Patty Wellborn

Email: patty.wellborn@ubc.ca


 

A person leafing through pages of a writing notepad

Entries are open for UBCO’s annual Okanagan Short Story Contest

While December is the time many people look forward to carrying on favourite traditions, the creative writing faculty at UBC Okanagan is encouraging local writers to begin a new one.

UBCO’s Okanagan Short Story Contest was initiated 25 years ago by Nancy Holmes and John Lent. Holmes, Associate Professor of Creative Writing, says if budding writers haven’t yet participated in the annual contest, maybe this is the year they should.

“When we launched the contest, we had no idea it would just get bigger and better two and a half decades on,” says Professor Holmes, who teaches in the Faculty of Creative and Critical Studies. “Each year the stories that win are amazing. I’m hoping for 25 more years and many more wonderful stories.”

The short story contest has a long tradition of introducing budding writers to the Okanagan community. Winners in previous years have gone on to publish with Penguin Random House, Arsenal Pulp Press and NeWest Press, as well as numerous national and international magazines and journals.

Local emerging writers are invited to submit their work for the chance to win great prizes, including a top award of $1,000 and a one-week retreat at The Woodhaven Eco Culture Centre in Kelowna. Second and third prizes are $400 and $200, respectively. This is the fourth consecutive year the contest has been open to high school students and the top prize for that category is $200.

Entries are open to fiction writers in the Southern Interior of British Columbia—east of Hope, west of the Alberta border, north of the border to the United States and south of Williams Lake.

All original entries must be between 1,000 and 4,000 words, and writers are welcome to submit as many entries as they choose. There is a $20 entry fee for each story (but no charge for students in the high school category). All proceeds will go towards the FCCS Creative Writing scholarships at UBC Okanagan, and towards supporting Indspire, an Indigenous organization that invests in the education of First Nations, Inuit and Métis people.

“I really do hope people, who might have some time during the upcoming holiday season, try their hand at creative writing and test the waters by submitting an entry to the short story contest,” says Holmes. “Who knows, this might become an annual tradition for them.”

Entries must be received by 11:59 pm February 6, 2023.

Submitted entries will be adjudicated by celebrated Canadian fiction writer Corinna Chong and faculty from the Creative Writing Program. Chong won the 2021 CBC Short Story Prize for her work Kids in Kindergarten. Her first novel, Belinda’s Rings, was published in 2013 and her short fiction has been published in magazines across Canada, including The Malahat Review, Room, Grain and The Humber Literary Review. Chong currently lives in Kelowna and teaches English and Fine Arts at Okanagan College.

Winners of the short story contest will be announced in March at a public event where the finalists will be invited to read from their work. For a full list of contest details and rules, visit: fccs.ok.ubc.ca/short-story

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Brain cells with the focus put on astrocytes

Star-shaped astrocytes, shown red in this image, extend cellular projections like tentacles to communicate with neighbouring brain cells. Once astrocytes become cancerous, the projections become longer, and their networks become more complex, invading different areas of the brain.

Brain cancer. It’s the diagnosis no one wants to hear.

Patients with high-grade gliomas, or tumours in the brain and spinal cord, have an average life expectancy of a mere 12 to 16 months. Not only do tumours in the brain spread more aggressively than in other tissues, but these tumours are also resistant to chemotherapy and have a high probability to recur after surgical removal.

Now UBC Okanagan researchers are working to better understand the development and rapid growth of cancerous cells in the brain.

Sessional Lecturer Dr. Mitra Tabatabaee and Dr. Fred Menard, Associate Professor in Chemistry, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at UBCO, examined astrocytoma, a cancer that begins in astrocytes—cells that support nerve cells.

Currently, astrocytoma is highly fatal with no effective treatment.

Their research, recently published in Cells, reviews the potential role of an imbalance of glutamate—a neurotransmitter that stimulates nerve cells—in astrocytoma progression. It suggests that several receptors not previously considered in brain cancer research might be crucial to the cancerous growth of astrocytoma.

“Astrocytoma spreads throughout the brain quickly, and there is no treatment,” says Dr. Tabatabaee. “There’s not enough information about the development of astrocytoma, which is one of the main reasons for the lack of effective treatment. We need to know first the molecular mechanism of what’s happening.”

Star-shaped astrocytes extend cellular projections like tentacles that stretch to communicate with their neighbouring cells. Once these astrocytes become cancerous, the projections become longer, and their networks become more complex, invading different areas of the brain. How far they extend in the brain is strongly correlated with the cancer’s aggressivity and its resistance to treatment.

“If some extra-long cell projections are left behind during surgery, the tumour can grow back,” says Dr. Tabatabaee.

A suspected cause of this uncontrolled growth of cellular processes is elevated levels of glutamate. When astrocytes sense glutamate, the concentration of calcium rises inside the cell. Since calcium is also necessary for growing cellular projections, the glutamate receptors that affect the calcium inside astrocytes are prime suspects for the abnormal growth of astrocytoma cells.

By studying astrocytoma cells, Dr. Tabatabaee and Dr. Menard identified a glutamate receptor and two other molecular contributors crucial in extending the projections of these cancerous cells.

With further study, researchers believe that these overlooked receptors can serve as targets for designing more effective chemotherapies and open up new avenues to halt the progression of this aggressive and often fatal cancer.

“Studying and targeting these specific receptors, may pave the way to understand how we can stop infiltration of the disease throughout the brain and prevent the tumour growth,” says Dr. Tabatabaee.

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Young woman listening to music and daydreaming

Research from UBCO says young women can feel better about their body image after a mindfulness session. However, body dissatisfaction returns as soon as they see images of “idealized” thin women.

A team of psychology researchers at UBC Okanagan has determined women who participate in one 10-minute intervention can come away feeling better about themselves and their perceived body image.

Associate Professor Dr. Maya Libben and her former honours undergraduate student Erin Fraser are researching the trend of micro-interventions. Just a quick 10-minute session with a soothing, previously recorded voice seems to make a significant difference when it comes to body satisfaction.

“In our lab we do lots of research around body image, self-assessments and interventions to discuss the effects of body dissatisfaction,” Dr. Libben explains. “We are also interested in micro-interventions. What can be accomplished from a quick gratitude meditation?”

Dr. Libben, who teaches psychology in the Irving K. Barber Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, says the issue of body dissatisfaction, especially in young teens and women, is chronic and concerning. More than 50 per cent say they are dissatisfied with their weight, shape and size. This can lead to adverse physical and mental health outcomes, including low self-esteem, depression, stress, obesity and social anxiety. Body dissatisfaction can also contribute to the development of eating disorders, including anorexia nervosa, bulimia and binge eating.

Her team has done previous research, including a large-scale eight-week gratitude project, with school girls aged between 12 and 14. And while the longer programs were successful, Dr. Libben was intrigued by the idea of trying a one-time, 10-minute intervention.

For this particular study, 175 female undergraduate students, aged between 18 and 24, listened to three different sessions, recorded by someone with a soothing voice. One recording was about mindfulness, one about gratitude and one was a reading from a history textbook.

After each 10-minute session, participants were asked how they felt.

“What’s interesting is that body dissatisfaction decreased in all three conditions,” Dr. Libben adds. “We were expecting this for meditations but not for the history reading. What we realized is it is simply taking a 10-minute break and listening to something nice and calming can help body image. After each pep talk our study participants felt better about themselves.”

However, Dr. Libben notes things quickly changed.

Study participants were shown one of two sets of images—a set of neutral photos depicting inanimate objects, such as a car, or images of a perceived ideal woman, a typical thin body image.

“The feeling of body dissatisfaction shot right up again as soon as they saw images of thin women,” she says. “While we’ve learned we can bring down the feeling of dissatisfaction with moments of gratitude, it’s not enough to buffer you. This is troubling, especially in today’s society that is full of photoshopped bodies on social media.”

Her study, published in Body Image, confirms media exposure to “perceived perfect” images corresponds with women’s generalized dissatisfaction with their bodies, increased investment in appearance and the increased endorsement of disordered eating behaviours.

“Research has demonstrated a clear link between exposure to idealized imagery and body image disturbances,” Dr. Libben adds. “And even positive micro-interventions are not enough to fully buffer the negative impact exposure to thin-ideal images can have on young women.”

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student with Canadian flag

Is it time Canadians re-examine our history and what should be taught in citizenship education programs?

The true north is said to be strong and free, but is that how Canadians feel?

Dr. Catherine Broom, who specializes in teaching local and global citizenship and social studies education at UBC Okanagan, has launched a survey that invites all Canadians to share their views on Canadian citizenship, identity and citizenship education. She is hoping to gather Canadians’ views, hopes and beliefs about what kind of society they would like Canada to become.

“Canadian national identity and citizenship has been subject to contention since Canada first came together as a collection of European colonies on lands that were, and continue to be, home to rich Indigenous cultures across diverse terrains,” says Dr. Broom, associate professor Okanagan School of Education.

Dr. Broom explains her upcoming research and how Canadians can get involved. The survey is part of the first phase of a five-year project.

Do recent events illustrate significant contemporary issues in Canada today? Can they be linked as challenges to traditional conceptions of Canadian identity and citizenship, which is part of our citizenship education?

The toppling of statues of historical figures and the renaming of streets and universities illustrate that some Canadians are questioning the nature and form of their citizenship and identity: Is what we have historically taught in citizenship education in schools what we should teach?

Canadians’ actions illustrate that this is an opportune time to survey diverse Canadians from across the country on their views of citizenship and identity. This could be a way to move forward in our understandings of who we are as a nation.

Your new study is inviting Canadians to share their views of citizenship and identity. What are you hoping to determine?

My goal is to explore how Canadians understand what Canada is—what does it mean to be a Canadian and how we educate for this. While we do have citizenship education programs, I hope to develop a program that addresses past and contemporary issues and finds a way of bringing Canadians together that aims to heal historical wrongs and move forward as an inclusive and thriving nation.

What is the importance of citizenship education in schools?

Citizenship education is threaded through the history of the development of public schools, which has historically included the goals of developing good national citizens. Public schools developed at a time when nation-states were developing in Europe—Prussia was one of the first nation-states to establish free, national schools with this purpose.

Early citizenship education programs intended to develop patriotic citizens. Now is a good time to survey Canadians on their ideas about the nature and form of Canada and what we should teach in citizenship education programs.

How do people find out more about your study or get involved?

Dr. Broom invites you to participate and share your ideas about the kind of nation we want to be and how we educate for this. Interested participants can learn more about the study, find resources on citizenship education or fill out the survey at citizenshipeducation.ok.ubc.ca.

This survey is open to adults across Canada, and is available in English and French.

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seniors walking

UBC Okanagan health experts will explain how to embrace simple exercise and diet strategies to age well and prevent chronic diseases.

What: The Southern Medical Program presents MEDTalks: Health strategies to optimize aging and quality of life.
Who: UBC Clinical Instructor and Family Physician Dr. Janet Evans and UBC Professor Dr. Jonathan Little.
When: Wednesday, December 7, 7 to 8 pm.
Venue: UBC Clinical Academic Campus in Kelowna General Hospital, 2312 Pandosy Street. Virtual option also available.

As we grow older, changes in our body’s metabolism impact how we process the food we eat. Our metabolic health influences everything from exercise performance to weight fluctuations to the risk of developing Type 2 diabetes.

Adopting a healthy lifestyle and diet can greatly impact metabolic health and increase vitality. However, with the overwhelming amount of information ready at the click of a mouse, the challenge is often determining what’s relevant and how to even get started.

Learn from UBC Okanagan health experts on how to embrace simple exercise and diet strategies into your daily life to age well and prevent chronic diseases.

Dr. Janet Evans is the Medical Director of CGB Medical and a family physician in Kelowna. She is also a Clinical Instructor with the UBC Faculty of Medicine and an Affiliate Clinician with the UBC Centre for Chronic Disease Prevention and Management. In her practice, she continuously looks for strategies to improve health, as well as prevent and reverse disease in her patients. In partnership with a registered nurse, her interdisciplinary team developed a primary-care-based dietary program to manage chronic diseases without medication. Together, they work with community partners to improve physical functioning and improve health span (how well one lives) versus life span (how long one lives).

Dr. Jonathan Little is a Professor with UBC Okanagan’s Faculty of Health and Social Development and an Investigator with the UBC Centre for Chronic Disease Prevention and Management. After pursuing his master’s degree at the University of Saskatchewan focused on sports nutrition, Dr. Little completed his doctorate at McMaster University focusing on muscle metabolic adaptations to exercise in healthy humans and individuals with Type 2 diabetes.

Dr. Little’s research at UBC Okanagan focuses on optimizing diet and exercise strategies to prevent, treat and reverse chronic disease with a focus on Type 2 diabetes.

MEDTalks is a health education lecture series exploring current and emerging trends in medicine. Hosted by the Southern Medical Program at UBC Okanagan, researchers and health professionals share their insights and expertise on how to enhance your overall health.

The event is free and open to the public with in-person and virtual options available.

To register, or find out more, visit: smp.med.ubc.ca/community-engagement/medtalks

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woman in pain

New UBCO research determines psychopaths may have a decreased ability to sense someone else’s pain.

While the manipulative and sometimes violent behaviour of psychopaths might be attributed to a lack of empathy, new UBC Okanagan research suggests that psychopaths may have a decreased ability to even sense someone else’s pain.

Dr. Kimberley Kaseweter, a postdoctoral fellow in psychology at UBCO, has recently published research examining the relationship between psychopathic traits and perceiving other people’s facial expressions of pain. Her paper was published in the Journal of Personality Disorders.

“A lot of the literature has focused on those basic emotions and psychopathy, like anger, fear and sadness,” says Dr. Kaseweter. “Almost no research has really focused on pain, which I found surprising because of the association between pain and violent behaviour.”

For this study, participants completed the Self-Report Psychopathy Scale to assess psychopathic traits within four different facets: callous affect, interpersonal manipulation, antisocial behaviour and erratic lifestyle. They also watched video recordings of patients manipulating injured shoulders in range-of-motion tests and then rated both the intensity and unpleasantness of the pain from patients’ facial expressions.

These recordings from actual patients showed spontaneous, natural expressions of pain that had been intensely coded frame by frame. The patients also self-reported their pain from these manipulations.

Dr. Kaseweter and her team were interested in whether psychopathic traits were connected to differences in how these participants might perceive others’ pain. They also wanted to know if that difference was due to conservative response bias—consistently rating all perceived pain lower on the pain scale—reduced perceptual sensitivity—inaccurate ratings, whether higher or lower—or both of these factors.

“We were able to break those two factors apart and tease that apart, which I think really gets at answering our questions. Do individuals who were high in psychopathic traits have an inability to see the facial expression of pain? Or if they can actually see it and just don’t care,” she says.

The study found that while people with psychopathic traits did not have a response bias—or were no more or less likely in general to ascribe pain to people—they were significantly less accurate in their ratings of pain in other people’s facial expressions.

This reduced sensitivity to other people’s pain was most associated with callous affect and antisocial behaviour. Dr. Kaseweter says this finding is not surprising, giving callous affect is related to low empathy and reduced concern for others while antisocial behaviour involves engaging in criminal acts.

The literature on psychopathy is still unclear on the underlying causes behind these facets of psychopathy, but Dr. Kaseweter says this study showed that one possible mechanism might be a reduced ability to see other people’s pain. The violence inhibition mechanism model suggests that in order to experience empathy, people have to first be able to accurately perceive someone’s distress to then withdraw from violent behaviour.

This study, she says, supports that theory.

“If they’re not accurately perceiving those facial expressions, they’d be missing the ability to identify that expression and then feel empathy and pull away from that violent behaviour.”

While psychopaths have high rates of criminal behaviour, rehabilitation efforts with current treatments for these individuals have been largely ineffective, if not at times counterproductive.

Dr. Kaseweter is hopeful that this study could help isolate an area to direct more successful treatment in the future, especially with the clarification between response bias and actual inaccuracies in pain sensitivity.

“I think it’s a very important distinction. So how do we help? Is it just that people high in psychopathic traits don’t care? Then we have to teach them empathy in a different way. Or is it that they’re not seeing facial expressions accurately? Our findings suggest the latter—and that this decreased ability to detect pain accurately may underlie the lack of empathy we see with psychopathy.

“If this is the case, then training interventions designed to improve pain detection may, in turn, reduce the callous affect and antisocial behaviour characterizing psychopathy.”

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Life Bulb

UBCO students have created living life bulb that generates light from organic material.

A group of UBC Okanagan students lit up the competition and won gold with their creation of a living light bulb.

The team’s living light bulb aims to generate light from organic material. Their creation, called Life Bulb, is not reliant on electricity and can convert greenhouse gases into oxygen.

The students competed in the 2022 International Genetically Engineered Machine (iGEM) Competition, a synthetic biology competition in Paris involving more than 350 teams from more than 40 countries.

Despite this being UBCO’s first showing in the competition and despite the associated struggles with starting a team from the ground up, the UBCO students won a gold medal for their project, says Dr. Mitra Tabatabaee, the Principal Investigator for Life Bulb.

With Life Bulb, the students are creating a sustainable alternative to LEDs using a fungal bioluminescent pathway with photosynthetic bacteria as their chassis. The project is still in testing, but the intention is to create a green, glowing light source that is easily scalable and can be powered through the sun thanks to photosynthesis.

“We wanted to provide this alternative sustainable source that can be potentially carbon-negative by absorbing greenhouse gases to reduce the impact that lighting has on our climate,” says Alyssa Kong, co-team lead and third-year Bachelor of Science student majoring in microbiology.

Life Bulb is an entirely student-led initiative, started in early 2022. It was the first project from the UBCO iGEM club, which was founded by Gustavo Muro Marchani, a third-year Bachelor of Science student majoring in biochemistry and molecular biology.

The team is interdisciplinary, with 16 students from backgrounds in biology, chemistry, engineering, computer science and management. In addition to faculty advisors from the Irving K. Barber Faculty of Science and the School of Engineering, the team consulted with various stakeholders and industry professionals including lighting experts to get feedback. Syilx artist Les Louis also contributed by creating a blueprint for a wood carving that incorporates Life Bulb as an art medium.

The gold medal demonstrates that the judges found their work worthy of the highest level of achievement, says Dr. Tabatabaee.

“These brilliant undergraduate students proved that when there is potential, passion, perseverance and teamwork, no goal is unachievable,” she adds. “Our iGEM team raised its own funds, shaped its own international community and negotiated for lab space throughout the competition season. It was a great honour and joy for me to work with this thriving team.”

The team, which was also nominated for Best Wiki, is still considering the next steps for Life Bulb and for next year’s iGEM competition. But they are passionate about the possibilities, says Muro Marchani, team co-lead.

“Everything can be grown,” he adds. “That’s the new mindset with the wonder of synthetic biology. Instead of mining or getting it from different places that might harm the environment, you can grow it anywhere.”

Student Robin Blott in a lab

Bachelor of Science student Robin Blott inspects a sample of Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803, the photosynthetic chassis for the Life Bulb has been molecularly engineered to create bioluminescence.

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A photo of a researcher working with a thermal manikin.

UBCO researcher Dr. Farzan Gholamreza gets Newton, a thermal manikin, ready for a sweat test in his outdoor exercise gear.

Weekend joggers, competitive athletes and people keeping fit in the gym can say goodbye to sweaty armpits and clingy damp garments after a tough workout.

Thanks to a new collaboration with Lululemon, UBC Okanagan researchers and their partners are working to develop a next-generation fabric that will keep a person warm, dry and comfortable regardless of temperature and level of exertion.

Creating a functional material that can address thermophysiological comfort—maintaining thermal regulation by the exchange of heat and moisture from the skin to the environment—has long been a goal of activewear companies, explains Dr. Farzan Gholamreza, lead author and coordinator of UBCO’s Cluster of Research Excellence in Comfort Enhancing Technologies.

“Over the past few decades, significant advances have been made in the sportswear industry to develop athletic apparel that has numerous characteristics to enhance comfort,” Dr. Gholamreza adds. “Our latest research seeks to identify some key fabric properties that will bolster human comfort levels in active wear.”

Dr. Gholamreza and a team of researchers at the UBC Materials and Manufacturing Research Institute, along with researchers from the University of Alberta, University of Toronto and the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology, are investigating better ways to analyze how fabric systems react to body heat and moisture.

“Understanding how a material responds to the heat generated by the body is a vital component to developing fabrics that transfer sweat to the environment and cool the body,” says Dr. Abbas Milani, Professor of Mechanical Engineering and UBCO Principal’s Research Chair in Sustainable and Smart Manufacturing.

A physically active person generates heat that needs to be dissipated into the environment to maintain thermal balance. Perspiration also protects against overheating by dissipating heat from the skin through evaporation.

Failure to dissipate heat and moisture from the body may result in heat stress or heat exhaustion which can affect health and performance.

To take this research to the next level, testing devices such as sweating hot plates, cylinders and thermal manikins have been developed. Compared to human wear trials, these devices save time and money to calculate the thermophysiological comfort of textiles since the work is done in the lab, not on people.

With the help of a “sweating torso” UBCO researchers developed a numerical model to accurately measure heat and moisture transfer between the fabric and the user. This formula provides a basis to better understand how a fabric’s properties, environmental conditions and physiological parameters can work together to enhance overall comfort levels.

“Mathematical models combined with the simulation of the sweating torso have demonstrated that the model could help predict the comfort properties of fabrics including initial cooling, sustained cooling, cooling delay, moisture uptake and the drying time,” says Dr. Gholamreza. “Overall, the model is a helpful tool that can be widely used to predict how fabric systems protect the comfort of users under moderate to intensive physical activities.”

The research was published in the journal Materials and supported through the UBC Eminence Program.

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A photo of the Wilden net zero home

The newly constructed net zero home will be open for the public to explore Sunday, November 20 starting at noon. Built to the highest energy-efficient standards, once occupied this house will produce as much energy as it uses in a year.

A unique, made-in-Kelowna collaboration to create an energy-efficient, high-performance home is taking the goal to the next level. And that goal is zero.

UBC Okanagan, Okanagan College, the Wilden Group, AuthenTech Homes and FortisBC launched the Wilden Living Lab project in 2016 when two homes were constructed side by side in the Wilden community. One is called the Home of Today and was built to regular specifications and codes. The other, called the Home of Tomorrow, was constructed with advanced materials and systems that made it an energy-efficient home.

While the homes were built by AuthenTech Homes and the Wilden Group, with help from Okanagan College trades students, UBC Okanagan Professor Dr. Shahria Alam and his team conducted research to compare the energy use and costs of the two buildings once occupied. An extensive monitoring system consisting of temperature, humidity and power sensors, was utilized to collect, analyze and compare energy and cost variations in the two homes. After the initial three years, the comparative results show that the Home of Tomorrow used 67 per cent less energy and had 99.6 per cent fewer carbon emissions than its neighbour.

“Sustainable energy usage and homebuilding practices are important issues for our community,” says Dr. Alam. “UBC Okanagan is pleased to lend its research expertise to a project that will encourage sustainable development here at home and provide tools for others around the world to follow in our footsteps.”

Now, the collaboration is going further with the construction of a third next-generation home, built to the BC Energy Step Code’s highest level, Step 5. The house—with a high-tech building envelope that is airtight and is complete with an efficient solar photovoltaic system, top-notch energy recovery and storage systems and highly efficient mechanical systems—will achieve net zero energy, meaning it will produce as much, or more energy than it uses in a year.

The provincial government is requiring that by 2032 all new buildings will be constructed to Step 5 conditions. With only a few years to go, there is a major push to educate construction practitioners about the BC Energy Step Code, says Dr. Alam, who teaches in UBCO’s School of Engineering.

With this new code, the building industry must follow tactics to reduce the total energy requirements of new buildings, Dr. Alam explains. This is done by creating high insulation wall systems and airtight envelopes, installation of highly energy-efficient windows and mechanical systems, use of heat energy recovery systems and renewable energy systems.

However, with the exception of the appliances, the elements of a high-performance home are often invisible to the homebuyer, says Dr. Andrew Hay, Provost and Vice President Academic for Okanagan College.

“The Wilden Living Lab is a superb initiative that can help move us forward to understanding the best approaches for energy-efficient residential construction projects that considers conservation from a wide perspective,” says Dr. Hay. “By assessing how better buildings can function in the real world, we will continue to learn and adapt new design parameters. In time, with this information in the hands of those designing, constructing and purchasing new homes, we hope to continue to demonstrate the best of BC approaches to residential construction and create momentum in the industry for green construction at its best.”

That’s why the public is being encouraged to explore the home, which will be open for daily tours, complete with interactive displays, for the next six months.

“We’re excited to open this house to the community. We want people to come and walk through the home and experience the difference of a net zero house,” says Karin Eger-Blenk, CEO of the Wilden Group. “For us, the Wilden Living Lab is a place where we can make homeowners familiar with future-proof building practices and have new technologies tested out for them. The goal is to encourage everyone who’s building a home in Wilden or elsewhere to invest in energy efficiency.”

The project is a clear example of how industry and post-secondary schools can work together to make a difference for the future, says Carol Suhan, Manager, Community Programs, Conservation and Energy Management at FortisBC. The project combines academic research, experiential learning for trades and contractor training students, ongoing energy monitoring and the creation of an electronic contractor decision support tool led by UBCO.

“This project brings energy efficiency to life and is a great opportunity for the industry to demonstrate what a Step 5 and net zero home is all about,” says Suhan. “We want to invite the community to come to the home to see, touch, feel and hear the benefits of the materials and techniques that contribute to a Step 5 home. This is a great opportunity for people to learn how energy-efficient construction saves energy and reduces greenhouse gas emissions. It will help our customers make informed decisions when it comes to their home’s energy use, comfort and long-term affordability.”

Phase 2 of the Wilden Living Lab project is open to the public starting Sunday, November 20, at noon. The home will remain open to the public to explore weekly, Saturday through Thursday, noon to 5 pm until May 18, 2023.

Note: The media is invited to a private tour of the home on the morning of Nov. 16 and attend the experiential show home campaign kick-off starting at 1 pm. The home is located at 215 Echo Ridge Drive, Kelowna. To learn more, please visit: wildenlivinglab.com

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A photo of a health professional talking to a patient

A UBCO study explores how primary care physicians and allied health professionals can help people make dietary and lifestyle changes to improve their health to prevent chronic illnesses.

A staggering 70 per cent of Canadians report an unhealthy diet—a risk factor which is often closely associated with the development of chronic disease.

Low-carbohydrate high-fat (LCHF) diets have shown to improve weight loss and cardiovascular health.  But for many people, it’s not often clear when or how to implement such a change.

A new UBC Okanagan study explores how primary care physicians and allied health professionals can help patients adopt dietary and lifestyle interventions to improve their overall health.

“LCHF diets restrict the body’s glucose to create a metabolic state called ketosis that focuses a body’s metabolism on fats as opposed to carbohydrates,” says Southern Medical Program student Alex Myshak-Davis and study lead author.

In a family practice setting, study participants chose from four different intake options of carbohydrates, proteins and fats to select a ratio that best matched their personal health goals.

“Hypertension is the most common chronic disease, followed by Type 2 diabetes, obesity, osteoarthritis and chronic kidney disease amongst the study group,” says Dr. Janet Evans, a Kelowna-based family physician and affiliate clinician with the Centre for Chronic Disease and Management (CCDPM) based at UBC Okanagan.

Patients participated in educational sessions led by a registered nurse on a one-on-one basis or a small group. Follow-up support included a combination of in-person or telephone consultations and small group sessions. These were about 20 minutes long and included a review of progress, successes, struggles and strategies to help patients reach their goals.

“Participants who followed an LCHF diet experienced weight loss and a body mass index (BMI) reduction,” says Myshak-Davis. “Those who participated in ongoing health education with the registered nurse saw a greater improvement in weight, BMI, blood pressure, diabetes control and kidney function.”

Ultimately, the results demonstrate how health education and promotion delivered in a primary care setting can lead to improved health outcomes and quality of life for patients, adds Dr. Evans.

Dr. Brodie Sakakibara, CCDPM investigator and Assistant Professor with the UBC Department of Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy, was a key contributor to this study which was published recently in Family Practice.

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