the effects of personality and an individual’s

traits on white-collar crime [2]. While there has been much

speculation as to which personality factors may predispose

someone to white-collar crime, there have been few recent

studies actually testing any theories. Some theories that have

been proposed describe white-collar criminals as being

charismatic, in need of control, narcissistic, and as lacking

integrity and a social conscience [3]. The question has been

raised, but not completely answered, as to why successful,

respected, and well-educated persons become involved in

corporate and white-collar crimes. Why do these highly

regarded individuals risk their reputations for the possibility

of arrest and conviction?

Traditionally, public attention has focused on

preventing violent crime, while white-collar crime was

considered to be less damaging to society and individuals

[3]. However, empirical evidence showing an increased

willingness to endorse stiffer penalties and greater

enforcement of penalties for white-collar crimes suggests

that public attitudes are changing [3]. This growing concern

speaks to the importance of focusing attention on white-

collar crime and which factors – specifically, which

personality factors – cause individuals to commit these acts.

Research by Weisburd, Wheeler, Wearing, and Bode suggest

that white-collar criminals have no special personality traits,

and argue that these individuals are just ordinary people who

view illegal activity as the most reasonable way out of a

difficult financial situation [4]. So, what is it then that

actually causes white-collar criminals to commit the crimes

they do? This present study will examine two personality

factors, self-control and desire for control, to determine if

they are related to university students’ propensity to commit

white-collar crime or street crime.

WHITE-COLLAR CRIME

The term ‘white-collar crime’ was first introduced by

Edwin Sutherland in 1939, offering professionals a new

understanding of the relationship between business and crime

[3]. White-collar crime has been criticized for encompassing

too much diverse and unrelated behaviour [1]. For example,

there are organizational crimes that are committed with

support from the organization with the goal of furthering its

own ends, and then there are occupational crimes that are

committed by individuals with the goal of personal gain [1].

Although white-collar activities cover a wide range of

behaviours, Coleman believes that they share many

similarities and should be treated as a single concept in

research studies and analyses [1]. As stated previously, a

white-collar offence occurs when a person of a high

occupational status commits an illegal act in the course of his

or her professional activity. The goal of a large majority of

N

Watt Studies by Undergraduate Researchers at Guelph

Vol. 5, No. 2, Winter 2012, 5-12

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white-collar criminals is financial gain, or organizational

success that may result in financial gain. In contrast,

corporate crime is defined “as the conduct of a corporation,

or of employees acting on behalf of a corporation, which is

prescribed and punishable by the law” [2]. Consequently,

since the principle of corporate crimes is specifically to

advance corporate interests, while the principle of white-

collar crimes is for personal or organizational benefit, this

present study will focus solely on white-collar crimes.

SELF-CONTROL

While motivation and other “traditional sociological

processes” were seen as important causes of crime, including

white-collar crime, Gottfredson and Hirschi renounce all of

these theories [5]. Instead, the only explanation that

Gottfredson and Hirschi proposed was a factor similar to

greed (i.e., it is based on a person’s desire to achieve short-

term pleasure and gain) [6] which derived from an internal

characteristic of low self-control [5]. Low self-control is

used to describe a stable criminal predisposition which

increases the likelihood that individuals will be unable to

resist the easy and immediate gratification that crime and

other analogous behaviours (e.g. smoking, excessive

drinking, fast driving, and gambling) provide [7]. In their

general theory of crime, Gottfredson and Hirschi believe that

early childhood socialization within the family produces low

self-control [8]. Parents who are attached to their children

will monitor, recognize, and punish inappropriate behaviour.

As a result, these children will develop the self-control

needed to resist easy gratification offered by misbehaviour.

In contrast, weak direct controls exercised by parents will

result in weak self-control in children [7].

Trait theories, in general, examine a combination of

stable attributes that may explain criminality. Gottfredson

and Hirschi’s argument in regards to the cause of crime

posits that low self-control is a stable, unidimentional trait

consisting of six components. As such, the general theory of

crime may be best described as a trait theory rather than a

personality theory as traditionally defined in the field of

psychology. The first component of their theory is

impulsivity, which is described as responding to physical

stimuli in the immediate environment and being unable to

defer gratification. The second component – simple tasks –

describes an individual as avoiding complex tasks because

they lack diligence and persistence; thus, they prefer easy

and simple gratifications. Third, individuals with low self-

control are risk seekers who have a tendency to be

adventurous rather than cautious. Fourth, the physical

activity component suggests that individuals prefer physical

activities rather than mental ones. Fifth, people with low self-

control are indifferent and insensitive to the feelings of

others and are said to be self-centered. Finally, people with

low self-control are characteristic as having a low tolerance,

referred to as the temper component [8]. This overall

description of self-control corresponds with Gottfredson and

Hirschi’s view of crime as an activity that is “easy to

commit, involves little planning, requires minimal physical

skills, and provides immediate gratification” [7]. It is

therefore not surprising that offenders tend to be impulsive,

non-verbal, short-sighted, and so on. Although Gottfredson

and Hirschi argue that low self-control increases criminality

[6], crime will only occur if an opportunity to engage in such

behaviour is present [7].

Several studies have empirically tested the general

theory of crime and generally support the assertion that low

self-control is significantly and positively related to crime

and other analogous behaviours [9]. Even after controlling

for measures of competing criminological theories, such as

strain, social bond, differential association, and learning

theories, low self-control has a significant effect on crime

and deviance. In addition, low self-control is also “a

significant predictor of negative life outcomes, including

poor social bonds, lifestyles, and low socioeconomic

attainment” [7].

In Gottfredson and Hirschi’s general theory of crime,

they contend that all crime, even white-collar crime, can be

explained by the same underlying factors [5]. As a result, this

general theory argues that white-collar offenders are just as

resourceful and “prone to deviance as those who commit

common street crimes” [5]. For Gottfredson and Hirschi,

then, the same types of people commit both categories of

offences. As such, labels such as a ‘white-collar criminal’

and a ‘street criminal’ are incorrect and misleading. If this

view is correct, Benson and Moore argue that it has two

implications. First, individuals who are labeled as white-

collar criminals will not specialize in white collar offences,

but will instead commit a wide variety of spontaneous and

impulsive crimes – similar to that of traditionally

conceptualized street criminals. Second, criminals in general

will participate in a number of deviant behaviours, such as

engaging in drugs, promiscuous sex, and white-collar crimes

[5].

If Gottfredson and Hirschi’s proposition regarding the

existence of only one type of offender is true, distinctions

should be made between the types of offence committed

rather than the offender [5]. Furthermore, Hirschi and

Gottfredson believe that “when opportunity is taken into

account, demographic differences in white-collar crime are

the same as demographic differences in ordinary crime” [10].

The only clear difference that Gottfredson and Hirschi make

between the two groups is that, by definition, white-collar

offenders would be in the white-collar world and commit

their crimes in that environment [11].

Alternatively, research conducted by Benson and

Moore found that, on the whole, white-collar offenders can

be clearly distinguished from street offenders [5]. In addition,

research done by Wheeler, Weisburd, Bode, and Waring in

1988 that compared individuals convicted of white-collar

crimes to individuals convicted of street crimes found that

there are distinctions between these two groups [5]. More

specifically, Wheeler, Weisburd, Bode, and Waring found


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that those convicted of white-collar crimes are more likely to

have higher levels of education, to have had a history of

steady employment, and to be older white males [5]. Piquero

et al. contend that the general theory of crime and low self-

control cannot sufficiently explain white-collar crime [2].

Gottredson and Hirschi have themselves suggested that

individuals with low self-control generally do not qualify for

white-collar occupations, especially for positions with

authority [2]. Instead, businesses favour individuals with

“traits such as the ability to defer gratification and

willingness to defer to the interests of others” [2]. Individuals

with the personality characteristic of desire for control would

most likely possess these traits, and therefore desire for

control is believed to be related to corporate decision making

[2].

DESIRE FOR CONTROL

Desire for control – the extent to which people prefer to

control the events in their lives – has been examined with a

wide range of psychological factors such as achievement,

social interactions, conformity, and depression [12].

Individuals high in desire for control are believed to prefer

making their own decisions, taking action to avoid losing

control, and assuming leadership roles [13]. Furthermore,

research conducted by Piquero et al. found that a desire for

control was positively and significantly related to an

intention to violate the law in order to maintain control over

one’s environment [2]. Specifically, those who possess high

desire for control would be more likely to engage in

corporate crimes to gain control over situations that are

uncertain or appear irrational [2]. In other words, an

individual’s high level of desire for control influences their

decision making process which is what ultimately relates

desire for control to corporate offending. While some

scholars argue that self-control conditions criminal behaviour

(i.e. committing street crimes) [6], Piquero et al. contend that

desire for control offers a better explanation for criminal

behaviour in the white-collar world [2].

Although low self-control is more characteristic of

offenders who commit street crime and a high desire for

control is more characteristic of offenders who commit

white-collar crime, this does not imply that offenders who

engage in these two types of crime are complete opposites

[2]. While the traits are distinct, they are also related and the

presence of one does not necessarily require the absence of

the other. The main distinction between low self-control and

high desire for control is how offenders view the future –

individuals exhibiting a high desire for control are future

oriented, while individuals exhibiting low self-control have a

present-day orientation [2]. In addition, Burger proposes

“that individuals high in the desire for control will display

many of the behaviours that are related to higher

achievement” [13]. This inclination towards higher

achievement may speak to their future orientation, since high

achievement often involves creating goals and aiming to

achieve them at some point in the future. For example, a

university degree may be considered a high achievement,

which is why many individuals with a high desire for control

hold more prominent jobs, and it is there that these white-

collar offences are committed.

GENDER

The motivation to commit white-collar crime is also

different for men and women, with women more often

motivated by relational goals including “a need to meet their

responsibilities as wives or mothers” [11]. According to

Daly, women are more likely to rationalize their crime on the

basis of family need or maintaining relationships with a

spouse. On the other hand, men tended to rationalize their

crimes of embezzlement and fraud as ‘borrowing’ in order to

resolve financial problems [11]. Overall, the number of

female white-collar offenders is low relative to male white-

collar offenders. Some hypotheses that have been proposed

to explain this gender gap are that the crimes committed by

women result in pay-offs of lesser value, there is a lower

likelihood of women working in organized crime groups, and

men would rather not have women as crime partners [11].

Alternatively, it is also possible that women are in fact

actively involved in white-collar offences but few are caught

and prosecuted.

Another hypothesis that may explain this gender gap is

that fewer women than men hold positions of power. While

both men and women inhabit the white-collar world, men

hold more managerial or professional positions while women

hold more clerical roles [11]. As a result, men’s crimes are

both petty and major, while women are more often involved

in petty crimes due to fewer opportunities. With common

street crimes, except for a few exceptions such as

prostitution, males are also more likely to offend than

females [14].

Since a high level of desire control has been proposed

to be related to white-collar offending, it should be noted that

males occasionally score higher on the Desirability for

Control Scale in comparison to females [12]. Conversely,

some studies find no gender differences, and if a difference is

examined, it has been suggested that this difference exists

because of age [12]. For instance, middle-aged and older

men consistently demonstrate a greater desire for control

over their environment in comparison to women in those

same age groups. A difference between male and female

adolescents is rarely detected, and results are mixed for

college undergraduate students [12].

POST-SECONDARY EDUCATION

It has often been assumed that higher education and a

post-secondary degree will result in a better job and greater

success in the work force. Research by Brown and Hesketh

in 2004 demonstrated that graduate applicants for a fast-

tracked management program were from elite universities


Vol. 5, No. 2, Winter 2012, 5-12

8

and middle-class backgrounds [15]. This suggests that a

middle-class background and a university education may

lead to more professional opportunities after graduation.

There have been substantial changes in the labour market

over the past 20 years which have increased employers’

expectations regarding the need for a post-secondary degree

for many jobs [15]. This may reflect the importance of post-

secondary education in obtaining a job after one has

graduated. Furthermore, Moreau and Leathwood contend

that, overall, post-secondary graduates remain in a

favourable position in comparison to non-graduates [15].

Despite the instability in the labour market, a majority of

graduates continue to find their initial jobs in professional or

professionally-related occupations [16]. Livingstone and

Robertson believe that an undergraduate degree is the initial

step toward professional development [16]. Therefore, there

is an understanding that professional development may begin

during one’s undergraduate years [16]. It is believed, then,

that university students are more likely to pursue

professional jobs and enter the white-collar world after

graduation. As a result, a sample specifically of university

students was chosen for the current study.

HYPOTHESES

There are six hypotheses proposed for this study:

1. Since individuals with a high desire for control display

behaviours related to higher achievement, this study

hypothesizes that university students will be more inclined to

commit white-collar crimes over street crimes. Since a

university education may be considered higher education,

higher achievement will most likely lead to a career in the

white-collar world.

2. A) As a result of changing traditional gender roles and

women striving to gain control over their lives, this study

hypothesizes that there will be no significant difference in

the desire for control measures for male and female

university students – in agreement with previous research.

B) In regards to self-control, this study hypothesizes that

males will score lower in comparison to females since males

generally commit more street crimes and such deviance is

traditionally characterized by a low measure of self-control.

3. A) Since males are more likely than females to commit

street crimes, and since men’s white-collar crimes are often

considered more serious in comparison to women’s white-

collar crimes, this study hypothesizes that male students,

relative to female students, will have a greater inclination

towards street crime and;

B) Male students, relative to female students, will have a

greater inclination towards white-collar crimes.

4. Gottfredson and Hirschi argue that low self-control

results in below average performance in everyday tasks; a

failure in relationships and social institutions; job instability;

the propensity to be attracted towards others who also have

low self-control and are deviant; and the preference to

gravitate towards the street [6]. Since many of these

characteristics have been linked to criminal behaviour, this

study hypothesizes that an individual who has a low measure

of self-control will have a propensity towards committing

street crimes.

METHODS

Participants

All of the participants that participated in this study are

students at the University of Guelph. A survey was emailed

to approximately 1280 students who were enrolled in at least

one of SOC 1500*01, SOC 1500*02, SOC 2700*01, SOC

2700*02, SOAN 2120*01, SOC 2070*DE, and SOC

3490*DE. It is likely that the total number of individual

students who received an invitation to participate in this

study is lower than 1280, since some students were enrolled

in more than one of the listed classes, and therefore, were

counted twice. A total of 244 students answered the survey,

of which, 186 completed it in its entirety. Only those 186

participants from whom complete information was obtained

will be included in the analyses.

The participants were asked five questions about their

demographics, including their gender, age, ethnicity, post-

graduation plans, and whether they had ever received OSAP

assistance (see Table 1 for frequency information for the

demographic questions). Although the students were asked

about their post-graduation plans and their use of OSAP

assistance, these results were not used in the final analyses,

and therefore, were not included in the demographics table.

Materials

There were no tangible materials used in this study

since the survey used was made available online using

SurveyMonkey. The Appendix contains the questions that

were asked in the survey.

Procedures

Students enrolled in SOC 1500*01, SOC 1500*02,

SOC 2700*01, SOC 2700*02, SOAN 2120*01, SOC

2070*DE, and SOC 3490*DE were sent an email inviting

them to participate in this study. The link provided in the

email brought them directly to the survey where they were

presented with a participant consent form. The consent form

provided information regarding the purpose of the study, the

procedure, any potential risks and discomfort, compensation,

confidentiality, and their right to withdraw. Once participants

read and agreed to the outlines of the study, they continued

onto the survey questions by clicking on the “Next” button.

The survey consisted of demographic questions and three

scales that assessed (1) the participant’s measure of desire for

control, (2) their measure of self-control, and (3) their

attitudes toward certain types of crimes. The survey took

approximately 15 to 30 minutes to complete and only

required participants to participate once. At the end of the

survey, the participants were thanked for their time and

invited to contact the researchers or the University’s


Vol. 5, No. 2, Winter 2012, 5-12

9

Counselling Services if they had any questions, comments,

concerns, or emotional discomfort.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Independent Groups t-test

Three Independent Groups t-tests were conducted to

assess if there was a significant difference between the mean

scale measures for male and female participants. The first t-

test examined if university students were more inclined

towards committing white-collar crime or street crime. For

this test, the likelihood of committing a crime for an

individual who indicated that they would only commit a

street crime (M = 1.23, SD = 0.09) was slightly greater than

the likelihood of committing a crime for an individual who

indicated that they would only commit a white-collar offense

(M = 1.21, SD = 0.09). A Levene’s test was conducted to

determine if the variances of the two groups were

homogenous and the results indicated that they were, F(1,

186) = 1.23, ns. Therefore, equal variance was assumed and

the likelihood of both these groups to commit crimes was not

found to be significantly different, with only a small

difference t(186) = 0.76, ns, d = 0.22. Thus, university

students are not more likely to commit one type of crime

over the other.

The second Independent Groups t-test examined if there

was a difference between what males and females scored on

the desire for control scale. The mean desire for control score

for females (M = 4.88, SD = 0.62) was slightly greater than

the mean desire for control score for males (M = 4.83, SD =

0.49). A Levene’s test was conducted to determine if the

variances of the two genders were homogenous and the

results indicated that they were, F(1, 186) = 2.73, ns.

Therefore, equal variance was assumed and the means for

males and females were not found to be significantly

different, with only a small difference between them t(186) =

-0.34, ns, d = 0.08. Thus, males and females do not differ in

terms of how much control they desire over the events in

their environments.

The final t-test examined if there was a difference

between what males and females score on the self-control

scale. On this scale, the mean score for males (M = 2.12, SD

= 0.29) was slightly greater than the mean score for females

(M = 2.10, SD = 0.32). A Levene’s test was conducted to

determine if the variances of the two genders were

homogenous and the results indicated that they were, F(1,

186) = 0.40, ns. Therefore, equal variance was assumed and

the means for males and females were not found to be

significantly different with only a small difference between

them t(186) = 0.32, ns, d = 0.07. Thus, males and females do

not differ in terms of how much they desire to obtain short-

term pleasure and gain.

Multinomial Logistical Regression

A Multinomial Logistical Regression was conducted to

examine the relationship between gender, desire for control

measures, self-control measures, and committing either street

or white collar crime (while controlling for race and age).

This analysis was used since the target variable of which type

of crime university students are more likely to commit is a

categorical variable (i.e. the levels are committing no crime,

committing only street crime, committing only white-collar

crime, and committing both crimes). Table 2 outlines how

each variable was coded, and the results of this regression are

provided in Table 3. The multinomial logistical regression

compared students who said that they would not commit any

type of crime to students who said that they would commit

only a street crime, only a white-collar crime, and both types

of crimes.

When controlling for age, desire for control, self-

control, and race, the results indicate that males are

significantly more likely to commit only street crimes in

comparison to females. There was no difference between

male and female respondents in regards to white-collar crime

or in regards to committing both types of crime.

When controlling for age, desire for control, gender,

and race, the results also indicate that self-control was a

significant predictor of committing white-collar crime only,

as well as committing both white-collar and street crime.

Therefore, unlike the results proposed by earlier research

suggesting that low self-control predicts street crime [6], this

study does not demonstrate that self-control predicts street

crime unless the individual has positive attitudes toward

committing white-collar crime as well.

Table 1. Demographic characteristics of the sample (N=186)

Characteristics % n

Age

18 21.5 40 19 26.9 50 20 18.3 34 21 12.4 23 22 4.8 9 23 1.6 3 24 3.2 6 25 0.5 1 27 1.1 2 30 0.5 1 40 0.5 1 45 0.5 1

Did not answer 8.1 15

Race/Ethnicity

White 84.9 158 Non-White 14.5 27 Did not answer 0.5 1

Gender

Male 19.4 36 Female 80.6 150

Scales M SD

Self-Control 2.1 0.7 Desire for Control 4.9 2.0


Vol. 5, No. 2, Winter 2012, 5-12

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Correlation

A single Correlation was conducted to determine if

there was a relationship between self-control and desire for

control scores. A partial correlation was used to control for

the age, race, and gender variables, and no significant

relationship was found between self-control and desire for

control, r(165) = 0.05, ns.

Conclusions

The purpose of this study was to explore the extent to

which various traits – specifically desire for control and self-

control – predict future offending in a sample of university

students. Furthermore, these two traits, as well as an

individual’s gender, were used to determine whether a person

would be more willing to commit a street crime or a white-

collar crime.

A majority of university graduates find their first jobs in

professional or professionally-related occupations [16].

Therefore, it is believed that university students would enter

white-collar environments after graduation, putting them in a

position to commit these specific types of crimes. Despite

being in this position, however, university students do not

exhibit a propensity to commit white-collar crimes over

street crimes. There was no difference found in this study

between students who stated that they would only consider

committing white-collar crimes and students who stated that

they would only consider committing street crime. One

explanation for these results is perhaps that a better measure

of white-collar offending was needed. Since many of the

students have probably not experienced the real-life

pressures of working in a white-collar environment, the

questions may not be relevant to them and they may have

found it difficult to consider doing something to which they

could not relate.

Burger and Solano argue that males, on occasion, score

higher on the Desirability for Control Scale in comparison to

females [12]. On the other hand, some research finds no

gender differences in regards to desire for control, and results

for college-aged individuals are mixed [12]. This study found

that male and female university students do not differ on

their desire for control scores (i.e. they both equally have a

desire to control their environments and to have control in

general terms). As proposed, changing gender roles may

explain this finding. In the past, it was very difficult for

women to gain access into an educational institution of

higher learning [17]. In more recent years, women have

accounted for the majority of students enrolled in university

[18], demonstrating their desire to have control and power

over their lives. Burger and Solano’s research demonstrated

that middle-aged and older men demonstrated a greater

desire for control over their environment in comparison to

women in those same age groups [12]. Such individuals may

hold more conventional values and beliefs in which men

have more power than women, while the younger generation

contains males and females who believe they are equal to one

another.

Similar to desire for control, there was also no

difference found between male and female scores on the self-

control scale. One hypothesis of this study stated that males

would have significantly lower scores on self-control (i.e. the

inability to resist immediate gratification and gain) in

comparison to females since males, in general, are more

likely to commit street crimes [14]. However, low self-

control is also characteristic of other analogous behaviours

such as smoking, excessive drinking, fast driving, and

gambling - which females may be able to relate to rather than

street crime. On the other hand, it could be argued that the

males in this sample are just not inclined towards street

crime and possess a fair amount of self-control. Therefore,

their levels of self-control are equal to that of the females in

the sample who also have a fair amount of self-control.

In general, university students might be expected to

have high levels of self-control. Recall that one component

of low self-control is simple tasks, which is defined as

avoiding complex tasks because the individual lacks

diligence and persistence; thus, they prefer easy and simple

gratifications [6]. Attending university involves many

academic challenges (i.e. tests, papers, exams, assignments,

etc.), and students who graduate from their undergraduate

programs (which represents a large majority of those

enrolled) spend, at minimum, three years at a post-secondary

institution. This dedication and hard-work perhaps represents

why stronger evidence was not found for the effects of self-

control on offending. Since university students do not

represent a high offending sample, it is not entirely

surprising that self-control was not a significant personality

Table 2. Coding of variables

Variable name Category

Crime Type

No Crime 0 Street Crime Only 1 White-Collar Crime Only 2 Both Crimes 3

Race/Ethnicity

White 1 Non-White 2

Gender

Male 1 Female 2

Scales

Self-Control 1 (strong disagree) to 4 (strongly agree)

Desire for Control 1 (statement does not apply) to 7

(statement always applies)


Vol. 5, No. 2, Winter 2012, 5-12

11

factor in students who stated that they would consider only

committing either a street crime or a white-collar crime. In

addition, even if an opportunity were present, individuals

with low self-control, in general, are not certain to offend

[19]. Therefore, it is very unlikely that the students in this

sample who stated that they would consider only committing

either a street crime or a white-collar crime would actually

offend if an opportunity were present. Since their levels of

self-control were not related to their likelihood of offending,

this could be an example of how one's attitudes about

offending do not match one's behaviour.

The lowest levels of self-control, which resulted in the

most significant effect on offending, were found among the

students who stated that they were willing to commit both

street and white collar crimes. Since these students admitted

that they would be willing to commit both types of crime, it

is not surprising that they would exhibit the lowest levels of

self-control in comparison to students who said that they

would not commit any crime, to those who said that they

would consider only committing street crime, and to those

who said that they would consider only committing white-

collar crime.

Since it is widely agreed that males commit more street

crime in comparison to females [14], it was not unexpected

that the males in this study also exhibited a greater

propensity towards committing street crime in comparison to

females.

Regardless of the type of crime, desire for control does

not predict whether a university student will consider

committing a crime in the future. Desire for control scores

were essentially the same for students who said that they

would not commit either white-collar or street crime, for

students who said that they would consider only committing

street crime, who said that they would consider only

committing white-collar crime, and those who said that they

would consider committing both types of crime. These

results are in contrast to research conducted by Piquero et al.

who found that the desire for control personality

characteristic was positively and significantly related to

violation intentions [2]. Even after controlling for a number

of scenarios and individual characteristics, Piquero et al.

found that persons who rank high in desire for control may

actually engage in corporate crimes as a mean of controlling

their environments [2]. One explanation for the difference

between Piquero et al.’s study and this present study may be

the dependent variable used. The levels of the dependent

variable used in this study were committing no crime,

committing only street crime, committing only white-collar

crime, and committing both crimes. Recall that white-collar

crimes are committed by a single individual for personal

financial gain. In contrast, Piquero et al. focused specifically

on corporate crime, in which the company or organization

benefits directly from the crime [2]. Therefore, the difference

between these studies lies in terms of who benefits directly

from the criminal act. It could be argued that desire for

control only has an effect on corporate offending in which

the company benefits, but does not have an effect on white-

collar offending in which only the individual benefits.

Furthermore, another possible explanation as to why the

results of these two studies differ is that the sample of

university students used in this present study had, overall,

lower levels of desire for control in comparison to Piquero et

al.’s sample. The desire for control scale mean for this study

was 97.47 with a standard deviation of 11.62, while the

average in Piquero et al.’s study was 107.92 with a standard

deviation of 9.52. This difference may indicate that the

students in this study do have a lower level of desire for

control, and therefore, would not be inclined to commit

crimes due to this personality factor. Future research studies

should examine if this difference is significant, and at what

point a desire for control score becomes significant in

predicting white-collar offending behaviour.

Limitations

One limitation of this study was the sample that was

used. The sample used consisted entirely of university

students; therefore, results obtained from this study cannot be

generalized to the broader population. Furthermore,

Table 3. Multinomial logistical regression predicting crime offending preferences of university students

Type of crime

committed

B SE B eB

Street Crime Only

Age

.023

.119

1.023

Desire for Control

.136 .463 1.146

Self-control -.160 .909 .852 Male 1.297* .633 3.657 Non-white .629 .643 1.876 Intercept -1.530 3.708

White Collar Crime Only

Age .176 .098 1.193 Desire for Control

-.012 .521 .988

Self-control 2.152* 1.019 8.600 Male .420 .756 1.522 Non-white -.409 .892 .664 Intercept -8.633* 3.891

Both Crimes

Age -.001 .103 .999 Desire for Control

-.614 .372 .541

Self-control 2.917*** .765 18.484 Male .164 .589 1.179 Non-white -.615 .607 .541 Intercept -2.203 3.114

* p ≤ .05 **p ≤ .01 ***p ≤ .001


Vol. 5, No. 2, Winter 2012, 5-12

12

university students are not a high offending group, so it is not

surprising that there was not stronger evidence that this

group would be willing to commit crime. A university

population is special in that their status as a post-secondary

student demonstrates that they are more likely to be

motivated, future-oriented individuals who possess high self-

control. Future research studies should attempt to use a more

varied sample, possibly controlling for education. While this

study specifically aimed to examine the effects of self-

control and desire for control on offending for university

students, a general test involving participants of various

education levels to examine whether self-control and desire

for control drives offending is an important avenue for future

investigation. Such a study could use participants in high

school, college, university, trade school, and graduate school

to determine if education level affects one’s level of self-

control and desire for control – as well as one’s propensity

towards committing white-collar or street crime.

Another limitation of this study was the sample size.

Perhaps greater effects would have been discovered if the

sample was larger. For example, among the students who

said that they would consider only committing a white-collar

crime, the effect of age was close to being significant at

0.072. Perhaps if more participants were used, a greater

effect may have been revealed. In addition, this study was

limited in that over 80 percent of the 186 participants were

female, which may have had implications when comparing

the results for males and females.

Final limitations of this study were the crime questions

that were used. Although the six crime questions were pre-

tested before being administered in the survey, perhaps more

preliminary analyses would have been useful to determine if

the questions were an accurate gauge of a student’s

propensity to offend in the future. The vignettes were

excluded from final analyses due to their lack of predicting

any offending behaviours in this sample. Since the vignettes

were created to be more realistic of situations in which

students would find themselves, it could be argued that the

students responded to these questions in a socially desirable

manner to refrain from appearing criminally minded (both to

the researcher and to themselves). Therefore, future research

should pay great attention to the questions used in

determining a dependent variable measure.

REFERENCES

1. Coleman, J.W. (1987). Toward an integrated theory of

white-collar crime. The American Journal of Sociology,

93(2), 406-439, pg. 407.

2. Piquero, N.L., Exum, M.L., & Simpson, S.S. (2005).

Integrating the desire–for–control and rational choice in

a corporate crime context. Justice Quarterly, 22(2), 252-

280, pg. 256.

3. Price, M., & Norris, D.M. (2009). White-collar crime:

Corporate and securities and commodities fraud. The

Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and

Law, 37, 538-544.

4. Weisburd, D., Wheeler, S., Waring, E., & Bode, N.,

(1991). Crimes of the middle classes: White-collar

offenders in the federal courts. New Haven, CT: Yale

University Press.

5. Benson, M.L., & Moore, E. (1992). Are white-collar and

common offenders the same? an empirical and

theoretical critique of a recently proposed general theory

of crime. Journal of Research in Crime and

Delinquency, 29(3), 251-272, pg. 252.

6. Gottfredson, M.R., & Hirschi, T. (1990). A general

theory of crime. Stanford, CA: Stanford University

Press.

7. Pratt, T.C., & Cullen, F.T. (2000). The empirical status

of Gottfredson and Hirschi’s general theory of crime: A

meta-analysis. Criminology, 38(3), 931-964, pg. 932,

934.

8. Grasmick, H.G., Tittle, C.R., Bursik, R.J., & Arneklev,

B.J. (1993). Testing the core empirical implications of

gottfredson and hirschi's general theory of crime. Journal

of Research in Crime and Delinquency, 30(1), 5-29.

9. Baron, S.W. (2003). Self-control, social consequences,

and criminal behavior: street youth and the general

theory of crime. Journal of Research in Crime and

Delinquency, 40(4), 403-425.

10. Hirschi, T., & Gottfredson, M. (1989). The significance

of white-collar crime for a general theory of crime.

Criminology, 27(2), 359-371, pg. 364.

11. Daly, K. (1989). Gender and varieties of white-collar

crime. Criminology, 27(4), 769-794, pg. 771.

12. Burger, J.M., & Solano, C.H. (1994). Changes in desire

for control over time: gender. Sex Roles, 31(7), 465-472.

13. Burger, J.M. (1985). Desire for control and achievement-

related behaviors. Journal of Personality and Social

Psychology, 48(6), 1520-1533, pg. 1521.

14. Bernard, T.J., Snipes, J.B., & Gerould, A.L. (2010).

Vold's theoretical criminoloy. New York, New York:

Oxford University Press, Inc.

15. Moreau, M.P., & Leathwood, C. (2006). Graduates’

employment and the discourse of employability: A

critical analysis. Journal of Education and Work, 19(4),

305-324.

16. Holden, R., & Harte, V. (2003). New graduate

engagement with "professional development". Journal of

European Industrial, 28(2), 272-282.

17. Jacobs, J.A. (1996). Gender inequality and higher

education. Annual Review of Sociology, 22, 153-185.

18. Statistics Canada, Tourism and the Centre for Education

Statistics Division. (2011). Education indicators in

Canada (Catalogue no. 81-599-X – Issue no. 006).

Ottawa, ON: Main Building.

19. Muraven, M., Pogarski, G., & Shmueli, D. (2006). Self-

control depletion and the general theory of

crime. Journal of Quantitative Criminology, 22, 263-277

Evens Studies by Undergraduate Researchers at Guelph

Vol. 5, No. 2, Winter 2012, 13-18

13

The Porfiriato: The stability and growth Mexico needed

Travis Evens

This study was conducted under the supervision of Professor Karen Racine,

Department of History, College of Arts,


The presidency of Porfirio Diaz is often remembered as a period of social degradation and oppression of freedoms in Mexico.

His extensive thirty-five year virtual dictatorship brought about a great deal of hardship for the lower classes and an

inequitable system of wealth distribution. This image of Porfirio Diaz as a ruthless despot has become an almost impenetrable

one in the post-revolutionary Mexican tradition. However, what is often overlooked or unaddressed are the immense

economic and social benefits that were still brought about under his rule. Through massive infrastructural improvement

programs, superb financial management, and an unrelenting desire to see the implementation of law and order, Porfirio Diaz

brought much prosperity and stability to Mexico when it needed it most. Stability, an expression rarely uttered in discussions

of Mexican history, was implemented at all costs under Diaz—no small feat considering the near century of political and

judicial disorder that preceded his rule. This essay in no way intends to justify the oppressive policies of Diaz, nor excuse the

suffering of the lower classes he brought about. Rather, it intends to provide a more balanced view of his rule; bringing to

light the more beneficial economic and social policies he implemented that would bring Mexico into the modern, twentieth

century world.

rom the Mexican colonial period to independence and

beyond, the policies and decisions of Mexican leaders

have been constantly surrounded by controversy. The

lengthy presidency of Porfirio Díaz was indeed no exception.

His semi-continuous thirty-five year term as president quite

literally transformed Mexico into a modern, industrialized

state. While the rule of Díaz has been both remembered and

criticized for its suppression of liberties and uneven

distribution of wealth, the benefits of his rule with respect to

peace, stability, prosperity, and modernization are often

unfairly overlooked. Like many prominent Mexicans, Díaz’s

life and career was one of much action and glory—the life of

a stereotypical Mexican caudillo. Born into a poor, peasant

mestizo family in Oaxaca in 1830, Porfirio Díaz rose quickly

through the ranks of the military as a young man and greatly

distinguished himself in the War of Reform, emerging as a

hero of Mexico and one of the most resolute supporters of

liberalism [1, a]. The Porfiriato, the age to which he would

lend his name, began in 1876 when Díaz took control of

Mexico City by force of arms and would continue until 1911

when he was forced into permanent exile by the new

revolutionary government. During the course of his rule,

internal peace and stability came to Mexico, although

sometimes at the expense of individual liberty. As a result,

the post-revolutionary tradition has very much characterized

Díaz as a “black” or villainous figure in Mexican history

alongside such men as Cortes, Santa Anna, and Maximillian

[2]. However, while his rule is unfairly remembered almost

solely as a time of oppression and injustice, the presidency of

Porfirio Díaz brought numerous economic and social benefits

to Mexico, lifting it out of over a century of constant civil

war, anarchy and chaos, and into the modern, industrial

world.

MEXICO BEFORE DIAZ

In order to fully appreciate the improvements Díaz

brought to Mexican society, one must first understand the

state of Mexico as a nation in the century preceding his rule.

The legacy of the post-independence period in Mexico was

one of constant infighting first between centralists and

regionalists, and then between liberals and conservatives.

This constant state of near political anarchy was only

interrupted by the emergence of opportunistic militarists, of

which there were many, most notably Antonio López de

Santa Anna [1, b]. Naturally this constant civil conflict

weakened Mexico a great deal, and indeed by 1837 it was in

no position to block the movement for Texas’ independence,

nor the invasion of Mexico by the United States in 1846,

which by its end would result in over half of Mexico’s

national territory lost. The liberal reform period led by

Benito Juárez made some headway in terms of stability.

However its radical social reforms created a great deal of

dissension and unrest, permitting yet another foreign

intervention by the French under Napoleon III in 1863.

Emperor Maximillian, a surprisingly liberal monarch of the

Habsburg line, would be overthrown and executed by Juárez

in yet another example of Mexican political instability [1, c].

Fear, strife, and uncertainty were perpetual themes

throughout Mexico during this period, and caused many

F


Vol. 5, No. 2, Winter 2012, 13-18

14

countries to view the Mexican people as incapable of self-

government, bringing about much foreign interference in

their affairs by the Spanish, French, and Americans [2]. This

near century of constantly changing governments and both

civil and international wars instilled within the Mexican

people a desire for stability as well as a strong, confident

leader that could restore that stability to Mexico. The stage

was set for the entrance of Porfirio Díaz, who would rule

Mexico as an effective dictatorship for the next thirty-five

years determined to put an end to his country’s tradition of

anarchy so that much needed economic development and

modernization could occur [3]. Indeed, with this historical

context in mind surrounding his rule, it is possible to develop

a greater appreciation of the stability and growth that Porfirio

Díaz’s regime brought to Mexico.

THE MEXICAN ECONOMY UNDER DIAZ

During the period of instability before Díaz took power,

Mexico had lost a great deal of respect within the

international community; political unrest and civil war was

not an inviting scene for foreign investment. Díaz was

determined to bring a prosperous economy to Mexico, and to

achieve this in the modern world leaders needed to hold

friendly relationships with foreign powers and attract

investment into the country for costly building projects. By

1888, Díaz had achieved a great deal in terms of foreign

relations. Treaties of friendship, commerce, and navigation

had been signed with Sweden, Norway, France, Great

Britain, Ecuador, and Japan, with postal conventions signed

with the Unites States and Great Britain. By 1892, relations

had been opened through diplomatic or consular officials

with every European nation except Austria and Turkey [4].

These diplomatic relationships would bring much-needed

capital into the country and restore Mexico’s international

prestige to a large degree. Díaz has been widely criticized for

holding an all too friendly, almost subservient relationship

with the United States. However, Mexico benefitted

enormously from its relationship with the United States, and

it could be argued that Mexico’s attachment was the

inevitable consequence of geographic proximity and

complementing economies [5]. The United States offered a

near unlimited market for Mexican goods and by 1900, 63

million dollars in annual trade was passing between the two

countries, up from a mere 7 million dollars in 1880, with

75% of Mexican exports going north of the border [6]. In

addition, Díaz had paid the last four million pesos of debt

owed to the United States in January of 1890 and signed an

extradition treaty that greatly reduced crime rates and

improved safety on the northern border [4]. Indeed, when

Díaz was quoted as saying, “pity poor Mexico, so far from

God, and so close to the United States”, he was surely

referring to political or military risks, as Mexico’s economy

was able to flourish from trade with its northern neighbour

[5, d].

The budget and loan management of Mexico is one of

the areas where the benefits of the Porfiriato are most

evident. The instability of the previous century had resulted

in a great deal of governmental debt and continuous deficit

budgets, while loans that were taken out were done so at

painfully high interest rates. Although criticized for its

dictatorial nature, the relative autonomy afforded to Díaz’s

regime due to a lack of formal political opposition allowed it

a great deal of flexibility in terms of financial planning and

an economic growth rate that would have been impossible

with constant political bickering and catering to elite societal

factions [7]. As such, as early as 1895 the national treasury

had balanced the budget and was even running consecutive

surpluses. This allowed the regime a better negotiating

position with the banks and, for the first time, Mexico as a

state negotiated with foreign powers from a position of

unquestioned financial strength [7]. Interest rates on loans

were soon fixed at a mere 5% as Mexico was increasingly

seen as a safe investment, and rates were in the process of

dropping to 4% when the revolution began in 1911 [5]. A

financial report in 1909 by José Yves Limantour, Díaz’s

much praised Secretary of Finance, reported that between the

years 1895 and 1909, Mexico’s aggregate surplus amounted

to over 136 million pesos, with over 71 million of this going

towards public works such as the National Theatre in Mexico

City and a canal to drain the Valley of Mexico to prevent

flooding [8]. In addition, this unprecedented government

income meant service workers and the military were paid

regularly and fairly, resulting in more satisfied and efficient

officials than could be obtained when bribery and graft were

the only ways in which an official could extract payment for

his services [4]. Indeed, the financial management of the

Díaz regime brought a great deal of wealth to Mexico, and

proved instrumental in beginning a massive infrastructural

modernization effort in the late nineteenth century.

With respect to the economy, the rule of Porfirio Díaz is

remembered most for its contributions to infrastructure,

particularly railroads and mining. Railroads were becoming

an integral part of all modern nations, and were useful for

both economic and military applications. Díaz recognized the

important role railroads could play in strengthening the

Mexican economy and embarked on an ambitious building

campaign during his rule. In 1875, less than 580 kilometers

of track had been laid in Mexico, but by 1896 this number

had increased over 1000% to 11,500 kilometers of track and

continued to grow as the new century approached [4]. These

railroads not only had enormous benefits for moving goods

and raw materials around the country quickly, but also

provided markets for goods that were previously unavailable

and brought even the most isolated communities the benefits

of modernization and increased trade. For Díaz, railroads

proved to be a mixed blessing as increased connection

between communities allowed groups to coordinate and

eventually rise up against the unfair hardships they felt they

were subject to [4]. On the other hand, before the

introduction of railroads, there were substantial barriers to


Vol. 5, No. 2, Winter 2012, 13-18

15

mobility, particularly the transition from the sedentary

village lifestyle to urban life. Before the railroads Mexico

had retained much of its tradition of segregation whereby

indigenous peoples mostly populated rural areas while the

urban centers were reserved for the wealthier Spanish elite.

Railroads helped break these traditions and offered the rural

peoples easier access to the benefits and opportunities of

urban life [6].

With respect to mining, Díaz revitalized and expanded

the industry such that the export of minerals jumped by

650% during his rule, as the new railroad system made it

possible to transport ore to other parts of the country for

processing, as well as to the United States for sale [6]. Díaz

also increased the amount of titles given for mining

operations and altered mining laws to encourage foreign

investment in this capital-intensive industry and as a result,

silver production more than doubled from 1886 to 1900 [4].

Díaz also altered land titles and tenure in an effort to

stimulate economic growth by disposing of over a thousand

land titles owned by the government and putting them into

the public domain. Unfortunately this effort to attract

immigrants and new settlers would end up being abused by

officials of both Mexican and foreign origin. However, these

lands were often in undesirable areas that were previously

uncultivated and unused, so although a large portion of them

were held in foreign hands, they were at least producing

something instead of nothing as before [4]. In another

controversial move, Díaz abolished the ejido (communal

land) system in favour of a private enterprise approach. This

decision has been criticized and noted as placing large tracts

of land in the hands of relatively few people, but there was in

fact a steady growth in the quantity of private landowners

still taking place, with this number actually doubling

between 1854 and 1900 [4].

Díaz also significantly improved other forms of

infrastructure. He ordered the establishment of 3 new

consulates along the border with the United States to better

regulate trade, an average annual construction of over 1

thousand kilometers of telegraph line to improve

communication, and a drastically improved postal service

that distributed over 5 million pieces of mail in 1878 [4]. In

addition, Díaz abolished the old alcabalas internal tax

system between provinces that was hampering commerce

and ordered the construction of a canal to drain the Valley of

Mexico in order to solve the persistent flooding problem in

Mexico City [5, e]. Indeed, Díaz’s contribution to the

economic revitalization of Mexico is due in no small part to

these infrastructure improvements and innovations.

The most significant criticisms towards Díaz’s

economic polices have been the uneven distribution of

wealth from industrialization and the high percentage of land

and infrastructure owned by foreign dignitaries. However,

what is often overlooked or deliberately unaddressed is how

such significant modernization and economic prosperity

could have been achieved at all without foreign investment.

Railroads, ports, canals and mining operations all require

enormous amounts of capital to build and maintain. After

years of civil strife, Mexico had very little domestic capital

and certainly not enough to facilitate the modernization the

country required. Moreover, it would seem that Díaz and his

advisors were not actively trying to impoverish the lower

classes as many argue they were. Rather, they believed

(albeit, falsely) that the profits from trade and commerce

would eventually trickle down through the middle class and

into the lower classes as Díaz was a firm believer that

Mexico had to be, as historian Nicolas Cheetham has noted,

regenerated by “pervasive economic action from above, not

by the promotion of social reform from below” [5, f]. Indeed,

throughout history the benefits accrued from economic

progress have rarely, if ever been equal. This is evident

during the industrialization phase of nearly every country in

the modern world, and is still a persistent issue even today.

Thus is seems unreasonable to expect the economic growth

and modernization of Mexico to have been any different.

THE MEXICAN SOCIETY UNDER DIAZ

The presidency of Porfirio Díaz has been largely

associated with a general decline in the quality of life of the

average Mexican citizen and a lack of emphasis on social

welfare institutions. Díaz, it is true, was certainly more

concerned with economic growth and the attraction of

foreign investment in his country than the well being of the

people who inhabited it. However, considering the complete

destruction and chaos that reigned throughout Mexico before

his term in office it seems understandable why such an

unrelenting emphasis was placed on the economy, as well as

on the establishment of order. Although Díaz showed little

whole-hearted commitment to social welfare and the

betterment of society, he did still contribute much in terms of

welfare institutions, religious tolerance, the promotion of

education, and a strong emphasis on law and order as the

backbone of a successful Mexican society.

Given the circumstances around which Díaz took office

and the generally unstable condition of Mexican society with

respect to legal adherence, one can see why Díaz made the

establishment of law and order a top priority during his first

years in office. The creation of the rurales, a mounted police

force with the objective of putting down insurrections and

assuring compliance with the law, was Díaz’s way of

ensuring his rule would not be plagued by the constant

insurrections that had been rampant since the time of

independence [4]. The rurales dealt swift and severe

punishments upon smugglers, brigands, and rebels that Díaz

saw as a necessity to bring order to the country. Although

their methods were brutal, the rurales brought peace and

stability to the majority of the Mexican population by putting

an end to the nearly endemic practice of brigandry and by

making the rural areas safe once again for the passage of

trade goods. However, with regards to the justice system

itself, many saw Mexico as having two types of law: one for

foreigners and another for Mexicans. Indeed, foreigners often


Vol. 5, No. 2, Winter 2012, 13-18

16

enjoyed better protection and greater leniency under the law

than indigenous Mexicans did, which was a source of much

dissent among the population [4]. This was again an aspect

of Díaz’s plan to make Mexico into an inviting environment

for foreigners and thus, their money.

Much of the most fundamental judicial codes and

institutions such as the constitution, civil code, and penal

code were already in place when Díaz took office. However,

the previously chaotic nature of the state did not allow for

their benefits to be felt. During Díaz’s rule, these same codes

were revised, made more consistent, and complemented with

new ones [3, g]. The most important thing to note regarding

law and order during Díaz’s rule is that the emphasis on

adherence to the law placed Mexico on a path to normalcy

and stability, while the law itself attained respectability and

stature for the first time in nearly a century [3, h].

Labour is not normally considered a shining aspect of

the Díaz regime, as many point out the oppressive policies

and poor working conditions, particularly of urban workers,

as one of the great stains on the Porfiriato. It is not possible

to refute many of these criticisms, as it cannot be denied that

Díaz certainly did condone some oppressive, impoverishing

policies towards the working classes. That being said, the

labour policies of Porfirio Díaz were still not quite as

deplorable as Mexican tradition has made them out to be.

Although concessions towards labour unions and

workers were largely based upon support for the regime, the

Díaz government did in fact develop a sophisticated array of

labour policies determined to keep worker militancy at a

minimum and promote an alignment of the labour force’s

identification of its own well being with the interests of the

state [9]. The state sponsored informal as well as official

mediation between workers and employers during strikes,

and even instituted education programs and labour

newspapers for the workers [9]. Díaz supported the Gran

Circulo labour federation by providing lodging for their

meetings as well as a state subsidy, and frequently granted

them monetary concessions for the construction of

workshops and night schools for workers. This emphasis on

educating the working class was a collaborative project, in

that both the government and the labour groups agreed that

education, rather than social revolution, was what the

workers needed most [9, i]. In some states slavery was still

an accepted practice, but a law passed by Díaz in 1896

attempted to lessen the burden imposed on hacienda

workers. The law stated that workers were no longer to be

paid in script only redeemable at the hacienda store, at which

they were previously at the mercy of the hacienda owners in

terms of price [4, j]. Most significantly, the economic

development that all of these labour policies were geared

towards had created thousands of jobs for unemployed

Mexicans, improving their quality of life and further

contributing to the economy [4]. Although Díaz’s policies

pertaining to labour conditions were less than admirable,

many of his efforts at cooperation and conciliation are often

overlooked. His regime, unlike previous ones, recognized the

importance of a compliant labour force in fostering economic

development, and his post-revolutionary successors would

actually adopt similar policies in their efforts to expand

industrial capitalism in Mexico [9].

Welfare institutions and programs saw some significant

growth and improvement during the Porfiriato. Although it

has already been established that social welfare was not a

high priority for Díaz, he did assume direct administrative

responsibility for public welfare and still instituted some

beneficial reforms. In Mexico City, Díaz engaged in an

ambitious building campaign in which he moved the city’s

largest orphanages, prisons, reform schools, and hospitals out

of their previously neglected colonial era structures into

modern, better equip facilities [10]. The Hospicio de Pobres

in Mexico City was transformed into an institution for

sheltering homeless children and for the vocational training

of young women. The government also purchased the

property where the city’s trade schools were located and

turned them into vocational training schools where young

men could learn a trade [10, k]. The state also licensed a

lottery for the support of public hospitals and welfare

institutions and placed an emphasis on private charity

donations, while Díaz often pledged money himself towards

beggar’s shelters and other asylums [10]. Regulations too

were changed as Díaz raised control of public institutions

such as hospitals to a higher governmental level, made

operators of these institutions accountable for their actions,

restricted their terms to two years, and set firm regulations

regarding private involvement in the management of these

institutions [10]. As many as 251 hospitals were open in

Mexico by 1899, and although they were unequally dispersed

among the provinces, it does indeed demonstrate a certain

commitment by Díaz towards social welfare. Funding was

also improved over the course of his rule too as a modest

30,000 pesos were spent on social welfare in 1877 compared

to 320,000 pesos in 1898, while over 1.3 million pesos were

spent on building and improving welfare institutions in 1909

alone [4].

In terms of education, only modest sums were spent on

the establishment of an adequate number of schools for

Mexicans. However, when Benito Juárez stripped the church

of its educational rights and institutions during the liberal

reform, he replaced them with very little. Díaz’s regime

presided over the creation of primary schools literally from

the ground up, of which there were 12,000 with over 1

million pupils in 1910 [5]. With a total population of over 15

million people at the time this was at best a modest

undertaking by Díaz, but was certainly a more concerted

effort than was put forth by his predecessors. Indeed, it is

important to note with respect to criticisms of Díaz’s

contribution to education and welfare that his government

developed its approach to these institutions within the

context of rapid urbanization and population growth as well

as an almost complete reconstruction of the state on every

level [10].


Vol. 5, No. 2, Winter 2012, 13-18

17

Relations between the church and state also

dramatically improved during the Porfiriato. Díaz recognized

that a policy of conciliation towards the church would win

favour with the masses and would also avoid the clashes that

resulted from the secularization policies of Juárez and the

Liberals [5]. Díaz was a leader who understood that the

maintenance of order was essential to prosperity and

continued rule. As a result, he allowed the Mexican states to

retain their individual charters they had created under Juárez

that guaranteed, among other things, religious freedom [11].

Díaz adopted this policy of conciliation towards the church

and indeed several aspects of society in order to maintain

order. This policy allowed the church to retrieve much of its

previous freedom of action, but was limited in its ability to

influence citizens or criticize the regime. As a result,

previously sensitive subjects such as civil registry and

marriage were met with much less hostility from the church.

This is evident when one considers the fact that the clergy

did not object to the requirement that a civil marriage

ceremony be performed prior to the religious one and civil

registration precede baptism [11].

Protestants had established a modest presence in

Mexico by 1880 through the immigration of American

businessmen, and were the subject of numerous attacks by

Catholic mobs. Díaz was forced to interject several times

with federal troops to stop these attacks and enforce his

policy of religious freedom, again in an effort to maintain

peace and order within the country [11]. Although Díaz was

certainly an authoritarian ruler, these conciliation policies

towards the church and even previous political rivals

demonstrated his moderation in exercising this authority in

many cases for the betterment of the country.

A NOTE ON POLITICS UNDER DIAZ

Although Mexico may have advanced a great deal

economically and, to a lesser extent, socially during the

Porfiriato, it would be impossible to say that Mexico

advanced politically during Díaz’s rule. One cannot speak of

the consolidation or alteration of political institutions during

this time because they were simply non-existent [3, l]. The

very nature of a dictatorship like Díaz’s leaves no room for

political advancement or formal opposition, if it did it would

cease to be a dictatorship at all. However, some things can be

said about the politics of Díaz’s rule even if it is not

regarding beneficial change.

Díaz adopted the “bread or club” policy towards all

political opposition. Anyone offering resistance to his rule

was immediately tempted with a lucrative position within the

government or military, a job that certainly held better

prospects than being a rebel. If they refused, the challenger

often succumbed to a rather unfortunate accident, and while

no direct blame was usually placed on the President, he had a

certain absence of grief towards the deaths of these

challengers [4]. Indeed, this was the nature of politics in

Mexico during the extended rule of Porfirio Díaz. In spite of

this many people approved the continuation of his term,

arguing that a short term for a president was not suited for

Mexico. Given the almost routine political turmoil and

resorting to arms that previously took place upon the end or

forced secession of the presidential position, one can

certainly see their point [4].

Díaz himself claimed in an interview with reporter

James Creelman that he believed in democracy as the one

true and just principle of government, “although in practice it

is possible only to highly developed peoples” [12, m].

Perhaps Díaz thought of himself as a necessary intermediary

president between the previous time of political anarchy and

the eventual time of true democracy in Mexico. Although, he

noted that during his time in office Mexicans were not yet

prepared as a people for democracy, stating, “our difficulty

has been that the people do not concern themselves enough

about public matters for a democracy. The individual

Mexican as a rule thinks much about his own rights and is

always ready to assert them” [12, n]. Ironically the same

thing could quite easily be said about Díaz. Nevertheless,

regardless of his motives for such a lengthy rule and lack of

political advancement during it, the fact of the matter

remains that even Díaz’s most ardent opposers cannot deny

that his consolidation of juridical, economic, and social

institutions brought about an unprecedented period of peace,

prosperity and longevity in Mexico [3, o].

CONCLUSION

The Porfiriato was, and still is a time of much

controversy and mixed emotion. On the one hand, the thirty-

five year rule of this president resulted in a great deal of

impoverishment among the lower classes and enormous

inequity in terms of wealth distribution. On the other, Díaz’s

policies brought about a swift and enormously beneficial

period of modernization and industrialization, as well as

social reforms that continue to have an impact on Mexico.

His term as president certainly contained a great deal of

flaws and unfortunately, his rule is often remembered and

characterized by these only. However, while oppression and

injustice are often the most remembered aspects of the

Porfiriato, the presidency of Porfirio Díaz brought numerous

economic and social benefits to Mexico, lifting it out of over

a century of constant civil war, anarchy and chaos, and into

the modern, industrial world.

REFERENCES

1. Gil, Carlos B. The Age of Porfirio Díaz: Selected

Readings. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico

Press, 1977.

2. Margain, Hugo B. "Mexican Economic and Social

Development." Annals of the American Academy of

Political and Social Science 360 (1965): 68-77.


Vol. 5, No. 2, Winter 2012, 13-18

18

3. Raat, W. Dirk ed. Mexico, From Independence to

Revolution, 1810-1910. Lincoln: University of

Nebraska Press, 1982.

4. Callcott, Wilfrid Hardy. Liberalism in Mexico, 1857-

1929. Hamden: Archon Books, 1965.

5. Cheetham, Nicolas. A History of Mexico. London:

Rupert Hart-Davis, 1970.

6. Hart, John M. Revolutionary Mexico: The Coming and

Process of the Mexican Revolution. Berkeley:

University of California Press, 1987.

7. Passananti, Thomas P. "Dynamizing the Economy in a

façon irréguliére: A New Look at Financial Politics in

Porfirian Mexico." Mexican Studies 24, no. 1 (2008): 1-

29.

8. Godoy, Jose F. Porfirio Díaz, President of Mexico, The

Master Builder of a Great Commonwealth. New York:

G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1910.

9. Walker, David W. "Porfirian Labour Politics: Working

Class Organization in Mexico City and Porfirio Díaz,

1876-1902." The Americas 37, no. 3 (1981): 257-289.

10. Blum, Ann S. "Conspicuous Benevolence: Liberalism,

Public Welfare, and Private Charity in Porfirian

Mexico." The Americas 58, no. 1 (2001): 7-38.

11. Schmitt, Karl M. "The Díaz Conciliation Policy on

State and Local Levels 1876-1911." The Hispanic

American Historical Review 40, no. 4 (1960): 513-532.

12. Joseph, G. M., and Timothy J. Henderson ed. "President

Díaz, Hero of the Americas." In The Mexico reader:

History, Culture, Politics. Durham: Duke University

Press, 2002. 285-291.

ENDNOTES

a. Page 2 in reference 1

b. Page 4 in reference 1

c. Page 4 in reference 1

d. Page 200 in reference 5

e. The alcabalas was a sales tax varying at times from 3-

14% instituted in Mexico in 1574, and applied to Spain

and all her dominions. The tax survived the independence

movement and was the source of over two million pesos

annually for the government by the late eighteenth

century. However, the alcabalas was a hindrance to

internal trade in Mexico as goods passing between states

were subject to the tax, eventually being cancelled by

President Díaz in an attempt to stimulate internal trade

and make it more efficient.

f. Page 205 in reference 5

g. Villegas, Daniel Cosío. The Porfiriato: Legend and

Reality. Page 297 in reference 3

h. Villegas, Daniel Cosío. The Porfiriato: Legend and


i. The Gran Circulo de Obreros de Mexico was a workers

federation founded in 1870 by a group of Marxists, with

some anarchist members. It was one of many workers

federations that formed in Mexico as a result of the

socialist and revolutionary thought of the mid-19th

century and the failure of the Paris Commune. The Gran

Circulo was a supporter of Díaz after he came to power

due to their authoritarian socialist ideologies, distancing

themselves from the other worker’s federations in the

process. By 1880 all the workers organizations in Mexico

had been taken over by Díaz with the exception of the

Gran Circulo, which lasted a few more years due to their

cooperation with the regime.

j. Hacienda is the Spanish word for an estate. They

originated as land grants for conquistadors during and

after the conquest period; eventually evolving into a land

system in which peasants worked and lived on land

owned by a wealthy owner, often at their mercy in terms

of law and prices for goods from the hacienda store.

k. The Hospicio de Pobres was the poor house in Mexico

City, brought under federal administration under Díaz

and transformed into an institution for sheltering beggar

children and the vocational training of young women.

Boys also learned trades while labour often served as

both a form of education and punishment for the city’s

poor.

l. Villegas, Daniel Cosío. The Porfiriato: Legend and


m. Page 287 in reference 12

n. Page 289 in reference 12

o. Villegas, Daniel Cosío. The Porfiriato: Legend and



Vol. 5, No. 2, Winter 2012, 19-21

19

Imperial contradictions in Arthur Conan Doyle’s

The Sign of Four

Jennifer Fraser

This study was conducted under the supervision of Professor Paul Salmon,

English Department, College of Arts,


Despite Britain’s rapid territorial expansion and its marked success in establishing international colonies, the early

nineteenth century British public held widely divergent views concerning imperialist endeavors. While the colonies

retained their element of exoticism and decadence, attracting the British public to the idea of colonial enterprise, native

insurrections against British imperial rule inspired fear within the British public. By calling the loyalties of colonial

natives into question, and casting doubt upon the overall security of Britain, popular support of territorial expansion

began to wane. To understand these contradictory popular responses to British imperialism, this article will undertake

an analysis of Arthur Conan Doyle’s popular piece of mystery fiction: The Sign of Four, a literary work written in the

context of the Indian Mutiny of 1857. By reflecting contemporary attitudes held in response to British Imperialism,

The Sign of Four provides a medium through which popular contradictory responses towards British imperialism can

be critically examined.

arly nineteenth-century Britain was a nation

characterized by its marked success in colonial

enterprises, including rapid territorial expansion, the

imposition of British culture upon indigenous populations,

and the establishment of colonial government. British

international achievements strengthened popular confidence

in Britain’s role as an imperial power and led to heightened

mass endorsements of colonialism [1]. Popular support of the

British nation soon became reliant upon the success of the

Empire, as nineteenth-century British national identity grew

inextricably linked with the nation’s international

achievements. Britain’s imperial audacity was shaken

however, with the advent of the Indian Mutiny of 1857, the

first major instance of native rebellion against British

colonial rule [2]. While members of nineteenth-century

British society continued to outwardly support British

colonial endeavors and display a fervent interest in

imperialistic sentiments, their enthusiasm was marred with a

fear of the foreign, as the violent nature of the Indian Mutiny

caused individuals to begin to question their security within

the Empire [3].

This was the social context into which Arthur Conan

Doyle released his second detective novel entitled The Sign

of Four. This work not only provides its readers with an

intriguing plot and memorable characters, but also with

valuable insights into late Victorian culture. Doyle’s The

Sign of Four, is representative of contemporary attitudes held

in response to the Indian Mutiny as his writing reflects the

ambiguities of societal perceptions about British colonies and

the colonialist gesture in general. Doyle’s work reflects

societal attempts to reconcile these contradictory reactions to

imperialism as it acknowledges both the fascination and fear

commonly associated with British colonial enterprises and

reveals the relationship between contemporary perceptions of

public safety and these widely held conflicting imperial

conceptions. By alluding to important historical events and

analyzing the impact of these occurrences on Victorian

society, The Sign of Four provides a useful medium through

which late nineteenth-century British societal attitudes

towards imperialism can be examined critically.

Although the Indian Mutiny facilitated the formation of

societal anxieties within Britain, The Sign of Four suggests

that late nineteenth-century British society continued to

consider the colonies as attractive possessions [2]. Doyle’s

portrayal of India as an alluring and exotic milieu is

characteristic of popular nineteenth-century colonial

conceptions, as many Western artists and poets often

romanticized the behaviors and environments characteristic

of “Oriental” nations [4]. Evidence of the exotic and sensual

appeal of the colonies can be found in the Sign of Four, as

Miss Morstan’s Indian accessories, including “a small turban

of the small dull [grey] hue, relieved only by the suspicion of

a white feather in the side” [5], immediately capture the

attention of Watson and inspires his original attraction to her

[6]. Societal fascination with the colonies is further

accentuated in The Sign of Four, when Doyle associates

E

Fraser Studies by Undergraduate Researchers at Guelph

Vol. 5, No. 2, Winter 2012, 19-21

20

Indian artifacts with exoticism and luxury. Watson’s

description of Thaddeus Sholto’s apartment demonstrates the

Western tendency to associate foreign objects with

decadence as he states, “The carpet was of amber and black,

so soft and so thick that the foot sank pleasantly into it, as

into a bed of moss,” [5], Watson further reflects this

tendency when he describes “a lamp in the fashion of a silver

dove,” stating that it, “[hangs] from an almost invisible

golden wire in the centre of the room. As it burned it filled

the air with a subtle and aromatic odour” [5]. Doyle’s

constant pairing of India with the exotic suggests that British

society remained fascinated by Eastern colonies, and

continued to enjoy moderate exposure to their unorthodox

cultures.

In addition to satisfying British cultural curiosity,

imperialism also provided members of nineteenth-century

British society with desirable opportunities. Colonial

sojourns encouraged British officials to travel abroad, and

accentuated the possibility that such excursions could result

in the accumulation of considerable wealth [3]. As

previously mentioned, Britain’s colonies were frequently

associated with luxury, and coming into the possession of a

large fortune while abroad was certainly a potential reality of

nineteenth- century colonial service [3]. The societal

awareness of the relationship between colonial expeditions

and the possibility for social and economic advancement is

reflected in Doyle’s The Sign of Four. The frequency with

which British officials made profits from their colonial

sojourns is demonstrated by Doyle’s fictional character

Abdullah Khan, a Sikh soldier serving to protect the British

fort of Agra. In his attempts to commission the help of

British native Jonathan Small in their plot to take possession

of the Agra treasure, Khan says, “We only ask you to do that

which your countrymen come to this land for. We ask you to

be rich” [5]. This passage, in assuming that even colonial

natives are aware of imperialist economic opportunities

available to British officials, suggests that all levels of

Victorian society were aware of the financial opportunities

provided by British imperialism. This popular association

between colonial enterprise and economic prosperity thus

made imperialism alluring to the British populace and

reinforced a widespread societal fascination with the

colonies.

While Doyle recognizes the exotic and economic appeal

of the colonies, he also recognizes that popular imperial

fascination is often experienced alongside strong feelings of

fear, as colonial uprisings often, “placed British culture

outside and beyond its ‘proper’ sphere of dominion and self-

control” [7]. The Indian Mutiny, before its eventual

suppression, caused British confidence in the Empire to

waver, as Indian natives employed violent tactics against

colonial officials [7]. Doyle recognizes the debilitating

impact that the Mutiny has on the Empire, and thus makes

reference to this important imperial turning point through the

character of Small. Small’s account of the Indian Mutiny

describes a level of violence as enacted by Indian natives that

would both startle and unsettle British readers:

The whole country was up like a swarm of bees.

Wherever the English could collect in little bands they

held just the ground that their guns commanded.

Everywhere else they were helpless fugitives. It was a

fight of the millions against the hundreds [5].

The Mutiny revealed weaknesses in the British Empire

and instilled a sense of uncertainty within British society, as

many individuals lost confidence in their nation’s ability to

protect against foreign incursions into their homeland [8].

What augmented this fear of foreign encroachment was the

increasingly negative portrayal of native Indians, as accounts

of the Mutiny frequently described foreigners as inherently

violent [1].

The Indian Mutiny marks a change in the way that

members of British society perceived colonial natives, as

contemporary descriptions of their insurrectionary behaviors

ran contrary to pre-existing notions of Indian temperament

[9]. Whereas the British had previously viewed colonial

natives as innately subordinate and complicit, violent

behaviors displayed within the Mutiny suggested that the

‘primitive’ nature of Eastern culture was intimately linked

with criminal behavior [1]. After the Mutiny, British society

began to associate Eastern cultures with degeneracy,

savagery, and brutality, all of which were attributions that

encouraged popular fear of the colonies and of their

inhabitants. The Sign of Four reflects Victorian society’s

pervasive apprehensions towards Eastern culture, as Doyle

submits to popular beliefs which emphasized the relationship

between foreign characteristics and criminality. This can be

seen most prominently in Doyle’s description of Tonga, as

Watson recounts that, “His small eyes glowed and burned

with a sombre light, and his thick lips were writhed back

from his teeth, which grinned and chattered at us with half

animal fury” [5]. Doyle’s portrayal of Tonga as primitive,

animalistic and frightening is illustrative of popular

conceptualizations of foreign figures during the nineteenth

century, as the British populace frequently looked upon the

colonies with apprehension and fear after the advent of

colonial insurgency. The nineteenth- century British

tendency to associate native physical characteristics with

aggressive behavior can be further observed when Watson

exclaims, “Never have I seen features so deeply marked with

all bestiality and cruelty” [5] upon his first encounter with

this Andaman Islander. By incorporating such descriptions of

natives without questioning their validity, The Sign of Four

plays into Victorian society’s fear of the foreign. These

descriptions put forth to limit British contact with the

colonies are indicative of the societal uncertainty

surrounding imperialism.

In addition to recognizing society’s inconsistent

attitudes towards Britain’s colonies, The Sign of Four

provides further insight into late nineteenth-century imperial

Fraser Studies by Undergraduate Researchers at Guelph

Vol. 5, No. 2, Winter 2012, 19-21

21

attitudes by outlining the ways in which British society

attempted to reconcile these contradictory beliefs. Through

The Sign of Four, Doyle suggests that a reaffirmation of the

internal security of Britain would dispel popular fears of

foreign incursion and would endorse societal attraction to the

colonies. Nineteenth-century British society, fearful of

foreign encroachment due to the Indian Mutiny, needed to be

convinced that British colonial possessions were not

jeopardizing the safety of native British citizens before they

could continue displaying unanimous popular enthusiasm for

Empire [1].

The Sign of Four symbolically represents this

widespread societal fear of homeland safety through

presenting a situation in which a foreign intruder is indeed

threatening the internal security of Britain. Appealing to the

fears of his audience, Doyle’s decision to place the colonial

figures of Tonga and Small within British society addresses

the popular fear that the pursuit of colonial enterprise will

blur the boundaries between Britain and Empire and will

initiate potentially dangerous interactions between the

enlightened British, and the violent colonials [8]. While

creating a scenario that would undoubtedly arouse anxieties

in his nineteenth-century readership, Doyle offers

consolation in the character of Sherlock Holmes. Sherlock

Holmes, an unofficial representative of British law

enforcement, maintains the safety of the British public as he

takes pride in identifying and expelling dangerous colonial

figures from Britain. Doyle’s portrayal of Holmes as an

accountable British protective force is representative of

British society’s increasing demand for their government to

protect against foreign incursion. Holmes’s efforts to

maintain the internal sanctity of Britain can be observed in

his shooting of Tonga, where the Andaman islander,

“...whirled round, threw up his arms and, with a kind of

choking cough, fell sideways into the stream” [5]. Tonga’s

death represents Holmes’ purge of foreign presence within

the Empire, symbolically quelling the colonial fears held by

British society. Holmes, through enforcing an increasingly

exclusive, defensive and conservative vision of Victorian

British identity, represents reconciliation in societal attitudes

towards imperialism [1]. Holmes’s expulsion of foreign

influences from the British Isles reflects British official

efforts to dispel fears of colonial rebellion, and resume

unconditional support of their nation’s imperial endeavors.

Doyle’s The Sign of Four can be regarded as a window

into late nineteenth-century British attitudes towards

imperialism. By acknowledging both the positive and

negative British responses to the colonies, Doyle’s work

reflects popular Victorian conceptions of Eastern culture.

Doyle’s work can further be utilized to examine the shifts in

popular support for imperialism, as his work reflects the loss

of societal confidence in the idea of Empire after the Indian

Mutiny. This work is also representative of the consequent

revival of colonial fervor as the idea of imperialism reached a

climax at the beginning of the twentieth century due to

Britain’s new policy of stringent colonial administration [1].

Through its examination of popular Victorian responses to

colonialism, The Sign of Four provides a useful resource for

individuals seeking to understand how late nineteenth-

century British society perceived their nation’s imperial

status.

REFERENCES

1. Thomas, Ronald R. “The Fingerprint of the Foreigner:

Colonizing the Criminal Body in 1890’s Detective

Fiction and Criminal Anthropology.” ELH 61

(1994):655-683. Web. 1 Nov. 2010.

2. Crane, Ralph J. Inventing India: A History in English-

Language Fiction. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1992.

Print. 3. Siddiqui, Yumna. Anxieties of the Empire and the Fiction

of Intrigue. New York: Columbia University Press, 2008.

Print.

4. Heehs, Peter. “Shades of Orientalism: Paradoxes and

Problems in Indian Historiography.” History and Theory

42 (May 2003):169-195. Web. 1 Nov. 2010.

5. Doyle, Arthur Conan. The Sign of Four. Ed. Shafquat

Towheed. 1890. Claremont: Broadview Press, 2010.

6. Frank, Lawrence. “Dreaming the Medusa: Imperialism,

Primitivism, and Sexuality in Arthur Conan Doyle’s ‘The

Sign of Four.’” Signs 22 (1996): 52-85. Web. 1 Nov.

2010.

7. Keep, Christopher, and Don Randall. “Addiction,

Empire, and Narrative in Arthur Conan Doyle’s ‘The

Sign of the Four.’” Novel 32 (1999):207-221. Web. 1

Nov. 2010.

8. Dixon, Robert. Writing the Colonial Adventure: Race,

Gender and Nation in Anglo-Australian Popular Fiction,

1875-1914. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,

1995. Print.

9. Greenbergger, Allen J. The British Image of India: A

Study in the Literature of Imperialism, 1880-1960. New

York: Oxford University Press, 1969. Print.


Vol. 5, No. 2, Winter 2012, 22-27

22

Land fragmentation in southern Ontario:

A tragedy of the spatial anticommons

Victoria Robson

This study was conducted under the supervision of Jamie Baxter,

Department of Food, Agriculture and Resource Economics; College of Management and Economics,


Competition between agricultural operations, urban transplants, and ecological interests is changing the nature of

property rights and land use in rural Ontario. In a region with valuable ecosystems and climate, soil, and location

traditionally well-suited for crop and livestock production, plot sizes are decreasing as land is subdivided and allocated

to non-agricultural residential use. Although this practice can increase property value for farmers, Michael Heller’s

spatial anticommons may also be observed, such that “each owner receives a core bundle of rights, but in too small a

space for the most efficient use” [2]. The purpose of this paper is to introduce a new application of Heller’s

anticommons theory, examining how the increasingly patchwork-like distribution of rural land parcels can be expected

to affect farm and ecosystem productivity. Ultimately, deadweight loss occurs because neither agricultural nor

ecological economies of scale can be recognized on plots that are too small for efficient use. Using rural planning

reports and habitat ecology studies, trends in the fragmentation process are described and compared to the aims of

provincial land-use policy, including the Provincial Policy Statement, the Greenbelt Act, and the Places to Grow Act.

While the goals of farmers and conservationists may at times seem discrete or incompatible, the anticommons

framework may be used to identify shared challenges. Thus the two parties might consider how collective action could

be used to overcome the difficulties of reuniting subdivided tracts of land.

or as long as humans have laid claim to resources,

society has perceived the benefits of associating all of the

responsibilities attached to an amenity with one

individual. Modern property rights still reflect the basis of

ancient Roman law: “nemo invitus ad communiuonmen

compellitur”, which states “no-one can be forced to have

common property with another” [1]. Rights to private

property, incorporating rights of use, division, and exclusion,

are constructed and distributed to ensure that this maxim is

fulfilled. In his paper, The Tragedy of the Anticommons:

Property in the Transition from Marx to Markets, Heller

introduces the theory of the anticommons, whereby resources

are underused when multiple owners are endowed with the

right to exclude other potential users [2]. Parallel to the

anticommons is Heller’s “spatial anticommons”, in which an

owner is unable to maximize the benefits of his core bundle

of rights because a space is too small to implement them [2].

This paper argues that land fragmentation stemming from the

right to property division has generated a spatial

anticommons in rural Ontario, in which neither agricultural

nor ecological economies of scale can be recognized because

land plots are too small [3]. In addition, the provincial

policies implemented to remedy land fragmentation are

evaluated to determine efficacy in preventing and resolving

the anticommons tragedy.

HELLER’S THEORY OF THE ANTICOMMONS

The concept of the anticommons was first explored by

Michael Heller as a parallel to Hardin’s familiar theory of the

commons. Hardin argues that in a commons scenario, use

rights are shared by a group of people, ultimately leading

myopic, benefit-maximizing individuals to exploit a resource

[4]. In an anticommons scenario, however, multiple owners

are endowed with exclusion rights to a resource, such that no

one has effective rights of use. Whereas Hardin’s commons

results in resource overuse, Heller’s anticommons is prone to

under use [2]. Suboptimal utilization and lost benefit occurs

unless the multiple exclusion-rights holders can reach an

agreement; this misallocation of scarce resources constitutes

an economic loss as much as in the commons.

Furthermore, Heller specifically defines the “spatial

anticommons”: “each owner receives a core bundle of rights,

but in too small a space for the most efficient use” [2]. In the

spatial anticommons, deadweight loss is generated because

units that would maximize value cannot be employed as a

whole. The spatial anticommons has been identified by

Hardin and Schluter in a variety of forms, including rental of

rooms rather than a complete apartment, and harvest of

small-scale private forests rather than large-scale forest tracts

[2] [3]. In both cases, resources go idle, despite potential for

F

Robson Studies by Undergraduate Researchers at Guelph

Vol. 5, No. 2, Winter 2012, 22-27

23

increasing marginal benefits when the spatial scale is

increased.

The tragedy of the spatial anticommons is directly

related to the property rights regime that is applied to a

resource. The prevailing understanding of property rights is

one that defines the context of an individual’s use of a

limited resource [5]. In the case of land, this context includes

the type of use, the division and boundaries of use, and the

conditions under which these divisions can change.

A spatial anticommons in land exists when bundles of

rights are applied to physical parcels that are too small to

generate the maximum potential benefits that could occur if

the parcels were combined. These benefits arise as a stream

of returns from the use of land, such as residential

development, agricultural output, or ecosystem health.

Furthermore, land itself can have a variety of concrete

characteristics. For each set of characteristics, there exists a

land use with the greatest potential for benefits. In turn, each

use requires a minimum parcel size upon which the benefit

stream can be realized.

In a spatial anticommons, property rights either fail to

select for a primary land use that best suits the qualities of

the land itself, or subdivide the land into parcels that are too

small for efficient application of the use. Buchanan and Yoon

proffer that often, this occurs when the individuals creating

and enforcing property rights policy do not have complete

knowledge of a resource’s potential for use, or lack personal

interest in all possible uses of the resource over long periods

of time. Because knowledge is incomplete, or the individual

is not directly invested in maximizing rent from the land, the

greatest potential gains are not captured [6]. Ultimately, there

is nothing ingrained in a piece of land that prescribes what its

property rights should be; instead, economists, landowners,

and other stakeholders rely on policymakers to allocate land

to the best use, in the most efficient parcel size [7].

IDENTIFYING THE SPATIAL ANTICOMMONS IN

AGRICULTURE

In the modern agricultural economy, all of the spatial

rights and responsibilities pertaining to a parcel of land are

associated with a single owner. This rights structure makes it

easier to sell, transfer, or subdivide land, which is necessary

for new firms or individuals to acquire property. Parisi notes

that while this process of subdivision and transfer is

necessary for economic growth, it can also lead to spatial

land fragmentation [1]. This occurs when land is divided into

many non-conforming allotments, ignoring any

complementary characteristics of the original parcel.

In the densely populated and rapidly expanding greater

Golden Horseshoe of southern Ontario, land is a scarce

resource with numerous competing end uses. The fastest-

growing metropolitan area in Canada, the regional population

is expected to climb from 7.5 million people in 2009 to 11.5

million people in 2031 [8]. As population increases, so too

does pressure on land. Pond describes how land that was at

one time occupied predominantly by agriculture, sparse rural

municipalities, and natural areas, is now in demand for non-

agricultural residential development [8]. Between 1990 and

2000, for example, over 15 000 new lots were created on

agricultural land; 80 percent of these lots will be allocated for

residential use. Of the new residential lots, Caldwell and

Dodds-Weir report that half are possessed by rural, non-farm

inhabitants [9]. Some such inhabitants are urbanites, who cite

relocation to the countryside as an escape from “the ills of

the city” [10]. For others, it is an opportunity to retire on a

rural allotment without the responsibilities of a large tract of

agricultural land. Nonetheless, each non-farm lot created in a

traditional rural area fragments the agricultural land base [9].

Consequently, land fragmentation results in a

checkerboard-like distribution of numerous small, isolated

lots allocated to dissimilar land uses. However, land

development is not the only pressure on farmland in southern

Ontario. In addition, the arrangement and distribution of

developed plots amid farm and conservation land tracts may

alter agricultural and ecological systems' abilities to function

efficiently. This paper argues that the small, segregated lots

associated with land fragmentation frequently fall below the

minimum area requirement for efficient agricultural or

ecological use; therefore land fragmentation potentially

presents a spatial anticommons.

Agricultural land is susceptible to the spatial

anticommons tragedy because it is often allocated to uses

that are not best suited to the land characteristics, or

subdivided into parcels too small to maximize agricultural

yield. In many instances, the two faults are correlated.

Southern Ontario has 15.5 percent of Canada’s Class One to

Three farmland, and 56 percent of its Class One [8]. Land in

the region is optimal for agriculture not only because of

excellent soil quality, but also because the climate is well-

suited for a wide variety of crops [11]. However, intensified

growth in the greater Golden Horseshoe creates a

competitive dichotomy in which prime farmland is not

allocated to its most efficient end use. Between 1976 and

1996, the total land lost to urbanization in Ontario was equal

in area to the city of Toronto, and by 2001, 12 percent of the

province’s most suitable farmland was allocated to urban

development [8].

Land as a resource is tangible and inherently fixed;

while its use may change, quantity will never increase.

Unlike some economic inputs, such as labour, land is not

entirely exchangeable between competing end uses.

Undeveloped land, for example, retains development

potential for aggregate extraction, housing, and industry.

However once land has undergone development, its prime

agricultural qualities are lost. While the competing use of

agriculture does not exclude development, development

excludes agriculture.

Furthermore, farmers and developers are myopic: the

owners makes the profit-maximizing decision considering

how long he can expect to receive profit from his land. This

decision comes to the fore as a large demographic of Ontario


Vol. 5, No. 2, Winter 2012, 22-27

24

farmers is rapidly reaching retirement [9]. In the greater

Golden Horseshoe context, the property value of allotments

outside of expanding urban centres is expected to rise as

demand for residential and industrial land increases. This

suggests that in many cases, farmers will choose to earn the

greatest profit by selling or severing land for development

use [12]. Although this act of sale and severance may seem

innocuous, when the pattern of selling, dividing, subdividing

and developing farmland parcels is compounded over time,

the result is tracts of land that are no longer suitable in size

for maximizing agricultural production.

Because agriculture is an intensive use of a non-

renewable, non-mobile resource, the size and geographical

distribution of inputs inherently affects the efficiency of

production [13]. Small parcels of farmland fail to maximize

potential agricultural yield for reasons of economies of scale,

economies of synergy, and increased transaction costs. Like

all markets, agricultural markets are subject to change;

Marsden et al. describe how modern agriculture has become

more complex over time, relying less on small-scale

production to satisfy increasing demand for high quality food

at low prices [14]. Since 1951, the average size of an Ontario

farm grew by 67 percent, while the number of farms

decreased by 62 percent, illustrating the trend towards

intensified, more specialized farming [8]. This trend towards

larger farms emphasizes the importance of the economy of

scale in agriculture, where average costs fall when fixed

costs are spread over a larger number of hectares and

additional returns are generated with each additional hectare

acquired. Furthermore, a farm organized as a single large

parcel rather than a series of fragmented smaller parcels

facilitates the use and transport of equipment and people,

application of fertilizer and pesticides, and installation of

irrigation [15].

Fragmentation of farmland invalidates traditional

economies of synergy, as described by Marsden et al., in

which firms benefit from working in the same vicinity as

other similar firms [14]. In agriculture, synergy manifests in

farmers’ capacity to network, form associations, and share

knowledge. Moreover, economic synergy draws supporting

capital, infrastructure, equipment purveyors, and markets to

rural communities where little business incentive would

otherwise exist. These communities derive branding benefits

from association with quality of origins and traceability,

which is reflected by increased value in the marketplace [14].

When a farming community is fragmented by non-

agricultural residence and development, agricultural service

providers are often pushed out of the market, and the benefits

gained from linked farmland cannot be realized.

Finally, land fragmentation diminishes full benefits by

increasing the transaction costs associated with expanding an

agricultural operation. In an agricultural enterprise, the

simplest way to increase profit is to increase production by

acquiring more business units [14]. When the business unit

(a plot of land) is small, more units must be acquired to

achieve the same addition of area than if the units were

larger. Thus when land is fragmented, farm owners must pay

for more transactions to acquire the land needed to expand

operations. When the plots of land are dispersed

geographically and between owners, it can be impractical or

impossible to acquire land that is for sale and contiguous

with the existing farmstead [9].

This combination of impediments increases the number

of transactions, the time spent negotiating, and the risk that

reasonably-priced adjoining land plots do not exist. The most

efficient use of farmland arises when economies of scale and

synergy exist, and transaction costs are minimized. When

farmland is fragmented, this does not occur; the small size

and dissociated distribution of agricultural land parcels result

in a lower stream of benefits than would exist if the parcels

were reunited. Fundamentally, this inefficiency conjures a

spatial anticommons tragedy.

IDENTIFYING THE SPATIAL ANTICOMMONS IN

ECOLOGY

Although agriculture and residential development are

perhaps the most commonly considered end uses for land in

southern Ontario, land may also be conserved to protect the

ecological integrity of an increasingly anthropogenic

landscape. The land of southern Ontario exhibits value that is

compatible with neither agriculture nor development in the

form of biodiverse forest, watersheds, wetlands, and rare

species’ habitat. Ecological value, however, cannot be

recognized if the plots of undisturbed land are distributed and

divided within an isolating matrix of intensive land use [3].

Schluter informally dubs this concept the “ecological

economy of scale” [3]. The Environmental Commissioner of

Ontario reports that the rapid pace of rural land development

that has created a patchwork arrangement of agricultural land

has also fragmented ecosystems due to a general lack of

understanding and concern for the natural environment [28].

Land fragmentation is manifested in the ecological

context as land-use externalities and habitat fragmentation.

Typical of a fragmented landscape, a large number of small,

dispersed tracts present a greater total perimeter than a small

number of larger tracts. It is along this perimeter, a margin

where natural land meets farmland, that ecosystems are most

susceptible to agricultural externalities. Weersink et al. argue

that agricultural externalities are the greatest threats to rural

ecosystems, and exists in a variety of forms, including soil

erosion, fertilizer runoff, nutrient deposition, and

groundwater contamination [16]. The commonality is that

because harm occurs beyond the farmland boundary,

damages are not assigned to the owner, and there is no

incentive to desist. Externalities are imposed on society by

means of increased water treatment costs and health risks

[16]. The checkerboard of small parcels with differentiated

uses creates an unnecessarily large interface between

ecosystems and agricultural practices. By uniting small

parcels with similar conservation use, the spatial

anticommons caused by marginal agricultural pollution


Vol. 5, No. 2, Winter 2012, 22-27

25

would be decreased and standard agricultural practice would

no longer present a negative externality.

A second adverse environmental impact of land

fragmentation, habitat fragmentation occurs when the

arrangement of small tracts divides a large swathe of

common biological community. Fahrig explains that a

fragmented habitat is characterized by a series of smaller

habitat plots, separated by a distinct matrix of habitat that is

unlike the original [17]. For many species, survival declines

as habitat becomes more restricted in size and isolated from

similar patches [17]. Fleury and Brown add that this is

particularly true of species that are low-density, migratory, or

territorial [18]. Thus ecological spatial anticommons failure

occurs specifically because breeding [19], predation [17],

and foraging success [20] can only be realized on habitat

patches larger than a minimum size. Furthermore, the failure

of a single species population can trigger adverse

implications for the entire trophic chain [17]. In absence of

large habitat space, these flaws will compound: diverse

internal structure will not form, the ecosystem will be

unstable, and the risk of an ecosystem collapse will increase

[18] [21] [22] [23]. Complete, long-term benefits derived

from habitat conservation can only be realized when tracts of

environmentally sensitive land are linked.

THE PROVINCIAL POLICY RESPONSE TO LAND

FRAGMENTATION

Numerous policy responses have been implemented in a

strategic approach to the developing inefficiencies in rural

land occupancy and division. Such policies include the

Provincial Policy Statement, Greenbelt Act, and Places to

Grow Act. While these responses all assume an agricultural,

rather than ecological, basis for response, the approaches are

varied.

The Ontario Provincial Policy Statement (PPS), for

instance, was issued under Section 3 of the Ontario Planning

Act in a 2005 review, and attempts to apply policy-based

planning to the changing nature of land use. In the rural

context, the PPS balances conflict between existing

agricultural and non-agricultural community members, and

minimizing further urbanization of farmland. The first aspect

of the PPS attempts to limit the negative impacts of

traditional farming practices on non-agricultural rural

individuals [24]. For example, the “minimum distance

separation” requirement imposes a setback on livestock

operations, such that the larger the enterprise, the further it

must be from residential property [9]. Although the

anticipation of conflict between neighbours is valid, the

setback requirement is unpopular with farm owners; farmers

claim that minimum distance requirements strictly limit the

feasibility of expanding or establishing a livestock operation.

Indeed, a study calculated that if each one-acre rural

residential lot in Ontario restricts agricultural development

within an 858 metre separation radius, over 7 million acres of

land could be restricted from future use [11]. There are

concerns that as agricultural parcels are subdivided and

residential property encroaches on farmland, the problem

will worsen [11].

In response, the PPS attempts to prevent residential

subdivision, deny new residential lots on prime agricultural

land, and remove the potential for farm owners to further

subdivide farmland into small parcels or to allocate farmland

to non-agricultural use [11]. This directly addresses land

fragmentation by supporting a return to larger, unified farms

[26]. However, reuniting fragmented farmland is not a focus.

The 2005 Greenbelt Act aims to protect farmland for

agricultural production, and prevent urban encroachment

towards natural areas [11]. Justification of the non-

agricultural development moratorium is based upon the

concept of Pigouvian externalities: a farming enterprise

generates positive externalities in the rural community by

supporting a market that would not otherwise exist. In Perth

County, for example, every job on-farm creates 1.26 jobs off-

farm, and every dollar input generates $1.52 in total

agricultural sales [26]. This multiplier effect supports

numerous agriculture-related sectors, and the Greenbelt Act

aims to protect the spillover of benefits that is generally not

accounted for in planning.

While the spillover of benefits is a practical example of

the economy of synergy that supports successful rural

agricultural centres, some rural landowners argue that the

Greenbelt Act prevents them from recognizing the true value

of their property. But limiting development, the benefits of

lot severance and development disappear and property value

may decline.

Finally, the Places to Grow Act presents a regional

growth-based approach to land use planning, embracing the

unique contextual relationship between rural communities

and local economies. Recommendations on the physical and

social capital necessary for community growth are made

based on where people, markets, and specialty land is

expected to exist in the future [11]. The Act addresses land

fragmentation and the spatial anticommons by emphasizing

the benefit of harnessing economies of scale to create

growth. This benefit can only be recognized when land is

parceled and distributed efficiently by use.

OVERCOMING THE SPATIAL ANTICOMMONS

Recommendations for managing the tragedy of the

spatial anticommons in southern Ontario are twofold, and

incorporate reuniting fragmented land parcels of common

use and limiting prospective land fragmentation. The

proposed reunification of fragmented land parcels is no easy

task; indeed the tendency of property to divide rather than

unite can be compared to the scientific law of entropy. Parisi

explains that just as a gradient of energy pushes all closed

systems towards disorder, landscapes fragment because the

economic costs of dividing a parcel of land are less than the

costs of reuniting the pieces [1]. When using policy to

overcome this tendency, legislation must be very carefully


Vol. 5, No. 2, Winter 2012, 22-27

26

critiqued before it is implemented; if land reunification

procedure is redundant or burdens a landowner’s time and

budget, it will generate an entropic disincentive that keeps

landowners from undertaking the initiative altogether.

Furthermore, the characteristics of the land parcels should be

compared to identify fragments that will be easiest to unite,

and determine which will benefit the most from being

reunited [1]. Ultimately, the goal is to maximize ex-post

benefits, and reduce ex-ante financial and procedural

transaction costs associated with re-establishing links

between common-use land parcels.

While the aforementioned provincial policy responses

to land development in rural Ontario attempt to prevent

future farmland fragmentation, minimal focus is placed on

the challenges of maintaining tracts of land with ecological

value, or implementing solutions in a complex regulatory

environment. In the case of agricultural externalities, owners

of property characterized by watersheds or woodlands may

instead seek out a solution based upon a common law

framework to prevent the trespass of pollution at the property

perimeter. In “ecology of scale” cases, the policy approach

to habitat unification traditionally implements either habitat

corridors or long-term ecosystem protection plans [27]. Both

approaches, however, are case specific, and must be tailored

to specific species, habitat types, and surrounding land use

and ownership.

Furthermore, many farmers are concerned that existing

policies ignore their interests as landowners. A fundamental

criticism of existing policy is that when development and

division potential of farmland is removed, the market value

of farmland declines. It is troubling that this occurs at a time

when agricultural household incomes are falling [14]. A

survey of Ontario farmers by Caldwell and Dodds-Weir

found that many consider it a right to perform a lot severance

at some point in time, and in some cases, it is the only option

for generating the profit necessary to sustain a farm [9].

Farmers plan to use income raised by selling or subdividing

land to developers when structuring long-term financial

arrangements. Therefore it is recommended that further

policy resolve the problems associated with falling

agricultural investment and equity before limiting a farmer’s

options for farmland use [9].

CONCLUSION AND SUMMARY

The system of property rights initially developed to

prevent inefficient overuse of common land have resulted in

a tragedy of inefficient underuse in southern Ontario. Land

tends to fragment into plots that are too small to maximize

either agricultural or ecological economies of scale. While a

variety of provincial legislation exists to prevent farmland

fragmentation, the policy’s ability to balance short-term

development and subdivision benefits with long-term

environmental and agricultural value is mixed [12]. If a

policy-based framework is to effectively re-establish the

“black-hole” of benefit lost to inefficient division and

distribution, it must consider the ecological, agricultural, and

economic suitability of parcels for reunification.

With a final goal of maximizing long-term benefits

derived from land, overcoming fragmentation will leave

future generations with the land bases necessary for

functioning agricultural and ecological systems. Effective

policy must strike a balance between granting rural

landowners the benefits associated with severing and selling

land, and the value gained by keeping economies and

ecologies of scale whole. Resolving the tragedy of the spatial

anticommons by inhibiting fragmentation and reuniting plots

will increase the agricultural and ecological scale benefits of

rural land.

REFERENCES

1. Parisi, F. (2002) Entropy in Property. The American

Journal of Comparative Law, 50:3, pp. 595-632

2. Heller, M. (1998) The Tragedy of the Anticommons:

Property in the Transition from Marx to Markets.

Harvard Law Review, 111, pp. 621-688

3. Schluter, A. (2008) Small-scale European forestry, an

anticommons? International Journal of the Commons,

2:2, pp. 248-268

4. Hardin, G. (1968) The Tragedy of the Commons.

Science, 162:3859, pp. 1243-1248.

5. Coelho, M., J. Filipe & M. Ferreira. (2009) Tragedies

on Natural Resources: a Commons and Anticommons

Approach. Technical University of Lisbon, Department

of Economics Working Paper.

6. Buchanen, J.M. & Y.J. Yoon. (2000) Symmetric

Tragedies: Commons and Anticommons. Journal of

Law and Economics, 43:1, pp. 1-13

7. Gibbs, C.J.N. & D.W. Bromley. (1989) Institutional

arrangements for management of rural resource

property regimes. In F. Berkes (ed.) (1991) Common

property resources: Ecology and community-based

development. London: Belhaven Press.

8. Pond, D. (2009) Ontario’s Greenbelt: Growth

Management, Farmland Protection, and Regime Change

in Southern Ontario. Canadian Public Policy, 35:4, pp.

413-432

9. Caldwell, W.J. & C. Dodds-Weir. (2003) An

assessment of the impact of rural non-farm

development on the viability of Ontario’s agricultural

industry (Phase II Report). OMAFRA Rural Non-Farm

Development Project.

10. Abelsohn, A., R. Bray, C. Vakil, & D. Elliott. (2005)

Report on Public Health and Urban Sprawl in Ontario.

Environmental Health Committee, Ontario College of

Family Physicians, pp. 53

11. Caldwell, W.J. & W. Hilts. (2005) Farmland

Preservation: Innovative approaches in Ontario. Soil

and Water Conservation Society, 60:3, pp.66A-69A


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12. Russell, R. (2003) Equity in Eden: Can environmental

protection and affordable housing comfortably co-exist

in suburbia? Environmental Affairs, 30, pp. 437-487

13. Krugman, P. (1991) Increasing Returns and Economic

Geography. The Journal of Political Economy, 99:3, pp.

483-499

14. Marsden, T., J. Banks, & G. Bristow. (2002) The social

management of rural nature: understanding agrarian-

based rural development. Environment and Planning,

34, pp. 809-825

15. Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food & Rural Affairs

(2010) A Guide to Lot Creation in Prime Agricultural

Areas. Government of Ontario. Retrieved from

http://www.omafra.gov.on.ca/english/landuse/facts/lot_

draft.htm

16. Weersink, A., J. Livernois, J.F. Shogren, & J.S. Shortle.

(1998) Economic instruments and environmental policy

in agriculture. Canadian Public Policy, 24:3, pp. 309-

327

17. Fahrig, L. (2003) Effects of Habitat Fragmentation on

Biodiversity. Annual Review of Ecology, Evolution, and

Systematics, 34, pp.487-515

18. Fleury, A.M. & R.D. Brown. (1997) A framework for

the design of wildlife conservation corridors specific

application to southwestern Ontario. Landscape and

Urban Planning, 37, pp. 163-186

19. Kurki, S., A. Nikula, P. Helle, & H. Linden. (2000)

Landscape fragmentation and forest composition effects

on grouse breeding success in boreal forests. Ecology,

81, pp. 1985-1987

20. Mahan, C. & R. Yahner. (1999) Effects of forest

fragmentation on behaviour patterns in the eastern

chipmunk. Canadian Journal of Zoology, 77, pp. 1991-

1997

21. Bowell, G.P., N.F. Britton, & N.R. Franks. (1998)

Habitat fragmentation, percolation theory, and the

conservation of a keystone species. Proc. R. Soc.

London, Ser. B, 265, pp. 1921-1925

22. Burkey, T.V. (1999) Extinction in fragmented habitats

predicted from stochastic birth-death processes with

density dependence. Journal of Theoretical Biology,

199, pp.395-406

23. With, K.A. & A.W. King. (1999) Dispersal success on

fractal landscapes: a consequence of lacunarity

thresholds. Landscape Ecology, 14, pp. 73-82

24. Ontario Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing.

(2005) Provincial Policy Statement. Toronto: Queen’s

Printer for Ontario.

25. Vyn, R. & B. Deaton. (2008) The Effect of the

Greenbelt on Farmland Property Values. Presentation

to the Farm Level Policy Network, October 23, 2008.

26. Cummings, H. (2000) The Economic Impacts of

Agriculture on the Economy of Perth County. Human

Resources Development Canada/ Perth County

Federation of Agriculture.

27. O’Hara, E.M. (2009) Moving from Landscape

Connectivity Theory to Land Use Planning Practice:

Ontario as a Case Study. University of Waterloo.

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(2000) Changing Perspectives: Annual Report

1999/2000.


Vol. 5, No. 2, Winter 2012, 28-36

28

Effect of road salt application on

soil conductivity in Canmore, Alberta

Michael Zima

This study was conducted under the supervision of Professor Aaron Berg,

Department of Geography, College of Social and Applied Human Sciences,


Road salting is a wide-spread practice employed to increase driver safety during the winter months. Salt is, however,

very mobile in the environment, toxic to some vegetation and invertebrates in high concentrations, and can seep into

aquifers through groundwater recharge. Conductivity of roadside soils was measured as an estimate of soil salinity on

the Trans-Canada Highway running through Canmore, Alberta on four consecutive days. Road size and elevation

above the surrounding topography were deduced as key factors in determining where highest conductivity was found.

Using a cubic polynomial equation for regression, peak conductivity values were estimated to occur at 12.1 m from the

edge of the highway. Levels as measured from August 29th to September 1st 2011 demonstrated that soils were

weakly to moderately saline. Although excessive soil salinity may be an issue following the spring melts, levels

measured at this time of year were not considered to be of any significant environmental concern.

ransportation is a vital component of modern society.

Dependency on the movement of people and goods has

increased drastically in the last century – it is an essential

aspect of every-day life. In temperate regions, winter brings

forth decreased temperatures and freezing precipitation

which considerably reduce traction for vehicles. A variety of

methods are used to maintain roads in an attempt to increase

safety for motorists. Authorities responsible for road

maintenance make use of salts, brines, and sands to mitigate

these hazards. The industrialized production of salt has made

the substance abundant and affordable and it is thus used in

various manners to increase road traction, by lowering the

freezing point of water and delaying the onset of ice

formation. Unfortunately, these practices cause unfavourable

environmental effects. When aqueous, salt is highly mobile,

leading to advective and diffusional transport away from the

source, potentially resulting in saline groundwater recharge

[1]. Since the contamination does not operate as a point

source, and rather a “line source” [2], characterizing potential

environmental impacts can be a complex process. This

denotes serious implications for water quality as

contamination in both ground and surface waters may be

quite difficult to model.

Researching the dynamics of salt runoff from roadways

is an excellent demonstration of the importance in

understanding how humans affect the biophysical

environment. Although effective techniques for managing

our transportation needs in the winter have been developed, it

is critical to be aware of the ways in which both biotic and

abiotic systems are altered. Once an understanding of the

mechanisms at work is established, there is a greater capacity

for improving these techniques so that more sustainable

practices are implemented.

The need for better understanding is given greater

context when looking specifically at Canmore, Alberta. In

their Environmental Sustainability Action Plan, the Town of

Canmore presents a “desired future state”, in which limited

harmful compounds are used in municipal operations. Where

alternatives are available, the town strives to opt for

substances that are natural and non-toxic [3]. The importance

of this motive is well-exemplified through local geological

analyses; the Alberta Geological Survey reports that the Bow

River floodplain is composed of Quaternary-period sediment

deposits including combinations of till, alluvium, colluvium,

gravel, sand and silt [4]. This makes for an active

hydrogeological setting with significant interaction between

surface waters and groundwater [5]. Additionally, regional

concerns for water as a dwindling resource are on the rise in

the wake of intensified climate change, due to the fact that

alpine biomes are especially vulnerable [6]. Maintaining the

quality of existing freshwater resources is thus paramount.

Mason et al. (1999) state that when point sources of salt are

eliminated, environmental concentrations usually decrease

back to pre-usage levels as a result of their mobile nature [7].

Consequently, any research focused on investigating how

salt manifests itself in a road-side environment is practically

valuable for potential mitigation initiatives.

T

Zima Studies by Undergraduate Researchers at Guelph

Vol. 5, No. 2, Winter 2012, 28-36

29

The aim of the research was to investigate the spatial

distribution of salt in road-side soils to determine if defined

accumulation patterns were present. This study asks, (1) “Is

road salting along the Trans-Canada Highway (TCH) in

Canmore playing a significant role in the chemical alteration

of adjacent soils?” and (2) “Is it possible to predict where the

highest concentrations will be located in relation to the road

surface so that we can better mitigate the environmental

effects?”

Assuming consistent physical soil properties, it is

hypothesized that larger roads cause greater salinity in

adjacent soils, as more salt is likely to be applied and washed

away. In this case, larger roadways would constitute a

heavier burden in the immediate ecological vicinity.

LITERATURE REVIEW

Previous research regarding salinity in Banff National

Park (northwest of Canmore) has indeed shown that human

activity is affecting salinity in sensitive glacial rivers such as

the Bow. For example, sodium and chloride concentrations,

mainly attributed to road salt application, average up to 4

times higher at the eastern boundary of Banff National Park

than just upstream (about 60 km) at Lake Louise [8]. More

importantly, Schindler (2000) found that there was a

significant increase in salt levels measured downstream of

Canmore as compared to upstream concentrations; this

clearly exemplifies human culpability [8].

De-icing agent storage is also a leading factor of

contamination. High salt levels in groundwater can usually

be traced through well monitoring and field testing back to

the source [9]. It is estimated that at least 0.3% of the total

stored mass of de-icing agents leach every year, and hence

groundwater quality near storage facilities can be

significantly impacted [9]. Even after such point sources are

eliminated, their environmental presence remains substantial

for up to five years [9]. A recent study by the USGS suggests

that fluvial chloride levels exceed EPA chronic toxicity

thresholds in 100% of urban watercourses of south-east

Wisconsin [10].

In aquatic environments, some invertebrates show

severe impairment at acute saline exposures of 10 g/L.

Various species in the Gammarus genus (amphipod

crustaceans) exhibit major issues with mobility when

exposed to such concentrations in only a short time [11].

Increased salinity in rivers has also been identified as a major

stressor for aquatic insects, as noted by a significant loss in

diversity [12].

Terrestrial vegetation is also significantly affected by

increased salt usage. The collective outcome of road salting

in the Banff area has created prevalent localized damage to

roadside soils and conifers [13][14]. These trends have been

noted extensively along the TCH corridor, but have also been

found on secondary roads [13]. Other ecological effects for

flora consist of stunted flower growth and dehydration from

osmotic forces [15]. In coniferous ecosystems similar to the

region in which Canmore is located, the application of road

salt can have dramatic consequences for the species

composition at high proximity to roadways [16] – this occurs

as a result of drastic change in the chemical properties of

soil, all incurred by increased salinity. Another study by the

USGS explains that a major mechanism for salinity-related

plant die offs is the restriction of nutrient uptake, as major

cations are less available due to the increased presence of

sodium and chloride [17]. It is also interesting to note that

some invasive species, such as giant reed plants

(Phragmites), are much more resistant to saline

environments than native plants and will often out-compete

them for water and nutrients [18].

As salt accumulates in melt pools at the onset of spring,

ungulates have been found to roam alongside highways in

search of briny waters. Through adaptive measures, many

species have learned that where natural salt licks are limited,

roadways can provide an effective substitute to satisfy this

nutritional requirement [19]. Consequently, a high number of

roadkill incidents involving moose in both Ontario and

Finland are attributed to increased roadside salt

concentrations in the late winter and early spring [19].

Although less effective as a de-icing compound, calcium

magnesium acetate (CMA) has been found to be much less

attractive to ungulates in search of salt licks [20].

It is also important to be aware of the aqueous

geochemical mechanisms associated with increased salinity.

When salt concentrations rise in soil and aquatic

environments, the chemical equlibria of most compounds are

effectively altered. Mercury, for example, readily dissociates

from organic complexes within the sediment substrate in

increasingly saline environments [21]. Heavy metals like

mercury bioaccumulate within organisms and are thus a

severe threat to aquatic and soil-based life forms. Norrström

(2005) found that although lead is quite immobile in most

soils, the accumulation of salt in roadside environments is so

high that lead becomes mobilized and incorporated into

groundwater recharge through colloid-assisted transport [22].

Zinc has also been noted to have increased mobility [23],

while potassium, magnesium, and calcium tend to increase in

concentration with chloride [7].

Evidently, abundant research has been done to

determine typical chemical and biological effects of road

salting. However, until recently, little had been done to

specifically spatially characterize the saline nature of soils

near a line source such as the TCH – Olofsson and Lundmark

(2009) and Zehetner et al. (2009) provide the few exceptions

to this. These two studies were completed in Sweden [24]

and Austria [25], respectively, and there have been no such

notable spatially quantitative analyses of salinity in or near

Banff National Park – or even in Canada for that matter.

Olofsson and Lundmark (2009) installed permanent

electrodes at varying depths and distances from a motorway.

Monthly measurements of resistivity were taken to

distinguish between natural variations and those from road

salt inputs. Zehetner et al. (2009) completed a similar study


Vol. 5, No. 2, Winter 2012, 28-36

30

on a smaller roadway; this was done by analyzing soil

samples for road salt residues. They found an exponential-

like decrease in salt content with distance from the road. The

design of a similar experiment in Canmore, Alberta, as

demonstrated in this study, utilized some comparable

methods.

METHODS AND EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN

Although there are a number of possible techniques for

determining salinity in the soil, measuring conductivity was

ideal for two reasons. Firstly, conductivity is known as an

accurate estimate of ionic strength in a soil solution through

the equation I = 0.013ω, where ‘I’ is ionic strength in mol/L

and ‘ω’ is conductivity in S/m [26]. The constant may vary

slightly when site-specific experiments are conducted. Ionic

strength is then linked to the concentration of ions in the soil

solution through the equation I = ½ Σ(c+z+2 + c-z-

2), where c+

and c- are the concentrations of cations and anions,

respectively, while z+ and z- are the cationic and anionic

valencies, respectively [27]. So a higher concentration of Na+

and Cl- caused by increased road salt application would yield

greater ionic strength, and hence higher conductivity.

Although this relationship is not perfectly correlated, it

serves as an effective approximation [26]. Secondly, the use

of a portable conductivity probe allows for repeated and

efficient in-situ measurements, without the need to sample

soils, transport them, and analyze them in the lab. This

allowed for more data points in the time allocated for

sampling, and greater flexibility when making site visits. The

probe used was a Hanna HI-98331 Direct Soil Conductivity

Tester, which automatically calibrated conductivity readings

depending on the temperature. It had a range of 0.00 to 4.00

S/m, a resolution of 0.01 S/m, and an accuracy of ±0.05 S/m.

The location of the study was determined in a two-part

process. Before arriving on site, satellite pictures were

surveyed to designate three general road categories for

sampling. The first was the TCH – this was the main target

of the study as it was presumed that the highest conductivity

levels would be found here. The second division was for

major municipal roads, so that conductivity levels in town

could be compared to those measured on the TCH. Main

roads in Canmore which fit this criterion were Bow Valley

Trail and Railway Avenue. Lastly, a control site was sought.

Residential neighbourhoods worked well with this stipulation

because, according to municipal salting routes for Canmore,

they had a lower salt application rate. Residential

neighbourhoods near the downtown area appeared suitable,

as well as the Benchlands Trail and Three Sisters

communities.

Once on site in Canmore, these prospective sites were

visited and assessed for adequacy. The main criteria

considered were accessibility, practicality (sites not

excessively distant from each other), transect length (long

enough to get sufficient sampling points), soil variability

(uniform enough along the entire transect), and topography

(as flat as possible). Figure 1 shows the layout for all

sampling sites; measurements for the “major municipal road”

classification were carried out on Bow Valley Trail (BVT),

and “control” measurements were completed on Benchlands

Trail (BLT). One transect was designated for each side of the

road at the BVT and BLT sites. For the TCH site, three

transects were selected for each side of the road. This was

done so that variability between sites along the TCH could

be examined. It should be noted that TCH transects were not

aligned directly across from each other – this was due to the

site criteria as described above. However, transects were

Figure 1. Map of east Canmore showing the locations of Trans-Canada Highway (TCH), Bow Valley Trail (BVT), and Benchlands Trail (BLT) measurement sites

Figure 2. Image showing a typical transect with sampling points – note there are proportionally more closer to the roadway


Vol. 5, No. 2, Winter 2012, 28-36

31

grouped as north/south pairs for simplification during

graphical analyses.

Once transects were selected, sampling points were

designated and marked with fluorescent ribbons. This was

done in such a manner that sampling point density was

highest near the road (see Figure 2). As shown in other

literature [24][25], the largest gradient in salt content is quite

proximal to the road surface; by placing more sampling

points closer to the road, changes in conductivity as a

function of distance from the road’s edge could be noted with

greater precision.

Before visiting each site, the conductivity meter was

calibrated in a Milwaukee 1.413 S/m KCl solution standard.

When taking measurements, a spade was used to homogenize

the top 10 cm of the soil. Although an ideal analysis would

have measured the conductivity of soil horizons below the

surface as well, the soil layer near some road surfaces was

not thick enough to do so. If the surface was too dry to insert

the probe, the soil was saturated with water. The conductivity

of this water was measured to be below the resolution of the

probe, and thus it did not affect readings in the soil. For each

sampling point, multiple readings were taken, ensuring that

the value obtained was consistent. These values were

recorded for each transect, at each site, for each of the four

sampling days (August 29th to September 1st).

Although the primary objective was rooted in spatial

analysis, daily repeated sampling procedures took place for

four days. This coincided with a major precipitation event

(29-Aug: 0.0mm; 30-Aug: 3.2 mm; 31-Aug: 12.7 mm; 1-

Sep: 0.5 mm) which took place following a two-week

drought [28]. This allowed for an investigation into the

temporal variability associated with heavy rains and

consequent leaching.

Figure 3. Trans-Canada Highway conductivity levels as measured at the same two transects over four days – amount of precipitation is shown

for each day.

Figure 4. Bow Valley Trail conductivity levels as measured at the same two transects over four days – amount of precipitation is shown for each

day


Vol. 5, No. 2, Winter 2012, 28-36

32

RESULTS

Trans-Canada Highway (TCH)

Conductivity levels at the road’s edge were quite low,

but increased sharply with distance (see Figure 3) for the first

5 to 10 m. Conductivity generally peaked around 10 m from

the road surface, and gradually declined as distance

increased. On the south side of the TCH, peak levels were

found between 0.30 and 0.35 S/m, while on the north side

they peaked around 0.25 S/m. Over the four-day period, there

were no drastic shifts in the conductivity trends with

distance. Measurements on days three and four (green and

yellow curves, respectively, in Figure 3) for the south

transect, however, showed non-conforming elevated values

at 22 and 37 m from the road. On these days, the specific

sampling points were located in an area of standing water.

Bow Valley Trail (BVT)

The two transects of BVT show quite different results

(see Figure 4). On the north side, conductivity values are low

at the road’s edge and remain relatively unchanged with

increasing distance from the road. There is a slight noticeable

peak at 3 m from the road but otherwise, the majority of

values are between 0.10 and 0.20 S/m. On the south transect,

values at the road’s edge are very high – the highest recorded

value for the experiment was found here at 0.99 S/m. At 3 m

from the roadside, the conductivity drops off rapidly. From

the 3 m mark onwards, conductivity values remain steady

between 0.20 and 0.30 S/m. For both north and south sides,

there are no drastic changes in conductivity trends with

distance over the four days.

Benchlands Trail (BLT)

Conductivity levels remain low on both the north and

south transects, never exceeding 0.16 S/m. There are no

evident peaks in the data or trends for conductivity with

distance from the road’s edge (see Figure 5). Over the four

day period, there are no drastic shifts in the distribution of

these values.

Spatial Variability on the Trans-Canada Highway (TCH,

TCH-West, TCH-East)

Figure 6 shows three different transects for the TCH

analyzed only on day four for spatial variability. The original

TCH transect is used (yellow curve in Figure 3), in addition

to two more transects – one east of the original (blue curve),

and one west of it (maroon curve). The central TCH transect

on the south side, as previously noted, has data points at 22

and 37 m from the road which were located in standing

water. Otherwise, there was only a slight variation in the

peak values for conductivity – they occurred approximately

between 5 and 15 m from the roadway. As visible in Figure

6, there is not a great deal of variation in the shape of the

conductivity curves from the three pairs of transects,

although this is much clearer on the north side than the south

side.

Non-Linear Regression as a Model

Motulsky and Ransnas (1987) state that non-linear

regression can only be used when there is no error in the

measurements of the independent variable [29]. In this

experiment, the conductivity probe has an accuracy of ±0.05

S/m (dependent variable), but the measured distances to road

(independent variable) had effectively zero error. As a result,

Figure 5. Benchlands Trail conductivity levels as measured at the same two transects over four days – amount of precipitation is shown for

each day


Vol. 5, No. 2, Winter 2012, 28-36

33

non-linear regression provided an effective tool for

modelling conductivity levels.

Data from all transects of the TCH were compiled onto

one graph to assess correlation – this includes north and

south transects of the main TCH site for all four days (Figure

3), as well as the north/south transect pairs for TCH-East and

TCH-West on day four (Figure 6), for a total of twelve

transects. A scatter plot of all data points shows that the

correlation between the independent and dependent variables

is likely non-linear (see Figure 7). Conductivity values

obtained at sampling points in standing water were removed

from this analysis to improve correlation (see Discussion).

By utilizing non-linear regression in the form of a cubic

polynomial equation (see Figure 7), one can make an

estimation of where peak conductivity values will occur in

relation to the roadway. Through an iterative process, the

cubic equation y = 0.0000334x3 - 0.00231x

2 + 0.0415x +

0.0358 is formulated, and a peak expected value of 0.257

S/m is obtained at a distance of 12.1 m from the road. This is

accompanied by an R2-value of 0.6058, compared to only

0.0415 for a simple linear regression.

DISCUSSION

Conductivity levels appear to be highest on the TCH,

followed by BVT, and then BLT, at which the measurements

are presumed representative of background levels in the area.

Conductivity seems to be positively correlated with road

size, as multi-lane highways are likely to experience greater

salt application than main roads and residential streets.

According to the cubic polynomial regression model for the

TCH, peak conductivity values for the specific conditions

and time of year can be estimated at 0.257 S/m, 12.1 m from

the road’s edge. The non-linear approximation is much better

than the linear one, yielding an R2-value of 0.6058, but this

could be reasonably deduced simply by visually inspecting

the scatter plot. The second point of inflection for the cubic

function occurs at 34.7 m, indicating that this model is only

applicable for distances up to 34.7 m from the road (see

Figure 7).

The Alberta Ministry of Agriculture and Rural

Development (ARD) provides soil salinity ratings based on

in-situ electrical conductivity values to categorize plant

tolerance of salt-affected soils. For soil depths up to 60 cm,

0.2 to 0.4 S/m is classified as “weakly saline” while 0.4 to

0.8 S/m is classified as “moderately saline” [30]. In

comparing values obtained for this study, the majority of

tested soils fall under the “weakly saline” category.

Considering the fact that these measurements were taken in

late August and early September, the same locations would

likely be classified as “strongly saline” in the early spring

following snowmelt, as high concentrations of salt from

runoff would be entering the soil and causing potentially

toxic conditions [30]. The fact that salinity can still be

measured in the late summer indicates that road salt has a

year-round presence, even though it is only applied for a few

months in the winter.

On days three and four, the south transect for the TCH

site had standing water at 22 and 37 m from the roadway as a

result of heavy rains. These points were removed from the

regression model because of abnormally elevated

conductivity values, as the sampling points were underwater.

This may infer that the heavy rains elevated the water table

to the surface. Because groundwater becomes more saline

than surface water as a result of high anthropogenic

extraction [31] (as in Canmore), it is also possible that these

conductivity measurements were not representative of the

true soil salinity.

For the south transect on BVT, abnormally high

conductivity was discovered within the first 2 m from the

roadway on all four days. This infers that (1) there may have

been an unusually large amount of salt-concentrated

Figure 6. Trans-Canada Highway (yellow), TCH-East (blue), and TCH-West (maroon) conductivity levels as measured on day four


Vol. 5, No. 2, Winter 2012, 28-36

34

snowmelt, (2) leaching of the salts was being restricted

causing accumulation, or (3) an external factor other than

chemical composition of the soil was causing increased

conductivity (e.g. metallic object, live underground wires).

Across the three pairs of transects on the TCH, no

major differences were noted in the shape of the conductivity

curves (see Figure 6). Had this experiment been repeated

with more data points and yielded a similar result, it could be

argued that these conductivity patterns were expected for the

entire stretch of the TCH through Canmore, assuming similar

soil physics, hydrogeology, and road layout (an unlikely

scenario).

The high variability in precipitation and soil moisture

over the four-day period allowed for an analysis of how

conductivity levels change after rain. The fact that the

conductivity levels did not change significantly with distance

over the four days implies that (1) the heavy rainfall did not

notably contribute to increased leaching, or (2) salt

concentrations had reached steady-state conditions, where

increased leaching did not draw more salt downwards.

Although the precipitation had a limited effect on salinity at

the surface, the rain events would have likely increased the

downward leaching of salts in deeper soil horizons.

In referring back to the research objectives of this

study, it seems as though road salting is not having year-

round deleterious effects on adjacent soils. This may be

likely, however, during the spring melt period when salt

runoff is highest – this would have to be verified through

similar research at that time of year. It is important to note

that increased salt concentrations are indeed being noted next

to roadways well beyond the spring melt period. With

sufficient data, it appears possible to predict where peak

salinity will occur in relation to the road’s edge with the use

of non-linear regression. As wider roads do seem to have a

greater effect on soil salinity from increased salt application,

the hypothesis is justified.

CONCLUSION

Using conductivity as an estimate of soil salinity

generated by road salting is an efficient and cost-effective

method. Estimating the amount of salinity generated as well

as the location of highest concentration is very dependent on

the road size and design. A cubic polynomial function was

used to estimate peak conductivity alongside the TCH in

Canmore, Alberta and produced a value of 12.1 m from the

roadway. A study in Sweden on a large motorway similar in

size to the TCH found lowest resistance (peak conductivity)

around 5 m from the roadway [24]. In addition, an Austrian

study on a smaller roadway found peak chloride levels within

1-2 m of the road’s edge [25]. This aligns well with a model

(see Figure 8) adapted from dispersion mechanisms

presented by Labadia and Buttle (1996), which shows that

larger, more elevated roadways will have accumulation of

snow and meltwater further from the edge of the road, where

the slope levels out [1]. This assumes the soil is physically

uniform, as increased complexity of such a system makes it

much harder to predict dispersion dynamics. Although

salinity was only investigated at the soil surface, it would

have been very useful to also examine deeper soil horizons

(1-2 m in depth) as done by Olofsson and Lundmark (2009).

Understanding how salt accumulates alongside

roadways has noteworthy implications on watershed

management techniques. The mobile nature of salt makes it a

difficult environmental contaminant to manage. From

roadways, it runs off rapidly in surface waters affecting

nearby aquatic habitats and can easily infiltrate aquifers,

causing regional issues for drinking water. Having the ability

Figure 7. Comparison of linear and non-linear (cubic polynomial) regression methods for Trans-Canada Highway data points


Vol. 5, No. 2, Winter 2012, 28-36

35

to pinpoint where salinity is highest after a spring melt can

benefit engineering initiatives for runoff treatment. Further

research should be done regarding potential effectiveness of

these kinds of projects. Knowledge of salinity accumulation

patterns is also critical for planting appropriate plant species.

By ensuring roadside plants are sufficiently salt-tolerant,

vegetation die offs are limited, thus ensuring proper soil

retention, mitigation of erosion, and increased natural

treatment of saline waters. Due to the extensive safety

benefits of road salting, it seems exceedingly unlikely that

the practice will desist in the near future. The extensive

development of natural or engineered attenuation systems is

consequently highly recommended.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The author would like to thank Dr. Aaron Berg from the

University of Guelph Department of Geography for his

direction and advice during the field sampling period, as well

as his assistance in editing the paper. Expenses for the field

trip were partially covered by the Arthur D. Latornell Travel

Grant.

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<http://www1.agric.gov.ab.ca/$department/deptdocs.nsf/

all/agdex3303>.

31. Van Weert F, van der Gun J, Reckman J. 2009. Global

Overview of Saline Groundwater Occurrence and

Genesis. International Groundwater Resources

Assessment Centre.


Vol. 5, No. 2, Winter 2012, 37-43

37

Cassini- and Catalan-like formulas for

polygonal numbers and simplex numbers

Thomas Jeffery

This study was conducted under the supervision of Professor Allan Willms,

Department of Mathematics and Statistics, College of Physical and Engineering Science,


Cassini’s formula and Catalan’s formula are two results from the theory of Fibonacci numbers. This article derives

results similar to these, however instead of applying to Fibonacci numbers, they are applied to polygonal numbers and

simplex numbers. Triangular numbers are considered first. We then generalize to polygonal and simplex numbers.

For polygonal numbers the properties of determinants are used to simplify calculations. For simplex numbers Pascal’s

Theorem is used.

1 INTRODUCTION

The Fibonacci sequence is defined by the following recurrence relation:

Definition 1: ,

The first few Fibonacci numbers are: 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, …

The following proposition follows from Definition 1.

Proposition 1:

√ , where

√

and

√

Definition 1 is usually referred to as the Fibonacci recurrence relation. Proposition 1 is known as Binet’s Formula. Cassini’s

formula, and to a lesser extent Catalan’s formula, are two of the most fundamental results in the theory of Fibonacci numbers.

These two formulas are as follows:

Cassini’s Formula:

= , for every positive integer n

Catalan’s Formula:

= , for all positive integers n and k where

For proofs of Binet, Cassini, and Catalan formulas see [1]. This article addresses the following two problems:

Problem 1: Given the sequence: { } , we would like to find a simple characterization of the sequence { }, such that:

Throughout this article the previous equation shall be called Cassini’s formula for the sequence { }.

Jeffery Studies by Undergraduate Researchers at Guelph

Vol. 5, No. 2, Winter 2012, 37-43

38

Problem 2: Given the sequence: { } , we would like to find a simple characterization of the sequence { }, such that:

Throughout this article the previous equation shall be called Catalan’s formula for the sequence { }. Clearly, Cassini’s formula is a special case of Catalan’s formula. Thus, if we can solve Problem 2, then the solution to

Problem 1 will follow as the special case where k=1. The focus of this article is on solving these two problems for two special

classes of sequences. These are the sequence of polygonal numbers and the sequence of simplex numbers. Section 2 of this

article solves Problems 1 and 2 for the sequence of triangular numbers. Triangular numbers are a good place to start because,

as the reader will soon see, they are both polygonal numbers and simplex numbers. Section 3 of this article solves Problem 2

for the sequence of polygonal numbers. The solution to Problem 1 for polygonal numbers then follows as a corollary. Finally,

Section 4 of this article solves Problem 1 for the sequence of simplex numbers.

2. TRIANGULAR NUMBERS

The sequence of triangular numbers is defined by the following recurrence relation:

Definition 2 ,

Triangular numbers have the property that if is a triangular number then objects can be arranged to form a triangle. The

first four triangular numbers are: 1, 3, 6, and 10. These four numbers can be arranged into triangles as follows:


Vol. 5, No. 2, Winter 2012, 37-43

39

It can be shown that the following Proposition follows from Definition 2.

Proposition 2

∑

We now derive a Cassini like formula for the sequence of triangular numbers using Proposition 2:

=

=

=

=

=

Thus we have the following Theorem.

Theorem 1: (Cassini’s Formula for Triangular Numbers)

, for every positive integer .

This theorem appears in [2]. Also take note, that every major result derived in this article, is in some way or another, a

generalization of Theorem 1.

We now derive a generalization of Theorem 1. Once again we shall use Proposition 2.

=

( ( )( ) )

=

( )

=

( )

=

( )

=

=

=

=

=

=

Thus, we have proved:

Theorem 2: (Catalan’s Formula for Triangular Numbers)

where n and k are positive integers and

We now present an alternative proof of Theorem 2. This proof involves the following lemmas. Lemma 1 is the definition of

the determinant of a two by two matrix. Lemmas 2 and 3 are properties of determinants of a two by two matrix. These

properties can be generalized to a square matrix of any size see [3], however for the purpose of this article, properties of two by

two matrices will suffice. The theory of determinants simplifies the alternate proof of theorem 2 although it is not entirely

necessary. Lemma 4, which appears in [2], states that the sum of two consecutive triangular numbers is a square number.

Lemmas 5 and 6, which also appear in [2], follow from Proposition 2 of triangular numbers as a sum.

Lemma 1

|

|


Vol. 5, No. 2, Winter 2012, 37-43

40

Lemma 2

|

| |

| , for all

Lemma 3

|

| |

| , for all

Lemma 4 Proof

=

=

( )

=

=

Lemma 5

Proof

= ∑ , by Proposition 2

= ∑ ∑

= ( )

= ∑ , since there are terms in this series

= , by Proposition 2

Lemma 6 =

Proof

∑ , by Definition

= ∑ ∑

= ( )

= ∑ , since there are terms in this series

=

We are now ready to give the alternate proof of Theorem 2. We begin by expressing the left side of the equation in terms of

determinants. We then simplify the expression using the previous lemmas.

|

| , by Lemma 1

= |

| , by Lemmas 5 and 6

= |

| , by Lemma 2 with

= |

| , by Lemma 3 with

= ( ( , by Lemma 1

= , by Proposition 2

=

= , by lemma 4

= = , by Proposition 2

=

QED


Vol. 5, No. 2, Winter 2012, 37-43

41

3. POLYGONAL NUMBERS

Polygonal numbers are defined by the following recurrence relation:

Definition 3

, m and n are positive integers, ,

Polygonal numbers have the property that if is the nth m-gonal number then

objects can be arranged to form a polygon

with sides. For example and so 22 objects can be arranged to form a pentagon as follows:

The following propositions follow from Definition 3.

Proposition 3

∑

we let then Definition 3 is the same as Definition 2, while Proposition 3 is the same as Proposition 2. But Definition 2

and Proposition 2 involve triangular numbers. Thus, , so the polygonal numbers are a generalization of the triangular

numbers. It now follows that the Catalan like formula for the polygonal numbers, which we will derive shortly, is a

generalization of Theorem 2. The proof of the general version of Theorem 2 is very similar to the second proof of Theorem 2.

Once again determinants are used to simplify the calculations. First we require two lemmas, which are generalizations of

Lemmas 5 and 6.

Lemma 7 =

Proof

= ∑

= ∑ ∑

= ( ( ) )

= ( )

=

Lemma 8 =

Proof

= ∑

=∑ + ∑

= ( )

=

=

Using Lemmas 7 and 8, along the properties of determinants, we now derive Catalan’s formula for polygonal numbers.

= |

|


Vol. 5, No. 2, Winter 2012, 37-43

42

=|

| , by lemma 2

=|

| , by lemma 3

=

=( ) , by lemmas 7 and 8

=( ) , by lemma 4

+

(2

(

( )

( )

(

)

( )

= ( )

Thus we have

Theorem 3 (Catalan’s Formula for Polygonal Numbers)

= (

) ,

where and are positive integers, ,

4. SIMPLEX NUMBERS

Simplex numbers are defined by following recurrence relation:

Definition 4

, ,

An m-simplex is an m dimensional equivalent of a triangle. M-simplex numbers have the property that if is the nth m-

simplex number then objects can be arranged to form an m-simplex. M-simplex numbers also appear as the diagonal

entries in Pascal’s triangle. That is to say, that is the nth entry on the mth diagonal of Pascal’s triangle.

Definition 4 can be used to prove the following two Propositions.

Proposition 4 ∑

Definition 5 The factorial function denoted read as “n factorial” is defined as follows:

Also we take

Definition 6 The binomial coefficient denoted (

) read as “n choose r” is defined as follows:

( )

Proposition 5 (

)

If we let , definition 4 reduces to Definition 2 and Propositions 4 and 5 reduce to Proposition 2 since ∑

and

(

)

. Thus, triangular numbers are a special case of simplex numbers. That is,

.

We now derive a Cassini like formula for simplex numbers using the following Lemma, which is commonly known as Pascal’s

Theorem.


Vol. 5, No. 2, Winter 2012, 37-43

43

Lemma 9 (Pascal’s Theorem) ( ) (

) (

)

We omit the proof.

By Pascal’s Theorem and Proposition 5 we have:

(

)(

) (

)

= {(

) (

)}{(

) (

)} (

)

= (

)(

) (

)(

) (

)(

)

= (

)(

) (

)((

) (

)

= (

)(

) (

)(

) , by Pascal’s Theorem

=

, by Proposition 5

We now have the following theorem.

Theorem 4 (Cassini’s Formula for Simplex Numbers)

=

CONCLUSION

In this paper we have derived Cassini and Catalan like formulas for triangular numbers. We then generalized by using the

theory of determinants to derive similar formulas for polygonal numbers. Clearly, Cassini and Catalan like formulas for

triangular numbers are a special case of Cassini and Catalan like formulas for polygonal numbers. We then generalized in

another direction by using Pascal’s Theorem to derive a Cassini like formula for simplex numbers.

REFERENCES

1. T. Koshy, Fibonacci and Lucas Numbers with Applications, Wiley, New York, 2001.

2. T Trotter, Jr., 1973, “Some Identities for Triangular Numbers,” Journal of Recreational Mathematics, 6:2, 127-135.

3. H. Anton, Elementary Linear Algebra, 4th

ed., Wiley, 1984.


Vol. 5, No. 2, Winter 2012, 44-50

44

Mobile customer relationship management: Factors affecting

consumer mobile technology adoption within the hotel industry

Tina Y. T. Chan

This study was conducted under the supervision of Professor Statia Elliot,

School of Hospitality and Tourism Management, College of Management and Economics,


Mobile and smartphone technologies have been on the rise for a decade now, and their rapid adoption has compelled

researchers to study the impact of this technological trend. While many of the studies focus on the general effects of

mobile technology within the world of commerce, this paper aims to identify the factors that influence mobile

customer relationship management by hotel brands. A multi-disciplinary review of research and literature identified

several barriers and drivers of mobile technology adoption. The key drivers, immediacy, ubiquity and message

personalization, were found to have a positive impact on mobile connections as they build trust and enhance

satisfaction, thereby facilitating customer relationship management.

ith the rising popularity of smartphones and mobile

technology, businesses have been pushed to adapt

their processes to this new generation of technology. While

much research has been conducted to understand the effects

of mobile technology within commerce, fewer studies have

examined the impact from a consumer-relationship

perspective within the hotel industry, despite the industry’s

dependence on their relationship with consumers. For many,

it is as yet unclear whether mobile technology is facilitating

or hindering these relationships. This paper will explore the

emergence of mobile technology, in particular the rising

trend of smartphone technology, and how it is impacting

relationship marketing between hotel brands and their

consumers.

BACKGROUND

The Emergence of Mobile Technology

As one of the fastest growing segments of mobile

devices, the popularity of smartphones has increased

significantly in recent years. Globally, approximately 302.6

million smartphones were purchased in 2010 [1]. Since the

adoption of smartphone technology is relatively new, a

limited amount of academic literature is available on mobile

adoption within the hotel industry. Thus, this study is largely

based upon a review of literature and research of general

mobile technology adoption, with consideration of its

applicability specifically within the hotel industry.

The main difference between smartphones and

traditional mobile phones is the availability of data networks

that allows users to do tasks that were not previously

possible without physically using a computer [2, 3].

Smartphones, according to Raento, Oulasvirta, and Eagle [2],

are programmable mobile phones that have sophisticated

sensing capabilities, increased storage capacity and built-in

networking functions. They also feature high-speed data

connection, colour screens, cameras, local connectivity that

enable web browsing, text and multimedia messaging, e-

mailing, and social networking [2]. A study by the IDC

Worldwide Digital Marketplace estimates that there are more

than 450 million mobile web users worldwide and expects

the figure to reach one billion users within four years [3].

Currently, leaders in the smartphone mobile device market

are: Apple’s iPhone, Research In Motion’s BlackBerry,

Google’s Android, Nokia’s Symbian and Microsoft’s

Windows Phone.

Since smartphone technology is still relatively novel, no

standardized definition has been established for smartphone

applications. For the purposes of this paper, smartphone

applications are defined as third-party applications that can

be downloaded and installed onto a smartphone. In 2010, a

U.S. survey conducted by Luth Research and the Mobile

Marketing Association found that more than 100,000

applications for iPhones have been downloaded over two

billion times in just two years, with 40 percent of all adult

consumers having downloaded at least one mobile

application [3]. This popularity is indicative of consumers’

acceptance of smartphone applications and their willingness

to download such applications onto their personal mobile

devices. According to Cortimiglia, Ghezzi and Renga [1],

smartphone applications can be further categorized into three

types based on their main function: 1) content-oriented

W

REVIEW

Chan Studies by Undergraduate Researchers at Guelph

Vol. 5, No. 2, Winter 2012, 44-50

45

applications that provide information, entertainment,

communication, productivity and socialization, 2) marketing-

oriented applications that are mainly used for brand

advertising or promotional purposes by companies and 3)

service-oriented applications that allow users to perform

specific self-serve tasks [1]. Another concept that has

emerged with smartphones is mobile tagging. According to

Canadi, Hopken and Fuchs [4], mobile tagging uses mobile

device cameras to read the encoded data that is attached to

physical objects and places as two-dimensional (2D)

barcodes. These 2D barcodes or mobile codes, provide a

standardized form of information for direct interaction (such

as emails, contact information, websites) through hyperlinks,

and are popular among retailers due to their cost efficiency

and license-free usage [4].

With this technological evolution, several opportunities

have developed within business contexts, especially in terms

of mobile commerce (m-commerce) and mobile customer

relationship management (mCRM). Derived from e-

commerce, m-commerce is the application of wireless

devices and data connection to conduct transactions where

information, services or goods are transferred and exchanged

[5]. Unlike e-commerce, m-commerce is very mobile and

allows individuals to conduct such transactions virtually

anywhere as long as they have access to a mobile device.

Mobile customer relationship management, according to

Sinisalo, Salo, Karjaluoto and Leppaniemi [6], is both one-

way and interactive communication that is conducted via the

mobile medium for the purpose of building and maintaining

customer relationships between a business and its customers.

With the amount of features that smartphones have to offer,

there is an increase in opportunities now for businesses to

communicate with their consumers, including smartphone

applications and 2D codes. Like most innovative

opportunities however, there are also challenges.

A challenge that arises with the advances in technology

is technology itself. Technological advances are made on

mobile hardware constantly, including improvements in

battery capacity, central processing unit (CPU) power,

display resolution, network connectivity as well as the

variety of services offered on these mobile devices [7]. Since

there are only limited amounts of CPU power and memory

available on mobile platforms, it is more difficult to design

and develop applications for the mobile market in

comparison to desktop computer applications [7]. According

to Fortier, Rossi, Fordillo and Challiol [8], some of the

challenges with mobile context software include specific

requirements, such as connectivity and location, that the

software needs in order to process information. With the

many different smartphone providers and their individual

smartphone platforms, this makes it difficult for application

developers to create an application that will function

efficiently and smoothly on all types of mobile devices. By

having these technical restrictions on mobile devices and

wireless communication, the practical use of m-commerce

may be complicated [9]. This leads to the first question of

this study:

Q1. Has the emergence of mobile technology made it more

challenging for hotel brands to establish a relationship with

their consumers?

Hotel Industry Uses

The popularity of mobile phones has allowed hotels to

reach their customers and establish a relationship through a

unique medium. In 2006, PhoCusWright and New York

University conducted a study and found that fifty-three

percent of hoteliers agreed that mobile technology would be

important for their organizations in the next few years [10].

With the increase in mobile technology usage, many hotel

brands have already begun utilizing mobile applications to

stay in touch with their guests.

An early adopter, Starwood’s W Hotels, launched a ‘W

To Go’ short messaging service (SMS) text messaging

application where guests are given the option of subscribing

to receive reminder text messages during their stay at the

hotels [10]. A spokesperson for W Hotels claims that the

phone numbers collected through this service are used solely

to enhance customer service and their experience at the hotel

and not for promotional purposes [10].

Similarly, the economy-level hotel chain Days Inn, also

uses text messaging as one of their marketing methods for

targeted business guests [11]. Different Days Inn branches

can send opt-in guests their daily hotel specials and

restaurant coupons, allowing each hotel to customize to their

own needs [11]. According to Days Inn’s Vice President of

Marketing, one of the main goals of the campaign is to create

exposure for services that are not usually associated with an

economy-level hotel [11]. Unlike W Hotels, Days Inn takes

on a different approach with mobile technology and utilizes

its text messaging application as a promotional medium.

As an example of a service-oriented application, the

InterContinental Hotels Group has developed a mobile

friendly version of their website so that guests can easily

check the availability, book or cancel reservations directly

from their mobile phones and other wireless devices [10].

These changes, according to the Vice President of IHG’s

Global E-commerce Department, were designed to provide

their guests with convenience and ubiquity [10].

With some hotel brands, mobile marketing is limited to

text messaging services while others have taken a step

further to penetrate the smartphone market. For example,

Small Luxury Hotels of the World (SLH), a collection of

more than 500 luxury hotels across 70 countries, launched an

application in 2010 for the iPhone [12]. This application

allows guests to reserve hotels, share their experiences with

others through Facebook, Twitter, and email as well as

search for attractions nearby the hotel with personal

recommendations from the staff [12]. In just over a year

since the launch, this application has been downloaded

57,000 times and logged on by guests approximately 200,000


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46

times [12]. SLH’s success shows the potential possibilities

for hotels to utilize mobile technology as a medium to

connect and communicate with their guests.

The different uses of mobile technology suggest that

although mobile technology is still fairly new, hotels are

beginning to adopt this technology. As a part of the service

business, hotels value the relationships established with their

guests and these relationships are maintained through

customer relationship management, which leads to the

second question of this study:

Q2. Will hotel brands that adopt the mobile technology trend

be able to form a closer relationship with their consumers

through applications and other smartphone technologies than

hotel brands that have not adopted mobile technologies?

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

A variety of literature was reviewed for this paper to

attempt to capture findings relevant to the hotel industry.

Journals within the fields of information technology and

hospitality were primary sources. Additionally, academic

articles, trade magazines and case studies from, marketing,

service management and business process management fields

were reviewed and findings were extrapolated to the hotels

industry. These sources contribute to a greater understanding

of mobile’s influence within the as yet largely unexplored

field of mobile hospitality.

FACTORS INFLUENCING MOBILE TECHNOLOGY

ADOPTION

In order to examine consumers’ willingness to adopt

mobile technology, influencers for adoption are considered,

and categorized into two main groups; those that 1) prevent

and stall mobile technology adoption, or 2) push and increase

consumers’ utilization of mobile technology.

Barriers

According to Minghetti and Buhalis [13], having access

to technology does not necessary mean that people will use

it. Many people in fact have access but are unable to use

technology effectively for a variety of reasons [13]. Of the

various reasons, two main challenges that may prevent

consumers from adopting mobile technology are

technological challenges and perceived risks.

Technological Challenges

The world of technology is constantly developing and

advancing. As mentioned by Verbelen et al. [7] earlier,

application developers sometimes find it difficult to design

applications for the mobile market because of the constant

improvements that alter mobile devices. The same goes for

consumers. With the constantly changing mobile platforms

and interfaces, consumers may find it a challenge to keep up

with the technological trends that are always developing,

while some may even find it hard to accept available

technologies. Van Dijk [14] presented a model to analyze the

gap in the use of new technology between individuals and

communities. In his model, he identifies an aspect known as

“the skills access” which comprises of three types of skills

needed for the adoption of new technology. These three types

of skills are: instrumental digital skills that provide the

capacity to work with hardware and software; information

skills that allow the ability to search, select, and process

information; and, strategic skills that permit the use of

computer and network sources as the means for reaching

goals and improving one’s position in society [14]. Since

mobile technology is still relatively new, in order for

consumers to adopt this technology, they need to relearn

these skills for the mobile market. This may become a

problem for consumers, as there are constantly new mobile

devices and applications developed. Consumers may find it

troublesome to need to relearn these skills each time new

mobile technology is released into the market.

In a study by Kim, Ma and Kim [15] of online hotel

purchases, technological inclination was identified as a

dimension that has significantly impacted consumers’

satisfaction and purchase intentions, especially among

consumers with no prior online purchase experiences. The

authors found that the consumers’ receptivity of new

technological innovation and familiarity with e-commerce

must be taken into account when evaluating their online

purchase intentions. Although geared towards e-commerce

rather than m-commerce, valuable insights from this study

can be applied to m-commerce as well. When determining

consumers’ willingness to adopt mobile technology, their

receptivity to mobile technology and familiarity with m-

commerce must be considered. If consumers are reluctant to

accept this new form of technology and/or are not familiar

with it, the possibility of them adopting mobile technology is

likely to decrease.

Risks

Risks account for another major barrier to the adoption of

mobile technology. In Forsythe and Shi’s [16] study, they

identified financial risk, psychological risk, physical risk,

security risk, privacy risk and product performance risk as

potential risks that consumers perceive when conducting

transactions online. In fact, from a consumers’ point of view,

the largest barriers are related to data security and privacy

threats [4]. Because of the similarities shared between e-

commerce and m-commerce, these risks can also be

considered relevant to transactions conducted on a mobile

device as well.

Wang and Wang [17] conducted a study on the

perceived risks that influence consumers when they book

hotels through mobile technology. Three types of risks were

identified in the study: 1) exposure of personal privacy

information (such as financial and personal location

information), 2) security risks due to unsafe wireless


Vol. 5, No. 2, Winter 2012, 44-50

47

networks, and 3) unexpected product performance failures.

Since mobile transactions are conducted through a wireless

network that may or may not be secured in the eyes of the

consumers. They may perceive that any information

transferred through these network may be exposed to others,

especially when transferred through an unsafe wireless

network.

Despite the potential risks associated with mobile

technology, empirical research found that perceived risks did

not have a significant negative effect on the values involved

with mobile hotel reservations [17]. Possible explanations

were provided by Wang and Wang [17], who claimed that

either increased exposures to online shopping experiences

have provided consumers with the awareness of potential

risks, or that they strongly confide with the payment

procedures. In fact, in a previous study by Wong and Law

[18], they found that one of the most successful factors for a

online traveling website was providing secured payment

methods. Although no significant negative impact was found

between potential risks and the values with booking hotels

online, potential risks still exist in the world of mobile

technology. It is possible that consumers who are risk-

adverse may not want to adopt mobile technology because of

the potential risks perceived, real or not.

Drivers

While there are barriers that exist in the mobile

technological world, there are many drivers that help

facilitate the adoption of these devices. Some of the main

features of mobile technology include ubiquity/ reachability,

information quality and immediacy, trust factors, and

personalization/ compatibility. These characteristics are

drivers of mobile technology, positively influencing

consumers to adopt.

Ubiquity/ Reachability

Ubiquity, is defined by the Collins English Dictionary

[19], as the ability to be everywhere at once. It essentially

fulfills the concept of being “anywhere” at “anytime”.

Mobile devices are considered personal devices. Unlike

laptops and computers, they are often available at all times

and are easily accessible by the user [20]. With mobile

technology, users can gain access to desired information in

spite of their place and physical location [9]. This provides

users with the convenience to look up information as they

travel without having to stop in between, interrupting their

trip.

According to Balasubramanian, Peterson and Jarvenpaa

[21], this ubiquitous characteristic of mobile technology is

one of the main features of m-commerce. Because of mobile

technology’s ubiquitous nature, businesses are now given the

opportunity to reach out to consumers regardless of their

location or the time. In this sense, services and/or

applications can also be made available to consumers

wherever and whenever a need arises [9]. For example,

Kannan, Chang and Whinston [20] suggest that instant

feedback from consumers can now be obtained due to the

fact that mobile technology is accessible to users at all times.

With ubiquity, convenience is brought upon users as they can

easily retrieve information anywhere at anytime. This feature

can potentially increase consumers’ mobile technology

adoption levels.

Informational Quality and Immediacy

Another factor that may positively influence

consumers’ adoption to m-commerce and mobile technology

is the information quality and the immediacy to retrieve such

information. Wang and Wang [17] discovered that the ability

to obtain information that is timely, detailed, accurate,

reliable and selective has a significant and positive influence

on perceived value when booking hotels through mobile

hotel reservation systems. With mobile technology, users can

easily acquire quality information through their devices in a

timely fashion.

One of consumers’ major uses of mobile technology

within the hotels industry is to read hotel reviews. According

to Pan, MacLaurin and Crotts [22], user-generated reviews

on the Internet serve as a key source of information for

travelers. A study by Ye, Law and Gu [23] found that

positive online reviews can potentially increase the number

of hotel bookings. For example, a 10 percent improvement in

consumer ratings can increase sales by approximately 4.4

percent [23]. With the vast amount of travel review

information on the web, mobile technology has enabled

travelers to easily gain access to this information. Previous

research also shows that immediacy in quality information

has a vital effect on the number of Internet hotel sales. Kim

et al. [15] conducted research on the determinants that affect

Chinese hotel customers’ online reservation intentions and

their satisfaction towards these reservation systems. Through

this study, they found that fulfilling information needs is

significant for the satisfaction towards e-commerce, and if

the information sought after is not available, it is likely the

potential customer will search a different site instead [15].

Although this study focuses on e-commerce, the findings

from the research could inform m-commerce due to their

similarities. With the amount of noise presented in the media

nowadays, consumers only attend to selective information

and it is important for them to be able to get such

information immediately. Since mobile technology enables

quick transfers of quality information, this could be a factor

that will encourage more consumers to adopt mobile

technology.

Trust

Trust is a very important issue that may affect

consumers’ adoption of mobile technology. According to

Yeh and Li [24], the level of satisfaction is the key to gain

the trust of mobile users within the m-commerce world. In

their study, satisfaction was defined as the “result of a

process of post-purchase evaluation and comparison,” and

high satisfaction is achieved when the performance of a


Vol. 5, No. 2, Winter 2012, 44-50

48

product is better than expected [24]. Findings show that trust

towards mobile Internet vendors was significantly and

directly affected by satisfaction and that consumers were

more concerned with the brand image and familiarity of the

mobile venders [24]. This indicates that trust within the m-

commerce world can be built by enhancing the satisfaction

level between the consumers’ experience with m-commerce

and the mobile vendors.

In Al-alak and Alnawas’s [25] study, previous

experience with advertising and the extensiveness of

advertising were main determinants of trust towards

permission-based marketing such as SMS marketing. It

appears that consumers who have negative attitudes towards

SMS marketing and those who were exposed to extensive

advertising were less likely to participate in SMS marketing

[25]. However, consumers who perceive permission-based

advertising to be useful are more likely to trust the vendors

and participate in such a program [25]. With mobile

marketing, it is important to provide consumers with useful

information in order to increase their satisfaction levels and

hence the building of trust. It appears that consumers who

trust the m-commerce world are more likely to adopt mobile

technology.

Personalization/ Compatibility

Another driver that could potentially aid the mobile

technology adoption process is the personalization and

compatibility aspect of mobile technology. Mobile devices

are very accessible to the user and are often available at all

times. Jiang [26] even suggests that mobile devices are more

of lifestyle products rather than products of necessity and

therefore, they are more compatible with users. This

indicates that between all of the technological devices that

exist in the market currently, mobile devices share the closest

connection with users. This connection, in turn, allows

highly personalized information to be shared between users

and businesses.

For example, companies can use mobile technology as a

marketing medium by sending SMS to consumers. This

channel is quite valuable and helpful to businesses because it

enables direct marketing activities [25]. In fact, Timpson and

Troutman [27] discovered that advertisements sent via SMS

are more likely to be viewed in comparison to advertisements

sent through email. According to Frolick and Chen [28],

because SMS is more personal, the expected response rate

through mobile marketing will be more successful than

through e-mail marketing. Lee and Mills [29] also state that

personalization allows consumers’ needs to be met more

effectively and efficiently and thus, increases their

satisfaction. Hence, the fact that personalization is present

within mobile marketing mediums may cause consumers to

adopt mobile technology.

MOBILE CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP

MANAGEMENT AND IMPLICATIONS FOR HOTELS

Sinisalo, Salo, Karjaluoto and Leppaniemi define mobile

customer relationship management (mCRM) as [6]:

communication, either one-way or interaction,

which is related to sales, marketing, and customer

service activities conducted through the mobile

medium for the purpose of building and

maintaining customer relationships between a

company and its customer(s).

With mCRM, the customer relationship is established

and maintained through mobile technology. The drivers

presented in this paper express the uniqueness of the mobile

medium, which help strengthen the relationship between

consumers and companies. Unlike other CRM channels, the

ubiquitous nature of mobile technology allows the greatest

access to consumers as they can be reached virtually

anytime, anywhere [6]. Mobile technology also provides an

instant transfer of information. As mentioned earlier,

Starwood’s W Hotels launched a ‘W To Go’ SMS text

messaging application so guests can receive reminder text

messages during their stay at the hotels [10]. This allows the

formation of direct dialogues between the company and

consumers [6], which will also be useful when immediate

follow up and/or feedback are required to manage these

relationships. The direct contact with the guests will allow

personalization, thus making customer relationships easier to

manage since mobile devices usually belong to one particular

individual. For example, Days Inn’s text messaging service

markets towards guests that are already at the hotel [11].

Since it is expected that messages sent through mobile

mediums will reach their intended audiences [6], Days Inn

under this circumstance can tailor the content of the message

to the needs of the guests. According to Nysveenm,

Pedersen, Thorbjornsen and Berthon [30], the emotional

relationships between a company and its customers can be

strengthened if communication with loyal customers occurs

on a personal and individual level. With the case of the

iPhone application developed by Small Luxury Hotels of the

World, guests are not only limited to reserving their stays

using this application, they can also share their personal

experiences with others onto their own social media sites

[12]. Based on such findings, the answer to Q1 is no because

the characteristics of mobile technology allow a better and

more convenient method of customer relationship

management that is tailored to each individual.

With mCRM, companies are now provided with a new

channel to connect with their consumers. Sinisalo et al. [6]

recommend companies to take advantage of this new channel

but also to incorporate mCRM along with traditional CRM

strategies as consumers can now choose the medium that

they like, to interact with the companies. By offering more

ways to communicate with consumers, customer


Vol. 5, No. 2, Winter 2012, 44-50

49

relationships can be better maintained, thus, the answer to Q2

is supported.

LIMITATIONS

Though many studies have been presented here, there

are limitations to be addressed in future research. First, the

findings for this paper are not based on primarily research

but rather, on empirical works of other researchers. Without

properly conducting an experiment, it is difficult to conclude

definitively what characteristics prompt consumers to adopt

mobile technology. Future research should consider the

implementation of a survey or other experiment to accurately

determine the relative importance that these influencers have

on mobile technology adoption. Second, some of the

literature presented in this paper focuses on e-commerce as

opposed to m-commerce. M-commerce is a relatively new

concept, which continues to evolve as mobile technology

increases in popularity. In particular, only minimal literature

was found in regards to smartphone technology. It is

expected that more literature on the topic of smartphone

technology will appear within the next few years as

smartphone use continues to grow. Third, as mentioned

previously, not all of the literature found in this study is

focused on the hotel industry because of the limited amount

of public research conducted in this sector. Further

investigations will be required to provide a deeper

understanding of how mobile adoption affects the hotels

industry.

CONCLUSION

Based on the research and literature reviewed for this

study, it is clear that the rising trend of mobile and

smartphone technologies have impacted the relationship

between hotel brands and consumers. Evidence shows that

the drivers of mobile technology can help fortify customer

relationships, thus rejecting the first question posed that

mobile technology has made it more challenging for hotel

brands to connect with their consumers. This study also

captured the influencers that affect consumers’ adoption of

mobile technology. It appears that the unique nature of

mobile technology can increase consumer usage. As usage

increases, businesses now have the opportunity to establish

and strengthen relationships with their customers through

this medium. This supports the answer to the second question

posed: hotel bands that adopt mobile technology are able to

form a much closer relationship with their consumers than

hotel brands that have not adopted mobile technology.

This study contributes to the hospitality literature by

identifying the influencers that can affect mobile technology

adoption within the hotel industry. Trust is a very important

issue in the m-commerce world. In order for consumers to

foster a sense of trust, Al-alak and Alnawas [25] suggest

providing consumers with useful information to increase

their satisfaction levels. In Yeh and Li’s [24] study, it was

found that consumers’ trust levels with m-commerce are

heavily dependent on their satisfaction with their m-

commerce experiences and the mobile vendors. In addition,

because of the personal connections established between

mobile devices and their users, highly personalized

information can now also be communicated to users by

businesses, making mobile technology a valuable tool for

hotel brands to create bonds with their consumers.

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Vol. 5, No. 2, Winter 2012, 51-62

51

Links between food price behaviour and

nutrition in the developing world

Bethany Woods

This study was conducted under the supervision of Professor Getu Hailu,

Department of Food, Agriculture and Resource Economics, Ontario Agricultural College,


With the recent financial crisis and its enduring fallout, questions surrounding the state of global food security have

become more pressing. A key element influencing the nutritional status of the world’s poor is price behavior within

global food commodity markets. In recent decades, food commodity markets have experienced both significant price

increases, and an increase in volatility. These price trends have had significant impacts on the diversity of diets in

impoverished households worldwide, which in turn has impacted nutrition and health. This paper will discuss the

causes behind recent trends in food commodity prices, and the extent of their impact on food security and nutrition.

Specifically, it will address the impact of food price increases and the uncertainty induced by food price volatility on

household food consumption and nutrition. Micronutrient intake is the focus of the nutritional discussion of this work,

and variations of consumption behavior in various regions and within different household dynamics are all taken into

account. Existing policy actions are discussed in terms of the frequency of their implementation, the factors

encouraging or deterring their implementation, and their intended and unintended consequences. Finally, the paper

concludes with suggestions for future actions and areas for future research.

ood insecurity is a growing problem in countries of the

global South, in spite of significant aid efforts to end

hunger. The recent economic crisis in 2008 and its aftermath

has raised concern globally about rising levels of

micronutrient malnutrition that are occurring among the

world’s poorest populations. These rising levels of

malnutrition have negative implications not only for

individual and household health, but also for future economic

growth and development through the diminishment of human

capital. Children who are malnourished can in many cases

develop into less productive adults, and malnourished adults

are less productive workers as well; this has strong negative

implications for economic growth and development. Rising

rates of micronutrient malnutrition are largely due to a

decrease in the diversity of food consumption and a growing

reliance on staples foods for energy within food insecure

households. There are many factors at play that contribute to

food access and food availability, but one important factor

that has recently come to scholarly attention is the

phenomenon of rising agricultural commodity prices.

During the first quarter of 2008, food prices reached

their highest nominal and real levels in 50 and 30 years,

respectively [1]. Though prices declined from 2008 peaks,

the trend of rising food crop prices continues. This trend, and

the occurrence of a second price spike in 2010, has led many

economists to argue that both price volatility and price

increasesa should be expected to continue in the future [1-6].

The result will be an increase in food insecurity in the

developing world, as the already strained food entitlements

of the poorest are placed under increasing pressure. This

paper will critically review the relationship between recent

food price increases and volatility in food commodity

markets, and nutrition in the world’s poorest regions. First,

casual factors in the food price crisis will be briefly

discussed. Second, there will be a concise discussion of the

existing literature on the nutritional impacts of these trends,

with a focus on micronutrient deficiencies and their social,

economic, and health consequences. Third, policy responses

implemented by national governments will be described and

evaluated. Finally, there will be a brief section listing

suggested alternatives to these policy measures, and

identifying areas for further research.

CAUSES OF FOOD COMMODITY PRICE TRENDS

The causes of recent food commodity price trends are

complex and interlocking, and it is impossible to determine

which factors are the most influential. Economists have

identified both demand and supply-side causes in existing

literature to be significant.

Demand-Side Causes of Food Price Increases

Leading up to the crisis in 2008, depreciation of the

U.S. dollar made food commodity exports from the U.S.

F

REVIEW

Woods Studies by Undergraduate Researchers at Guelph

Vol. 5, No. 2, Winter 2012, 51-62

52

cheaper in the global market, increasing demand for U.S.

grain crops [7]. Demand for biofuels has also risen

substantially in recent decades due to rising fuel costs,

concerns about the stability of energy supplies, and

government financial and policy support [8, 9, 3]. It has been

estimated by the International Food Policy Research Institute

(IFPRI) that between 2000 and 2007, biofuel demand

contributed to a 30% increase in weighted average grain

prices, increasing maize, rice, and wheat prices by 39%, 21%

and 22%, respectively [10, 11, 12].

Changing lifestyles in emerging economies (such as

China and India) have also increased demand for food

commodities. The purchasing power of these countries

globally has reached the same level as the total purchasing

power of consumers in the United States, and is continuing to

rise [13]. By one estimate, by the year 2020 almost all of the

increase in world food demand will come from developing

countries [14]. Central to this phenomenon of growing

demand is the process of urbanization, which is occurring

rapidly in the global South [15]. Urbanization increases food

accessibility and variety for individuals migrating to cities.

The result is changing eating habits that are having a

significant impact on food commodity markets; specifically,

increases in fruit, vegetable, and meat consumption per

capita [16, 17, 18].

Supply-Side Causes of Food Price Increases and Food

Price Volatility

An important supply-side cause of the short-term price

volatility experienced in 2008 was adverse weather leading

to poor harvests and the depletion of food stocks [1, 9]. Long

term price increases have been attributed to a variety of

supply-side factors, the first being steadily rising fuel costs.

The rise in fuel prices in recent years has increased both the

cost of machinery operation and fertilizer for farmers,

lowering output, and subsequently lowering stocks [1, 3, 9,

19, 20]. At the height of the food price spikes in the first two

months of 2008, some fertilizer prices had increased by more

than 160% [1]. Rising fuel costs combined with the

depreciating U.S. dollar has widened the gap between supply

and demand over time, leading to higher food prices [9].

However, rising production costs are not the only factor

responsible for declining stocks.

Some economists have pointed to the Uruguay Round

Agreements of the World Health Organization (WTO) as

being an influential factor in stock reduction since the 1990s,

as it influenced the size of reserves and the cost of storing

perishables [1]. It has also been argued that stock reductions

were largely policy induced; specifically, the result of

changes in cereal stockholding strategies in China and the

European Union [21, 22, 23]. Other scholars have blamed the

dissolution of Soviet Union and its centralized economy for a

significant portion of declining grain stocks [21].

In contrast, there is a large body of literature that argues

that declines in agricultural productivity growth, or

‘productivity plateaus’, in global agricultural production are

the main cause of stock depletion and rising prices [6, 14, 19,

22, 24-26]. The alleged productivity plateaus have been

blamed on declining crop prices that have made it

unattractive to invest in agricultural research and

development (R&D) in both the global North and South [25,

22, 6, 27]. Economists also point to the shift in R&D funding

from public to private sources as being a factor in the

movement away from research into productivity growth,

toward areas like environmental and food safety concerns

[28, 26]. However, that agricultural productivity growth is

declining is not universally accepted. A 2002 study using

FAOSTAT data covering a period from 1961-1994 for

twenty Less Developed Countries (LDCs)b found that sixteen

countries experienced significant productivity growth, and

only one experienced a decline [29]. Different economists

have come to different conclusions regarding productivity

trends in the developed and developing world, and this issue

is still highly contested.

Speculative Activity: Stabilizing or Volatility Inducing?

Some economists argue that the increasing role of

commodity index funds and over-the-counter derivativesc in

agricultural commodity futures markets have played a role in

recent food price volatility [20, 30]. Index-based derivative

trade has grown significantly in the past few decades, as

agricultural commodities have been seen as an investment

option that provides protection against inflation and portfolio

risk [31]. More recently, the subprime crisis in the U.S. led

investors to look for alternative investment options, of which

agricultural commodities have become a growing proportion

[32]. As a result, many economists argue that commodity

futures have come to be viewed as an asset class comparable

to equities, bonds, and real estate, making food prices more

vulnerable to volatility within financial markets [33, 30].

In contrast, there are many economists who posit that

new forms of speculation provide greater liquidity to food

commodity markets and increase market efficiency [33].

These economists argue that during the 2008 and 2010 price

spikes, speculators were responding to fundamental changes

in supply and demand conditions – not distorting market

function, but reacting to changing market environments.

Nevertheless, the correlation of the increase in new forms of

speculative activity and price volatility should not be

dismissed as coincidental, and requires further analysis.

THE NUTRITIONAL COSTS OF PRICE INCREASES

AND PRICE VOLATILITY

The impact of rising food costs and food price volatility

on the nutritional status of individuals and households is

influenced by a variety of factors. First, it is important to

distinguish between the effects of food price volatility and

food price increases. Volatility tends to have much more

immediate and severe (though often short-lived) impacts on

nutritional intake in net food purchasing householdsd, as

these households have difficulty predicting and adjusting to


Vol. 5, No. 2, Winter 2012, 51-62

53

food costs. In cases of sudden food price hikes, nutritional

intake will suffer more than in cases of gradual and expected

food price increases. Food security is a matter of food

availability and food access, and the phenomena of rising

food prices influences both the quantity of food available for

consumption, and the accessbility of that food in terms of

cost. It does this by altering consumption behaviour; namely,

by decreasing household dietary diversification. This change

in dietary diversification is an almost universal phenomenon,

but there are important destinctions to be made at both the

regional and national level, as well as the household level.

Specifically, there are key differences between geographic

regions, rural and urban areas, net buyers and sellers of food,,

and within households according to gender and power

dynamics.

Factors Influencing Household Consumption Behaviour

Whether an increase in crop prices translates to an

increase in food prices for an individual — and the

magnitude of that increase — is dependent on the share of

the consumer food dollar that goes to the farmgate, and the

amount of disposable income that is spent on food [6]. In

high income countries like the Canada, as little as one-fifth

of the consumer food dollar goes to the farmgate, which

lessens the severity of the impact of crop price increases on

consumption. In contrast, developing country households

spend upwards of 50% of their food dollar at the farmgate;

with such a small distinction between crop price and food

price, these households are far more severely impacted by

food commodity price increases. Poor households in the

global South also spend a much higher portion of their

incomes on food than even the poorest housholds in the

developed world. Thus, the impact of price changes on their

ability to consume healthy food is significant.

In the short term, the impact of rising food prices on

food consumption is also dependent on the position of the

household as a net producer (seller) or a net consumer

(buyer) of food [1]. In the past, it has been argued that low

food prices are more harmful to the world’s poor than rising

food costs, as the world’s poorest populations tend to be

engaged in farming [34]. However, this assumes that the

majority of farmers in the global South are net sellers of

food, which is not the case. Even in rural areas where the

majority of the population is involved in some form of

farming, it is rare that households are net food producers

[19]. These households usually depend on markets for some

portion of their dietary intake, and also often do not have the

flexibility to shift consumption to cheaper substitutes when

prices rise, due to their market isolation.

The impact of rising food costs on dietary intake is also

influenced by the specific commodities in question. Staple

products such as cereals, fats, and oils have much lower

income elasticities than meat and dairy products; thus the

impact of rising prices for these products on consumption

behaviour is less significant [17]. The difference in

elasticities between lower value staples and higher value

items (such as ‘luxury’ food items, like steak) exists

regardless of income level, though the magnitude of the

difference is more significant in lower income countries.

Therefore, it can be hypothesized that households in poorer

countries tend to make larger adjustments to their dietary

diversity when faced with rising food prices [17, 6, 35]. A

study by Guo et al. (1999) which investigated the impact of

price increases on consumption behavour among rich and

poor households in China supports this hypothesis [36].

Using longitudinal data from the first three rounds of the

China Health and Nutrition Survey (CHNS), Guo et al.

investigated two buying decisions affected by price change:

1) whether to consume a good, and 2) the quantity to

consume. The study concluded that an increase in the price

of each food group studied led to significant reductions in the

probability of consuming any food within that group. It also

concluded that the quantity of consumption was less

significantly effected than nutritional value as prices

increased, for both income groups. This tendency to reduce

the quality of food consumed in times of hardship is

concerning, given the nutritional impacts.

Given recent price events, decreasing dietary

diversification is the gravest concern. Because the quality of

food consumption among the poor will be reduced before

quantity, it is micronutrient deficiencies and not starvation

that are the expected outcome of recent food price trends in

most areas [37, 6]. The impact of these micronutrient

dificiencies will likely be felt the most by children, due to

gender and household dynamics that make them more

vulnerable (to be discussed below), and due to the impact of

such nutritional deficiencies on their long term development.

Studies have indicated that malnutrition during the first two

years of a child’s development has lifelong consequences for

their ability to be productive adults [37]. Thus poor nutrition

among very young children can be severely deterimental to

the development of human capital within a country.

The impact of reduced dietary diversity on child

nutritional status was demonstrated by a Bangladesh study

conducted in 2003, which measured the relationship between

staple food consumption and child malnutrition [38]. The

study found a positive correlation between the percentage of

underweight children and weekly rice consumption, and the

opposite relationship for non-rice consumption. Higher rice

consumption – and lower dietary diversity — was therefore

correlated with poorer child nutrition. The authors concluded

that greater dietary diversity was correlated with better child

nutrition, and thus a decrease in dietary diversity due to

rising prices of cereal staples will have serious impacts on

child health in the developing world.

The World Food Program (WFP) documented

widespread evidence of reductions in the quality and quantity

of food consumption occuring globally while conducting

household-level food security assessments in 2008 [37].

While global trends are helpful for gauging the extent of the

issue, it is important to look at regional differences in


Vol. 5, No. 2, Winter 2012, 51-62

54

consumption patterns as well, to better understand the impact

of food price trends in different developing regions.

Geography and Regional Trends

According to WFP data, there are significant regional

differences in food basket cost increases. It follows that there

are also differences in the impacts of those price increases,

due to geographic variations in consumption patterns. For

example, within the continent of Africa there were vast

differences in food basket price increases between 2007 and

2008, with West and Central Africa experiencing food cost

increases of 20%, and East and Southern Africa experiencing

increases of up to 68% [37]. Differences in food basket price

increases are largely due to dietary composition. Low income

Asian and Subsaharan African countries have been hit

especially hard as grains comprise upwards of 50% of

traditional diets in these areas, and those staple prices have

been rising drastically.

Regional differences in the trade behaviour of countries

also impact their vulnerability to food price trends. New

importing low income countries have been hit the hardest;

specifically countries that depend on imports for more than

40% of their grain consumption such as Erierea, Niger,

Liberia, Haiti and Botwana [6]. Domestic income inequality

also plays an important role in food security. The food gap –

defined as the amount of food needed to raise per capita

consumption to 2,100 calories — has increased the most in

Latin America and the Caribbean due to recent food price

trends [37], perhaps due to the severe levels of income

inequality present in those areas. Overall, countries that will

be the hardest hit in the long term are those that are net

importers of both food and fuel (See Table 1).

Rural Vs. Urban Food Security

The urban poor and rural landless are the hardest hit when

food prices increase [6, 1, 35]. It has been suggested that

some rural dwellers in the developing world may be able to

capitalize on rising food crop prices as producers. However,

there are many barriers that make this highly unlikely. The

majority of these individuals are smallholders farming on

two hectares or less [19]. This form of smallholder farming

provides up to 80% of food consumed in some developing

regions, but these households are still most often net food

buyers, and thus do not benefit from higher food crop prices.

These farmers are also often limited by weak market

integration and information systems, high transportation and

transaction costs, and lack of adequate technologies and

facilities for crop handling, processing, and storage. As a

result, they are forced to sell immediately after harvest when

prices are low, and to purchase food during lean periods

when prices are high. Because production costs often

increase with crop prices, even farmers who are net

producers often do not benefit from increasing prices.

In urban areas, food production on any substatial scale

is rare and more than 97% of households are net food buyers

[35]. Because urban consumers have better market access

they are more likely to purchase imported foods, and as a

result are more vulnerable to price fluctuations in

international markets. While urban dwellers tend to have

higher incomes than rural dwellers, because they are not food

producers they do not have a ‘buffer’ against times of food

price volatility. The urban dwellers are, however, the main

target group for safety net programs in times of food crises,

while rural dwellers are often denied access to these forms of

support due to isolation and geographic dispersion [44].

Differences in rural and urban environments make both

populations vulnerable to food price increases in different

ways, and populations in both areas have very different

mechanisms to cope with food price crises.

Gender Imbalances and Nutritional Access

Household power dynamics have a substantial influence on

food consumption during times of food price increases, and

Table 1: Countries Facing Significant Threat from Rising Food Prices

Countries

Petroleum %

Imported Major Grains % Imported

% Under-

nourish-ment

Eritrea 100 88 75

Burundi 100 12 66

Comoros 100 80 60

Tajikistan 99 43 56

Sierra Leone 100 53 ??

Liberia 100 62 50

Zimbabwe 100 2 47

Ethiopia 100 22 46

Haiti 100 72 46

Zambia 100 4 46

Central African Republic 100 25 44

Mozambique 100 20 44

Tanzania 100 14 44

Guinea-Bissau 100 55 39

Madagascar 100 14 38

Malawi 100 7 35

Cambodia 100 5 33

Korea, DPR 98 45 33

Rwanda 100 29 33

Botswana 100 76 32

Niger 100 82 32

Kenya 100 20 31

Source: Food and Agriculture Organization. 2008. Soaring food prices: Facts, perspectives, impacts and actions required. Paper presented at High-Level Conference on World Food Security: The Challenges of Climate Change and Bioenergy, Rome. (pg 17).


Vol. 5, No. 2, Winter 2012, 51-62

55

thus have a significant impact on nutritional outcomes. There

are important regional cultural variations in household

structures, and in the dynamics between men and women.

However, it can still be generalized that globally when food

becomes more expensive, women and children tend to bear

the brunt of the nutritional burden. Female headed

households (FHHs) are at a particularly high risk, as they

tend to have lower incomes on average and spend a much

higher portion of their disposable income on food products

[35, 1]. FHHs in many regions of the global South also have

less access to land, often due to gendered barriers to land

ownership, and as a result cannot participate as producers in

order to benefit from rising food prices [1].

That women and children are disproportionately

impacted by volatility and increases in food prices is

concerning, as the declining nutrition of pregnant women and

children can have many long lasting negative impacts for not

only individuals, but nations as well [37]. Micronutrient

malnutrition in children can have severely detrimental

impacts on cognitive development, that can diminish future

human capital [6]. Additionally, poor maternal health

resulting in inadequate energy intake and weight gain during

pregnancy can cause poor fetal growth and decreased

gestational duration [39]; this can lead to low birth weight

and preterm birth. Low iron intake is especially dangerous

for pregnant women, and it has been estimated that a 50%

food basket price increase can result in as high as a 30%

decrease in per capita iron intake [35]. Given that some areas

of the world (as mentioned above) have faced food basket

costs increases above 50%, maternal wasting and anemia is

an issue of grave concern. By one estimate, the recent food

price crisis will increase rates of maternal anemia by 10-20%

in at least East Asia and the Pacific [39].

The impact of decreased dietary diversity on child

nutrition can be extreme. Even as much as six months of

inadequate nutrition in the first two years of life can have

severely detrimental impacts for an individual [37]. The

largest disease burden associated with micronutrient

deficiencies in children can be attributed to Vitamin A and

Zinc [39]; research has indicated that vitamin A deficiency

increases the risk of child mortality by 23-30%, and zinc

deficiency is associated with an increased risk of severe and

persistent diarrhea, pneumonia, and stunting. Given that the

International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI)

associates malnutrition with 30% of infant deaths and

considers it the single largest factor contributing to the global

burden of disease [40], methods of mediating increases in

Figure 1: Percentage of Developing Countries Employing Market and Trade Based Policy Responses to Food Price Crisis in 2008 (From a Sample of 81). Source: Demeke, Mulat, Pangrazio, Guedalina and Materne Maetz. 2009. Initiative on Soaring Food Prices. Country Responses to the Food Security Crisis: Nature and Preliminary Implications of the Policies Pursued. FAO: Rome, Italy. (pg 7).

0.0%2.0%4.0%6.0%8.0%

10.0%12.0%14.0%16.0%18.0%20.0%22.0%24.0%26.0%28.0%30.0%32.0%34.0%36.0%38.0%40.0%42.0%44.0%

Release Stockat subsidized

price

Reduction orElimination ofFood Tariffsand Taxes

Price Controlsand/or

RestrictedPrivate Trade

Reductions ofTariffs and

Customs Feeson Imports

ExportRestrictions or

Bans

Domestic, Market Based Measures Trade Policy Measures

Asia (26countries)

Africa (33countries)

Latin AmericaandCaribbean (22countries)

Total (81countries)


Vol. 5, No. 2, Winter 2012, 51-62

56

child malnutrition should be the focus of future research and

preventative policy.

POLICY RESPONSES

Policies in response to price volatility and price

increases differ. State-led policy responses to crises brought

on by food price volatility include trade restrictions and

government support programs such as: stimulating food

production in the short term through input subsidization and

other support to farmers; export bans, taxes and restrictions;

the lowering of tariffs and import taxes; price controls or

consumer subsidies; and social safety net development [1,

19, 5]. In response to long term price increases, are

approaches focusing on a combination of welfare, and

growth and development in the agricultural sector. Policy

implementation varies regionally (See Tables 2 and 3 and

Figures 1 and 2), depending on the geographic and economic

context and which response is deemed most effective. These

policy responses will be discussed and evaluated below.

Subsidization and Trade Restrictions:

Subsidies to producers for inputs such as fertilizer and

seed are often implemented in an effort to stimulate

production in the short-term, with the aim of increasing food

availability [19]. This method can be successful if properly

implemented, however subsidization programs are costly and

require administrative capacity that many developing nations

lack. Export bans are the most extreme response to food

price increases, and are enacted with the intention of keeping

food supplies within their producing countries to protect

against shortages and ensure that the population has access to

sustenance at an accessible price level [19, 41]. These bans

have proven to be extremely detrimental to food commodity

markets, as they can result in higher world prices and panic

due to hoarding. Humanitarian organizations also have much

more trouble procuring food for aid when export bans are in

place, which makes it difficult to get emergency food

supplies to the most vulnerable. Export taxes and other

export restrictions have a similar effect, and though they are

not quite as destabilizing as bans, the general consensus

among policy analysts is that they should be avoided.

Another frequently implemented policy response to

rising food prices is to lower tariffs and import taxes on food.

This measure can be distorting, as it can lead to more

consumption when food prices are high, accelerating real

price increases in the global market [19]. These tariff

decreases are also usually not permanent (as the WTO has

caveats allowing countries to temporarily adjust tariffs for

food security reasons), resulting in market signals becoming

muddled when prices decline and the tariffs are re-applied.

There can also be a significant fiscal cost when

implementing this measure, as governments lose tariff

revenue at a time when they are often also attempting to

implement various forms of social protection [5]. An

Figure 2: Percentage of Developing Countries Implementing Safety Net Responses to Food Crisis in 2008 (From a Sample of 81). Source: Demeke, Mulat, Pangrazio, Guedalina and Materne Maetz. 2009. Initiative on Soaring Food Prices. Country Responses to the Food Security Crisis: Nature and Preliminary Implications of the Policies Pursued. FAO: Rome, Italy. (pg 13).

0.0%

2.0%

4.0%

6.0%

8.0%

10.0%

12.0%

14.0%

16.0%

18.0%

20.0%

22.0%

24.0%

26.0%

28.0%

30.0%

Cash Transfer Food Assistance Increase DisposableIncome

Safety Net (Increased, or Introduced)

Asia (26countries)

Africa (33countries)

Latin Americaand theCaribbean (22countries)Total (81countries):


Vol. 5, No. 2, Winter 2012, 51-62

57

alternative preventative method is the use of price controls or

subsidies to prevent crop price increases from reaching

vulnerable consumers [19, 5]. These policy responses are

arguably the most effective and equitable, as they target

populations in need. However many countries lack the

capacity to run such programs.

Social Safety Net Responses:

Emergency aid, social protection measures, and social

safety nets are commonly used to mitigate the impact of food

prices crises. These can come in many forms, ranging from

food stamp programs, to targeted cash transfers, food for

work programs, and emergency food aid distribution [19, 5].

If properly targeted these programs can be extremely

effective. However, much like the subsidization programs

discussed above, such programs are expensive to implement

and many governments lack the capacity to put them in

place. They are also not sustainable in the long term as they

often depend on a balance of payments deficit and external

aid.

The Twin Track Approach:

In responding to rising food prices, national

governments have been encouraged by international

organizations to protect the welfare of the most poor and

food insecure, while also providing public resources and

designing policies and programmes to support renewed

growth and development in the agricultural sector. This has

been dubbed the “twin track

approach” by the Food and

Agriculture Organization of

the UN (FAO), the

International Fund for

Agricultural Development

(IFAD) and the WFP, and was

first introduced at the

Monterrey Conference on

Financing for Development,

and at the World Food

Summit [1]. In spite of this

framework, policy responses

to date have focused mainly

on immediate crisis response

and have ignored the element

of long term growth and

development in agriculture.

SUGGESTIONS FOR

LONG-TERM SOLUTIONS

Policy responses to the

food crisis thus far have

mainly been focused on crisis

prevention or management,

and have not been structured

to address the roots of the

issue. In order to make food accessible to the poor in the

future, policies need to be targeting the underlying causes of

recent food price trends, and they need to be focused on long

Table 2: Percentage of Developing Countries Employing Market and Trade Based Policy Responses to Food Price Crisis in 2008 (From a Sample of 81)

Domestic, Market Based Measures Trade Policy Measures

Release Stock at

subsidized price (%)

Reduction or

Elimination of Food

Tariffs and Taxes (%)

Price Controls and/or

Restricted Private

Trade (%)

Reductions of Tariffs

and Customs Fees on Imports

(%)

Export Restrictions

or Bans (%)

Asia (26 countries) 15.0 5.0 6.0 13.0 13.0

Africa (33 countries) 13.0 14.0 10.0 18.0 8.0

Latin America and Caribbean (22 countries) 7.0 4.0 5.0 12.0 4.0

Total (81 countries) 35.0 23.0 21.0 43.0 25.0

Source: Demeke, Mulat, Pangrazio, Guedalina and Materne Maetz. 2009. Initiative on Soaring Food Prices. Country Responses to the Food Security Crisis: Nature and Preliminary Implications of the

Policies Pursued. FAO: Rome, Italy. (pg 13).

Table 3: Percentage of Developing Countries Implementing Safety Net Responses to Food Crisis in 2008 (From a Sample of 81)

Cash Transfer

(%)

Food Assistance

(%)

Increase Disposable

Income (%)

Asia (26 countries) 9.9 11.1 9.9

Africa (33 countries) 7.4 6.2 4.9

Latin America and the Caribbean (22 countries) 11.1 6.2 4.9

Total (81 countries): 28.4 23.4 19.6

Source: Demeke, Mulat, Pangrazio, Guedalina and Materne Maetz. 2009. Initiative on Soaring Food Prices. Country Responses to the Food Security Crisis: Nature and Preliminary

Implications of the Policies Pursued. FAO: Rome, Italy. (pg 13).


Vol. 5, No. 2, Winter 2012, 51-62

58

term structural change. There are several areas that should be

considered by policy makers looking to improve food

security; this paper will discuss: renewed investment in

R&D, new forms of risk management, the possibility of

speculative regulation, changes to biofuel production

regulation, the development of urban agriculture, and the

promotion of trade liberalization.

Research and Development

Improving agricultural R&D should be the main focus

of policymakers working to avoid the acceleration of food

insecurity in the future. Currently, productivity focused

agricultural R&D is grossly lacking. For example, only 0.5%

of Africa’s agricultural GDP is spent on research to improve

productivity [2]. While there is a significant lag time between

initial investment and realization of returns that makes

agricultural R&D less attractive than other forms of

investment, hundreds of cost-benefit analyses have reported

that agricultural R&D yields high returns in the long-term

[26]. Poor smallholder farmers in the developing world do

not have the capacity to make these investments themselves,

as market imperfections limit access to credit and capital

[42]. Thus to stimulate research and development public

investment will be needed, and measures such as levies, tax

credits, and subsidies will be necessary [28]. There is also a

need to increase support to international funding bodies like

the Consultative Group on International Agricultural

Research (CGIAR) and the Global Agriculture and Food

Security Program (GAFSP), and to encourage responsible

foreign direct investment (FDI) [19]. The majority of R&D

needs to be focused on smallholders specifically, as

technology and policies that are biased against smallholders

can have a perverse effect on poverty [19, 42]. Because

smallholders tend to be more risk-averse and unlikely to

adopt techniques that increase yield variance, it is important

to improve risk management as well [42].

Risk Management

Risk management is increasingly important as weather

shocks become more and more frequent due to changing

climates. Many developing countries already have

temperatures that are near or above crop tolerance levels, and

they are predicted to suffer an average of 10-15 percent

decline in productivity by the 2080s (assuming that

greenhouse gas emissions continue to increase as they have

been) [43]. Developing countries also suffer the majority of

the world’s natural disasters [44]. Consequently, price

volatility due to weather shocks can be expected to escalate

in the future, and forms of weather risk management will

become increasingly necessary. The implementation of

weather risk management will require government

coordination, institutions established at the national level for

facilitation, and precise meteorological data [19]. Payouts

should be used to finance food imports, social safety nets,

and other forms of food security support.

Speculative Regulation

There is still much debate surrounding the nature of

speculative activity, and its role in stabilizing global

agricultural markets. Various critics have made suggestions

as to how to better regulate speculation, including: regulation

of authorized traders, the introduction of a trade register at

stock exchanges, and the elimination of what has been

labeled as particularly ‘dangerous’ speculation - namely

hedge fund activity, and over the counter derivatives [20].

Some regulatory steps have already been taken by the

Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) since the

signing of the Dodd Frank Act in July of 2010. In contrast to

the views of critics, there are also many scholars who do not

see existing speculative activity as detrimental to food price

stability, and argue that further regulation is not warranted

[31]. While both sides can agree that speculative behaviour

has the potential to play an important role in food price

stabilization, the degree of regulation needed is widely

contested. Communication between scholars on both sides of

the debate, and an ongoing dialogue about the role of

speculation in commodity price stabilization, is needed to

continue to address this complex issue.

Revisions to Biofuel Production

The sustainability of biofuel production as it currently

exists needs to be seriously reconsidered. Specifically,

currently existing subsidies that make first generation

biofuels competitive and increase the correlation between

fuel and food crops, need to be reevaluated [1, 19, 10]. There

are three specific policy suggestions that appear consistently

in the literature on this issue: a shift in feedstock use [9, 44,

11], the development of second generation technology [46],

and the opening of biofuel trade [9, 19]. Non-edible energy

crops (for example, jatropha) that do not compete with food

crops and can be grown on marginal lands should be

substituted for current feedstocks [9, 11]. As the poor often

live on marginal lands, production of biofuels with these

feedstocks actually has the potential to elliviate poverty

without the negative food price impacts [11]. Second

generation technology, such as technology that can produce

biofuels from cellulose, needs to be developed before it will

become economically, socially, and environmentally

sustainable for many countries to participate in biofuel

production [12]. Trade barriers in biofuel markets need to be

removed as well, and international markets should be opened

so that biofuels can be produced where it makes economic

sense, and traded freely [19]. The removal of tariffs,

specifically the current tariff in the United States, would lead

to biofuels being produced from the lowest cost source which

would reduce pressure on corn prices [11]. With all of these

revisions, biofuel production could make a significant

contribution to renewable energy in the future without

jeapordizing global food security.


Vol. 5, No. 2, Winter 2012, 51-62

59

Urban Agriculture The importance of urban agriculture in many areas of

the developing world (specifically, Subsaharan Africa) needs

to be acknowledged and incorporated into future policy

considerations. Urban agricultural development not only

targets the urban poor – the most vulnerable category in the

face of a food price crisis, along with the rural landless – but

also women and children, who are generally at the highest

risk of food insecurity and malnutrition within their

households. Up to 40% of some Africa city populations are

urban or peri-urban agriculturalists, and the percentage is as

high as 50% in some Latin American cities [35, 47]. It is

estimated that 200 million city dwellers produce food for

urban markets, accounting for 15-20% of global food

production. Many urban agriculturalists are women, and in

many areas women make up the majority of urban farmers

[35, 48]. That women have such a significant presence within

the urban agricultural movement makes urban agriculture an

important area for future research and policy.

There are many reasons aside from gender benefits that

provide impetus for the development of urban agriculture in

the future. The majority of households that participate in

urban farming do so to improve food access, improve

household food supply and nutrition, and to supplement their

incomes [49]. Urban agricultural production has been

correlated with both dietary diversity and kilocalorie

consumption [47]. It can also provide city dwellers with a

buffer against seasonality and food shortages. Urban

agriculture also provides opportunity for modernization

because of market proximity, and the ease of extension and

information dissemination due to population density [48].

There is, therefore, a potential for agricultural R&D to occur

at an accelerated rate in urban settings.

In spite of these many benefits, urban farming is still

part of the informal economy in most areas, and faces

hostility from policymakers [35]. Scholars in support of

urban agriculture have made many policy suggestions,

including: encouraging backyard farming, making parcels of

land available specifically for the poor and FHHs, providing

support and extension, and providing marketing support [48].

Overall, urban agriculture needs to be moved into the formal

economy so that farmers can receive the full benefit of their

labour [35].

Trade Liberalization

Trade policies need to be improved to remove barriers

to trade that increase food price distortion [1]. Potential

market instabilities caused by domestic production

fluctuations can be offset by trade, and studies have indicated

that food supplies can be stabilized much more cheaply by

trading in world markets than by domestic storage and buffer

stocks [23, 19]. This is because production at the aggregate

level is much more stable than at the national or regional

level, where agriculturally adverse weather or crop failure is

more highly concentrated. In order to take advantage of the

benefits of trade, however, countries need to reduce their

tendencies to isolate themselves during food price crises

[19]. An important step in eliminating these isolationist

tendencies, which has been indentified by many scholars, is

the completion of the WTO Doha Round discussions [6, 19].

IMPORTANT AREAS FOR FUTURE RESEARCH

While literature addressing various aspects of the

emerging food crisis has been expanding over the past few

years, there are still many gaps yet to be addressed by

existing scholarship. The value of urban agriculture and its

impact on mediating the effects of the food price crisis is still

largely unknown. There is a lack of quantitative data on this

subject; this is largely due to the fact that urban agriculture

exists in the informal sector in most areas of the developing

world, and much of the existing literature takes an advocacy

stance that is not objective. Further research on the impact of

this activity on household food security would be beneficial.

The ways in which rising food prices are related to

violence and political instability could be better understood,

in order to help policymakers develop preventative

programmes. Food price riots will be likely to continue in the

future as further price volatility is predicted, and violence

prevention in the face of this instability should be a priority.

The ways in which issues relating to gender interact

with food security issues is an area that has not received

much academic attention, and the ways in which gendered

entitlements affect household coping mechanisms in food

crisis situations could be better understood. Specifically, the

difference between how male and FHHs mediate the impacts

of food price increases could help shed light on the gendered

aspect of food insecurity.

Finally, while several governments have recently

reintroduced food price stabilization initiatives, there is

evidence that such initiatives do not benefit – and could in

fact harm — the poorest households and most vulnerable

population subgroups [50]. Very little is understood about

the mechanisms and magnitude of the effects of

macroeconomic food policies on nutritional status. Further

research in this area is needed, specifically on the impact of

food price stabilization initiatives on child and maternal

nutrition.

CONCLUSION

The trend of rising agricultural commodity prices is

likely to continue in the future. Given the nature of

agricultural production and recent trends, some level of

volatility is to be expected as well. As incomes and

populations in the global South continue to expand, and as

the planet continues to be impacted by rising temperatures

and more frequently occuring adverse weather events, a

focus on productivity enhancing agricultural R&D becomes

increasingly important. A focus on investment in agricultural

R&D, as well as subsidization programs to protect the


Vol. 5, No. 2, Winter 2012, 51-62

60

poorest and most vulnerable populations from micronutrient

malnutrition, should replace market interventions that only

create further price distortion. The trend among developed

countries of undervaluing agriculture as a sector needs to be

reversed, as wealthier countries – especially the United

States and Canada — have the resources to improve

agricultural productivity in the future. International research

bodies such as CGIAR and GAFSP also have a significant

role to play in spreading knowledge globally, and building

capacity in developing countries to implement new and

effective technologies.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This research was completed as part of an

Undergraduate Research Assistantship with the Department

of Food, Agriculture and Resource Economics, under the

supervision of Professor Getu Hailu. The author would like

to thank Professor Hailu for his advice, support, and

manuscript review.

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ENDNOTES

a Price volatility and price increases are two separate but connected phenomenon. The term 'price volatility' refers to short term

fluctuations or deviations in prices either above or below the norm. In contrast, the phenomenon of rising prices occurs steadily

over the long term, and is far more predictable.

b The label of ‘Least Developed Country’ is a category defined and applied by the UN to a nation that exhibits the lowest

socioeconomic development indications and Human Development Index ratings in the world. A country is placed in this

category if it’s GNI falls below $905USD, and also if it’s indicators for nutrition, health, education and literacy indicate human

resource weakness. Economic vulnerability is also considered, and is evaluated based on the instability of agricultural

production, export goods and services, the economic importance of non-traditional activities, the concentration of merchandise

in exports, economic smallness and the percentage of the population displaced by natural disasters.

c Over-the-counter derivatives are unregulated derivatives that are traded directly between two parties, and not through a

mediating trade regulating body. These types of derivatives increased by 160% between 2005 and 2007 [20], leading many

economists to argue that their growing prevalence is inked to the food price volatility that occurred around the same time. In

June of 2008, the FAO argued that futures prices for wheat and maize were 60% and 30% beyond their expected underlying

values, respectively, linking this phenomena to rising food prices [33].

d In contrast to net food selling households, who actually benefit from temporary food price hikes. Depending on the status of a

household as a net buyer or seller of food, volatility can have a positive or negative impact.


Vol. 5, No. 2, Winter 2012, 63-73

63

Applications of electrospun nanofibers in the biomedical field

Nishath Khan

This study was conducted under the supervision of

Professors Manjusri Misra1, Thomas Koch

2 and Amar Mohanty

1,3

1Department of Plant Agriculture, Ontario Agricultural College,

2Department of Biomedical Science, Ontario Veterinary College,

3School of Engineering, College of Physical and Engineering Science,


Electrospinning is a technology that has been widely used as a novel method for the generation of nano scale fibres.

Electrospun fibres are used in a wide range of applications from electronics to textile. The viability and popularity of

this technology can be evidenced by its ease of use and the simplicity of the science behind building the

electrospinning machine. The generated fibres have a high surface area- to- volume ratio, the fibrous mats are highly

porous and display excellent mechanical properties when compared to other materials of the same scale. In the past

decade, this technology has taken off with the use of biocompatible and biodegradable polymers. This review is a

summary of the different ways in which electrospinning can be used in the biomedical field. This article analyzes the

recent advances of this technology in tissue engineering, drug delivery and in enzyme immobilisation, which once

again showcases the versatility of the electrospinning procedure.

lectrospun nanofibres are generated using an external

electric field to induce instability in a drop of polymer

fluid or solution causing the droplet to elongate and whip,

reducing the diameter of the polymer fiber. The complete

electrospinning unit was first designed by Cooley and

Morton in 1902. They used various collectors to explain the

effect of the external electric field on fluids. During the

1930’s Formals introduced a cellulose acetate polymer into

the electric field created by two electrodes with opposite

charge. Formals placed the positive electrode into the

solution with the polymer. When the positively charged

polymer left the needle it was drawn by the

electromechanical stress towards the negatively charged

collector. The jet continues to accelerate and thin due to the

tensile stress. The solution evaporated from the charged jets

to become fibres which were collected [1, 2].

The basic electrospinning unit requires the following:

(1) High voltage power supply, (2) micro-volume syringe

pump, (3) syringe and a small diameter needle and (4) metal

collector. Similar to Formals’s experimental setup the

positive electrode of the power supply is connected to the

needle and the negative is grounded to the collector. A

schematic diagram of the electrospinning unit and generated

nanofibres can be seen in figure 1.

There are many applications of the electrospinning

technology in the biomedical field. The reasons are quite

evident such as the simplicity of the procedure in generating

the large surface area- to- volume ratio of the material and

the mechanical stability of the fibres that allows for its use in

the biomedical field. Research has however been centered

around three main issues: (1) the generation of scaffolds for

tissue engineering; (2), drug delivery mechanisms; and (3)

enzyme immobilization for faster reaction rates in biological

reactions. There have been many articles published that

highlight the importance of the biomedical applications of

electrospinning such as a review by Agrewal et al. [3], and

Laurencin et al. They have also reviewed the recent patents

on electrospun biomedical nanostructures [4]. The current

available techniques for nanofiber synthesis and the use of

nanofibers in tissue engineering and drug-delivery

applications are reviewed by Vasita et al. [5]. This article,

similar to its predecessors, will once again try to highlight

and review the recent techniques using the electrospinning

technology in the biomedical field.

Many biocompatible polymers have been used to

generate nanofibres; these polymers can be either

biodegradable or non-biodegradable. Non biodegradable

polymers or polymers that have a longer degradation time

than biodegradable polymers offer better structural and

mechanical support such as with polymers like PHBV (Poly-

hydroxy butyrate valerate) and PLLA (Poly-L-lactic acid).

However, these materials interfere with tissue turnover and

remodelling [6]. Polymers that are degradable in vivo due to

enzymatic and hydrolytic activities do not interfere with

cellular activities and allow for the cell proliferation and

spaces or holes created by the degraded fibres allow ECM

(extracellular matrix) to infiltrate and provide nutrition for

the proliferating cells. Therefore, non- biodegradable

E

REVIEW

Khan Studies by Undergraduate Researchers at Guelph

Vol. 5, No. 2, Winter 2012, 63-73

64

polymers can be effectively used for enzyme immobilization

and filtration systems in procedures like dialysis, whereas

biodegradable polymers can be used in tissue engineering

and drug delivery systems [6, 7].

BIOMEDICAL APPLICATION

Drug Delivery Methods

One of the main areas of research in biomedical

application is drug delivery where the electrospun fibers help

to encapsulate the therapeutic agent in the fibers. In addition,

electrospun fibers maintain the integrity and bioactivity of

the drug molecules due to the mild processing parameters.

Localized inoculation of medicines in wound treatment using

electrospun fibers as delivery vehicles can significantly

reduce the systemic absorption of the drug and

prevent/reduce any side effects from the drugs. In addition,

the efficacy of the drug would also improve due to

localization of the treatment [8]. The release of the drug is

then dependent on the degradation of the polymer fibers and

thus can be properly controlled. The core shell electrospun

fibers have usually been used in drug delivery applications.

This is due to the fiber’s ability to encapsulate the drug

molecules until they are needed in the hollow core. These

fibers protect the drug and also prevent other molecules such

as enzymes and growth factors from denaturing during

processing [9-11]. In this manner the therapeutic agents

remain unaltered and encapsulated until needed at the site of

action.

Yang et al. used lysozyme as a model protein and

studied the bioreactivity and structural integrity of PDLLA

(Poly-D,L-lactic acid, poly DL lactide) ultrafine nanofibers.

Scanning electron microscope SEM analysis showed that

fibers had the core shell structure, which were highly porous

and bead free [12]. This core sheath structure can be seen in

the figure 2.

Many compounds for therapeutic use can be

encapsulated within the nanofibers for drug delivery.

Complexities arise in this process due to the processing

parameters which are somewhat more complicated than for

simple encapsulation methods, by controlling the mode of

encapsulation and the architecture of electrospun fibers, to

achieve appropriate drug release patterns as summarized

below. [8].

The medicine can be encapsulated using two different

methods. The simplest method is by blending whereby the

drug molecules are “blended” or mixed with the polymer and

electrospun together to form the encapsulated fibers. Cui et

al. found that larger diameter fibers displayed zero order

kinetics in drug release, which means that the rate of release

of the drug will be is constant [13]. In this method the

molecules are located on the surface of the fibers and the

process would be easy to execute. The second method used

to generate encapsulated drug delivery systems (as

mentioned previously) is the core shell structure created

using the coaxial spinneret. Studies using these fibers by

Yang et al. have shown that the drug is released with an

initial burst and then stabilizes to a constant rate [14]. In

Figure 1: Schematic diagram of the complete electrospinning setup. A) Needle connected to the high voltage power supply. B)

Nanofibrous mats


Vol. 5, No. 2, Winter 2012, 63-73

65

addition, medically active agent can be coated to the surface

of the fibers. In this method the drug molecules can be

adsorbed or cross linked to the fibers via physical and

chemical bonds. [9] For example, in a study by Zhai et al.

Methylene Blue (MB) was used to load the electrospun fibers

using an ionic link. This study demonstrated that the drug

releasing rate of the electrospun fiber fiber mesh can be

controlled by varying pH value or temperature [9].

The high surface area of the nanofibers overcomes the

loading limitations that are normally encountered in normal

drug delivery methods. In addition, the surface area of the

nanofibers can be further increased when the fiber created

has porous rather than a smooth surface. Dayal et al. created

porous fibers using iPMMA as it can be seen in the following

figure 3. The pores increase the surface area and provide

larger number of binding sites for drug loading.

These pores can be created by the selective removal of

materials that are blended together or by phase separation

and modifying the electrospinning techniques. Dayal et al.

have shown that there is a competition between the rate of

phase separation and solvent evaporation which, causes the

pores to form in the fibers. The size of these pores depends

on the surface energy [15].

Chen et al. used Heparin (which prevents cell

proliferation in fibroblasts, mesangial cells and vascular

smooth muscle cells) encapsulated it in Poly(L-lactide-co-ε-

caprolactone) (P(LLA-CL)). Fibroblast proliferation is a

major issue in surgical wound healing which leads to

premature wound closure. They used the coaxial spinneret to

generate core shell fibers of relatively even diameter fibers in

Figure 2: SEM images (a1) and LCSM images (a2) of PDLLA electrospun core-shell fiber containing 5% Bovine serum albumin (BSA); SEM images (b1) and LCSM images (b2) of PDLLA electrospun core-shell fiber containing 5% lysozyme. Reproduced from Cui et al. [8] by permission.

Figure 3: Porous nanofibres of iPMMA solution using electrospinning. Reproduced from Dayal et al. [15] by permission.


Vol. 5, No. 2, Winter 2012, 63-73

66

the range of 413 nm. When compared with the control fiber

without any heparin it was found that the drug encapsulated

fibers hindered cell growth after 48 hrs [10].

Okuda et al. have created a novel method of slowly

releasing a combination of drugs using multilayered drug

loaded nanofibers. The polymer used was PLCL and this was

loaded with two drugs 5,10,15,20-tetraphenyl-21H,23H-

porphinetetrasulfonic acid disulfuric acid (TPPS) and

chromazurol B (ChorB) and the drug release profile was

investigated. Figure 4 illustrates this technique.

They found that the drug release can be controlled by

varying the electrospinning parameters such as the mesh size

and fiber diameter. These forms of drug therapies can be

used in sequential treatment of diseases such as AIDS and

some forms of cancer [11].

Tissue Engineering

Electrospinning is a very efficient method for tissue

scaffold manufacturing to produce a nonwoven mesh of

micron-sized to submicron-sized fibers. Many researchers

have generated various types of scaffolds for human tissue

and organ regeneration, including bone, dentin, collagen,

liver, cartilage, and skin. Both natural and synthetic polymer

electrospun nanofibers have been used in making these

scaffolds. These electrospun nanofibers are used to repair,

replace and enhance the properties of the tissues. The

electrospun nanofibers, which are used in the scaffold, need

to be well designed and must have uniformity of dimension.

In addition, other requirements such as high porosity (good

pore size distribution), large surface area, biodegradability,

the ability to maintain structural integrity with tissue, good

mechanical properties, non toxicity to cell and

biocompatibility are also important in tissue engineering

while using electrospinning [16].

In the body support is usually provided by the ECM

(extracellular matrix), made up of polymers of fibrous

proteins such as collagen and glycosaminoglycans (GAGs)

which are proteoglycans or a form of polymers made of

carbohydrates. The electrospun mats that are highly porous

behave similar to the extracellular matrix in the body [17].

Therefore, scaffolds composed of polymers that are

conducive to cellular attachment and present in the natural

ECM (e.g., collagen) would further enhance the nanofiber

efficiency. The collagen exhibits favorable tensile

mechanical properties at the level of single fiber, but its poor

bulk properties limit its ability to be used as sole material in

making scaffolds for biomedical applications. In addition, the

production of the collagen fibers by electrospinning is not

economically advantageous. Hence, many researchers have

synthesized collagen fibers with other biodegradable

polymers. These composite materials have good mechanical

properties and enhance the reactivity of collagen to the cells.

PLLA nanofibers have been synthesized with collagen (less

than 10%) for bone applications due to their

biocompatibility. The pure PLLA scaffold may lack the

specific functionality that would promote the interactions

between cells and scaffold [18, 19]. There are many

electrospun polymer fibers effectively applied in tissue

engineering. Some of these polymers especially those applied

in tissue engineering are listed in Table 1.

In tissue engineering applications, core/shell nanofibers

are used due to their versatility not only for the encapsulation

of biologically relevant molecules and nano composites but

also for modifying the surfaces of electrospun fibers. The

electrical and mechanical properties of the nanofibers are

very important in the tissue engineering. Conductive

electrospun nanofiberous scaffolds have been fabricated

using biodegradable poly (lactic acid) (PLA) mixed with

single wall carbon nanotubes (SWNT). The SWNT

incorporated nanofiber scaffolds allow cells to grow with no

hostile influence on cell proliferation. Zhang and research

group synthesized collagen surface coated poly (ε-

caprolactone (PCL) by coaxial electrospinning and studied

functionalized PCL nanofibers cell-scaffold interactions by

using the human dermal fibroblasts as the sample cells for

skin tissue engineering [20]. The PCL/Gelatin core shell

Figure 4: Multilayer encapsulated therapeutic agents for slow time release (i) encapsulated electrospun TPPS drug, (ii) Mesh to control

the rate of release of the second drug ChorB (iii) and (iv) base for attachment. Reproduced from Okuda et al. [11] by permission.


Vol. 5, No. 2, Winter 2012, 63-73

67

fibers prepared by Zhao et al. have high mechanical stability

and bioactivity. Gelatin has the capability of stimulating cell

adhesion, proliferation and differentiation and it can be

directly incorporated via electrostatic interactions [21].

3,3-dithiobis(propanoicdihydrazide)-modified

Hyaluronic acid (HA-DTPH) and poly(ethylene glycol)

diacrylate (PEGDA) cross linked fiber system synthesized by

double syringe electrospinning method are being used for

soft-tissue scaffold materials in 3D cell cultures [22]. Multi-

layering and mixing electrospinning using four different

biopolymers or synthetic polymers such as type-I-collagen,

polymerizable styrenated gelatin (ST-gelatin), segmented

polyurethane (SPU), and poly (ethylene oxide) (PEO) were

synthesized by Kidoa Ki et al. Multilayered ST-gelatin, SPU

and type-I-collagen fiber mats have been used in tissue-

engineered matrices, scaffolds, and devices [23].

Fugihara and group synthesized PCL/CaCO3 nano

composite fibers for guided bone regeneration (GBR)

membranes and achieved high mechanical stability of fiber

films by using multiple layer PCL and PCL/CaCO3

composite nanofiberous membranes. These calcium rich

GBR membranes are favored in vivo condition to enhance

osteoconductivity at bone defects [24,25]. Lee et al. prepared

PCL/Collagen electrospun fibers and investigated whether

orientation of electrospun PCL/collagen nanofibers affects

morphology, adhesion, proliferation, differentiation, and

organization of human skeletal muscle cells [16]. Mey et al.

also synthesized fully aligned PCL and PCL/collagen

electrospun fibers. Collagen is the prevalent structural

protein of the extracellular matrix and it enhances the

biological effects of PCL [26]. Polymerization of acrylic acid

surface modified biodegradable synthetic polymers, i.e., poly

(glycolic acid) (PGA), poly (L-lactic acid) (PLLA) and poly

(lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA) are being actively utilized

for the fabrication of tissue scaffolds or as delivery vehicles

[27]. Li et al. prepared composite electrospun nanofiberous

membranes. They studied in-vitro degradation properties, pH

value, molecular weight and mechanical properties of the

composites. The tensile strength and Young’s modulus of

composite membranes were still higher than those of

electrospun PLGA membranes during degradation. The cell-

culture experiment results indicated that the electrospun

PLGA-chitosan/PVA composite membranes could facilitate

the adhesion of human embryo skin fibroblasts [28].

Ramakrishna et al. prepared PLLA membranes by

electrospinning. The PLLA scaffold was intended for neural

tissue engineering and its suitability evaluated in vitro using

neural stem cells (NSCs) [29]. Chew and group prepared the

PCL and poly (ethyl ethylene phosphate) (PCLEEP)

electrospun nanofibers. They were able to isolate a suitable

Table 1: List of polymer fibres which are used in biomedical applications.

Polymer Solvent Fibre Diameter Ref.

1

Drug Delivery System: (a) Poly(ε-caprolactone) (shell)+ Poly(ethylene glycol) (core)

2,2,2-trifluoroethanol (b) Water

200-350 nm

[41]

2 (a) Poly(ε-caprolactone) and poly(ethylene glycol) (shell) Dextran (core)

Chloroform and DMF , Water 1-5 µm [42]

3 Poly(ε-caprolactone) (shell) Poly(ethylene glycol) (core)

Chloroform and DMF, Water 500-700 nm [43]

4 Poly(ε-caprolactone-co-ethyl ethylene phosphate) DCM and PBS ~ 4 µm [44]

5 Poly(D,L-lactic-co-glycolic acid), PEG-b-PLA, and PLA

DMF 260-350 nm [45]

6 Poly(D,L-lactic-co-glycolic acid) DCM 1-10 µm [46]

7 Poly(L-lactide-co-glycolide) and PEG-PLLA

Chloroform 690-1350 nm [47]

8

General Tissue Engineering: Poly(ε-caprolactone)

Chloroform and methanol

2-10 nm

[48]

9 Poly(ε-caprolactone) (core)+ Zein (shell) Chloroform and DMF 500-900 nm [49]

10 Poly(ε-caprolactone) (core) + Collagen (shell) 2,2,2-trifluoroethanol 500 nm [50]

11 Poly(D,L-lactic-co-glycolic acid) and PLGA-b-PEG-NH2

DMF and THF 400 -1000 nm [51]

12 Poly(D,L-lactide-co-glycolide) DMF and THF 500-800 nm [52]

13 Poly(ethylene glycol-co-lactide) DMF and acetone 1-4 mm [53]

14 Poly(ethylene-co-vinyl alcohol) 2-propanol and water 0.2-8.0 mm [54]

15 Collagen HFP 180-250 nm [55]

16 Gelatin 2,2,2-trifluoroethanol 0.29-9.10 mm [56]

17 Fibrinogen HFP 120-610 µm [57]

18 Poly(glycolic acid) and chitin HFP 130-380 nm [37]

19

Vascular Tissue Engineering Poly(ε-caprolactone)

Chloroform and DMF

0.2-1 nm

[58]

20 Poly(L-lactide-co-ε-caprolactone) Acetone 200-800 nm [59,60, 61]

21 Poly(propylene carbonate) Chloroform 5 µm [62]

22 Poly(L-lactic acid) and hydroxylapatite

DCM and 1,4-dioxane 300 nm [63]

23 Chitin HFP 0.163-8.77 nm [64]


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68

candidate for the production biodegradable protein-

encapsulated fibers [30]. Zong and his medical group

prepared PLGA and PLGA/PEG-PLA polymer blend (85:15

by weight) nanofibers and tested these fibers in–vivo in

animals without medication. Under these conditions, through

adjustment of hydrophilicity, the adhesion properties were

significantly improved [31]. They also prepared electrospun

scaffolds consisting of four different compositions: PLA,

PLGA (LA/GA=50/50) copolymer, PLA-b-PEG-b-PLA

triblock copolymer and lactide. The role of high molecular

weight (HMW) PLA was to provide the overall mechanical

strength, the purpose of the PLGA was to grossly tune the

degradation rate, the lactide was used to finely set the

degradation rate and the PLA-b-PEG-b-PLA copolymer was

used to control the hydrophilicity [32].

The aligned collagen scaffold produced by

electrospinning with a rotational wheel collector exhibits a

distinct fiber alignment when compared to the random

fibrous mats generated without the use of the rotating wheel

collector. The aligned collagen nanofiberous scaffolds can be

very useful in engineering different specific tissues or organs

where the elongated proliferation patterns of the cells

coincides with the cell morphology [33]. Yang’s research

group fabricated electrospun PLLA/HA (hydroxyapatite)

hybrid membrane, which was used for bone tissue

regeneration. To achieve the purpose, laboratory synthesized

HA nanoparticles were carefully dispersed in PLLA polymer

and nano sized PLLA/HA hybrid fibers were electrospun

through well-controlled spinneret to fabricate desirable

hybrid membrane. They investigated structural and

mechanical properties and in vitro degradation of the

PLLA/HA hybrid membrane [34].

As a biodegradable polymer, PHBV, was conjugated

with type-I collagen as an electrospun nanofiberous scaffold

in order to produce a nanofiberous mat. This biodegradable

scaffold was highly mechanically stable and can be used as

an animal cell adhesive material (PVHB-Col). In in-vitro

experiments, it was determined that the NIH3T3 fibroblast

cells showed significantly better adherence and proliferation

on the PHBV-Col nanofiberous scaffold than did the PHBV

control scaffold [35]. Yuan et al. successfully prepared

nanofiberous PLGA/chitosan membranes by using a dual

source and dual-power electrospinning. They successfully

used different power supplies and different syringe pumps

with variable number of syringes with altered compositions.

The enhanced structural and mechanical properties and the

cyto-compatibilities of the hybrid nanofiberous

PLGA/chitosan membranes were studied because of the

introduction of large amounts of hydrophilic chitosan (from

32.3 to 86.5%) into the membranes. The cyto-compatibility

study suggested that interactions between endometrial

stromal fibroblasts (hESFs) and PLGA/chitosan hybrid

membranes and the hybrid nanofiberous PLGA/chitosan

membrane, with suitable chitosan amount (from 32.3 to

86.5%) is an efficient scaffold for skin tissue engineering

[36].

The increasing use of biodegradable polymers in

medicine has attracted polymer scientists since this material

exhibits unique properties for specific uses in the field.

Electrospun hexanoyl chitosan (H-chitosan), PLA and H-

chitosan/PLA fibers prepared from corresponding solutions

in chloroform, dichloromethane and tetrahydrofuran were

shown to have good mechanical properties and many

applications in tissue engineering [37]. The biodegradable

and biocompatible polymers, PLA, poly (glycolic acid)

(PGA), and their copolymers have extensive applications in

surgical sutures, drug delivery and scaffolds for tissue

generation. Chitin has good biocompatibility and

biodegradableility and has various biofunctionalities

including antithrombogenic, hemostatic immunity

enhancing, and wound healing properties. Park and his group

synthesized nanostructured scaffolds of PGA/chitin blends

and investigated hydrolytic degradation behavior of

PGA/chitin blend nanofibers in vitro. They examined the

effect of PGA/chitin scaffolds on the cell attachment and

spreading of normal human epidermal fibroblasts (NHEF)

[38]. Pham et al. prepared the multi-layer electrospun PCL

microfiber scaffolds with a 300 sec nanofiber layer (i.e. the

electrospinning process was run for 300 seconds). This fiber

exhibited reduced cellular infiltration under both static and

flow culture conditions tested here. The optimization to get a

balance between the nanofibers and microfibers in these

multilayer structures has tremendous potential for 3D tissue

engineering applications [39]. Wang prepared the 3D poly

(D, L-lactide-co-glycolide)/hydroxyapatite (PLGA/HAp)

composite fibrous scaffolds to develop recombinant human

bone morphogenetic protein-2 (rhBMP-2). The PLGA/HAp

composite scaffolds developed in this study exhibits even

morphology with homogeneous dispersion of HAp

nanoparticles inside PLGA matrix within the scaffold. In

vitro test show that the BMP-2 protein successfully

maintained its integrity and natural conformations after

undergoing the electrospinning process. Cell culture

experiments showed that the encapsulation of HAp could

enhance cell attachment to scaffolds and reduce lower

cytotoxicity [40].

Catalysis

Electrospun materials from stable polymers or ceramic

fibers are ideal candidates for catalytic supports as they can

provide a large surface area and a high porosity for most

catalytic interaction. Researchers have studied the

immobilization of catalysts with high efficiency and high

active surface area that is created by the electrospinning

method. The electrospun TiO2 catalysts have a high

efficiency and high active surface area. Doh et al. have

immobilized photocatalytic TiO2 (236 nm thick) on

nanofibers using electrospinning for application in the

degradation of dye pollutants. They coated the photocatalytic

TiO2 particles on the TiO2 nanofibers to enhance degradation

efficiency of dye pollutants and proposed that the composite

TiO2 nanofibers and nanoparticles are suitable for the


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degradation of organic pollutants [65]. Metal oxide

electrospun nanofibers are usually prepared with a precursor

metal salt solution with the help of a proper polymer,

followed by calcination to decompose the polymer

completely and turn metal salt into metal oxide [65].

Liu et al. prepared ZnO nanofiber and nano particles by

using a novel electrospinning system. In this process Zn

acetate acts as a precursor, N, N-dimethylformamide

(DMF)/acetone as a solvent, and cellulose acetate (CA) as a

fiber template. ZnO nanoparticles smaller than 40 nm in

diameter are obtained by direct calcination of ZnAc/CA

composite nanofibers. They obtained ZnO nanofibers with

diameter less than 23 nm with the calcination of Zn

(OH)2/cellulose composite nanofibers. The photocatalytic

activity of ZnO nanofibers is evaluated and compared with

that of ZnO nanoparticles by measuring the photo-

degradation of the dye molecules such as Rhodamine B and

acid fuchsin under visible light irradiation. These ZnO

nanofibers mats are highly efficient photocatalysts and can

be potentially used in the treatment of waste water [66].

Transition-metal particles have a wide range of

application in catalysis, such as solar energy absorption, and

magnetic materials. Erman et al. prepared the catalytic

palladium (Pd) nanoparticles with electrospun copolymers of

poly-acrylonitrile and poly(acrylic acid) (PAN-AA) mats.

Electrospun nanofiberous mats from homogeneous solutions

of PAN-AA and PdCl2 in DMF. Palladium cations were

reduced to Pd metal when the fibrous mats were treated in an

aqueous hydrazine solution at room temperature. The

catalytic activity of the Pd nanoparticles in electrospun mats

were examined by selective hydrogenation of dehydrolinalol

in toluene at 90 °C. Electrospun fibers with Pd particles have

4.5 times higher catalytic activity than the currently using

Pd/Al2O3 catalyst [67]. Hou et al. reported that the Pd-NP-

carrying carbonized electrospun nanofibers (Pd-NP/CENFs)

were used as catalysts for a C–C coupling reaction. The Pd-

NP/CENFs were prepared via a carbonizing process of

electrospun composite nanofibers based on PAN and Pd

acetate. The Pd nano particles were partially embedded into

the nanofibers. These nanostructures create a stronger bond

between the Pd-NPs and the nanofibers. Therefore, the Pd-

NP/CENF catalysts are expected to have advantages like

having the1D nanofiber making it easy for the catalyst to

separate from a reaction mixture. In addition, the firm

bindings between the metal nanoparticles and the supporting

nanofibers make the catalyst leaching-resistant for good

retrieval and reusability [68].

Wei et al. prepared porous silica nanofibers containing

catalytic silver nanoparticles synthesized by sol-gel

chemistry and electrospinning techniques. Tetraethyl

orthosilicate (TEOS), poly-[3-(trimethoxysily)propyl

methacrylate] (PMCM), and silver nitrate (AgNO3) were

used as precursors for the production of silica-PMCM hybrid

fibers. Calcinations of the hybrid fibers at high temperatures

resulted in porous silica fibers due to the thermal

decomposition of PMCM polymer and conversion of AgNO3

to silver nanoparticles. From the silver-catalyzed reduction of

MB dye with sodium boron hydride as reducing agent silver

nanoparticles in the silica fibers exhibited good catalytic

properties [69]. Wendroff et al. presented a novel concept for

the immobilization of catalysts. They prepared naphthalene-

oligostyrene conjugates using this approach. Low molecular

weight oligostyrenes can be coelectrospun with high

molecular weight polystyrene (150-300 kDa) to provide

nanofibers where the oligostyrenes are well dispersed within

the fibers. The naphthalene-polystyrene conjugates with

defined molecular weight are readily prepared using

nitroxide-mediated radical polymerization (NMP). Due to the

high surface area of the nanofibers and the well dispersed

catalytic active moieties within the fibers, this system should

behave as a highly active immobilized catalyst system [70].

Hatton and Rutledge prepared functionalized oxime

nanofibers via electrospinning by the dispersion of

polyacrylamidoxime (PANOx) blended with PAN. The

oxime groups of the enzymes are nucleophilic and capable of

hydrolyzing esters. The effect of the fiber size on reaction

rate indicates that intra-fiber diffusion resistance may limit

the accessibility of the catalytic sites in the fibers and affect

the overall catalytic activity [71]. Xia et al. used the surface

of anatase TiO2 nanofibers with Pt nanoparticles and then Pt

nano wires to develop a heterogeneous catalyst. These

nanofibers were prepared in the form of a nonwoven mats by

electrospinning with a solution containing both poly-(vinyl

pyrrolidone (PVP) and titanium tetraisopropoxide, followed

by calcination in air at 510 °C. The fiber mat was then

immersed in a polyol reduction bath of ethylene glycol (EG)

solution containing H2PtCl6 and PVP to coat the surface of

TiO2 fibers with Pt nanoparticles of 2-5 nm. The Pt

nanoparticles coated on anatase nanofibers could also serve

as seeds for the growth of Pt nanowires up to 125 nm in

length as shown in Figure 5. The resultant fiber membranes

proved to have excellent catalytic activities for the

hydrogenation of methyl red, the efficiency of which

improved as the coverage of the Pt nano particle increased

[72].

Electrospun carbon fibrous mats (CFMs) have a

remarkable porous structure, close contact between the

nanofibers and a high surface area-to-volume ratio. If a

catalyst particle is deposited on the CFMs, it can satisfy the

requirements of reactant access, proton access and electronic

continuity for DMFCs. Yang et al. described the fabrication

of the catalytic electrodes Pt/CFM, and evaluated their

performance for electrocatalytic oxidation of methanol. The

CFMs were fabricated and the platinum particles deposited

on the carbon fibers by multi-cycle CV method. The

platinum supports on CFMs exhibit high performance in

their electrocatalytic activity and their stability towards the

oxidation of methanol [73]. The generated polyvinyl alcohol

(PVA)–Pt/TiO2 composite fibers with diameters 150–350 nm

by electrospinning. It was found that the PVA fiber could be

degraded by photo catalytic oxidation under UV irradiation.

The rate of degradation under UV-C irradiation is


Vol. 5, No. 2, Winter 2012, 63-73

70

approximately double of that under UV-A irradiation. Based

on the relationship between the weight loss and the reaction

conditions, it is supposed that the direct oxidation pathway

by direct electron transfer from reaction substrates to the

active site on the photocatalyst surface is the most probable

mechanism for the destruction of solid-phase PVA in PVA–

Pt/TiO2 composite fiber under UV irradiation [74]. Ebert et

al. studied the immobilization of Pd nanoparticles on

electrospun nanofibers of poly-(amideimide) (PAI). The PAI

nanofiberous mats collected during spinning were further

catalytically activated by a thermal treatment in air to yield

fixed nanosized catalyst on the surface of the nanofibers. The

catalytic activity of these nanofiberous mats was tested in the

hydrogenation of methyl-cis-9-octadecenoate (methyl

oleate), a model compound for the industrial process of

edible oil hydrogenation [75].

CONCLUSION

In biomedical applications and enzyme immobilization,

the electrospun nanofibres have a wide range of applications,

from tissue engineering to enzyme immobilization. These

applications are made possible due to the inherent

characteristics of the nanofibres such as its high porosity and

high surface area-to-volume ratio. Although there are other

methods of generating nano scale materials, such as drawing,

template synthesis, phase separation, self-assembly. Only the

electrospinning process has the flexibility and ease of fiber

production in both in the lab and in the production plant.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

NK and MM are also grateful for the financial supports

from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council

(NSERC), Canada for the Discovery grant individual to MM

and the 2009 Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and

Rural Affairs (OMAFRA) -University of Guelph’s

Bioeconomy Industrial Uses Research Program Project

Number 200001 and 200002.

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SLRP students Studies by Undergraduate Researchers at Guelph

Vol. 5, No. 2, Winter 2012, 74-77

74

Research highlights from the Ontario Veterinary College

summer leadership and research program

This study was conducted under the supervision of various professors in the

Ontario Veterinary College, University of Guelph

Here we present research highlights from the Summer Leadership and Research Program (SLRP) at the Ontario

Veterinary College. The SLRP offers BSc, DVM and other summer student researchers at OVC a stimulating slate

of events from May to August. The program includes a Round Table series with veterinarians and scientists

working in diverse and intriguing areas, field trips to cutting-edge research facilities and the Metro Toronto Zoo,

and professional development workshops to prepare for conference-style sessions.

AROMATASE AND ESTROGEN RECEPTOR

EXPRESSION IN EARLY EQUINE EMBRYOS

A. Schroeder (Advisors: K. Betteridge and T. Hayes)

Department of Pathobiology, Ontario Veterinary College,


During the early stages of pregnancy, the equine conceptus

produces estrogens which are assumed to play a role in the

interaction between the mare and the conceptus to promote

the establishment and maintenance of pregnancy. Failure of

this interaction can result in embryonic death, which is a

significant economic burden to those in the horse breeding

industry. It has been well established that extra-embryonic

membranes such as the trophoblast and the hypoblast are

responsible for the synthesis of estrogen; however, the

vitality of estrogen synthesis by the embryo proper for

embryogenesis and the establishment of pregnancy has only

recently been demonstrated. The final step in the biosynthetic

pathway of estrogen occurs via the enzyme aromatase, and

sensitivity to estrogen requires the presence of estrogen

receptors alpha and beta in the maternal and embryonic

tissues. The objective of this study was to determine at what

stage the equine embryo expresses aromatase activity and if

the embryo proper contains estrogen receptors alpha and beta

to utilize estrogens produced by the enzyme. Sixteen mares

at the Arkell Research Station (Guelph, ON) were monitored

for estrus, and by ultrasonography for follicular

development, to allow artificial insemination and diagnosis

of ovulation within ± 0.5 day. Conceptuses were collected by

transcervical uterine lavage and the embryo proper was

dissected. Immunohistochemical labelling was performed on

sections of embryo proper from days: 27.5 (n=1), 26.5 (n=1),

25.5 (n=2), 24.5 (n=1), trophoblast, endometrium and

placenta. Large amounts of aromatase were found in the

trophoblast epithelium. This is consistent with a role for

estrogen acting on endometrial estrogen receptors and being

important in pregnancy maintenance. Aromatase and

estrogen receptors are expressed in lower amounts in various

embryonic tissues (heart muscle, kidney, mesenchyme of the

genital ridge, and other locations) suggesting that estrogens

are also important in organogenesis in these locations.

EFFECTS OF CAFFEINE ON THE LEVELS OF APP

AND APP PROCESSING ENZYMES

A. Lima (Advisor: B. E. Kalisch)

Department of Biomedical Sciences, Ontario Veterinary

College,University of Guelph

Beta amyloid (Aβ) plaques are neuronal pathologies common

in both Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and Canine Cognitive

Dysfunction Syndrome (CDS). Aβ is derived from the

proteolytic cleavage of the larger transmembrane amyloid

precursor protein (APP) via cleavage at its N-terminus by β-

secretase (BACE1) followed by cleavage at its C-terminus by

the γ-secretase complex. Cleavage of APP by one of three α-

secretases (ADAM 9, 10 and 17) prevents the formation of

Aβ. These two pathways are referred to as amyloidogenic

and non-amyloidogenic, respectively. The purpose of this

study was to examine the effects of caffeine, which has been

reported to improve cognitive function, on the expression of

APP and its processing enzymes. PC12 (rat adrenal

pheochromocytoma) cells were treated with 100uM caffeine,

50ng/ml nerve growth factor (NGF) or NGF + caffeine for

24, 48 and 72 hours caffeine, and protein levels for APP and

APP processing enzymes were assessed by western blot

analysis. Caffeine in combination with NGF increased the

expression of all isoforms of APP and BACE1 but not

ADAM 17, suggesting caffeine increases the amyloidogenic


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75

processing of APP. Promoter activity for ADAM17 and

BACE1 was also assessed and was increased in cells treated

with caffeine and NGF indicating that the increase in protein

levels observed could be due to enhanced transcription. In

contrast to protein and promoter analysis, treatment of PC12

cells with caffeine alone resulted in an increase in APP and

ADAMs family mRNA levels. This study concludes that

caffeine could influence APP processing.

VARIATION IN IMMUNE RESPONSE PHENOTYPE

OF PIGS TREATED WITH HEAT-KILLED

ESCHERICHIA COLI IN A NEONATAL MODEL OF

ALLERGY

S. Garvie (Advisor: B. Wilkie)



Immune response (IR) of pigs varies by litter and individual

such that ratios of type-1 and type-2 IR differ. Genetics and

the environment contribute to this variation. Vaccination

response of neonates is often type-2 biased; this can lead to

inappropriate responses to type-1 infection, predisposition to

allergic disease, and reduced health and productivity. The

purpose of this experiment was to determine the effect of

daily pre-treatments with Escherichia coli delivered

intramuscularly (IM) to neonatal pigs on allergic

sensitization to the egg white protein ovomucoid (Ovm).

Food allergy was used as a monitor of type-2 bias. It was

hypothesized that piglets pre-treated with E. coli in the first

seven days of life would have reduced type-2 IR phenotypes,

resulting in a decreased frequency of clinical signs of allergy

upon oral challenge with egg white. Three litters of 12

Yorkshire piglets were used. Half of each litter was pre-

treated with E. coli, the other half with phosphate buffered

saline. Piglets were sensitized to Ovm by intraperitoneal

injection; sensitization was monitored through skin testing.

Blood was collected on days 14 and 45 to quantify T-

regulatory lymphocytes (T-regs) and to detect serum

antibody activity. Piglets were orally challenged on day 46

with egg white and clinical signs of allergy were scored.

Severity of skin test reactivity and clinical signs on day 46

were correlated. Groups were similar in expression of

allergy. There was more Ovm-specific antibody activity in

the E. coli treated group associated with IgG, IgE, and IgG1,

while there was no difference in Ovm-specific IgG2 antibody

activity. There was no treatment effect on the percentage of

T-regs on day 45 and no difference between T-reg

percentages in allergic versus clinically tolerant piglets.

Contrary to the hypothesis, treatment with E. coli increased

type-2 bias.

USING THE THROMBOELASTOGRAPH (TEG)

VELOCITY CURVE TO CHARACTERIZE BLOOD

CLOT FORMATION IN DOGS WITH IMMUNE-

MEDIATED HEMOLYTIC ANEMIA (IMHA)

M. Plyley and A. Abrams-Ogg (Advisor: D. Wood)



Immune mediated hemolytic anemia (IMHA) is an

autoimmune disease characterized by premature red blood

cell destruction. Hemostatic abnormalities such as

thromboembolism are a major cause of death. The

thromboelastograph (TEG) is a global hemostasis assay

utilizing whole blood that provides an evaluation of the

entire hemostatic system (clot initiation, clot formation and

fibrinolysis) in the form of a TEG tracing. TEG may detect

hemostatic aberrations when traditional plasma based tests

fail to do so. The TEG tracing converts to a velocity curve

(Vcurve), providing additional variables on clot formation,

kinetics, strength and thrombus generation. In one assay,

TEG may provide similar information usually determined by

several traditional blood clotting tests. The objective of this

study was to develop Vcurve reference values for normal

healthy dogs and compare Vcurve values in dogs with IMHA

to normal dogs. 41 normal adult dogs of various breeds and

sexes and 17 dogs with IMHA were utilized to gather data;

blood was collected from IMHA dogs on the day of

admission prior to treatment. Citrated unactivated blood

samples were analyzed for all dogs. Readings began after

340μL of blood was added to a cup containing 20μL of

calcium chloride. A TEG was performed and tracings were

then converted to a Vcurve. Variables evaluated were

thrombus generation (TG), maximum rate of thrombus

generation (MRTG) and time to maximum rate of thrombus

generation (TMRTG). Results: The mean TG from the

normal dogs was 644.3mm/min, while the mean TG from

IMHA dogs was significantly higher at 964.5mm/min

(p<0.0001). A significant difference was also found with

MRTG; IMHA dogs had 29.135 mm/min, compared to

normal dogs at 8.7 mm/min (p<0.0001). There was no

significant difference between mean TMRTG for normal

dogs (7.0 min) and IMHA dogs (5.5 min) (p=0.2215).

Conclusion: IMHA dogs generated more clot strength and at

a faster rate. This may suggest a hypercoagulable state. The

Vcurve variables TG and MRTG could be examined as

prognostic indicators for risk of mortality in future IMHA

dogs.


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76

THE EFFECT OF PACKED RED BLOOD CELL AGE

ON MORTALITY, TRANSFUSION REACTIONS, AND

POST-TRANSFUSION COMPLICATIONS

J. Leader and G. Montieth (Advisor: M. Holowaychuk)

Department of Clinical Studies, Ontario Veterinary College,


Storage of packed red blood cells (pRBCs) prior to

transfusion is associated with changes that negatively impact

the post-transfusion viability of red cells. In humans, the

transfusion of pRBCs stored for long periods of time can

increase the risk of systemic inflammation,

immunosuppression, organ injury, and death. This study

investigated the association between the storage age of

canine pRBCs and mortality, transfusion reactions, and post-

transfusion-complications in dogs. Records were obtained for

dogs receiving pRBC transfusions at the Ontario Veterinary

College Health Sciences Center (OVC-HSC) between June

2008 and May 2011. Records were retrospectively reviewed

for patient and transfusion information, outcome, transfusion

reactions (i.e., fever, hemolysis, anaphylaxis, delayed

reactions, volume overload), and post-transfusion

complications (i.e., acute kidney injury, pneumonia, new

infection, acute lung injury). 202 dogs (98 males, 104

females) received pRBC transfusions. pRBC age did not

significantly affect outcome, transfusion reactions, or post-

transfusion complications. These results are consistent with

some human studies that suggest a decrease in pRBC storage

time is not warranted. There was a significant association

between the number of pRBC units transfused and non-

survival (p=0.003), which was still present in a multivariate

analysis accounting for severity of illness (p=0.005).

Prospective randomized studies are needed to further assess

the effect of blood product storage on veterinary patient

outcome.

ASSESSMENT OF MITOCHONDRIAL FUNCTION

DURING BOVINE PREIMPLANTATION

EMBRYOGENESIS

R. Man and K. Perkel (Advisor: P. Madan)


College, University of Guelph

Embryo health evaluation is one of the most important tasks

in reproductive biotechnology; yet, a reliable, noninvasive

predictor of embryo viability still remains elusive. Studies in

our lab have shown that embryos with faster cleavage (FC)

rates have a higher developmental potential and differ in

their metabolomic profile from slow cleaving (SC) embryos.

Since mitochondria are essential energy-producing organelles

for embryonic development and the predominant site for

metabolic reactions within the cell, we propose that

mitochondrial function between fast and slow growing

embryos differs. Therefore, the objective of the present study

was to assess the expression of mitochondria-related genes

[ATP synthase (ATP5A1); Cytochome c oxidase (COX17)]

in bovine preimplantation embryos of different cleavage

rates. Embryos were produced in vitro using standard IVF

procedures and collected at timed stages of development

according to a standard embryo developmental timeline.

Using real-time RT-PCR we demonstrated that relative gene

expression for ATP5A1 and COX17 genes were higher in SC

embryos during the first few cleavage stages (2-cell & 4-

cell), while the same genes were expressed at a higher level

at 8-cell stage in the FC embryos. While ATP5A1 gene is

required for oxidative metabolism, cytochrome c oxidase

catalyzes the electron transfer from reduced cytochrome c to

oxygen. Upregulation of both these genes in SC embryos

reflects higher demand for aerobic respiration in the

developmentally challenged embryos. The high-energy

demand observed in FC embryos at 8-cell stage can be

attributed to the kick-start of the embryonic transcriptional

machinery. In FC embryos, high expressions of COX17

transcripts were observed at the blastocyst stage, suggesting

increased respiratory role during blastocyst formation.

Altogether, our results provide evidence that differences in

the mitochondrial function exist between SC and FC

embryos and future studies will focus on elucidating the

differences in the mitochondrial number and membrane

potential between SC and FC embryos.

CONSTITUTIVE VARIATION IN HEPTATIC

EXPRESSION OF PORCINE INNATE IMMUNE

GENES

S.K. Mavin and H.N. Snyman

(Advisors: M.A. Haynes and B.N. Lillie)



Infectious diseases are a major economic problem in the pig

industry, causing direct losses due to death and indirect

losses related to impaired growth performance due to

subclinical disease and costs associated with therapeutics and

prevention strategies. Deficiencies in innate immune

components can be caused by both environmental and

genetic factors, and may reduce resistance to infectious

disease. Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in some

innate immune proteins causing impaired expression and/or

function has been identified in many species including

humans and pigs. This study aims to identify SNPs in the

promoter regions of porcine innate immune genes associated

with impaired gene expression. Liver samples of 1003

healthy pigs were collected from a southern Ontario

processing facility. 96 pigs were selected for microarray

analysis (Agilent Porcine Gene Expression microarray) of

hepatic gene expression based on genotyping results for 19


Vol. 5, No. 2, Winter 2012, 74-77

77

previously identified innate immune SNPs to ensure genetic

heterogeneity. The innate immune genes mannan-binding

lectin 2 (MBL2) and secretoglobin were among the 15 genes

with the highest variability in expression, based on gene

expression ratios. Gene expression of MBL2 as assessed by

microarray was consistent with previous data generated by

qPCR. For many of the most variable innate immune genes

there is a small subset of animals with a marked drop in gene

expression, as observed previously for MBL2, potentially due

to SNPS within the promoter regions of these genes.

Sequencing of these promoter regions (currently underway

for secretoglobin 1A1/uteroglobin) should identify promoter

polymorphisms that impact expression levels and decrease

innate resistance to common infectious diseases of swine.

The discovery of these SNPS may lead to the development of

a more complete genetic selection panel leading to increased

disease resistance which will increase production, promote

animal health and welfare, and decrease the use of

antimicrobials and thus help reduce antimicrobial resistance.

EXTRAORDINARY MAN, EXCEPTIONAL TIMES:

HOW AN OVC VETERINARY PATHOLOGIST

BECAME THE ‘34TH

PATRIOT’ OF THE KOREAN

INDEPENDENCE MOVEMENT

B. Philpott (Advisor: E. Stone)

Dean’s Office, Ontario Veterinary College, University of

Guelph

Francis William Schofield (1889-1970) is a man remembered

on two continents. Born in England, Schofield immigrated to

Canada in 1907 and graduated from the Ontario Veterinary

College (OVC) in 1910. After joining the OVC faculty for a

brief time, he moved to Korea with his wife in 1916 to teach

bacteriology and hygiene as a medical missionary at

Severance Medical College in Seoul. While there, he became

actively involved in the 1919 March First Movement seeking

Korean independence, until attention from the Japanese

government and his wife’s deteriorating health necessitated a

return to Canada in 1920. For the next three decades,

Schofield taught at the OVC and carried out extensive

research, most notably discovering that a hemorrhagic

disease in cattle was caused by mouldy sweet clover, leading

to the eventual identification of dicumarol. Upon retirement,

he returned to Korea for the remainder of his life. Both in his

lifetime and posthumously, he was the recipient of numerous

awards and honours, both academic and cultural, and remains

the only foreigner to be buried in the Patriots’ Section of the

Korean National Cemeery. This project sought to uncover the

factors contributing to his successes in both Canada and

Korea. Research methods included accessing primary source

materials at the University of Guelph Library Archives and

the CAV Barker Museum, surveying secondary literature to

understand the context of Dr. Schofield’s time, and

conducting oral history interviews with students and

colleagues of the late Dr. Schofield. Ultimately, it was

determined that Schofield’s successes and legacy, while

undoubtedly the result of his dedication and indefatigable

spirit, were influenced by contemporary events and must be

viewed within the global context of his time. He lived and

worked at a pivotal time in history, marked by wars,

depression, and changing philosophies toward colonization,

and through his responses to these developments left an

international legacy as a veterinarian, teacher, medical

missionary and humanitarian.

EFFECTS OF DEXAMATHASONE ON ISOLATION

FREQUENCY OF EQUINE CORD BLOOD MSCS,

EXPANSION KINETICS, AND CHONDROGENIC

POTENCY

C. Cooper, J. Fountain, R.K. Gill, B. Black, and L. Tessier

(Advisor: T. Koch)


College, University of Guelph; Ortopaedic Research Lab,

Aarhus University Hospital, Aarhus C, Denmark

Previous research in our lab has shown that equine

multipotent mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) isolated

from equine cord blood (eCB) may have superior

chondrogenic potency compared to adipose and bone

marrow-derived equine MSCs. The role of dexamethasone

on initial MSC precursor frequency, cell expansion kinetics

and subsequent differentiation potential is unknown. The

hypothesis of this study is that exposure to dexamethasone in

the culture medium until the first passage preselects for

MSCs with enhanced chondrogenic potency. Twelve pony

mares were naturally bred, observed during foaling and cord

blood collected. The blood was erythrocyte depleted prior to

seeding: 50mL of whole blood was included in each

treatment group and cultured in DMEM-low glucose medium

containing 1% each L-glutamine and penicillin/streptomycin,

30% fetal bovine serum, and either 0 M (no

dexamethasone), 10-6 M, 10-7 M or 10-8 M dexamethasone.

Umbilical venous blood was successfully collected from 7 of

12 foals without complications. Initial colonies were noted

between day 7 and 12. First passage occurred between day 7

and 15. The population doubling time between passage 2 and

3 range from 1.2 to 5.1 days, average 2.53 days. In vitro

differentiation towards the adipogenic, osteogenic cell fates

was performed on 3 cell cultures, each from the 0 M (no

dexamethasone) group. Oil Red O and Alizarin Red S

staining, respectively, demonstrated successful adipogenic

and osteogenic differentiation. Analysis of the tri-lineage

differentiation is ongoing at time of abstract submission.

surg w2012

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