All News & Events
Mushroom Foray in Pacific Spirit Park (UBC) - October 15, 2011
Mushroom Foray in Pacific Spirit Park (UBC)
Experienced botanist and educator Terry Taylor has invited us on a journey into the universe of fungi. He will lead us through the forest, pointing out organisms that we have never taken the time to notice, and explaining their ecological interrelationships within the environment.
When: October 15th from 10am-12pm (and onwards into the afternoon if you’d like)
Where: Sasamat @ West 16th ave (south side trail entrance)
What to expect: Detailed descriptions of the Fungi Kingdom
What to bring: notepad, camera, magnifying glass (no picking allowed)
This event is FREE for EVERYONE
Deadly ovarian cancer starts in the Fallopian tubes
Discovery by Montreal researchers may lead to better screening, more effective treatment
By Charlie Fidelman, Vancouver Sun, August 29, 2011, p. B5
A groundbreaking study by Montreal researchers suggests ovarian cancer begins in the Fallopian tubes of healthy women – and can be successfully treated before it reaches the ovaries.
The finding, in a study that has not yet been published, may steer the way toward better screening and treatment of a disease that’s often fatal.
Oncologist Lucy Gilbert, head of the McGill University Health Centre’s gynecological division, said it’s not really a cancer of the ovaries, although it’s been called that for years because the majority of cases are detected in the ovaries; but by then it’s often far too late.
Study results stem from the DOVE project (Detecting Ovarian Cancer Earlier), which is run by Gilbert.
The theory started in pathologists’ circles from analyses of known ovarian cancer cases. But Gilbert’s team is the first to trace ovarian cancer back to the Fallopian tubes in a group of undiagnosed women showing mild, vague symptoms.
Fallopian tubes shed pre-cancerous cells over the surface of the ovaries. They then transform into cancer, Gilbert explained.
Malignant cells spread in the ovary and that’s why it is blamed, Gilbert said. “What we found is that killer ovarian cancer starts in the tubes. We were surprised to find it there,” Gilbert said. “What we understand about ovarian cancer has dramatically changed.”
Ovarian cancer is the most lethal gynecological cancer. It’s the fourth leading cause of death for Canadian women. Efforts at early detection and treatment to reduce mortality have remained largely unsuccessful.
Frustrated that so many women continue to die from ovarian cancer, Gilbert has been targeting relatively healthy women through her project since 2008.
“I’m so excited – it’s my life’s work,” Gilbert said, adding that 70 per cent of the high-grade serous cancer identified in her clinic originated in Fallopian tubes. “If we are lucky to pick it up early, we can trace it back to the tubes,” Gilbert said.
UBC BrownBag Discussion - September 28, 2011
“Who succeeds in science….or why are women still under represented at higher levels and what can I do to avoid this?”
Wednesday, September 28th
12:00-1:00pm
at UBC
Please seclick here for more information.
Knowledge is Power, Part 2 (Ovarian Cancer and You) - September 20, 2011
SCWIST and Ovarian Cancer Canada have organized a special presentation on ovarian cancer. Each year, ~2600 women are diagnosed with ovarian cancer in Canada and 1750 will not survive. Currently, without the availability of a screening test, only Knowledge is Power. This special presentation will cover the signs and symptoms of the disease and equip you with the knowledge of what to do. The latest research on ovarian cancer will be discussed and your questions will be answered. This is also a great opportunity to network with SCWIST members and other professionals.
Special Presentation on Ovarian Cancer and Your Health—Learn about the facts and myths surrounding ovarian cancer and the latest research result.
Date—Tuesday, September 20th
Time—6:00 – 9:00 PM
Place—470 Granville St, Office #330 (at W. Pender St)
Fee—Free for SCWIST members and volunteers
$5 for non-membersSandwiches and refreshments will be provided!
Space is limited.
Please RSVP to .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
More information at http://www.scwistevents.ca
Tour of TRIUMF - September 13, 2011
Come and join us for a fun and informative tour of Canada’s National Laboratory for Particle and Nuclear Physics.
Date: Tuesday, September 13, 2011
Time: 4:00-5:30PM
Place: TRIUMF Facility at UBC (4004 Wesbrook Mall)
Fee: FREE
Please register here.
Drug users with anxiety disorders at greater risk of becoming addicts: study
Findings bolster argument that self-medication can lead to substance abuse, according to University of Manitoba researchers
Vancouver Sun, August 6, 2011, p. B3
People who drink or use drugs to calm anxious nerves are at increased risk of developing full-blown substance abuse problems later on, according to a study.
The work by Manitoba researchers writing in the Archives of General Psychiatry, which followed close to 35,000 people, is one of the first to try to answer a longstanding question: Do anxietyridden people self-medicate because they are substance abusers, or do they become abusers because they selfmedicate?
“Self-medication in anxiety disorders confers substantial risk of incident substance abuse disorders,” wrote lead researcher Jennifer Robinson at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg and colleagues.
The group tapped into a national U.S. survey of drinking problems and mental illness that followed subjects over three years and included interviews.
They found that of those who had anxiety disorder at the outset of the study and said they self-medicated with alcohol, 13 per cent developed alcoholism – compared to only about five per cent of respondents who didn’t self-medicate.
After taking income, age and other factors into consideration, self-medicating people had 2.5 to five times the odds of becoming dependent on alcohol or drugs compared to people who followed their prescription.
In theory, a person who selfmedicates could be a budding drug abuser without the interviewer having spotted it, so the findings aren’t conclusive.
But Robinson and her colleagues said their study bolsters the hypothesis that selfmedication leads to substance abuse. They also found that people who self-medicate with alcohol were three times as likely to develop social phobia – although it was possible that those people had some degree of phobia from the start, and their substance use fuelled it.
“Another possibility is that the social unacceptability of substance use may create a desire to avoid social contact in those who actively use other drugs,” they wrote.
SCWIST Beach Potluck - August 27, 2011
Bring your friends and family to our Beach Potluck.
Saturday, August 27 from 3-6 PM
Locarno Beach Park (between Jaricho Sailing Centre and Locarno Concession Stand)
Bring a snack, food, or beverage to share with others and be ready to play games (volleyball, Frisbee) and meet other women in science, engineering, and technology.
Watch out for balloons to locate us!
SCWIST Newsletter - July 2011
read more >>
Girl Power Wins at Google’s First Science Fair
July 13, 2011, The New York Times
By CLAIRE CAIN MILLER
If Google’s first science fair is any indication, the top scientists of the future will be women. Google has announced the fair’s winners, and they are all young women.
Shree Bose, age 17, from Fort Worth, Tex., won the grand prize for developing a way to improve ovarian cancer treatment for patients who have developed a resistance to chemotherapy. Naomi Shah, 16, from Portland, Ore., found ways to improve indoor air quality and decrease people’s reliance on asthma medications. And Lauren Hodge, 14, from Dallastown, Pa., researched the effects of different marinades on potential carcinogens in grilled chicken.
“As a girl, to see that my gender actually is going to come into this field that’s been so dominated by men is exciting to me, and to be a part of that is even more exciting,” Ms. Bose said in an interview.
Surprisingly for Google, a computer science company, the winners each did bioscience projects. But the entries were wide-ranging, as was the science fair. Teenagers from all over the world could enter the fair in areas from computer science to space exploration. Unlike other science fairs, like those of Intel and Siemens, students entered online instead of presenting their projects in a school gymnasium.
Ten thousand students from 91 countries entered 7,500 projects in the science fair, including transforming recycled cans into solar ovens, building robotic prosthetic limbs and developing 3-D indoor navigation for blind people. For a clue about what tomorrow’s scientists care most about, the most popular category was earth and environmental sciences.
Google invited 15 finalists to its Mountain View, Calif., headquarters this week. The winners received scholarships, internships at Google, CERN and Lego, and for Ms. Bose, a trip to the Galapagos Islands with National Geographic Explorer.
Google started the science fair to promote curiosity about science and experimentation among students, and it is one of the company’s several education projects. It is also a marketing tool for Google Apps, which compete with Microsoft and other companies. Google hoped to introduce students to Google’s Web products, like Google Sites, App Inventor and SketchUp, so they might continue to use them in college and the workplace.
That plan may have paid off. Ms. Bose said that she started her project planning to “cut and paste it onto a board” to present at an in-person science fair. But entering it online was much easier, she said. She used Google Sites, Docs and Scholar, and plans to continue to use the services.
Promoting women in science was not an explicit goal of Google’s and gender did not play a role in the judges’ decisions, said Vint Cerf, a Google Science Fair judge and the company’s chief Internet evangelist.
“But I was secretly happy to see that happen, because for ages men have dominated the science field, and in many cases women who have done excellent work have been ignored,” Mr. Cerf said in an interview.
In Silicon Valley, where men vastly outnumber women, Google has consciously tried to recruit more women. One way it did that was to hire women early on, like Marissa Mayer in engineering and Susan Wojcicki in ad sales, because the founders thought women would be more likely to join the company if they saw other women working there.
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Congratulations to Malgorzata Dubiel, Winner of 2011 YWCA Women of Distinction Award
Malgorzata was the award recpient in the Education, Training & Development category. As a Senior Lecturer of Mathematics at SFU Malgorzata strives to help students overcome “math anxiety.” With over 40 years of teaching she applies her experience to improving math education in Canada. She works with elementary school teachers and children to change the misconceptions about math that are formed at an early age. Malgorzata also established math camps, conferences and community outreach programs for students of all ages.! H er contributions have encouraged many women to engage with and consider careers in mathematics, a field where women are still underrepresented. She is a recipient of the 3M National Teaching Fellowship, the SFU Excellence in Teaching Award and the Pacific Institute for the Mathematical Sciences Education Prize.
A little creativity turned pirate into profit
Vancouver firm rebrands illegal YouTube videos as corporate money-makers
By Scott Simpson, Vancouver Sun, May 31, 2011, p. C9
You can fight them, or you can work with them.
By taking the latter approach with some of the Internet’s more benign “pirates,” a British Columbia-based Internet business is carving out a potentially formidable space for itself on the world wide web.
BroadbandTV, brainchild of Shahrzad Rafati, is already a profitable venture that boasts business relationships including YouTube, the National Basketball Association, Electronic Arts, United Way, Sony Pictures, Columbia Pictures and Warner Brothers.
Rafati started the company in 2005, a year before she graduated from the University of B.C. in computer sciences.
The company began by offering foreign language television entertainment over the Internet, and still does.
But it was Rafati’s innovations that have piqued wider interest; this month, Fast Company listed her as one of the world’s top 100 creative business thinkers.
She has developed computer programs -search algorithms -that comb the web for certain kinds of content.
(The creators of Google on a much larger scale developed computer programs as the foundation of its prodigious search engine.)
In the case of the NBA, for example, BroadbandTV looks for fan-or “user”-generated videos -such as a LeBron
James slam dunk compilation that a Miami Heat fan might post on YouTube or another basketball site or webpage.
The NBA has a copyright for all images involving its teams and players so, technically, a fan who is posting game highlights is violating the copyright -in effect, pirating the NBA’s proprietary video content, even if it’s just intended as a tribute. But instead of antagonizing fans with lawsuits, the NBA has a contract with BroadbandTV to rebrand their clips as official content.
Rafati’s algorithms scan the web for unauthorized video clips. When they find one, BroadbandTV staff screen -or “curate” -it for potential objectionable content and remove it, and then attach advertisements. A pirate clip posted on YouTube is rebranded into a revenue-generating league asset.
The ensuing ad revenue is shared among partners in the venture, including the NBA and BroadbandTV.
“I consume a lot of videos online myself. I watch a lot of content on YouTube and other sites,” Rafati said in an interview at BroadbandTV’s new offices in downtown Vancouver.
“When first YouTube came around, and a lot of other video portals that might not even be around now, the majority of the content on these platforms was uploaded by users. The majority of the uploaded content was not videos of cats and dogs. It was an NBA clip, an American Idol clip.
“I thought -the guys that are uploading are not really thinking of themselves as pirates. These are fans that are going out there, they are uploading the videos, they are sharing them with their friends and they’re very enthusiastic. They’re posting it on their Facebook wall.
“We thought, how can we come up with a solution to a problem that the content partners are facing where we give them control?”
A deal to clean up user generated content was the first step. The next one was persuading the clients to let BroadbandTV create unique, legitimized Internet video channels where fans could upload their clips -and attach advertisements that would drive revenue.
The company created a “consumer brand,” VISO, that operates on YouTube and offers a series of channels dedicated to content from video games, other sports, music, television and movie trailers.
As with the NBA channel, BroadbandTV is using the new promotional channels to curate fan-driven content, attach advertisements, and drive revenue growth.
There’s a VISO Gamer channel for video gamers to post video clips from their in-game adventures -Electronic Arts is a partner on that one.
VISO Trailers shows movie trailer and other film fan content, VISO Games shows video game trailers, and MISO Music features concert clips and other music videos.
“At the end of the day you are giving the end user what they are looking for, not looking at them as pirates but as fans, enthusiastic fans that are going out there sharing, uploading content, sharing it with their friends and educating them,” Rafati said.
Getting the attention of a large, internationally regarded corporate entity such as the NBA or EA or Sony was not easy for a tiny Vancouver company with a CEO barely out of university.
“For us, when we were approaching the content partners it was very difficult at the beginning. It was months and months of negotiation with different content partners but, at the end of the day, we provided them with stats, data, on user activity associated with their video assets.
“They had two options. Either they had no control or they have control -and there was a business model behind it, a real business model. There are real revenues associated with user activity around the user uploaded content,” Rafati said. “Because there was no risk on their end and we were doing all the work and bringing them a revenue stream, we were able to get them on board.”
Those stations are in addition to others that offer more traditional TV content, such as an online BroadbandTV channel for watching Venezuelan soap operas, or old movies in the public domain, or other content that can’t find its way onto a local network or specialty television station.
Even here, BroadbandTV is offering to help curate content and monetize it for its owners.
Rafati’s favourite new channel is VISO Give, which enables charitable enterprises to post their own content and generate revenue from it.
They don’t need to plead for donations. Instead, charities on VISO Give need only to have people watch their videos to generate revenue from the advertisements that are attached to them.
For the public, a 90-second video of yelping puppies at an animal shelter means advertising revenue for the shelter that costs nothing more than the 90 seconds it took to watch the video.
The more people you can attract to your video, the more revenue you can generate.
“You see a lot of technology companies that just create technology for the sake of creating something really cool and hoping that someone is going to acquire the company. For us it’s solving a real problem that exists out there,” Rafati said.
“It’s something I’m personally passionate about because it’s doing something good within the community and truly helping the non-profits. We are hoping to get more and more non-profits on board to really create a kick-ass, aggregated hub destination for the nonprofits.”
Meanwhile, Rafati is talking with potential investors about a first, significant round of venture capital funding -a Series A venture that would put the company, and Canada, on the digital map.
“We’ve been fortunate,” she said.
“The business is cash-flow positive. We have a proven model. As a result of that, we want to grow rapidly and we think it’s best to go out there and raise some money and truly scale the business.”
Once-hated basking shark back in favour
Slaughtered en masse in the ‘60s, scientists seek to help world’s second-largest fish recover
By Judith Lavoie, Vancouver Sun, May 19, 2011. p. A13
Five decades ago, fishermen and the Department of Fisheries and Oceans made a concerted push to slaughter the remaining basking sharks off the west coast of Vancouver Island. Today, with a dramatic turn in attitudes, all efforts are concentrated on helping the population recover.
The eradication program for basking sharks, the second largest fish in the world, ran from 1955 to 1969. A similar killing program was carried out in California.
Knives were attached to the bows of vessels to chop the sharks into pieces.
There was little contest from the plankton-eating fish, which had aroused the ire of fishermen by becoming entangled in salmon gillnets as they basked on the surface of the ocean swallowing small crustaceans and fish larvae.
There is no point in dwelling on the past, said Heather Brekke, DFO recovery planner for basking sharks, who recently presented recovery plans at the International Marine Conservation Congress in Victoria.
“Times change,” she said. “Back in the 1950s, times were different.
”[Awareness] of general conservation issues and the marine environment have changed so drastically in the last 50 years.”
Pacific basking sharks, which can grow to more than 12 metres, were listed as endangered under the Species At Risk Act last year after populations declined by more than 90 per cent in two generations.
It is estimated there are now between 321 and 535 animals remaining from southern Alaska to northern Mexico. The DFO is working on recovery plans with the U.S. and Mexico, Brekke said.
But the basking shark is shy and difficult to spot.
Since a tagging program started last year, only one has been tagged, off the coast of San Diego.
“It’s opportunistic because sightings are so rare,” Brekke said. “There have been 13 confirmed sightings since 1996 off the west coast of Vancouver Island.”
There have also been unconfirmed sightings, and the DFO wants help from the public as it attempts to catalogue where the animals might be living and what threats they face, Brekke said.
“We are talking to anyone who’s out there on the water,” she said.
Ideally, Brekke wants video or photos for sightings to be confirmed.
Scottish research scientist Mauvis Gore, of Marine Conservation International, specializes in the northeast Atlantic population of basking sharks and was startled to hear at the Conservation Congress about the recovery plans.
“I am very surprised I have never heard from these people,” Gore said.
Basking sharks swim vast distances and it is possible the Atlantic and Pacific populations could sometimes meet, she said.
“So this population is really important.” In the northeast Atlantic, the population crashed because of fishing and the sharks are now protected in the U.K.
In Scotland, basking sharks are becoming a tourist draw, Gore said. “They are magnificent,” she said.
It can be alarming to see the huge mouth approaching if people do not realize the sharks are plankton eaters, Gore said.
“But they are very gentle. The only thing they can do is slap their tail.”
Brekke hopes that, one day, basking sharks will also return to the west coast of Vancouver Island in historic numbers.
“I am a big optimist. I think they are out there and every year we are getting more information. I hope this is the year of the basking shark,” she said.
Anyone who sees a basking shark can call 1-877-50SHARK or fill out a form on the DFO website.
Wed Feb 01
