Natural Sciences & Engineering Research Council of Canada Archives | Research & Innovation

Researcher awarded prestigious Banting Fellowship comes to 91��ɫ

muellerm — Tue, 23 Oct 2012 08:00:00 +0000

Nielson Bezerra, who received his PhD at Universidade Federal de Fluminense in Brazil in 2010 and now teaches at Universidade Federal Rural do Rio de Janeiro, has been awarded a prestigious Banting Postdoctoral Fellowship to pursue his research program at 91��ɫ’s Harriet Tubman Institute.

The awards were announced by Gary Goodyear, minister of state for science & technology, Thursday, Sept. 13. Bezerra will receive $140,000 in research funding over two years.

Nielson Bezerra

Bezarra’s research project, Liberated African Slaves in Brazil in the Nineteenth Century, examines patterns of forced migration of enslaved Africans to the Americas after the British and North American abolition of the slave trade.�� The research focuses on the 100,000 enslaved Africans who were destined for Brazil, but were removed from slave ships by the British Royal Navy after 1820 and declared “Liberated Africans”.

The individuals taken off these ships provide a representative sample of the migration to Brazil in this period. They will be studied for the purposes of revealing the broader pattern in determining where people came from in Africa and what happened to them in the Americas. Bezerra has published four books and is a member of the Board of Directors of Museu Vivo do São Bento in Duque de Caxias.

"The Banting Postdoctoral Fellowships are Canada's most prestigious awards for postdoctoral researchers," said Goodyear. "These internationally competitive awards allow our country to retain and attract some of the best and brightest researchers in the world, thereby building Canada's economic and competitive edge."

91��ɫ’s Vice-President Research & Innovation, Robert Haché, said, “We are most pleased to have Dr. Nielson Bezarra pursue his research program at 91��ɫ. The Banting Fellowship program leverages an opportunity to attract, retain and recognize exceptional postdoctoral researchers and support them early in their careers.”

As a post-doctoral fellow at 91��ɫ, Bezerra will be supervised by Professor Paul Lovejoy, Distinguished Research Professor, Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, Canada Research Chair in African Diaspora History and director of the Harriet Tubman Institute for Research on the Global Migrations of African Peoples. Bezerra joins a research team that is digitizing and analyzing documentation on Liberated Africans in Sierra Leone, Angola, Cuba, and elsewhere, besides Brazil.

The purpose of the Banting Postdoctoral Fellowships is to build world-class research capacity by recruiting top-tier Canadian and international postdoctoral researchers at an internationally competitive level of funding. Seventy fellowships are awarded yearly through the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the Natural Sciences & Engineering Research Council of Canada and the Social Sciences & Humanities Research Council of Canada.

Republished courtesy of YFile– 91��ɫ’s daily e-bulletin to research stories on the research website.

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91��ɫ U researchers find genetic remix key to evolution of bee behaviour

muellerm — Wed, 17 Oct 2012 08:00:00 +0000

Worker bees have become a highly skilled and specialized work force because the genes that determine their behaviour are shuffled frequently, helping natural selection to build a better bee, research from 91��ɫ suggests.

The��study, published yesterday in the , sheds light on how worker bees – who are sterile – evolved charismatic and cooperative behaviours such as nursing young bees, collecting food for the colony, defending it against intruders and dancing to communicate the location of profitable flowers to nestmates.

California high desert honey bees pollinating a yellow beavertail cactus flower. Photo: Jesse Eastland, Wikimedia Commons

When 91��ɫ researchers examined the honey bee genome, they discovered that the genes associated with worker behaviour were found in areas of the genome that have the highest rate of recombination. Recombination represents a shuffling of the genetic deck: recombination in the ovaries of a queen shuffles the chromosomes she inherited from her parents. As a result, the queen’s female offspring are likely to inherit mosaic chromosomes with different combinations of mutations, says 91��ɫ biology Professor Amro Zayed, whose lab conducted the research.

Recombination allows natural selection to act on specific mutations without regard to neighbouring mutations.

91��ɫ biology Professor Amro Zayed

“If I’m a good rower in a dragon boat with 49 poor rowers, I am going to lose all of my races. ��But if teams were shuffled after every race, I’ll likely have a better chance of winning. I may even get to be in a boat with 49 good rowers just like myself,” says Zayed. “The same thing happens with mutations on a chromosome. ��Recombination makes the evolutionary fate of mutations independent of their surrounding neighbours, which enhances the process of natural selection.”.

The team believes that they have solved one of the mysteries of the honey bee’s genome, says postdoctoral research associate Clement Kent, lead author on the study.

“The honey bee has the highest rates of recombination in animals – ten times higher than humans. ��Our study shows that this high degree of genetic shuffling has turned on the evolutionary faucet in parts of the bee genome responsible for orchestrating worker behaviour,” says Kent. ��“This can allow natural selection to increase the fitness of honey bee colonies, which live or die based on how well their workers ‘behave’.”

The study, “Recombination is associated with the evolution of genome structure and worker behavior in honey bees” was coauthored by Kent, Zayed, and graduate students Shermineh Minaei and Brock Harpur. The research was funded by the and the Province of Ontario.

Republished courtesy of YFile– 91��ɫ’s daily e-bulletin.

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VPRI reviews new Tri-Agency Framework

fmaquito — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 10:00:00 +0000

Vice-President Research & Innovation Robert Haché’s series of topical commentaries on areas of critical interest to the 91��ɫ research community continues with a review of the Tri-Agency Framework: Responsible Conduct of Research (RCR).

The Social Sciences & Humanities Research Council of Canada, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and the Natural Sciences & Engineering Research Council of Canada officially launched the new ��on Dec. 5.��

The new framework builds on previous research integrity policies and procedures related to applying for and managing agency funds, performing research and disseminating results. It outlines the responsibilities of researchers regarding the ethical conduct of research.

Left: Robert Haché, vice-president research & innovation

“The intent of this new framework is to enhance research integrity,” said Haché. “It is important for the 91��ɫ community to recognize this framework and their responsibilities with respect to their research activities.”

Researchers always have been responsible for the rigorous conduct of research, the maintenance of complete and accurate records (research, financial); thorough and accurate referencing; appropriate authorship and acknowledgement of all contributors and contributions to the research; and the proactive management of any real, potential or perceived conflict of interest. With the new framework, there is an increase in the implications and consequences to researchers for even an inadvertent failure to maintain this ethical contract.

Researchers at 91��ɫ are already, by and large, a model of compliance for the ethical conduct of research. Thus, continued adherence to current practices together with an increase in individual vigilance will assure the continued success of researchers’ programs.��

Framework highlights include:

91��ɫ will be required to report all findings of misconduct for fault in the conduct of research,
However, with the new framework, allegations of a serious nature (harm to participants; significant financial breach, etc.) also must now be reported to Tri-Agency
Misconduct is still defined as a breach of ANY Tri-agency policy.��
All applicants will be required to sign a that will allow the agencies (subject to applicable laws, including the Privacy Act, and in cases of a serious breach of agency policy) to publicly disclose the names of researchers and their institutions that seriously breach the RCR guidelines and agency policy.��

For more information about the new framework, contact Alison Collins-Mrakas, senior manager & policy advisor, research ethics, at acollins@yorku.ca. For more information about the policy, click here.

Republished courtesy of YFile– 91��ɫ’s daily e-bulletin.

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Study finds people can see the forest without the trees

fmaquito — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 10:00:00 +0000

When you look at someone’s office, what do you see – the desk, some pens, a computer? Do you know it’s an office because of the objects in it, or by taking in the entire scene? What 91��ɫ psychology Professor Jennifer Steeves and PhD candidate Caitlin Mullin (MA ’08) have found is that it’s not necessary to recognize the objects to identify the scene, in this case an office.

“Your ability to recognize objects and your ability to recognize scenes are independent,” says Steeves.��

Their study is published in the December issue of the Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience – “TMS to the Lateral Occipital Cortex Disrupts Object Processing but Facilitates Scene Processing”.

Left: Psychology Professor Jennifer Steeves applies rTMS stimulation to��PhD candidate Caitlin Mullin. Images of Mullin's brain can be seen on the adjacent screen��

The finding discounts an earlier theory that scene perception relies on the recognition of individual objects and instead finds that the gist of a scene can be ascertained by its spatial layout alone.

Steeves and Mullin conducted two experiments. Both showed that when the ability to see objects is impaired, the brain can still determine what it’s looking at by taking in the scene. But what surprised the researchers is that when object recognition was temporarily knocked out, the ability to categorize scenes, such as distinguishing a forest from a cityscape, increased.

“It’s like you can see the forest better when you can’t see the trees,” says Steeves, who heads up the Perceptual Neuroscience Lab��in 91��ɫ's . “We didn’t expect this at all. The stimulation��must be releasing some inhibitory process in people's brains.”

The experiments involved nine individuals with healthy brains. Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) was applied to the left lateral occipital cortex (LO), the object processing area of the brain just behind each ear, to disrupt object processing. This was done while showing the subjects pictures of scenes and objects.

Right: Jennifer Steeves

The idea was to see how the LO contributed to the perception of scenes. The rTMS momentarily scrambled the neurons in the LO, preventing the subject from recognizing the objects, but they were able to categorize the scenes more quickly and accurately than before. The first experiment involved using a longer disruption time for object processing than that used in the second experiment.

“There was a split second interruption to the brain in the second experiment,” says Steeves. Still, the second experiment confirmed the findings of the first. “It’s a really robust effect. The TMS showed us that even though the two functions are independent, they still work together.”

Steeves and Mullin are now doing research find out what other parts of the brain are affected when rTMS is applied to specific areas. “We’re finding so far that stimulating one region can have an effect on other areas,” says Mullin.

The research is part of the nuts and bolts of mapping the brain, which could have implications down the road in helping people with brain injuries or informing computer modelling. “What’s nice is we’re learning about networks in the brain,” says Steeves. And that is where it all starts.

The experiments were funded through grants from the Canada Foundation for Innovation, the Ontario Research Fund and the Natural Sciences & Engineering Research Council of Canada.

By Sandra McLean, YFile writer

Republished courtesy of YFile– 91��ɫ’s daily e-bulletin.

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Two Glendon professors receive Principal's Research Awards

fmaquito — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 10:00:00 +0000

Two Glendon professors, both accomplished and established scholars in their respective fields, have been awarded the Principal’s��Research Award. Psychology Professor Anne Russon and history Professor Bettina Bradbury received the awards in recognition of their outstanding research accomplishments over the past year. The awards were presented in a recent ceremony to the researchers by Glendon Principal Kenneth McRobert.��

Left: Anne Russon

A leading primatologist, Russon works on the psychological abilities of great apes. She is one of the few researchers who study non-human cognition in the field and she discovered that orangutans are capable of imitation. Russon has disseminated her findings through numerous co-authored papers, book chapters and lectures. Her work has received major research grants from the Indianapolis Zoo, the Leakey Foundation and the Natural Sciences & Engineering Research Council of Canada. Her findings have been widely covered in scientific and popular media. She��has also served as scientific adviser for several foundations, national parks and documentaries.

Right: Bettina Bradbury

A nationally recognized scholar, Bradbury is a leading feminist historian of family. She has recently published Wife to Widow: Lives, Laws and Politic in Nineteenth Century Montreal. This book uses an impressive quantitative methodology and analyzes a wide range of sources to show how Montreal couples opted for diverse forms of “companionate patriarchy” within their marriages, depending on their social class and cultural heritage. ��Bradbury's work is the culmination of years of federally-funded research. Her peers have described her work as “groundbreaking” and as “a fine example of how to get at and illuminate the lives and experiences of ordinary folk.”

The awards ceremony was organized by Glendon Research Services and took place��on Nov. 30.

Republished courtesy of YFile– 91��ɫ’s daily e-bulletin.

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91��ɫ appoints two new associate vice-presidents of research

fmaquito — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 08:00:00 +0000

Robert Haché, 91��ɫ vice-president research & innovation, has appointed��Professors Lisa Philipps and Walter Tholen, as associate vice-presidents research for five-year terms, effective Nov. 1.

“I am delighted that Lisa and Walter have accepted the positions,” said Haché.��“91��ɫ is home to exceptional students, staff and faculty in every discipline. Recognizing our strengths in interdisciplinary and collaborative research, we are developing partnerships and initiatives that will continue to enhance our international research reputation and exploring new ways to showcase the innovative and important work of 91��ɫ’s researchers,” said��Haché. “Our new leadership team is ready to move forward on a new and exciting strategic path to build on our research successes.”

In their new roles,��Philipps and Tholen will provide leadership in promoting strategic research development at 91��ɫ and lead the development of research policy that bridges the needs of researchers and the institution.��They will work with Haché��to intensify the services available for all researchers, track 91��ɫ's research performance more effectively and enlarge the University's collaborative role with external stakeholders and communities.

Right: Lisa Philipps

Philipps (LLM '92), served as associate dean research, graduate studies & institutional relations, at 91��ɫ's Osgoode Hall Law School from��2009 to 2011, and has been on faculty at 91��ɫ since 1996.��Prior to that, she held appointments in the faculties of law at the University of Victoria and the University of British Columbia, and has held visiting professorships at Melbourne Law School, University College London and the University of Toronto, among other institutions.��Her research focuses on tax law, budgets, and feminist legal studies.

Philipps��has participated in several projects funded by the Social Sciences & Humanities Research Council of Canada and has published extensively on topics such as fiscal transparency, tax expenditures, income splitting, gender budgeting, the distributional impact of tax cuts and the tax treatment of unpaid work.��She has provided tax policy expertise to parliamentary committees, women’s groups, public agencies and the media.��She has been active in 91��ɫ's senate and its committees and was a member of the White Paper Implementation Committee on Research Intensification at 91��ɫ.

“91��ɫ has earned international recognition for excellence in research,” said Philipps. “I am looking forward to working with our exceptional researchers, students and staff, as we continue to promote the vast range of cutting-edge and interdisciplinary research projects at the University.”

Tholen, who received his PhD from the University of Münster and his Habilitation four years later from Fernuniversität Hagen, Germany, has held a number of appointments at 91��ɫ.��He has served as associate dean of research and faculty affairs and��interim dean in the Faculty of Science��& Engineering. Tholen was also chair��of the Department of Mathematics��& Statistics.��He has been on faculty since 1983.

Tholen has also been a visiting professor at numerous institutions, including Max Planck Institute in Bonn, ETH Zürich, University of British Columbia, McGill University, University of Sydney, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Georgian Academy of Sciences, University of Coimbra, University of L'Aquila and University of Trieste. His general research interests are in category theory and its applications to algebra, topology and computer science. His research examines the establishment of algebraic and topological facts in arbitrary categories, without recourse to sets. His work is published in some 120 research articles and is supported by the Natural Sciences & Engineering Research Council of Canada.

Right: Walter Tholen

“As the University expands its academic endeavours, this is an exciting time to take on this leadership position at 91��ɫ,” said Tholen.��“I am looking forward to working with my colleagues and the 91��ɫ community to broaden and strengthen the research enterprise at the University.”

Haché��added, “Lisa and Walter’s leadership contribution will be essential as we work towards intensifying research at the University, attracting and retaining the world’s best researchers, and building and strengthening new and existing partnerships with industry, government and community organizations to support new collaborative research projects. I look forward to working with them to advance strategic research initiatives at the University.”

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Professor Amro Zayed explores the genetic basis of honey bee behaviour

fmaquito — Thu, 07 Jul 2011 08:00:00 +0000

What makes a worker bee a good worker? The answer may be both nature and nurture, says 91��ɫ�� Professor Amro Zayed, who is studying the genetic basis of honey bee behaviour to create better bee colonies.

“A colony lives or dies by how well the workers perform, and there is a tremendous amount of variation,” says Zayed. “One colony may be a little bit aggressive but very good for producing honey. Another may be docile and hygienic, and a third may be hygienic but not produce a lot of honey. It’s all about slight differences in genetics between colonies.”

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Zayed, a biology professor in 91��ɫ’s Faculty of Science & Engineering, is leading a team of graduate students in experiments at his research apiary on nearby Toronto Region Conservation Authority land. They conduct behaviour experiments on the bees, examine differences in behaviour between 60 colonies, crossbreed the bees and take their offspring back to the lab for genetic analysis.

“When you look closely at the thousands of bees in one colony, you see that some worker bees are feeding the young larvae, some are going out foraging for nectar, some are cleaning the colony of disease and dead larvae, and some worker bees are watching you, guarding the colony,” says Zayed. “The fascinating part is all of these behaviours are manifested by the same basic DNA. What we are trying to understand is how differences in the DNA or in how genes are turned on and off give rise to these wonderful behaviours.”

Right: Amro Zayed

Observation of bee behaviour is not a new field. However, Zayed's lab is also integrating the study of population genetics (what makes subspecies different at a genetic level) with research on the genome, to study the evolution and genetic mechanisms underlying worker behaviour in honey bee colonies.

“This will help us to breed better bees in the future and will also advance our understanding of the genetics of behaviour in higher organisms, including our own,” he says.

Zayed and his team have recently started an experiment to study the genetic basis of a whole list of behaviours, from the age at which a worker starts foraging to the best immune system for worker honeybees. Zayed’s research is funded by the Natural Sciences & Engineering Research Council of Canada, an Early Researcher Award from the Ontario Ministry of Research & Innovation, and the Canadian Honey Council.

To follow the study,��visit the .

Republished courtesy of YFile– 91��ɫ’s daily e-bulletin.

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