Tag: VP Research and Innovation

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New study finds higher social capital and trust leads to better COVID-19 response in some U.S. states

COVID outbreak image
COVID outbreak image

In the United States, those states that are responding more quickly and effectively to the COVID-19 crisis also seem to have higher levels of social capital built up and citizens who trust more in their governments and health agencies, according to new research by York University Assistant Professor of sociology Cary Wu and team.

The paper was published in the journal Contexts.

Social capital refers to the networks of relationships between people who live, work and play in any one place, and speaks to the strength of their communities, workplaces and other social groups.

Cary Wu
Cary Wu

As pandemics such as COVID-19 spread because of our social nature, having high social capital and trust is one way to help prevent spread.

“States with higher trust and social capital are better able to mobilize resources and foster collective actions,” says Wu of the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies.

The researchers found that states with the most social capital and trust positively predicted which ones tended to have higher testing rates. This was regardless of household income, income inequality, racial diversity or whether the states had a Republican or Democratic leaning.

“People with little confidence in their government or health agencies are less likely to comply with prevention and control measures,” says Wu.

The researchers used data from the Social Capital Project to ascertain the levels of social capital and trust in each state.

Do you have a story to share about how you are coping, or what you are doing differently, during the COVID-19 pandemic? Email us at yfile@yorku.ca.

Social distancing and why it works, explained by math Professor Jane Heffernan

social distance covid FEATURED
social distance covid FEATURED

Social distancing: It’s a term that has become a buzzword associated with the global pandemic of the novel coronavirus causing COVID-19. It saturates the news, social media, our conversations with family, friends and neighbours. Some of us have become watchdogs of social distancing, monitoring our neighborhoods and hoping for it to happen in abundance; others of us have taken to spreading the call-to-action on social distancing in an effort to curb the spread of the virus. Many of us are realizing how, on days before the pandemic, we never really monitored the distance between ourselves and others.

Stay six feet apart (that’s two metres, for the metric-minded), and don’t gather in groups. That’s what Canadians have been asked to do.

But what does it mean from a mathematical lens? What is the mathematical evidence that shows social distancing to be effective in curbing this outbreak?

Jane Heffernan

York University Faculty of Science Professor Jane Heffernan says keeping a specific physical distance away from others does prevent the spread of the virus – that can be expelled by cough, sneeze and breathing – by creating a spatial barrier from an infected person.

Heffernan, a professor in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics, York Research Chair (Tier II), and communications director of the Centre for Disease Modelling (CDM), says the math shows that social distancing can indeed stop a chain of exposures.

“Someone can infect a person, and then that person can infect someone else, and so on… but if one person is social distancing in this chain, all of the possible infections that come after them will not happen,” she said.

Ontario, and Canada, have been taking proactive steps to undertake and promote social distancing, but different organizations and institutions are approaching this with different measures and timelines. In order for it to have the greatest effect on “flattening the curve,” Heffernan says we should be engaging now, and remain diligent not to allow our social distancing behaviour to wane.

“If it does wane,” she says, “we will not be able to control transmission effectively. Additionally, we must keep up our social distancing behaviours until we are told that we are allowed to decrease them. If we decrease our behaviours too early, it is possible that we can bring on a second wave of infection.”

An image of the COVID-19 virus (Image: CDC)
An image of the COVID-19 virus (Image: CDC)

The challenges then become maintaining the behavior – and complying for as long as it takes. This may seem like a daunting task given all that is still unknown about the virus. For instance, we don’t actually know where we sit on the “curve,” and Heffernan agrees it is too early to predict when the peak in Ontario will happen.

“I don’t expect to see a peak in the short term. There is a lot of uncertainty in data right now, so peak projection times from models have a broad range. Shorter estimates are a month. Longer estimates are a few months,” she said.

The provincial government recently announced that it will extend the school closures beyond the initial two-week closure, and school-aged children won’t be back in the classroom on April 6. Heffernan agrees this is the right approach; however, how long the schools stay shuttered remains to be seen.

Based on her own research on social distancing, Heffernan says the more diligent people are in adhering to social distancing measures now – even though it may feel disruptive – the shorter the time frame will be that we need to adhere to them.

“Sometimes it is hard to adhere when the infection is not ‘observed’ as being ‘close’ to a person. We must all remember that our behaviour affects not only those ‘close’ to us, but all of the other people that would be down a chain of infections,” she said.

Heffernan’s research shows that not only does social distancing slow the spread of disease, it also decreases the infection burden on the healthcare system. It also shows that when social distancing behaviours begin to wane – near the end of an epidemic – this poses a great risk for a second wave of the infection.

“We MUST be diligent in our social distancing behaviours until we know we are allowed to relax them,” she said. “It’s best to keep your circle very small for now.”

By Ashley Goodfellow Craig, deputy editor, YFile

New COVID-19 rapid research funding for York professors

Image: CDC
An image of the COVID-19 virus. Image: CDC
Image: CDC
An image of the COVID-19 virus. Image: CDC

Three more York University professors will receive $703,217 in funding for COVID-19 related research to better inform the best way forward, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) announced. Two other York researchers are co-applicants on another $666,667.

This new funding follows a previous COVID-19 rapid research funding announced on March 6 by CIHR for three other York projects.

The researchers from the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies (LA&PS) and the Faculty of Science will look at how supply chain disruptions are affecting medical and pharmaceutical industries and how social media is spreading misinformation, fostering racism and xenophobia, and hindering the capacity of public health officials to communicate scientific facts. They will also evaluate how intervention strategies can help decision-makers identify the type and intensity of control measures needed for containment.

“York University is thrilled that three additional researchers from the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies and the Faculty of Science will receive funding for COVID-19 rapid research projects,” said Interim Vice-President Research & Innovation Rui Wang. “This new funding will contribute to a global effort and could have a huge impact on how information is delivered, supply chains work and the rate of disease transmission in future outbreaks.”

Funding will come from CIHR in partnership with the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, the International Development Research Centre, and Genome Canada.

Professor Harris Ali of LA&PS and the Advanced Disaster, Emergency and Rapid Response Simulation (ADERSIM) facility at York and Associate Professor Fuyuki Kurasawa of the Department of Sociology in LA&PS, will receive $308,183 to study how social media misinformation shapes public health and lay responses to COVID-19, and what public health strategies and public policies can be adopted to combat it and its stigmatizing social impacts. They will track misinformation about COVID-19 on Western social media platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Reddit, and Chinese social media platforms, such as WeChat, Weibo, Tencent, and Toutiao. Read more in this Conversation Canada piece.

Computational epidemiology Professor Seyed Moghadas of the Department of Mathematics and Statistics in the Faculty of Science will receive $264,434 from CIHR to develop new and adapt existing mathematical models to predict the scope of disease transmission, potential outbreaks and clinical attack rates. He will also project what services hospitals will require and assess the effects of interventions, such as quarantine, self-reporting, isolation and school closures. In addition, he will evaluate the effectiveness of a vaccine and best distribution scenarios based on population age and risk.

Associate Professor (Decision Sciences) Fuminori Toyasaki of the School of Administrative Studies in LA&PS and ADERSIM will receive $130,600 from CIHR to study countermeasures to the supply chain disruptions in medical and pharmaceutical industries. His project will focus on the supply chain disruptions that medical and pharmaceutical industries are currently facing as a result of strategic hoarding by suppliers and consumer panic buying. In addition, he will explore the feasibility of two countermeasures – a collaborative stock sharing/transshipment system and an incentive contract with a potential second source that can produce highly customized medical and pharmaceutical items.

Professor Jianhong Wu of the Faculty of Science and director of ADERSIM is leading a national COVID-19 math modelling team. The Fields Institute for Research in Mathematical Sciences has received $666,667, along with local and international partners, to mobilize this national network of infectious disease modellers to develop mathematical technologies to assess transmission risk of COVID-19 and project outbreak trajectories. Co-applicants include Associate Professor Ali Asgary, deputy director of ADERSIM and the School of Administrative Studies in LA&PS, Professor Jane Heffernan and Professor Huaiping Zhu of the Faculty of Science and director of the Centre for Disease Modelling, and Professor Adriano Solis of the School of Administrative Studies in LA&PS. These researchers are evaluating public health interventions for its prevention and control, and to inform public health policy makers. Their goal is to conduct multi-scale modelling to assist in the development of effective intervention and mitigation strategies.

For more information, visit the CIHR project website.

York U prof. develops simulation model to help families understand how to ‘flatten the curve’

Photo by Magda Ehlers from Pexels
Photo by Magda Ehlers from Pexels

COVID-19 continues to spread globally and the phrase flatten the curve has now entered our every-day language. To help people better understand the expression, a simple model was developed to depict the rate of infection. Health officials say that flattening the curve will lead to fewer infections and ease the burden on the health care system.

Ali Asgary
Ali Asgary

As nations and governments use this model to encourage interventions like social and physical distancing, isolation and basic hygiene, York Professor Ali Asgary from the Disaster & Emergency Management (School of Administrative Studies) and the Advanced Disaster, Emergency & Rapid Response Simulation (ADERSIM) has developed an agent-based simulation to help people understand how the virus spreads within a family unit and how they can work to flatten the curve at home and within their communities.

Test the “Flattening the Curve at Family Level” simulation here.

“I developed this as an interactive educational tool. It uses the same concept of the national models, but it is designed specifically for families. By running different scenarios, it can help people to visualize what flattening the curve looks like with or without interventions,” said Asgary.

If someone in your family unit gets the virus,  Asgary notes that there are two probable outcomes. Either everyone becomes infected in a short period of time, and there is limited capacity at home to look after each other, or with physical distancing, self isolation and extra hygiene measures you can stagger the infection among family members. This would mean that there is always someone to care or help others.

The same logic transfers over to the strain that would affect health care systems if there are no interventions nationally. “Hopefully, it builds some understanding, and serves as a good analogy for how we should all be trying to flatten the national curve,” said Asgary.

The simulation is available to the public, along with other interactive visuals surrounding the pandemic, through ADERSIM. According to Asgary, academics in disaster and emergency management have a role to play by helping to enhance understanding of the situation and disseminating research that can assist with prevention and mitigation measures.

“It’s always good to look into new methods that help to change our perspective. ADERSIM has developed the capacity to create simulations like these for the direct benefit of society. While most simulations and modelling are looking at regional, national, or global levels, this simulation is focusing on the family level which should help people to recognize the role they have to play,” said Asgary.

Watch the video below to see a demonstration on how the simulation works.

Faculty of Health Professor David Hood named finalist for prestigious national award

David Hood
David Hood

David Hood, a professor in the School of Kinesiology & Health Studies in the Faculty of Health, is a finalist for the 2019 Award for Outstanding Graduate Mentorship. The award is presented annually by the Canadian Association for Graduate Studies (CAGS). A Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Cell Physiology, Hood is also the director of the Muscle Health Research Centre at York University.

Hood is among four finalists for this prestigious award, which recognizes graduate faculty members with a record of outstanding mentorship of graduate students under their supervision.

David Hood in his lab at York University

“The most rewarding experiences that I have had in academia involve observing the result of mentorship, guidance and support efforts that I have given to graduate students and other trainees,” said Hood. “They transition from novice experimentalists to highly competent scientists who have the ability to publish and communicate science in very effective ways. And they end up with good jobs.”

Known for encouraging, inspiring and supporting his students to reach their full potential, Hood’s nominators praise his work to establish a learning environment that maximizes the skills and abilities of each student while also providing opportunities for collaborating on new and unexpected discoveries.

“Being a finalist for this national mentorship award is extremely rewarding and I am grateful to have been nominated,” said Hood.

Hood said he uses an individualized approach to advising his trainees noting that every student is different and “cookie-cutter” approaches don’t work for everyone. He has developed a solid program of skill advancement, involving lab technical developments in biochemistry and physiology research, along with strategies that aid in the formation of verbal and illustrative communication skills. A main strategy that he deploys involves the scheduling of lab meetings that are held weekly, without fail, to hone verbal skills related to the discussion of emerging literature, as well as critical reviews of recent data acquired experimentally. This is an important part of working with graduate students, said Hood, because “we are often requested to publish reviews of the literature in our field of muscle mitochondrial adaptations to exercise.”

Hood makes use of these opportunities to help develop trainee writing and researching skills as they survey the literature. This approach helps the graduate students he supervises to develop a solid foundation for the field, and enhances their CVs considerably, to make them more marketable.

An important part of the learning experience that Hood offers graduate students is the chance to participate in the Muscle Health Awareness Day (MHAD). This annual event has developed into an important local conference that caters not only to scientists and trainees in southern Ontario, but also serves to recruit colleagues from Quebec, New York state and Michigan.

“In 2020, we will be hosting our 11th annual MHAD,” said Hood. “Each year 50 to 60 graduate student posters are displayed, and trainees listen to high-level talks presented by newly emerging, as well as seasoned scientists in the field, covering topics in skeletal muscle, heart and blood vessel physiology, adaptations and disease. It’s a wonderful experience for all, but it is especially rewarding, and fully attainable because of the low cost, for young trainees who have never presented at a conference previously.”

In addition to supervising graduate students, Hood is a highly accomplished researcher. His lab focuses on how mitochondria, the powerhouses of the cell, are newly made and assembled in muscle when we exercise regularly. The payback of this exercise to develop new muscle, said Hood, is an improved metabolism, accompanied by considerable health benefits. These include better metabolism of fats, less muscle fatigue (i.e. more endurance), and the maintenance of a healthy body weight.

David Hood
David Hood

“As we age, the beneficial effects of exercise on mitochondria can help to preserve muscle mass and to prevent the frailty and weakness that is so evident in our aging populations, affecting both men and women,” said Hood. “The lab has studied the underlying biochemistry and molecular control of how mitochondria are synthesized, starting with the signals that initiate the process with the very first exercise bout. More recently, we have also turned toward an understanding of how exercise can also help to remove unhealthy and poorly functioning mitochondria from muscle, clearing the way for more efficient energy production, accompanied by less formation of negative by-products, like damaging free radicals.”

Perhaps this comment from one of his former graduate students best summarizes why Hood is a finalist for the CAGS award: “Dr. Hood instructed me with patience and understanding, teaching me discipline, research techniques, and the basis of scientific research. Most importantly, he taught me how to balance the various aspects of my life as a graduate student.”

To learn more about the Hood lab, visit https://dhood.lab.yorku.ca/.

Community Safety outlines the next steps in moving to Required Services during COVID-19

Image: CDC
An image of the COVID-19 virus. Image: CDC

Samina Sami, executive director of Community Safety, issues the following important notice to York University community members about moving to Required Services during COVID-19. There is a lot of information to digest and a link to the full explanation for each area is provided in this communication:

To help ensure the health and safety of our campus communities, support government directives and help prevent the risk and spread of COVID-19, York University has moved to delivering Required Services only on our campuses.

The purpose of this communication is to provide the York community with further information regarding the specific steps and procedures needed for the University to move to a Required Services status.

Given the amount of information that you need to be aware of, please go to https://coronavirus.info.yorku.ca/required-services/ where you will find detailed the following information:

  • Building access arrangements
  • Compensation
  • Course completion
  • Health, safety and well-being
  • Information Technology resources
  • Parking
  • Pension and benefits
  • Research
  • UIT and telecom
  • Working remotely

President Rhonda L. Lenton issues a statement on the University’s response to COVID-19

Vari Hall

The following is an important statement to the York University community from President and Vice-Chancellor Rhonda L. Lenton. This statement was issued on Friday, March 13:

As the COVID-19 pandemic has grown and evolved, York University has kept the safety and well-being of students, staff and faculty at the heart of all its decisions. We are also conscious of our role in the national and global fight against a serious illness. In light of the developments we have seen at home and around the world this week, it is time for the University to enter a new phase in its comprehensive response.

Beginning on March 16, we will be suspending all face-to-face instruction and moving courses to online formats. We are committed to completing the term and will deploy all of our resources to support faculty and students through this transition. Further information will be forthcoming from the Provost and Deans regarding courses with lab and studio requirements, and arrangements for examinations. Where possible, work and clinical placements will continue.

As of midnight tonight, we will be cancelling or postponing all non-essential events that are not required as part of an academic program. We will also be closing the Tait Mackenzie Centre and the Glendon Athletic Club until April 30. Our Keele and Glendon campuses will remain open, and research activities will continue.

In the days ahead, we will also be introducing new policies on working from home and doctors’ notes to minimize risk and maximize flexibility for our community. More details on these changes will be forthcoming. As always, we encourage everyone to take preventative measures such as enhanced hand washing and social distancing. If you feel unwell, please stay home.

It will take time to sort out the details of the initiatives we are announcing today. I am grateful for the patience and support of students, staff and faculty during this period of rapid change. And to the members of York’s Emergency Management Team and the many staff and faculty members who have put in so many hours – with many more to come – preparing and implementing our COVID-19 response, thank you. Your commitment to our community is extraordinary.

Compassion and care are among York’s most important values. Some members of our community may need special accommodations to sustain their mental and physical health as the COVID-19 situation unfolds, and unfortunately, others will likely fall ill. York will be part of the network of family, friends and institutions that will help them recover.

I know this is an anxious and upsetting time for everyone. Let me say, without reservation, that York will be there to support every member of the community as we face this pandemic together. For students, my commitment is that you will have the academic and wellness supports you need to thrive in and beyond the current situation. For faculty and staff, know that the University recognizes your dedication and is, in turn, committed to your health and well-being.

Please stay tuned for additional information over the coming days. As always, you can find the latest updates on York’s dedicated COVID-19 website and you can email your questions to coronavirusinfo@yorku.ca. Senate Executive will also be providing guidance on adjustments to academic regulations, deadlines and schedules as required.

Take care of yourselves and each other.

Tout au long de la montée et de l’évolution de COVID-19, l’Université York a placé la sécurité et le bien-être du corps étudiant, du corps professoral et du personnel au cœur de toutes ses décisions. Nous sommes également conscients de notre rôle dans la lutte nationale et internationale contre une maladie sérieuse. À la suite des développements de cette semaine au pays et dans le monde entier, il est temps pour l’Université d’entrer dans une nouvelle phase de sa réponse globale.

À partir du lundi 16 mars, les cours en personne seront suspendus et remplacés par des cours en ligne. Nous sommes déterminés à achever le semestre et nous déploierons toutes nos ressources pour appuyer le corps professoral et le corps étudiant durant cette transition. La rectrice et les doyens fourniront plus d’information sur les cours qui comportent des laboratoires et des classes pratiques et sur les aménagements pour les examens. Dans la mesure du possible, le travail et les placements cliniques continueront.

À partir de ce soir à minuit, tous les événements non essentiels qui ne font pas partie des exigences d’un programme académique seront annulés ou reportés. Nous fermerons également le centre Tait Mackenzie et le club athlétique de Glendon jusqu’au 30 avril. Nos campus Keele et Glendon demeureront ouverts et les activités de recherche se poursuivront.

Dans les jours à venir, nous introduirons aussi de nouvelles politiques sur le travail à la maison et les notes des médecins pour minimiser les risques et optimiser la flexibilité pour notre communauté. Vous recevrez bientôt plus de détails au sujet de ces changements. Comme toujours, nous encourageons tout le monde à prendre des mesures de prévention comme un lavage de mains soigneux et l’éloignement social. Si vous ne vous sentez pas bien, veuillez rester à la maison.

Cela prendra du temps pour régler les détails des initiatives que nous annonçons aujourd’hui. Je suis reconnaissante de la patience et du soutien du corps étudiant, du personnel et du corps professoral durant cette période de changements rapides. Et je remercie les membres de l’équipe de gestion des urgences et les membres du personnel et du corps professoral qui ont consacré tellement d’heures — et en consacreront beaucoup plus — à préparer et mettre en place notre réponse à COVID-19. Votre engagement envers notre communauté est extraordinaire.

La compassion et l’assistance font partie des valeurs les plus importantes de York. Des membres de notre communauté auront peut-être besoin d’aménagements spéciaux pour assurer leur santé mentale et physique durant la situation de COVID-19; malheureusement, certains tomberont sans doute malades. York fera partie du réseau de familles, amis et institutions qui les aideront à se remettre.

Je sais que cette période est bouleversante et angoissante pour tout le monde. Mais laissez-moi vous dire, sans réserve, que York sera présent pour appuyer chaque membre de la communauté tandis que nous affrontons ensemble cette pandémie. En ce qui concerne les étudiants, je m’engage à ce que vous disposiez du soutien académique et de bien-être nécessaire pour prospérer dans la situation actuelle et par la suite. En ce qui concerne le corps professoral et le personnel, sachez que l’Université reconnaît votre dévouement et s’engage, en retour, à protéger votre santé et votre bien-être.

Veuillez rester à l’écoute pour d’autres informations au cours des jours à venir. Comme toujours, vous pouvez trouver les dernières mises à jour sur le site Web de York consacré à COVID-19 et vous pouvez envoyer vos questions par courriel à coronavirusinfo@yorku.ca. Les membres du Sénat fourniront également des informations sur les modifications des règlements académiques, sur les dates d’échéance et sur le calendrier, suivant les besoins.

Prenez bien soin de vous et des autres.

CANCELLED: Law and Disorder symposium honours the memory of esteemed criminologist

Margaret Beare

The demands on policing in Canada have never been greater. Gender and race issues, the globalization of money and money laundering, corruption and cybercrime are all pressing matters. They beg questions about democratic governance, accountability and control of police.

Law and Disorder – a symposium on Saturday, March 14 to be presented by Osgoode Hall Law School’s Nathanson Centre on Transnational Human Rights, Crime and Security in honour of its founding director, the late Professor Margaret Beare – will discuss the challenges of policing and governance in a globalizing world.

Among the more than a dozen speakers will be Associate Professor Stephen Wilks, Mercy School of Law, Detroit; Anna Willats, Member of the Toronto Police Accountability Commission; Peter German, President, International Centre for Criminal Law Reform, Vancouver; Nathalie Des Rosiers, Principal, Massey College, Toronto; and Philip Stenning, Griffith Criminology Institute, Brisbane, Australia. For program details, click here

Professor Margaret Beare

Beare, an esteemed criminologist who joined the faculty of York University in 1995 in the Department of Sociology with a cross appointment to Osgoode, died in August of cancer at the age of 72.

Educated at Guelph University (BA ’68, MA ’71), University of Cambridge in England (Diploma in Criminology, ’74) and Columbia University in New York (PhD ’87), her career in transnational police policy and the study of organized crime began with her role as senior research officer in the Office of the Solicitor General in Ottawa where she worked from 1982 to 1993.

“Margaret was a research powerhouse at Osgoode, blending sociology, criminology, and law like no one else,” said Professor François Tanguay-Renaud, co-director of the Nathanson Centre. “As the founding director of the Nathanson Centre, she put it on the map from day one – producing countless reports that are cited to this day and hosting numerous workshops and conferences on cutting-edge issues. Her deep connections in the worlds of policing and crime-related policymaking, most centrally organized crime policy, made her the go-to person whenever a socio-legal analysis of these domains was needed. The Canadian legal academe has lost a giant in Margaret Beare.”

The author, co-author or editor of numerous books and articles on money laundering, international policing policy, gang violence and social justice, Beare was the founding director of Osgoode’s Nathanson Centre for the Study of Organized Crime & Corruption – now called the Jack & Mae Nathanson Centre on Transnational Human Rights, Crime and Security – and remained a faculty member at York until her death.

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.

POSTPONED: Workshop brings together scholars to discuss authoritarian drive in Turkey

Turkey’s Financialized Capitalism
Turkey’s Financialized Capitalism

A one-day workshop that brings together Turkish scholars to engage in a critical and in-depth discussion on the current authoritarian drive in Turkey will take place March 19 at York University’s Keele Campus.

Pinar Bedirhanoglu

Presented by the Global Labour Research Centre (GLRC) and the Department of Politics, “Contested Reproduction of Turkey’s Financialized Capitalism: State and Society in Crisis” will run from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. in Ross Building South 674. It is organized by Pinar Bedirhanoğlu, visiting professor in the Department of Politics, and associate professor in the Department of International Relations at Middle East Technical University with Luann Good Gingrich, director, Global Labour Research Centre, York University.

The workshop will problematize the following issues:

  • the constitutive role of financialization in authoritarian state transformation;
  • state policies that weaken the power of labour vis-á-vis capital; and
  • the enhancement of the coercive capacity of state and capital for social control.

Besides identifying the Turkey-specific determinants of authoritarianism, the workshop aims to situate the Turkish experience within its global context, and thus contribute to relevant debates in comparative politics.

The program includes:

Welcome and introductions – 9 to 9:30 a.m.

Politics of Labour – 9:30 to 11:30 a.m.
Chair and discussant: Angela Joya, adjunct research professor, Carleton University

  • Formation of the “classes of labour” in Turkey under neoliberalism and changing forms of rural class struggle – Coşku Çelik, postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Politics and Department of Social Science, York University
  • Syrian refugees as surplus population in Turkish labour market: Racialization, segmentation and exploitation – Canan Şahin, PhD candidate, Queens University
  • Social reproduction in crisis: Limits to reproducing labour power in neoliberalizing Turkey – Hilal Kara, PhD candidate, Queens University

State Transformation through Financialization – 12:30 to 2:30 p.m.
Chair and discussant: Barış Karaağaç, lecturer, Trent University

  • Responses to the 2018-19 economic crisis in AKP’s Turkey: Policy space and discipline by state-sponsored credit – Ali Rıza Güngen, Distance Fellow, Carnegie Mellon University
  • Financialization, debt, state and health care – İpek Eren-Vural, research associate, Dalhousie University; adjunct professor, Simon Fraser University
  • Financialisation, household indebtedness, and state crisis in Turkey – Pınar Bedirhanoğlu, visiting professor, Department of Politics, York University; associate professor, Department of International Relations, METU

Politics of Coercion – 3 to 5 p.m.
Chair and discussant: Ömer Özcan, visiting professor, Department of Anthropology,York University

  • “The law of the city?”: Social war, urban warfare, and dispossession on the margin – Çağlar Dölek, contract instructor, Carleton University
  • Policing the crisis in Turkey: The case of feminicides – Funda Hülagü, research associate, Philipps University of Marburg (via Skype)
  • Turkey’s authoritarian surveillance regime – Özgün Topak, assistant professor, Department of Social Science, York University

For more information visit the GLRC event page or the Facebook event page.

Those interested can register at http://tiny.cc/glrcturkey. All are welcome.

The event is supported by York University’s Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies, the Vice-President Research & Innovation and the Department of Politics.