91亚色 in the Media Archives | Research & Innovation /research/tag/york-in-the-media/ Thu, 30 Jan 2025 17:21:27 +0000 en-CA hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.4 Podcast or Perish /research/2022/01/14/podcast-or-perish-2/ Fri, 14 Jan 2022 11:30:14 +0000 /researchdev/2022/01/14/podcast-or-perish-2/ How do neurosurgeons make intraoperative decisions? What have we learned from distance learning during the pandemic? How do we eliminate hazardous contaminants from wastewater? Podcast or Perish is a podcast about academic research and why it matters. Join podcast host Cameron Graham (professor of Accounting at Schulich School of Business) for a special 10-part series […]

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How do neurosurgeons make intraoperative decisions? What have we learned from distance learning during the pandemic? How do we eliminate hazardous contaminants from wastewater?

is a podcast about academic research and why it matters. Join podcast host (professor of Accounting at Schulich School of Business) for a special 10-part series featuring extraordinary researchers and creators at 91亚色 and their innovative methodologies and approaches. A new episode is launched every month.

Podcast or Perish is supported by 91亚色鈥檚 Office of the Vice-President Research & Innovation in partnership with Schulich School of Business.

Episodes:

, of 91亚色鈥檚 Osgoode Hall Law School, holds a Canada Research Chair in Environmental Law & Justice. Her work examines the problematic jurisdictional reality that shapes the transition to a green economy, as Canadian mining companies seek to develop resources on land belonging to the First Nations.

 of 91亚色 studies motherhood from a profoundly feminist perspective. Deconstructing the taken-for-granted, culturally normative image of mothers has led her to publish over 20 books on mothering. Her most recent work explores the inordinate impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on mothers.

, of the Faculty of Education at 91亚色, studies the impact that the core beliefs and values of teachers have on classroom practice. She talks here about the emotional experience of online learning and how this has affected teachers and students during the pandemic.

, Chair of the Department of Dance at 91亚色, is an award-winning filmmaker whose documentaries capture the beauty of motion and the dreams of possibility among dancers in the Philippines. His work is gorgeous and human, with carefully framed images and haunting, evocative soundtracks.

, Canada Research Chair in Supply Chain Management at the Schulich School of Business, is a leading expert on the subject of supply chain disruptions. His research on quality management, mass customization, and supply chain relationships has helped supply managers and public policymakers minimize disruptions.

, of the School of Health Policy & Management in the Faculty of Health, studies the emotional, psychological, and contextual factors that shape how healthcare workers do their jobs. Her research has helped thousands of oncologists and neurosurgeons understand how they process grief and how their emotional connection to patients influences life-or-death decisions that they face every day.

, James and Joanne Love Chair in Environmental Engineering at Lassonde School of Engineering, studies emerging contaminants in wastewater. She creates the techniques to identify new pollutants such as pharmaceutical compounds that are hazardous at extremely low concentrations, and then eliminate them in ways that contribute positively to the ecosystem.

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Feds announce millions for new project: 91亚色 a major partner /research/2012/09/13/feds-announce-millions-for-new-project-york-a-major-partner-2/ Thu, 13 Sep 2012 08:00:00 +0000 /researchdev/2012/09/13/feds-announce-millions-for-new-project-york-a-major-partner-2/ The federal government announced Wednesday at 91亚色 that it would contribute up to $15.5 million dollars through its Technology Development Program to the Connected Health and Wellness Project, of which 91亚色 is a major partner. The Connected Health and Wellness Project is a collaborative project led by a partnership of 91亚色, NexJ Systems […]

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The federal government announced Wednesday at 91亚色 that it would contribute up to $15.5 million dollars through its Technology Development Program to the Connected Health and Wellness Project, of which 91亚色 is a major partner.

The Connected Health and Wellness Project is a collaborative project led by a partnership of 91亚色, NexJ Systems and McMaster University. All together the project includes 16 Ontario private sector, academic and not-for-profit research partners. In addition to the federal funding, the project has leveraged more than $23 million in private-sector investments.

From left, 91亚色 President & Vice-Chancellor Mamdouh Shoukri; Dr. David Price, chair of the Department of Family Medicine聽at the Michael G. DeGroote School of Medicine, McMaster University; Harvey Skinner, dean of 91亚色's Faculty of Health; Gary Goodyear, minister of state for the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario; William M. Tatham, CEO of聽NexJ Systems Inc.; and Mark Adler,聽MP for 91亚色 Centre.聽

This project will involve cloud-based software will allow patients to access and share their health records with their family, friends and care teams, including a health coach, to collaboratively manage their health and wellness. The new profession of health coaches will be trained at 91亚色鈥檚 Faculty of Health. This technology will also allow hospitals, physicians and other healthcare professionals to access and update this information on an ongoing basis.

For example, patients with diabetes will be able to track their biometric measurements, such as meals and exercise, using smartphones and share this information easily with their medical teams.

Gary Goodyear, minister of state for the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario,聽makes a funding annoucement at 91亚色

鈥91亚色 is proud to partner with the government of Canada, industry, academic and healthcare providers to deliver a new people-centred, technology-enabled health and wellness model,鈥 said 91亚色 President & Vice-Chancellor Mamdouh Shoukri at the funding announcement at 91亚色鈥檚 Life Sciences Building. 鈥91亚色's creation of a training program and professional standards for the new health coach profession is a first inCanadato combine multiple skill sets in health promotion, disease prevention and behaviour change that highlight91亚色's breadth and depth in health expertise.鈥

Announced by Gary Goodyear, minister of state for the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario (FedDev Ontario) and Mark Adler,聽MP for 91亚色 Centre, the project is a technology platform containing an integrated suite of compatible technologies and apps designed to improve the health of Canadians.

鈥淥ur Government is committed to helping personalize health care for Canadians,鈥 said Goodyear. 鈥淥ur investment will bring integrated health and wellness solutions to market that will provide Canadians with new solutions to better manage their own health using innovative technology developed in our region.鈥

Harvey Skinner, dean of 91亚色's Faculty of Health at the announcement

Goodyear went on to say that we are at the forefront of the next generation in health care management, which will not only reduce costs of delivering health care to our citizens, but it will improve the health care that they receive and ultimately that is what鈥檚 it鈥檚 all about. He also said that the government鈥檚 investment will help 91亚色 and its partners to undertake a collaborative project that may in fact revolutionize health-care delivery, not only in Canada, but ultimately around the world.

As the amount of people with chronic medical conditions grows, along with the need to manage these conditions, the need for this kind of project is clear.

"The combination of mobile technology, electronic health records and behaviour change supported by a health coach will help more people live healthier, longer, and receive timely access to effective health care when needed. This is the essence of people-centred health,鈥 said Harvey Skinner, dean of聽91亚色's Faculty of Health. "This partnership is an important step forward for transforming and sustaining health-care and wellness systems in Canada and globally.鈥

More than five billion people globally now have access to mobile technology and that presents a huge opportunity to reach out to people in poorer and remote communities, said Skinner.

The project will help create the conditions to make southern Ontario鈥檚 businesses and not-for-profit institutions global leaders in the development and delivery of integrated electronic health-care software. It is also positioning the region as a leader in advancing health coaching, which is intended to help Canada and other countries around the world find new ways to decrease health-care costs.

Mamdouh Shoukri talks with Gary Goodyear following the announcement at 91亚色

Other partners in the project include:

Academic: George Brown College, Seneca College and Centennial College

Industry: RIM; Rogers; Tyze Personal Networks; OSCAR Service Providers; PryLynx Corporation and Trivaris

Healthcare providers: Southlake Regional Health Centre; North 91亚色 General Hospital; Centre for Global eHealth Innovation (University Health Network) and the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center of Harvard Medical School

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

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Toronto Star covers inaugural 3D film conference led by 91亚色 researchers /research/2011/06/13/toronto-star-covers-inaugural-3d-film-conference-led-by-york-researchers-2/ Mon, 13 Jun 2011 08:00:00 +0000 /researchdev/2011/06/13/toronto-star-covers-inaugural-3d-film-conference-led-by-york-researchers-2/ And as the film world continues its rapid transition from traditional 2 D celluloid film to 3 D digital, a weekend conference at the TIFF Bell Lightbox is aimed at boosting the Toronto film community鈥檚 chances of capitalizing on the next wave in film 鈥 3-D, wrote the Toronto Star June 9: The [Toronto International […]

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And as the film world continues its rapid transition from traditional 2 D celluloid film to 3 D digital, a weekend conference at the TIFF Bell Lightbox is aimed at boosting the Toronto film community鈥檚 chances of capitalizing on the next wave in film 鈥 3-D, wrote the :

The [] conference is co-sponsored by 91亚色鈥檚 Faculty of Fine Arts and the 3-D Film Innovation Consortium (3D FLIC), a group of GTA-based film companies.

Ali Kazimi, professor in the University鈥檚 film department, said the three-day event will bring together an 鈥渆clectic mix鈥 of filmmakers, artists, academics and theorists. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a truly interdisciplinary event. We believe it鈥檚 not just a first in Canada, we believe it鈥檚 the first time anywhere in the world that these...fairly disparate groups of people have been brought together to discuss the future of 3-D cinema,鈥 Kazimi said.

鈥淚 think this is going to be a very special event for the city. Our project has really put Toronto on the map because with this incredible sharing of knowledge,鈥 he added.

Until the debut of Avatar in December, 2009, there was little interest in 3-D as a new frontier in film, Kazimi said. 鈥淣ow everybody is jumping on the bandwagon. As a filmmaker, I feel it鈥檚 a very exciting time because when used properly, 3-D offers a whole new language for filmmakers,鈥 Kazimi said.

The conference and 3D FLIC also involve psychology and computer science researchers within the . The centre's conference on runs June 15-18, allowing researchers to attend both events.

For more background on the Toronto International Stereoscopic 3D Conference, see its or this .

Posted by Elizabeth Monier-Williams, research communications officer, with files courtesy of YFile鈥 91亚色鈥檚 daily e-bulletin.

 

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Professor Ananya Mukherjee-Reed speaks to Globe and Mail about Day of Overseas Indians conference /research/2011/06/13/professor-ananya-mukherjee-reed-speaks-to-globe-and-mail-about-day-of-overseas-indians-conference-2/ Mon, 13 Jun 2011 08:00:00 +0000 /researchdev/2011/06/13/professor-ananya-mukherjee-reed-speaks-to-globe-and-mail-about-day-of-overseas-indians-conference-2/ Ananya Mukherjee-Reed, professor in 91亚色鈥檚 Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies focused on South Asia and issues of human development, was interviewed by The Globe and Mail June 10, in a story about the Day of Overseas Indians conference in Toronto: The conference is the first of many large events planned for 2011, declared […]

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Ananya Mukherjee-Reed, professor in 91亚色鈥檚 Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies focused on South Asia and issues of human development, was interviewed by The Globe and Mail June 10, in a story about the :

The conference is the first of many large events planned for 2011, declared the Year of India in Canada.

Q: What's the conference about for you?

What I really like is that it's not totally about only diaspora issues. It's about the issues of the day: youth issues, gender issues, which are not the issues of one diaspora or another. Our country should be looked at not only as isolated communities. We should have a say in policy-making. People doing jobs they're over-qualified for is not an Indian issue, it's an issue for all of Canada. If not, we lose the sense of Canada as a whole.

Q: How would you describe the Indian diaspora in Canada?

In Canada, we have representation from all over India, with the dominant group being the Punjabi community. In the last few years I've seen more of an effort to have a pan-Indian presence. We do tend to have more engagement with the mainstream, partly because of our prominence in the professions and our facility with English. We had the right colonizers.

Posted by Elizabeth Monier-Williams, research communications officer, with files courtesy of YFile鈥 91亚色鈥檚 daily e-bulletin.

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91亚色's rover team finishes second in Mars challenge /research/2011/06/07/york-universitys-rover-team-finishes-second-in-mars-challenge-2/ Tue, 07 Jun 2011 08:00:00 +0000 /researchdev/2011/06/07/york-universitys-rover-team-finishes-second-in-mars-challenge-2/ The 91亚色 Rover Team 鈥 just call them YURTs 鈥 maintained their record of excellence at the international University Rover Challenge (URC) on the weekend, finishing in second place to a team from Poland in the hot deserts of Utah. (CBC also covered the team's success). Above: Members of the 91亚色 Rover Team […]

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The 鈥 just call them YURTs 鈥 maintained their record of excellence at the international (URC) on the weekend, finishing in second place to a team from Poland in the hot deserts of Utah. ( also covered the team's success).

Above: Members of the 91亚色 Rover Team pose for a group photo in the cool of the evening at the Mars Research Station, Hanksville, Utah

91亚色 first entered the challenge, sponsored by TASC (The Analytic Sciences Corporation) Inc., four years ago and has finished in the top three every year, including a first-place finish in 2009. The challenge: "Design and build the next generation of Mars rovers that will one day work alongside human explorers in the field."

Above: EVE travels the hostile clime of the Utah desert

The closest race came between the second and third place teams, and Oregon State University, who were separated by only 16 points.聽 All together, the top three teams of 2011 were the same top three from 2010, but with different results.

鈥淭he level of sophistication shown by these teams was overwhelming,鈥 remarked URC director Kevin Sloan.聽 鈥淭hese teams poured themselves into their rover projects over the past year, and it clearly showed.聽 The level of competition was taken to an entirely new level this year.鈥

Above: EVE (Enhanced Vehicle Explorer)

The 91亚色 team left Toronto with its EVE (Enhanced Vehicle Explorer) on May 27 and drove for three days to Hanksville, Utah, arriving early to ensure they could put in some field test time in the environment.

鈥淭he past few days have been intense with emotional highs and lows,鈥 said team member Shailja Sahani. 鈥淓very team member has been putting in at least 20-hour days to make the competition a success, with some sleeping only five hours in the last three days.

鈥淓veryone came together as a team with no prodding from the leadership; they simply picked up tools and got to work. Although we were well prepared before the competition, the desert environment and harsh operating conditions required many last-minute repairs and alterations.

"Our success came from our ability to fix the rover in situ and get back to the task, while other teams were left stranded,鈥 said team member Jordan Bailey.

Bailey, one of two students responsible for the team's finances and marketing, told CBC News he thinks the current rover is the team's "best one yet." Last year, the team faced multiple equipment failures as a result of the record temperatures, which soared to 38 C in the shade. This year's model has a more robust suspension, a finer control system and better temperature regulation than its predecessor, Bailey said.

Above: Jordan Bailey & Isaac DeSouza work into the night to get EVE ready

The rover cost about $13,000 to build, slightly below the $15,000 maximum allowed. The YURT is sponsored by 91亚色, and . The faculty advisers from 91亚色鈥檚 Department of Earth & Space Science & Engineering, Faculty of Science & Engineering were Professor Michael Daly and Professor . The engineering adviser was graduate student Mark Post.

The participants included three teams from Poland, three from the United States and two from Canada. By the end of the competition, one team from each country had placed in the top three.聽 The Magma2 team from the Bialystok University of Technology in Poland pulled away from the other two teams to an impressive victory.

Magma2 was the first European team to win URC.聽 They also were the first team to ever deploy an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) as part of the competition.

For more information, visit聽the website.

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

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Professor Honor Ford-Smith launches book of Jamaican plays Monday with readings /research/2011/06/03/professor-honor-ford-smith-launches-book-of-jamaican-plays-monday-with-readings-2/ Fri, 03 Jun 2011 08:00:00 +0000 /researchdev/2011/06/03/professor-honor-ford-smith-launches-book-of-jamaican-plays-monday-with-readings-2/ Called 鈥渞emarkable鈥 and 鈥渟ometimes hilarious鈥, 3 Jamaican Plays: A Postcolonial Anthology (1977-1987), edited by 91亚色 environmental studies Professor Honor Ford-Smith, will launch Monday. Readings of short excerpts of each of the three plays, considered an intertwining memory, violence, creativity, belonging and dispossession during a ten-year period in Jamaica, will take place June 6 at 7pm, […]

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Called 鈥渞emarkable鈥 and 鈥渟ometimes hilarious鈥, 3 Jamaican Plays: A Postcolonial Anthology (1977-1987), edited by 91亚色 environmental studies Professor Honor Ford-Smith, will launch Monday.

Readings of short excerpts of each of the three plays, considered an intertwining memory, violence, creativity, belonging and dispossession during a ten-year period in Jamaica, will take place June 6 at 7pm, following the launch at Trane Studio, 964 Bathurst St. (north of Bloor St.) in Toronto. Finger food and a cash bar will be available.

The three plays are: Masqueraders by Stafford Ashani, Whiplash by Ginger Knight and Fallen Angel and the Devil Concubine by Patricia Cumper, Ford-Smith, Carol Lawes, Hertencer Lindsay and Eugene Williams.

Fallen Angel and the Devil Concubine is an adaptation of Ford-Smith鈥檚 collection of poems set in Jamaica and Canada, My Mother's Last Dance (Sister Vision Press, 1996).

Ford-Smith is a scholar, theatre worker and poet educated in Jamaica. She is co-founder and artistic director of (Sisters), a theatre collective of mainly working-class Jamaican women that work in community theatre and popular education. She was also a member of the Groundwork Theatre Company, created in 1980 as the repertory arm of the Jamaica School of Drama. She moved to Toronto in 1991, where she continues to write, work in performance and teach.

The book's launch was also covered by reviewer Michael Reckord in Jamaica鈥檚 June 5.

To RSVP to the launch, e-mail 3jamaicanplays@gmail.com.

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

 

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Professor Ellen Bialystok speaks to the New 91亚色 Times about the bilingual advantage /research/2011/06/01/professor-ellen-bialystok-speaks-to-the-new-york-times-about-the-bilingual-advantage-2/ Wed, 01 Jun 2011 08:00:00 +0000 /researchdev/2011/06/01/professor-ellen-bialystok-speaks-to-the-new-york-times-about-the-bilingual-advantage-2/ A cognitive neuroscientist, Ellen Bialystok has spent almost 40 years learning about how bilingualism sharpens the mind, wrote The New 91亚色 Times May 30: Her good news: Among other benefits, the regular use of two languages appears to delay the onset of Alzheimer鈥檚 disease symptoms. Dr. Bialystok, 62, a distinguished research professor of psychology at […]

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A cognitive neuroscientist, Ellen Bialystok has spent almost 40 years learning about how bilingualism sharpens the mind, wrote :

Her good news: Among other benefits, the regular use of two languages appears to delay the onset of Alzheimer鈥檚 disease symptoms. Dr. Bialystok, 62, a distinguished research professor of psychology at 91亚色 [Faculty of Health] in Toronto, was for her contributions to social science. We spoke for two hours in a Washington hotel room in February and again, more recently, by telephone. An edited version of the two conversations follows.

Q. How did you begin studying bilingualism?

A. You know, I didn鈥檛 start trying to find out whether bilingualism was bad or good. I did my doctorate in psychology: on how children acquire language. When I finished graduate school, in 1976, there was a job shortage in Canada for PhDs. The only position I found was with a research project studying second language acquisition in school children. It wasn鈥檛 my area. But it was close enough.

As a psychologist, I brought neuroscience questions to the study, like 鈥淗ow does the acquisition of a second language change thought?鈥 It was these types of questions that naturally led to the bilingualism research. The way research works is, it takes you down a road. You then follow that road.

Q. So what exactly did you find on this unexpected road?

A. As we did our research, you could see there was a big difference in the way monolingual and bilingual children processed language. We found that if you gave 5- and 6-year-olds language problems to solve, monolingual and bilingual children knew, pretty much, the same amount of language.

But on one question, there was a difference. We asked all the children if a certain illogical sentence was grammatically correct: 鈥淎pples grow on noses.鈥 The monolingual children couldn鈥檛 answer. They鈥檇 say, 鈥淭hat鈥檚 silly鈥 and they鈥檇 stall. But the bilingual children would say, in their own words, 鈥淚t鈥檚 silly, but it鈥檚 grammatically correct.鈥 The bilinguals, we found, manifested a cognitive system with the ability to attend to important information and ignore the less important.

Q. How does this work聽鈥 do you understand it?

A. Yes. There鈥檚 a system in your brain, the executive control system. It鈥檚 a general manager. Its job is to keep you focused on what is relevant, while ignoring distractions. It鈥檚 what makes it possible for you to hold two different things in your mind at one time and switch between them.

If you have two languages and you use them regularly, the way the brain鈥檚 networks work is that every time you speak, both languages pop up and the executive control system has to sort through everything and attend to what鈥檚 relevant in the moment. Therefore the bilinguals use that system more, and it鈥檚 that regular use that makes that system more efficient.

Q. One of your most startling recent findings is that bilingualism helps forestall the symptoms of Alzheimer鈥檚 disease. How did you come to learn this?

A. We did two kinds of studies. In the first, published in 2004, we found that normally aging bilinguals had better cognitive functioning than normally aging monolinguals. Bilingual older adults performed better than monolingual older adults on executive control tasks. That was very impressive because it didn鈥檛 have to be that way. It could have turned out that everybody just lost function equally as they got older.

That evidence made us look at people who didn鈥檛 have normal cognitive function. In our next studies, we looked at the medical records of 400 Alzheimer鈥檚 patients. On average, the bilinguals showed Alzheimer鈥檚 symptoms five or six years later than those who spoke only one language. This didn鈥檛 mean that the bilinguals didn鈥檛 have Alzheimer鈥檚. It meant that as the disease took root in their brains, they were able to continue functioning at a higher level. They could cope with the disease for longer.

Q. So high school French is useful for something other than ordering a special meal in a restaurant?

A. Sorry, no. You have to use both languages all the time. You won鈥檛 get the bilingual benefit from occasional use.

Q. One would think bilingualism might help with multitasking 鈥 does it?

A. Yes, multitasking is one of the things the executive control system handles. We wondered, 鈥淎re bilinguals better at multitasking?鈥 So we put monolinguals and bilinguals into a driving simulator. Through headphones, we gave them extra tasks to do 鈥 as if they were driving and talking on cellphones. We then measured how much worse their driving got. Now, everybody鈥檚 driving got worse. But the bilinguals, their driving didn鈥檛 drop as much. Because adding on another task while trying to concentrate on a driving problem, that鈥檚 what bilingualism gives you 鈥 though I wouldn鈥檛 advise doing this.

Q. Has the development of new neuroimaging technologies changed your work?

A. Tremendously. It used to be that we could only see what parts of the brain lit up when our subjects performed different tasks. Now, with the new technologies, we can see how all the brain structures work in accord with each other.

In terms of monolinguals and bilinguals, the big thing that we have found is that the connections are different. So we have monolinguals solving a problem, and they use X systems, but when bilinguals solve the same problem, they use others. One of the things we鈥檝e seen is that on certain kinds of even nonverbal tests, bilingual people are faster. Why? Well, when we look in their brains through neuroimaging, it appears like they鈥檙e using a different kind of a network that might include language centres to solve a completely nonverbal problem. Their whole brain appears to rewire because of bilingualism.

Q. Bilingualism used to be considered a negative thing 鈥 at least in the United States. Is it still?

A. Until about the 1960s, the conventional wisdom was that bilingualism was a disadvantage. Some of this was xenophobia. Thanks to science, we now know that the opposite is true.

Q. Many immigrants choose not to teach their children their native language. Is this a good thing?

A. I鈥檓 asked about this all the time. People e-mail me and say, 鈥淚鈥檓 getting married to someone from another culture, what should we do with the children?鈥 I always say, 鈥淵ou鈥檙e sitting on a potential gift.鈥

There are two major reasons people should pass their heritage language onto children. First, it connects children to their ancestors. The second is my research: Bilingualism is good for you. It makes brains stronger. It is brain exercise.

Q. Are you bilingual?

A. Well, I have fully bilingual grandchildren because my daughter married a Frenchman. When my daughter announced her engagement to her French boyfriend, we were a little surprised. It鈥檚 always astonishing when your child announces she鈥檚 getting married. She said, 鈥淏ut Mom, it鈥檒l be fine, our children will be bilingual!鈥

Bialystok also holds an appointment at in Toronto. Her interview was featured on the front page of The New 91亚色 Times and was the site's most emailed story on May 31, 2011.

Posted by Elizabeth Monier-Williams, research communications officer, with files courtesy of YFile鈥 91亚色鈥檚 daily e-bulletin.

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Ike Turner's Rocket 88, first rock'n'roll song, turns 60 but remains obscure in music history /research/2011/05/25/ike-turners-rocket-88-first-rocknroll-song-turns-60-but-remains-obscure-in-music-history-2/ Wed, 25 May 2011 08:00:00 +0000 /researchdev/2011/05/25/ike-turners-rocket-88-first-rocknroll-song-turns-60-but-remains-obscure-in-music-history-2/ Sixty years later, many historians consider [Rocket 88 by Ike Turner] the first-ever rock 'n' roll song, and musicians revere the tune, as well as the band's livewire performance, wrote The Canadian Press May 22: And yet, most regular people don't know that the track even exists. "If I went to my local grocery store […]

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Sixty years later, many historians consider [Rocket 88 by Ike Turner] the first-ever rock 'n' roll song, and musicians revere the tune, as well as the band's livewire performance, :

And yet, most regular people don't know that the track even exists.

"If I went to my local grocery store here and stopped 20 people, if I found one who knew about it, I'd be shocked," said Grammy Award-winning 91亚色 music Professor Rob Bowman [Faculty of Fine Arts], who's been lecturing about Rocket 88 since 1979. "It's definitely not as well known as Elvis's hits or Jerry Lee (Lewis)'s big hits, or Rock Around the Clock. This is (before) the massive explosion.... You don't hear it as a golden oldie. You listen to oldies radio, and you'll hear Hound Dog, you'll hear Great Balls of Fire, you'll hear Maybellene by Chuck Berry, you'll hear Little Richard's Tutti Frutti 鈥 you won't hear Rocket 88.鈥

Other elements of the song were different as well.

As Bowman explains it, the song's whole groove is underpinned by riffs, which were derived from the blues tradition and became a crucial element in rock music.

"(The song's) significance on white teenagers in '51 probably wasn't huge, but it was a huge record on the black charts," Bowman explained. "I mean, some white hipsters who were listening to black radio at the time did hear it, and I think it had a big influence on those musicians."

"Besides its significance historically, it's just an unbelievably great, exciting record," Bowman enthused. "This record's got distorted electric guitar, it's riff-based, it's got the honky tenor sax tradition encoded within it, it's got boogie-woogie piano, it's got lyrics that are a series of sexual automotive metaphors, and it's at a souped-up tempo.

"What's not to love?"

Posted by Elizabeth Monier-Williams, research communications officer, with files courtesy of YFile 鈥 91亚色鈥檚 daily e-bulletin.

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Schulich Professor Robert Kozinets on Oprah's marketing legacy /research/2011/05/24/schulich-marketing-professor-robert-kozinets-on-oprahs-marketing-legacy-2/ Tue, 24 May 2011 08:00:00 +0000 /researchdev/2011/05/24/schulich-marketing-professor-robert-kozinets-on-oprahs-marketing-legacy-2/ With The Oprah Winfrey Show poised to air its final segment on Wednesday, the Toronto Star examines the five overarching aspects of being Oprah May 19: [One of them is] Marketing Maven: Authors, small business owners and President Barack Obama can attest to "The Oprah Effect". The term was coined to describe how sales of […]

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With The Oprah Winfrey Show poised to air its final segment on Wednesday, the Toronto Star examines the :

[One of them is] Marketing Maven: Authors, small business owners and President Barack Obama can attest to "The Oprah Effect". The term was coined to describe how sales of everything, from pyjamas to the classic novel Anna Karenina, skyrocket after her endorsement. Winfrey鈥檚 imprimatur is credited both with helping to sell 30 million books since the launch of her in 1996 and electing the first black president.Conversely, she was sued by the cattle ranchers because they claimed that her comments about never eating another burger during a segment about mad cow disease lost them $11 million in business.

鈥淭here鈥檚 never been a product placement or a PR phenomenon like Oprah before and we may not see her kind again,鈥 said , professor of marketing at the Schulich School of Business.

鈥淏ut the most remarkable part of her legacy is not the economic impact, which everyone knows; it鈥檚 the fact that she鈥檚 managed to maintain the public trust and have a widespread image of integrity. Considering the amount of product placement on her show, she didn鈥檛 ever give the impression that she was a sellout. She managed her image extremely well.鈥

. . .

With Winfrey only committed to appearing in about 70 hours of programming on [her new network] OWN in 2011, it remains to seen if a behind-the-scenes-role will be the best use of her expertise and energy.

Kozinets remembers Winfrey from his stint at Chicago鈥檚 Kellogg School of Management, where she taught a Dynamics of Leadership course with beau Stedman Graham in the late 鈥90s.

鈥淚t was a very popular class,鈥 he recalled. 鈥淪he brought in Henry Kissinger, Coretta Scott King and Jeff Bezos as guests. But she got tired of it, because she didn鈥檛 want to do her own grading and the dean insisted she grade her own papers.鈥

Posted by Elizabeth Monier-Williams, research communications officer, with files courtesy of YFile 鈥 91亚色鈥檚 daily e-bulletin.

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Professor Myriam Mongrain's psychology study on kindness attracts media coverage /research/2011/05/19/professor-myriam-mongrains-psychology-study-on-kindness-attracts-media-coverage-2/ Thu, 19 May 2011 08:00:00 +0000 /researchdev/2011/05/19/professor-myriam-mongrains-psychology-study-on-kindness-attracts-media-coverage-2/ There is karma in kindness. It seems that the Biblical adage of doing unto others, as you鈥檇 have them do unto you, pays off in happiness, reported the Toronto Star May 17: A 91亚色 study found that people who performed small acts of kindness 鈥 every day for five to 15 minutes for a […]

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There is karma in kindness. It seems that the Biblical adage of doing unto others, as you鈥檇 have them do unto you, pays off in happiness, reported the Toronto Star May 17:

A 91亚色 study found that 鈥 every day for five to 15 minutes for a week 鈥 increased their happiness and self-esteem.

After six months, many were still actively helping others and were reporting that their happiness and self-esteem levels were still up, according to the study, which will be published in the spring edition of the , an international scientific quarterly available online through Springer science and business media.

Myriam Mongrain, associate professor of psychology in 91亚色鈥檚 Faculty of Health and lead author for the study, says 700 people from across Canada were recruited online at the end of 2007 through a Facebook ad and then directed to the survey site, . The age group of respondents ranged from 18 to 73 with 80 per cent women and 20 per cent men.

The data collected on the original respondents 鈥 before they had started the compassion exercise 鈥 showed that the majority were 鈥渄epressed,鈥 says Mongrain.

Of the original 700 recruits, 458 people completed the first week鈥檚 exercise which required them to help or interact with another person every day 鈥 it could be someone they knew or a stranger 鈥 鈥渋n a supportive and considerate鈥欌 way. The positive effects on their happiness and self-esteem were 鈥渧ery strong,鈥 says Mongrain.

After three months 260 responded, with the majority saying that they were still performing acts of kindness 鈥 one to three days a week 鈥 and feeling the same positive effects. After six months, which was the end of the study, there were 179 responses with most still doing a good deed one to three days a week and feeling happier for it.

Despite the high drop-out rate, the results indicate that the exercise of performing acts of kindness 鈥渟ustained increases in happiness and self-esteem,鈥欌 says Mongrain, who had help analyzing the data from co-authors of the study, [91亚色 researchers] Jacqueline Chin and Leah Shapira.

The study, funded by the , was also covered May 17 in the London Free Press and Toronto Sun and May 18 in The Globe and Mail and on 680 News in Toronto.

Posted by Elizabeth Monier-Williams, research communications officer, with files courtesy of YFile 鈥 91亚色鈥檚 daily e-bulletin.

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