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Meditation expert applying mindfulness for COVID-19 coping

Everyone breathes, and paying attention to breathing is foundational to the benefits of mindfulness meditation.

“A little-known fact,” explains Paul Ritvo, professor in the School of Kinesiology and Health Science and Department of Psychology at York University, “is that by simply breathing outwards, we experience a reliable relaxation effect.”

Breathing out stimulates the vagus nerve, which switches the autonomic nervous system into a restoration mode. The longer we take to complete an outward breath, the more we make use of these natural resources and experience calming, relaxing effects.

“The major teachings of mindfulness are simple and direct,” Ritvo continues. “We feel better when calmer – and the human body has resources that enable us to become calmer and more focused. Everyone can pay attention to breathing sensations and by doing so re-locate their attention onto the present moment.”

Ritvo has been helping members of the York community access the resources to become calmer and more focused for several years, leading several popular series of on-campus guided meditation sessions for students, faculty and staff.

While events surrounding COVID-19 have changed the nature of these sessions, Ritvo hasn’t let social distancing create isolation for those wanting mindfulness sessions for support. Online meditation sessions have replaced in-person sessions.

“Fortunately, our modern technologies permit communications without infection risks,” Ritvo says. “This is not a time to ‘hold back’ but a time to aim for unusual generosity and sensitivity to everyone we connect with.”

Ritvo is currently holding regular online group meditation sessions, that enable community members to continue to access this resilience-building tool while maintaining social distancing practices. Some are exploring mindfulness as a wellness practice for the first time.

Using Zoom to convene people interested in trying out mindfulness methods in a group format, free of charge, Ritvo is prepared to see the demand for sessions increase as members of the community adjust to the realities of teaching, learning, researching and working from home.

For Ritvo, it’s imperative to maintain this practice throughout this disruption.

“Our routines are radically disrupted. That alone can cause anxieties to arise,” he says. “On the other hand, we can find new routines and methods that are anxiety-reducing and mood-elevating. These processes exist – the challenge is to be creative and persistent in looking for what works best for you.”

Paul Ritvo
Paul Ritvo

Ritvo has been extolling – and employing – the benefits of using modern technology to support mindfulness throughout his academic career. Most recently, Ritvo and colleagues received a Canadian Institutes of Health Research grant to investigate online behavioural interventions for major depressive disorder, following a successful study where 60 per cent of the subjects intervened with were no longer depressed after six months of intervention.

According to Ritvo, the uncertainty brought by events like COVID-19 underscores the positive role of mindfulness in supporting well-being, especially for those with mental health challenges. “It’s very important to understand the normality of distress under current conditions. We tend to isolate and direct negative cognitions towards ourselves when distressed. We easily get carried away with future worries and negative visions.”

Mindfulness mediation provides one possible source of support in these situations.

“What’s actually helpful, whether it happens within a person or between people, is the full acceptance of the vulnerability experience – which basically involves accepting how we’re responding, moment-by-moment,” Ritvo explains. “The less we deny reality, the more we embrace reality, the more our minds generate creative solutions rather than worst-case scenarios.”

Those wishing to participate in the online mindfulness sessions can use the meeting link and Zoom ID 841-827-319.

Sessions take place:

Mondays – noon to 1 p.m., 1 p.m. to 2 p.m.

Tuesdays – 5:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m.

Wednesdays – noon to 1 p.m., 1 p.m. to 2 p.m.

Fridays – noon to 1 p.m., 1 p.m. to 2 p.m.

The Ritvo Lab at York University studies how diseases such as cancer, HIV-AIDS, diabetes, cardiovascular disease and mental disorders can be prevented with health behaviour change, and devises the strategies, programs and methodologies for achieving such changes. The lab is working to develop a health coaching specialty at York University, integrating smartphone technology into health promotion.

By Aaron Manton, communications officer, YFile

York Science Communicator in Residence Program now open for applications

The York Science Communicator in Residence program, based in the Faculty of Science, is once again open for applications for its fourth year of the program.

The Faculty has hosted some top science communicators who have had the opportunity to pursue creative projects while immersed in an academic scientific setting, to meet with researchers to explore first-hand the depth and variety of research at York University, and to organize training opportunities in science communication for students and researchers.

The program has hosted six residents to date, including reporters Kate Allen (Toronto Star) and Matt McGrath (BBC), freelance radio journalist Molly Segal, freelance writers Dan Falk and Patchen Barss, and photographer B.D. Colen.

The program welcomes applications from Canadian and international science communicators in all media (e.g. digital, print, radio, television, etc.) who are currently pursuing either full-time or freelance careers, as well as scientists who are actively engaged in science communications.

The deadline to apply is April 20.

For full details, visit https://science.yorku.ca/scicomm.

Elle Hacks 2020 sees largest event yet

A group of more than 40 dedicated students from York University’s Lassonde School of Engineering hosted the Elle Hacks competition at the Keele Campus on Jan. 31. The annual three-day event is the largest student-run hackathon created entirely for women and non-binary individuals of all experience levels.

This year’s event was a success, with more than 35 industry partners in attendance and a variety of workshops on topics such as technology, artificial intelligence, big data and design thinking.

Elle Hacks attendance badges

Further to Elle Hacks’ mission of creating a safe and inclusive space for students to collaborate, learn and grow, the organizers ran an all-day Wellness Centre over the course of the hackathon to better support the mental health of participants. The centre provided a calm and quiet place for attendees to collect their thoughts and decompress, proving successful in boosting creativity and focus throughout the competition. In addition to the Center, workshops addressing topics such as being an active bystander were held.

“We found there to be a direct relation to the focus on mental health and self-care, and the astonishing quality of projects received,” said Eyad Abu Rish, Elle Hacks co-Chair and co-president of the York University chapter of Women in Science and Engineering (WISE).

Elle Hacks participants at work

Many attendees were eager to express their appreciation for this aspect of the event. “Activities like hackathons should have spaces that are supportive and appreciative of everyone,” said York University student Jomia Pangilinan. “Elle Hacks succeeded in that.”

Participants were enthusiastic about the format and activities included in this year’s competition. “I really enjoyed the variety of challenges and the support of mentors and the team to help guide us through the hackathon,” said Maliha Hossain of Lighthouse Labs. “I found doing the demo in front of judges incredibly helpful to practice pitching and get feedback.”

Younger and newer attendees were grateful for the learning opportunities afforded by attending the hackathon. “I’ve learned more in these last three days than I have in some of courses at school” high school student Michelle Lai said. “It was my first hackathon and I’m so glad Elle Hacks was my first,” added York University student Ha Pham.

The event was the result of months of preparation by volunteers who balanced demanding academic schedules and other extra-curricular activities.

“It was a surreal moment seeing all the smiles at the closing ceremony. It couldn’t have been possible without the amazing support from our executive team, volunteers, sponsors and all the individuals who helped make this dream a reality,” said Naomi Campbell, co-Chair of Elle Hacks and co-president of WISE.

“Elle Hacks was a dream come true,” Abu Rish continued. “We were very pleased to see the amazing support from the community and from our participants. It was all worth it after the long countless hours spent planning and executing this amazing event.”

A list of events hosted by the Lassonde School of Engineering can be found on the school’s website.

Research shows climate change puts blunt-nosed leopard lizard at risk

blunt nosed leopard lizard wikimedia commons
blunt nosed leopard lizard wikimedia commons

Researchers from York University have collaborated on a study investigating how climate change can impact the blunt-nosed leopard lizard (Gambelia sila), a federally endangered species that is at risk of extirpation.

Faculty of Science Professor Christopher Lortie and York University graduate students Nargol Ghazian, Malory Owen and Mario Zuliani worked with colleagues from California Polytechnic State University and the U.S. Bureau of Land Management to study how projected increases in ambient temperatures could put the animal at risk for localized extinction within the study site – the Elkhorn Plain in the Carrizo Plain National Monument, California. This area is characterized by extremely harsh, arid summers and cool winters.

Published in the journal Conservation Physiology, the study “Thermal ecology of the federally endangered blunt-nosed leopard lizard” shows that with projected 1 and 2 degrees Celsius increases to 2018 ambient temperatures, G. sila will lose additional hours of activity time that will compound stressors faced by this population potentially leading to extirpation.

“For animals (and plants) living at the edge of extreme conditions, even subtle nudges in climate can push species toward local extirpation from sites if not extinction,” said Lortie. “Large protected areas in Canada and in the U.S.A. are sanctuaries not just for biodiversity and natural beauty, but often refuges from competing anthropogenic pressures. If these climatic nudges continue, even with protected spaces, it will likely be challenging for many species to adapt or to move to other sites (that are likely not protected).”

Recognizing how climate change will impact populations can aid in making decisions about approaches for conservation of endangered species.

Blunt-nosed leopard lizard (G. sila) (image: Wikimedia Commons)

Researchers collected data on the field-active body temperatures, preferred body temperatures and upper thermal tolerance of G. sila. The investigation included: studying patterns in lizard body temperatures; quantifying the lizards’ thermoregulatory accuracy; determining the number of hours the lizards are currently thermally restricted in microhabitat use; projecting how the number of restricted hours will change as ambient temperatures rise; and assessing the importance of burrows and shade-providing shrubs in both current and future thermal ecology of the lizard.

Lizards maintained fairly consistent daytime body temperatures during the active season, and the use of burrows and shrubs increased as the season progressed and ambient temperatures rose. Researchers observed that the lizards are forced to seek refuge under shrubs and burrows for 75 per cent of daylight hours to avoid surpassing their upper thermal threshold.

This trend indicates that with an increase in ambient temperature and without adequate thermal buffers, the lizards will experience an increase in energy expenditure during the day resulting in loss of foraging opportunities, as well as decreased energy for reproduction and growth.

If nothing is done to mitigate the effects of climate change and make important decisions about the management of this habitat, the extirpation of this population and potentially extinction of the entire species is a distinct possibility.

Researchers solve mystery of Tuvan throat singing

research graphic

Researchers at York University and their team have uncoupled the mystery of how Tuvan throat singers produce what sounds like two different pitches at once – a low rumble and a high whistle-like tone.

Fascinated with how this form of throat singing, Khoomei, creates this dual tone, researchers studied members of the Tuvan performing group Huun Huur Tu to see first-hand how they do it.

A graph showing harmonic overtones

“They can produce two different pitches, which goes against the typical way we think about how speech sounds are produced,” says lead researcher Associate Professor Christopher Bergevin of the Faculty of Science. “It was a bit of a mystery how they did it and it’s something researchers have wondered about for the last two decades.”

Bergevin worked with Associate Professor and linguist Chandan Narayan of the Faculty of Liberal Arts and Professional Studies and the team, including Professor Brad Story of the University of Arizona, an expert on the acoustics of singing, and Assistant Professor Natasha Mhatre of Western University. They found that the Tuvan singers were able to uniquely constrict their vocal tract in two key spots simultaneously – once at the front of their mouth using their tongue and another at the back of their throat. This had the effect of creating the dual sounds.

“We adjust our pitch, we change our loudness or amplitude, and we extend the vowels. These are all things that we do in normal speaking,” says Narayan. “What is interesting about this type of throat singing is that it does something different. It’s a highly unusual sound that you don’t hear in other forms of singing.”

Researchers recorded the singers in a sound booth and shot a series of images of one the Tuvan performers singing while in an MRI scanner at York

To figure out the mechanisms involved, researchers recorded the singers in a sound booth and shot a series of images of one the Tuvan performers singing while in an MRI scanner at York. Those images were sent to Mhatre, who helped reconstruct the vocal tract shape, as well as Story, who modelled and simulated the singing.

Birds and some frogs can produce two distinct tones, but it’s unknown in humans except in throat singers from Tuva and Mongolia.

“The question becomes, why are there two pitches heard when Tuvan singers sing? They don’t have two sets of vocal cords,” says Narayan.

In humans, vocal folds make sound by vibrating creating a buzzing noise. How fast or slow the vocal cords vibrate determines whether a high- or low-pitched sound is produced. The faster they vibrate, the higher the pitch of the voice. But they also produce a series of harmonics or “overtones.” The mouth and tongue shape theses overtones, creating resonances at certain frequencies called formants. Vowels in human speech are determined by the first three formants – F1, F2 and F3.

Each formant is usually distinct, but Tuvan singers can merge multiple formants to create one exceedingly sharpened formant.

An image showing different vocal tract shapes and dynamics

“The Tuvans are able to make this sound through such precise control of their vocal track that they can kind of tease these things out and create simultaneously sounds. One of the things that’s so remarkable about it is that it doesn’t sound like any human could do this, to have that degree of motor control,” says Bergevin.

The paper, “Overtone focusing in biphonic Tuvan2throat singing,” was published in full today in the journal eLife.

Faculty of Environmental Studies surges into second place in the race for the NSSE Cup

NSSE_SurveyRespRates_4
NSSE_SurveyRespRates_4

Results posted for the fourth week of the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) Survey show a commanding lead for the Schulich School of Business in the race for the NSSE Champion Cup. The Faculty of Environmental Studies has jumped in front of the Faculty of Science and Glendon College, moving from fourth place to second place. The Faculty of Science is now in third place with a slim lead over Glendon.

Results for the fourth week of the NSSE Champion Cup Standings

From Feb. 10 to March 31, thousands of first- and fourth-year York University students are taking part in the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE), or “Nessie”. Through NSSE, they’ll be able to contribute their insight and have input into York University’s future direction.

To add an element of fun to the survey and to encourage participation in the survey, NSSE organizers at York University challenged the individual Faculties (except the Faculty of Education and Osgoode Hall Law School) to compete for the NSSE Champion Cup.

The Faculty with the highest participation rate will win the NSSE Champion Cup and bragging rights until the next survey.

The online survey, which takes about 15 minutes to complete, allows students in their first and final years of a four-year degree to offer their insight into what York University does well and what it could improve. It will be used to determine how much time and effort students put into educationally rewarding activities and to what degree York University facilitates this involvement.

Updates on the progress of the survey and the NSSE Champion Cup will be published every week in YFile.

York University researchers one step closer to creating organic batteries

FEATURED_Baumgarnter
FEATURED_Baumgarnter

York University researchers have discovered a way to make Lithium-powered batteries more environmentally friendly while retaining performance, stability and storage capacity.

Lithium-ion batteries use toxic, heavy metals which can impact the environment when they are extracted from the ground and are difficult to dispose of safely. Cobalt is one of those heavy metals, used in battery electrodes. Part of the problem is that lithium and cobalt are not abundantly available, and supplies are dwindling.

headshot of prof
Professor Thomas Baumgartner in his lab at York University

Using organic materials are the way forward and that has scientists like Professor Thomas Baumgartner of the Faculty of Science and his team busy developing and testing new molecules to find the right ones to replace the rare metals currently in use.

“Organic electrode materials are considered to be extremely promising materials for sustainable batteries with high power capabilities,” he says.

Their latest breakthrough is the creation of a new carbon-based organic molecule that can replace the cobalt now used in cathodes or positive electrodes in lithium-ion batteries. The new material addresses the shortcomings of the inorganic material while maintaining performance.

“Electrodes made with organic materials can make large‐scale manufacturing, recycling or disposing of these elements more environmentally friendly,” says Baumgartner. “The goal is to create sustainable batteries that are stable and have equally as good if not better capacity.”

The research is published and featured on the cover of the March edition of the journal Batteries & Supercaps, a ChemPubSoc publication.

Batteries poster“With this particular class of molecules that we’ve made, the electroactive component is very suitable for batteries as it’s very good at storing electrical charges and has good long-term stability,” he says.

Baumgartner and his group previously reported on the electroactive component in a paper published in the journal Advanced Energy Materials.

“We have optimized this electroactive component and put it in a battery. It has a very good voltage, up to the 3.5 volts, which is really where current batteries are now,” he says. “It’s an important step forward in making fully organic and sustainable batteries.”

Baumgartner, along with postdoctoral researchers Colin Brides and Monika Stolar, have also demonstrated that this material is stable in long-term operation with the ability to charge and discharge for 500 cycles. One of the downsides of inorganic electrodes is that they generate significant heat when charging and require limited discharging rates for safety reasons. This new molecule addresses that shortcoming.

The next step, says Baumgartner, is to improve the capacity further. His team is currently developing the next generation of molecules that show promise in being able to increase current capacity.

STS Seminar Series explores Crip technoscience, March 10

concept of digital technology

The next instalment of the 2019-20 Research Seminar Series in Science & Technology Studies (STS) is planned for Tuesday, March 10 and features Melanie Baljko, associate professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the Lassonde School of Engineering at York University.

Now in its 26th year, the series has hosted hundreds of experts from across Canada and around the world presenting on a wide range of STS-related topics. The talks are free and open to the public, and STS majors are encouraged to attend. Refreshments are provided.

Melanie Baljko
Melanie Baljko

The March 10 seminar is titled “Crip technoscience & critical technical practice” and will run from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. in room 203, Bethune College (Norman’s), Keele Campus.

Crip technoscience is a field of research and a practice of critical “knowing-making” (Source: Hamraie, 2017, 2019). Crip technoscience takes up issues of: ideologies about how bodies are configured (versus “are supposed to be”), how the world can be created and ordered (versus “gets created and ordered”) and who can be said to have authority to create knowledge and thus to participate in this world-making.

Crip knowing-making is “world-building and world-dismantling practices by and with disabled people and communities that respond to intersectional systems of power, privilege, and oppression by working within and around them,” a stance that critically responds to knowing-making for disability, which refers to “expert relations and practices concerned with designing for disabled people rather than with or by disabled people” and “positions enhancement and capacitation as progressive moves to overcome disability” (Source: Hamraie, 2019).

In this seminar, Baljko will discuss some of the technoscientific practices around access within some of the research projects within the Practices in Enabling Technologies (PiET) lab. Baljko will signal access as a contested and unstable concept. The practices of focus will concern the development of software and other digital artefacts connected to “Do-It-Yourself” Assistive Technology (DIY-AT), the use of open source methodologies and modes of participatory design and community engagement. These various practices, which are embedded in multiple contexts – such as various communities of scholarlship, training regimes for highly qualified personnel (aka HQP in NSERC parlance) and academic knowledge mobilization – are sites of friction and contestation, connected to disability social justice.

The series is sponsored by York University’s Department of Science & Technology Studies, Faculty of Science, and coordinated by members of the department. For more information about the Research Seminar Series in Science & Technology Studies, contact Professor Conor Douglas at cd512@yorku.ca or visit sts.info.yorku.ca/seminar-series.

Researchers funded to investigate online behavioural interventions for major depressive disorder

person holding a smartphone

A York University research team led by Paul Ritvo, a professor in the school of Kinesiology and Health Science, and colleagues including Joel Katz, a professor in the department of Psychology, was awarded a four-year, $670,000 grant from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) to investigate online behavioural interventions for major depressive disorder. Ritvo and his team have been working in close collaboration with Dr. Jeff Daskalakis, a psychiatrist at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto, on several initiatives related to mental health.

In a prior study on depressive disorder, 60 per cent of the subjects intervened with were in remission (no longer depressed) after six months of intervention. This new funding will enable the researchers to follow up and expand upon the first study, supporting the assessment of and intervention with 200 subjects.

Paul Ritvo
Paul Ritvo

Approximately 70 per cent of all mental health disorders, including major depressive disorder, appear before the age of 25, with those aged 15 to 25 being significantly more likely to experience mental health disorders, substance dependencies and risks for suicide.

In their 2019 study “An Online Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Intervention for Youth Diagnosed With Major Depressive Disorders,” published in JMIR Research Protocols, Ritvo and his team explored how online mindfulness-oriented cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) combined with psychiatric care compared to standard psychiatric alone in youth (aged 18 to 30) diagnosed with major depressive disorder.

In the 2019 mindfulness-CBT study, researchers worked with subjects via their smartphones on a near-daily basis, sending text messages, taking phone calls and recording subjects’ steps through a health tracking app to support a vigorous walking program. The rate of contact was determined by the subjects themselves.

“You can make a lot of difference by sending the right text message at the right time,” Ritvo explained, who emphasized the immediacy as key benefit of this form of treatment. “This isn’t week-by-week or month-by-month,” he continued. “This is, ‘how is your day today, and if you’re not doing so well this morning, how can we make it better by the afternoon.’”

Ritvo is enthused by the broader applications for successful online behavioural interventions for major depressive disorder. Beyond providing cost-effective, “nearly-real-time” therapy at a time when many struggle to access mental health resources, these methods can remove the geographic barriers for populations typically underserved, such as remote, rural and Indigenous communities.

The Ritvo Lab at York University studies how diseases such as cancer, HIV-AIDS, diabetes, cardiovascular disease and mental illness can be prevented with health behaviour change, and devises the strategies, programs and new methodologies required to achieve such changes. The lab is working to develop a health coaching specialty at York University, integrating smartphone technology into health promotion.

Seminar looks at the influences of human activities on mercury in aquatic ecosystems

ARG March 11 FEATURED

The final event in the 2019-20 Aquatic Research Group (ARG) Seminar Series features McMaster University Professor Karen Kidd presenting a talk titled “Local through global influences of human activities on mercury in aquatic ecosystems.” It takes place on Wednesday, March 11 at 12:30 p.m. in room 111, McLaughlin College Building at the Keele Campus. The seminar will be followed by a free lunch at 1:30 p.m. All members of the York community are welcome to attend.

The pan-Faculty ARG Seminar Series, organized by biology Professor Sapna Sharma in York University’s Faculty of Science, has brought top ecologists from across the province to York to talk about their research in aquatic ecology and what’s causing stress in our waterways.

Karen Kidd
Karen Kidd

Kidd received her BSc in environmental toxicology from the University of Guelph (1991) and her PhD in biology from the University of Alberta (1996). As an ecotoxicologist, she studies how the health of aquatic organisms and food webs are affected by human activities and the fate of pollutants in freshwater ecosystems.

Kidd joined McMaster in 2017 as the Jarislowsky Chair in Environment and Health and has a joint appointment in the Department of Biology and the School of Geography & Earth Sciences. Before that, she worked in the Biology Department and the Canadian Rivers Institute at the University of New Brunswick Saint John, where she was a professor of biology and held a Canada Research Chair in Chemical Contamination of Food Webs (Tier II 2004-14; Tier I 2015-17).

Most of her lab’s research is multidisciplinary in nature – a combination of ecology, biogeochemistry, chemistry and toxicology – and is on lakes, rivers, wetlands and coastal zones spanning tropical through Arctic climates.

The ARG includes researchers who focus on aquatic science from the Faculties of Science, Engineering, Environmental Studies, and Liberal Arts & Professional Studies. The seminar series is designed to engage this multidisciplinary scientific community at all levels, including graduate and undergraduate students, both at York University and in the wider aquatic science community.