May 12, 2024

With the rapid development of modern society over the course of the past century, increased attention has been paid to the causes and impacts of climate change.  To increase our understanding of the range of potential variations of the climate system, researchers at St. Francis Xavier (StFX) University, are looking to the past to see how the system has responded to previous climatic variations. Such past climate information can then be used to ascertain the reliability of projections of future climate change from climate models.  The research program of Dr. Hugo Beltrami, Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Climate Dynamics at StFX, examines the thermodynamics of land-surface models to identify better climate modeling practices based on accounting of measured continental heat.

Dr. Beltrami and his students use advanced computer modeling tools requiring significant computational capabilities to undertake this work.  Their research has been supported by the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI), as well as the Nova Scotia Research and Innovation Trust (NSRIT) to establish a dedicated competing cluster as part of the Atlantic Computational Excellence Network (ACENET).  This infrastructure is valued at almost $600,000 and includes a $216,000 contribution from both CFI and NSRIT.  The modeling tools employed in their research helps to study heat transfer phenomena near the ground that are feedbacks in the global climate system.

n the words of Dr. Beltrami, “Since we cannot travel back in time to make these observations ourselves and the global meteorological record extends back, at best, 150 years, climate scientists must rely on indirect measures of past climate”.  These indirect measures, which are commonly called paleoclimatic indicators are drawn from proxy data, such as tree-ring widths, pollen accumulation, and ice-cores.  Sources of information about past climatic changes also include the vertical variation of underground temperatures measured in mining exploration boreholes in continental areas.

It has long been known that temperatures in the first few kilometres of the Earth’s crust are significantly affected by the past surface conditions.  Changes in the long-term ground surface energy balance are recorded as underground climatic fingerprints.  These climate signals were originally found in temperature-depth profiles carried out by geophysicists studying the Earth’s internal thermal regime. While they were originally considered as noise, in the last few decades these subsurface climate signals have been isolated from the full profile and processed to infer ground surface temperature histories.

In a 2016 paper published in the PAGES Special Issue of the European Geophysical Union journal Climate of the Past, Dr. Beltrami and his collaborators performed a regional analysis of ground surface temperature histories for the past 500 years. Their results indicate that the average North American ground surface temperature increased about 1.8 °C over the past 200 years. However, although the warming is widespread and persistent, these temperature increases exhibit a wide range of spatial variability throughout North America. Reconstructed regional ground surface temperature mean trends for seven different climatic regions suggest a warming range variation of 0.5 to 2.0°C. Furthermore, geographical representations of regional variations revealed a warming range of 1 to 2 degrees Kelvin between 1780 and 1980, with all regions experiencing an increase in ground surface temperature, with warming more marked in Arctic regions.  Their work showed conclusively that the warming experienced by the planet globally is also well documented in the North American continental subsurface.  Furthermore, such warming shows no ambiguity in the last two centuries; the warming is persistent and widespread in North America, and is more significant in the Arctic.

These research results, along with other available long-term paleoclimatic records of climate change, have helped contribute to improving climate model simulations of present day climate dynamics and provide insights into the potential consequences of future climate change on society.

November 2, 2024

When St. Mary’s Polish Church in Whitney Pier was destroyed by fire in November 2023, the loss to the local community was unimaginable.

The CoMM Lab, built to promote collaboration and community-based research on music, dance, performance and other media was supported by $399,915 from the Nova Scotia Research and Innovation Trust.

Dr. Marcia Ostashewski, CBU Assistant Professor, Ethnomusicology and a Tier Two Canada Research Chair in Communities and Cultures, saw the tools of the CoMM Lab as a way to create the required repository for St. Mary’s Church, but also a bigger living interactive multimedia resource that could house past and present research about the contributions of diverse ethno-cultural groups to the social and cultural landscape of Cape Breton Island.

As the only designated site recognizing Polish Nova Scotians, the heritage building had been documented extensively in pictures and drawings. There was also plenty of promotional material and digital versions of historical documents floating around the community. The key was to gather it together in a single location where it could be viewed collectively by those charged with rebuilding, and the community at large.

With the launch of diversitycapebreton.ca  in August 2024, the public now has access to collections showcasing the impact of various cultures, including Polish, Croatian, Ukrainian  and  Jewish communities.

“Our aim was to have an extensive database of records and documentation that would be useful to the many cultures of Cape Breton Island.  The database will continue to grow and diversify as we move forward with the project,” says Dr. Ostashewski.

Dr. Ostashewski says in the past year, several projects developed in concert with the CoMM have addressed social issues and positively impacted the community. The projects have resulted in tangible research outcomes including exhibits, CDs, documentary films, performance pieces, and publications, as well as virtual, web-based resources.

The CoMM Lab supports intensive creative, critical public outreach and education programs, she says. This has been welcomed by local communities and has translated into events that have attracted scholars, community members and other interest groups.

Another well-received project was Singing Storytellers. Last fall, the project hosted a Symposium involving African musicians who led workshops with hundreds of schoolchildren around the Cape Breton Regional Municipality, and included a highly-attended full-day of workshops at the McConnell Library.  “This event gained national attention from libraries across the country and I, along with a representative from the McConnell Library, have been asked to speak in Toronto about the collaboration,” says Ostashewski.

Dr. Ostashewski, together with a team of faculty and student researchers, and professional arts and media collaborators, community service organizations and local elders, have used the CoMM Lab to provide local at-risk youth with training in media, visual and theatre arts. The youth were then involved in creating films, CBC Radio segments, music recordings, creative writing, spoken word pieces and other digital multimedia that addresses local environmental and social justice issues.

With lots of innovative projects underway, Dr. Ostashewski says it is no surprise that the CoMM Lab is attracting international interest from faculty and top-tier research universities and that new partnership projects and collaborations are on the horizon.

October 7, 2024

Jason Masuda stands at the doorway to a workroom frequented primarily by scientists. “No cell phones or laptops beyond this point,” cautions the Saint Mary’s University Chemistry professor.  “And no pace-makers.”

In the corner of the room sits the preeminent technology available for helping chemists and researchers determine the structure of molecules: a nuclear magnetic resonance spectrometer.

“This instrument is a vital tool for researchers at Saint Mary’s who see green chemistry as the key to sustaining our natural resources,” says Dr. Masuda. “It may look like a high-tech water heater, but the NMR spectrometer contains a very powerful superconducting magnet, equivalent in strength to almost 1500 regular refrigerator magnets. In addition to helping my colleagues do research that generates grants to solve chemistry-related problems, it equips our undergraduate students, graduate students and post-doctoral researchers with valuable skills they’ll take with them into the world.”

Funding of $171,787 towards the total cost of $429,468 for the spectrometer came from the Nova Scotia Research and Innovation Trust (NSRIT) in 2022. Additional support came through vendor discounts and matching funds for research infrastructure through the Canada Foundation for Innovation.

“It’s an investment with high returns,” says Dr. Masuda. “So far, this one piece of equipment has resulted in 28 peer-reviewed publications, 6 speaking engagements, and 26 presentations at conferences. It has also enabled researchers at Saint Mary’s to collaborate throughout the Maritimes and as far away as the U.S., Australia and Germany. The first step in discovering environmentally friendly industrial processes could very well take place in this room.”

September 25, 2024

Low value biomass (agricultural and forestry residues, animal manure, algae and agri-food processing waste) is one alternative source for fuels and chemicals that can be used to address environmental issues.

“My research uses techniques to turn biomass wastes into crude bio-oil,” explains Dr. Quan (Sophia) He, assistant professor in Dalhousie’s Faculty of Agriculture. “This research will strengthen and diversify the agriculture industry.”

With equipment purchased through funding from the Nova Scotia Research Innovation Trust (NSRIT) and the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI), the crude bio-oil effort has the potential to benefit the pharmaceutical industry and creating an alternative to petroleum products.  The equipment includes a variety of specialized analyses units and a microwave-assisted nanomaterial synthesis system used to create materials used in biomass conversion, bio-oil upgrading and biodiesel production.

“This area of research in multidisciplinary, creating a thriving training environment,” says Dr. He. “Up to five students in each of the first two years will build their knowledge in the areas of renewable energy, biofuels, bio-products, catalysis, chirality chemistry and green engineering.  We hope to increase to training ten students per year eventually.”

At the end of their training the students will be well prepared to compete for careers in the bioenergy, bioproducts, chemistry and engineering in Canada’s government, industry and Academia, says Dr. He.

The $125,000 provided by NSRIT has helped leverage more than $380,000 from the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI), the NSERC Discovery fund, the Nova Scotia Department of Agriculture, Dalhousie University and the National Research Council.

“In response to the energy crisis and the deterioration of the environment, there is a rapidly growing interest in the development of biomass-based fuels and chemicals,” says Dr. He. “This interest creates new business opportunities for the agriculture industry and increased demand for trained students with expertise and broad knowledge in this area.”

September 4, 2024

Many people are no stranger to stress, but some are much better at handling it than others. The ability to handle stress, as well as health outcomes that can develop from exposure to stress, are often passed down through generations.

By looking at genes and their relation to maternal stress during pregnancy and maternal care after birth, Dr. Ian Weaver is hoping to learn more about why some individuals develop more stress-related health conditions and how those conditions can be prevented.

Severe maternal stress can increase the risk of a child developing a range of altered psychological and neurodevelopmental outcomes, such as learning and behavioural disorders (e.g. ADHD), anxiety and depression, and impaired cognitive development. These health outcomes are some of the most burdensome for individuals, families and society due to their long duration, disabling nature and limited forms of treatment—and they significantly impact how one handles stress.

“Our bodies respond to stress using the glucocorticoid (GC) hormone, which is often used to treat a number of conditions in obstetrics and perinatal medicine,” explains Dr. Weaver, Assistant Professor with Dalhousie’s Faculties of Science and Medicine. “GCs also play an important role during fetal development, but the biology underlying their effect on genes and early brain development in the fetus is complex and we are only beginning to understand these processes.”

Using infrastructure funded through the Nova Scotia Research and Innovation Trust (NSRIT) and the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI), Dr. Weaver and his of team graduate and undergraduate students manipulate and monitor specific populations of brain cells in mice that have been exposed to increased levels of GCs to see how they function at several key stages of neural development, from late fetal and early neonatal periods through to adulthood.

“The students learn cutting-edge techniques in the new field of neural and behavioural epigenetics,” says Dr. Weaver. “Learning these new techniques will provide an excellent foundation for their careers in scientific research.”

The equipment purchased with $125,000 NSRIT support includes a “next generation” DNA sequencing system, specialized microscopes and molecular biology equipment used for the analysis and detection of mutations.  With the equipment, the Assistant Professor has qualified for a five-year NSERC Discovery grant worth $165,000 over five years and two Department of Psychiatry Research Fund (DPRF) grants worth $20,000.

Dr. Weaver has trained two technicians, two graduate students as and three undergraduate students annually since 2022. He expects to recruit one postdoctoral fellow and a further two graduate students within the next two to three years.

August 31, 2024

Nova Scotians with bad knees and athletes who worry about being sidelined by serious injuries can breathe a little easier knowing Acadia researchers are using sophisticated new tools to tackle their problems.

Researchers within the University’s School of Kinesiology are using a new $860,000 state-of-the-art motion capture laboratory to study detailed movement tasks that may provide clues to help prevent devastating sporting injuries.

With Nova Scotian enduring the highest incidence of knee osteoarthritis in the country, Dr. Scott Landry, along with his undergraduate and graduate students, are using the equipment to find out why. They then hope to develop some prevention programs that might mitigate the concern.

The equipment and lab renovations were made possible with the financial support from Nova Scotia Research and Innovation Trust (NSRIT) and Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI), along with an additional $116,000 from other donors. It is one of Acadia’s largest CFI/NSRIT research projects.

The equipment housed within the John MacIntyre mLAB (motion Laboratory of Applied Biomechanics) includes a 19 camera motion capture system, 3 force platforms embedded in the floor, a 16 channel wireless electromyography (EMG) system for measuring muscle activity, an special force measuring treadmill, a 6 gate timing reaction system and various types of software for processing and analyzing human movement data.

This facility has built to supplement NSRIT/CFI-funded research facilities within the Center of Lifestyle Studies (COLS) at Acadia to allow for a more comprehensive and complete picture of health.

The new equipment provides students the opportunity to gain expertise operating sophisticated equipment for analyzing human movement. This is particularly beneficial to students pursuing careers in research or health related professions such as medicine, physiotherapy, athletic therapy or occupational therapy.

The new lab has allowed Dr. Landry and his mLAB research team to forge important research partnerships.  Shoe giant Adidas, for instance, is interested in lab analyses of its footware products to help determine their effectiveness on reducing injury and enhancing performance. Dr. Landry is also developing new relationships with Kinduct Technologies and the Canadian Sport Centre Atlantic, both based in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

August 28, 2024

When a child has a fever, the first thing a parent does is take their temperature.  In the world of science, it’s not quite so simple, but researchers at Nova Scotia Community College are now using novel, specialized equipment, to assess the health of our bays and estuaries.

Dr. Tim Webster and his team at the college’s Applied Research Division are using topo-bathymetric lidar sensor equipment – purchased with the support of the Nova Scotia Research and Innovation Trust – to map the cover material on the Atlantic coastal seabed.

“The Department of Fisheries and Oceans uses the distribution of eelgrass as an ecosystem health indicator for bays and estuaries, making it an important measurement,” says Dr. Webster. “We’ve been in the field using the radar, testing our ability to map and monitor this species of aquatic vegetation.”

Researchers use the lidar sensor equipment to measure depth. A reflected green laser pulse provides detailed information about the cover of the seabed – literally shining a light on the bright sand reflecting against the contrasting dark vegetation. The resulting “greyscale image” can be matched with a map of the underwater terrain to provide an even richer dataset to work from.

Several recent projects have helped define new techniques to effectively map eelgrass.

“In our Tabusintac study area in northern New Brunswick, three independent teams pulled data off the seabed using underwater cameras to check for the presence or absence of eelgrass on the bottom. This information was compared to our results of mapping eelgrass with the radar and helped validate the group’s assessment for the entire bay.”

Dr. Webster and his colleagues also spent a week in September 2023 in the field gathering data throughout New Brunswick and along nine study sites. Work is continuing to assess the results.

The purchase on the lidar sensor equipment was made possible by an investment of $1.6 million, equally shared by Nova Scotia Research and Innovation Trust and Canada Foundation for Innovation.

Dr. Webster believes the team’s initial efforts only scratch the surface of the potential for the equipment to assist in research supporting the sustainability of our natural resources.

August 14, 2024

 

Acadia University chemist Sherri McFarland is harnessing the power of light to help destroy cancer cells.

Since 2007 the researcher has been developing drugs and compounds that interact with diseased cells and then destroys them when activated by light.

Her research effort, the development of new “photoactive drugs” as anticancer agents and as antibiotics, was seeded with funding from the Nova Scotia Research and Innovation Trust (NSRIT) and matching funds from the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI).

Dr. McFarland established the Laboratory for Inorganic Photophysics and Biological Sciences, which has helped to position Acadia as a major player in photonic research within Canada and around the world. Over the past six years, the NSRIT & CFI funding has leveraged over $1M dollars from other sources including NSERC, CIHR, Innovacorp, industry funds, and private investments.

Over 50 students and trainees have been able to access the trailblazing equipment, half of these being undergraduate students that are gaining unique experiences as they train to become our scientists of the future. She has developed strong collaborations with researchers at the University of Houston, University of Kentucky, Temple University, University Jena (Germany), Dalhousie, the IWK, and the Atlantic Cancer Research Institute.

Some of Dr. McFarland’s most promising substances have been licensed to a Toronto-based company and are undergoing clinical testing to treat non-muscle invasive bladder cancer. These compounds outperform current FDA-approved photoactive drugs by orders of magnitude, exploiting unique mechanisms that are the subject of four patent applications.

Dr. McFarland and her partners are now turning their attention to the development of new treatment options for one of the most lethal solid cancer tumours, melanoma. Melanoma is the second most common cancer in 15–34 year-olds and the most common cancer killer of young women.

The innovative initiative is enabling Nova Scotia to become a hub for light-based medicine. The effort is proof that with great equipment and ongoing support, researchers at some of Nova Scotia’s smallest universities can change the world.

 

July 7, 2024

Saint Mary’s researchers looking for commercialization opportunities in areas ranging from pharmaceuticals to electronics have a new tool to draw on.

It’s not glamourous, but Dr. Kai Ylijoki says the new glove box enhances the research capabilities of Saint Mary University’s Chemistry Department and opened up new possibilities for researchers by allowing them to create more than one type of atmosphere on-site.

Glove boxes have two basic functions: to protect the worker from substances inside the box and to keep the substances inside the box from ambient contamination.

For Dr. Ylijoki, the glove box provides an inert atmosphere, free of oxygen, water and other substances, that is essential for his work to developing biologically active compounds that could be used for pharmaceutical treatments.

“Organometallic compounds tend to be sensitive to the air; they don’t like oxygen and they don’t like water,” explains Dr. Ylijoki. “The glove box also allows us to create special compounds, which are not as easy in other situations are important for my research.”

A number of the compounds are also used in pesticides, stabilizers for polyvinyl chloride, and fire retardants.

The glove box’s atmospheric conditions can be altered and will be used for synthesis of conducting material, allowing them to be used in electronics applications, he said.

The equipment was purchased with $92,000 of financial support from both the Nova Scotia Research and Innovation Trust and Canada Foundation for Innovation John R. Evans Leaders Fund.

Upgrades in software and computers included as part of the project allows for an expansion in computational chemistry at the university. Through these advances researchers can use computers to optimize a reaction before they try it in the lab, saving both time and money.

The upgrades to Saint Mary’s computational chemistry capabilities also open new doors to chemistry students, giving them more research possibilities. Approximately 15 students will benefit from extensive training in the lab over the next five years.

“Computational chemistry has become such a fundamental skill to have,” says Dr. Ylijoki. “Saint Mary’s can provide a diverse training ground for students, trained in many directions whether it be traditional organic chemistry, air sensitive organometallic, or computational.”

February 20, 2024

Darrell Varga has watched several great Atlantic Canadian films slip into obscurity over the past two decades and he’s not prepared to let it happen any more.

The Canada Research Chair in Contemporary Film and Media Studies at NSCAD University is determined not to let the award-winning documentary Passage (2008) by filmmaker John Walker disappear from the collective memory like the noteworthy Atlantic Canadian films, Mike and Andy Jones’ The Adventures of Faustus Bidgood (1986) and William MacGillivray’s Life Classes (1987), which was shot in part at NSCAD.

To ensure the “masterpiece” lives on, Dr. Varga has written the book Passage to pay homage to it. The film deals with Sir John Franklin’s lost expedition through the Northwest Passage and explores how history is shaped to suit the teller. In another piece, John Walker’s Passage (University of Toronto Press) the professor explores the film in the context of the filmmakers’ rich body of work.
Dr. Varga makes the case for the entire industry in Shooting in the East: Filmmaking in the Canadian Atlantic, a soon to be published book by McGill-Queen’s University Press. The book offers an in-depth analysis of art cinema, narrative and documentary productions in the Atlantic region, focusing extensively on the history of filmmaking cooperatives, such as AFCOOP in Halifax and NIFCO in St. John’s.
“These films are not only important to their time, but important works of cinema anywhere,” says Dr. Varga, who works out of the CineFlux research cluster, NSCAD University’s centre for interdisciplinary research in cinema and media arts supported by the Nova Scotia Research and Innovation Trust.
The centre occupies half of the second floor of NSCAD’s Victorian red-brick Academy building at the foot of Citadel Hill and provides opportunities for interdisciplinary collaboration with faculty members from film, sculpture, photography and media arts departments all sharing the same space.
In addition to his scholarship on Atlantic Canadian cinema, Dr. Varga’s participation with CineFlux research cluster has allowed him to return to filmmaking in the last few years. In 2013 his film Fire, Ice and Sky was an extended reflection on the nature of time, art and landscape. He has two more documentaries under production.