The announcement of the recipients of more than 760 grants to power new research initiatives was delivered Monday by Greg Rickford, federal minister of state (science and technology).

鈥淪SHRC鈥檚 investment provides a foundation for our researchers in the social sciences and humanities to conduct cutting-edge fundamental research that identifies and applies solutions to some of the most pressing problems facing society today,鈥� said Robert Hach茅 (left), 91亚色鈥檚 vice-president research & innovation. 鈥淩esearch at 91亚色 is research with an impact and research that makes a difference.鈥�

Thirty-seven 91亚色 researchers received more than $5.5 million to fund their research projects through SSHRC鈥檚 Insight Grants and Insight Development Grants programs.

The funding was granted for research covering a wide range of topics, including:

• Schools, safety and the urban neighborhood;
• Riots in the Maghreb: A socio-anthropological contribution of dissenting voices;
• From norm takers to norm shakers and makers? A comparative study of tax transplants in China and India;
• Wrestling with tradition: community, authority and change in law and religion;
• Multimedia and transmedia texts, cultural change and youth readers; and
• Transitioning from a fossil(ized) to a bio-based economy: A case study of biofuels in the Canadian Context.

鈥淭his investment in social sciences and humanities research is a cornerstone to building Canada鈥檚 capacity for innovation,鈥� said Chad Gaffield, president of SSHRC. 鈥淭hrough the Insight Grants and Insight Development Grants, we are supporting the highest levels of research excellence. This research will generate knowledge about the past and present that will lead to innovative solutions for today鈥檚 most pressing social, cultural, technological, environmental and economic issues, and improve the lives of Canadians.鈥�

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The grants, part of $6.3 million in funding and awards invested across the country, will support over 95 research projects to improve Canadians鈥� quality of life, while addressing important socio-cultural and economic issues.

鈥�91亚色 continues to build on and strengthen its commitment to community engagement,鈥� said Robert Hach茅 (right), 91亚色鈥檚 vice-president research & innovation. 鈥�91亚色鈥檚 researchers continue to share and co-create knowledge with the broader community, as exemplified by the success of our researchers in the receipt of funding for engaged scholarship through SSHRC鈥檚 Public Outreach grants program and the work of our researchers and Knowledge Mobilization Unit in further developing community-academic partnerships.鈥�

Researchers from 91亚色 include:

Sheila Cavanagh, a professor in the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies (LA&PS) Department of Sociology and coordinator of the Sexuality Studies program in the School of Gender, Sexuality and Women鈥檚 Studies, received $102,117 in funding to professionally stage a research-based theatrical production titled Queer Bathroom Monologues, at Buddies in Bad Times Theatre, and to curate an accompanying research-based art exhibition. The objective of this project is to enable multi-layered conversation and networking between partners in support of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) advocacy, and proactive policy and educational programming in the Ministry of Education to combat LGBT bullying in Ontario high schools. The Queer Bathroom Monologues are based on interviews with LGBT interviewees published in Cavanagh鈥檚 book, Queering Bathrooms: Gender, Sexuality, and the Hygienic Imagination (2010).

Professor Mark Winfield, program coordinator of the Master of Environmental Studies/Juris Doctor joint program in the Faculty of Environmental Studies and co-chair of the Faculty's Sustainable Energy Initiative (SEI), received $86,000 in funding to mobilize the knowledge developed through the initiative in order to support the development and deployment of sustainable energy technologies in Ontario and elsewhere in Canada. The project activities will include an SEI Sustainable Energy Policy Seminar Series employing virtual and live formats and the development of social media tools to engage students, staff, faculty and聽private sector, non-profit and municipal聽audiences聽around sustainable energy technologies and strategies.

Paul Lovejoy, Distinguished Research Professor and Canada Research Chair in African Diaspora History in the Department of History (LA&PS) and director of the Harriet Tubman Institute for Research on the Global Migrations of African Peoples, received $132,442 in funding to enhance public understanding of, and appreciation for, the crucial role played by African Canadians during the War of 1812. He will work with Caitlin Fisher, professor and Canada Research Chair in Digital Culture in the Faculty of Fine Arts Department of Film, Michele Johnson, associate professor in the Department of History (LA&PS), and Murray Wickett, chair of history, Brock University, on this project. The project is administered by Naomi Norquay, associate professor, Faculty of Education, and Karolyn Smardz Frost, Senior Research Fellow at the Harriet Tubman Institute and Visiting Bicentennial Professor in Canadian Studies, Yale University, for the coming year. The project builds on a workshop organized by the Tubman Institute, in collaboration with the History Department at Brock University, and is titled: We Stand on Guard for Thee: The African Canadian Experience in the War of 1812, which was held at Brock. This project will develop a series of concurrent public and educator-engagement sessions and be delivered using cutting-edge digital technology.

Sean Kheraj, assistant professor, Department of History (LA&PS) received $36,795 in funding to facilitate the mobilization of Canadian environmental history scholarship to a wider audience by creating and disseminating audio podcasts that feature interviews, round-table discussions and lectures on topics in Canadian environmental history that are relevant to key contemporary environmental issues in Canada. He will work with two project partners, Canada鈥檚 History magazine and the Network in Canadian History and Environment (NiCHE), on this project, in order to reach environmental groups, educators, and public policymakers.

Faculty of Education Professor Stephen Gaetz received $141,798 in funding to invest in knowledge mobilization focused on income and housing vulnerability. He will be collaborating and working with co-applicants Daniele Zanotti, CEO, United Way of 91亚色 Region (UWYR), David Phipps, director, Research Services & Knowledge Exchange, and Michaela Hynie, professor in the Department of Psychology and the Program Evaluation Unit in the 91亚色 Institute for Health Research on this project. Building on their five year knowledge mobilization partnership, 91亚色 and UWYR will implement a community-campus knowledge mobilization strategy based on best practices so that 91亚色 housing and income vulnerability research and expertise is accessible to community partners. For more information on this project, visit the .

Gary Goodyear, minister of state for science & technology, announced the investments in research that will help build a better understanding of important societal issues.

鈥淥ur Government鈥檚 top priority is the economy: jobs, growth and long-term prosperity. To remain at the forefront of the global economy, our government is investing in the people and ideas that will produce tomorrow鈥檚 breakthroughs,鈥� said Goodyear. 鈥淭he mobilization of knowledge leads to a more robust economy and helps develop new opportunities for economic growth while strengthening Canada鈥檚 research advantage.鈥�

鈥淜nowledge-sharing among multi-sectoral partners is essential to innovation and to building the expertise needed for Canada鈥檚 future,鈥� said Chad Gaffield, president of SSHRC. 鈥淭hese Public Outreach Grants enable the flow and exchange of knowledge across campuses and the private, public and not-for-profit sectors, which, in turn, produces benefits for Canadians.鈥�

For more information about the projects, please visit the website.

Republished courtesy of YFile鈥� 91亚色鈥檚 daily e-bulletin

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Using an animal model, the study鈥檚 researchers found that the motor performance and muscle endurance of mice with ALS improved when they were given higher than normal doses of vitamin D.

鈥淲e are the only group in Canada that is looking at the connection between dietary interventions and the effects on the ALS model,鈥� says 91亚色 kinesiology Professor Mazen Hamadeh (left)聽of the University鈥檚 Muscle Health Research Centre in the Faculty of Health. Hamadeh supervised the research led by 91亚色 master of science degree students Jesse Solomon and Alexandro Gianforcaro in the School of Kinesiology & Health Science.

The researchers conducted three different studies looking at different amounts of vitamin D. The first looked at the effects of 10 times the adequate intake of vitamin D on the ALS animal model 鈥� the equivalent of 8,000 IU/day in humans. Results showed an improvement in both motor performance and endurance, but no change to disease outcomes, such as onset, progression or lifespan.

鈥淲e followed up with another study because we thought we didn鈥檛 give high enough amounts of vitamin D,鈥� says Hamadeh. In the second study, the amount of vitamin D was increased to 50 times the suggested adequate intake amount or the equivalent of 40,000 IU per day in humans. Again, there was definite improvement in functional outcomes, but not in disease outcomes, confirming the findings of the first study, he says.

The researchers then thought that perhaps the recommended adequate intake amount of vitamin D was set too high and there was already an overabundance of vitamin D being administered. That led to a third study where only one fortieth of the recommended adequate intake amount was administered using the animal model, which induced a vitamin D deficiency. This study was published in PLoS ONE, an international online peer-reviewed journal, on Dec. 27.

This third study produced some interesting results, says Hamadeh. When vitamin D deficiency was induced before disease onset, disease severity was reduced, but after disease onset, it was worse. 鈥淪o at very low levels there is something happening in the cell that is causing them to function better only for a little bit of time, only until disease onset, than they progress regularly,鈥� he says.

The key now is to find out what molecular changes are occurring in the muscle, spinal cord and brain when vitamin D is administered, and that is what Hamadeh and his students are currently working on.

鈥淎LS is the most common motor neuron disease and up until now there is no cure for it. It is also a fast-progressing disease. Between diagnosis and death, there are usually two to five years. We are trying to see whether by modulating the diet, by changing the diet, we can influence not only when the disease starts, but how fast it progresses and whether it can affect lifespan,鈥� says Hamadeh.

鈥淭o find a dietary intervention that could influence a fast-paced disease after diagnosis of the disease, meaning after some irreversible damage has happened, means this particular nutrient has to be very powerful to either halt or slow the pace of the disease.鈥�

The model Hamadeh works with suffers from heightened oxidative stress, a state of increased levels of free radicals or oxidants that are produced naturally inside the cell during normal functioning and metabolism. There is an association between oxidative stress and chronic, metabolic, autoimmune, neurodegenerative and neuromuscular diseases, including ALS, Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, obesity, hypertension, Alzheimer鈥檚, Parkinson鈥檚 and multiple sclerosis.

Hamadeh hopes his research and that of his students will help not only ALS, but many other similar diseases that share common mechanisms with ALS.

By Sandra McLean, YFile writer

Republished courtesy of YFile鈥� 91亚色鈥檚 daily e-bulletin.

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This spring, Raphael聽released a second updated and expanded edition featuring the聽latest figures on poverty, and聽a new, hefty chapter critiquing all federal and provincial anti-poverty programs.听And he clarified, in the final chapter, what people can do to stem聽growing poverty in Canada, the fourth wealthiest nation on the planet. Rob Rainer, executive director of Canada Without Poverty, wrote the foreword.听

鈥淵ou are holding in your hands the single most valuable reference on poverty in Canada, a book whose dog-eared copy sits prominently on the bookshelf in my office,鈥� Rainer began, referring to the first edition of Poverty and Policy in Canada (see YFile, May 15, 2007). Valuable, he stressed, for its breadth, its provocative questions, its lists of resources 鈥� and because of the person behind this work.听

Raphael, notes Rainer, 鈥渉as encyclopedic knowledge about poverty in Canada. He has developed this from making the study of poverty central to his life鈥檚 work. But unlike some academics who are content to study and publish鈥aphael goes beyond publishing to be a scholar (uncommonly) determined to be and unafraid of speaking truth to power."

Raphael wrote the original book聽to meet a need for a textbook in a third-year course he聽teaches聽on poverty and health in聽91亚色's School of Health聽Policy & Management.听

The book聽explores the links between poverty,聽policy, health and quality of life for Canadians.听Raphael argues, writes聽Rainer,聽that聽unless Canadian governments take steps to reduce the inequities between the rich and poor, "we can expect poverty and its devastating impact and cost to be a virtually permanent fixture of our society."

In the book鈥檚 new chapter, "Anti-Poverty Strategies and Programs", Raphael assesses 鈥渁 bewildering array鈥� of more than 70 so-called anti-poverty programs, from swimming lessons and drop-in centres, to housing and health services, and concludes that most, however well-intended, lack impact. Quebec and Newfoundland offer more effective programs than the other provinces, says Raphael, but poverty can only be eliminated by raising the minimum wage, offering benefits to temporary and part-time workers, and raising social assistance and disability benefits to health-sustaining levels, among other things.听Making it easier for Canadians to form unions is also very important, says Raphael.

Left: Dennis Raphael

What is the future of poverty in Canada, asks Raphael in his final chapter. That depends on the will and influence of political parties to introduce poverty-reducing policies, such as the proposed national child-care program, he argues. 鈥淐onservative dominance should lead to little if any decline in child poverty rates and 鈥� due to greater implementation of market-oriented rather than equity-based policies 鈥� may increase these rates,鈥� he says. Finally, he says, voting for聽left-leaning parties that advocate social reform would go a long way towards reducing poverty in Canada.

Poverty in Canada: Implications for Health and Quality of Life is published by .听

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