Professor Rob Allison to serve as director of York’s Centre for Vision Research
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Rob Allison
Professor Rob Allison will lead York University’s Centre for Vision Research (CVR) as its new director, as of July 1. Allison, a full-time faculty member at York since 2001, previously served as associate director of CVR. He takes on the role after Professor Laurence Harris, who stepped down after serving 10 years as the centre’s director.
“I have been proud to serve as director for the last 10 years which has been an extraordinary period of growth and expansion for the Centre for Vision Research,” said Harris. “As an interdisciplinary scientist, Rob is an ideal choice as the next director of the Centre for Vision Research.”
Rob Allison
Allison is a professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, and with graduate appointments in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Psychology and Digital Media. He holds the York Research Chair in Stereoscopic Vision and Depth Perception and leads the interdisciplinary Virtual Reality and Perception Lab. His research areas include biological, computational and artistic aspects of vision research and focuses on the interface between engineering and human psychology: how people use vision to interact with 3D worlds, both natural and synthetic.
His basic research program investigates the visual perception of depth and self-motion and the role of vision in the guidance and control of movement through the world. His team has had success in applying research, particularly in the domains of 3D film, 3D games, optometry, forestry, aviation, security and rehabilitation. Allison is currently working with leading industrial and government research bodies on improving the state-of-the-art in advanced virtual reality displays and simulations.
New associate director
Professor Denise Henriques will step into the role as associate director for CVR.
Denise Henriques
Henriques is a professor in the Department of Kinesiology and Health Science with graduate appointments in Psychology and Biology. She runs the Sensorimotor Control Lab which carries out research into how multiple senses, including vision, touch and the body-position sense, cooperate to steer multiple body parts. A critical part of this is how the world with which we interact is represented in the brain. Her research also extends to include what happens as we grow, age or are injured.
“Denise has extensive experience coordinating large groups of scientists and is ideally suited for role of Associate Director of CVR,” said Harris.
Harris will remain an active member of the CVR, which will be interacting with the new Neuroscience Centre at York directed by Jeffrey Schall who will be joining York early in 2021.
About the Centre for Vision Research (CVR)
Founded by Ian Howard (1927-2013) in the late ’60s and originally known as the York Vision Group, the CVR is now the most comprehensive vision group in the world embracing the labs of some 36 faculty members with representatives from computer science, biology, psychology, kinesiology, arts, digital media, physics, neuroscience and philosophy, all brought together by a common interest in vision and perception.
York University announces 12 York Research Chair appointments
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Eight emerging and four established researchers across the University will join the York Research Chairs (YRC) program, York University’s internal counterpart to the national Canada Research Chairs (CRC) program, which recognizes outstanding researchers. Two of these appointments are renewals.
These YRCs belong to the seventh cohort of researchers to be appointed since the establishment of the program in 2015. These YRCs’ terms start July 1 and run through to June 30, 2025.
Rhonda L. Lenton
“Our new YRCs exemplify the extraordinary contributions of York’s researchers,” said President and Vice-Chancellor Rhonda L. Lenton. “York is committed to ensuring that our research, scholarship and creative activities are focused on the needs of the communities we serve and on the complex challenges facing our society – from climate change to racism. In the current context, as the world grapples with the COVID-19 pandemic, research focused on creating positive change is even more important. The YRC program is central to that commitment, and we are proud to support the ongoing excellence of our outstanding researchers through this initiative.”
Amir Asif
The YRC program seeks to build research recognition and capacity, with excellence in research, scholarship and associated creative activity serving as selection criteria. “This program mirrors the federal CRC program to broaden and deepen the impact of research chairs at York in building and intensifying world-renowned research across the institution. These new YRCs are undertaking visionary work that has local, national and international impact,” said Vice-President Research & Innovation Amir Asif.
Tier I YRCs are open to established research leaders at the rank of full professor. Tier II YRCs are aimed at emerging research leaders within 15 years of their first academic appointment.
Tier I York Research Chairs
Ilijas Farah
Ilijas Farah
York Research Chair in Foundations of Operator Algebras
Ilijas Farah, Faculty of Science, singlehandedly developed the field of the applications of logic to operator algebras, revealing deep and unexpected connections between the foundations of mathematics and some of the most concrete and ubiquitous mathematical objects. A top researcher in both of these hitherto unrelated subjects, he was invited to speak at the International Congress of Mathematicians. He was also fortunate to supervise some spectacularly talented PhD students.
Stephen Gaetz
Stephen Gaetz York Research Chair in Homelessness and Research Impact
Stephen Gaetz, Faculty of Education, is the director of the Canadian Observatory on Homelessness, the Homeless Hub, and Making the Shift – Youth Homelessness Social Innovation Lab. He has a long-standing interest in understanding homelessness – its causes, how it is experienced and potential solutions. His research is defined by his desire to ‘make research matter’ through working in collaboration with partners to conduct and mobilize research so as to have an impact on policy and practice.
Obiora Okafor
Obiora Okafor York Research Chair in International and Transnational Legal Studies
Obiora Okafor, Osgoode Hall Law School, has had his YRC renewed. This renewal supports the continuation of Okafor’s research on Canada’s human rights engagements with various African countries, including in the sub-areas of economic and social rights, judicial strengthening, institution building, democratization and poverty alleviation. This work includes a study on Canada’s human rights engagements with the African Union as a body.
Laurie Wilcox
Laurie Wilcox
York Research Chair in 3D Vision
Laurie M. Wilcox, Faculty of Health, is a member of the Centre for Vision Research and VISTA (Vision: Science to Applications). Her research focuses on the neural mechanisms responsible for human depth perception and how depth information is processed under complex real-world conditions. She has a long history of collaboration with industry partners, for instance in 3D film (IMAX, Christie) and more recently in virtual and augmented reality (Qualcomm Canada) and image quality (VESA).
Tier 2 York Research Chairs
Ali Abdul-Sater
Ali Abdul-Sater
York Research Chair in the Regulatory Mechanisms of Inflammation
Ali Abdul-Sater, Faculty of Health, is interested in identifying novel regulators of inflammation and understanding how these regulators control immunity and the inflammatory response. He is pursuing several avenues of research: the roles of the protein TRAF1 in controlling inflammatory and autoimmune diseases; the role of Type I interferons (proteins made in response to the presence of viruses) in bacterial and viral responses; and how exercise regulates the immune response.
Sheila Colla
Sheila Colla
York Research Chair in Interdisciplinary Conservation Science
Sheila Colla, Faculty of Environmental Studies, is an ecologist using scientific principles to address real-world conservation issues. Her research focuses on the conservation of lesser understood native species such as bees, butterflies and flowering plants. She works closely with environmental NGOs, landowners, academic partners and government agencies to implement conservation management based on the best available science. She wants her research to inform relevant environmental and agricultural policy.
Mike Daly
Mike Daly York Research Chair in Planetary Science
Mike Daly, whose YRC was renewed, is in the Lassonde School of Engineering. This appointment recognizes Daly’s outstanding contribution to space-flight instrumentation research at York. The YRC will enable his participation in NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission to the near-Earth asteroid Bennu and the return of Canada’s first sample of material from another solar system. Knowledge gained from Bennu could provide key information about the origins of Earth and the solar system.
Sarah Flicker
Sarah Flicker York Research Chair in Community-Based Participatory Research
Sarah Flicker, Faculty of Environmental Studies, is an expert in community development, health promotion and adolescent well-being. Flicker’s innovative program of research focuses on the engagement of youth and other allied actors in environmental, sexual and reproductive justice. She works across methodologies using participatory approaches for social change.
Eve Haque
Eve Haque
York Research Chair in Linguistic Diversity and Community Vitality
Eve Haque, Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies, has research and teaching interests that include multiculturalism, white settler colonialism and language policy, with a focus on the regulation and representation of racialized groups in white settler societies. Her current research focus is on the recognition and language rights of non-official language communities in Canada. She is also the author of Multiculturalism Within a Bilingual Framework: Language, Race and Belonging in Canada.
Ali Sadeghi-Naini
Ali Sadeghi-Naini
York Research Chair in Quantitative Imaging and Smart Biomarkers
Ali Sadeghi-Naini, Lassonde School of Engineering, is an emerging leader in multi-disciplinary research at the intersection of AI, biomedical engineering, biophysics and oncology. His seminal studies demonstrated, for the first time, that quantitative ultrasound biomarkers at low frequencies can detect cell death induced by anti-cancer therapies. He seeks to develop quantitative imaging and biomarker technologies integrated with innovative machine learning and computational modeling techniques for precision medicine and personalized therapeutics.
Valerie Schoof
Valérie A. M. Schoof
York Research Chair in Primate Behavioural Endocrinology
Valérie A.M. Schoof, Glendon Campus, is a primatologist whose research program, funded by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada and New Frontiers in Research Fund, focuses on the ecology, sociality, physiology and life history of wild primates in East Africa, and the biological, geographical and cultural factors influencing human-wildlife interactions. She is also the director of the Primate Behavioural Endocrinology Lab, recently funded by Canada Foundation for Innovation and the Ontario Research Fund.
Marlis Schweitzer
Marlis Schweitzer
York Research Chair in Theatre and Performance History
Marlis Schweitzer, School of the Arts, Media, Performance & Design, is a theatre and performance historian with a specialization in 19th and early-20th century Anglo-American performance. Schweitzer plans to use her YRC to explore urgent questions about the relationship between historical casting practices, theatre’s role in the circulation and perpetuation of racist stereotypes, and the onstage representation of Black, Indigenous and People of Colour (BIPOC) individuals in contemporary Anglo-American performance.
Four York graduate students receive prestigious Vanier Scholarships
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Four York University PhD students conducting cutting-edge research have been awarded the prestigious Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship for 2020.
Valued at $50,000 per year for three years during doctoral studies, the Vanier scholarship is awarded by the Government of Canada to doctoral students whose work displays excellence in three equally weighted selection criteria: academic excellence, research potential and leadership.
From the social impact of climate change in Ghana to the role of vocality in women’s resistance in India, this year’s Vanier Scholars once again show the paradigm-shifting ambition and global impact of York research.
Vanier Scholars
Cameron Butler Anthropology
Cameron Butler
Cameron Butler’s thesis “Fertilizing Settler Bodies: Tracing Global Phosphorus Transfers through the Fraser Valley, BC” will trace the movements of phosphorus around the planet in order to understand how the modern Canadian food system is sustained.
An essential nutrient for agriculture and historically, phosphorus historically went through smaller local cycles where soil phosphate levels remained at sufficient levels. With industrial agricultural production, farmers have had to apply fertilizers to maintain high levels of phosphorus in the soil and allow for large crop yields. Producing fertilizers has meant mining phosphate rock, which exists in few places on Earth. On a global scale, intensive farming and fertilizer use is rapidly depleting phosphorus reserves, raising concerns about future scarcity and the potential global collapse of our modern agricultural system.
“However,” says Butler, “people in the global north play a much larger role in depleting global phosphorus reserves, despite the universally shared impacts. My research project ask how white settlers in Canada specifically are implicated in global movements of phosphorus, how they knowingly or unknowingly depend on the labour of people of colour and migrants to sustain them, and whether they are aware of their own role in these systems.”
To answer these questions, Butler will conduct fieldwork in diverse spaces of the Fraser Valley of British Columbia, and explore how people form relationships with one another, locally and globally, through the phosphorus that passes between them. “Fundamentally, I’m interested in how the global distribution of phosphorus across the globe is being rapidly changed through systems of white supremacy, settler-colonialism and capitalism,” he adds. “Through this research, my goal is to understand what ethical responsibilities white settlers like myself have to the vast array of people, nonhuman beings, and places that sustain us.”
Rajat Nayyar Theatre
Rajat Nayyar
Rajat Nayyar seeks to study the power of women’s songs and vocality in rural North India as a form of everyday resistance within patriarchal social contexts.
His proposed dissertation is titled “Women’s Vocality, Radical Sociality: Re-Imagining Power, Folklore & Audiovisual Ethnography in Rural North India,” and looks at North India from the 19th century onward, when forms of women’s entertainment attracted the attention of British colonial lawmakers, upper-caste social reformers, Hindu nationalists, revivalists, and an emerging middle class that sought to initiate change in the social and customary behaviour of women and lower castes. Embarrassed by the women’s public gatherings and their “vulgar” folk songs, these social reformers aimed to construct “new women” who would enjoy the benefits of British education while cherishing the innate values of “Indian womanhood.”
“My ethnographic, community-based research aims to address how conventional understandings of the relationship between caste, class, gender, religion and power may be questioned through the study of Indian women’s folk songs,” says Nayyar. “Focusing on ‘gaari’ songs that hurl abuses at men during wedding rituals, my research will explore the ways in which these expressions of vocal resistance are improvised, crafted and performed in everyday life, both within and outside the gendered ritual context. I will study the politics, performativity and sonic potentiality of voice as a form of social and political agency. Furthermore, I will provide filmmaking and acting workshops to community members at village schools, in order to improvise and co-produce a series of films.” In addition to exposing community members to a new perspective of India’s colonial history, these workshops will equip participants with digital filmmaking and archiving skills.
His dissertation will also be accompanied by a self-reflexive ethnographic film and an analysis of the activist potential of collaborative and creative research methodologies in safeguarding communities’ folklore.
Laura Keane
Mathematics and Statistics
Laura Keane
Laura Keane’s research interests focus on using applied mathematics to solve real-world problems. Her research, titled Hybrid mathematical modelling, analysis, and simulation to improve design and operation of lithium-ion batteries, tackles an evergreen global problem: energy.
“We are facing increasing global energy demands due to rising levels of industrialization in developing countries,” says Keane. “In addition to this, there is increasing pressure to reduce our reliance on fossil fuels in order to combat climate change. One solution to these energy dilemmas are lithium-ion batteries (LIBs). LIBs are rechargeable batteries which are commonly used in portable devices such as mobile phones. They have the highest energy densities among all rechargeable batteries which makes them an attractive candidate for powering technologies of the future, such as electric vehicles. However, in order to move to a predominately battery-powered society there are several issues that need to be addressed in relation to battery operation and safety.”
For her PhD research, Keane will seek to develop models of LIBs, using mathematical tools and numerical simulations to investigate the factors hindering LIB performance such as thermal runaway (the process by which a battery overheats), short circuiting (the failure of an electrical circuit) and capacity fade (the slow loss of charge over multiple charge and discharge cycles). The overall goal is to improve battery operation, design and performance.
Balikisu Osman
Environmental Studies
Balikisu Osman
Since 1960, Ghana has witnessed several climatic changes, including an increase in annual temperature by 1 degree Celsius and a decrease in rainfall by 2.4 per cent per decade. These changes have exposed the country to weather extremes such as droughts, floods and windstorms. Yet, agricultural activities are highly dependent on rain-fed schemes, as only about 0.2 per cent of the farmlands are under irrigation.
In the northern part of Ghana, the grassy savanna landscape combines with persistent chronic poverty situation to further exacerbate households’ vulnerability to climate risks and food insecurity, says Osman. “Through the Ghana climate change policy, the government prioritizes food security and has a strategic focus to develop climate-resilient agriculture and food systems. A major challenge to this policy, however, is the paucity of research identifying indigenous knowledge and best practices to achieve the policy goals.”
Osman will contribute with her work, titled “Analyzing climate risks and management responses for food security in northern Ghana.”
“One of the objectives of my research is to address this identified need by building on the existing literature and providing empirical evidence to advance our knowledge on the effects of climate risks as well as management responses in the area of food security,” she says. “My research underscores the importance of indigenous climate risk responses and helps understand how they contribute to sustainable food security. It also serves as a basis to gather experiences and share knowledge to guide Ghana’s climate change strategies and actions for the food and agricultural sector.”
Bee photos by community scientists contribute to data for conservation efforts
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Yellow-banded bumblebee (image: Victoria MacPhail, FES, York University)
Think you can identify that bumble bee you just took a photo of in your backyard? York University researchers have found that a little more than 50 per cent of community science participants, who submitted photos to the North American Bumble Bee Watch program, were able to properly identify the bee species.
Community science is a popular tool used by conservation biologists to engage the public in scientific data collection to inform conservation policy and management decisions.
In the case of Bumble Bee Watch, the collected data is from all over North America and can feed into conservation plans to better protect the bees and their habitats, and even to know what habitats they need, knowledge on how different species are doing, and even legal protections for endangered bee species. Tens of thousands of bees have been recorded, including those at-risk.
“That data is incredibly important. It’s data that would otherwise may not be captured,” says PhD student Victoria MacPhail of the Faculty of Environmental Studies (FES) and lead author of the study published June 29 in the journal PeerJ.
But if the bee identifications made by the public are inaccurate close to 50 per cent of the time, that puts a lot of strain on the enlisted experts to verify or correct the identifications.
“Accurate species level identification is an important first step for effective conservation management decisions,” says MacPhail. “Those community science programs that have experts review submitted photos to determine if the identification is correct have a higher scientific value.”
There are 46 species of bumble bees in North America. Community scientists collected or identified about 39 species, although not always correctly. Some of the species the participants were most likely to get wrong were the Rusty-Patched Bumble Bee and the American Bumble Bee. Both are declining and listed as critical or of special concern. MacPhail thinks much of that has to do with wishful thinking.
“Everyone wants to find an endangered bumble bee in their backyard,” she says. “But the accuracy of initial identification is important for determining the utility and quality of community science-collected data.”
The researchers, including Assistant Professor Sheila Colla of FES and PhD student Shelby Gibson of the Faculty of Science, analyzed more than 22,000 expert-reviewed submissions to Bumble Bee Watch. Some 52 per cent were correctly identified by species, 38 per cent were incorrectly identified, while another nine per cent were invalid (not a bumble bee).
Some species are easier to identify than others, which is why the researchers are looking into the possibility of using artificial intelligence to verify submissions of those easier-to-identify bees. They will also look at providing more tools and resources to help participants properly identify the bee in their photos, including pop-up windows to offer tips on what to look for to identify that particular species before the final submission is made.
Better accuracy of identification means the data can be put to use faster and it will save valuable expert time, allowing them to give more timely feedback, engage participants, enhance educational value and aid in retention of the valuable resource of community scientists.
York University creates new hive of interdisciplinary bee research
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Researchers from disciplines across York University, including biologists, social scientists and mathematicians, will develop a hive of research when York’s new Centre for Bee Ecology, Evolution and Conservation (BEEc) becomes an Organized Research Unit (ORU) starting July 1.
The Senate of York University approved the move earlier this year to make BEEc the University’s 26th ORU, enabling it to dive deeper into the crisis affecting the health and decline of bees globally.
Amir Asif
“York University’s ORUs have a strong history of highly innovative and collaborative research,” said Vice-President Research & Innovation Amir Asif. “Steeped in York’s tradition of collegial interdisciplinarity, ORUs serve as synergistic hubs for participatory research programs that bring together expertise from across disciplines.”
The new ORU will provide a place where experts can collaborate on innovative, cutting-edge research on bees to help further knowledge, train future leaders in the field, educate the public and affect policy that will make a difference for pollinators locally, as well as globally.
“We are thrilled that our proposal was approved by Senate. The bee crisis is multidimensional and there is no simple solution. BEEc will allow us to bring talented biologists and mathematicians, but also engineers, social scientists and economists to help us answer the big questions in the field,” says Amro Zayed, research chair in Genomics and BEEc director.
BEEc researchers will study the health, behaviour, biodiversity, genomics and conservation of bees, with the goal of enhancing their long-term sustainability, and that of the important crops and plants that rely on bees for pollination.
Some of the core researchers include:
Associate ProfessorAmro Zayed of the Faculty of Science uses genomics to understand why native bees and honey bees are declining, and develops tools to circumvent these declines.
AssistantProfessor Sheila Colla of the Faculty of Environmental Studies researches native bees to find out why they’re in decline and develops conservation efforts with a special focus on at-risk bumblebees.
Professor Laurence Packer, a Distinguished Research Professor, studies native bees and is constantly contributing new species records to the global list of over 20,300 species. He has built and continues to maintain the largest Canadian collection of bees, currently estimated at over 500,000 specimens from all over the globe.
Professor Sandra Rehan of the Faculty of Science is an expert on social insect genomics and pollinator health combining molecular evolution, behavioural ecology, population genetics and phylogenetics to understand the sociobiology, biogeography, nutritional requirements and sustainability of bees.
Professor Jane Heffernan of the Faculty of Science and director of York’s Centre for Disease Modelling is applying her modelling skills to help understand how pathogens and pests affect colony health.
Researchers at York University receive funding for rapid research on COVID-19
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Three projects led by York University researchers have received almost $1 million in funding from the Canadian Institutes for Health Research (CIHR) to do rapid research over the next year related to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Funding for the Rapid Research Funding projects was announced June 25.
“We are delighted to learn of CIHR’s support for three timely projects from the Faculty of Health related to the 2019 novel coronavirus outbreak,” said Amir Asif, vice-president Research & Innovation. “York is committed to ensuring that our research, scholarship and creative activities are focused on the needs of the communities and on the complex challenges facing our society. We are very pleased to be a strong participant in the rapid research response to contribute to global efforts to contain the outbreak.”
Shayna Rosenbaum, professor and York Research Chair in Cognitive Neuroscience of Memory in the Faculty of Health’s Department of Psychology, has been awarded more than $120,000 to study biases in decision-making and ways to change decisions in order to protect ourselves and others from COVID-19 as the economy reopens. People have a strong tendency to make choices that lead to immediate and certain rewards. Rosenbaum and co-principal investigator Donna Rose Addis, Canada 150 Research Chair in Cognitive Neuroscience of Memory and Aging and senior scientist at Baycrest’s Rotman Research Institute, will track decision-making related to people’s willingness to use protective measures and train people to overcome biased decision-making by imagining personal scenarios.
Faculty of Science Distinguished Research Professor Jianhong Wu, Canada Research Chair in Industrial and Applied Mathematics, will also contribute to the project, along with co-applicants from other institutions. Researchers will study decision-making in a pool of over 2.8 million frontline workers who receive workplace training in COVID-19 health and safety measures. Findings will help inform the Public Health Agency of Canada on when and how to safely lift restrictions on everyday activities.
Tarra Penney, assistant professorin the Global Health Program and School of Kinesiology and Health Science, and Mary Wiktorowicz, professor in the School of Health Policy and Management in York’s Faculty of Health and Dahdaleh Institute for Global Health Research, will receive $446,912 to evaluate the governance of wildlife markets in countries where zoonotic epidemics and pandemics emerged, including China and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. A multi-disciplinary team of investigators including Adrian Viens, Cary Wu, James Orbinski, Peter Tsasis and Shital Desai of York University, co-investigators Hélène Carabin and Cécile Aenishaenslin of Université de Montréal and Kerry Bowman of University of Toronto and country collaborators will evaluate the governance gap by integrating an institutional, legal and systems analysis of how wildlife markets intersect with livelihoods, cultural practices and food security. The findings will inform international, national and local governance, policy and implementation.
A team co-led by Michael Rotondi, associate professor in the School of Kinesiology & Health Science, Janet Smylie, a Métis physician, professor and research chair at St. Michael’s Hospital and University of Toronto, and Cheryllee Bourgeois, a Cree/Métis midwife at Seventh Generation Midwives Toronto, will receive $395,460 to estimate the rate of COVID-19 transmission for Indigenous Peoples in cities. Their team will use information from the Our Health Counts studies in Toronto, London and Thunder Bay, population-based health research co-led by Indigenous communities using respondent-driven sampling and social networks. The team will develop new statistical methods to estimate the transmission rate and risk factors for COVID-19 in these communities by linking the Our Health Counts studies to the provincial COVID-19 database at the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences (ICES).
Putting COVID-19 diagnostic tests to the ‘test’ — how do they hold up?
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As SARS-CoV-2 has the potential to mutate, it is important to check the efficacy of current diagnostic tests, say York University researchers, who found seven out of 27 methods had potential sequence mismatch issues that may lead to underperforming or false-negative COVID-19 test results.
Many of the tests were developed early in the outbreak when the virus was first identified and sequenced. The researchers say it is important to re-evaluate them periodically to ensure they still work.
“COVID-19 tests use polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assays to diagnose the virus in patients, but if those assays are mismatched due to genetic variability in the viral genome, that raises the concern that the tests may not be detecting all the circulating variants of the virus and results could be inaccurate,” says York research associate Kashif Aziz Khan, corresponding author of a new study published June 10 in the journal Royal Society Open Science with Associate Professor Peter Cheung of the Faculty of Science.
Correcting any mismatches between the assays and the SARS-CoV-2 genome may help to improve the sensitivity and accuracy of some of the diagnostic tests.
A drawing showing the variation in test results
The early sequencing of the virus allowed for the development of several PCR detection protocols by multiple national organizations that were published by the World Health Organization (WHO), but it may have also led to tests that do not account for variations and mutations.
This is not uncommon with viruses and has led at times to improper diagnosis of influenza, dengue, rabies, respiratory syncytial virus, hepatitis B and human immunodeficiency virus.
The researchers tested genetic variations in more than 17,000 publicly available viral genome sequences worldwide and performed an exhaustive evaluation of 27 published diagnostic PCR assays, including those recommended by the WHO.
“These findings are potentially important for clinicians, laboratory professionals and policy-makers as it gives them a better idea of which tests may deliver the best results and how to ensure the tests they are using are properly matched to the virus genome,” says Khan.
Desert ecosystems studied for adaptability to climate change
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Research out of York University investigates the role of species identity in facilitating the response to environmental changes in desert plants. Deserts ecosystems are threatened by shifts in precipitation patterns from climate change, pushing some species past certain thresholds.
Alessandro Filazzola, a recent York University PhD graduate and current post-doctoral Fellow at York and the University of Alberta, explores how plants respond to climate change along a large regional gradient spanning three desert provinces in this research published in the Journal of Vegetation Science.
A close up of Lacey phacelia (Phacelia tanacetifolia) growing under a shrub. This plant was one of three species that were seeded along the entire aridity gradient
“Desert ecosystems are already on the edge of life with extremes in rain and temperature, and we asked, ‘How do plants respond along a transition of increasingly drier desert areas?’” said Filazzola, who conducted this research under Faculty of Science Professor Christopher Lortie during his graduate studies.
The project found the positive interactions that exist between plants decrease with aridity, something that may occur in areas experiencing desertification.
A winter storm rolling in at Tejon Ranch. The middle site along the larger gradient of aridity, it is a transition zone between the San Joaquin and Mojave Deserts
The project, says Filazzola, was a massive undertaking that conducted seeding experiments for three years, across three desert provinces and over 600 kms and collaboration with land managers in the U.S. and an ecologist from France.
“We collaborated with global experts and local land managers to ensure this research has broad relevance. Almost 40 per cent of the world is drylands, home to more than a third of the human population, making research projects such as these incredibly important,” he said.
The research finds that biodiversity patterns of desert plants can change significantly along gradients of aridity, and that the positive effects of foundation species weakens at dry extremes.
These findings will have implications for desert ecosystems abroad.
Senate approves two new ORUs: Bee Ecology and Indigenous Knowledges & Languages
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Featured image for the postdoc research story shows the word research in black type on a white background
The Office of the Vice-President Research & Innovation (VPRI) is pleased to announce that the Senate approved two new Organized Research Units (ORUs) in late May 2020:
The Centre for Bee Ecology, Evolution and Conservation (BEEc), which comes into effect on July 1; and
The Centre for Indigenous Knowledges and Languages (CIKL), which comes into effect on July 1, 2021.
Amir Asif
“With these important additions, York University will be home to 27 ORUs, which have a strong history of highly innovative and collaborative research. Steeped in York’s tradition of collegial interdisciplinarity, ORUs serve as synergistic hubs for participatory research programs that bring together expertise from across disciplines,” said Vice-President Research & Innovation Amir Asif.
The Centre for Bee Ecology, Evolution and Conservation
The BEEc will pursue interdisciplinary, world-class research on the biology and health of bees as well as their environmental, economic and societal implications.
This ORU will involve a critical mass of researchers working to address diverse aspects of the ongoing bee health crises, attract and train future leaders in the field, educate the public and more.
The Centre for Bee Ecology, Evolution and Conservation will bring together bee research across campus at York, from social scientists to mathematicians
Celia Haig-Brown, associate vice-president research, underscores the increasing public understanding of the critical roles that bees play in pollination. She is particularly enthusiastic about the many different disciplines involved in bee research at York – from social scientists to biologists to mathematicians. “This new ORU strengthens York’s existing leadership in the area and focuses longstanding research in new ways as it draws on so many disciplines,” she stated.
The Centre for Indigenous Knowledges and Languages
The CIKL supports research involving both traditional and contemporary knowledges, as care-taken, shared and created by Indigenous scholars located in York University and Indigenous knowledge holders from communities.
The aim of CIKL will be to facilitate research and knowledge production and dissemination, by Indigenous and non-Indigenous scholars, that re-centers Indigenous knowledges, languages, practices and ways of being. In doing so, it will affirm Indigenous knowledges as vital sources of insight for the world and for future generations.
The Centre for Indigenous Knowledges and Languages will facilitate research and knowledge production and dissemination, by Indigenous and non-Indigenous scholars. Image credit: Métis (Otipemisiwak) artist Christi Belcourt
Haig-Brown emphasizes that this new ORU will create a space to bring often-isolated Indigenous faculty together. “This is a great step in terms of York’s commitment to Indigenous faculty, researchers and students,” she said. “It has been one of my goals to continually contribute to creating space for Indigenous faculty and researchers to shape what goes on here at the University.”
Celia Haig-Brown
She also emphasizes the importance of language. “The restoration of languages, which residential schools attempted to destroy, is integral to bringing Indigenous knowledges into their rightful place within the University.”
Senate has also approved the five year re-charters for three existing ORUs: the York Centre for Asian Research (YCAR), the Centre for Research on Latin America and the Caribbean (CERLAC) and Centre for Research on Biomolecular Interactions (CRBI).
More information on York’s ORUs, visit the VPRI website.
Open access archive builds important connections with northern community
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Know I am Here (building and artwork in Churchill)
Two York University professors brought a digital open-access archive of internationally acclaimed scientific research back to a northern community this past fall.
Steve Alsop
Faculty of Education Professor Steven Alsop and Faculty of Science Professor Dawn Bazely made the long trip to Churchill, Man. in late October to engage the community in an open-access archive of Churchill-based research that is housed at YorkSpace, York University’s Institutional Repository. Their efforts were funded by Wapusk National Park.
Churchill is known as the Polar Bear Capital of the World because one of the largest concentrations of polar bears worldwide gathers there each winter waiting for the ice to freeze. The town, population 800, located at the 59th parallel, is home to the Churchill Northern Studies Centre. For decades, researchers from around the world – including Bazely, who did her master’s degree research in Churchill – have worked there, studying the subarctic region’s flora and fauna. Research conducted in the centre has played a key role in global climate change predictions and associated Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reports.
Dawn Bazely
Bazely has been the prime curator of the free archive, called the Churchill Community of Knowledge archive. Its information has been collected with the help of scientists who spent much of their academic lives in Churchill; 50 York University students have been assisting by digitizing selected artifacts. The archive contains not only the research, but the scientists’ notebooks and photos, which document life in Churchill during their time.
Bazely and Alsop want to encourage the community to keep the archive alive with their own photos and stories of the town over the years. It is part of a broader project of curating the natural and cultural history of a special and highly influential, albeit remote, place.
“We wanted to bring the archive back to the Churchill community,” said Alsop, whose research considers how members of the public can learn from scientists and how scientists can learn from members of the public. “We were trying to engage people in how the archive might be helpful and allow them to see themselves in the archive and in the world-renowned scientific research that is part of their community’s history.
“After all, the science research that has taken place here is only made possible by support of the community around it. The archive, in this respect, seeks a situated representation of scientific work – work that is always within particular social, cultural, ecological and community contexts. If this archive is going to live, the different groups associated with the scientific research need to identify and see themselves in it.”
Know I am here (building and artwork in Churchill)
During their visit, Alsop and Bazely scheduled a series of public and targeted talks and presentations and meetings with key people in the community to introduce the archive, get feedback and talk about its value to Churchill. Their audiences included staff from Wapusk National Park, park visitors, the Churchill Northern Science Centre’s science team and students in Grades 5 to 9 at the local Duke of Marlborough School. They also met with the local librarian/archivist, local museum staff, the executive director of Polar Bear International and a Sayisi-Dene culturalist. Bazely also did an interview on CBC Radio.
“Although a digital archive might not sound like the sexiest topic in the world, we were overwhelmed by the profoundly positive reaction,” Alsop said. “We became aware of the transformative possibilities of natural history and scientific research: a small town, on the cusp of the Arctic recognizing its fundamental role and value in the future of the world.”
The polar bear statue with the Manitoba Seaport sign, and the railway line with the grain elevator in the back ground (Churchill, Man.)
The two professors have continued their connection with Churchill as a result of their visit. Bazely’s research practicum students will be working to digitize and upload the past newsletters from the Churchill Northern Studies Centre into the archive; a number of them exist only in print form at present. Alsop, Bazely and a colleague from the School of Arts, Media, Production and Design also met recently with theatre producer Richard Jordan to discuss a potential youth-focused theatre project that explores life in Churchill, “living in the shadow of the bears,” said Alsop.
“We’re chasing funding now for a theatre production that starts in Churchill and goes on to other venues,” he said.
“It’s wonderful that the community wanted this and wanted to be part of it. It feeds so nicely into the local ‘know I am here’ narrative that was so beautifully captured by the town’s Seawalls project, co-ordinated by the Winnipeg artist Kal Barteski.”
By Elaine Smith, special contributing writer to Innovatus
Community science is a popular tool used by conservation biologists to engage the public in scientific data collection to inform conservation policy and management decisions.
There are 46 species of bumble bees in North America. Community scientists collected or identified about 39 species, although not always correctly. Some of the species the participants were most likely to get wrong were the Rusty-Patched Bumble Bee and the American Bumble Bee. Both are declining and listed as critical or of special concern. MacPhail thinks much of that has to do with wishful thinking.
