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In July 2017 members of the DTES community started meeting as a collective at the Hives for Humanity Bee Space to have conversation about how to ensure that community ethics are a respected part of the process of cultural production. We define cultural production as being: any time an entity comes into a community to make a product from its culture. ie. individuals and/or organisations of journalists, film makers, photographers, students, researchers, tourists or volunteers. We define community ethics as being: a set of principles to guide behaviour, based in lived experience, acknowledging the interconnectedness of our humanity, fostering relationships of respect, responsibility, reciprocity and return. We have produced a resource card and a manifesto out of these meetings which we are launching at our event on March 7th 2019, 7pm-9pm at SFU Woodwards. Copies of the card and manifesto will be available for all to take out into the community, and will be open sourced after the event. The evening included a short panel discussion with members of the collective sharing their experiences of cultural production – the good, the bad and the ugly! For more info visit: hivesforhumanity.com/communityethics/

Critical theorist Alberto Toscano joins Am Johal in conversation about his work and writings, as he joins SFU as a visiting faculty member with the Digital Democracies Institute in SFU’s School of Communication. In this episode, they discuss Alberto’s writing on the philosophy of fanaticism, and conflicting discourse and counter-histories around the figure of the fanatic, which historically takes many forms, from abolitionist leaders to peasant revolutionaries. Alberto and Am also dive into global and historical trends of authoritarianism, racial capitalism and the notion of ‘late fascism.’ Alberto speaks to expanding our concept of fascism, to recognize iterations outside of what could be thought of as European fascism. They also talk about neoliberal tendencies in post-secondary administration, and the workings of mechanisms that maintain or fortify power structures within institutions.

Understanding how anthropogenic disturbance affects animal behavior is challenging because observational studies often involve co-occurring disturbances (e.g., noise, lighting, and roadways), and laboratory experiments often lack ecological validity. During the 2016 and 2017 avian breeding seasons, we investigated the effects of anthropogenic noise and light on the singing and spatial behavior of wild birds by independently manipulating the presence of each type of disturbance at 89 sites in an otherwise undisturbed boreal forest in Labrador, Canada. Each treatment was surrounded by an 8-channel microphone array that recorded and localized avian vocalizations throughout the manipulation. We analyzed the effects of noise and light on the timing of the first vocalizations of each species at each array during the dawn chorus, and on the proximity of the vocalizing birds to the disturbance when those songs were produced. We analyzed all species combined, and then conducted separate analyses for the six most common species: Boreal Chickadee, Dark-eyed Junco, Ruby-crowned Kinglet, Swainson’s Thrush, White-throated Sparrow, and Yellow-rumped Warbler. When all species were analyzed together, we found that traffic noise attracted vocalizing birds. There was some evidence that light repelled birds, but this evidence was inconsistent. In our species-specific analyses, Yellow-rumped Warbler sang earlier in response to noise; Swainson's Thrush was attracted to noise and the combination of noise and light, but repelled by light alone. Our study provides some of the first experimental evidence of the independent and combined effects of traffic noise and light on the vocal and spatial behavior of wild birds, and suggests that breeding birds may be attracted to noisy roads where they could be exposed to additional forms of disturbance. READMEThis file explains all of the variables in the dataset that accompanies: Hennigar B, Ethier JP, Wilson DR. 2019ms. Experimental traffic noise attracts birds during the breeding season. This file also explains the R script used to reproduce all analyses presented in: Hennigar B, Ethier JP, Wilson DR. 2019ms. Experimental traffic noise attracts birds during the breeding season.Data from "Experimental traffic noise attracts birds during the breeding season"This file contains all of the data used in "Experimental traffic noise attracts birds during the breeding season"Hennigar et al data.csvR script for analyses presented in "Experimental traffic noise attract birds during the breeding season"This file contains the R script for all analyses presented in "Experimental traffic noise attract birds during the breeding season"Hennigar et al analysis.R

The performance of courtship signals provides information about the behavioural state and quality of the signaller, and females can use such information for social decision-making (e.g. mate choice). However, relatively little is known about the degree to which the perception of and preference for differences in motor performance are shaped by developmental experiences. Furthermore, the neural substrates that development could act upon to influence the processing of performance features remains largely unknown. In songbirds, females use song to identify males and select mates. Moreover, female songbirds are often sensitive to variation in male song performance. Consequently, we investigated how developmental exposure to adult male song affected behavioural and neural responses to song in a small, gregarious songbird, the zebra finch. Zebra finch males modulate their song performance when courting females, and previous work has shown that females prefer the high-performance, female-directed courtship song. However, unlike females allowed to hear and interact with an adult male during development, females reared without developmental song exposure did not demonstrate behavioural preferences for high-performance courtship songs. Additionally, auditory responses to courtship and non-courtship song were altered in adult females raised without developmental song exposure. These data highlight the critical role of developmental auditory experience in shaping the perception and processing of song performance. EGR1_dataNumber of EGR1 neurons/mm2 in the NCM, CMM and IC.preference_score_by_maleIDAverage preference scores of all females tested on each male stimulus.preference_scores_all_femalesraw data for call back preference tests for normally-reared and song-naive females tested on stimuli from different malespreference_score_vs_song_measuresPercent difference for measures of song between courtship and non-courtship singing. Measures include the number of introductory notes and motifs, syllable entropy, CV of the fundamental frequency and song tempo (motif duration).

Premise of the study: Agricultural practices routinely create opportunities for crops to hybridize with wild relatives, leading to crop gene introgression into wild genomes. Conservationists typically worry this introgression could lead to genetic homogenization of wild populations, over and above the central concern of transgene escape. Alternatively, viewing introgression as analogous to species invasion, we suggest that increased genetic diversity may likewise be an undesirable outcome. Methods: Here, we compare the sensitivity of conventional population genetic metrics with species diversity indices as indicators of the impact of gene flow on genetic diversity. We illustrate this novel approach using multilocus genotype data (12 allozyme loci) from 10 wild (Beta vulgaris subsp. maritima) and eight putative crop–wild hybrid beet populations (B. vulgaris subsp. vulgaris × B. vulgaris subsp. maritima) scattered throughout Europe. Results: Conventional population genetic metrics mostly failed to detect shifts in genetic composition of putative hybrid populations. By contrast, species diversity indices unambiguously revealed increased genetic diversity in putative hybrid populations. Discussion: We encourage other workers to explore the utility of our more sensitive approach for risk assessment prior to the release of transgenic crops, with a view toward widespread adoption of our method in studies aimed at detecting allelic invasion. Genotyped Beta vulgaris after Structure ClusteringThis file contains allozyme genotypes of Beta vulgaris individuals collected from cultivated (ssp. vulgaris), wild (ssp. maritima), and putative crop-wild hybrid populations in Europe.

On this episode of Below the Radar, our host Am Johal is joined by Scott Bernstein, the Director of Policy at Canadian Drug Policy Coalition, a project based at the Faculty of Health Sciences at SFU. He has also done work with Pivot Legal Society in Vancouver and internationally with Open Society Foundations in New York. Together, Am and Scott talk about his work involving harm reduction, decriminalization and drug regulation policies, and discuss potential regulation models with studies such as North American Opiate Medication Initiative (NAOMI) and Study to Assess Longer-term Opioid Medication Effectiveness (SALOME).

Seminar at the Conference of the German Veterinary Medical Association (DVG) in Fulda, Germany, 1-2 March 2019. The approach to the seminar was to discuss 50 cases ( approximately 10 minutes per case). For each case, a clinical summary and histologic lesions images were provided. The group was then asked to provided a diagnosis and discuss the various diagnoses suggested (e.g. agreement, disagreement, unknowns) and then a case summary was provided. For more detailed slide information, see the document 'Pathology of the lungs of domestic animals: Slide seminar' which can be accessed at http://hdl.handle.net/10214/15898. Digital histology slide for Case 35.

Glen Coulthard is Yellowknives Dene and is an associate professor in the First Nations and Indigenous Studies Program and the Department of Political Science at the University of British Columbia. He is also the author of the acclaimed book Red Skin, White Masks: Rejecting the Colonial Politics of Recognition from University of Minnesota Press. On this special episode live from the Vancouver Podcast Festival, host Am Johal sits down with Glen to talk about who and what influences his work and research, the different projects he’s been involved in over the years, and what continues to inspire him to do the work he does.

Spatial and temporal heterogeneity within landscapes influences the distribution and phenotypic diversity of individuals both within and across populations. Phenotype-habitat correlations arise either through phenotypes within an environment altering through the process of natural selection or plasticity, or phenotypes remaining constant but individuals altering their distribution across environments. The mechanisms of non-random movement and phenotype-dependent habitat choice may account for associations within highly heterogeneous systems, such as streams, where local adaptation may be negated, plasticity too costly and movement is particularly important. Despite growing attention, however, few empirical tests have yet to be conducted. Here we provide a test of phenotype-dependent habitat choice and ask: 1) if individuals collected from a single habitat type continue to select original habitat; 2) if decisions are phenotype-dependent and functionally related to habitat requirements; and 3) if phenotypic-sorting continues despite increasing population density. To do so we both conducted experimental trials manipulating the density of four stream-fish species collected from either a single riffle or pool and developed a game-theoretical model exploring the influence of individuals’ growth rate, sampling and competitive abilities as well as interference on distribution across two habitats as a function of density. Our experimental trials show individuals selecting original versus alternative habitats differed in their morphologies, that morphologies were functionally related to habitat-type swimming demands, and that phenotypic-sorting remained significant (although decreased) as density increased. According to our model this only occurs when phenotypes have contrasting habitat preferences and only one phenotype disperses (i.e. selects alternatives) in response to density pressures. This supports our explanation that empirical habitat selection was due to a combination of collecting a fraction of mobile individuals with different habitat preferences and the exclusion of individuals via scramble competition at increased densities. Phenotype-dependent habitat choice can thereby account for observed patterns of natural stream-fish distribution. DataJacobsonetal2017This file contains the density level, trial, selected habitat, partial warp and length and size variables for each of the individuals and species tested within artificial stream experiments.

We present optically-derived estimates of phytoplankton carbon (Cphyto) and chlorophyll a concentration (Chl) across a wide range of productivity and hydrographic regimes in the Subarctic Pacific Ocean. Our high-frequency measurements capture changes in Cphyto and Chl across regional gradients in macro- and micronutrient limitation, and sub-mesoscale hydrographic frontal zones. Throughout the majority of our survey region, carbon to chlorophyll ratios (Cphyto:Chl) ranged between 50-100. Lower values (10-20) were constrained to the highly productive coastal upwelling system along Vancouver Island, whereas higher estimated values (>200) were found directly off the southern British Columbia continental shelf. Further offshore, Cphyto:Chl was less variable, ranging from 50-80 in high nutrient low Chl (HNLC) waters in June, and from 80-120 in the Gulf of Alaska in July. Much of the variability in Cphyto:Chl throughout the study region could be explained by mixed layer light levels (i.e. photo-acclimation), with additional variability attributed to nutrient-controlled changes in phytoplankton growth rates in some regions. Elevated Cphyto:Chl ratios resulting from apparent nutrient stress were found in areas of low macro-nutrient concentrations. In contrast, iron-limited waters exhibited Cphyto:Chl ratios lower than predicted from the photo-acclimation model. Applying the Carbon-based production model, we derived Cphyto and Chl-based estimates of net primary productivity, which showed good coherence with independent 14C uptake measurements. Our results highlight the utility of ship-board optical data to examine phytoplankton physiological ecology and productivity in surface marine waters. Supplement to: Burt, William J; Westberry, Toby K; Behrenfeld, Michael J; Zeng, Chen; Izett, Robert W; Tortell, Philippe Daniel (2018): Carbon : Chlorophyll ratios and net primary productivity of Subarctic Pacific surface waters derived from autonomous shipboard sensors. Global Biogeochemical Cycles