Join “Fans of Edmontonians Visionaries” group on Facebook

We invite you to join the Edmontonians Visionaries group on Facebook for ongoing discussions amongst fans of our publication!

Join “Fans of Edmontonians Visionaries” group on LinkedIn

If you’re on LinkedIn we hope you will join our group on LinkedIn to show your ongoing support and participate in the conversations with others who have mutual interests!

First Graduates in Aboriginal Land Stewardship

There’s no doubt about it. Industrial development impacts the environment and native communities.
But a new training program developed by the Alberta Research Council could change that.
It is called the Aboriginal Land Stewardship Program and the first two graduates are Jan Noskie of the Bigstone Cree Nation at Wabasca, and Ike Solway of the Siksika Nation near Calgary. They’ve spent two years learning skills in land planning and how to work with industry and government.
According to Noskiye, this training will help in bringing aboriginal concerns to the table. “I’m going to use these skills when it comes to negotiating with companies regarding the land. This is a very unique program because it was community based. In the past, there was never anybody in the Nation that would actually document and collect this kind of data that Ike and I will be doing. This is a major plus for our communities because now we have somebody out there documenting these sites for our future generations to see and to keep protected from industrial activity.”
Now that they have graduated from the ARC program, Noskiye will become an environmental technician with the Bigstone Cree Nation, while Solway will returnb to his position inthe Siksika Nation  land management service.

Cheryl Croucher

Smart Pants manage pressure sores

Despite what your teacher told you in school, fidgeting at your desk is not a bad thing.
The body’s need to fidget is the principle behind the development of a new medical device called “smart underwear”.
Designed for people with spinal injuries who are confined to wheelchairs, the high tech garment stimulates muscle movement to prevent debilitating pressure ulcers.
Dr. Martin Fergurson-Pell belongs to a team of researchers working on the project at the University of Alberta.  As he explains it, “What the underwear will contain is principally stimulating electrodes to get the muscles to contract, and then secondarily will be sensors which will look at the status of the tissues and inform the stimulator when it needs to be active. So, as we find that the period of time that the oxygen has been depleted from the tissue becomes too long through measurements made with sensors in the underwear, then the underwear will create an electrical stimulation to the muscles, wich then allows those tissues to be re-nourished.”
Dr. Ferguson-Pell is a professor and dean of the Faculty of Rehabilitation Medicine. He says smart underwear is just one invention under development by the Smart Neural Prostheses Team which is supported by the Alberta Heritage Foundation for Medical Research.

Cheryl Croucher

Spin Dried Tailings

Tailings in oils sands parlance refers to the material leftover at the tail end of production… after the oil has been separated from the sand.
At Syncrude, this collection of sand, clay and water is pumped down a pipeline into artificial ponds. Over time, the particles of sand and clay settle to the botton of these tailings ponds, and the water is recycled back into the plant for reuse in the oil sand separation process.
According to technology developent officer Jim Lorents, Syncrude is piloting a new system to speed up that process. It uses centrifugal force, drying the tailings much like the spin dry cycle removes water from your laundry.
“We’re trying to dry those solids using mechanical energy and increase basically what gravity has to offer, ” he says. ” The machines we’re talking about are commercially available. We’re talking about a metre diameter by about three metres to four metres long, and multiples of them in parallel. We’re talking about improving the gravitational force from one gravitational force to 200 plus gravitational forces. So that should reduce the settling time by about 200 times”.
As Lorentz explains, the spin-dried material or “cake” would be left to dry for a season. Then is could be used in wet or dry landscape reclamation.

~ Cheryl Croucher

Social Media 101

A “white” nextMEDIA 2009 welcomed the world with snow on June 5th! Despite the “crispy fresh” start to this year’s event, the underdressed delegates—many from L.A. and some from as far away as Germany and Brazil—were still able to enjoy themselves.
The Internet and social web dominated this year’s nextMEDIA event. Monitors with Tweetdeck rolled along tracking the Twitter discussion and hashtag #nextMEDIA throughout the venue, keeping conference-goers up-to-date on the most recent chatter in and around the event. This hashtag evolved into #banff09, representing nextMEDIA’s big brother: the Banff World Television Festival. Discussion over the weekend covered the social web from several angles, including monetization models, culture and demographics, and search metrics. Talk regularly fell to differentiating between the hype of social media and its more productive uses.
Another well-discussed element of the social web was our involvement in the event. Judging by the current viewer-minute totals for the fusedlogicTV channel, many of you know we were doing our best to broadcast live via the Internet from that majestic castle in the mountains, the Fairmont Banff Springs Hotel. Most castles aren’t known for their blazing fast Internet connectivity, and this one was no exception. The single (slow) connection shared between the entire hotel complex was regularly too slow to even allow us to check our email; something that turned into a common point of contention among attendees.
That’s right folks, one of Canada’s premier tourist destinations is essentially an Internet “dead zone” when compared to other Alberta locales.
Is this even relevant or a fair criticism? Actually, it highlights a problem somewhat rampant through many well-used venues. Infrastructure is lagging behind requirements in many cases, and is further held up by owners and managers who think things are “good enough.” Events like nextMEDIA are now highly dependent on strong Internet connectivity. Conference organizers run the risk of a ruined event for no reason other than failing to fulfill the expectation of Internet access.
Spotty connections aside, the fusedlogic team was still able to get some great interviews broadcast live and recorded for those interested in embedding them on their own websites. By the second day, the great staff at Achilles Media, organizers of nextMEDIA, were able to obtain a better connection and pipe it out to the rest of us. With that taken care of, the event “streamed” on seamlessly.

Donning our own event-organizer hat recently, fusedlogic held its first Twitter for Breakfast at the World Trade Centre in Edmonton. It gave a group of people who knew little-to-nothing about Twitter a primer course in how it can be used for far more than one would expect. If your event is dependant on connectivity, we recommend you don’t take anything for granted. That’s why our process includes working with the location staff, in this case, the WTC to ensure Internet connectivity would meet our requirements. Experience has shown that in many corporate settings, firewalls, security protocols limiting access, are present. However, by going in ahead of time to double check connectivity, we were able to address these concerns. In fact, the WTC was generous enough to provide a technician after-hours to help make sure we were set up properly.
For Keith Persaud and his staff at Edmonton’s World Trade Centre, high-end technology requirements have become commonplace. “I think technologies like the Blackberry have influenced this. Audio/visual is much more than a podium and microphone these days,” he says. Mobile devices, 3G and Wi-Fi are enabling the sharing of user-generated content far easier than ever before. Access to the social web is of paramount importance for an ever-increasing amount of creative citizens. They want to generate or consume information—how, when and where they want it. These shifting behaviours, in turn, are influencing business models.
The WTC recognizes this trend as significant and is undergoing a technology restructuring at its downtown location. Built on a fiber-optic backbone, the building will be able to provide lightning fast connections, wireless access, and a host of other features. Clearly, it’s an organization that “gets it.” We’re looking forward to holding or attending events once this new infrastructure in place; Persaud suggests will happen by the end of August 09 or sooner.

Crime-stopping pays for Contré

It reads like a Hollywood screenplay.

After joining the military at 17 and traveling the globe, soft-spoken and mild mannered Stephane Contré from Quebec City becomes a beat cop in Ottawa. His hobby is tinkering with technology and caressing computer code to help him to do his job better. One day, it will enable authorities to fight crime in a way no one really thought possible: to predict when and where it would happen… and to stop it before it occurs.

After three years in our nation’s capital, Contré finds himself deep in North Central Africa, in the Republic of Chad. He is many time zones away from Canada’s House of Parliament and even farther away from his wife Tia. She has returned to her hometown, Edmonton, where the couple met when he was posted at Griesbach with the Military Airborne School.

In Chad, Contré is a security advisor for EnCana Corp. on an oil and gas exploration project, mitigating security issues. He recalls, “This is where things started to percolate… looking to see where and when things might occur. I was looking for more attributes within the criminal space that would lead to better forecasting and allow us to better manage our security forces.”

Two years later—and before things really get off the ground—he faces another challenge: His position abruptly comes to an end.

Perhaps it is a blessing in disguise. Contré is over 11,000km away from his wife… it’s “a 32-hour flight”… they see each other every 35 days.      
                                                                                                                 … Read more

The “dog’s breakfast of innovation”

Alberta’s innovation framework is getting a facelift. But it’s more than just a nip and tuck. Bill 27 is reconstructive surgery which the government justifies as necessary to ensure Alberta is a strong contender in the emerging next generation of knowledge economy.

Bill 27 was introduced to the spring sitting of the legislature by Doug Horner, Minister of Advanced Education and Technology.

When passed, it will be known as the Alberta Research and Innovation Act, and it will reconfigure such icons of the province’s scientific landscape as the Alberta Research Council and the Alberta Heritage Foundation for Medical Research. Neither will recent initiatives like Alberta Ingenuity, iCORE, and the various research institutes avoid resculpturing.          Read More

Prion conference advances CWD concerns

Prion researchers from across Canada as well as from the United States, Asia and Europe met in Edmonton this spring to discuss their latest findings. The conference was hosted by PrioNet Canada and the Alberta Prion Research Institute.

Misfolded prions are the culprits behind bovine spongiform encephalopathy or “mad cow” disease. And while mad cow seems to be well under control, it has raised the red flag on other prion diseases like chronic wasting disease (CWD).

The big concern now for scientists is the spread of CWD through wild herds of deer, elk and possibly caribou.

According to Dr. Neil Cashman, the scientific director of PrioNet Canada, “It has been estimated that a hundred years in the future there will not be a single cervid—deer, elk or caribou—left in North America because of the unrelenting advance of CWD. My colleagues and I feel that there is a significant risk of penetration to the north, and the northern economy’s involvement of the caribou herd would be nothing short of a disaster of the first order for aboriginal populations.”

Scientists revealed at the conference that prions shed from infected deer linger in the soil for decades, making containment of this disease in the wild very difficult.

PrioNet Canada belongs to the national Networks of Centres of Excellence. There is a great deal of collaboration between PrioNet Canada and the Alberta Prion Research Institute. √   ~ Cheryl Croucher

 www.prionetcanada.ca

MacEwan BlogCamp – A first for Canada!

How does a post-secondary institute open the door to social media for the first time?

Well, if you’re Jana Clarke, marketing manager for the MacEwan School of Business you go big, which is exactly how it should be.

First item on the list is to shoot an interesting and funny video webisode series with local acting and directing talent. The webisodes are entitled Mike and Lenny—Mike played by Richard Meen of MacEwan commercials fame and Lenny played by Donovan Workun of Atomic Improv. They tell a story about choosing a career in business and how the first step should be to consider Management Studies at MacEwan. Amid all the MacEwanBlogCamp.ca excitement, the day wouldn’t have been complete without a personal appearance by “Mike and Lenny,” and the guys didn’t disappoint. Mike and Lenny was directed by Jeremy Chugg of Brainstorm Productions and, through this process, I’ve come to better appreciate how the mind of a professional director works. Jeremy is a talented guy and he has a tough job. To see his work, search Google for Mike and Lenny, you’ll find all three episodes ready to roll.

My team at fusedlogic worked collaboratively with the entire marketing department at the MacEwan School of Business to plan out a great social media event called BlogCamp. This would accomplish a number of key objectives, not all of which I can go into here. However, BlogCamp definitely served to get students involved… after all, they know what it’s like to struggle with choosing a post-secondary institution. Who better to take the MacEwan school spirit message to the social web than existing students? Leading up to the event, fusedlogic provided no less than 12 hours of on-site social media instruction, not only for students but also for faculty, administration and BlogCamp sponsors such as the guys from Sonic 102.9FM. We covered blogging, Twitter, Facebook and numerous other tools and platforms.

One of the difficult things about this project was scheduling: Unfortunately, April 3rd ended up being right in the middle of mid-term exams for much of the School of Business. Despite that, Joe Difabio of MacEwan’s Commerce Club was instrumental in getting students involved as participants and volunteers. So we worked extra hard to get contestants who would be willing to blog for nine hours straight. What we ended up with was a group of talented and dedicated bloggers who exceeded our expectations. If these contestants were not typing, they were on the phone to friends for votes and support. During the event I had the privilege of chatting with contestants, sponsors and audience members who were on-site and the feedback was positive. The gang at Segway Canada (located in West Edmonton Mall) said they had a great time. Segway’s rock—I was surprised at how easy and how much fun they are to ride. The Ranch Roadhouse folks came out with their fun tunnel and there was never a shortage of students who wanted a chance to grab the Ranch bucks. See all the goings-on at www.macewanblogcamp.ca

The entire MacEwan School of Business can be proud of the fact that they broke new social media ground with BlogCamp. Until that day, a social media event of this type and in this format has never been done in Canada. Just search “blogcamp, Canada” if you don’t believe me. √

Shadoo Protein detected by student researcher

  

Another step forward in understanding what causes prion diseases like mad cow is the recent discovery of the shadoo protein.

Dr. David Westaway of the Centre for Prions and Protein Folding Diseases at the University of Alberta says shadoo is the name given to a theoretical protein by scientists studying DNA sequences on chromosomes. Its actual existence was confirmed by a student in Westaway’s lab. The student showed that shadoo is abundant in the brain and has a lot of features similar to normal prion proteins.

As Westaway explains, “We think that they may be part of a family of molecules on the surface of brain cells that help brain cells deal with damage. We have looked at what happens to the shadoo protein in an animal that has a prion disease… We were very surprised to get a very simple answer: that the shadoo protein starts to disappear. In one sense, the fact that the shadoo protein disappears when animals are replicating prions, it is what we call a tracer. We didn’t expect to make this discovery, but somehow when the protein is disappearing, it’s telling you that prions are replicating.”

Dr. Westaway speculates this may be related to yet another class of proteins called proteazes which function as a waste disposal team in the body. √    ~ Cheryl Croucher

 You can learn more about the research underway at the Centre for Prions and Protein Folding Diseases at www.prioncentre.ca.

Urine test for mad cow means early detection

At the present time, the only way to confirm whether cattle are suffering from mad cow disease is to test them after they are slaughtered.

However, the research of Dr. David Knox and his colleagues at the National Microbiology Lab in Winnipeg may soon lead to a simple urine test for mad cow disease.

Dr. Knox presented his findings at the recent prion conference in Edmonton which was hosted by PrioNet Canada and the Alberta Prion Research Institute.

As Dr. Knox explains, an examination of cattle urine would reveal biomarkers that indicate whether the cattle are infected, long before clinical symptoms appear.

“We found one marker, at least in our small test set, that is able to discriminate with 100 percent accuracy between control and infected samples. And that’s a protein called clusterin. However, it requires further validation. Does it work in all BSE infected cattle is one question. And the other question is, do you see increased amounts in response to other types of infection as well?”

Mad cow disease has a long incubation period. The good news is that Dr. Knox has detected the biomarker in urine as early as eight months after infection—long before clinical symptoms appear in cattle. √                                                            ~ Cheryl Croucher

 www.prionetcanada.ca

 Cheryl Croucher’s interviews on prion research were funded by a grant from the Canadian Institutes for Health Research.