ResearchLIFE Summer 2009 by ResearchLIFE Magazine

SUMMER 2009 | VOLUME 2

ResearchLIFE BOOKS New Titles From Leading Researchers

UNIVERSITY OF MANITOBA

Building Better Bridges ISIS Canada

INSIDE: PREMIER GARY DOER BABY LANGUAGE: BEYOND THE BABBLE RECIPE FOR CHANGE: MOVING NURSING RESEARCH FORWARD

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BOOKS New Titles From Leading Researchers

Message

FROM THE VICE-PRESIDENT (RESEARCH)

Research is part of everyday life. The search for answers begins when we are young and evolves as we mature. The quest for answers continues to move us forward to meet the challenges facing us today of climate change, pandemic diseases and economic stability. As an institution that houses some of the most cutting-edge research conducted worldwide, the University of Manitoba has much to be proud of. Our researchers and students are working sideby-side to find solutions to problems affecting us locally, nationally and internationally. In this issue, you will find an array of stories representing the multifaceted approaches used to answer these questions. From the design of a better bridge to facilitating the translation of research into practice to the study of international law, our researchers and students are striving to move knowledge forward to a better place for all. I hope you find the breadth and depth of the work highlighted in this publication to be as impressive and inspiring as I do, and that you will join me in celebrating the dedication and ingenuity of our outstanding researchers and students. â&#x20AC;&#x201D;Digvir S. Jayas, PhD, PEng, PAg

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SUMMER 2009 VOLUME 2

BUILDING BETTER BRIDGES

Inside

ISIS Canada – the Intelligent Sensing for Innovative Structures Canada Research Network – has been headquartered at the University of Manitoba since 1995. The ISIS logo appears on 2,500 technical papers (journal and conference), patents and international agreements. What really impresses outsiders, though, is the collaboration it leads—150 researchers from 15 universities. BY SEAN MOORE

9 ONE MIND MANY INSIGHTS Premier Gary Doer – Excerpts from a conversation with Gary Doer, Manitoba’s 20th Premier.

18 BABY LANGUAGE: BEYOND THE BABBLE Have you ever tried to learn a new language? Not an easy task at any age, but it does seem that as we age it becomes harder for us to do. Why is this so tough for adults and yet children and even infants can acquire languages much more readily than adults? BY JENNIFER ROBINSON

25 RECIPE FOR CHANGE The Nursing KnowledgeTranslation Project began in 2006 at Winnipeg’s Health Sciences Centre. This new model for moving knowledge from the bench to the bedside is being developed, using the existing nursing social networks and the lessons learned from research: all for the ultimate benefit of patient care. BY JANINE HARASYMCHUK Happenings.................... 3

Viewpoint ..................... 22

Kudos ............................ 5

Spotlight on Students ... 23

Centres & Institutes ....... 8

Creative Works ............ 29

Hot off the Presses ....... 15

On the Horizon ............. 33

Ideas to Innovation........ 17

Just the Facts .............. 34

ResearchLIFE RETURN UNDELIVERABLE CANADIAN ADDRESSES TO:

UNIVERSITY OF MANITOBA Research Communications & Marketing 540 Machray Hall Winnipeg, MB Canada R3T 2N2 Tel 204-474-7300 • Fax 204-261-0325 ResearchLIFE@umanitoba.ca VICE-PRESIDENT (RESEARCH) Digvir S. Jayas EDITOR AND MANAGER OF RESEARCH COMMUNICATIONS & MARKETING Janine Harasymchuk DESIGN Relish Design Studio Ltd.

CONTRIBUTORS Lindsay Fagundes Janine Harasymchuk Sean Moore Justin Kozak Andrea Signorelli PHOTOGRAPHY Cover: Bill Peters Tamara Nathaniell Member of the University Research Magazine Association: www.urma.org umanitoba.ca/research ISSN# 1918-1442

HAPPENINGS SCIENCE MEETS IMAGINATION HUNDREDS OF STUDENTS AND DELEGATES from across Canada descended on campus for a week of stiff competition in this year’s Canada-Wide Science Fair (CWSF), held May 9 to 17—the first time since 1988 that Manitoba has played host. The event was a resounding success. Projects ranged from how to prevent birds from flying into windows to how taking music lessons (or band classes) improves your math or science grades to which whitening strips work best to whiten your teeth. As part of the day of science activities planned for students and delegates, researchers opened their labs and their minds to questioning from an array of students. The students toured dozens of labs and had the opportunity to get hands on with some of the experiments. The series of lectures by our leadingedge researchers on topics like biofuels, HIV/AIDS, and healthy lifestyles were a hit with students, delegates and the researchers, too.

IMPROVING WORLD HEALTH THE CENTRE FOR GLOBAL PUBLIC HEALTH (CGPH) HOSTED A SERIES OF EVENTS IN SUPPORT OF GLOBAL PUBLIC HEALTH WEEK. The week kicked off with an open house to promote interaction between faculty and global public health partners from around the world. A two-day symposium titled “Translating Knowledge into Action in Global Public Health” brought together experts on topics such as HIV prevention and treatment programs in Africa, India and China. The CGPH was established in the Department of Community Health Sciences in June, 2008 and enhances the contribution of the University of Manitoba to the improvement of public health systems, programs and activities in diverse global settings. A cornerstone of CGPH is the design and implementation of international health and development projects in several countries including India, China, Kenya and Pakistan, primarily in the areas of HIV and STI prevention.

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Science Day activities at the University of Manitoba

Centre for Global Public Health photography exhibit

TRIUMFANT TRIUMF, CANADA’S NATIONAL LABORATORY for Particle and Nuclear Physics stationed in British Columbia, recently welcomed the University of Manitoba as a full member. TRIUMF is one of three subatomic research facilities in the world that specialize in producing extremely intense beams of particles. It began in 1968 when three universities launched a local facility for intermediateenergy nuclear physics. The University of Manitoba joins the seven existing member universities and, as part of this national team, will help to set the priorities of the research program. Members have instant access to a network of international scientific leaders and decisionmakers, cutting-edge research results and technology, and highly skilled technical and engineering support.

RESEARCH WITHOUT BORDERS A CELEBRATION WAS HELD TO CELEBRATE the recent award to the international partnership of Fikret Berkes (University of Manitoba) and Alpina Begossi (State University of Campinas Brazil). The pair were chosen by the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) and Canada Research Chairs Program for the IDRC Chair in Community-Based Resource Management. The goal of their research is to increase food security and improve the livelihoods of fisher communities in Paraty in the Rio de Janeiro State of Brazil. The research team will develop approaches collaboratively with these fisher communities to better manage local resources and

(l-r) Fikret Berkes and Alpina Begossi

to help them diversify their sources of income. This will give them a stable source of income to ensure they can feed their families in the long term, without stressing the finite natural resources they currently depend upon. The funding ($1 million) allocated to this chair by the International Development Research Centre and the Canada Research Chairs program will enhance the training of graduate students at the University of Manitoba and at State University of Campinas Brazil by providing them with unique training and fieldwork opportunities, under the tutelage of these highly qualified chairholders.

THEIR FUTURES TAKE ROOT HERE FOUR UNIVERSITY OF MANITOBA GRADUATE STUDENTS were among the inaugural recipients of the Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship—Brent Else, Kyle Elliott, Jennifer Juno, Meika Richmond. Their research covers a wide array of subject matter: gene identification in HIV, immune responses to HIV infection, how wild birds work so hard and live long, and air-sea exchange of carbon dioxide and its impact on sea ice. Each student receives $50,000 annually for up to three years, to continue their studies. The scholarship program, launched in 2008, with an initial $25-million investment, is administered by Canada’s three federal research granting agencies—the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC). When fully operational, the program will support 500 graduate students per year. SUMMER 2009 | ResearchLIFE 4

KUDOS

Unique Group of Seven

The 2008 Rh Award was recently given to seven rising stars at the University of Manitoba. The Rh Awards were established in 1973 by the Winnipeg Rh Institute, now the Winnipeg Rh Institute Foundation and each consists of a $10,000 award to conduct further research. The awards are given to academic staff members who are in the early stages of their careers and who display exceptional innovation, leadership and promise in the fields of applied sciences, creative works, health sciences, humanities, interdisciplinary studies, natural sciences and the social sciences. APPLIED SCIENCES

James Blatz, civil engineering, researches how clay particles behave under varying moisture, temperature and stress conditions. Blatz also develops ways to assess the safety of rockfill dams for Manitoba Hydro, and how rockfill columns can stabilize Winnipeg’s riverbanks. His work on building a better sandbag dike has been used extensively in Manitoba flood fighting.

HEALTH SCIENCES

Michelle Lobchuk, Faculty of Nursing, studies lung cancer patients and their caregivers. Her research —which spans nursing, social psychology and medicine—is filling in gaps that exist in theory based interventions to enhance empathic communication, treatment decision-making, and symptom management for advanced stage cancer patients, particularly those diagnosed with lung cancer and their families.

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INTERDISCIPLINARY Jessica Senehi, Faculty of Graduate Studies and the Arthur V. Mauro Centre for Peace and Justice, researches interpersonal and intercommunity conflict. Her work extends the understanding of conflicts and how they can be resolved. Her use of storytelling as a respectful mechanism for introducing and inspiring human solidarity at all levels of interaction led to her establishing the Winnipeg International Storytelling Festival: Storytelling on the Path to Peace.

NATURAL SCIENCES John Hanesiak, environment and geography, studies atmospheric science. His expertise is in surface-atmosphere interactions, storms, and extreme weather, and examines how the atmosphere interacts with the Earth’s surfaces, such as prairie landscapes, sea ice and ocean. The data garnered help us to better understand weather and climate processes in order to improve weather prediction.

SOCIAL SCIENCES

CREATIVE WORKS Struan Sinclair, English, film and theatre, is the author of a collection of novels and short stories, and explores new media and digital culture. His novels include Automatic World, a story about a man who, unable to recall his identity of past, is determined to access his history and so assemble the narrative of his life. In If/ Then, a multimedia piece in the form of an architectural walkthrough, the project is used to provide a navigable 3-D virtual space.

first to look at the relationship between history, technology and the evolution of prose within Québec film and literature.

HUMANITIES Étienne Beaulieu, French, Spanish and Italian, investigates two interrelated areas of interest in French studies: Romanticism and Québec cinema. Through analysis of the works of Joseph Joubert he is providing a new theory on the comprehension of French literature. He also explores Francophone cinema, principally Québécois. These innovative studies have been the

Kiera Ladner, political studies, conducts community-based research into constitutional reconciliation and decolonization. Her work focuses on Indigenous politics and governance in Canada. Ladner’s research brings communities together—engaging grassroots, traditional leadership, and Indian Act leaders in discussions about their visions of the future.

BRRRR….BUT IT’S GETTING WARMER

Janine Harasymchuk

THE UNIVERSITY OF MANITOBA

joins a select group of universities across Canada invited to nominate a world leader for the new Canada Excellence Research Chair (CERC) in Arctic Geomicrobiology and Climate Change. Scientists are predicting that we can expect a seasonally ice free Arctic by 2015. The rate of this change is challenging our ability to understand the complex relationships between climate, sea ice, ecosystem function, and sustainable development of rich Arctic resources. The CERC in Arctic Geomicrobiology and Climate Change will develop models capable of predicting these changes. The opportunity to nominate a new CERC is the result of the development, over the past twenty years, of a strong network of researchers and science disciplines that is unique in the world. The Arctic research group at the University of Manitoba is made up of seventeen scientists housed in the Clayton H. Riddell Faculty of the Environment, Earth and Resources and will be involved in the CERC in Arctic Geomicrobiology and Climate Change. This CERC will provide the opportunity to further integrate and propel this already world-class, multi- and inter-disciplinary research team to an unprecedented level to conduct Arctic climate change research.

(l-r): Women of Distinction Award winners Wanda Wuttunee and Elissavet Kardami

GETTING TO THE HEART OF THINGS PROFESSORS ELISSAVET KARDAMI AND WANDA WUTTUNEE were this year’s winners

of YMCA-YWCA Women of Distinction Awards in the Research and Innovation, and Education and Training categories, respectively. The awards are two of nine presented every year to bolster awareness of the outstanding contributions certain local women make to Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada and the world. Kardami’s work has brought her to the forefront of cardiac cell and molecular biology on issues of repair, regeneration, control of proliferation and cardio-protection. She lends her time liberally to the scientific community as well as to other social, cultural and volunteer health organizations. Her tenacity, strength and determination have allowed her to establish herself as a highly successful and productive scientist and academic.

She is a member of the Faculty of Medicine and is principal investigator at the Institute of Cardiovascular Sciences— a joint institute of the University of Manitoba and St. Boniface General Hospital. Wuttunee is an internationally recognized leader in the field of Aboriginal economic development. Her work focuses on community development perspectives and, in particular, women’s contributions. She examines the strengths of the community and the gifts that Aboriginal people bring to the business table. Her extensive community involvement includes board positions and committee work focusing on issues of education, business and culture. She is Cree and a member of the Red Pheasant Cree Nation, Saskatchewan. She is currently head of the Department of Native Studies in the Faculty of Arts and director of the Aboriginal Business Education Program. SUMMER 2009 | ResearchLIFE 6

KUDOS

FEEDING THE WORLD THE SECRETS OF GRAINď&#x161;ş STORAGE ISSUES have been unlocked

by a prize-winning team at the University of Manitoba. The fourth-annual Brockhouse Canada Prize for Interdisciplinary Research in Science and Engineering was awarded to biosystems engineer Digvir S. Jayas, and Noel White, an entomologist with the Cereal Research Centre, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada. Jayas and Dr. White have spent more than two decades studying the causes of grain spoilage, from excess heat and moisture in storage bins, to damage caused by insects, fungi and bacteria. The Brockhouse Prize has been conferred only four times, and two of those awards have been to University of Manitoba research teams. Established by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), and named after Nobel laureate Bertram Brockhouse, the prize honours teams of researchers that combine expertise in different disciplines to produce achievements of international scientific or engineering significance, and it includes $250,000 in funding for future research activities. In Canada, grain spoilage losses account for an estimated one per cent of the total annual crop, but in some developing countries losses are as high as 50 per cent. By applying engineering, biology and mathematics, Jayas and White

(l-r) Brockhouse Canada Prize winners Noel White and Digvir Jayas

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have developed internationally recognized prevention techniques proven to reduce spoilage for a variety of cereals, oilseeds and legumes under a wide range of environmental conditions. The team was the first to show that stored grain can be dried more effectively when air is forced through it horizontally rather than vertically. This information is being used to design a near-ambient air dryer that will be up to 40 per cent more energy efficient than current systems. They have developed new strategies for the early detection of insects in grain bulk and alternative methods for controlling insect infestations. Their solutions are helping to provide food for millions of people. â&#x2013;

CENTRES & INSTITUTES

THE TRANSPORT INSTITUTE

MOVING FORWARD THE MOVEMENT OF FREIGHT AND PASSENGERS IS CRITICAL TO THE ECONOMIC SUCCESS of every nation and the social well-being of all people. Moving people and goods also has tremendous implications for the environment, in terms of congestion, emissions and fuel efficiency. Since 1966, the University of Manitoba Transport Institute (UMTI) has played a leading role in transportation and logistics research. The institute, directed by Paul D. Larson, is a unit within the Department of Supply Chain Management (SCM) in the I.H. Asper School of Business. The institute’s mission is to facilitate economic prosperity, environmental sustainability, and social advancement, through logistics and SCM research and education that links businesses, governments, not-for-profit organizations, educators, students, and the community. Its mandate is to conduct rigorous and relevant research in transport and logistics, train transportation researchers, policy makers and practitioners; and to disseminate research results and policy implications at conferences, roundtables and workshops. Examples of research taking place at the institute include a study on vulnerabilities in the Manitoba food supply chain if a pandemic were to occur, an analysis of supply chains and food prices in isolated, northern communities in Manitoba, and an analysis of opportunities for Winnipeg’s inland port. UMTI also produces and publishes the annual Manitoba Transportation Report, a frequently cited report on transportation and logistics activities in Manitoba.

In 2008, the institute conducted a study on vulnerabilities in the Manitoba food supply chain in the event of a flu pandemic. Virtually all members of the Manitoba food supply chain, post farm gate were contacted in-person or by mail survey. Using this information, the food supply chain was mapped and various risk scenarios were modelled to estimate the impact of pandemic conditions on net nutritional balances in Manitoba. More recently, Manitoba Infrastructure and Transportation, the Manitoba Trucking Association, the Centre for Sustainable Transportation at the University of Winnipeg and UMTI began working together on a new GrEEEn (Economically and Environmentally Efficient) trucking incentive program. The GrEEEn program offers cash incentives to companies that install various technologies to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions caused by movement of freight. UMTI is also preparing a white paper on inland ports, with special reference to the CentrePort initiative. This research includes a look at present and possible future commodities flowing from, to, and through Winnipeg. The shippers of these commodities are potential customers of the inland port. Commodities represent opportunities for CentrePort to add value to the supply chain; by moving goods better, faster and cheaper than ever before. The white paper will be released in October at UMTI’s Manitoba Outlook on Transportation event. To learn more about the University of Manitoba Transport Institute, visit www.umti.ca ■

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ONE Mind MANY insights A DECADE HAS PASSED SINCE GARY DOER TOOK THE OATH OF OFFICE AS MANITOBAâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S 20TH PREMIER, MAKING HIM THE LONGEST-SERVING OF THE CURRENT GROUP OF CANADIAN PREMIERS. Doer grew up in the River Heights neighbourhood of Winnipeg. Before being elected

to the Manitoba Legislature in 1986 as a member of the New Democratic Party for the riding of Concordia, he worked at the Vaughn Street Detention Centre and served as President of the Manitoba Government Employees Union for seven years.

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Upon his election, he was appointed Minister of Urban Aaffairs. After the 1990 provincial election, he became leader of the opposition and spent many years working alongside a majority Progressive Conservative government led by Gary Filmon. In 1999, Doer defeated Filmon and was sworn in as premier on October 5. What follows is an excerpt from

“Research allows me to have a greater understanding of an issue and all the depths and complexities of that issue when making decisions. Research also means, for me, the knowledge economy and the creation of new knowledge. It provides potential solutions to the challenges we face in any number of ways. In terms of the economic impact of research, I would like to see it go from papers to patents to products. I rely on research every day: in question period and to inform my speaking points and to develop policy options for future government action. In terms of the broader community, beyond the political means, I find research crucial to improvements in our healthcare system. I find it crucial to the development of new food products and crucial in terms of developing clean energy. Right now, when we are trying to improve water quality, research is very important particularly on projects such as Devil’s Lake (that we are opposed to). As we speak, we are dealing with research that is going on at a furious pace to take the H1N1 outbreak and move it to a vaccine and a cure. The Manitoba Innovation Council is a prime example of how a group of experts outside the bureaucracy and government, can inform on where spending and investments should go and how that should be

a conversation with Gary Doer: prioritized. Secondly, it informs how tax structures can work more effectively to make sure research can move to products. And, thirdly, it will allow a more independent view of where Manitoba is competitive in the sense of retaining qualified people and where it needs to become more competitive. People on the street can relate to research that touches them in some way. Diseases like polio, where research provided a direct benefit in the development of a vaccine. This affected quality of life and life itself for millions of people around the world. I think people can see the direct application of research in things like the invention by Baldur Stefansson of canola, formerly known as rapeseed, and the impact this has had for the diets of people around the world, to say nothing of the impact on the livelihoods of farmers. Our next generation of scientists, the young people of today, astound me both in terms of the quality of the work they are producing and in terms of the sophistication of these young people. Manitoba was recognized recently, in the area of bioscience, to have the highest growth in bioscience and biotechnology, on a per capita basis, in the last five years, than any other province in Canada. I am very proud of that. Having partners that are part of our knowledge economy

is very important. I think it provides a tremendous ability to have a cluster of research knowledge and scientists that will continue to allow growth in the private sector research and product development. Manitoba is very well positioned and is a bit of a hidden secret in terms of what it means to other provinces and the U.S. An aspect of research that I find fascinating is in the area of what I call the “battle of researchers” or rather, the debate between people that inform policies. To observe the debate among the research experts on whether we should reduce or eliminate nitrogen from waste water was fascinating. Everybody agreed with the research on phosphorous being removed, but there was a debate about nitrogen in lakes. Other parts of the country are working to remove it from rivers and lakes and the question was whether we should follow suit. It was personally fascinating to me to watch and observe the debate both publicly and privately about what was best for us to do. As a result, we took a second look at our own research to make sure that research in place five or six years ago for licensing decisions was still current.” ■

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FEATURE

By Sean Moore

BY SEAN MOORE

building better

Tamara Nathaniel

BRIDGES

It was 1952 when Aftab Mufti, a 12-year-old boy living in Karachi, Pakistan, began building bridges. His mother planted a vegetable garden that summer and to help her water it Aftab and his older brother Mehtab cut a trench connecting their backyard pond to the plot. But the gully often ran dry so the boys took shifts sloshing water down it with their only bucket. 11 ResearchLIFE | SUMMER 2009

(l-r) Aftab Mutfi, ISIS president; Evangeline Murison, ISIS resource centre manager; Chad Glowak, ISIS research engineer

The idle boy, bored, gathered nearby stones, sticks and mud and built a bridge that his brother then tried to ruin with floods. Back and forth they went, days on end, building and destroying bridges. Aftab studied his design faults and continually improved them. Years later he acted on his father’s encouragement and pursued a career in civil engineering. He is now the president of ISIS Canada, a group of 150 researchers from 15 Canadian universities responsible for paradigm shifts in civil engineering research. Meanwhile in Switzerland, when Mufti was playing in his backyard, Urs Meier was spending his summers with his grandma who went to elementary school with the famous structural engineer Othmar Ammann, and instead of reading bedtime stories to Meier she would tell him tales of Ammann, showing him pictures of the Ammann’s bridges. Fascinated by this world, he decided to study at the same university Ammann did—Polytechnikum in Zurich. Years later, after studying in American laboratories, he returned home in 1988 with an idea that got Mufti’s attention: using new materials called fiber reinforced polymers (FRPs), he wanted to build a bridge across the Strait of Gibraltar using only a single span 8.4 kilometers in length. (Conventional methods limit a bridge span to 4 kilometers.) “That really put so much interest in our thinking that we went to talk with him. He was on the right track,” Mufti said. “You see, he was saying these new materials would last for a long time, inside and outside of concrete. So we were very interested. First of all it was fascinating, but we wanted to know how he was using this material and how Canada could move into this new way of doing things. And that was the start of ISIS.” ISIS—the Intelligent Sensing for Innovative Structures Canada Research

Network—has always been headquartered at the University of Manitoba, and since 2000 Mufti has sat at its helm. Upon returning from Zurich, Mufti asked the Canadian Society for Civil Engineering to form a technical committee on advanced composite materials for use in bridges and structures. They agreed and appointed him as its chair. The committee matured and in 1995 it became ISIS Canada Research Network, joining the ranks of the federally funded Networks of Centres of Excellence. Such centres are funded a maximum of 14 years, and this year ISIS reached its expiration date. So, what has it accomplished, and how will it take to the future? Twenty years ago no Canadian studied the use of FRPs for civil structures. Today, more than 200 researchers work in this field. What is now ISIS has been involved with at least 150 projects using these materials, the first being Beddington Bridge in Calgary in 1993, and it still performs beautifully. “I guess ten years ago any project in Canada that used FRP would have the ISIS logo attached to it,” said Doug Thomson, an electrical and computer engineer at the University of Manitoba and a future cochair of the ISIS Canada resource centre. “And now, I suppose as a measure of its impact, that’s not true. The vast majority of things go on without any ISIS involve-

ment, which means that the technology has moved from being a research kind of proof-of-principle thing to going out there and being part of the normal toolbox for people to use in structures.” Indeed, over the years ISIS has developed eight design manuals and actively worked on national code committees. One of the national codes (S6-06) deals with the work of Dagmar Svecova, an associate professor of civil engineering at the University of Manitoba and the other future co-chair of ISIS. She studies ways to rehabilitate timber bridges, which Manitoba has hundreds of, and now people from across Canada call her to learn more. “What we are promoting right now is you take a router and you make a groove in the tensile side of the timbers—the stringers—and you put epoxy in it then FRP bars and voila. It can even be done while there is still traffic on the bridge.” Some of these bridges are part of the 60 demonstration projects ISIS currently uses to convince the construction industry, which is conservative by its nature, to adopt these new technologies. Cultures though are slow to change, but they do change; in a 2005 impact survey, 90 per cent of the 160 respondents said they would continue using ISIS technologies. To further this proliferation, ISIS produced nine education modules now used

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FEATURE “Ideas never stop. You come up with an idea, implement it, and people improve. So ISIS started them but others have picked them up and taken them further.” in the classrooms of 52 countries, and it has trained 650 students. The ISIS logo appears on 2,500 technical papers (journal and conference), five patents and five international agreements. What really impresses outsiders, though, is the collaboration it leads—150 researchers from 15 universities. At a conference in Zurich last summer Meier listened to four American colleagues marvel at ISIS’s ability to collaborate. “They were surprised,” Meier said. “But for me they confirmed what I observed 20 years ago.” •••••••• The ancient Egyptian goddess Isis was married to Osiris and they were held in special esteem. They brought civilization to mankind; they invented new crafts and they devised ways of practicing something useful and previously unknown. Whereas Meier studied cables, ISIS examined rebars. You see, the steel rods common inside concrete decks (the bridge part your tires touch) have incompatible flexibility compared to the concrete and this unharmonious marriage ultimately results in cracks, then corrosion, then costly repairs. A solution is to take the steel out of the deck and instead use it under the deck to connect the girders. This idea won Mufti the P.L. Pratley Award in 1993 for publishing the best paper on bridge design as judged by the Canadian Society for Civil Engineering. He took the idea further and in 2007 again won the Pratley Award for suggesting a deck consisting of nothing but glass fiber reinforced polymer (GFRP), which is light and 10 times stronger than steel. Since nothing in this bridge corrodes, mathematics suggests it could last for 100 years, far beyond the current 10 to 40 years. When ISIS first proposed using GFRP rods as rebar, Meier was skeptical of the chemistry—alkali environments like concrete erode glass’ integrity. But after smothering GFRP in concrete and

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exposing it to the environment for nine years, they took a core sample and found the glass in excellent shape. “There is no doubt ISIS is world-leading in this field now,” Meier said. “I would say they have been leaders for eight or ten years. And you know, it’s frustrating for me to say that because we were once number one.” As the new experts on these materials it’s suiting that they received federal funding in August 2008 to act as a technical resource centre, helping others design and repair structures using FRPs and GFRPs. But ISIS wants to act as more than just a resource centre. You see, if these new bridges consist of non-corroding materials, how do you spot a frail bridge? Sensors. ISIS coined the term “civionics” to refer to the sensors they developed to monitor a structure’s health. The sensors come in two general forms: wired and wireless. The wired variety provides continuous information about the structure’s health and any ailment gets immediately noticed. It’s been likened to a traffic light. Without sensors, bridge inspections give either a green light (everything is fine), or a red light (the bridge failed, close it). The wired sensors provide that helpful amber—a warning of faults needing attention. And the wireless sensor, which Thomson studies, can, after cheap and easy installation, provide baseline data snapshots. Thomson likens them to a guitar. By strumming strings you can gauge the instrument’s condition. The same idea applies to these sensors, which detect displacement; when a bridge part moves, it alters the shape of the sensor, which affects its tone when it gets a pulse—an electromagnetic strum if you will. If a part of the bridge is out of whack, the “song” will tell. Canada has limited records on the matter, but in the US about 20,000 bridges are considered structurally deficient, meaning they cannot carry loads they were designed to. Of those 20,000, Thomson said only 40 are on the list because of testing. The rest are there because of visual

inspection and calculations. But if you can test a bridge and confidently say its operating life is five years longer than assumed, that saves millions of dollars per bridge in unnecessary repairs. “In the U.S. alone, if you use very conservative numbers, the value of putting sensors on bridges for service life extension is worth at least ten billion dollars, at least ten billion you’ll save in unnecessary repairs. That number is easy to support,” Thomson said. Nevertheless, sensors have not been widely adopted yet. Mufti, though, reckons this will change as ISIS graduates percolate through the field. “I think the greatest legacy ISIS will leave behind will be the 650 highly qualified personnel because these people are ISIS children and they will start applying these ideas all throughout the engineering areas. And you couldn’t ask for a better outcome than that,” he said. Within Canada, ISIS is a leader in monitoring. It already monitors structures around Manitoba and it has the expertise to provide this service nationally. Indeed, ISIS hopes its new role will be as a national centre for structural health monitoring. Just as British Columbia has TRIUMF, the national laboratory for nuclear and particle physics, and Alberta has the National Institute for Nanotechnology, one day, perhaps, Manitoba will have its own national centre based out of ISIS, one that monitors Canada’s infrastructure. And by watching a structure perform, not only do you save on repairs, but engineers can access data that allows them to improve designs and materials. “Ideas never stop. You come up with an idea, implement it, and people improve. So ISIS started them but others have picked them up and taken them further,” Mufti said. “No single person comes out with an idea that has never been done before. Lots of people think about it, but some do it in a way that makes them succeed.” ■

Tamara Nathaniel

BOOKS

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HOT OFF THE PRESSES

WIDOWS OF HAMILTON HOUSE (Great Plains Publications) Christina Penner • computer science

AFTER RUTH MOVES INTO a suite in Winnipeg’s Hamilton House she discovers that world-famous seances were hosted in the building in the 1920s, led by Dr. Hamilton and his wife Lillian. Ruth, against the wishes of her conservative Mennonite family, delves into the house’s uncanny history and develops a fascination with the Hamilton family and the house they have both lived in. Ruth also falls in love with a medical student, Lon. When a tragedy befalls Lon, his mother Naomi moves into the Hamilton House to be closer to Ruth. Their search to understand loss and love transgresses social rules and brings the women together in unexpected ways.

WHAT’S LAW GOT TO DO WITH IT? (Cormorant Books) Edited by Jane Ursel • sociology Leslie M. Tutty (Univ. of Calgary) and Janice leMaistre

IN THE PAST TWO DECADES, public awareness of domestic violence has increased dramatically, and established institutions have been called upon to alter their practices and improve their response to domestic violence. What’s Law Got To Do With It? examines changes in the Canadian justice system

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Recent books by University of Manitoba faculty members

from the introduction of protection order legislation, to family law, to changes in criminal court procedures. From the Yukon to downtown Toronto, specialized domestic violence courts are exploring new strategies to aid victims and hold perpetrators accountable. In What’s Law Got To Do With It? we learn from the perspective of prosecutors, victims, and researchers of the efficacy of these changes. The authors present recent, original research on the impact of specialized courts, the utilization of protection orders, and questions about custody in family violence cases.

MEDIA, MEMORY, AND THE FIRST WORLD WAR (McGill-Queen’s University Press) David Williams • English

WHY DOES THE GREAT WAR seem part of modern memory when its rituals of mourning and remembrance were traditional, romantic, even classical? In this highly original history of memory, David Williams shows how classic Great War literature, including work by Remarque, Owen, Sassoon, and Harrison, was symptomatic of a cultural crisis brought on by the advent of cinema. He argues that images from Geoffrey Malins’ hugely popular war film The Battle of the Somme (1916) collapsed social, temporal, and spatial boundaries, giving film a new cultural legitimacy, while the appearance of writings based on cinematic forms of

remembering marked a crucial transition from a verbal to a visual culture. By contrast, today’s digital media are laying the ground for a return to Homeric memory, whether in History Television, the digital Memory Project, or the interactive war museum. Of interest to historians, classicists, media and digital theorists, literary scholars, museologists, and archivists, Media, Memory, and the First World War is a comparative study that shows how the dominant mode of communication in a popular culture—from oral traditions to digital media—shapes the structure of memory within that culture.

WOMAN CANCER SEX (Hygeia Media) Anne Katz • nursing

SEXUALITY AFTER A DIAGNOSIS OF CANCER is a real issue for women and their partners. In her new book, Woman Cancer Sex, Dr. Anne Katz explains the changes that many women with cancer experience and offers practical and compassionate advice on how to handle these changes. Each chapter describes the experience of a woman with a particular kind of cancer and a variety of related problems, including loss of libido, physical pain, body image issues, depression, and struggles communicating with a partner.

Dr. Katz tackles this sensitive and often unspoken topic in several ways —detailing the physical aspect of sexuality—“how things work,” highlighting the different feelings a woman might have during her experience, and, finally, presenting strategies women can really use in their daily life, including drugs and other therapies, tips on communicating, exercises, and more. There is also information specifically for the partner, so you’ll want to share this book. Women survive their cancer and move on with their lives. While the memory of the cancer experience fades over time, most women are left with unresolved sexual issues. Sexuality is an important part of life, and this book gives you the information and advice you need to reclaim a healthy sex life after the challenges of cancer.

ECONOMIC ASSISTANCE AND THE NORTHERN IRELAND CONFLICT: BUILDING THE PEACE DIVIDEND (Fairleigh Dickinson University Press) Sean Byrne • graduate studies

THIS STUDY EXPLORES IMAGES OF ECONOMIC assistance to explain the importance of tailoring such assistance to the distinctive social needs of the targeted communities, and how third parties must consider and include local perspectives in their attempts to build a lasting peace. The book makes an important contribution to our understanding of how economic assistance impacts a divided society with a history of protracted violence.

MATHEMATICAL MODELLING IN ANIMAL NUTRITION (CAB International) Edited by James France (Univ. of Guelph) and Ermias Kebreab • animal science

MATHEMATICAL MODELING IS INCREASINGLY APPLICABLE to the practical sciences. Here, mathematical approaches are applied to the study of mechanisms of digestion and metabolism in primary animal species. Farmed animals—ruminants, pigs, poultry and fish are comprehensively covered, as well as sections on companion animals. Common themes between species, such as energy and amino acid metabolism, are explored with a worldwide approach. Leading researchers from around the world have contributed to France and Kebreab’s volume to provide an integrated approach to mathematical modelling in animal nutrition.

DIVINE ACTION AND NATURAL SELECTION: SCIENCE, FAITH AND EVOLUTION Edited by Joseph Seckbach (Hebrew Univ. of Jerusalem) and Richard Gordon • radiology

THE DEBATE BETWEEN DIVINE ACTION, or faith, and natural selection, or science, is garnering tremendous interest. This book ventures well beyond the usual, contrasting American Protestant and atheistic points of view, and also includes the perspectives of Jews, Muslims, and Roman Catholics. It contains arguments from the various proponents of intelligent design, creationism, and Darwinism, and also covers the sensitive issue of how to incorporate evolution into the secondary school biology curriculum. Comprising

contributions from prominent, awardwinning authors, the book also contains dialogs following each chapter to provide extra stimulus to the readers and a full picture of this “hot” topic, which delves into the fundamentals of science and religion.

QUALITATIVE RESEARCH: CHALLENGING THE ORTHODOXIES IN STANDARD ACADEMIC DISCOURSE(S) (Routledge Education) Sandra Kouritzin, Nathalie Piquemal • education and Renee Norman (Univ. of the Fraser Valley)

EVOCATIVE AND PROVOCATIVE, THIS BOOK PRES ENTS the points of view of (often junior) scholars in the social sciences who used non-standard methods or writing practices to challenge the “research-as-usual” paradigm in the academy, while at the same time meeting the demands of quality and rigor set by their university examining committees and ethical review boards. The intent is to encourage new researchers who are also considering such a path. The authors discuss their lived personal experiences within and against traditional academic research and writing traditions, as well as their struggles and eventual successes. Chapters are written in dramatic form, in dialogue, in story, and include poetry, vignettes, testimonials and autobiographical accounts. Collectively, they form a unique, distinctive situated polyphonic case study of research in the social sciences from several perspectives, challenging the orthodoxies. ■

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IDEAS TO INNOVATION (l-r) George Zhanel, Frank Schweizer, Odd Bres, Garold Breit

A league of their own BY SEAN MOORE

“We’re a very active technology transfer office. In fact, we’ve been known to “work the halls, knocking on doors, because we don’t want to miss a promising technology. We feel a duty, a responsibility, to look at every emerging discovery. We can’t live with the notion that someone will, ‘Gee, I should have patented that,’ ” Garold Breit, executive director of the University’s Technology Transfer Office, said. TTO is the University of Manitoba’s equivalent of a talent scout. They find a budding technology, wrap it in competetent patent protection, set up research collaborations to advance the idea, and then woo industry partners in hopes of bringing about commercialization. Since 2006, TTO has hosted representatives from 64 European and North American companies and managed 200 new invention disclosures, making it one of Canada’s most successful intellectual asset programs—ahead of schools like Queen’s University and the University of Toronto. “One of the big things we do is we identify potential early on,” Odd Bres, a TTO technology manager, said. “We pick up new technologies from a very early stage because we know how many steps it takes, and we try to understand the larger implications of the work, what sort of things it can apply to.” Since 2005, TTO has invested $1.2 million worth of Intellectual Property Mobilization (IPM) grants to nurture ideas brimming with potential. Recently they gave $30,000 in IPM money to chemistry’s Frank Schweizer and medical microbiology’s George Zhanel; they are developing a new class of antimicrobial drugs. With this money, Schweizer retrofitted aminoglycosides (a sugar-based antibiotic that’s been around since 1944) with peptides using a tricky process called click chemistry. Zhanel then tested these drugs in in vitro tests against the most virulent superbugs he received from North American hospitals. The results were hopeful and they applied for, and received, the highly

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Tamara Nathaniel

SPOTTING TALENT HAS BECOME A POPULAR PASTIME WITH TELEVISION shows like American Idol, Dancing with the Stars, and Britain’s Got Talent. Sporting scouts have long competed to find the next quarterback or goalie sensation and race tracks swell with people trying to predict winners. And science, too, has talent scouts.

competitive Proof-of-Principle grant awarded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research. “Odd was the link we needed,” Zhanel said. “He wrote an entire section of the grant that asked about how we planned on commercializing our idea. It was not something a researcher could write.” With this $150,000 grant they will run in vivo tests using the most active and least toxic molecules. If the results show promise, drug companies will surely notice. “The idea is so early no one will buy into it,” Breit said. “But we give it some money and some expertise and some legal protection, and it starts looking like a race car. And then we move it on down and all of a sudden we have a Ferrari driving down the road in terms of technology.” Schweizer said, “as a young professor all I cared about was publishing articles, but now, after dealing with the TTO, I am much more cautious about my research’s implications and now I’ll take things to Odd and see if he thinks I should file a provisional patent. I can do the science part, but once it comes to claims, the TTO makes sure everything is perfect and that no idea went overlooked in terms of protecting it, because you never know what small thing could turn out to be a big thing down the road.” ■

Have you ever tried to learn a new language? Not an easy task at any age, but it does seem that as we age it becomes harder for us to do. Why is this so tough for adults and yet children and even infants can acquire languages much more readily than adults?

FEATURE

BABY LANGUAGE

BEYOND THE BABBLE BY JENNIFER ROBINSON SUMMER 2009 | ResearchLIFE 18

FEATURE “Children all over the world seem to learn it easily even without formal instruction, yet it is difficult for an adult to learn a new language.”

Tamara Nathaniel

The answers lie in the Baby Language Lab headed up by psychology professor Melanie Soderstrom. It is not a coincidence that the well-spoken Soderstrom studies how infants learn to speak their first language and what infants know about the grammar of their language. Soderstrom says she “got hooked” on the study of infant language development during her undergraduate years at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) where she worked in the laboratories of Dr. Ken Wexler and the famous linguist Dr. Steven Pinker (author of The Blank Slate and The Language Instinct).

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“There is so much left to learn about the early days of grammatical development—for instance, how does the system get started?”

WHAT IS “THE SYSTEM?” A grammatical system consists of all the rules that govern the use of words in a language. While we are often unable to articulate these rules explicitly (in fact professional linguists are still working on this), we have an intuitive sense of what is grammatically correct and what is not. For example, we know that it is incorrect

to say “Sam dined the pizza,” but correct to say “Sam dined,” even though we are probably unaware of the rule: “intransitive verbs cannot take a direct object.” Soderstrom’s research tries to uncover how babies aged 6 to 24 months come to learn which phrases are correct and which are not without having any explicit knowledge of the underlying rules in a language. “Language development is one of the toughest mysteries for psychologists,” says Uliana Nevzorova, a third-year psychology student and research assistant in Soderstrom’s lab. “Children all over the world seem to learn it easily even without formal instruction, yet it is difficult for an adult to learn a new language.” Soderstrom’s research suggests that infants bring a variety of perceptual abilities to the task of learning grammar. One such aptitude involves infants’ ability to pick up on the acoustical properties—or prosody—of the language to which they are exposed. Although we may not be aware of it in our everyday conversation, the prosodic characteristics of grammatical word sequences (such as their fluency, pitch, melody and intonation) are different from the prosodic characteristics of ungrammatical word sequences. In other words, a grammatical phrase just “sounds different” from an ungrammatical one. That is how babies begin to figure out which words go together to build phrases in their language. “Young infants may be even more sensitive to the prosodic characteristics of language, since they are less likely to be distracted by the meanings of the words they are hearing,” Soderstrom speculates. Study participants Reneé Gamache-Fisher with baby Genevieve

Tamara Nathaniel

Research assistant Uliana Nevzorova

THE GRAMMAR OF BABY TALK Soderstrom points out that while “we know a lot about how grammar develops later on, we actually know very little about the nature of infants’ early grammatical representations.” One of the reasons for this lack of knowledge has to do with technological and methodological limitations that have been overcome in the last decade or so. Previously, scientists had to wait until children could actually speak before they could examine what these kids knew about grammar. This meant that the children studied were usually over two years old. With recently developed techniques and technologies, researchers are now able to examine grammatical knowledge in infants before they are even able to speak. One such technique is called the Headturn Preference Procedure, which is simply a way to measure the amount of time that an infant pays attention to a particular stimulus. If infants show an attentional bias to a certain type of stimulus (e.g. a grammatical phrase) but not to

another (e.g. an ungrammatical phrase), this indicates that they are able to make a distinction between these two types of stimuli, and therefore tells us something about how they may acquire their knowledge of grammar. Furthermore, if they prefer wellformed phrases to ill-formed ones, this may mean that infants are able to pay attention to stimuli which will help them learn their language, and to ignore stimuli which would be detrimental to language learning. Currently, methodology such as Soderstrom’s cannot be used to detect abnormalities in language development. “Unfortunately, this research is still in its infancy—if I can use that term,” she laughs. Given that early detection is so crucial for the treatment of developmental delays, methodologies that don’t rely on speech production, and could therefore assess younger infants, could prove to be extremely beneficial for those at risk of developing language impairments. “We are definitely headed in that direction,” she smiles optimistically. While the practical applications of this research are

still being developed, the lab’s positive reputation among mothers, infants, and research assistants makes this goal seem imminently plausible. Uliana summarizes this sentiment: “Working at the lab has been a rewarding experience for me,” she says. “Working with infants and their parents is fun, and no one leaves without a toy or a book, and a smile.” Renee Gamache-Fisher and her daughter Genevieve (nine months old at the time) participated in a study designed to examine infant grammatical knowledge. “We were in the office for a total of about fifteen minutes! I can’t imagine enough substantial data was collected in that time,” Renee mused. Actually, this is a typical time allotment for data collection, as infants easily get bored or cranky. Genevieve sat on Renee’s lap and heard audio recordings of various phrases while measurements were taken with respect to how long she paid attention to each stimulus. Renee listened to music through a headset to avoid unconsciously influencing the responses of her daughter. “I really liked

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Tamara Nathaniel

Researcher Melanie Soderstrom

participating and helping with the study, and I would definitely take part in future experiments,” Renee said. Using these new methodologies and techniques, Soderstrom has been able to show that infants as young as 6 months old are sensitive to prosodic characteristics of different types of phrases. These infants were able to tell when a sequence of words like “design telephones” belonged together versus when they just happened to coincide. For example, in the phrase “inventive people design telephones at home” the verb phrase word sequence “design telephones” belongs together. In the phrase “the director of design telephones her boss,” the word sequence “design telephones” does not

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belong together, but merely coincides— the technical term for this is a syntactic non-unit. Infants not only distinguish these two types of utterances, but show a preference for the verb phrase, indicating that they may use their sensitivities to attend to stimuli which are the most beneficial for language learning (as the verb phrase is more well-formed than the syntactic non-unit).

NATURE VS NURTURE Some theorists argue that infants are only able to learn language because they have an innate predisposition to do so. In other words, children are born with cognitive mechanisms that enhance their

ability to learn a language. Famously, the linguist Noam Chomsky argued in favour of this position, pointing out that adults often speak to infants in ungrammatical and poorly formed language. Thus, infants would be unable to learn language if this was all they had to go on. In a recent paper in Developmental Science, Soderstrom questions this “nativist” reliance on nature over nurture. While noting that both genetics and the environment contribute to language development, she points to evidence showing that adults tend to behave in ways that improve the language that babies hear. For instance, adults often speak to infants in short, deliberate, and simplified utterances with exaggerated gestures, facial expressions and intonation. “I think most people agree at this point that the environment and innate characteristics are both important and are very intertwined,” Soderstrom says diplomatically. “It’s in how this process plays out that all the work has yet to be done. My research helps to show that infants have learned some pretty sophisticated things about their language at a very early age, which might tend to argue toward a more nativist position. At the same time, there is no question that powerful sensitivities to regularities in the input they receive play a very important role in getting them there.” Scientists are still a long way from understanding the mechanisms involved in infant language development and the ways in which both nature and nurture contribute to this process. However, new technologies, keen laboratory assistants and willing experimental participants have helped to illuminate parts of the process and will be indispensible along the road ahead. The presence of these essentials in Soderstrom’s laboratory coupled with her own discerning intellect and motivation bodes well for the future of research in infant language development at the University of Manitoba. ■

Viewpoint The boundaries that divide us BY ANDREA SIGNORELLI

LEGAL RESEARCH IS CERTAINLY CHALLENGING,

especially nowadays, where the world changes so rapidly and requires always innovative answers to new situations. At the Faculty of Law here at the University of Manitoba, I found myself in a very exciting environment, where everyone has been really helpful, considering the difficulties that any international student may encounter. My experience as a graduate student is absolutely positive; I have the chance to deepen the theoretical aspects of the problems, something that is not often possible in legal practice. I believe that through the application of international law rules it shall be possible to find more effective ways to really extend a concept of environmental protection and help build a new path to solve transboundary controversies involving water resources. My research analyzes the legal rules applied to the management of transboundary watercourses. Particular attention is given to the development of international law, with a review of customary international rules, relevant international agreements and different legal doctrines applying in the field. In addition, I am carrying out an analysis of treaties concluded between Canada and the United States in the management of shared watercourses, with particular reference to the Boundary Waters Treaty and the work of the International Joint Commission (the commission created to regulate transboundary water concerns).

An important part of my study illustrates the situation of the Red River Basin and in particular a recent threat coming from the south. In the 1990’s a closed basin in North Dakota, Devils Lake, started to increase its size due to significant precipitation, causing frequent and devastating flooding. North Dakota decided to build an outlet to divert the excess water. With the outlet operating, this water flows north to Canada creating concern in Manitoba because of poor water quality in Devils Lake and the risk of foreign biota transferring to the province’s lakes and rivers. Manitoba is prevented from claiming directly under the Boundary Waters Treaty and the remedies of the U.S. legal system were of little assistance. In addition, the lack of direct enforcement of international law rules prevented the International Joint Commission from playing an active role in the dispute. Through all areas of my research, particular attention has been paid to environmental issues. International law has, in fact, developed some important principles involving the use of watercourses and the environmental effects resulting from that use. One of my purposes is to give a detailed picture of the evolution of the relevant principles in this field, showing how more effective regulations of environmental issues and a review of international treaties and conventions may be necessary to govern disputes concerning North America international waterways. ■

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SPOTLIGHT ON STUDENTS

Tamara Nathaniel

JENNILEE BERNIER agricultural and food sciences GRADUATE STUDENT JENNILEE BERNIER is researching ways to reduce methane (a greenhouse gas emitted by cattle) by changing the diet of beef cattle to more

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optimally meet protein needs. She is also investigating if beef cattle produce less methane during cold winter months than in the summer and fall. The agriculture industry is seeking ways to reduce production costs and at the same time find new ways to improve environmental sustainability. Therefore, if these emissions can be reduced it will improve the sustainability of beef cattle production. Also, Jennilee’s research is evaluating if the diet changes will help decrease nutrient excretion (pollution) into the ground and water. The feed modifications that Jennilee is making include the use of Dried Distillers Grain with Solubles (DDGS). DDGS is a co-product of the dry-grind ethanol industry; leftovers from making ethanol. As a result, this is a relatively new feed ingredient available to the beef cattle industry and there is little known about its use with cattle on highforage diets (grazing). This research may potentially support the new technology of the ethanol industry and the goal to utilize ethanol to attain a more sustainable environment by reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

Tamara Nathaniel

SHOWCASING STUDENT RESEARCH DARYL FEDIUK pharmacy DARYL IS A PHD CANDIDATE in the Faculty of Pharmacy. Working as part of Xiaochen Gu’s laboratory team, his research focuses on the toxicological profiles of the insect repellent DEET and the sunscreen oxybenzone. Gu’s team has discovered a synergistic topical absorption of both compounds, which raises concerns about the benefit/risk balance of these widely used consumer products. Daryl’s research is specifically focused on evaluating potential adverse effects from concurrent DEET and oxybenzone use in a validated animal model. As a graduate student, Daryl has received numerous awards for his academic and research successes. In the summer of 2008, he was selected by the Association of Faculties of Pharmacy of Canada (AFPC) to present his research in Chicago, where he won the Best Research Poster Award despite heavy competition amongst his peers. His future plans involve pioneering a career in the pharmaceutical industry as a clinical scientist.

he third annual Science, Engineering and Technology (SET) Day took place on Friday, February 20, 2009, at the University of Manitoba. This year more than 250 grade 11 and 12 high school students and their teachers participated. The day gives students an opportunity to see what the future may hold for them in the many fields of research conducted at the University of Manitoba. As part of the day’s events, students were challenged to enter the SET Day Essay Competition, to tell us about their perceptions of the day. Please enjoy reading the winning essay titled “Inspiring the Future of the Scientific Quest,” penned by Mr. Justin Kozak, a grade 12 student at St. John’s-Ravenscourt School.

INSPIRING THE FUTURE OF THE SCIENTIFIC QUEST BY JUSTIN KOZAK

SINCE SCIENCE IS THE NEVERENDING QUEST for knowledge and truth about our universe, its future holds a wealth of undiscovered possibilities and their applications to the world. Experiencing the University of Manitoba’s Science, Engineering and Technology Day 2009 stimulated my interest in these exciting fields of study with compelling insight into their potentially life-changing implications. As one of the many high school students and teachers from across the province and beyond taking part in this event, I witnessed engaging presentations by leading experts in their cutting-edge fields in science and engineering. Just as their research is shaping the face of science today, my own generation will follow in their footsteps tomorrow. While SET Day identified the significance of current areas of research and the possibilities of the future, it also demonstrated the processes that make these innovations possible. My experience left me with a higher appreciation for the diversity of scientific and technological research and forced me to consider how I could contribute to the fields that interest me. The five lectures, ranging in focus from climate change and environmental degradation to the future of intelligent robots, were all relevant to current scientific hotbeds in research and predictive of their impending benefits to society. Presentations like Dr. Nazim Cicek’s Biofuels of Today and Tomorrow also described the extensive world-class research conducted by faculty and students at the University of Manitoba.

Barry Panas

The presenters took topics generally thought of as boring to most high school students and presented them in interesting new lights that signified their importance to modern research. Although I usually thought of math as tedious practice, the Mathemagics lecture helped me understand its profound importance in studying any specialty. As a prospective life sciences student at university, I was able to understand how mathematics plays a key role in biological research while predicting trends in a population. The general impact of information presented at SET Day emphasized the limitless ways that I could make a difference in the realm of life sciences, whether it involves the search for more effective cancer treatments or the protection of an endangered species. During his lecture Origins of Remembering and Forgetting, Dr. Jason Leboe summed up the theme of SET Day when he stated, “I was told that I should think about what my field is going to look like in 25 years. I have no idea. That’s a long time.” The uncertainty of what current research may lead to in the future made me realize the range of possibilities in any given career choice; a profession is only ‘dead-end’ if you fail to push its boundaries. My experience at SET Day not only left me wondering, ‘Where will science and engineering be in 25 years?’ but more importantly, ‘What might I be doing in the fields of science and engineering in 25 years?’ This spark of curiosity is always the first ingredient to any step in the quest to better understanding our world. SET Day is hosted by the Office of the Vice-President (Research), and sponsored by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC); the Province of Manitoba’s Department of Science, Technology, Energy and Mines; Manitoba Hydro; the Association of Professional Engineers and Geologists of Manitoba (APEGM); and NSERC Prairies Office. ■ SUMMER 2009 | ResearchLIFE 24

“THE MOST IMPORTANT PRACTICAL LESSON THAT CAN BE GIVEN TO NURSES IS TO TEACH THEM WHAT TO OBSERVE.” ~FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE

RECIPE FOR

CHANGE BY JANINE HARASYMCHUK

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The practice of nursing has changed significantly in the century that has passed since the death of Florence Nightingale. Nightingale is remembered for reducing death rates in the Crimea battlefield hospitals of 1855 by an astonishing 40 per cent. How? By observing, analyzing, and hypothesizing about what changes might reduce the death rates. Then, she put her conclusions into practice. In other words—Nightingale was the first, or at least the most famous, nurse researcher to use evidence in her nursing practice to improve patient outcomes. “Knowledge translation…is the exchange, synthesis and ethically-sound application of knowledge within a complex system of relationships among researchers and users.” – Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) As a Distinguished Professor in nursing, Lesley Degner is focusing her attention on knowledge translation in a similar effort to improve patient outcomes. Degner has worn many hats in her career. Her journey was set on its way with a Bachelor of Nursing degree from the University of Manitoba in 1969. She went on to her first position as a general duty nurse at the Winnipeg Health Sciences Centre (HSC). And, she has never looked back. She describes her nursing research career in phases or parts: the first part being in the area of cancer nursing and

psychosocial oncology. Her focus in this area was on how to facilitate communication between cancer patients and oncologists, health professionals and nurses, and symptom management in palliative care. The second phase was research which looked at ways to improve care for lung cancer patients, a population of patients who have the most severe cancer-related symptoms. Never one to be satisfied with the status quo Degner made up her mind to go back to her roots in clinical practice and the HSC. “I needed a sand box to play in,” jokes Degner. From her early days as a bedside nurse, Degner was very much interested in how to move knowledge into practice. Serendipity intervened. A study conducted in the United Kingdom had found that improving a nurses’ work life decreased the number of sick days nurses took. This piqued Degner’s curiosity and that of John Horne, then Chief Operating Officer at the HSC. Degner conducted a pilot study, one day a week, following nurses on one medical and one surgical unit. “You’re sort of like an anthropologist in the field: you are reading, thinking, observing, analyzing, making notes. In the process of data gathering, I realized that there was no cognitive space for nurses to

keep up to date with changes in practice standards and yet the whole onus is on the nurse to do this,” said Degner. Organizational change—or intervention—was needed. “I presented after six months and said if you really want to make a difference, we have to think about it in the context of who is responsible for knowledge translation and practice? The individual or the organization? My sense is that it’s a joint obligation,” says Degner. “The question is what should the organization be doing? I think you should be providing nurses with a special place where they have cognitive space and have them spend time there— paid time—to actually bring knowledge, as part of their job, to their practice, to improve patient outcomes.”

NURSING KNOWLEDGE TRANSLATION HSC launched the Nursing Knowledge Translation (KT) Research Project in 2006. Phase I involved the use of online surveys of nurses’ perception of their nursing work life and how they used research in their daily practice. The survey was limited to the HSC clinical nursing programs’ in-patient units (adult medicine, mental health, surgery) and is managed by Shellie Anderson, B.N., at the HSC.

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Tamara Nathaniel

Researcher Lesley Degner

“This was my first experience working with research,” says Anderson . “As a nurse in the B.N. program I was trained in research methods and how to critically apply research itself and recognize its importance, but seeing how it can move practice forward is a challenge for nurses. Nursing is very task oriented. Changing the culture so that taking time to stop and learn new knowledge needs to be a priority. This project is moving things in that direction.” Nurses have been filling out a series of surveys, and the questions relate to how often and in what ways they use research knowledge to assess and plan patient care. How do you get a busy nurse to fill out a detailed survey like this one? Using a social network theory is the approach taken by Degner (see diagram). It involves taking the current social network and deliberately rewiring it. Anderson says, “At first, it was challenging. But, there exists a very strong social network among nurses. Because I belong to this network, it was easier for me to solicit involvement from the nurses and adapt the approach we were using to fit their time constraints for filling out the surveys.” How to move evidence-based knowledge into clinical practice is being explored in a number of settings around the world. A study published in the British Medical Journal in 2004 by John Gabbay, found that “clinicians rarely accessed and used explicit evidence from research or other sources directly, but relied on ‘mindlines’—collectively reinforced, internalized, tacit guidelines.” These mindlines came about “through a range of informal interactions in fluid ‘communities of practice,’ resulting in socially constructed ‘knowledge in practice.’ ”

WHAT IS A MINDLINE AND HOW DO YOU CHANGE IT? Mindlines, in the context of nursing practice, are the steps a nurse goes through

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(l) Diagram of social network theory; (below) Helga Bryant and Shellie Anderson

Tamara Nathaniell

The first network is full ordered, with each element being connected to its four nearest neighbours. The second network comes about through a little re-wiring, with a handful of new links in between pairs of elements chosen entirely at random.

Source: Buchanan, M. (2002), Nexus: Small Worlds and The Groundbreaking Theory of Networks. New York: Norton.

in completing a task related to patient care. When research shows that certain changes in practice can result in better outcomes for patients, practice guidelines are then changed to reflect this new evidence. Experience has taught us that simply issuing new practice guidelines does not change practice. This is where the mindlines enter into the equation. Degner has found an interesting analogy to explain what a mindline is “I have a recipe for Osso Bucco. I began making it some ten years ago. I have made it many, many times. I have refined the recipe, and the steps that I go through in preparing it, so that I don’t need to refer to the recipe anymore or think about the next step in the recipe. I can do it well, fast, everybody tells me how wonderful it is, so I get all the warm and fuzzy feelings of reward. From a psychomotor standpoint I can do it almost blindfolded. The way I make my Osso Bucco is my mindline.” Degner had a friend who invited her to a book signing a couple of years ago for an Italian chef ’s new cookbook. She went

to the book signing and the chef had a recipe in the book for Osso Bucco: a recipe that she claimed was the “best” recipe for Osso Bucco. Degner bought a copy of the cookbook. Did she try the recipe? “Absolutely not!” she laughs. “I have no reason to believe that her recipe is better than mine. The way I do my recipe is a mindline, not just intellectual, but psychomotor and emotional. The new recipe is a guideline. The challenge is, how are you going to get me to try this new recipe? I presented this concept at a workshop recently and no one could figure out how to get me to try the recipe and I haven’t. This challenge is the same for getting nurses to adopt new evidence-based practice guidelines. In this case, however, the answer is this project and the planned Phase II of the project, the Nursing Knowledge Translation Centre.”

NURSING KNOWLEDGE TRANSLATION CENTRE The next phase of the nursing KT project is the Nursing Knowledge Translation

Centre which will promote interaction among nurses who would not normally interact and extend their current networks. The Nursing KT Centre would be a physical space within the HSC to assist nurses in identifing their pre-existing mindlines before examining research evidence. This is important to do for many reasons. In a large study of over 10,000 nurses in Pennsylvania in 2008, Linda Aiken found that better practice environments for nurses reduced patient deaths, regardless of nurse staffing and education. With the full support of the HSC administration, and an advocate in the form of chief nursing officer Helga Bryant, Degner is preparing a grant proposal to the Canadian Institutes of Health Research this summer to make the centre a reality. “I look at how far we’ve come in the last hundred years and think how much farther can we go? We should be able to accelerate this into the future for the health of Canadians, with a little help from CIHR and others. It’s a recipe for success,” says Degner. ■

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CREATIVE WORKS Miss Lyndsay Ladobruk performing The Plastic Housewife

Mandy Hyatt

plastic women 29 ResearchLIFE | SUMMER 2009

International Women’s Day was celebrated with a statement about the role of the housewife. Fourth year fine arts student Lyndsay Ladobruk performed her 36-hour endurance ritual piece at the Winnipeg Art Gallery, as part of the “She Works Hard…” exhibition. The exhibition brings together images of women in the act of working and examples of women’s art, revealing various connections between the art, artists, identities, and cultures presented by considering alternate narratives and re-examining the role of intent in terms of the work of women.

(l-r) Örjan Sandred with Allen Harrington practicing the Yamaha WX5 Wind Controller for the world premiere.

LABYRINTHS IN THE WIND MUSIC IS A FORM OF COMMUNI CATION with a multitude of methods,

styles and permeations. How the listener interprets the music is a very individual and personal experience. Creating music is an artistic pursuit that requires skill and inspiration. Inspiration is something that composer/professor Örjan Sandred finds in all sorts of places. Sandred is director of the new StudioFLAT research studio in the Marcel A. Desaultels Faculty of Music. “The objective of my research is to create my own music,” says Sandred. And, that, he has done. In the fall of 2008, the opening concert of the new StudioFLAT research studio was marked by the world premiere of The Golden Spike. This piece was composed

specially for this concert by Sandred and was inspired by the strong relationship Winnipeg has with trains. Computer Assisted Composition (CAC) is the means by which Sandred composes music. CAC goes beyond the basic use of computers that allow composers to develop aural models of performed music recordings. It takes on the role of composer’s assistant by solving basic tasks based on the composer’s instructions. “Now, I am focusing my work on computer science related issues,” says Sandred. “I am developing a “search engine” that is specially designed for the type of data structures music needs. This will allow me to use a computer to assemble music scores according to rules that I formalize. I have been

Heidi Friesen

“Lyndsay Ladobruk is a smart, dynamic and fearless woman,” says Mary Reid, WAG Curator of Contemporary Art and Photography. “In her work, she tackles issues head on, exploiting her own physical endurance as a means to reinforce the power of her message.” In the artist’s description of her piece, she states that housewives have been, in one form or another, powerful societal icons, and yet, more radical feminists often portray women in those roles as weak; the victims of a patriarchal system. She also states “that women who identify themselves as housewives are beginning to demean their roles as wives and mothers, as well, with the result that a younger generation of women are striving to be superwomen, to raise families and maintain powerful careers.” Ladobruk questions whether the idea of a superwoman is possible or have women become slaves to this idea in the same way that women of the ‘50s strove to be perfect wives and mothers—The Plastic Housewife? What sacrifices do women make in order to do it all? “I had many conversations during tours, where women of upper-class groups did not understand the oppression of the housewife in today’s home-life setting,” said Ladobruk. “They said to me, ‘This fight has already been won and it’s not like that in my house.’ Yet, women who were working class or low income could completely identify with this struggle of the housewife.”

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CREATIVE WORKS

Excerpted from the poem Icarus by Swedish poet Erik Lindegren (Source: Google Books, translated from the Swedish by John Matthias and Göran Printz-Påhlson)

working on this (and used it in my music) for years already, but I think I am making significant progress right now.” This summer a new studio room is being added to Studio FLAT. This along with the purchase of new equipment will provide new possibilities in the area of CAC research. A prolific and well-known composer, Sandred was commissioned by the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra (WSO) and The Manitoba Arts Council to compose a piece of orchestral music for the WSO 2009 New Music Festival. Labyrinths in the Wind, for wind controller and symphony orchestra, was premiered on February 6, 2009 at the Manitoba Centennial Concert Hall.

31 ResearchLIFE | SUMMER 2009

Innovation, the Manitoba Research and Innovation Fund, the UofM Research Investment Fund (comprised of investments made during the Building on Strengths Campaign by Power Corporation of Canada, Investors Group, and The Great-West Life Assurance Company). To learn more about Örjan Sandred’s music and research, visit www.sandred.com

Paul Hess

Aaron Siverson

And how all cleavings which have cried out always for their bridges in his breast slowly shut like eyelids, and how the birds swept past like shuttles, like arrows and finally the last lark brushing his hand falling like song.”

Saxophonist/professor Allen Harrington was featured on the wind controller, a woodwind instrument that lets the performer control any sound that can come out of a loudspeaker. “It is up to the performer or composer to invent a sound for the instrument to use,” says Sandred. “My goal for this piece was to have the wind controller act as a physical wind instrument, but with a timbre and force that is different from the sounds that acoustic instruments produce.” To do this, Sandred analyzed the timbres of different pitches and nuances of an alto saxophone and then transformed them. The wind controller detects the performer’s airflow and fingering and sends that information to a computer that generates the sound that Sandred designed. Research in the field of computer assisted compositions as well as experiments in interactive computer music are natural complements to traditional concepts in instrumental and vocal music composition. Studio FLAT provides the facilities where these experiments and research are possible. Studio FLAT is made possible with funding from the Canada Foundation for

Paul Hess

“Icarus His memories of the labyrinth go numb with sleep. The single memory: how the calls and confusion rose until at last they swung him up from the earth.

SCHOOL OF ART OPEN HOUSE THE SCHOOL OF ART opens its doors annually to family, friends and the general public to view art produced by students in all classes and levels. School of Art open house photos: (top) Thesis Studio of Carlos Chavez, (below) First year ceramics studio, (opposite) Yong Shao, Basic Design

Marla Clarke Donna Jones

April. The exhibition occupied two buildings and included works by undergraduate and graduate students in architecture, landscape architecture, interior design, city planning and environmental design. Students started off the festivities with an evening of two fashion shows. How to build an extension for the human body using materials such as chicken wire, paper-machĂŠ and other materials was the theme for the designs modelled. The evening provided an opportunity for the public, parents and media to see the models, designs and prototypes developed by students over the course of their year of study. â&#x2013; Ashley Jull

All areas, including drawing, painting, sculpture, ceramics, printmaking, photography, video, graphic design and Gallery One One One, showed work created by students during the past academic year.

Architecture open house photos: (top) landscape architecture installation, (below right) studio work, (below corner) pussy willows in courtyard installation, (below left) studio exhibit in landscape architecture

BUDDING ARCHITECTS OPEN THEIR DOORS

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Marla Clarke

Ashley Jull

FACULTY OF ARCHITECTURE students held their annual extravaganza showcasing their work for all to see in

ON THE HORIZON

2009/10

Bringing Research to Life SPEAKER SERIES

The Office of the Vice-President (Research) sponsors and presents a free public speaker series titled Bringing Research to Life. This series is designed to introduce the general public to the talented people who make up the research community at the University of Manitoba.

MODELLING OF DISEASE SPREAD

This year the speaker series takes place in Room 290, Education Building at 71 Currie Place (right behind Max Bell Centre) with free parking available in P Lot.

ABORIGINAL GOVERNANCE

Abba Gumel October 21, 2009 – 7:00 PM

Kiera Ladner November 18, 2009 – 7:00 PM

MANAGING TALENT IN TOUGH TIMES

Krista Uggerslev January 20, 2010 – 7:00 PM

For additional information on the speaker topics and more dates, go to umanitoba.ca/research/brtl.html.

The first three speaker series topics and dates are:

2009 DELTA MARSH FIELD STATION PHOTO CONTEST

umanitoba.ca/research 33 ResearchLIFE | SUMMER 2009

Every year, students, staff, volunteers and visitors to the Delta Marsh Field Station enter their photos of Delta Marsh Field Station in the annual photo contest. Photos should be digital, with a limit of 2 photographs in each of 6 categories: flora (plants), fauna (animals), nature close-up, landscape, artistic, and users’ choice. Digital enhancement (e.g. cropping, color alteration) is permitted only in the ‘artistic’ category. The winner in the first five categories receives a $50 gift certificate. In the final category, the winner receives the “Posteriority Award.” The overall winner’s photograph is featured on the Field Station’s 2009 Christmas card. Entry deadline is August 17, 2009 at 9:00 PM and submissions must be made on a public computer located in the Kipichiwin Building at the Field Station. The Delta Marsh Field Station was established in 1966 as a research and teaching facility of the Faculty of Science at the University of Manitoba. It is located on the south shore of Lake Manitoba and borders Delta Marsh. It is one of the largest lacustrine marshes in North America. The property is part of a designated game-bird refuge and wildlife protection area, most of which was designated in 1987 as an ecologically significant area. The Field Station was built in 1932 on the estate of noted athlete and businessman Donald H. Bain. For more information on Delta Marsh Field Station visit: umanitoba.ca/science/delta_marsh

CENTRES AND INSTITUTES

JUST THE FACTS

Research centres, institutes and shared facilities promote the exchange of ideas and provide collaborative research environments that stimulate multidisciplinary research and development. They also afford novel training opportunities for students and are valuable resources for the community at large. The university’s current research centres, institutes and facilities include: • Aerospace Materials Engineering Facility • Applied Electromagnetics Facility • Canadian Centre for Agri-food Research in Health and Medicine (with St. Boniface General Hospital and Agriculture and Agri-food Canada) • Canadian Wheat Board Centre for Grain Storage Research • Centre for Aboriginal Health Research (with Health Sciences Centre) • Centre for Architectural Structures and Technology (C.A.S.T.) • Centre for Defence and Security Studies • Centre for Earth Observation Science (CEOS) • Centre for Globalization and Cultural Studies • Centre for Hellenic Civilization • Centre for Higher Education Research and Development (CHERD) • Centre for Human Models of Disease • Centre for Professional and Applied Ethics • Centre for the Research and Treatment of Atherosclerosis • Centre on Aging

RICHARDSON CENTRE FOR FUNCTIONAL FOODS AND NUTRACEUTICALS

The Richardson Centre for Functional Foods and Nutraceuticals, located in Smartpark Research and Technology Park, focuses on discussion, discovery, and development of functional foods and nutraceuticals, from crops of the Canadian Prairies.

• Crystallography and Mineralogy Research Facility • Digital Image Analysis Facility • Great-West Life Manitoba Breast Cancer Research and Diagnosis Centre (with CancerCare Manitoba) • Health, Leisure and Human Performance Research Institute • Institute of Cardiovascular Sciences (with St. Boniface General Hospital) • Institute for the Humanities • Institute of Industrial Mathematical Sciences • Internet Innovation Centre • Legal Research Institute • Manitoba Centre for Health Policy • Manitoba Centre for Proteomics and Systems Biology (with Health Sciences Centre) • Manitoba Institute of Cell Biology (with CancerCare Manitoba) • Manitoba Centre for Nursing and Health Research (MCNHR) • Manitoba Regional Materials and Surface Characterization Facility • Manitoba Research Data Centre • Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) Facility • RESOLVE (Prairie Research Network on Family Violence) • Richardson Centre for Functional Foods and Nutraceuticals (RCFFN) • Spinal Cord Research Centre • Transport Institute • Winnipeg Institute for Theoretical Physics (with University of Winnipeg) • W.R. McQuade Structural Engineering Laboratory

HEALTH, LEISURE AND HUMAN PERFORMANCE RESEARCH INSTITUTE

The Health, Leisure and Human Performance Research Institute facilitates interdisciplinary research in the broad areas of human movement and leisure studies, which contribute to an enhanced understanding of health and human performance.

CENTRE FOR GLOBALIZATION AND CULTURAL STUDIES

The Centre for Globalization and Cultural Studies provides a venue for pulling together disciplinary and interdisciplinary research in the fields of globalization and cultural studies.

SUMMER 2009 | ResearchLIFE 34

(above) Northern Saw Whet Owl by Heidi den Haan. Submission in 2008 Delta Marsh Field Station photo contest (see page 33). In the photo, this owl is being banded as part of a study of migratory habits. (left) Activities at the station by Stacy Hnatiuk.