UNews - Jean-Baptiste Leca

Broad areas of research awarded federal funding

caroline.zentner — Fri, 14 Jun 2024 21:03:34 +0000

A spectrum of research projects at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge have been awarded nearly $2.6 million in federal funding from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC)

The funding is part of $693.8 million for several NSERC research competitions recently announced on behalf of the Honourable François-Philippe Champagne, Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry.

“This investment in ULethbridge research activities speaks to the excellence and nationally competitive research we do — everything from mapping fuels for wildland fires to bee behaviour and the dynamics of black holes,” says Dr. Dena McMartin, vice-president research. “Our researchers investigate topics that impact the ways we understand the world around us and the complex influences and interconnectedness of the natural environment, agriculture and food security, and deep space phenomena.”

In addition, Dr. Monique Giroux had her Tier 2 Canada Research Chair in Métis Music renewed for $500,000 through the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council.

In all, 14 ULethbridge projects are receiving funding support from NSERC through the Discovery Grant and Discovery Development Grant programs. Among them are the following projects:

Dr. Laura Chasmer, a professor in the Department of Geography & Environment, will use novel Earth observation and geospatial data to examine how variations in vegetation ecosystems, both in space and in time, may enhance and reduce wildfires in Western Canada. The research program, which will include Indigenous land managers and knowledge keepers, will develop new ways of understanding fire hazards and recommendations for ecosystem management to lessen the impact of fire and improve the resilience of ecosystems and communities.
Dr. Sergio Pellis, Department of Neuroscience, will investigate the role of rough-and-tumble play or play-fighting in the development of cognitive and social skills in non-human mammals. Based on preliminary findings, Pellis hypothesizes that species with more complex social systems that require them to negotiate more varied relationships will have patterns of play that train youngsters for the social skills they’ll need as adults.

Discovery Grants

The funding listed for the following projects is over five years:

Dr. Theresa Burg, Biological Sciences — Evolution of High Latitude Birds ($200,000)
Dr. Shelley Hoover, Biological Sciences — Interactions between social bee behaviour and health ($190,000)
Dr. Steve Wiseman, Biological Sciences — Toxicant Induced Dysregulation of Oocyte Maturation ($235,000)
Dr. Nehal Thakor, Chemistry & Biochemistry — Regulation of mRNA Translation During Cellular Stress and Apoptosis ($200,000)
Dr. Laura Chasmer, Geography & Environment — Spatio-temporal variations in wildland fire fuel connectivity and behaviour using multi-data analytics ($275,000)
Dr. Joy Morris, Mathematics & Computer Science — Unexpected Symmetries of Graphs ($135,000)
Dr. David Euston, Neuroscience — Risk, Reinforcement Schedules, and Dopamine ($165,000)
Dr. Sergio Pellis, Neuroscience — Social play, the prefrontal cortex and the development of socio-cognitive skills ($275,000)
Dr. Alexandra Tetarenko, Physics & Astronomy — Unravelling how black holes power explosive outflows ($145,000)
Dr. Stephanus Henzi, Psychology — Contingency and Specificity in the Structure and Dynamics of Social Behaviour in Baboons and Vervet Monkeys ($235,000)
Dr. Jean-Baptiste Leca, Psychology — Mechanisms and evolution of material culture in primates: Does object play facilitate tool use? ($268,690)
Dr. Jamal Mansour, Psychology — Measuring cognitive processes that predict eyewitness identification performance ($165,000)

Discovery Development Grants

The funding listed for the following projects is over two years:

Dr. Philip Bonaventure, Geography & Environment — Climatic, geomorphic and ecosystem-driven multi-scale permafrost modelling and testing ($40,0000)
Dr. David Morris, Mathematics & Computer Science — Arithmetic groups, orderability, bounded generation and automorphisms ($40,000)

The Research Support Fund supports a portion of the costs associated with managing the research funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council and Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, such as salaries for staff who provide administration support, training costs for workplace health and safety, maintenance of libraries and laboratories, and administrative costs associated with obtaining patents for inventions.

Monkeys can barter but can they gamble, asks new study from ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge researcher

trevor.kenney — Tue, 09 Apr 2019 16:33:17 +0000

You’re not likely to see them flooding casinos any time soon, but the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge’s Dr. Jean-Baptiste Leca and his colleagues are embarking on a study that may turn a population of Balinese long-tailed macaque monkeys into gamblers.

Dr. J.B. Leca, pictured, is teaming up with Dr. Rob Williams, a gambling research expert in the Faculty of Health Sciences, and Dr. Elsa Addessi, a cognitive psychologist and primatologist at the National Research Center in Rome, Italy.

Leca, an associate professor in the U of L’s Department of Psychology, is teaming up with Dr. Rob Williams, a gambling research expert in the Faculty of Health Sciences, and Dr. Elsa Addessi, a cognitive psychologist and primatologist at the National Research Center in Rome, Italy, to explore whether monkeys have cognitive biases and behavioural responses that are different from, or similar to, that of humans when it comes to gambling activities.

“This is a follow-up on our object/food-bartering monkeys project, except that this time we are planning to implement some field experiments to test these monkeys’ abilities to engage in a series of gambling tasks,” says Leca, whose group is supported by a research grant from the Alberta Gambling Research Institute.

In the previous study, Leca made international headlines as he studied open-field macaque monkeys stealing objects from Balinese tourists and using the items as bartering objects for their real desire – food.

“This time around, unlike the bartering process, the gambling scenario will entail some level of uncertainty in the reward they receive,” says Leca, who will travel to Bali in July to begin the work. “Sometimes they won’t get any food reward, or a much smaller amount of food than they expect or are used to. Even after proffering their token to the experimenter, they lose. Other times, they will get more food than they expect, like a big win scenario at the casino.”

A typical object/food bartering interaction between a Balinese macaque (left, holding stolen eyeglasses) and a human (right, proffering a bag of local fruit as a food reward).

The researchers – in collaboration with Dr. Noëlle Gunst (an adjunct faculty and research associate in the U of L’s Department of Psychology), Dr. I Nengah Wandia (a Balinese veterinarian and primatologist from Udayana ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ), and students Matthew Gardiner, Caleb Bunselmeyer and Christian Dunn – will examine how the monkeys respond when uncertainty is introduced to the already established bartering system; whether they are susceptible, just like some human problem gamblers, to making less than optimal choices; if they tend to undervalue, or discount, larger rewards delivered after a delay and impulsively favour smaller but immediate rewards; and whether they are prone to choosing low-probability/high-payoff rewards over high-probability/low-payoff rewards, even when this strategy works against them in the long run.

Similar studies have been conducted in lab settings but lack an ecological validity because they use captive, lab-trained and socially isolated primates.

“To our knowledge, our study will be the first time minimally invasive experimental gambling research will be conducted on free-ranging nonhuman animals,” says Leca. “What’s more, our monkey subjects have an already established, spontaneously expressed, and culturally transmitted bartering propensity.”

If the group is successful in turning their bartering monkeys into gamblers, and the results are similar to lab research findings, the study will provide further support and validation to existing animal models of gambling and give greater insight to the evolution of irrational human economic behaviours – such as gambling.

Board of Governors Research Chairs revealed

trevor.kenney — Tue, 18 Apr 2017 21:01:18 +0000

The ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge Board of Governors appointed or reappointed seven Board of Governors Research Chairs at its regular meeting. The Board of Governors Research Chair program acknowledges the research accomplishments of ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ faculty members.

“We’re proud to recognize these researchers for their consistently excellent work and the contributions they have made to their field of study,” says Dr. Erasmus Okine, Vice-President (Research). “They are representative of the outstanding research activities taking place across disciplines and throughout campus. Their studies are making substantial contributions to the quality of life locally, provincially, nationally and beyond.”

New Appointments

Dr. Aaron Gruber – Tier II Board of Governors Research Chair in Neuroscience
Dr. Gruber’s laboratory utilizes a wide array of computational and experimental techniques to study how the brain uses past experience to make good choices. The lab’s current focus is to use modern technologies for recording and manipulating large-scale neural activity to study how molecular actions of dopamine receptors affect brain dynamics to influence behaviour.

Dr. Maura Hanrahan – Tier II Board of Governors Research Chair in Native American Studies
Dr. Hanrahan brings a wealth of academic, policy and practical knowledge to the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge. She conducts interdisciplinary work in water security, foodways and nutrition history, Indigenous health, Indigenous land-use and Arctic exploration. Her work employs methods rooted in anthropology, ethnohistory, the humanities and Indigenous learning.

Dr. Jean-Baptiste Leca – Tier II Board of Governors Research Chair in Psychology
Dr. Leca’s research program on non-human primate behaviour aims to offer insights into the biological and culture underpinnings of human evolution. He is particularly interested in the proximate and ultimate causes of adaptive, questionably adaptive and non-adaptive behavioural patterns in free-ranging monkeys.

Reappointments

Dr. Igor Kovalchuk – Tier I Board of Governors Research Chair in Biological Sciences
The research in Dr. I. Kovalchuk’s lab is devoted to the analysis of epigenetic and genetic regulation of plant genome stability under normal and stressful conditions. In particular, he is interested in epigenetic regulation of transgenerational adaptation to stress and developing novel methods for improvement of plant transformation.

Dr. Olga Kovalchuk – Tier I Board of Governors Research Chair in Biological Sciences
Dr. O. Kovalchuk investigates the role of epigenetics in carcinogenesis and cancer treatment responses as well as the influence of epigenetics in radiation induced genome instability, DNA repair and carcinogenesis.

Dr. David Naylor – Tier I Board of Governors Research Chair in Physics & Astronomy
As the Director of the Astronomical Instrumentational Group, Dr. Naylor is recognized as a world leader in the development of novel instrumentation to explore the universe at far-infrared wavelengths. He is playing a leading role in training up-and-coming astronomers and engineers while contributing to Canada’s ability to play leading roles in future space astronomy missions.

Dr. Sergio Pellis – Tier I Board of Governors Research Chair in Neuroscience
Using a broad comparative approach, involving a range of rodents, primates and other animals, research in Dr. Pellis’ laboratory seeks to understand the evolutionary conditions that make it possible for play to be co-opted as a tool to sharpen social skills.

Leca research targets light-fingered Balinese macaque monkeys

trevor.kenney — Mon, 27 Jun 2016 17:59:19 +0000

��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge researcher Dr. Jean-Baptiste Leca has his eye on some criminal activity but he’s not about to put a stop to it – not just yet.

Leca, an assistant professor in the U of L’s Department of Psychology, is engaged in a study that is examining a unique population of Balinese long-tailed macaque monkeys who steal objects from tourists and then use them to barter for what they really want – food.

Three members of the robbing and bartering research project (from left to right) in Uluwatu, south Bali, Lucía Jorge Sales, Jean-Baptiste Leca, and Fany Brotcorne.

“It can be quite funny but it has a controversial aspect to it too because some tourists complain that they have had jewelry stolen and sometimes they don’t get it back,” says Leca, whose research team, including research associate Dr. Noëlle Gunst, post-doctoral fellow Dr. Fany Brotcorne, as well as research assistants Anna Holzner and Lucía Jorge Sales, has traveled to the Uluwatu Temple in Bali to observe this unique phenomenon in collaboration with their primatologist counterpart, Dr. I Nengah Wandia of Udayana ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ.

“As researchers, we’re telling the staff if you ultimately want to stop this practice because it is bad for your temple, we have to better understand it first. So, you better let us work a little bit more to understand it fully and then we’ll help you gradually get rid of it,” he says.

Tourists to the temple have been at the mercy of the macaques for more than 20 years, meaning the behaviour is trans-generational and almost certainly cultural.

“The token exchange paradigm has been studied in captive settings for several years and it works in capuchin monkeys and chimpanzees,” says Leca, who is funded by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) and the Dean’s Office of the Faculty of Arts & Science. “We know that non-human primates understand something about exchanging a non-edible object against food. In captivity it’s very well controlled but somewhat artificial because human experimenters train the monkeys to do that.”

“What we have in Bali is an open-field lab with monkeys daily training themselves. We’re not exactly sure how the behaviour originated. It could have been some human influence but the way it has spread is most likely cultural.”

Leca says the entire interaction is a fascinating case study of non-human personality and offers insight into the complex psychology of the macaques.

“It takes boldness during the robbing part, because it requires physical contact with a human, and not all monkeys are willing to do that,” says Leca. “Then it takes patience and self-control during the bartering part. With a very skilled monkey, it works, but for monkeys that are learning and impatient, the bartering part can be very messy. If the token is damaged by a young and impulsive monkey, the exchange may not even occur.”

The actual acts of thievery are quite brazen. A macaque will literally take a set of sunglasses off the face of a tourist, then retreat to wait for a negotiation to begin.

“Some monkeys are very good at raising the bar, they won’t exchange a particularly valuable item for anything,” says Leca. “Some monkeys seem to go with quantity, only dropping the object for several food items, while others will go for quality and physically reject, with an arm movement, a series of food items before they get the one they are interested in acquiring.”

The most skilled monkeys will get what they want, drop their stolen token and be on their way. The object, and the human victim, are left unharmed.

“In this population, the monkeys are not violent or aggressive towards humans,” says Leca. “They interact physically but you’d be surprised how skilled they are at snatching things like eyeglasses with not even a scratch.”

He says that monkeys do not become completely skilled in the practice before becoming sub-adults, meaning it could take them five to seven years to fully master the robbing and bartering aspects of the exchange. What he intends to learn from this is more about the difference in personality traits between individual macaques, how the system is passed on culturally, and eventually a glimpse at how this might unlock secrets to behavioural economics.

“It’s only the beginning of this work so we want to be very cautious, but ultimately we’d like our research to have implications for behavioural economics,” he says. “We’re possibly looking at decision making in an economic context, things such as gambling.”

Leca and his team of researchers were recently filmed by the BBC Natural History Unit and featured on an episode of PBS-Nature: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8q1MyVUze8M&list=PL5A4nPQbUF8Djx2pIKIMpK2gaIkns4YXA&index=19.

As well, the research has been featured in a PBS LearningMedia platform: http://www.pbslearningmedia.org/resource/nat16.sci.lisci.macaque/learned-behavior-and-culture-in-thieving-macaque-monkeys/ .

��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge awarded record $3.9 million in NSERC funding

trevor.kenney — Mon, 22 Jun 2015 22:04:26 +0000

The ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge was awarded a record $3.9 million of funding from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) this year, with U of L researchers earning support for projects in neuroscience, biological sciences, psychology, chemistry & biochemistry, physics & astronomy, geography and mathematics & computer science.

This unprecedented level of support was announced earlier today by Canada’s Minister of State (Science and Technology), the Honourable Ed Holder, at a national funding announcement in Oshawa, Ont.

Dr. Robert McDonald’s base grant of $355,000 (over five years) is the largest NSERC grant awarded to the U of L this year.

“This latest round of NSERC funding clearly demonstrates the outstanding research our faculty and students are undertaking,” says Interim Vice-President (Research) Dr. Lesley Brown. “That our research portfolio continues to grow as it does is testament to the quality of the work being done and also speaks to the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ striking the right balance as a comprehensive teaching and research institution.”

��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge researchers receiving NSERC Discovery Grant funding include: Dr. Gerlinde Metz (neuroscience); Dr. Aaron Gruber (neuroscience); Dr. Alice Hontela (biological sciences); Dr. Jean-Baptiste Leca (psychology); Dr. David Logue (psychology); Dr. Artur Luczak (neuroscience); Dr. Robert McDonald (neuroscience); Dr. Majid Mohajerani (neuroscience); Dr. Gregory Pyle (biological sciences); Dr. Masami Tatsuno (neuroscience); Dr. Paul Vasey (psychology); Dr. Robert Laird (biological sciences); Dr. René Boeré (chemistry & biochemistry); Dr. Paul Hayes (chemistry & biochemistry); Dr. Locke Spencer (physics & astronomy); Dr. Mark Walton (physics & astronomy); Dr. Christopher Hopkinson (geography); Dr. Robert Benkoczi (mathematics & computer science); Dr. Shahadat Hossain (mathematics & computer science); Dr. Habiba Kadiri (mathematics & computer science); Dr. Nathan Ng (mathematics & computer science).

In addition, Drs. John Zhang and Olga Kovalchuk were each awarded NSERC Discovery Development Grants.

Luczak and McDonald will also both receive an additional $120,000 in funds through the Discovery Accelerator Supplements program (over a three-year period), while McDonald’s base grant of $355,000 (over five years) is the largest NSERC grant awarded to the U of L this year. He is studying neural circuits and mechanisms of context-specific conditioned inhibition.

The ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ’s doctoral students were extremely successful in the NSERC Doctoral Scholarship competitions, led by Katie Wilson (chemistry & biochemistry), who was named a Canada Vanier Scholar, demonstrating leadership skills and a high standard of scholarly achievement in graduate studies. Jason Flindall (neuroscience) was awarded a Canadian Doctoral Scholarship, while Kayla Stone (neuroscience), Allonna Harker (neuroscience) and Stefan Lenz (chemistry & biochemistry) were awarded NSERC Postgraduate Doctoral Scholarships. Additionally, five masters students were awarded the NSERC Canadian Graduate Scholarship, including: Justin Lee (neuroscience), Serena Shandik (neuroscience), Matthew Robbins (physics & astronomy), Rhys Hakstol (chemistry & biochemistry) and Douglas Turnbull (chemistry & biochemistry).

“We are pleased with the amount of money invested in our researchers and what this could yield in terms of the results they will achieve and the benefits their work will bring to society,” adds Brown. “Our continuing success with the federal research funding agencies is testament to our researchers’ ability to compete on the national stage.”

NSERC grants aim to develop, attract and retain the world’s most talented researchers at Canadian universities who are working in a multitude of scientific and engineering disciplines.

Cultural influences may play role in maintaining non-conceptive sexual behaviour in Japanese macaques

trevor.kenney — Thu, 22 Jan 2015 17:38:06 +0000

The diverse sexual behaviour of the female Japanese macaque is reminiscent of human patterns of sexuality, particularly female sexual fluidity, suggests a new study from ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge researchers.

Dr. J.B. Leca is a U of L post-doctoral researcher and the lead author of the study.

The research, conducted at three different field sites in Japan and involving four free-ranging groups of Japanese macaques, compared two non-conceptive sexual behavioural patterns, finding that social and cultural influences within the groups were the likely reason for the existence of different sexual practices.

The study, entitled "Inter-group variation in non-conceptive activity in female Japanese macaques: Could it be cultural?” was published by Drs. Jean-Baptiste Leca, Nöelle Gunst, Lydia Ottenheimer-Carrier and Paul Vasey in a recent issue of the journal Animal Behavior and Cognition.

“We explored the possibility that some of these intergroup differences in non-conceptive sexual behaviours might be cultural practices that arise in groups when certain socio-demographic conditions are met,” says Leca, a U of L post-doctoral researcher and the lead author of the study. “We actually found that female-male and female-female mounting were more frequent and more diverse in groups with few resident males, most of them being old, sexually under-motivated, and ‘mellow’ in the sense that they are less aggressive and less controlling than the average male Japanese macaque.”

Dr. Paul Vasey has been studying the Japanese macaque for years.

While researchers believe that sexual culture accounts for some of the observed patterns of sexual behaviour in Japanese macaques, they point out that evolution plays a role as well.

“Our working hypothesis is that females solicit sexually mellow males by mounting them, which prompt the males to, in turn, perform a male-female mount,” says Vasey, a professor in the U of L’s Department of Psychology and one of the authors of the study. “Much of this activity takes place in the context of high female-female competition for male mates, so we think female-male mounting also functions to control the male’s movement. All of this would result in adaptive outcomes for the mounting female who would have greater control over which male inseminates her.”

The researchers admit there is no direct evidence for the social transmission of female mounting behavior within a group of Japanese macaques, but argue that relatively high levels of social tolerance towards non-conceptive behaviours suggest the existence of a female mounting culture, socially maintained in specific groups.

“To some extent, our results dovetail nicely with research on sexual fluidity in women, which shows that social contexts can influence women’s sexual and romantic inclinations including the propensity of some women to engage in same-sex sexual interactions,” says Leca.

The journal article can be found online.

5 Questions with Dr. Paul Vasey

trevor.kenney — Tue, 10 Sep 2013 22:22:42 +0000

Dr. Paul Vasey is a professor in the Department of Psychology at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge. He conducts cross-species and cross-cultural research to answer the question: If reproduction is the engine that drives evolution, why engage in non-conceptive sex? For the past decade he has done research on the development and evolution of female homosexual behavior in free-ranging Japanese monkeys at various sites in Japan. He also studies the development and evolution of male same-sex sexual attraction in humans at field sites in Samoa, Japan and Canada. Since 2003, he has worked in Samoa with members of the fa’afafine community – biological males who live “in the manner of a woman.”

Vasey currently holds both a Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada and a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada grant in addition to various grants from private funding agencies.

Dr. Paul Vasey of the Department of Psychology.

What first piqued your interest in your research discipline?

As a kid, I was always interested in nature documentaries. I remember when I was 13 or 14 watching one documentary on the evolution of iguanas and tortoises on the Galapagos Islands and it fascinated me. So, from a very early age, I was interested in understanding the world from an evolutionary perspective. I’m also gay, and same-sex sexuality doesn’t make a lot of sense, at least at first glance, from an evolutionary perspective. This led me to search for literature on the evolution of homosexuality. What I found was a lot of speculation but virtually no data. It seemed that everyone had an opinion on the topic, but no one wanted to do the work of hypothesis testing.

So, for my doctoral research I studied female homosexual behavior in Japanese monkeys and after graduating from the Université de Montréal, I expanded this line of research by conducting fieldwork in Japan, which continues to this day with my Post-Doctoral Fellows, Drs. Jean-Baptiste Leca and Nöelle Gunst.

How is your research applicable in “the real world?”

There is an enormous amount of public debate about the nature of sexual and gender diversity. Is it “natural”? Is it “normal”? Should it be socially tolerated? Should members of sexual and gender minorities have human rights that are equal to those of the heterosexual majority?

So often these discussions occur in an information vacuum that is driven by personal politics and morals but divorced from any actual evidence. I go out into the real world and collect data about many of the issues that are being debated publically. In doing so, my research generates information about phenomenon related to sexual and gender diversity and furnishes a basis upon which an evidence-based understanding of these topics can be situated.

What is the greatest honour you have received in your career?

The greatest honour I have received in my career is having internationally renowned sex researchers, whose work I hold in the highest esteem, state that they consider my body of work to be of exceptional quality and importance. I’m talking about people like J. Michael Bailey, Anne Lawrence, Alice Dreger, and Alan Dixson, among others. I don’t think there is any greater honour than having the researchers you hold in such high esteem indicate that they consider your work a significant contribution to the field.

How important are students to your research endeavours?

I’d say most students in my lab have been foundational to my research efforts. The lab could never be as productive as it is were it not for the fact that I work with an extraordinary team of undergraduate students, graduate students and Post-Doctoral Fellows. Some of my former students have gone on to become medical doctors, take up post-doctoral fellowships at hospitals, pursue further graduate work in clinical psychology programs or undertake further research at places like Cambridge ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ. It’s been a privilege to work with all of them.

If you had unlimited funds, which areas of research would you invest?

I would like to build a Kinsey-style Sexuality Research Institute in Canada – one that does not downplay the importance of biology in human sexuality, yet at the same time does not ignore the importance of culture. Part of my goal in building such a research institute would be to help create jobs for young sex researchers in Canada.

It has been said that Canada packs a punch far above its weight internationally in terms of the number of renowned sex researchers who make this country their home. Moreover, Canada has a political and social climate that is far more amenable to sex research than most other countries. Further, Canada has the funding systems in place to support such research and it has been demonstrated time and time again that sex research attracts large amounts of funding from multiple agencies when it is done properly.

For a look at the entire catalog of 5 Questions With . . . features, check out the Office of Research Services website at www.uleth.ca/research/research_profiles. If you’d like to be featured, contact Penny Pickles at pickpj@uleth.ca.

Research ties established through Japanese macaques

trevor.kenney — Thu, 18 Apr 2013 15:30:54 +0000

When Dr. Jean-Baptiste Leca was studying for his undergraduate degree in his hometown of Bordeaux, France, it's likely he never expected that one day he'd be doing post-doctoral work at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge, and that the Japanese macaques would be the conduits for that link.

And yet here he is, with his wife Dr. Noëlle Gunst, studying these monkeys alongside Dr. Paul Vasey of the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ's Department of Psychology.

"We met for the first time 10 years ago because we happened to be studying the same monkeys at the same place, Arashiyama, near Kyoto city, central Japan," says Leca, who recently co-edited a book with Vasey and Dr. Michael Huffman from Kyoto ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ, specifically dedicated to these monkeys. "The Japanese macaques of Arashiyama are probably one of the best known and longest studied primate groups in the world and yet we continue to find new and interesting aspects to their behaviour."

Dr. Jean-Baptiste Leca has been working with the U of L's Dr. Paul Vasey for the past two years.

Leca and Gunst have worked with Vasey for the past two years, continuing his research focus on female homosexual behaviour of Japanese macaques at Arashiyama. Last year, they explored a new field site – Minoo, near Osaka city – where free-ranging Japanese macaques also occur. By chance, the trio came across a little studied demographic setting in primates and were fortunate enough to observe male homosexual behaviour. After analyzing these new data, Leca co-authored a manuscript with Gunst and Vasey for publication in the journal Archives of Sexual Behavior.

"Japanese macaques live in societies that are typically multi-male, multi-female. Males, when they reach sexual maturity, leave their natal group, with some transferring directly into a new multi-male, multi-female group, while others wander around solitarily for a period of time, and even others join what we call an all-male group. Being elusive, these all-male groups are difficult to track and observe, which is why we know little about them," says Leca. "As far as we know, young males stick together, travel independently, have social interactions and form a sub-group by themselves. When the mating season comes (October through January) some of these males will walk around a multi-male, multi-female group, hopefully to mate with females. What we observed in this particular all-male group however was male homosexual behaviour. While it's not the first time that this behaviour has been reported in Japanese macaques, it is the first time it has been reported in an all-male group."

The significance of this discovery is that it may speak to the evolution of male homosexuality in humans.

"We observe sexual behaviour – not sexual orientation – in monkeys. So the link will never be direct," cautions Leca. "But our findings may provide insights into the possible origins of human homosexuality."

Here, a Japanese macaque juvenile male and a young adult male embrace each other. PHOTO by Dr. Noëlle Gunst

He describes a possible evolutionary scenario proposed by Dr. Bernard Chapais from the Université de Montréal, where ancestral humans may have transitioned from multi-male, multi-female groups to polygynous groups, or harems. After reducing the number of females associated with each male of these harem societies, early humans then may have transitioned to monogamous units, which are widespread today.

"What we suspect, is that among polygynous ancestral humans, not all the males had access to females to form their harem, so maybe some of these males ended up in all-male groups, like Japanese macaques," says Leca. "One possibility is that the earliest forms of male homosexual behaviour occurred in these all-male groups. That's why we can make a kind of parallel between monkeys and humans."

Leca and his wife have been studying monkeys for 15 years and have travelled to Japan to study the macaques each of the past 10 years, calling the area their second home. This fall, when mating season arrives, Leca says the group may not venture to Japan and instead invest their time writing papers before returning in 2014. The lure of what is possible with this new line of study is invigorating.

"This time we got very lucky and our observations are really preliminary on this male homosexual behavior," he says. "So we want to return and continue our study on these all-male groups because they are not typically researched. We'd like to know more about the social interactions between these males and by understanding some of their social bonds, see how these particular relationships may impact their sexual behaviour."

It is groundbreaking work uniting three researchers from two very distant countries in a foreign land – with science the link that brought them together.

This story first appeared in the April 2013 edition of the Legend. For a look at the full issue in a flipbook format, follow this link.

��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ recognizes faculty excellence

trevor.kenney — Thu, 11 Apr 2013 21:21:16 +0000

The ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge honoured faculty and postdoctoral fellows across campus who received academic research awards of distinction, secured research funding or published their research findings in the last year at Thursday's Celebrating Research Reception in Markin Hall.

The U of L also recognized those who had books published within the last calendar year.

Below is a list of the awards presented.

Research Awards: External

Alberta Science and Technology Leadership Foundation (ASTech) Award: Excellence in Science and Technology Public Awareness
Kristy Burke | Conference & Event Services

American Oil Chemists' Society Timothy L. Mounts Award
Roman Przybylski | Chemistry & Biochemistry

Campus Alberta Innovates Program (CAIP) Chairs
Chris Hopkinson | Geography, Terrestrial Ecosystems Remote Sensing
Greg Pyle | Biological Sciences, Aquatic Health

Canada Research Chairs
Louise Barrett | Psychology, Cognition, Evolution and Behaviour, Tier 1
Stacey Wetmore | Chemistry & Biochemistry, Computational Chemistry, Tier 2

Canadian Insolvency Foundation Lloyd Houlden Research Fellowship
Gordon Hunter | Management

Confederation of Alberta Faculty Association (CAFA) Distinguished Academic Award
Trudy Govier | Philosophy

Pat Clifford Award for Early Career Research in Education
Michelle Hogue | First Nations' Transition Program

Queen Elizabeth Diamond Jubilee Medal
Reginald Bibby | Sociology
Peter McCormick | Political Science
Richard Mrazek | Education

World Council for Curriculum & Instruction Distinguished Leadership Award
Peter Heffernan | Education

Research Awards: Internal

Ingrid Speaker Medal for Distinguished Research, Scholarship, or Performance
Joseph Rasmussen | Biological Sciences

��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge Board of Governors Research Chair

Igor Kovalchuk | Biological Sciences
Olga Kovalchuk | Biological Sciences
David Naylor | Physics & Astronomy
Sergio Pellis | Neuroscience

��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ Scholars
Janice Rahn | Education
Peter Visentin | Music
Judith Whitehead | Anthropology

Research Grants: External

Alberta Advisory Committee for Educational Studies Grant
Noella Piquette | Education
Jennifer Thannhauser | Education

Alberta Agriculture and Rural Development
Wei Xu | Geography

Alberta Centre for Child, Family and Community Research Grant
(2) Claudia Malacrida | Sociology

Alberta Foundation for the Arts
Mary Kavanagh | Art
Taras Polataiko | Art
Janice Rahn/Michael Campbell | Education/Art Co-Principal Investigators

Alberta Gaming Research Institute Grant
Yale Belanger | Native American Studies
Cheryl Currie | Public Health
Gabriela Novotna | Addictions Counselling
Claudia Steinke | Nursing

Alberta Inflammatory Bowel Disease Grant
Sameer Despande | Management

Alberta Innovates Health Solutions Grant
Gerlinde Metz | Neuroscience, Co-Director

Alberta Innovates Health Solutions Sustainability Funds
Roy Golsteyn | Biological Sciences
Aaron Gruber | Neuroscience
David Naylor | Physics & Astronomy
Paul Vasey | Psychology
Ute Wieden-Kothe | Chemistry & Biochemistry

Alberta Rural Development Network (ARDN) Grant
Shawn Bubel | Geography
Glenda Bonifacio | Women & Gender Studies
Jon Doan | Kinesiology & Physical Education
Leanne Elias | New Media
Carmen Mombourquette | Education
Monique Sedgwick | Nursing
David Slomp | Education
(2) Carol Williams | Women & Gender Studies

Alzheimer Society of Canada Grant
Shannon Spenceley | Nursing

American Cancer Society Grant
Raphael Lencucha | Public Health

ATB Financial
Gordon Hunter/Dan Kazakoff | Management

Canada Council for the Arts Grant
Mary Kavanagh | Art
Maria Ng | English

Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation Grant
Olga Kovalchuk | Biological Sciences
Olga Kovalchuk | Biological Sciences, Co-applicant

Canada Centre for Remote Sensing
Nadia Rochdi/Karl Staenz | Alberta Terrestrial Imaging Centre/Geography

Canada Foundation for Innovation Leaders Opportunity Fund Grant
Aaron Gruber | Neuroscience
Paul Hazendonk | Chemistry & Biochemistry
Andrew Iwaniuk | Neuroscience
Hans-Joachim Wieden | Chemistry & Biochemistry

CIHR Emerging Team Grant
Gabriela Novotna | Health Sciences

CIHR Café Scientifique Grant
Penny D'Agnone | Office of Research & Innovation Services

CIHR Operating Grant
Sameer Deshpande | Management, Co-applicant
Judith Kulig | Nursing

CIHR Research Planning Grant
Sameer Desphande | Management, Co-applicant

Canadian Space Agency Contract
Karl Staenz | Geography
(2) David Naylor | Physics & Astronomy

Canadian Wildlife Federation
Richard Mrazek | Education

Department of Defense Contract
Albert Cross | Neuroscience

European Union FP7 Grant
David Naylor | Physics & Astronomy, Co-applicant

Grand Challenges in Global Health Grant
Gerlinde Metz | Neuroscience, Co-applicant

Health Canada Grant
Judith Kulig | Health Sciences, Co-applicant

Heritage Canada Grant for Aid to Scholarly Publication
Peter Heffernan | Education

Institute for Catastrophic Loss Reduction Grant
Judith Kulig | Health Sciences

Max Bell Foundation Award
Noella Piquette | Education, Co-applicant

Monieson Centre, Queen's Business School
Gordon Hunter | Management

National Science Foundation
Jennifer Mather | Psychology, Collaborating Consultant

NSERC Collaborative Research & Training Experience (CREATE) Grant
Robert Sutherland | Neuroscience

NSERC Discovery Grant
Louise Barrett | Psychology
Sarah Boon | Geography
Howard Cheng | Mathematics & Computer Science
Saurya Das | Physics & Astronomy
Jon Doan | Kinesiology & Physical Education
Cam Goater | Biological Sciences
Bruce McNaughton | Neuroscience
Jackie Rice | Mathematics & Computer Science
Elizabeth Schultz | Biological Sciences
Robert Sutherland | Neuroscience
Soroosh Yazdani | Mathematics & Computer Science

NSERC Research Tools and Instruments Grant
Amir Akbary | Mathematics & Computer Science
Paul Hazendonk | Chemistry & Biochemistry

Pacific Institute for the Mathematical Sciences
Shahadat Hossain | Mathematics & Computer Science

SSHRC Aid to Scholarly Journals Grant
Peter Heffernan | Education
Edward Jurkowski | Music

SSHRC Insight Development Grant
Abdie Kazemipur | Sociology, Co-applicant

SSHRC Insight Grant
Harold Jansen | Political Science
Heidi MacDonald | History
Noella Piquette | Education, Co-applicant
Paul Vasey | Psychology

SSHRC Partnership Grant
Yale Belanger | Native American Studies, Co-applicant
Henning Bjornlund | Economics, Co-applicant
Glenda Bonifacio | Women & Gender Studies, Co-applicant
Abdie Kazemipur | Sociology, Co-applicant
Richard Mueller | Economics, Co-applicant
Ivan Townshend | Geography, Co-applicant
Wei Xu | Geography, Co-applicant

SSHRC Public Outreach Grant
Debra Basil | Management

TECTERRA
Wei Xu/Karl Staenz | Geography

Research Grants: Internal

Emmy Droog Research Awards in Health Sciences Grant
Cheryl Currie | Public Health
Ruth Grant Kalischuk | Nursing

Interdisciplinary Research Development Fund Grant
Leanne Elias | New Media
Team: John Usher (Management), Janice Rahn (Education), Michael Campbell (Art) and Cheryl Meheden (Management)
Roy Golsteyn | Biological Sciences
Team: Olga Kovalchuk (Biological Sciences) and David Naylor (Physics & Astronomy)
Josephine Mills | Art
Team: Louise Barrett (Psychology), Lisa Doolittle (Theatre & Drama), Emily Luce (New Media), Bruce MacKay (Liberal Education Program) and Tiffany Muller Myrdahl (Women & Gender Studies)
Nicole Rosen | Modern Languages
Team: Inge Genee (Modern Languages), Robbin Gibb (Neuroscience), Claudia Gonzalez (Kinesiology & Physical Education), Fangfang Li (Psychology) and Noella Piquette (Education)
Carol Williams | Women & Gender Studies
Team: Glenda Bonifacio (Women & Gender Studies), Bonnie Lee (Health Sciences), Linda ManyGuns (Native American Studies) and Patrick Wilson (Anthropology)

Parkland Institute Faculty Research Grant
Claudia Malacrida | Sociology

��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge Community of Research Excellence Development Opportunities (CREDO) Grant
Jerimy Cunningham | Anthropology
Claudia Malacrida | Sociology
Janay Nugent | History
Amy Shaw | History

��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge Internal
Artistic/Creative Grant
Michael Campbell | Art
Dagmar Dahl | Art
Mary Kavanagh | Art

��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge Internal SSHRC Grant
Michelle Hogue | First Nations' Transition Program
Janay Nugent | History
Kent Peacock | Philosophy
Amy Shaw | History

��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge Research Dissemination Grant
Glenda Bonifacio | Women & Gender Studies
Inge Genee | Modern Languages
Catherine Kingfisher | Anthropology
Janice Newberry | Anthropology
Hillary Rodrigues/John Harding | Religious Studies
Arlan Schultz | Music
Amy Shaw | History

��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge Research Fund Grant
Vishaal Baulkaran/Ebenezer Asem | Finance
Sarah Boon | Geography
Shawn Bubel | Geography
Michael Campbell | Art
Arundhati Dasgupta | Physics & Astronomy
Larry Flanagan | Biological Sciences
Claudia Gonzales/Fangfang Li | Kinesiology & Physical Education/Psychology
Ute Wieden-Kothe | Chemistry & Biochemistry
Jason Laurendeau | Sociology
Raphael Lencucha | Public Health
Hua Li | Mathematics & Computer Science
Heidi MacDonald | History
Kimberly Mair | Sociology
Steve Patitsas/Saurya Das | Physics & Astronomy
Adriana Predoi-Cross | Physics & Astronomy
Drew Rendall | Psychology
Shelley Scott | Theatre & Drama
David Siminovitch/Tony Montina | Physics & Astronomy
D. Andrew Stewart | Music
Mark Walton | Physics & Astronomy
John Zhang | Mathematics & Computer Science

Post-Doctoral Fellow Awards Alberta Innovates Health Solutions Postgraduate Fellowship
Ben Clark | Neuroscience
Corinne Montes-Rodriquez | Neuroscience
Jake Ormond | Neuroscience
Ivan Skelin | Neuroscience
Aaron Wilber | Neuroscience

Canadian Space Agency Space Science Enhancement Award Postdoctoral Fellowship
Matthijs Van Der Wiel | Physics & Astronomy

CIHR Fellowship
Hendrik Steenland | Neuroscience

Japan Society for the Promotion of Science Postdoctoral Fellowship (Short-Term) for North American and European Researchers
Noelle Gunst | Psychology

Japan Society for the Promotion of Science Postdoctoral Research Support Allowance (Short-Term) for North American and European Researchers
Noelle Gunst | Psychology

Book Awards 2013 recipients

M. Gordon Hunter & Dan Kazakoff (authors): Small Business: Journey to Success

Shawn Bubel, James McMurchy & Duncan Lloyd (authors): Record In Stone: Familiar Projectile Points From Alberta

Jean-Baptiste Leca, Michael A. Huffman & Paul Vasey (editors): The Monkeys of Smokey Mountain

Sarah Glassford & Amy Shaw (editors): A Sisterhood of Suffering and Service: Women and Girls of Canada and Newfoundland during the First World War

Geoffrey Hale (author): So Near Yet So Far: The Public and Hidden Worlds of Canada-U.S. Relations

Aaron Taylor (editor): Theorizing Film Acting

Marc R. Roussel (author): A Life Scientist's Guide to Physical Chemistry

Glena Tibe Bonifacio (editor): Feminism and Migration: Cross-cultural Engagements

Robert J. Williams, Robert T. Wood & Jonathan Parke (editors): The Routledge International Handbook of Internet Gambling

Arundhati Dasgupta (editor): Recent Research in Quantum Gravity

John S. Harding (editor): Studying Buddhism in Practice

Yale D. Belanger (editor): First Nations Gaming in Canada

Yongjian Bao & Wenlong Yuan (authors): The Contrarian Way of Crisis Management

Keith Roscoe & Rick Mrazek (authors): Developing Scientific Literacy: Ideas and Strategies for Planning, Assessment, and Instruction

Blythe Shepard & Lorna Martin (authors): Supervision of Counselling and Psychotherapy: A Handbook for Canadian Certified Supervisors and Applicants

Margaret A. Winzer & Kas Mazurek (editors): International Practices in Special Education: Debates and Challenges

Judith C. Kulig & Allison M. Williams (editors): Health in Rural Canada

Olga Kovalchuk & Igor Kovalchuk (authors) Epigenetics in Health and Disease

Research ties established through Japanese macaques

trevor.kenney — Wed, 03 Apr 2013 22:14:20 +0000

And yet here he is, with his wife Dr. Noëlle Gunst, studying these monkeys alongside Dr. Paul Vasey of the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ's Department of Psychology.

Dr. Jean-Baptiste Leca has been working with the U of L's Dr. Paul Vasey for the past two years.

The significance of this discovery is that it may speak to the evolution of male homosexuality in humans.

Here, a Japanese macaque juvenile male and a young adult male embrace each other. PHOTO by Dr. Noëlle Gunst

It is groundbreaking work uniting three researchers from two very distant countries in a foreign land – with science the link that brought them together.

This story first appeared in the April 2013 edition of the Legend. For a look at the full issue in a flipbook format, follow this link.

UNews - Jean-Baptiste Leca

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