New research from UBC Okanagan suggests that understanding gut microbiomes of immigrants is important to understanding how westernization is driving immune responses like IBD.

Indian immigrants and Indo-Canadians who adopt westernized dietary practices experience a greater risk of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD)—while supplements and probiotics often recommended may not provide the same benefits to certain demographics, new research from UBC Okanagan reveals.

Leah D’Aloisio, a Master of Science student in UBCO’s Department of Biology, and her thesis adviser, Dr. Deanna L. Gibson, worked in collaboration with colleagues from the UK and India to better understand the daily challenges experienced by Indians adapting to new cultures.

They’re currently investigating how westernization affects the gut microbiome and makes them more susceptible to IBD.

D’Aloisio’s research involves collecting stool samples from Indians living in India, Indian immigrants and Indo-Canadians. She analyzes their gut microbiome composition using DNA sequencing. She also collected additional data including dietary habits, lifestyle changes, health status and socioeconomic information.

When comparing the microbiomes of those living in India compared to Euro-Canadians, she’s found that the gut microbiomes in Indians are extremely different from Euro-Canadians.

“I really want people to understand the differences that exist in the human gut microbiome,” D’Aloisio says. “It looks drastically different depending on where you’re born and your overall lifestyle, so if you’re an immigrant here in Canada, think about that… And know that the research that led to creating these ‘gut health’ products you see marketed to you today is likely not representing you. Take time to rethink this before you spend your money. You don’t want to introduce a species into an ecosystem that is not meant to be there.”

According to D’Aloisio, her research has important implications for public health and clinical practice. She hopes that her findings will raise awareness about the influence of westernization on the gut microbiome and health outcomes of immigrant populations.

She also suggests that interventions such as dietary counselling, tailored probiotic supplementation and stress management may help prevent or treat IBD among Indian immigrants.

Dr. Gibson started this project thanks to funding from a UBC Killam research award that supported a sabbatical where she was able to collaborate with several high-profile research institutes in Kolkata and Manipal, India. Understanding the gut microbiomes of various populations outside of westernized countries is important to understanding how westernization is driving dysregulated immune responses like those in IBD.

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Atmospheric balloons are important tools for gathering information high above the earth in zones where people wouldn’t survive unless they wear pressurized suits.

When Lake Country’s Nolan Koblischke heard the American government was shooting down balloons suspected of spying, he was more than a little curious. The George Elliot Secondary graduate has sent one of those balloons into the atmosphere himself as a student at UBC Okanagan.

Atmospheric balloons are important tools for gathering information high above the earth in zones where people wouldn’t survive unless they wear pressurized suits. Most balloons collect climate data through radios, cameras and satellite navigation equipment—and are incapable of spying.

Koblischke, a fourth-year physics student, and Leonardo Caffarello are part of a UBCO physics and engineering team that launched a balloon to the stratosphere from a space centre in the Swedish Arctic last fall. The team, sponsored by School of Engineering Professor Jonathan Holzman, launched the balloon for a physics experiment to observe cosmic rays.

Koblischke said many people might be surprised at just how much you can learn from a balloon.

What are scientists learning from these atmospheric balloons?

These atmospheric balloons are a powerful and versatile tool for scientific research and exploration. Our balloon was launched in collaboration with Canadian and European agencies, so we were joined by other university and government agency teams from different countries.

Each team flying on the balloon had a different research objective and experiment. For instance, an Italian team was testing solar panels in the upper atmosphere to be used on satellites, a German space agency team was studying stratospheric chemistry and a Hungarian team was testing radiation sensors. We even saw an experiment to carry a telescope for atmosphere-free observations of space. Besides these applications, most balloons are used for weather purposes.

Is this the first time your project has left the ground?

No, the group was originally formed a few years ago by Caffarello and competed against other university teams in the Canadian Stratospheric Balloon Experiment Design Challenge. The UBCO student-led project was one of two experiments selected to fly onboard a high-altitude research balloon launched by the Canadian Space Agency in August 2019. The balloon was airborne at about 120,000 feet for 10 hours.

The project was working on a cosmic ray detection system and they were looking for different cosmic particles across the lower atmosphere. Caffarello has since graduated but led our team on the latest iteration of this experiment that took place in Sweden last fall.

Can you explain what you learned from the experiment last fall?

Our experiment was an innovative endeavour to detect cosmic rays in the stratosphere that Caffarello and I launched from the Esrange Space Center above the arctic circle in Sweden. We learned how to devise and construct an experiment that can withstand the severe conditions of near vacuum and extreme temperatures. We also gathered valuable data during the flight such as temperatures, pressure and images that proved that certain components of our experiment could work. Lastly, we realized that research requires perseverance and collaboration.

One of the most challenging moments was when we found an issue while preparing for the launch, a sudden failure during a pressure test. We worked until 4 am for three nights in a row, culminating in an all-nighter, to brainstorm solutions and design parts on the spot. Although we did not fully fix the problem, we remained resilient and worked diligently to resolve what we could and we were successfully approved for launch.

Cosmic rays sound dangerous

Cosmic rays can cause cancer by damaging DNA, but the chances are very small so you don’t need to lose sleep over it. Thankfully, our atmosphere blocks most of the highest energy cosmic rays, hence why we needed a balloon to get our experiment above much of the atmosphere, to try to detect more cosmic rays. You might have heard that you receive radiation when flying equivalent to a chest x-ray—cosmic rays are the reasons why.

What’s next for students at UBCO? Any more high-flying projects?

Yes, we have a student team called the UBCO StratoNeers who are currently participating in the Canadian Stratospheric Balloon Experiment Design Challenge. It’s the same competition Caffarello participated in back in 2019

The StratoNeers are testing hardware protective techniques to mitigate the occurrence of bit flips due to cosmic radiation in computer binary code. This experiment would provide new insights into protective techniques to safely store data onboard satellites, rovers and space telescopes.

Do you worry someone will shoot down your balloons?

We weren’t worried about our balloon being shot down. It did drift into Norway but thankfully the Norwegians didn’t mind.

Leonardo Caffarello, left, and Nolan Koblischke pose in front of their atmospheric balloon as it’s prepared for launch.

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Doctoral student Kaja Falkenhain holds a ketone drink at the UBC Okanagan Exercise, Metabolism and Inflammation Lab in Kelowna.

A doctoral student at UBC Okanagan is helping lead a new study investigating a potential new tool to assist people with Type 2 diabetes manage their blood sugars—ketone drinks.

Kaja Falkenhain says that for millions of Canadians, managing Type 2 diabetes can be a lifelong commitment to self-care—including nutrition, physical activity, weight management and medication. Ketone drinks may be one more asset for them, she says.

“Through controlled studies in the lab, we’ve seen that a ketone drink supplement can lower blood glucose levels,” says Falkenhain. “We’re now ready to expand our research to a longer term, real-world trial. We’ll be looking not only at the supplement’s effect on blood glucose, but other health measures as well.”

Falkenhain, who conducts research in Dr. Jonathan Little’s Exercise, Metabolism and Inflammation Lab, says there are opportunities for people in the community with Type 2 diabetes to get involved.

Most people have heard of keto diets, but what exactly are ketones?

Ketones are molecules that are both an energy source and can act similar to a hormone in our bodies. Our livers are continually making small amounts of ketones that our cells can use for energy. When eating a low-carb diet, fasting or while sleeping, the level of ketones in our blood rises to keep up with our bodies’ energy demands. To use an analogy, we’re like a hybrid vehicle, automatically switching to this backup energy source when our main energy source—glucose—runs low.

In addition to providing this alternative fuel source, ketones also signal tissues throughout the body by binding to receptors on the surface of cells. These signalling properties are still poorly understood but they likely help regulate our overall metabolism. Recently, ketone supplements have been developed that can be consumed as a drink. These supplements can raise blood ketones without having to fast or eat a keto diet.

How might a ketone supplement help people with Type 2 diabetes?

When someone has Type 2 diabetes, their bodies can’t effectively regulate blood glucose levels for two main reasons. First, their pancreas doesn’t produce enough insulin—a hormone that acts like a key, unlocking our cells to let in glucose. Second, cells become insulin resistant—the key doesn’t work as well anymore. The result is prolonged high blood glucose that can damage organs, blood vessels and nerves.

Previous studies have shown that ketone supplement drinks can lower blood glucose without other changes to a diet. This is not to say that ketone supplements would replace diet, exercise or medication. Rather, if shown to be useful, they could be another tool in the toolbox for people who need to manage their Type 2 diabetes.

Do we understand how ketones lower blood glucose?

Not entirely. As mentioned, ketones are both an energy source and a signalling molecule. We speculate they may signal the liver to stop releasing glucose into the bloodstream, or maybe signal other tissues to take up more glucose.

Ketones may also be involved in other signalling pathways, with potential effects on cognition, heart function and inflammation. Our study will explore these questions as we look at specific markers in participants’ blood samples.

Your research team has done previous ketone supplement studies. How is this one different?

We’re going outside the lab for the first time to study the real-world effects of consuming a ketone supplement for an extended period. We plan to divide 40 people with Type 2 diabetes into two groups for a 90-day trial. One group will be asked to drink ketone supplements, and the other will be asked to drink a placebo. This will allow us to isolate the effects of the ketone supplement we are studying.

Participants will be provided with a blood pressure device and a continuous blood glucose monitor, and will visit a local lab for blood draws at the start and end of the study. In addition to measuring these health markers, we want to know if regularly drinking ketone supplements for 90 days is feasible for people living with Type 2 diabetes. For example, a participant may stick with the program, but not like the drink’s taste. That would be something we would want to know.

How do people find out more about your research and get involved in this study?

If people are interested in learning more about this study or would like to participate, they can visit: emil.ok.ubc.ca/studies/exogenous-ketones-in-type-2-diabetes-90-day-trial

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Yellowknife, pictured here, is one of only four communities in the Northwest Territories that provides maternity care. More than 40 per cent of women in the NWT must travel at least 100 kilometres—often further—to give birth, new research from UBC’s Southern Medical Program shows.

A UBC researcher is looking at how the lack of health-care resources for pregnant women living in the Northwest Territories influences their delivery and overall wellbeing.

Lauren Eggenberger, a third-year Southern Medical Program student based at UBC Okanagan, has recently published research examining the ramifications of maternal evacuation—those who need to travel away from their families to give birth. Only four of the 33 communities in the NWT provide maternity care, meaning more than 40 per cent of women must travel at least 100 kilometres—often further—before the baby arrives.

“For many years, perinatal travel has been an oppressive and isolating process for Dene, Métis and Inuvialuit women in the Northwest Territories,” she says. “Due to a lack of lack of maternity care services, these women move away from their homes and often miss the joy of celebrating traditional birthing practices with family and friends.”

Until 2017 pregnant women travelled alone. That year, the Canadian government created an escort policy, with funding for travel, lodging and food so pregnant women can bring a companion. However, their partner often stayed home with other children, who are not funded to travel, leaving moms to rely on friends or family members.

“This oppressive and essentialist policy continues to be applied to all women outside of the four NTW communities that offer birthing services,” Eggenberger says. “Indigenous women, making the most of a bad situation, are formulating their decisions for choices of escorts on their unique situations, socio-economic circumstances and social supports.”

Eggenberger says lack of insight and research into the escort policy means it is unclear whether it has achieved the desired effect of reducing the emotional and physical hardships women experience while travelling for birth. To examine this issue, her research involved a systematic review of narrative literature from women who experience maternal evacuation.

There are numerous challenges faced by women who are evacuated for birth including loneliness and fear, separation from family and children, and no connection to the community where their child will be delivered.

Eggenberger says there are additional challenges including the financial burden of birthing away from home and the loss of self-determination and choice. She says this is concerning and may reflect ongoing systemic racism towards Indigenous people in the health-care system

Preliminary data show having an escort can alleviate loneliness and isolation, but Eggenberger notes it does not address the core issue of having to leave home to give birth.

“The birthing process for women who must travel is fraught with separation from their loved ones. And without understanding the consequences of the escort policy on the people regulated by it, we are worried about the wellbeing of these women,” she adds. “There is a gap in stakeholder voices within the policy.”

While this study was taking place a maternal child unit at the regional hospital in Yellowknife was closed and 86 women, who normally would have stayed home to deliver, were evacuated from their communities. This exacerbated this situation and Eggenberger says these women, who experienced maternal evacuation for the first time, were outraged. The situation worsened when they were labelled as privileged by the many women who have experienced maternal evacuations for decades.

Study participants are from both cohorts—those who have been mandated for decades to travel for birth and those who travelled during the recent four-month disruption of perinatal service. Eggenberger says while Indigenous and non-Indigenous women faced the same hardships while away for delivery, the decision of escort did differ.

The non-Indigenous women chose their partners as escorts, while Indigenous participants chose friends, fathers, mothers and sometimes a partner.

There continues, she adds, to be little effort to return to community birthing by creating safety for Indigenous families through traditional practices, Indigenous midwifery and community ceremonies. The final goal should be changing the disproportionate burden of poor outcomes experienced by Indigenous women because they need to travel to give birth.

“While women are given an opportunity in decision-making about who will travel with them as an escort, this does little to address the disparity of delivering their babies away from their families and communities, the burden of figuring out who cares for the children at home and the affect their absences have on the health of their families.”

Eggneberger’s research was published recently in the International Journal of Circumpolar Health.

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Farmers in Shaanxi, China, are more adept at using social media and technology to mitigate the effects of climate change, whereas farmers in the Okanagan and Cariboo are quicker to try new crops, according to new research from UBC Okanagan.

Technology exists that the BC government could leverage to help small farmers connect directly with consumers and also mitigate climate change impacts, say new findings from UBC Okanagan.

Dr. John Janmaat and Dr. Joanne Taylor co-authored new research that examines how farmers in the Okanagan and Cariboo regions of BC are adapting compared to farmers in China’s Shaanxi province. One of the key differences was how Chinese farmers used technology and social media, an option that’s not as widely used in Canada, Dr. Janmaat says.

“Small agricultural producers in China are able to take advantage of online marketing to connect with consumers and to move their products,” says Janmaat, a Professor of Economics in the Irving K. Barber Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. “When the pandemic happened here, Canadians were pivoting very quickly to try and figure out, ‘Okay, what can we do now that we’re shutting down farmers’ markets, and going to visit a farm is probably not something we want to do?’ The idea of moving online was pursued, but now that these pandemic protections have come off, it’s kind of disappearing again. Whereas in China, it’s central.

“We don’t have in BC a centrally supported system of online, local produce marketing. And that’s something that perhaps the provincial government could support.”

Multiple barriers to adaptation existed in both areas, the researchers say. Limited technical knowledge and doubts about adaptation effectiveness were more serious in BC, while limited support from local government and normative expectations were notable in China. Education, targeted research and public investments in irrigation and marketing may contribute to addressing some of these differences, improving the resilience of agricultural climate adaptation in both countries.

The research was a collaboration with Lan Mu, a visiting scholar from Shaanxi Normal University, and UBCO doctoral student Lauren Arnold. It was Janmaat and Lan who struck upon the idea of comparing how Canadian and Chinese farmers are confronting climate change. They realized they were doing similar research, and wanted to bring their worlds together.

The researchers weren’t trying to declare a winner, though, they just wanted to learn from each other. It’s a simple idea, one that farmers have been using for time immemorial, says Taylor, a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Economics, Philosophy and Political Science at UBCO. When farmers encounter a problem, they walk down the road to ask their neighbours how they’re coping.

“We’re just in the middle of climate change and trying to survive,” Taylor says, “and there are farmers from all different levels of productivity that are trying to survive. For example, technology is certainly going to play a much bigger role in the way that we supply water, and in the way that we use water.

“That’s just one example, but technology is certainly a very, very important tool that we’re going to have to use and implement in the future, and there is a lot of research which has been going on, which will continue to go on into the future.”

Tactics such as crop selection and marketing are not mutually exclusive between the two countries. Given Canada’s more frequent, more extreme weather events caused by climate change, there are real impacts on food production now, Taylor says. From drought to floods to fires, farmers across the world are being forced to change how they grow food.

It’s especially plain in Canada, where a smaller population makes direct marketing a challenge. The private sector may not see much return; however, the provincial government could play a role in making the venture worthwhile through funding.

“We need to draw attention to the ways in which we use water and the ways in which we use land for food production while supporting our agriculturalists and food suppliers,” Taylor says. “But as far as the relationship between here and China, work needs to continue in both countries. We really need to nurture those relationships for the betterment of the global food supply.”

The research was published recently in the journal Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change.

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A scenic view of the Eagle River in Yukon. The river is a tributary of the Porcupine River.

A team of international researchers monitoring the impact of climate change on large rivers in Arctic Canada and Alaska determined that, as the region is sharply warming up, its rivers are not moving as scientists have expected.

Dr. Alessandro Ielpi, an Assistant Professor with UBC Okanagan’s Irving K. Barber Faculty of Science, is a landscape scientist and lead author of a paper published this week in Nature Climate Change. The research, conducted with Dr. Mathieu Lapôtre at Stanford University, along with Dr. Alvise Finotello at the University of Padua in Italy, and Université Laval’s Dr. Pascale Roy-Léveillée, examines how atmospheric warming is affecting Arctic rivers flowing through permafrost terrain.

Their findings, says Dr. Ielpi, were a bit surprising.

“The western Arctic is one of the areas in the world experiencing the sharpest atmospheric warming due to climate change,” he says. “Many northern scientists predicted the rivers would be destabilized by atmospheric warming. The understanding was that as permafrost thaws, riverbanks are weakened, and therefore northern rivers are less stable and expected to shift their channel positions at a faster pace.”

This assumption of faster channel migration owing to climate change has dominated the scientific community for decades.

“But the assumption had never been verified against field observations,” he adds.

To test this assumption, Dr. Ielpi and his team analyzed a collection of time-lapsed satellite images—stretching back more than 50 years. They compared more than a thousand kilometres of riverbanks from 10 Arctic rivers in Alaska, the Yukon and Northwest Territories, including major watercourses like the Mackenzie, Porcupine, Slave, Stewart and Yukon.

“We tested the hypothesis that large sinuous rivers in permafrost terrain are moving faster under a warming climate and we found exactly the opposite,” he says. “Yes, permafrost is degrading, but the influence of other environmental changes, such as greening of the Arctic, counteracts its effects. Higher temperatures and more moisture in the Arctic mean the region is greening up. Shrubs are expanding, growing thicker and taller on areas that were previously only sparsely vegetated.”

This growing and robust vegetation along the riverbanks means the banks have become more stable.

“The dynamics of these rivers reflect the extent and impact of global climate change on sediment erosion and deposition in Arctic watersheds,” Dr. Ielpi and his colleagues write in the paper. “Understanding the behaviour of these rivers in response to environmental changes is paramount to understanding and working with the impact of climate warming on Arctic regions.”

Dr. Ielpi points out that monitoring riverbank erosion and channel migration around the globe is an important tool that should be widely used to understand climate change. As part of this research, a dataset of rivers found in non-permafrost regions and representative of warmer climates in the Americas, Africa and Oceania was also analyzed. Those rivers migrated at rates consistent with what was reported in previous studies, unlike those in the Arctic.

“We found that large sinuous rivers with various degrees of permafrost distribution in their floodplains and catchments, display instead a peculiar range in migration rates,” says Dr. Ielpi. “Surprisingly, these rivers migrate at slower rates under warming temperatures.”

The time-lapse analysis shows that the sideways migration of large Arctic sinuous rivers has decreased by about 20 per cent over the last half-century.

“The migration deceleration of about 20 per cent of the documented Arctic watercourses in the last half century is an important continent-scale signal. And our methodology tells us that 20 per cent may very well be a conservative measure,” he says. “We’re confident it can be linked to processes such as shrubification and permafrost thaw, which are in turn related to atmospheric warming.

“Scientific thinking often evolves through incremental discoveries, although great value lies in disruptive ideas that force us to look at an old problem with new eyes,” states Dr. Ielpi. “We sincerely hope our study will encourage landscape and climate scientists elsewhere to re-evaluate other core assumptions that, upon testing, may reveal fascinating and exciting facets of our ever-changing planet.”

Dr. Alessandro Ielpi, an Assistant Professor with UBC Okanagan’s Irving K. Barber Faculty of Science, paddles the Stewart River in Yukon.

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New research from UBCO doctoral student Alanna Shwed shows pandemic restrictions at school made sizable impacts on parents trying to pack lunches.

Parents, you’ve been seen.

New research from UBC Okanagan’s Alanna Shwed has revealed what many parents may already know—packing lunches for your kids has always been stressful, and it got worse during COVID-19.

Findings from Shwed’s study show a need for better support to help ease the burden parents experience when packing their child’s school lunch during an already extremely stressful time.

Shwed undertook the work as a research assistant during her Master of Science degree in Kinesiology at Nipissing University in North Bay, Ontario. She is now pursuing a doctorate at UBCO.

It was conversations with her master’s supervisor Dr. Brenda Bruner and Dr. Kristen Ferguson—both working mothers who pack lunches—that led to this research. They wanted to know if other parents were thinking the same thing: what happens at school lunchtime in a pandemic?

“Mostly it came out of curiosity,” Shwed says, “but also from lived experiences of being parents themselves. The pandemic affected everyone, especially parents. We wanted to find out whether there’s a way that we can more creatively support parents.”

The research began before COVID-19 heaped more pressure on parents trying to balance their children’s nutritional needs and their wants.

Rather than shelve their work until after pandemic restrictions eased, Shwed and her colleagues used it to sharpen their focus.

They recruited nearly 300 participants from parent-specific Facebook groups across Ontario. The parents then completed a detailed, online survey about lunch packing habits. Shwed’s team also scoped all earlier research into the subject to design their survey.

They found sizable shifts.

Some schools restricted access to microwaves while others asked children to take all their garbage home with them.

“When you send your child to school with a yogurt, unless they’re washing the container clean, you’re getting some of that yogurt back in the lunch bag at the end of the day,” she says.

Other schools reduced eating time or changed where students ate lunch. And some teachers were limited in how they could help students with packaging or opening lids.

“Parents told us they’d have to practice,” Shwed says. “They’d get their kids to test out what’s going to work, and what’s not going to work. Before the pandemic teachers used to be able to help kids, so it wasn’t something parents necessarily had to think about.”

The data could help parents and teachers understand each other and the stress of school lunches, better, Shwed says.

Her study finds parents would benefit from more transparency behind the reasons for at-school policies, and schools and school systems are reminded of at-home realities.

“Moving forward, there is opportunity for providing support for parents, for teachers, for school administration to make sure that kids are eating enough and have enough time to eat so they can get through the day,” Shwed says “That’s going to make the day easier for teachers and the evening easier for parents.”

The study appears in the Canadian Journal of Dietetic Practice and Research.

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An interdisciplinary team of UBC Okanagan researchers has teamed with rural residents to identify how to better connect them to health care.

As the new year arrives, many people resolve to take better care of their health.

But, as UBCO researchers have determined, the road to improved health isn’t always smooth for people who live in small and rural communities.

“Diabetes, cardiovascular disease, asthma, poor mental health and obesity are higher in rural and remote areas than in urban communities in Canada,” explains Dr. Kathy Rush, Professor in UBCO’s School of Nursing. “Such health inequities are exacerbated by geography.”

Hazardous mountain passes, snowstorms, ferry schedules, travel time and fuel costs all are challenges people in rural places face when trying to meet their health-care needs.

Knowing these challenges so well, Dr. Rush and other UBC Okanagan faculty across multiple disciplines teamed up to create the Rural Health Equity Cluster. Their goal is to improve the lives of rural residents through conducting community-based rural health research.

The cluster’s latest research examines how technology can better connect rural residents to health-care services.

Participants from 10 rural communities in BC’s interior were asked to brainstorm technology solutions. They then rated the solutions on both their feasibility and their importance. Lastly, the researchers and participants came together as a group to interpret the results.

“Engaging with the community provided a diversity and richness of ideas,” says Dr. Rush, Rural Health Equity Cluster co-lead. “The participants not only told us about the potential of technology, they also wisely informed us of its pitfalls.”

The collaborative process used what’s known as concept mapping. Related ideas are placed into clusters to co-create a visual solution.

One of the clusters included technology solutions such as real-time teleconferencing and smartphone apps to remotely monitor patients’ health. However, in another cluster, participants emphasized the need for tools to be simple and accessible. For example, rural communities need reliable and affordable internet and cellular coverage.

One participant compared technological tools to sitting in your car with a fob in your pocket and having your car start.

“When you’re the user, what you want is almost a manual button that you push ‘start’ and it works.”

Yet another cluster of ideas focused on training and support for patients, families and health-care staff. In this case, a participant said people need an ambassador who “can push the buttons and ensure that when I want to talk to the specialist, I can talk to the specialist and not worry about clicking.”

“The participants in this study made clear that digital literacy is often overlooked in the development of technology solutions,” says Dr. Eric Li, Associate Professor in the Faculty of Management and fellow co-lead of the cluster. “This confirmed for us that rural voices must be included in the design and delivery of tools to advance health equity.”

Fellow researcher Dr. Cherisse Seaton facilitated the virtual discussions with the participants and oversaw the data collection. She says including rural community members in all the steps of the concept mapping process has additional benefits.

“Using this approach, which was a bit different from usual, might have a lasting and positive impact on participants’ perception and engagement in community-based research.”

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Researchers from UBC Okanagan are striving to better understand how to measure wines impacted by wildfire smoke.

As climate change continues to intensify wildfire season in British Columbia, the heavy smoke that frequently settles over vineyards can seep into the grapes and create ashy, smoky or medicinal-tasting wine.

New UBC Okanagan research examines how these wines are being tested and suggests a better chemical marker for predicting smoke taint.

Dr. Wesley Zandberg, an Associate Professor of Chemistry in the Irving K. Barber Faculty of Science, collaborated on new research published recently in the journal Molecules. Key participants in this project included researchers at Kelowna-based Supra Research and Development and the University of Adelaide.

The teams studied 10 Okanagan wines produced in 2018, a serious fire season. All wines were perceptibly influenced by smoke exposure. Three wines were on the market but identified as “smoke affected” and seven were never marketed because of the high levels of smoke taint detected after fermentation.

Researchers sent these tainted wines—as well as model wines deliberately fortified with carefully determined concentrations of chemicals linked to the aroma of smoke—to nine commercial and research laboratories around the world to compare concentration results and assess testing accuracy.

The nine laboratories had very similar—and accurate—results in calculating the concentrations of generally accepted markers of smoke taint like guaiacol and 4-methylguaiacol.

However, they had much lower accuracies for other volatile phenols and particularly for free cresols—a class of related compounds. Not only were the laboratories less accurate in identifying these free cresols, but the calculated concentrations of these free cresols in the tainted wines varied significantly between each lab.

“It’s important to notice that just because these chemical markers of smoke taint are there and can be measured or tasted, that doesn’t mean you have a tainted product,” says Dr. Zandberg. “That’s why it’s important to distinguish between smoke-tainted and smoke-affected wine. Just because smoke can be perceived doesn’t mean necessarily the wine is tainted, since this can be subjective.”

For example, people might appreciate the taste or smell of smoke in wine. Smoke can add to a wine’s profile depending on the balance of other tastes and consumer preferences, he says. However, if the smoke taste is beyond what a majority of people would enjoy, it becomes smoke tainted.

The paper notes that some volatile phenols naturally occur at high levels in certain species of grapes like Shiraz, which is associated with a peppery taste. Guaiacol can also be present in significant levels after wine matures in oak barrels.

In a related project, Dr. Zandberg’s team is currently working on defining the normal levels of naturally occurring phenols in years unaffected by wildfire smoke.

These sensory evaluations included the smoke-tainted Okanagan wines along with several untainted Australian vintages.

Judges differentiated between fruitiness and acidity and the sensory evidence of smoke exposure, like cold ash, medicinal or burnt rubber aromas and flavours, as well as an ashy aftertaste.

Interestingly, concentrations of free cresols—the same compounds that the laboratories were least accurate in identifying—were most strongly correlated to the taste and smell of smoke taint in the sensory tests.

Wildfire smoke will continue to impact Okanagan vineyards and those around the world, Dr. Zandberg says. While the taint will vary between regions, because it is determined by the vegetation that has been burnt, his ongoing research will help wine producers better protect their products.

“This kind of research is valuable because it can provide more accurate and more regionally relevant risk assessment tools,” says Dr. Zandberg. “It can importantly help wine producers connect chemical measurements to the taste and smell of their product, and that leads to improved ways to potentially mitigate this problem and reduce smoke taint in Okanagan wines.”

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Crowds as large as this may become more common in countries around the world beyond 2022. The United Nations predicts the human population will hit 8 billion people on November 15.

If the United Nations’ prediction is accurate, the world’s 8 billionth baby will be born on Nov. 15.

The UN’s World Population Prospects 2022 says the earth will crest 8 billion just before India surpasses China as the globe’s most populous nation—expected in 2023. Further, the UN predicts the world’s population will peak at 10.4 billion in the 2080s.

Yet, that same United Nations estimates 821 million people are undernourished, many of them being low-income consumers, women and children who are especially vulnerable. How will we feed and house all these people? What will they do for work? Who will teach them and keep the laws?

What is a world to do?

UBC Okanagan professors and researchers are acutely aware of the challenges that population growth presents. They are also keenly aware of the hard work necessary to navigate the planet’s growing population. Here is how their research is intersecting with population growth.

Robert Godin researches sustainable energy with a focus on the development of photocatalysts which can harness solar energy to sustainably produce high-energy chemical fuels such as hydrogen. He says technology has created something of a run-on effect with energy.

Robert Godin, Assistant Professor of Chemistry. Tel: 250 807 8438. Email: robert.godin@ubc.ca

“A transition to sustainable energy in a world with 8 billion people is not only possible, but necessary. Population growth and increases in quality of life have driven the constant increase in energy demand. Yet, improved energetic efficiencies don’t balance the growth and often result in even greater energy consumption by making technology more accessible.”

Ross Hickey teaches management and economics at UBC. His research on charitable giving in Canada considers the distributional consequences of population growth. In particular, he studies how Canadians give to help others overseas.

“Population growth can be a major contributor to economic growth, but there are trade-offs: that growth may not be shared equally and the environmental costs associated with more people, goods and services may be difficult to address.”

Ross Hickey, Associate Professor of Economics. Tel: 250 807 8653. Email: ross.hickey@ubc.ca

Katrina Plamondon’s contributions to a global pandemic treaty are made possible through her research into vaccine equity at UBC Okanagan. A 2020 Michael Smith Health Research Scholar, Plamondon leads national dialogue about equity and Canada’s role in global health research, with a special focus on issues of vaccine equity.

“Our collective, global health, solidarity and obligations to others beyond our own borders in the world matters. This requires us to think very differently about the planet, beyond international health.”

Katrina Plamondon, Assistant Professor of Nursing. Tel: 250 807 8681. Email: katrina.plamondon@ubc.ca

Joanne Taylor is a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada Postdoctoral Fellow in agricultural climate change adaptation and food security policy. Her work is at the crossroads of sustainable agriculture, climate change and population growth.

“Much of the global population is dependent on an industrialized food system that is currently at capacity and unable to fulfil global food demand due to stressors such as burgeoning population growth, inflation, inequality and catastrophic climate change which is severely impacting food security for the most vulnerable. It is imperative that agricultural adaptation is implemented and practised alongside mitigation policies as a key strategy to becoming more resilient in an increasingly extreme climate. More importantly, humanity must consider alternative food practices such as Indigenous food production and small-scale farming.”

Joanne Taylor, Postdoctoral Fellow. Email: joanne.taylor@ubc.ca.

Lisa Tobber and her team of structural engineering researchers adopt a holistic perspective that considers the social, environmental and economic factors behind the vast engineering problems faced today. Combating natural disasters and the climate crisis takes the ingenuity and creativity of an inclusive group of diverse individuals with a range of expertise and lived experiences.

“Structural engineers will be challenged to build much-needed infrastructure to be safe, sustainable, resilient to climate disasters and earthquakes, quick to construct and economical. We need the construction industry to be innovation leaders, exploring the use of new materials, systems and tools. We also need to think about building for the future, design for the life cycle of the building and design for deconstruction.”

Lisa Tobber, Assistant Professor of Engineering. Email: lisa.tobber@ubc.ca.

Nathan Pelletier is an industrial ecologist and ecological economist whose research addresses the intersection of food system sustainability measurement and management.

“Access to food of sufficient quality and quantity is a fundamental human right that is currently denied to hundreds of millions of people. Food systems are also a key driver of environmental change, as well as particularly susceptible to increasing climate unpredictability. Identifying means to sustainably feed the growing human population constitutes a profound challenge whose resolution requires research to identify and support implementation of a spectrum of technological interventions, dietary changes and redistributive efforts.”

Nathan Pelletier, Associate Professor of Biology. Tel: 250 807 8245. Email: nathan.pelletier@ubc.ca.

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